super-cichlid
New member
oversized Pink Floyd poster. All those ladies have the cover of one of the Pink Floyd albums painted on thir backs. Gotta love body art.. 

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8444045#post8444045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdallred
Observations;
Lighting
1) IME, your 175 is too high. At 16†above the tank, it looks like it is about 20†above the top of your rock. I would lower it a min of 4â€Â, even lower if you can do it without any heat issues.
2) IMO, I would also get rid of the actinic, but not because they are actinic but because they are PCs and are not very efficient when it comes to the life of the bulbs. If able, I would replace the PCs with T5s. Finding a used 24†retro should be fairly easy and shouldn’t be to expensive ($60 used -$140 new).
3) You might consider completely re-doing your lighting. In the current config you are losing useful lighting (and therefore wasting electricity) from the 175 and the PCs. The 175 is a little too high, it only has half a reflector, and the reflector doesn’t appear to be bent correctly. Having the PC fixture at an angle you are losing the efficiency of the reflectors within the fixture. If you decide to keep the PCs, I would remove them from the fixture, purchase a new reflector ($60) for the 175, mount the PCs under the new reflector on either side of the 175, and lower it to about 12†above the tank.
Fish/Corals
1) If you are serious about keeping sps then you might consider getting rid of the CB. One of the food sources for CBs in the wild are hard corals, so the chances of it picking on sps are great and IMO it’s not a matter of if but when. We had a CB for three years before she started picking. I had a buddy that had a Flame for two and half years before it became a problem.
2) With three fish you are pushing the bio-load. Make sure you keep up on your clean up crew and watch your feedings. If you decided not to keep the CB then your bio-load would be fine with two fish.
3) I would suggest running carbon. When running a mixed reef you will often have chemical warfare between corals. Running carbon will help to get rid of these chemicals and many other types of pollutants.
Questions;
Flow/Water Movement
Do you have any current pics of your pump/flow setup?
To answer your question, what is too much flow? If done correctly it is difficult to have too much flow in a tank. You are really looking at two different kinds of flow, Laminar or direct, powerful, constant flow (current) and an indirect, turbulent, diffused flow (wave). The indirect, turbulent, diffused flow is what you are after. This will give you the turnover and water movement you need to keep sps without having to worry about corals being stripped of their tissue. With this water movement you should try to create a wave like movement or a random flow. This kind of flow will also help with dead spots in the tank. If you are unable to use a wave type device you can sometimes create similar random flows by bouncing the flow off of the glass.
Maint/Supplies
1) What kind of salt are you using?
2) You stated you add trace elements. Do you test for the elements you are adding? Many times people will add elements without testing for them and unknowingly overdose a particular element.
3) Your kH seems fine. Were you able to test for pH, Ca & Mg?
4) How fast does the macro in your fuge grow? How often do you prune it?
5) How long does it take to fill your skimmer cup?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8445550#post8445550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by waynemk
Are you using RO/DI for top off and water changes?
Do you have any coraline growth? i have heard that a good measure of a tanks ability to maintain SPS is healthy calcarous growth. I didnt see any in the pics but it wasnt a closeup. Your back wall should be covered with it. Once you get coraline cranking then think about SPS. How old is the tank btw?
I have HUGE turnover in my tank for flow. given the earlier caveats regarding directed/laminar flows 50x tank volunme isnt unreasonable. My main circ pump is doing 25x and a CL manifold adds 50x.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8428959#post8428959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lagger
Believe it, it's about 5" from the waterline. Nice & healthy.
How would a higher K rating than 12 help his growth? 6-10 is optimal, is SPS different for some reason besides color intensity?