Husker 40 Breeder SPS Tank

[HuskerBioProf]

I am spending all of my message board time in the SPS section, so I thought I would move my build thread over here from its previous spot (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2581918). This is my first SPS tank, but I am really enjoying SPS. There isn't as much swaying movement, but it makes up for it with getting to watch the colors develop, the polyps extend/sway, and the corals slowly grow. I also am loving all the newer color varieties of SPS (especially acros). I have been out of the reef tank game for a few years due to school and grad school, and it seems like things have really taken off.

This is also the smallest tank I have had. So far I love the ease of water changes.

Here are the specs:

Tank:
40 Breeder Display
20 tall sump

Lighting:
2x AI Hydra 26 HD

Filtration/other:
Live rock
BRS GFO Reactor
SCA 303 Protein Skimmer (replacing a Reef Octopus SSS that I just couldn't get tuned)
Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO
BRS 5 stage RO/DI

Flow:
2 Gyre 130s opposing (1 on alternating at 60%, one on pulse at 40%)
Only ~200 gph through the sump

Livestock so far:
Fish:
1x yellow watchman goby
1x longfin flasher wrasse

Corals:
ORA mint pavona
ORA green birdsnest
ORA Verde Acropora
PC Rainbow Acropora
Orange Montipora setosa
Red Montipora cap
Purple Montipora cap
Green slimer Acropora
Pink with purple polyp birdsnest
Blue stag Acropora
(just put an order in with Adam at Battlecorals.com... excited to get the frags)


Chemistry:
Salinity: 1.025-1.026
Nitrate: 0-0.2
Phosphate: 0.20 (haven't checked since the day after putting the GFO in)
Calcium: 410-450
dKH: 10
pH: 8.2


First time I have built my own stand. It was kind of scary, as I have never really built anything before. I wanted to build it wider than my tank to give room for all my "stuff"...

Completed stand and light rack.

Full tank shot (a lot of growing space):

Green Slimer

Orange setosa bump

PC Rainbow

ORA Green Birdsnest

Blue stag

Longfin fairy wrasse. Pretty cool fish. It is my first wrasse. Very fun and active fish.

Red cap

I will continue to update over here as things grow, are added, and colors change (hopefully for the better). SPS experts feel free to way in on any advice!

 

[bif24701]

Looking good! Nice build also.


Aaron

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Here's an update:

I decided to get a shipment from Adam at Battlecorals.com. Everything I have heard about the company was true. The only problem is that his corals are so colorful that it makes my other SPS look like they have some work to do. I had a smallish order of only 4 corals and he threw in 2 freebies: a Joe's Green Psammocora and a Rainbows in Spain Acro. Very generous and I will definitely order again.

Also, I FINALLY got my phosphates down. 0.00 yesterday and 0.02 today. I think hovering somewhere around there is probably good. I had a bloom of something that looks either like some kind of brown hairy algae or a bacteria. I need to collect some for the microscope. Fortunately it has stopped growing now that the phosphates dropped and the snails are eating it quickly. My ORA Verde Acropora took a beating from the fuzzy stuff and browned out, but it is starting to recover.

Other parameters:

Nitrate: 0-2ppm
Alk: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.025-1.026
Calcium: 410-450
pH: 8.2

Here are some pictures:
Blue stag (got from a local on 08/20/16). Starting to get interesting blue/purple coloration.

Getting good growth out of my PC rainbow. Have only had it a couple of weeks (see previous post for the before picture).

Rainbows in Spain (BC) on the left and green slimer on the right.

BC Secale (from BC) with the BC Crimson Bliss in the foreground. Love the contrast of this thing.

BC Crimson Bliss. Love the color on this thing. Huge frag, too.

Joe's Green Psammocora (BC).

Dream Sequence Millepora (BC). Can't wait until this one grows out. I love watching the milleporas wave in the current.

Left side of the tank.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

And some fish shots...
Yellow Watchman Goby in his favorite little hole.

Long fin fairy wrasse flashing at his reflection. This is the best photo I could get with how fast he was flying.

The wrasse actually in focus.

And our new additions: two occelaris clowns. They are very tiny.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

A couple new top down shots. The polyps were sucked up because I was trying to scrub the fuzz off the rocks for a water change. It was late, too, so it was very dim blue light.
Crimson Bliss (BC) has some green/blue from the top under all blues.

Blue stag

Schizopolis Sunset Mille (BC)

PC Rainbow top down with the polyps sucked in.

BC Scale top down with polyps contracted.

 

[Rakie]

Ah you didn't have anything to worry about man, that stand came out pretty sweet. The wrasse looks nice as well, and the corals are nicely colored up.

What kind of Camera are you using? I can't get a good cell picture to save my life -- this is after getting the gel filters to cut out the blue, and macro lenses for close ups.. Still no good!

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Thanks guys. I use an old (now) Canon 1d Mark IID DSLR with an 85 1.8 lens. I have some extension tubes that I got pretty cheap years ago for the macro shots. Extension tubes are a lot cheaper than a dedicated macro if you already have other lenses, but they have their drawbacks.

I can't get the sharp macros that I see from many people on these forums. Part of that might be the lack of a dedicated macro lens, the other part could be that my colonies are still small and not very close to the glass/top of the water. Nevertheless, the key is in post processing to be able to correct the white balance. Photoshop is nice, but iPhoto works very well, too.

I hope the colors keep coloring up and growing!

 

[reefmutt]

Nice frags and very nice work on the stand.
Do you have any snails in there? I think they'd help out a lot with the nuisance algae.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Nice frags and very nice work on the stand.
Do you have any snails in there? I think they'd help out a lot with the nuisance algae.

Thanks for both!

Yah, I have a few cerith snails, a few nassarius, and a couple astrea, and 2 turbos. The astrea and the the turbos are the only ones I have seen eat the stuff. I just scrubbed the rocks and did a 15 gallon water change last night to give them a little bit of help. I wasn't sure if it was algae or a bacterial biofilm, but I took a sample in to our lab today to look at. It definitely looks like some sort of colonial brown algae. However, it doesn't look very healthy. Most of the cells were transparent with no chloroplasts. I think my reduction is phosphate is killing it pretty quickly.

I will post some microscope images later to see if anyone has some specific ideas.

 

[reefmutt]

Hopefully it's on the way out...
Interesting to see the images.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

I have the the microscope images back at the lab and will have to track them down. However, I got a new shipment from Uniquecorals.com, so I thought I would post an update in order to be able to track growth of these new frags.

As you can see from this "half tank shot", there are quite a few bare spots where the snails have removed the algae. I don't see much regrowing, so the fact they are slowly pecking away is a good sign.

This ORA Verde Acropora is really the only one that took a huge hit from the algae/phosphate spike. It turned really brown and the base had some necrosis. I cut the base off and put it in a prime spot regarding light/flow, and it seems to be slowly coloring up.

My pavona took a little bit of a beating from being knocked into the sand by a snail, but it seems to be doing okay.

And now for the new corals. This is my second order from Unique Corals. I have been pretty impressed with both batches of frags. They are very good sized and seem to be pretty healthy. However, the colors on their website are WAY better and often very different than the frags. This is different from Battlecorals.com, where the frags almost looked better in person than in his fantastic photos.

This was the frag to order "limited edition" UC Pink Whisker Millepora. If you check on their website, this is a bright pink specimen in their "stock photo." Mine is green with a slight suggestion of pink around the corallites. Hopefully it colors up over time.

This was a WYSIWYG ORA Plum Crazy from them. I accidentally broke the tip off, so I glued it next to the main frag. Hopefully this spurs growth and they grow it together. I don't have the image from the website anymore, but it definitely was a light purple/pinkish color. It is dark blue in my tank. Maybe the color will come over time as well.

I was impressed with this frag. This is an ORA tricolor valida. It has all three colors and I hope I can keep the color on this one.

And I got my first encrusting monti, with what they called a "Neon Sunset Montipora."

My salt mix (IO Reef Crystals) keeps bumping me up to 11 dKH. I decided to stop fighting it and let my Alk stay at 11. It has been really stable now for the past week with every day checks. Hopefully this helps things color up.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow tank is looking good. Great start to your sps collection. I'm in the process of fighting the same algae. Looks like I need to find a few turbo snails.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Wow tank is looking good. Great start to your sps collection. I'm in the process of fighting the same algae. Looks like I need to find a few turbo snails.

The turbos did well at first, but then the Astreas really took over. If it is this brown fuzzy algae, I would really recommend a bunch of those.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Wow tank is looking good. Great start to your sps collection. I'm in the process of fighting the same algae. Looks like I need to find a few turbo snails.

And thanks! It is fun watching things start to grow.

 

[Jim Z.]

Your tank is looking pretty good. I have a similar algae in my tank and the Astrea snails do a good job cleaning it up. New tanks go through that awkward stage and once the system matures, the SPS will continue to improve.....................Jim

 

[HuskerBioProf]

I accidentally posted the "pink whisker millepora" twice. This is the ORA plum crazy acropora that I accidentally broke and referenced above.

Thanks, Jim Z. Glad you managed to get through it as well. It is interesting, I am watching my cleaner shrimp appear to be eating it as well. That surprised me a bit.

 

[jpfishfan09]

Looking good. Go big red!

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Looking good. Go big red!

Thanks. Heck of a game yesterday makes me think we have a shot at a pretty good season.

 

[HuskerBioProf]

So I swapped out my Reef Octopus 110 Space Saver for an SCA 303. I definitely think it is an upgrade. I started getting skim on day one, and by day 3 this is what I am getting. So much easier to fine tune than the Octopus, and the large bubble output seems greater. Hopefully this allows me to keep export high while upping feeding, because I think my nutrients being low are partly a cause for some of the pale colors.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

That looks pretty dirty. Lol I love my 301.