Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

The tank is finally stabilizing, so its time for new corals! I picked up these four from AquaSD:
Strawberry shortcake:

ASD Rainbow Mille:

Mini colony:

Blue Acro - its much bluer in person:

Then I went by Aquatica, determined to get fish food only. The owner(Dave) says, "I just got four boxes of wild Aussie acros in, wanna see what we have?":eek1:
He then proceeds to unbox some of the most amazing Aussie Acros Ive seen in a while - they looked a lot like the batch that Andrew and Dom were fighting over recently. I maintained a small amount of self control and got one small one:

I'm giving March's lighting schedule(slightly modified) a try as well - 8 hours using 8 blue bulbs(two are Blue LED tubes) and 4 hours with 2 Super purple and two Coral Plus bulbs. So far, so good - corals are coloring up and improving every day.

 

[Myka]

Mmmmm, Aussie Acros...

 

[Pife]

Those are some nice additions. That aussie though. I'm envious.

 

[Mr.Fishtank]

How did the experiment go with raising the t5s higher up? Are they still at 10 in with the new bulbs and schedule?

 

[mhucasey]

Mmmmm, Aussie Acros...

Those are some nice additions. That aussie though. I'm envious.

Thanks! Some of the other Aussie colonies were absolutely ridiculous. One was so nice the owner said, "Yeah, this is going in the show tank":lolspin:

How did the experiment go with raising the t5s higher up? Are they still at 10 in with the new bulbs and schedule?

10 inches is normally about where I keep the lights when on a regular schedule. March had his bulbs at 4" off the water but his tank was 20" tall while mine is 16" tall, so I set my bulbs at 8" off the water.

 

[chris melb]

Hi Matt,

Read your entire thread and a couple of posts a number of times with great interest and thank you for sharing what you have learn't. One thing i'm particularly interested in is your addition of Ammonium (Calcium Ammonium Nitrate) to reduce Cyanobacteria. Have you noticed the same benefit the second time round in combating Cyano? I was always under the impression that Cyano can utilize Ammonia as Nitrogen source (and preferentially so) so i would have thought that this addition would simply fuel Cyano further .

 

[mhucasey]

Hi Matt,

Read your entire thread and a couple of posts a number of times with great interest and thank you for sharing what you have learn't. One thing i'm particularly interested in is your addition of Ammonium (Calcium Ammonium Nitrate) to reduce Cyanobacteria. Have you noticed the same benefit the second time round in combating Cyano? I was always under the impression that Cyano can utilize Ammonia as Nitrogen source (and preferentially so) so i would have thought that this addition would simply fuel Cyano further .

Thanks for following the thread and the kind words! Yes, adding Calcium Nitrate seems to have reduced the length of the Cyano stage, the tank is clearing much quicker than the first time around. The idea is to assist other bacteria to out-compete the cyano, which have a competitive advantage in low nitrogen environments since it can fix nitrogen from the atmospheric N2. ReefVet identified the ammonia component of the Calcium Nitrate I was using and I think he stated that the ammonia was better than Nitrate for assisting the competitive bacteria.

 

[Pife]

Thanks for following the thread and the kind words! Yes, adding Calcium Nitrate seems to have reduced the length of the Cyano stage, the tank is clearing much quicker than the first time around. The idea is to assist other bacteria to out-compete the cyano, which have a competitive advantage in low nitrogen environments since it can fix nitrogen from the atmospheric N2. ReefVet identified the ammonia component of the Calcium Nitrate I was using and I think he stated that the ammonia was better than Nitrate for assisting the competitive bacteria.

Which product are you using and at what dose?

 

[mhucasey]

Which product are you using and at what dose?

Calcium Nitrate from Aquariumfertilizer.com - I was adding 1/4 tsp per day for about a week until I saw the cyano begin to recede.

 

[Pife]

Thanks. What are the total gallons of your system so the I can come up with a dose?

 

[mhucasey]

~200 gallons

 

[Pife]

Perfect. Thank you Matt. I ordered some and am going to give it a shot.

 

[afernandez]

If you don't mind me asking are you dosing in the pellet form or diluting it in water then dosing...yes I ordered ! I'm going threw some cyano patches myself =not fun

 

[mhucasey]

If you don't mind me asking are you dosing in the pellet form or diluting it in water then dosing...yes I ordered ! I'm going threw some cyano patches myself =not fun

I put it in the overflow box in granular form so it dissolves into the effluent water slowly.

 

[afernandez]

Got it ! Will give it a try

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Matt, nice additions! I looooove that Aussie piece you chose.
Tank is looking good!
I like your no green policy.. I might have to take your cue and Andrew's advice and implement it myself. Gotta remove some corals from my tank!
Looking forward to growth shots!

 

[mhucasey]

Hey Matt, nice additions! I looooove that Aussie piece you chose.
Tank is looking good!
I like your no green policy.. I might have to take your cue and Andrew's advice and implement it myself. Gotta remove some corals from my tank!
Looking forward to growth shots!

Thanks Matt, I picked up another batch of acros yesterday, 3 mini colonies and two frags:

I am especially excited about this one, its a "Flame" type acro, the base will be red once it colors up and the tips bright yellow:

I left them there overnight and as of this morning I broke them off their bases and in some cases into a few frags and found locations for them to be permanently located. I'll follow up with pics of all the new ones soon.

 

[biggles]

Loving all the new pieces you're putting in lately Matt, glad that everything is going well mate

The colors on all your acros are way, way prettier than most who follow your journal realize Matt due to that orange filter.......... hope you don't mind buddy, i know it won't be spot on but that's definitely going to do exactly what you hope it will - stunner coming up :beer:

 

[reefmutt]

Love the new pieces as well!
Looking forward to some fts shots soon.

 

[glaukos]

+1 on matt buddy:beer: