Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

Tank looks nice and cool chaeto can. I have been kicking around the idea to doing something similar to what you did.

Thanks Mark, though I can't claim credit. Chaeto is growing well in the reactor, but it would probably grow better if the water going in went through a filter sock or something first. A lot of sludge in the chaeto first time through. The Chaeto was healthy and thick inside at least.

 

[mhucasey]

A couple more comparisons, things are taking off nicely:

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
I continue to be amazed at the recovery the tank is making and how well it has adjusted to an Algal driven system. I get about a gallon or so of chaeto out of the refugia chamber each week, I only have to clean the tank glass every 3 days or so, and the rock is spotless. I tested Phosphate a few days back and the tank was at 0.03ppm.

The corals are all doing extremely well, encrusting at the bases and putting out new growth tips all the time. I continue with the trace element regime as before, with some small changes. Note that this regime is in place of changing water and I also run a Calcium reactor that replenishes macro-elements.
I am dosing daily:
Zinc to target ~10% of NSW(4ug/L)
Manganese to target ~12% NSW Value(2ug/l)
3 drops Lugol's
20ml Brightwell Strontium
0.06ppm Boron
3 drops AF vitality after lights out.

Once per week:
14 mL ea FM Coral colors red/purple and blue/purple

I'm pretty impressed so far with a Chaeto filtered system. I'll get some pics up this weekend with some comparison pics.

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, am I looking for boric acid or sodium borate? I assume it's the latter..

 

[mhucasey]

Matt, am I looking for boric acid or sodium borate? I assume it's the latter..

Just use plain old Borax. There is a RHF article about boron in the aquarium and the solution preparation instructions are in there.

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks Matt !
On it.



Pics please

 

[gregkn73]

Update:
I continue to be amazed at the recovery the tank is making and how well it has adjusted to an Algal driven system. I get about a gallon or so of chaeto out of the refugia chamber each week, I only have to clean the tank glass every 3 days or so, and the rock is spotless. I tested Phosphate a few days back and the tank was at 0.03ppm.

The corals are all doing extremely well, encrusting at the bases and putting out new growth tips all the time. I continue with the trace element regime as before, with some small changes. Note that this regime is in place of changing water and I also run a Calcium reactor that replenishes macro-elements.
I am dosing daily:
Zinc to target ~10% of NSW(4ug/L)
Manganese to target ~12% NSW Value(2ug/l)
3 drops Lugol's
20ml Brightwell Strontium
0.06ppm Boron
3 drops AF vitality after lights out.

Once per week:
14 mL ea FM Coral colors red/purple and blue/purple

I'm pretty impressed so far with a Chaeto filtered system. I'll get some pics up this weekend with some comparison pics.

Matt with such quick chaeto growth, do you measure for K and Fe? Don't you consider those two elements , important for chaeto health?

 

[mhucasey]

Matt with such quick chaeto growth, do you measure for K and Fe? Don't you consider those two elements , important for chaeto health?

I measure for K, currently at 450ppm. I add Iron if i see lightening of the Chaeto or slower growth, via Iron Citrate solution. Measuring for Iron is almost worthless as it gets bound very quickly and drops below the LOD for testers/kits after a few hours.

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
Tank is doing great, corals growing well. As promised here are some pictures:

 

[markalot]

Very nice Matt, colors are looking great.

I miss my bubble tip ... not enough to get another one though.

 

[reefmutt]

Nice Matt, pe is excellent and you have like no nuisance algea.

 

[reefwiser]

Happy to see your tank moving in the right direction Matt.

 

[mhucasey]

Very nice Matt, colors are looking great.

I miss my bubble tip ... not enough to get another one though.

Thanks Mark!
I have never had a "Bubble Tip" anemone with actual bubble tips...so I started feeding this one in the hopes that I produce one. So far so good, some tips are bubbling and the whole thing is less stringy. If it could look like it did when i got it with bubble tips it will be incredible looking.

Nice Matt, pe is excellent and you have like no nuisance algea.

Thanks Matt, I'm well pleased too.
No nuisance algae is right - this algal driven system has been really easy so far, everything is growing now which is great, and phosphate levels have stayed low- 0.04ppm on my last test.

Happy to see your tank moving in the right direction Matt.

Me too! I just wish I could afford to buy frags

 

[Wrangy]

Good to see things looking so good again Matt The scape is looking groovy

 

[kainic]

How is the tank doing Matt? Anything new? Growth pics?

 

[nemodan]

Hi Matt

Any update ?

Cheers
Daniel

 

[mhucasey]

Hi guys! It's been a while since I posted but I keep my eyes on all your threads It's been nuts at work and up until a few weeks ago the wife was looking for a job, so between zero money and very little time the tank was on autopilot. Still, some interesting events/info about this mode of the tank were noted.

First, I had been using chaeto in a fuge as well as a reactor along with GFO and carbon in a media reactor. Phosphate dropped and stabilized at less than 0.05ppm and held there for months. I just let the media reactor go, and when about 3+ months had passed, with phosphate holding steady at less than 0.05ppm, I finally cleaned it out. There were all kinds of organisms and sponge grown through the reactor. I figured the GFO had long been exhausted.

About two weeks after removal, I tested phosphate and it had risen to 0.15! I thought it might be a fluke reading, and was too busy to care, all the corals looked good if a little slow in the growth department. Several more weeks passed, Then this week I saw the birdsnests tips thickening and not growing with the needle sharp tips they used to have. Coral growth had slowed to a crawl. A phosphate test showed 0.44ppm:eek2:
More Phosphate minus will arrive tomorrow:thumbsup:

Chaeto growth went nuts with the higher phosphate, I just wish the chaeto could take more phosphate up. I do not have enough chaeto growth area for the size of the system to do it all without GFO help.

I have been dosing Zinc and Manganese and continue to do so daily. I was dosing Boron daily but I think I over-did it as Reds became very intense then other corals started to take on reddish hues where they never had before. I'll re-start dosing if the chaeto shows brittleness, maybe I'll even get a test kit now that we have two incomes again.:hmm2:

I dose strontium from Seachem and FM colors Blue/purple weekly, feed the fish, and clean the glass every 4th day or so. It's weird how no algae or cyano is present in the SPS reef, I mean it is clean as can be. A little cyano is present in the flubber tank, mainly on the sand.

So far this tank is going on 8 months with no significant water change, I have replaced a few gallons here and there when siphoning out detritus, but nothing other than that.

I had one screw-up when the CO2 cylinder ran out and the alkalinity dropped to just over 4.5, I lost parts of one coral colony but otherwise nothing died. I have an infestation of Aiptasia but a Copperband Butterfly has been brought in to help. It's just about time to replace bulbs as well.

Well, I think that is about it for catching up See you all in your threads!

FTS from last night:

 

[reefwiser]

Good to hear that things are looking up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks! Oh I forgot about the little AEFW re-infestation. I think I beat it this time with dips every 5 days for a month. So far a couple months have passed without recurrence

 

[wheelman76]

Hi guys! It's been a while since I posted but I keep my eyes on all your threads It's been nuts at work and up until a few weeks ago the wife was looking for a job, so between zero money and very little time the tank was on autopilot. Still, some interesting events/info about this mode of the tank were noted.

First, I had been using chaeto in a fuge as well as a reactor along with GFO and carbon in a media reactor. Phosphate dropped and stabilized at less than 0.05ppm and held there for months. I just let the media reactor go, and when about 3+ months had passed, with phosphate holding steady at less than 0.05ppm, I finally cleaned it out. There were all kinds of organisms and sponge grown through the reactor. I figured the GFO had long been exhausted.

About two weeks after removal, I tested phosphate and it had risen to 0.15! I thought it might be a fluke reading, and was too busy to care, all the corals looked good if a little slow in the growth department. Several more weeks passed, Then this week I saw the birdsnests tips thickening and not growing with the needle sharp tips they used to have. Coral growth had slowed to a crawl. A phosphate test showed 0.44ppm:eek2:
More Phosphate minus will arrive tomorrow:thumbsup:

Chaeto growth went nuts with the higher phosphate, I just wish the chaeto could take more phosphate up. I do not have enough chaeto growth area for the size of the system to do it all without GFO help.

I have been dosing Zinc and Manganese and continue to do so daily. I was dosing Boron daily but I think I over-did it as Reds became very intense then other corals started to take on reddish hues where they never had before. I'll re-start dosing if the chaeto shows brittleness, maybe I'll even get a test kit now that we have two incomes again.:hmm2:

I dose strontium from Seachem and FM colors Blue/purple weekly, feed the fish, and clean the glass every 4th day or so. It's weird how no algae or cyano is present in the SPS reef, I mean it is clean as can be. A little cyano is present in the flubber tank, mainly on the sand.

So far this tank is going on 8 months with no significant water change, I have replaced a few gallons here and there when siphoning out detritus, but nothing other than that.

I had one screw-up when the CO2 cylinder ran out and the alkalinity dropped to just over 4.5, I lost parts of one coral colony but otherwise nothing died. I have an infestation of Aiptasia but a Copperband Butterfly has been brought in to help. It's just about time to replace bulbs as well.

Well, I think that is about it for catching up See you all in your threads!

FTS from last night:

Are you saying that you think Boron keeps the chaeto from going brittle ?

I can't keep chaeto alive no matter what I do lol , I have a strong led grow light , enough nutrients , and have experimented with slightly raising Potassium, dosing iron etc etc. As soon as I add a new ball of fresh chaeto from a friend , the growth explodes for the first week. Then the growth of the chaeto considerably slows down after the first week and gets very dense , and then starts to deteriorate.