Hello! I have been reefing for around 10 years and recently decided to go with mostly sps after my softy/lps tank crash. After reading about and viewing all of the beautiful tanks that are in this forum, I decided to ask all of you about my tank. My system is as follows:
75 gallon tank with single corner overflow
2 radion gen-2's running at 65% under radiant color program for 9 hours ramping to full intensity for 6 hours
30 gallon sump with Reef Octopus 150 Super Space Saver skimmer
Return pump is a Sicce that has two returns over the back of the tank through U-tubes putting out roughly 600gph
Flow is one xf230 and one xf130 on opposite ends of tank set to lunar tidal cycle set at 70% max
3L of 15 mm siporax placed in the mesh bags they came in in the skimmer section of the sump for last two months
Algae turf scrubber fed by 400 maxijet that is a gravity fed tray lit by led grow light for 18 hours on a reverse light cycle which has been up for 3 weeks
5" sand bed that is approximately a year old
Carbon and gfo run passively in bags in the sump.
Water changes done with RO/DI water and Aquavitro Salinity. 18 gallon changes done every two weeks.
The tank has been up in various forms for 7 years. It has been moved 3 times and the sand bed changed every time with new tropic eden sand. It has roughly 60 lbs of rock. 10 months ago, a heater malfunction killed most corals except for some zoas and some leathers with various lps. 6 months ago, a refractometer issue (my fault) killed off most of the rest of the corals as well as most of my fish. I decided to completely overhaul the tank and it really cleaned up. Minimal algae but aiptasia popped up. I added some zoas and a couple of test sps pieces, mostly browned out pieces from a local stores cheap section. Now, I have over 30 pieces that are all colorful but with little to no growth. Browned pieces will color up but not grow. I think I know why, but I want to check. Parameters are as follows:
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 25
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1250
Alk: 7.3-8.0
PO4: 0.75
All parameters checked by Salifert kits except for PO4 which is Elos. Alkalinity and calcium dosed using aquacraft powdered components, but very little needs to be dosed due to water changes and little growth.
I'll admit, I feed a lot! I have 11 fish and two sea apples as well as a pink filter feeding cucumber. Fish are as follows:
3 eightline flasher wrasses
2 Darwin clowns
Purple firefish
Yellow assessor
Forktail blenny
Target mandarin
2 dragon faced pipefish
Feedings a day are:
Cube of hikari mysis
Reef nutrition shellfish diet, roe, oyster feast, rotifeast, beta brine
Polyp lab polyp booster 1 ml
Rotation of reef chili, reef roids, benereef, and gonipower
I have over 50 aiptasia but no visible algae besides what grows on the scrubber and some bubble algae. I have very little detritus. I do vacuum the sump once a month to make sure I don't accumulate detritus. Two weeks ago, I started prodibio by dosing biooptim and biodigest.
My thoughts on this tank are that the phosphates are limiting calcification and that that is why the corals aren't growing. I want a robust ecosystem and that is why I am trying for many different forms of filtration and feeding many types of foods. I added a red algae pack from gulf coast ecosystems to provide area for pod growth and for some nutrient uptake 1 month ago. Some has died but some is doing well.
I think that I am being a little impatient with my biological filtration and that it hasn't caught up with the bioload I am pushing through the system.
Sorry for the longwindedness and the rambling, but I wanted to check and see if everyone thought that the phosphates were the issue or if the sps are being inhibited allelopathically by the algae or the aiptasia?
Thank you so much for the time it takes to read this!
Doug
75 gallon tank with single corner overflow
2 radion gen-2's running at 65% under radiant color program for 9 hours ramping to full intensity for 6 hours
30 gallon sump with Reef Octopus 150 Super Space Saver skimmer
Return pump is a Sicce that has two returns over the back of the tank through U-tubes putting out roughly 600gph
Flow is one xf230 and one xf130 on opposite ends of tank set to lunar tidal cycle set at 70% max
3L of 15 mm siporax placed in the mesh bags they came in in the skimmer section of the sump for last two months
Algae turf scrubber fed by 400 maxijet that is a gravity fed tray lit by led grow light for 18 hours on a reverse light cycle which has been up for 3 weeks
5" sand bed that is approximately a year old
Carbon and gfo run passively in bags in the sump.
Water changes done with RO/DI water and Aquavitro Salinity. 18 gallon changes done every two weeks.
The tank has been up in various forms for 7 years. It has been moved 3 times and the sand bed changed every time with new tropic eden sand. It has roughly 60 lbs of rock. 10 months ago, a heater malfunction killed most corals except for some zoas and some leathers with various lps. 6 months ago, a refractometer issue (my fault) killed off most of the rest of the corals as well as most of my fish. I decided to completely overhaul the tank and it really cleaned up. Minimal algae but aiptasia popped up. I added some zoas and a couple of test sps pieces, mostly browned out pieces from a local stores cheap section. Now, I have over 30 pieces that are all colorful but with little to no growth. Browned pieces will color up but not grow. I think I know why, but I want to check. Parameters are as follows:
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 25
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1250
Alk: 7.3-8.0
PO4: 0.75
All parameters checked by Salifert kits except for PO4 which is Elos. Alkalinity and calcium dosed using aquacraft powdered components, but very little needs to be dosed due to water changes and little growth.
I'll admit, I feed a lot! I have 11 fish and two sea apples as well as a pink filter feeding cucumber. Fish are as follows:
3 eightline flasher wrasses
2 Darwin clowns
Purple firefish
Yellow assessor
Forktail blenny
Target mandarin
2 dragon faced pipefish
Feedings a day are:
Cube of hikari mysis
Reef nutrition shellfish diet, roe, oyster feast, rotifeast, beta brine
Polyp lab polyp booster 1 ml
Rotation of reef chili, reef roids, benereef, and gonipower
I have over 50 aiptasia but no visible algae besides what grows on the scrubber and some bubble algae. I have very little detritus. I do vacuum the sump once a month to make sure I don't accumulate detritus. Two weeks ago, I started prodibio by dosing biooptim and biodigest.
My thoughts on this tank are that the phosphates are limiting calcification and that that is why the corals aren't growing. I want a robust ecosystem and that is why I am trying for many different forms of filtration and feeding many types of foods. I added a red algae pack from gulf coast ecosystems to provide area for pod growth and for some nutrient uptake 1 month ago. Some has died but some is doing well.
I think that I am being a little impatient with my biological filtration and that it hasn't caught up with the bioload I am pushing through the system.
Sorry for the longwindedness and the rambling, but I wanted to check and see if everyone thought that the phosphates were the issue or if the sps are being inhibited allelopathically by the algae or the aiptasia?
Thank you so much for the time it takes to read this!
Doug
