My SPS Journey

[pdiehm]

Added these in late October.

Rainbow/Green Stylophora:

Purple/Green Slimer (regaining its green color after a long brown period):

A cliffs Acro (Broke off while doing maintenance but since then the plug has been completely covered)

An encrusting Nauti

And my mystic sunset. As you can see the main piece is doing well, smaller pieces not so much.

Tank Parameters as of yesterday:

9.4 dKh
445 Calcium
1440 Magnesium
2 ppm NO3
0 ppm PO4
8.27 pH

Lighting: Photon 48, version 1 running at 100% blue/30% white for 6 hours. No ramping just on and off. There is 2 hours of blue on each end of the 6 hours.

60 or so lbs of Pukani rock.

Classic 200-int skimmer

Mp40's running 100% reefcrest in anti-sync mode.

Not seeing much growth but they aren't dead which is a good step for me. First attempt last summer was a disaster.

Dosing 20ml of BRS 2 part daily.

A FTS:

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[reefmutt]

So far so good.
Are the photos recent or from October?

 

[pdiehm]

They are from tonight. Albeit, not the best pictures because I only have an iphone, but it is what it is.

Some more info. The stylophora sits in about 200 par, the slimer in 350 or so. The cliffs acro in 270-300, the Nauti is in about 180, and the sunset in approximately 250.

I worry that the stylo may not be in enough light, but it's fully open, and the polyps do sway in the current.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Lower your alk slowly to 8.0, its a bit high right now. Mag is a bit high as well. Is your po4 a true 0.00?
Get it around .03-.05. Stylo will be fine at 200 par, they can do well with lower light or high light levels. Lower the blues to 70-80% and increase the whites to 40-50% this will increase the red and green spectrum and boost growth. 14k has better growth then a 20k spectrum. Of if you really want to kick growth off add some t5 to mix. Looking good for a young reef tank, keep it up.

 

[pdiehm]

Lower your alk slowly to 8.0, its a bit high right now. Mag is a bit high as well. Is your po4 a true 0.00?
Get it around .03-.05. Stylo will be fine at 200 par, they can do well with lower light or high light levels. Lower the blues to 70-80% and increase the whites to 40-50% this will increase the red and green spectrum and boost growth. 14k has better growth then a 20k spectrum. Of if you really want to kick growth off add some t5 to mix. Looking good for a young reef tank, keep it up.

Thank you. I've had a hell of a time getting this Photon dialed in, so much so that I'm having serious conversations about buying a 6x80W T5, which would run 3 Blue plus, 1 Actinic, 1 purple plus and 1 coral + or 4 blue plus, 1 AB special or 1 coral plus.

I have lowered the light to 70% blue/40% white. There'll be 6 hours at this setting.

Is the PO4 really 0? Hard to say, I can only go by what I test, but there is some algae growing (more of a brown sludge...not dino's).

I do have coraline algae growing in spots, and yes, i'm happy with how it's looking. I just have this constant desire to have it better.

 

[reefmutt]

Judging by the general paleness of the corals, I wouldn’t increase whites..actually, I’d consider reducing them to 25%or so.. keep blues at new lower setting..
What am I seeing on many of the rocks? Looks like a brown film or something..or is it just how the rocks are.. hard to tell..
If it’s some sort of algae, that could be where your nutrients are going..
I agree.. nutrients could be a touch higher..
Maybe you need a bigger clean up crew.. with more snails cleaning the rocks, they’ll convert the algae to some nutrients...

 

[pdiehm]

The rocks have a brown slime on them in spots.

As for the light....welcome to the bane of my existence with this damned light. In 3 years, I have NEVER, not once had it dialed in. It is a huge pain in the ***.


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[reefmutt]

Most, it not all the corals you have are adaptable to and will do just fine with slightly lower light.
I’d suggest keeping them low for now, get your chemistry and algae control sorted out, get more cleaners and try to get a po4 reading while you have clean rocks..
Once that stuff is stable, then think about lighting. You’d be amazed how much more tolorant corals are of lighting when they are otherwise happy..

 

[pdiehm]

broke out the seneye right now.

Where the stylophora was, at 70/25 the Par was 110-115, 1 rock over and about 3" higher it was 150-170, and at 70/40 it was 190-210 on that rock. I'm thinking because I have my light on top of the canopy, a portion of the light was hitting one of the crossmounts, and not distributing properly. I may move it over to the next rock as it isn't attached by anything but putty.

70/40 across the other spots were in the 250-270 range, the nauti was in 170-190, and my mystic sunset monti was sitting in 150-170. These are at 70/40. PUR ranged from 75-78% across the rockwork.

The rocks are slowly coming clean. I have 4 trochus snails in there, 5 ceriths, and 8 or so Nerites. Hesitant to buy more since i've had significant die off already because of a lack of food.

No rush, would like to add another group of 4 or 5 sps frags, but holding off, as I want to get close to finishing my fish stocking, which will tell me where my filtration is, and if that's good, provide ample food for the corals.

 

[reefmutt]

Good not to rush the sps.. an excellent gauge of your tank’s readiness for sps is when you see corraline algae growing well

The more you move coral around, the longer they will take to grow or color up in the tank.. just a thought...

 

[pdiehm]

I did move it. It almost instantly opened up. Also think it's getting a little more flow. Everything else is good.

I have plenty of coralline growing. The tank is most definitely finding its way. The first time, with sand, I had zero coralline in 15 months. But I also couldn't keep anything alive either. Softie or otherwise. I am one of the few, the proud...who was able to kill a hairy mushroom within a week. It was at that point when I decided to shut it down and take out all the sand which is when I realized why nothing was living and why I went bare bottom this time.


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[DesertReefT4r]

That 70/40 par spread is looking pretty good for sps. All the issues wil running LEDon a sps tank are what has kept me switching. Im still a MH and T5 fanboy. I would love to try a Radion though.

 

[pdiehm]

Yep, knowing what I know now, I would have set up with a T5.

But that said, having a capable light already it's hard to justify switching. I thought about adding retro fit inside my canopy but A) that's outside my comfort zone, as I go the exact opposite direction as electrical things. B) if I did it, would add 4, and I don't think there is enough room and C) would have no idea on what to run my LEDs at or whatnot.

Everything appears to be happy. The slime continues to green up from brown, the acro looks likes it's growing and covering the spots where something broke off and the pale sunset monti pieces are starting to regain some color.

As for my alkalinity, it had shot up to 9.8. Shut my doser off, and in 1 day has fallen to 9.5. Will let it fall to 8ish and then only do water changes when it's necessary.

Trying to get nitrates up to 5 and phosphates into the 0.03 range.


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[pdiehm]

So, not sure if all this was there but looks like my stylo has sprouted some branches in past few days.

Will keep an eye on it but since I moved it to the new rock with slightly higher PaR it seems so much happier.


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[pdiehm]

Alkalinity falling. Checked at 8.8 last night. I'm seeing a very positive reaction to the drop in alk from the corals. More color, polyp extension. think I'll break the fall at around 8dkh.

Falling 0.2-0.3 per day.

 

[reefmutt]

8 is fine but don’t be worried about getting into the 7s.. it is not at all unsafe.

 

[pdiehm]

8 is fine but don't be worried about getting into the 7s.. it is not at all unsafe.

I know. I was given a bucket of regular red sea salt this weekend, and I tink it mixes up at around 8dkh. If the corals react well, then I'll use it and just use the IO on my LPS biocube and quarantine tanks.

 

[pdiehm]

The skin of the Stylophora is turning a shade of brown now. Not brown but a tannish color. Looks really happy.

Haven't done a water change in 2 weeks. Tests coming either tonight or tomorrow.

The sunset mystic or whatever is really doing well now. The pieces that had paled out are quickly regaining their pink color and the polyps are out on those.

The cliffs acro frag plug which is completely encrusted is starting to show signs of upward growth, and the piece that broke off has covered the broken section.

The smoker is getting more and more green. Not much growth but the color is coming back after being fully browned out for a few months.

I think all in all these are very good signs!


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[pdiehm]

Over the past 8 days, my alk has fallen from 9.8 to 7.6. An average of 0.275 per day. Set up the doser to dose 26ml per day over 24 doses. One that that is a little confusing was my tests were a little elevated yesterday.

Calcium was 480
Magnesium was 1580
Nitrates were up to 4ppm
PO4 still at 0

Since my calcium is elevated, should I dose that in equal part with the alk?

 

[reefmutt]

With an alk of 7.6, ca at 480’is fine.
I don’t think you want it any higher though.