my sps nano

[michael head]

I have a small 6 gallon tmc microhabitat, which has been running for the last five months, left to cycle for the first three and then started to add the sps, only recently have I upgraded to metal halide, the old led tile just didn't give the results I wanted. The tank is far from stock, I've upgraded lighting, skimmer, extra flow, bigger return pump, auto top off, stc 1000 temp controller with boyu clip on fan. It is just run on filter wool, and a daily carbon, bacteria dosing schedule

 

[pompeyjohn]

Wow, that is a lot of frags! what fish is that?

 

[michael head]

Its a canary/yellow wrasse

 

[Brycntif]

Your sand bed is so shallow, is that by choice? do you have any issues with it that shallow?

 

[JasonBJones]

Looking good, definitely seem some encrusting happening.

How have the colors done since moving into the tank?

 

[michael head]

I find a shallow sand bed is cleaner, Its just there for visual purposes, it's a fine gravel and it is heavy enough not to get blown around lol. The tank is just run by live rock, high flow, filter wool, skimmer, and a bacteria/ carbon dosing regime.

 

[michael head]

I have found that all the sps I put in there soon brighten up, I was running the tank with leds recently and found that the growth was good, but the colours were a bit flat, I've had the halide running for a week now and am amazed at the colours already.

 

[michael head]

Everything is going great lately colours are really coming out, very happy, here are some up to date pictures

 

[seamonkey84]

That is alot of frags, nice scape, very clean and open. I too go with at most one inch of sand in a nano, otherwise it's just a detritus trap and too hard to clean.
are some of those several frags of the same coral? If so thats a great way to get more coverage quickly vs just a single vertical growth point. Also, what color LEDs were you using? I too found colors washed out or morphed under standard cool what and royal blues combo. that was until I got units with multi color, or my newest full spectrum par38 now the colors look fantastic.

 

[michael head]

Yeah some of the frags are frags grown from frags, just wanted to spread them around then watch them grow. I was using aquabeam 1000 tile before and decided that a metal halide would give me more of the effect I wanted.

 

[Elliott89]

Beautiful tank

What are you doing for a dosing Calcium and Alk?

 

[michael head]

Depending on the levels tested, if they need to be raised equally I'll use a two part buffer, or I'll use salifert kh+ph buffer and salifert coral calcium. I test calcium and alkalinity daily because they are soon depleted. I also use a dosing calculator which helps me to dose precisely.

 

[echopiece]

Is that a 14K MH bulb? How many watts and how many hours do you run the light?

 

[michael head]

Yes it is a arcadia 14k bulb and I run it for 10 hours a day

 

[louie310]

sweet tank!

 

[echopiece]

Yes it is a arcadia 14k bulb and I run it for 10 hours a day

70w or 150w?

 

[michael head]

150 watt bud

 

[jacob.morgan78]

That would be awesome for my desk! I want one! 10 hrs seems like a long time to keep halides on. Have you had any issues with that? How much evap do you get?

Keep the updates coming!

 

[michael head]

Evap is about half a litre a day, but I have a auto top off to make life simpler lol. Have no issues with the lightning, keep on top of the nutrient levels and hardly any algae will grow

 

[michael head]

Just done a water change, after leaving it for two weeks which is unusual for me lol, gave the gravel a vacuum, changed floss, cleaned skimmer and glass(acrylic).
got some more pics guys too

This is a pic of my pavona, there's no getting this off the rock lol.

This is a little acan I rescued, the poor thing got stung by a pineapple coral.