Hi everybody
First let me apologies for the loooong post
Just wanted to introduce myself and my tank, and hopefully get some help ID'ing couple of corals
I started this tank around 11/2016 and so far so good. I have some experience in FW tanks and everything I learned about SW is from this forum, my LFS and various sites/articles.
The tank is a 34 gallons (130 litres) DT with a 14 gallons (55 litres) sump. Dimensions 32" x 14" x 18" . It's a small tank but I am already planning an upgrade to a red sea reefer 350 (in the convince the missus stage right now )
Equipement used:
2x MP10 Vortechs running reef crest in anti sync @ 60%
1X Radion XR30 Pro Gen 4 running SPS AB+ schedule at 53% intensity (gradually increasing towards 60% - 65%)
Skimmer: Tunze doc 9410 (maybe its a bit of overkill but I do have some algae issues and upgraded recently from a TMC reef skim 300 to help with nutrients export)
1x Reactor running GFO
In sump refugium with cheato. 6.5k led light unit over the refugium
Vectra M1 return pump running at around 30%
Flow through the sump is around 3 times/hour the volume of water.
Water params:
Temp: 79-80
Salinity: 1.025
PH:7.8 -8 (monitored constantly via PinPoint probe)
CA: 460
MG: 1410
ALK: 8.6
Amonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrate: undetectable but as I said I do have some (big) algae issues so I guess all the nitrates and phosphates are locked in the aglae
Phosphates: undetectable
Stock:
2x Black and white clowns (paired)
1x Peacock Wrasse (fat and happy , eats frozen foods , pellets and picking at rocks all day long, I've got plenty pods both in the DT and sump)
1x YWG
1x Blue reef chromis
1x Orchid dottyback (dont really see it unless I feed the tank)
1x cleaner shrimp
2x peppermint shrimps (they spawn regularly now)
Some turbo snails
1x small crab (hitchhiker in DT)
1x black crab which looks like a emerald crab in sump (it was a hitchhiker as well but too big now to leave it in DT)
1x Long tentacle anemone (at least I think it is) which is very happy and more than doubled in size and coloured up nicely (it was nearly bleached at the LFS)
Various SPS and LPS
Only loss so far was a blue acro frag which RTN'ed the same day I bought it
Steps I took to fight the algae in the DT , just in case it helps anyone else. I am having issues with GHA (almost won that fight), bubble algae (almost there as well) and what I think its some sort of wire algae, looks like a wire and its very hard to pull off the rocks (still fighting )
Switched from RO water made by my filter (4-5 TDS) to RO/DI water made by my new filter (0 TDS)
Upgraded skimmer to what I think its an oversized one for my tank and set it to skim wet.
Water change (15%) every weekend, before every water change I manually remove as much algae as I can then I scrub all rocks with toothbrush in tank. While I scrub the rock I have the sponge protection over the vortechs so most of the algae gets trapped in the sponge (acts as a filter)
Started to siphon the sand every water change (sand bed is around 2 inch deep and 4-5 inch deeper where the anemone is so she can burrow her foot into it)
Running GFO in a reactor.
Any suggestions/advise is more than welcomed
Now some pictures of my tank and couple of corals I need help with ID'ing them. Please excuse the pics quality, still learning how to use my DSLR .
First one I need an ID on. This one was what looked like a dead skeleton on the LR when I bought it. It came to life and growing since I got the Radion going.
View attachment 370061
Second SPS I need help with is an acropora I bought online. When it came it was almost white in colour. Now (3 weeks later) it started to grow a bit and got awesome colours
View attachment 370065
Third and last coral I need an ID on is an acro I bought from a local LFS and it was almost completely bleached. Now is growing and looks happy
View attachment 370070
All SPS corals are doing well as far as I can tell with my limited experience, the only thing is all acropora's (apart from a stag and a milie) dont open the top (tip of branches) polyps during the day, only at night.
Cheers,
Paul
First let me apologies for the loooong post
Just wanted to introduce myself and my tank, and hopefully get some help ID'ing couple of corals
I started this tank around 11/2016 and so far so good. I have some experience in FW tanks and everything I learned about SW is from this forum, my LFS and various sites/articles.
The tank is a 34 gallons (130 litres) DT with a 14 gallons (55 litres) sump. Dimensions 32" x 14" x 18" . It's a small tank but I am already planning an upgrade to a red sea reefer 350 (in the convince the missus stage right now )
Equipement used:
2x MP10 Vortechs running reef crest in anti sync @ 60%
1X Radion XR30 Pro Gen 4 running SPS AB+ schedule at 53% intensity (gradually increasing towards 60% - 65%)
Skimmer: Tunze doc 9410 (maybe its a bit of overkill but I do have some algae issues and upgraded recently from a TMC reef skim 300 to help with nutrients export)
1x Reactor running GFO
In sump refugium with cheato. 6.5k led light unit over the refugium
Vectra M1 return pump running at around 30%
Flow through the sump is around 3 times/hour the volume of water.
Water params:
Temp: 79-80
Salinity: 1.025
PH:7.8 -8 (monitored constantly via PinPoint probe)
CA: 460
MG: 1410
ALK: 8.6
Amonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrate: undetectable but as I said I do have some (big) algae issues so I guess all the nitrates and phosphates are locked in the aglae
Phosphates: undetectable
Stock:
2x Black and white clowns (paired)
1x Peacock Wrasse (fat and happy , eats frozen foods , pellets and picking at rocks all day long, I've got plenty pods both in the DT and sump)
1x YWG
1x Blue reef chromis
1x Orchid dottyback (dont really see it unless I feed the tank)
1x cleaner shrimp
2x peppermint shrimps (they spawn regularly now)
Some turbo snails
1x small crab (hitchhiker in DT)
1x black crab which looks like a emerald crab in sump (it was a hitchhiker as well but too big now to leave it in DT)
1x Long tentacle anemone (at least I think it is) which is very happy and more than doubled in size and coloured up nicely (it was nearly bleached at the LFS)
Various SPS and LPS
Only loss so far was a blue acro frag which RTN'ed the same day I bought it
Steps I took to fight the algae in the DT , just in case it helps anyone else. I am having issues with GHA (almost won that fight), bubble algae (almost there as well) and what I think its some sort of wire algae, looks like a wire and its very hard to pull off the rocks (still fighting )
Switched from RO water made by my filter (4-5 TDS) to RO/DI water made by my new filter (0 TDS)
Upgraded skimmer to what I think its an oversized one for my tank and set it to skim wet.
Water change (15%) every weekend, before every water change I manually remove as much algae as I can then I scrub all rocks with toothbrush in tank. While I scrub the rock I have the sponge protection over the vortechs so most of the algae gets trapped in the sponge (acts as a filter)
Started to siphon the sand every water change (sand bed is around 2 inch deep and 4-5 inch deeper where the anemone is so she can burrow her foot into it)
Running GFO in a reactor.
Any suggestions/advise is more than welcomed
Now some pictures of my tank and couple of corals I need help with ID'ing them. Please excuse the pics quality, still learning how to use my DSLR .
First one I need an ID on. This one was what looked like a dead skeleton on the LR when I bought it. It came to life and growing since I got the Radion going.
View attachment 370061
Second SPS I need help with is an acropora I bought online. When it came it was almost white in colour. Now (3 weeks later) it started to grow a bit and got awesome colours
View attachment 370065
Third and last coral I need an ID on is an acro I bought from a local LFS and it was almost completely bleached. Now is growing and looks happy
View attachment 370070
All SPS corals are doing well as far as I can tell with my limited experience, the only thing is all acropora's (apart from a stag and a milie) dont open the top (tip of branches) polyps during the day, only at night.
Cheers,
Paul
