RSM 130D sps project

Fish4life28

Fish4life28

New member
Hey all, not new to salt or the forum. My old tank was a custom 120 gallon which is no more. Moving forward I have a RSM 130 up and running. It is on the 6th week of cycle so we are getting close. System specs so far
1. RSM 130d
2. Stock hood and lights for now ( still pondering if I will go with ati fixture or ai Hydra 52 HD)
3. Rockwork secured with acrylic rod ( love this scape)
4. Tank running off apex from my old tank
5. Smart ato micro
6. Going to step away from pricy mp pumps and run jebao.
7. Gutted rear section and modded a deltec MCE 600 for skimmer ( it's a beast on this tank)
Here is a fts as it sits today. Plan is 99℅ sps.
Here is the deltec
And here is the way the tank sits today lonely empty and cycling
 
Thank you sir. I am bad at re scaping all the time. My wife doesn't believe me when I say this is the final version lol. But I am very happy with it and going to put a great deal of thought and planning of which corals and where I place them
 
Fish4life28 said:
Thank you sir. I am bad at re scaping all the time. My wife doesn't believe me when I say this is the final version lol. But I am very happy with it and going to put a great deal of thought and planning of which corals and where I place them
Click to expand...
Haha my wife's the same way, for good reason though lol. I've also come to realize planning coral stocking and placement is very important if one of your goals in keeping the reef is to have that perfect scape.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
This happened today. Nitrates are down to near 5 ppm and haven't done a water change in a week. The little guy and I visited the lfs and came home with 3 trochus snails and this guy
And little Homer

Pretty cool little fish. Live the perching. The clown goby has a spot he seems to like and is a little timid but I'm sure will settle in fine.
 
Been a while since last update. Slowly getting there. New changes are
Added a few more frags. Green elkhorn. Teal birdsnest. Some zoas. 2 twilight clowns from Vic. And a frag from Thang that spawned in his system, I am getting a green and blueish colour from it.
I added a jebao pp4 last week and have a jebao nano on its way this week with new bulbs for the power module. Going with 3 blue plus and 3 coral

 
The path forward is going to be the kiss method. Upped the flow, observe and adjust as required. Continue chemipure every 3 months, I run the old bag for a week while the new one marinates. 2X 10 gallon water changes a week. Along with all 6 fresh t5 bulbs, may reduce photo period a little from 10 to 8 hours.
I haven't tested anything besides nitrates while cycling. Will. Will need to start checking alk and calcium soon as I add more frags, thinking bi weekly 30% water changes are keeping me steady right now, but do have a ghl doser in the closet ready to go when needed. Going to add 2 fire fish next, that will be the last for fish list. Need to up my clean up crew with 3 more trochus snails ( will. Ring it to 8) and a few more nassarius ( for a total of 10).
We will see where this all gets us.
 
I would start checking Alk immediately.
Depending on Nitrates and Phosphates, you will need to adjust your Alkalinity accordingly.

Higher nutrients and you will want higher Alkalinity (8.5-9.5dKH)
Lower nutrients and you will want lower Alkalinity (7.0-8.0)

Even though you're just starting with a few frags, it's best to get in-tune with your system and know how much Alkalinity and Calcium is depleted each day.

I also am a firm believer in 10% weekly water changes. In your case, a simple 5 gallon weekly water change would be plenty. This would help replenish any Alk/Ca/Mag that was used up along with replacing simple trace elements.

Your Acropora that is encrusted doesn't seem happy. Pale colors with no polyp extension is indeed an irritated acro. Maybe your nutrients are a bit too low?

However it does seem like you're on the road to success my friend! Looking forward to updates with your SPS adventure!
 
Yeah think I will break out the test kits tomorrow and see where it all stands. The pale one likely isn't from low nutrients as much as it has a pest clown goby that likes to lay on it sometimes. I haven't seen it for a while but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. Since adding a few more pieces I don't see the behaviour much from the clown. My birdsnest and digi are very very fuzzy.
I will post results after testing so I can keep it on my thread as a log of sorts
 
Broke out the test kits today. Realized I may have tossed my Hannah alk checker out when my old tank flooded so need to order up a new one. Anyways the results for what I have were this
Calcium 350 low but not terrible. This makes me think alk is low too
Phosphate .13 meh. Could be lower but not awful. Hannah checker
Nitrate .2. Barely turned colour with my sailfert kit.
Haven't tested the mag. I actually have an order on que to be delivered so I am trying to add the alkalinity checker to it before it ships.
 
I have them both on else mode. The sw2 at 100% and the pp4 is around 80%. Both are in the back corners of the tank and angled towards the front glass. The sw2 takes a sharper direction closer to the rocks. I left my scape relatively open so I could get real strong flow.
 
Some zoomed in shots with iPhone.
Green elkhorn. Very happy and growing.
Birdsnest. Another growing fast
And my setosa extending its floral polyps
 
Got a few new frags. Starting to fill up the nano. Picked up a 4 branch frag/ mini colony of pink matrix. A frag of red dragon and a nice size piece of needle in a haystack last weekend. Waiting for a guy to come back from business and going to pick up a 2 inch multi branch piece of pink lemonade. also have a guy that cut me a big piece of a slimer. Not run of the mill green. It's more yellow/ gold colour. He got it in a wild Aussie shipment. Need to locate an ice and fire enchinata and let the babies grow in a while
 
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