U.K. SPS dominant Reefspace

[GalHill]

Hi all,

My names Gareth and I live in the UK. I have been keeping marine for 2.5 years (I did have a small spell back when I was a teenager but technology wasn't as good).

2.5 years ago I bought a small 105 litre AIO tank which I developed into this

6 months ago I bought my first home which meant a much needed upgrade, but this time round I planned on tackling SPS. Below is the set up:

Tank: clearseal reefspace 900 (275 litres with sump)
Rock: 10kg real reef rock
Sand: 10kg reeflowers pearl white
Power heads: maxspect gyre 150 & jabeo rw4
Overflow: oceonlife
Lights: 2 X xr30 pro gen 3 (SPS AB+ at 70%)

Sump:
Filtration: 225 micro filter sock & 20 litres siporax
Skimmer: Nyos 120
Heaters: 2 X 200w tmc run by stc1000
Carbon: pharmaceutical carbon in bag
Return pump: vectra m1
Dosing: kamoer 3 way pump dosing alk (50ml/day, calc 50ml/day & mag 1ml/day)

Water: 100gpd 4 stage RO unit with backwash running constant at 0 TDS

Fish:
Hybrid scopas tang
1 X common clown & 1 X black/white clown (paired)
Banghii Cardinal
Tailspot blenny
Purple firefish
1 X male & 1 X female green mandarin
2 X Yasha gobies with 1 X pistol shrimp (not sure if the gobies are still alive)
Timor wrasse
Red lines wrasse

CUC:
2 X cleaner shrimp
6 X nassarius snails
2 X hermits
5 X other snails
1 X pin cushion urchin
2 X strawberry conch

Corals:

LPS:
Green branching hammer
Purple branching hammer
Red trachy, purple trachy & green trachy
2 X Lobos
Trumpet frag
Dragon soul favia
Blastos
War coral
Duncan's

SPS:
Ice fire echinata
Red suharsonoi Acropora
Elegans Acropora
Red planet Acropora
Strawberry shortcake Acropora
Acropora sarmentosa
Tri colour Acropora
Acropora gomezi
Acropora Valida
Acropora spathulata
Purple monster Acropora
Tierra deal fuego Acropora
4 X tenius Acropora
Golden nugget Acropora
Hurlocks Acropora
2 X Unknown Acropora
Green and silver/blue branching montipora
Forest fire montipora
Superman montipora
Mystic sunset montipora
Hirsuta montipora
Orange encrusting montipora
Red and green plating montipora
3 X millipora

Majority of the SPS are frags which are growing and basing well. Others are a mix of small to medium colonies.

FTS: (only have blue ones which are recent. Will add a day time one tomorrow)

Coral pics to follow.

Thanks for looking

Gareth

 

[GalHill]

Some coral pics

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[GalHill]

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[GalHill]

Need to invest in a dslr as iPhone pictures don't do the tank justice


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[GalHill]

m
This has gone a strange green with red colour. It was all green. Not sure if it was low light. I've moved it to a better position now

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[GalHill]

U.K. SPS dominant Reefspace

Mandarins dancing tonight, watch in HD https://youtu.be/6JLnY4hJX70


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[GalHill]

Time for some Sunday pictures...

Acropora elegans

Ice fire echinata

 

[GalHill]

Red suharsonoi

Forest fire montipora

Branching green montipora ?ID

Blue/silver branching montipora

 

[GalHill]

Strawberry shortcake

Red planet

Hurlocks

Red dragon, green plating and red plating

Green tenius

 

[GalHill]

3 different blue tenius

Tri colour

Nana

 

[GalHill]

Gomezi

Spathulata

Tierre del fuego

Purple monster

Sarmentosa

?another nana

 

[GalHill]

Unknown green acro

Some millipora frags (colouring up nicely but hard to get in pics. One is turning pink and the other appears to be rainbow but early days)

Pink pocclipora (I think) with granny apple smith zoas

Zoa garden

 

[GalHill]

Orange encrusting monti

Mystic sunset monti

Superman monti

FTS's

 

[tenurepro]

Glorious! Looks great. Would love to here more about the parameters you are keeping (alk, ca, mg, no3 and phosphates), your feeding schedule. Also how long did you take to get the radions to 70% (did you start at 70% or lower and gradually increased). I also have radions but struggling to get the best color from my sps


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[GalHill]

Glorious! Looks great. Would love to here more about the parameters you are keeping (alk, ca, mg, no3 and phosphates), your feeding schedule. Also how long did you take to get the radions to 70% (did you start at 70% or lower and gradually increased). I also have radions but struggling to get the best color from my sps


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Thanks,

Params are as follows:
Alk : currently 7dkh (normally 8-8.3 but as the sps have grown the alk is getting used up really fast. Currently dosing 110ml (balling)

Calc: 420 (75ml daily)

Mag: 1350-1380 (4ml daily)

No3: 0.5
Po4: 0.008
PH: 8

Currently have 12 fish. I feed twice a day. I only feed frozen. RS mysis with brine shrimp twice a day and sometimes throw in red plantkton.

I dose iodine once a week (3 drops)

As for the lights I started at 40% and increased this by 10% a month via acclimation. Almost at 80% now. Using the coral lab SPS ab+.

Any more questions fire away

Gareth

 

[tenurepro]

Great. I started out with high dkh in hopes of fast sps growth; around 12dkh. Also ramped lights to radions to 85% from 55% really quickly (2 month ; also using a/b program). I have undetectable nitrates and very low (often undetectable) phosphates. This combination caused the burning of some of my sps frags. Now running lights at 55 , alk at 8.5 and trying to overfeed a bit to get color back. We'll see!


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[GalHill]

Maybe the quick rise to 85% was to blame. I started to get signs of STN on some corals but seems to have rectified now. In my simp I only have 20 litres siporax, skimmer and carbon. Do you run a reactor?


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[tenurepro]

I have a skimmer a gfo phosban reactor and a fuge with chaeto; also have a deep sand bed in display and a large filter bag of seachem matrix in sump


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[tenurepro]

Notice that you - like me - are also posting on a The other forum... more comments there too [emoji6]


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[GalHill]

Notice that you - like me - are also posting on a The other forum... more comments there too [emoji6]


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Haha true, I actually post on 4. Your the only one to have commented on this one. The others have more history [emoji4]


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