15gal SPS dominated nano
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Daniel@R2R
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My Tank Thread
I'm thinkin' we're needin' an update! 1smile1 :becky:
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SCMatt
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Sorry for the delay. Was trying to finish out work before the holiday season started. Its died down now so I will try and take photos tonight. Had a bit of a problem with params not to long ago like I posted, which seems to have caused some of my SPS to bubble up and then lose tissue afterwards. My Green Slimer was the main one and its lost tissue on its underside though I think I've stabilized it and hopefully its starting to grow back. Slow and steady work up to where I was. When the params got all funky It stalled growth and made some of the corals lose some color but now I'm starting to see new growth tips and a bit of color returning so Its a good sign its headed back in the right direction. Like I said, slow and steady. I think what first caused my problem is in a tank this small my room for error is a VERY thin line, I put off a WC or two and fed the fish more than I needed to and my nutrients went nuts. Not changing water also sent my Alk and Calcium numbers out of control. It all boils down to me basically. Got a good WC regime going now, at least once a week STRICT! Also sucked out most all of my substrate and went BB. So far it has REALLY helped with my algae issues. Turned up the Vortech and let it do work. The only frag I lost out of all of this was a small Red Dragon frag, and theres actually a bit of tissue still left so I'm hoping it will grow back in time.
ALSO I tweaked my Radion lights and turned the whites down a good bit. Those things can really cut through the water (especially in this size tank) and I think that has helped a lot with all of the issues.
I just scraped the glass in the tank (somewhat, still allowing coraline to kinda go crazy....I like it) so once it clears I will snap a pic for you all! Tonight I promise!
ALSO I tweaked my Radion lights and turned the whites down a good bit. Those things can really cut through the water (especially in this size tank) and I think that has helped a lot with all of the issues.
I just scraped the glass in the tank (somewhat, still allowing coraline to kinda go crazy....I like it) so once it clears I will snap a pic for you all! Tonight I promise!
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EW_Fish
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SCMatt
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Some new shots here. So I may of made it sound worse than it really is. Still some good color in there, just not as good as it was IMO. Its coming back. The less white light has made everything pop a bit more photo wise with more blue being seen in the spectrum. Had to add that new egg crate rack since taking the substrate out, no where to put the frags currently. Need to glue some more on the rocks. Let me know what you think!
Waterchange
Community Member
Still looks good! Keep up with the water changes and you'll be fine, small tanks can be quite the task! I also have a 15g and currently do 1 gallon water change Tuesday and Thursday and a 3-5 on Saturday....it's mixed reef
Lilmatty5dimes
2500 Club Member
Sorry to hear the bad luck. Your tank is an inspiration to make my nano a sps dom tank. Love your collection. Please keep us up to date on how the tank is doing bb.
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SCMatt
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Amazing what good clean water and stable params will do. Already seeing a boom in growth again. Colors seem to be coming back as well. Slow and steady hope it continues to come back strong.
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SCMatt
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Few new ones of my frag racks. Showing color and growth getting back to normal. Also took these photos at a different point in the day so the light was already going a bit blue for photos.
Before at the start of Oct
Now (CC Oakland A's. Probably one of my favorite pieces in the tank just for its growth. Time for it to be glued.) All of the growth tips here are very new, last 1-2 weeks probably.
Some smoother skin
Some sort of sunset/sunrise mille something or other. Copps Hulk Mille frag beside it
Copps Hulk Mille "mother colony", my favorite Mille in the tank. No matter what I do it never loses the colors. Purple/pink base, blue tips, and green polyps.
Before at the start of Oct
Now (CC Oakland A's. Probably one of my favorite pieces in the tank just for its growth. Time for it to be glued.) All of the growth tips here are very new, last 1-2 weeks probably.
Some smoother skin
Some sort of sunset/sunrise mille something or other. Copps Hulk Mille frag beside it
Copps Hulk Mille "mother colony", my favorite Mille in the tank. No matter what I do it never loses the colors. Purple/pink base, blue tips, and green polyps.
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SCMatt
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Yeah I love it, it looks great! The frag above the main colony broke off the day it arrived and I glued it to a separate plug seeing if I could get anything from it. Sure enough it took off and is quite a nice encrusted frag itself now.
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SCMatt
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So I scraped all of that coraline off the sides and front, let it grow on the back but its time I enjoyed looking into my tank. Corals seem to be bouncing back well, good growth tips on most of them. A few still haven't gotten all of their color back but all have good polyp extension and healthy looking flesh so I'm not to worried yet.
I seem to have a bit of high Phosphates. Tested .20 on Hanna checker. Any suggestions? All of the calculators I've used say I'd only need 3 tablespoons of GFO for my size tank volume. Just seems useless to use a reactor for that, however I want it to be stable rather than on and off which a reactor would probably give me. Should I just use it in a media bag? Break down and get a reactor anyway? Suggestions?
I seem to have a bit of high Phosphates. Tested .20 on Hanna checker. Any suggestions? All of the calculators I've used say I'd only need 3 tablespoons of GFO for my size tank volume. Just seems useless to use a reactor for that, however I want it to be stable rather than on and off which a reactor would probably give me. Should I just use it in a media bag? Break down and get a reactor anyway? Suggestions?
Waterchange
Community Member
My tank is just as gigantic as yours, similar issues. I've always used phosguard and purigen in the bag by seachem, it helps. I ended up breaking down and getting a two little fishies reactor but have yet to actually use it. 3tbsp is nothing in that thing. I think it was here, someone felt the same way about the reactor and was in the process of making a DIY miniature one, I've been thinking of doing the same. If you find any solid solutions let me know, I go through fluctuations and it irritates me.
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SCMatt
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Thanks, probably what I will do as well to start.
New FTS from tonight. Not a lot has changed, like I said I scraped a lot of the coraline especially off of the sides. Not tons of noticeable growth, you can see some on the retina blaster in the back left, Hawkins beside it, Cali tort upper right, and the Slimer in the middle. If you notice the dead area on the underside of the slimer are closing back up as well, good sign. I still have yet to mount any more frags, doing that soon I promise. I want to eliminate the white frag rack on the front. When I took out my sand it forced me to put it in to hold the frags that were on the sandbed. Have a few frags I'm probably going to trade locally for other stuff on my wishlist....or sell and thin the stock we'll see. I have duplicates of a few things up there on the racks. Anyway here are the pics.
Might be more new pics coming, gotta look through the camera and see whats worth posting, just wanted to pull a few FTS out first to show.
New FTS from tonight. Not a lot has changed, like I said I scraped a lot of the coraline especially off of the sides. Not tons of noticeable growth, you can see some on the retina blaster in the back left, Hawkins beside it, Cali tort upper right, and the Slimer in the middle. If you notice the dead area on the underside of the slimer are closing back up as well, good sign. I still have yet to mount any more frags, doing that soon I promise. I want to eliminate the white frag rack on the front. When I took out my sand it forced me to put it in to hold the frags that were on the sandbed. Have a few frags I'm probably going to trade locally for other stuff on my wishlist....or sell and thin the stock we'll see. I have duplicates of a few things up there on the racks. Anyway here are the pics.
Might be more new pics coming, gotta look through the camera and see whats worth posting, just wanted to pull a few FTS out first to show.
SkipperTheSohalTang
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Let me know your wish list! I may have things that you like!
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SCMatt
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Well I think it compounds each day I read this forum, but right now the top 4 SPS on my wish list are Oregon Tort, Pearlberry, a true blue/teal staghorn (purple may be ok), and a nice Efflo (like $500 efflo or similar).
Thanks, really happy its doing so well. Had countless people tell me It wouldn't work, love doing it anyway. My goal is to get this tank to where I have accidental frags every time I stick my hand in. I just want it full of SPS.
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