Watchguy's SPS Addiction (photo intense)

[skinz78]

Darn, what a nice setup, any chance of a recent FTS?

 

[darryl_v]

Awesome as always Mark!! (I believe that is your name but feel free to correct me).

 

[watchguy123]

Thanks for all the kind words. There is so much inspiration on R2R.

I just noticed that my alk creeped down a bit, gonna crank the calcium reactor up a notch. I assume coral growth and volume are the reason. I tend to keep my alk closer to sea water so I really don't want it down at all. The pics above are from yesterday so no visible effect but we all know, when you see unhappy coral, that is late to the game for adjustments. I hate testing, I have used Hanna checkers, API , Salifert and I still feel testing gives such variable results that I find it frustrating. Test,and retest and then evaluate--still it's no fun.

It's interesting , you get your lighting figured out--led, t5,MH, whatever you like. You figure out temperature control, chiller, fan, evaporation or whatever. You get good flow through out the tank, good recirculating pump, couple of Tunze or Vortechs or mp whatever's . You try not to overcrowd in particular fish. Then you try not to over feed. And then eventually you get the hang of fish husbandry, not too many fish not too much food. Good protein skimmer, GFO and Chaeto and your nitrate and phosphates are stable. So now you only need to worry about alk, mag, and calcium. How hard can that be, right. Either additives, doser or calcium reactor. Really how hard can it be. Well I still find it really hard. Doable, challenging but then that one frag just doesn't look right so then you wonder about everything all over again. But in the end, it's the ocean in a glass box in your favorite room. So I am going to go test parameters just one more time or maybe just stare at the tank for a while

 

[mylittlejade]

Great picture!! Maybe this is the wrasse picture you are looking for in another thread. I hate testing as well, but I do weekely test on ALK and calcium. Alk to me is something that should be watched especially with certain live stock being so touchy to swings.


Bryan

 

[gws3]

Awesome thread and pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[afernandez]

I know it's an annoying question And it can vary from tank to tank or your preference but where do you keep your Big three (all cal and mag)?

Just curious since you mention natural sea levels . Thanks again for all the wonderful pictures!

 

[Diesel]

Time to start fraging!
So nice Mark, and a lot of us can dream only about this.

 

[Reloadeddevil]

Very nice

 

[watchguy123]

I know it's an annoying question And it can vary from tank to tank or your preference but where do you keep your Big three (all cal and mag)?

Just curious since you mention natural sea levels . Thanks again for all the wonderful pictures!

I keep alk just below 8, calcium around 400-410 and I can not get my magnesium above 1180. I test my water with Hanna alk, hanna CA, Salifert Nitrate test and have the LFS double check my results and they use their API or Red Sea or Salifert test. I find testing frustrating because of the variable results (maybe questionable results), difficulty and variations. I very well may be just a poor tester but I think our test kits are whacko and I have tried I think all brands (certainly I take credit for a certain amount of my own wackiness). I use a large calcium dual chamber reactor and I supplement brightwell tech m (magnesium) powder into the tank directly. I buy the huge bucket of Tech M powder and magnesium levels just do not seem to rise. I add magnesium sometimes regularly and sometimes I get frustrated or lazy and do not supplement for a while. My calcium reactor has both aragonite (ARM) as well as the supplement for magnesium and it is a 7:1 ratio of ARM to mag stuff (I forgot the name but always leave the empty container under the sink, so I can reorder it when needed) Like all things with reefing, I should be more disciplined, more exact and more consistent but I am like Popeye--I am who I am and that is who I am--lame excuse, I know. Always a little scary sharing this information because there are reefers who are extremely disciplined, organized and consistent and I feel so guilty and concerned about my lack thereof. Long answer for a simple question but hopefully you have a better idea of how I maintain some of my parameters.

I do not know why I chose ocean parameters which really translates into low alk relatively speaking. The range is generally described as between 8-12 dkh. And there are lots of recommendations for high dKh (9-12). I think the biggest advantage to a higher dKh is the potential safety of buffering at those levels because if mine drops there is little room for error. With a drop in my alkalinity levels, it is possible for a large pH swing and ultimately a crash. I am not trying to live on the edge. It seems parameters closer to sea water just kind of makes sense and super high alk and CA may not translate into super high growth rates. I think stability in our tank parameters is the most significant factor of success especially alk. I also like to think that stable alk means stable CA in particular with a Calcium reactor. I understand the science of alk and calcium and calcium reactors to a modest degree but never quite sure it translates directly to ocean conditions because i think there are perhaps many more variables involved.

 

[watchguy123]

Need some pics to break up the dialogue


blurry jason fox lepto

recently fragged purple monster ( a friend asked for a frag)

 

[bknapp]

Great collection and pictures! Your stocking list looks a lot like my want list! That Jason Fox Lepto is amazing. Great work.

 

[kyle1284]

A+ on your SPS keeping skills. was your jedi always that shade? i recently aquired a frag of it and it has turned a light green almost yellow in the center with a purple rim and red polyps. Beautiful tank BTW. Very nice collection!

 

[maharsreef]

Great looking corals bro! Just gotta give the coral you got from Matt at Coral Collection it's due. It's actually called the "Almost Famous Prostrata". It is an amazing coral that I own as well. Peace...

I forgot to include this with my lps, an extraordinary tyree pastel war coral. Just look how pink it is everywhere and the cool red line in the eyes. It is growing like crazy all around this rock.

 

[watchguy123]

Great collection and pictures! Your stocking list looks a lot like my want list! That Jason Fox Lepto is amazing. Great work.

Thanks for the kind words

Here is an updated (February) picture of the if jack o lantern lepto

A+ on your SPS keeping skills. was your jedi always that shade? i recently aquired a frag of it and it has turned a light green almost yellow in the center with a purple rim and red polyps. Beautiful tank BTW. Very nice collection!

Thanks, mine has really stayed the same color basically but grown and grown

Great looking corals bro! Just gotta give the coral you got from Matt at Coral Collection it's due. It's actually called the "Almost Famous Prostrata". It is an amazing coral that I own as well. Peace...

Here are a couple of progression shots. Green growing border, red, and then blue tips but it is ever changing so not sure what it will grow into

 

[buddythelion]

Great growth on the almost famous prostrata! Your picture is the best that I've run across. Keep me in mind if you ever frag it! :bigsmile:

For the blue matrix, how's the growth on it? I just got a similar looking piece.

 

[gws3]

Mark you've got great taste in corals.

 

[watchguy123]

Hey guys, thanks for all the kind words. I just updated my lighting and I am doing some redecorating and rearranging of sps colonies. Now that I have started, I do not recommend it to anyone. All those filled up spaces, and now a bunch of young frags. I trimmed out a handful of colonies to hopefully have them replaced with prettier ones, atleast that is what I hope. Another couple of years and it should look perfect!!

So, tonite I took a bunch of lps pictures. I have a lot of lps for an sps dominant tank. These are not all my lps but to follow are 28 different colonies. I like watermelon chalices and mummy eyes so there are a bunch of different variants, but each picture to follow is of a different and unique colony.

 

[watchguy123]

and a couple more for tonite;

 

[skinz78]

Nice shots! I love the Chalice's and the Lobo!

 

[watchguy123]

a few more to share