45g TankMe USA and Battlecorals SPS Build

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Urchin cruising around wearing strombus eggs that got cleaned off the glass

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I am following your progress with your new tank ,, and I will say I am no expert ,, but have been in the hobby for a long time ,, so keep that in mind with what I am fixing to say here :)

Everything in this hobby is a give and take ,, you want this ,, that rules out having that ,, you want to have a predominantly SPS tank ,, that comes at a cost ,, to some extent ,, when you have a aquarium on the smallish size ,, that comes at a even greater cost ,,

I have a friend or two that have predominantly SPS systems ,, 100g or less ,,, tanks are filled with fish ,, the one thing they are always telling me is that ,, their Nitrate or phosphates numbers are always high ,, their SPS corals are growing really slow ,, and that they need to get those numbers down ,, its a battle they are always fighting ,, the lower your fish count ,, the happier you will be :)

When it comes to adding fish to your system ,, fist add fish that will serve a purpous in you tank ,, with the size of your tank ,, maybe a rock Blenny ,, maybe a sand sifter ,, I said maybe on that one :) if you want to have fish that serve no purpous when it comes to the well being of your tank ,, I call them looker fish :) the clowns fit that bill ,,,

Damsels would never make it onto my want to get list ,, for the most part ,, they should be outlawed from the hobby :) seems everything I read about them ,, other than clown fish ,, reefers are happiest the day after they get them removed from their tanks lol

Anyway ,, you see where I am going with this :) just be careful with your fish count and pick wisely :)
 
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Thank you for your input, but the list on the previous page is the fish already in the tank :). The captive bred damsels haven't shown any aggression (maybe yet? lol), all the fish have been very peaceful with only the Mollie Miller occasionally chasing another fish.

Anyone kept Radial Filefish? I found a few posts where they were recently added to a tank, but nothing with long term results.

Added ceriths from Algae Barn, all the spots in the picture are coralline growing.

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The file fish are cool and I've never had one, but could be polyp nippers? Been keeping up w/ this thread from the beginning. Is the car out from under the cover yet to clean out the pipes?

Supposedly the radials are least likely to eat coral but there's not a lot of first hand experience out there...
The winters around here can be 35* one day and 65* the next, only the lawn mower gets put away until spring!
 
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No real updates, just cruising along. Had cyano show up, Chemiclean knocked it out. Waiting for the corals to encrust to the rock before I order more.
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The dog pictured earlier in the thread got bit in the paw a few years ago. There was damage to a toe, vet finally took it off :(
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Upscales is developing really nice colors

Some kind of tiny fan worms are growing all under the rocks and on some of the snails
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The fuge is really entertaining to watch, I tried to add some diversity since I started with dry rock. Lots of critters in this picture - baby snails, pods, spaghetti worms, macros, etc.
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The better half gave me two ATI ICP tests over the holidays, I did one back in January so I figured it was time for the second. I also had a Triton ICP test that I got as a reward when I bought my Alkatronic from SaltwaterAquarium.com. I wanted to compare the two services, results below are with samples taken and sent at the same time.

01/08/19/share/9880756fd151a824dd1a
https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/9880756fd151a824dd1a
High aluminum, 20 or so MarinePure 2x2 blocks in the sump

05/28/19
https://lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/10c11aedc8c1af744273 I don't recall the exact date I removed the MarinePure and replaced it with dry rock, but Al has gone from 57.56 µg/l to 7.06 µg/l
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/75950/
 
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We (2 adults + 2 kids) took a short vacation this weekend to go watch the Tigers, the games went as expected :( The Georgia Aquarium is always worth a visit and the Fernbank Museum was fun.

My pH ranges from 7.7 - 8 over a usual day. While the house was empty the pH was 8 - 8.2. Hooray for the Alkatronic, I got the alerts that Alk was falling so I was able to adjust my doser remotely.
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I ordered a 6 piece BattleBox over the Memorial Day sale, here's what showed up! Pic is from about 2 hrs in the tank.
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Left to right, back row - Brad's Insane Defuego, Fox Flame, GARF Bansai, Durban
Front row - Indigo Velvet, Rainbows in Spain, Adam Bomb!, Rainbow Stylo
 
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I really like Focustronics products, the Alkatronic keeps on trucking, and the Dosetronic was easy to setup. SDA is a really neat feature where it adjusts the dosing pumps based on Alk reading. Dosing times are staggered 5 minutes apart automatically, value in () is originally scheduled amount, other value is amount Dosetronic adjusted it to.
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Old phone finally bit the dust, upside is pictures should improve :)
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