8g SPS Nano tank

[lbacha]

Well it was a good weekend at the WWC live sale. I think the tank will be filling in nicely with these new additions

WWC Cherry Tree Monti

WWC Dragon Slayer Acro

Mint Stylophora

Neon Astreopora

 

[lbacha]

ORA Pearlberry Acro

Superman Monti

Twiggy Tricolor Acro

Yellow Tips Austera Acro (I don't have a pic of the actual frag)

 

[FredsNJReef]

I normally hate clowns, and I still do; but those black dominos look like killer whales with their 2 eye spots!!

that's exactly what I thought! little killer whales lol!

 

[FredsNJReef]

The light fixture looks great.
And I love that Pearlberry Acro!

 

[lbacha]

The light fixture looks great.
And I love that Pearlberry Acro!

Thanks, I've heard they can be temperamental but I wanted some blue and it somehow jumped in my cart. My other acros have great polyp extension and are coloring up nicely so fingers crossed

 

[hart24601]

Wow, this is a serious nano! Can't wait to see it progress.

 

[lbacha]

Wow, this is a serious nano! Can't wait to see it progress.

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the small tank and the challenges of keeping parameters stable in such a small space. The double refugium setup (cheato + Xenia) is a huge help in this as it makes nutrients a limiting factor where I spend more effort trying to keep them up than keep them down which is not an issue in my eyes.

 

[hart24601]

I totally agree, I have had more fun with my pico tank than I had in ages with the hobby. I even got rid of my 120 (well converted to FW) and sold a 60 cube and love my 4g pico, haha!

I don't keep any fish in mine, that would make it much harder and it's a good call on the fuges! That WWC order is going to be amazing when growing out.

 

[lbacha]

I totally agree, I have had more fun with my pico tank than I had in ages with the hobby. I even got rid of my 120 (well converted to FW) and sold a 60 cube and love my 4g pico, haha!

I don't keep any fish in mine, that would make it much harder and it's a good call on the fuges! That WWC order is going to be amazing when growing out.

I'm not a fish fan either, I did add a yellowtail damsel to the main tank since my fiancé loves blue and he pretty much gets to chow down on the larger reef chili chunks when I feed the coral. I also added 2 clowns to the fuge since my fiancé wanted a pair (and she fell in love with the ORA domino's) I though feeding them would have pushed my nutrients up but still nothing other than PO4 sometimes gets to .02-.03 now.

 

[lbacha]

Well testing done for the night in less than 5 min. Hanna checkers are amazing.

Well I had one of my new acro's RTN 2 days ago. It was fine when I went to bed and when I woke up half of its flesh was gone. It's been 2 days and no additional tissue loss so it may be savable.

This was one of 4 acro frags all sitting next to each other in the frag rack and the others are fine. Mind boggling how quickly this happens.

 

[lbacha]

Got my WWC order today

 

[lbacha]

3 months and 3 weeks

Switched to esv b-ionic. I've used it in the past and I like the balanced concept better than red seas unbalanced foundation series.

I'm starting to see dots of corraline algae all over the tank and my mp10's are completely covered so things are maturing nicely.

The original monti undata I got has doubled in size over the past 2.5 months and my acros and other corals are growing as well.

 

[TonyNguyen]

That is a pretty deck out nano! Makes mines looks like a freshwater tank...lol

Keep it up dude!

 

[lbacha]

That is a pretty deck out nano! Makes mines looks like a freshwater tank...lol

Keep it up dude!

Thanks

I have a tendency to go overboard on these things lol.
I have a crazy freshwater tank and vivarium as well.

 

[lbacha]

So my phosphates have been a little high lately (.13 with a Hanna checker) since my clowns are eating more and as a result my fiancé and me are feeding them more.

My nitrates are undetectable as I'm sure my cheato is using them up quickly with the excess Phosphate in the water.

My question for the group is do you prefer using GFO to reduce the PO4 or dose nitrates to balance the nutrients and let the cheato and coral do their job.

I dosed nitrates up to about 10ppm last night and in one night of the fuge running my PO4 was down to .07 this morning.

I'm sure dosing nitrates will reduce the PO4 but it will be a balancing act and it will go up and down if I stop dosing for any reason. With GFO it will be a continuous PO4 sink so it will absorb it all the time until it needs replaced.

Just interested in how other reefers deal with this and what you all think about the two options I mentioned

Here is a shot of the tank from yesterday

Thanks Len

 

[lbacha]

Some updated tank shots after I mounted a bunch of my WWC frags

 

[lbacha]

Evening shot

 

[lbacha]

KNO3 "nitrate" dosing is now automated

 

[lbacha]

Just added KH2PO4 dosing to the other side of my DOS

 

[lbacha]

Well I went overboard again. Orphek Atlantik v4 and gateway on its way thanks to 10x pts from BRS.