BranchingHammer’s sps journey

[BranchingHammer]

First, I'll start with some updated FTSs of the tank. The first 6 or so pages are me figuring out how to keep corals and then real success starts happening.

FTS as of 7/24/2023

Main on 1/1/2023

Clam/acro tank 1/1/23

Full FTS 1/1/23

UPDATED MAIN TANK EQUIPMENT LIST
Marineland 65g corner-flo tank
Trigger systems crystal series sump
HYDROS Control 4
HYDROS AWC System
Reef Octopus 110INT skimmer
Coralbox return pump
2 Reefbreeders RPM Wavemakers
Reefbreeders Photon 24 V2+
Coralbox WiFi dosing pump

UPDATED CUBE TANK EQUIPMENT LIST
25g Rimless Cube Tank
Reefbreeders Photon 16 V2+
Reefbreeders RPM Wavemaker

USUAL PARAMETER VALUES:
Salinity: 1.026 SG
Alkalinity: 7.5-8.0 dkh
Calcium: >420 ppm
Nitrate: < 5 ppm
Phosphate: < 0.05 ppm
Temperature: 77-78 F
Magnesium: ~1350 ppm

UPDATED STOCKING LIST

Fish:
Yellow-eye Kole Tang
Ocellaris Clownfish
Azure Damsel
Lubbock's Fairy Wrasse [coming soon]
Christmas (Red-Lined Wrasse) [coming soon]
McCosker's Wrasse [coming soon]

Inverts:
Blue/green Crocea clam
Orange striped Derasa clam
Serpent Star
Blue-leg hermits
Stomatella snails
Turbo snails
Pin cushion urchins

Acros:
Greg C Acroberry
Unnamed red/yellow/green mariculture
Unnamed green/yellow mariculture
Poletti Yellow Tip
Hawkins echinata
av99 Orange Crush
Forgot name Super Shaggy thing
BC Queen Wasp
BC Nero table
BC Raindrops on Roses
BC Xmas
BC Shaggy Stag
BC Rainbow Table
BC Vectorman
BC Bleeding Tree
BC Red Hot Hat Digit
BC Space Laser
BC Rainbow’s Army

SPS:
Montipora spongodes
Montipora setosa
Sunburst Montipora capricornis
Seasons Greetings Montipora
Purple Milka Stylophora
JF Slow Burn
ROAB Montipora digitata
Bubblegum digitata
BC Rainbow Stylophora
Rainbow Pocillipora damnicornis
Red Montipora capricornis
Green Montipora capricornis

LPS:
Trachyphyllia
Micromussa lordhowensis
Favia sp.
Favites sp.
Green frogspawn
Neon splatter hammer
Orange Fungia
Duncan

Soft corals:
Blue/green Ricordea florida
Purple/neon green Ricordea florida
Blue/purple Ricordea florida
Yellow rainbow Ricordea florida
Photosynthetic gorgonian
Corona zoanthids
Blue/green zoanthids
Orange/green zoanthids
Red Discosoma
Orange Rhodactis


START OF ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS THREAD BEFORE EDITS AS AN ARCHIVE
Hello all,
Some of you may remember that I had an old build thread for this tank. This is the “revamped” version of my reef. I call it this because 1) I reaquascaped the tank and 2) I’ve recently been putting a lot of effort into this tank. Anyways, really excited to document my progress. For those of you wanting sps eye candy, you might have to wait a bit, as I am still transferring the tank to an sps dominant system. Some background information: The tank is three years old, but I’ve had lulls and increases in growth, but nothing ever amounted to anything.

Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025 SG
Alkalinity: around 8.0 dkh
Calcium: 450ppm
Nitrate: 4ppm
Phosphate: <0.01
Temperature: 77-78 F
Magnesium: around 1350ppm

I dose Nitrate and Phosphate and use 2-part for Calcium and alkalinity. I use IO reef crystals for salt, but I am thinking of switching to normal IO.

Equipment:
Trigger systems crystal series sump
Reef Octopus 110INT skimmer
Magdrive return pump
1 Reefbreeders rp-m
Reefbreeders photon 24 V2
Coralbox WiFi dosing pump
Marine land 65g corner-flo tank

Fish:
Yellow eye Kole tang
Six line wrasse
Ocellaris clownfish
Azure damsel

Inverts:
Serpent star
large Derasa clam (I love this clam)
A few turbo snails
Small horseshoe crab
1 Nassarius snail

Corals:
Green/blue zoas
Green sinularia
Large gorgonian
Green duncan
Green Monti cap
Red Monti cap
Grafted Monti cap
Rainbow Monti
Green frogspawn
Marbled hammer
Forest Fire digitata
Green/blue ricordea florida
JF slow burn monti
Green stylo
GSP
Purple rimmed green Monti cap
Acros:
Poseidon tort
Green tort
BC aquaticman table
Red planet
WWC dragon slayer
unknown green/blue wild
RR rainbow loom

Keep reading after this post for better pictures

FTS as of 1/4/2021:

Here are a few phone pics (sorry for the blues):

 

[WIReefer]

Nice tank and corals! Love the scape!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Derasa Clam always looks nice! Duncan has seven baby heads underneath the main head! Took these photos with an aquariclip attached to my phon, so the color isn’t true to what I see, but you get the point. Clam is about 7 inches?

 

[BranchingHammer]

New Reefbreeders RPM coming soon In the mail. Technically, I bought the coral box RN-1, but they’re the same wavemaker. I haven’t had any issues with the actual rpm that I have which is over a year old, so I figured the difference in warranty months was less important than the price discount. Anyways, really excited!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Hi everyone,
I kind of neglected my tank over the summer because I was so invested in my garden (aghh multiple hobbies!), I had some sps recession because I didn't increase my dosing, (my alk was around 5.5 dkh), but for the most part, everything is fine other than the algae. Currently redialing in my protein skimmer to help with the algae, and I slowly raised my alk back up to 8. Anyways, I am looking to fill my tank with acros at the end of this month and this winter. I'm thinking of placing an order for a battlebox at Battlecorals!! So stay tuned on that. Trying to update my thread at least once a week? Maybe every other day? If you have any advice about going hard core acro dominant, pls share it with me!! Additionally, here is a beautiful trachy that I purchased the other day (taken with my phone camera during daylight with adjusted white balance):

 

[BranchingHammer]

“Poseidon” tort I got at a frag swap.

 

[BranchingHammer]

An actinic shot of the trachy:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Dragon slayer acro lost some color during tank neglect, but its coming back. Also, ignore the algae, it's going away

 

[BranchingHammer]

Anyone have any advice as I start to venture farther into the realm of acros?
Here is my duncan, looking happy:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Getting a Battlebox tomorrow from @Battlecorals! I’ll update this thread when I receive them!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Battlebox arrived and everything looks great. I would highly recommend @Battlecorals to anyone. I received:
BC Magic wand
BC pig champion
BC strawberry fields
BC Rainbow melon tenuis
BC mother ship table
Rainbow stylo
BC aquatic man
BC soft sunset
BC blue moon humulis

Here is a picture right after receiving them:

Here are some quick blue pictures from tonight:

 

[KevPool]

That looks amazing man, those colours just pop

 

[BranchingHammer]

Thanks so much! Yeah the new corals are looking great!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Was playing around with my new ice cap smartphone lenses and they are great! The lenses filter out the blue so that the corals look great, but they also don’t filter out too much. My old aquariclip filtered out too much blue and made everything too yellow, but these icecap filters show everything that I actually see with my eye. Unfortunately my old phone camera is pretty blurry. Anyways, here are some actinic shots from my perspective of the new corals:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Some photos that actually look like what I see during the day!!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Here are some update pics:

Green nepthea/sinularia

Remounted red planet that was spread out and covered with algae.

“Poseidon” tort

Beautiful gorgonian

One of my favorites (they’re all my favorites): BC Magic wand

Trachy!!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Some actinic shots:

BC laser melon in the middle is a stunner!

Top down of the Poseidon tort

 

[BranchingHammer]

Mounted a piece of my green monti on the overflow just for fun!

BC Aquatic man, one of my favorite acros!!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Unfortunately had a bit of an alk spike a few days ago when I did a water change. The flesh on the base of the "fly me to the blue moon" receded a bit, but I think it will be okay. I guess I have to do smaller water changes with IO salt or switch salts entirely. Also, my mag was really low (1050ppm) so that explains why I have to dose so much calcium recently for no change. I am slowly dosing magnesium because nothing good happens fast.

 

[RedReefer]

Are you dosing Kalk, 2 part, or both?