BranchingHammer’s sps journey

[BranchingHammer]

FTS with updated aquascape/mounted corals:

You can very clearly see the shadow caused by the center brace on this tank, anyone have any ideas on how to reduce it? I’m thinking of maybe getting a aquatic life t5 hybrid to reduce shadowing as well.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Current tank parameters:
Salinity: 36ppt/ or 1.028 SG?
Alk: 8.3 dkh
Calcium: around 400 ppm
Mag: around 1900, used an older test kit and tested with new one to find out this lol, maybe I should try another test.
Nutrients: Probably low but I'm doing heavy input/output and corals look great.
Temp: 77 to 78°F
pH: last few times I've tested it was 8.3, I attribute this to my new refugium

 

[BranchingHammer]

BC aquatic man looks amazing at night or day:

 

[BranchingHammer]

A nice pic of BC magic wand tenuis under daylight that I thought I would share:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Alk holding steady at 8.0-8.3
Calcium at 415
Still running hypersalinity (1.028) an things look fine. Happened as an accident, but I guess I'm keeping it like this for now.
One of my favorite pieces, BC rainbow-melon tenuis is not looking too hot, started going white, I can see the skeleton, only a few polyps left. Everything else looks amazing

 

[BranchingHammer]

Just speculating but the decline of the rainbow melon tenuis might have been from nearby hydrogen peroxide targeted treatment of algae. Needless to say, I'll just let the hermits do their work with no chemicals helping them going forward.

Anyways, on a brighter note, my new grow out tank already has coralline algae spots in it after only a month!! All I did was place a coralline covered rock in the system, and it worked. I also seeded it with ARC coralline in a bottle, which is kind of unnecessary at this point but should help in the long run I guess. I wanted to give the coralline algae a head start to outcompete the other nasty algae so the tank will look prettier long term. The snails in the tank are keeping other algae at bay while the coralline thrives.

Also BC Fly me to the Blue moon Humulis:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Here is a dirty secret to only share on my build thread:
I started this tank with tap water (first few months), then moved to RO water (Half a year), and then finally to RODI for two years since. I still can't believe that I did that! I also started with some rock which was not specifically meant for saltwater. I removed that this year, and since, everything looks great. Just remembering my humble beginnings and kicking myself for them lol. I started my new grow out system correctly, and the health of the biome in it definitely shows it.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Update on the clownfish: Treated him with 2 rounds of API general cure to get rid of the worms and possible flukes. He was still pooping out white stringy feces, so I moved him to the new grow out tank to observe him in case I have to treat him again. It would be so much easier for me to net him in the grow out tank vs the display tank bc of the corals and rock work. Here are some pictures of him in the grow out tank:

Here is the coralline algae that I was talking about in the grow out tank:

And here are some random pictures of the reef:
Gold maul zoas?

Green sinularia/nepthea

Duncan

 

[BranchingHammer]

Happy to see my BC Aquatic man table encrusting on the rocks. The growth edge has become that amazing blue/cyan color!

I did a 6 gallon water change yesterday so as to not create an alk swing (instant ocean salt mixes to 10dkh. I'll probably do another this weekend or next week.

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow so stay tuned!

 

[BranchingHammer]

Some pictures with my new iPhone 12 Pro:

 

[BranchingHammer]

A clam pic with the 12 pro, not expert, but working on it.

 

[BranchingHammer]

FTS:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Check out the swirls on my JF slow burn monti:

 

[BranchingHammer]

Having a little trouble with the BC pig champion. It is STNing at the base slowly but surely. I think it was a small alk swing because I changed the water with instant ocean which mixes to 10-11dkh. My tank is at around 8, so a smallish swing. The alkalinity is back to 8, but I’m wondering if this swing caused it? My other corals look fine, so I’m a bit confused. I added some poly filter and carbon just in case. Also, I started feeding more because the clownfish is in the frag tank, so maybe that will help. I started target ”feeding” the pig champion with brightwell coral-amino as well. Also, I just recalibrated by COM-100 tds meter which should tell me if my RODI is ok or exhausted. Hopefully, with all of these methods combined, I will be able to fix this?

Anyone have any thoughts on how to reverse this? It is only STNing at the base where it gets no light.

Also, how fast does peoples’ DI resin exhaust for them. I just replaced mine last month, and I may need to replace mine again.

 

[BranchingHammer]

A top down to hopefully get some attention for the questions above:

 

[BranchingHammer]

I'm loving tank recently (other than the pig champion and rainbow-melon tenuis not doing well). On some of my acros, I can see daily growth, which is really exciting. Also, none of my acros have really colored-down at all, everything at this point is just coloring up and encrusting. I am thinking of getting another battlebox from @Battlecorals in the spring or fall this year to fill in the last few spots at the top of the tank. I'm also looking for some stuff like cool mushrooms to fill the bottom half of the tank. I'm thinking of getting some more clams as well in my grow out tank.

Okay, one last thing: My coralline algae is less vibrant looking than other tanks that I see. In addition, it doesn't coat things very well. It only puts spots/thin layers down, and not thick crusts like I see in other people's tanks. It grows amazingly in my sump, but it's still a thin layer made of spots. Are there any tricks to make it grow better?

 

[BranchingHammer]

The BC pig champion continues to STN, albeit slowly, from the base up. I don’t want to destroy the rest of the tank just trying to save it, so I am keeping with the routine that worked with it earlier. The other corals are growing well. Here are some pics from tonight’s blues:

Corona zoanthids

WWC Cherry tree monti

 

[BranchingHammer]

I put the clownfish back into the main tank yesterday. He still has stringy white poop, but I don't want to put him through another round of general cure. I also read that clowns sometimes just have white stringy poop. Anyways, there was some aggression from the tang and the damsel at first, but he has settled in nicely now. I was really surprised that there was no aggression from the wrasse, but I guess that they have been tankmates the longest so maybe he remembers the clownish?

I ran out of brightwell coral-amino, so I am back to using TLF acropower. I'll let you know if there are any serious results. In addition, I bought some Seachem acid-buffer to lower the pH of my water change water from 11 to 7.8. It is working so far, and I'm currently off gassing the CO2. I didn't want to deal with the hazard of concentrated HCL, and I saw that @Randy Holmes-Farley also recommended the acid buffer. I am also thinking of getting a battlebox later today from @Battlecorals during the Superb Owl sale. Honestly though, the battleboxes themselves are sales anyways, so they are great to buy anytime.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Just ordered my Battlebox! Thanks Adam!

 

[BranchingHammer]

I just moved my photon higher above the water to 11in for more spread. Once I put in the shelving brackets, I will be able to go a little higher as well. I was seeing what I think is some burning from the lights on a few of the acros in the tank, so maybe this will help. I think I may have been giving just a bit too much light, as I have no access to a par meter.

One more thing: I am terrified to change anything in the system, even do water changes, because for the most part everything is doing well, but I still have some issues. I bought the acid buffer so that my water changes would not swing my alk, so I think I may start to do small, frequent water changes to get rid of any contaminants and to replenish trace elements. I will continue to feed heavily as well. If anyone has any suggestions, please chime in. I know that everyone has different systems, but I guess I need some tips for success to help me along. I'm thinking of switching salts to red sea blue bucket as it more closely matches my parameters. I also need to get more fish in the tank as well for the acros in order to have a more self-sustaining system.

I don't really know what the tank is doing. The majority of acros are growing fine, but I have two that don't like me, and one that RTN'd. The rainbow-melon tenuis got bleached by too much light, and has been down to only a few polyps which have started to fade away. The Pig champion continues to STN on the underside, and my sunset mille RTN'd overnight. But then at the same time, my Aquatic man is encrusting like crazy, and other acros are encrusting and shooting branches as well.

I think it would be helpful to have a bit of an SPS-expert peanut gallery to help and encourage me, so I am going to tag some people who I know can keep acros well to see if they might be able to help. Feel free to ask me any questions about my setup so that you can help me along. Thanks!

@FarmerTy
@SawCJack00
@Perry
@coral reeftank
@therman
@Charlie's Frags