BranchingHammer’s sps journey

Perry

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Hey there,
I believe it will always be a challenge to not have a couple acros that are stubborn, go dormant, tn, etc. I have a few that are not happy right now either, while the other 90% are doing great. I use t5's, albeit, my issues I have tracked down to my supplemental lights, sb reefbar blue, burning corals. The effected ones all in same path as the led diodes. I cut the % down to 60% from 100%, this happened twice now lowering t5 unit, while not accounting for leds. I did a normal water change, and am running a little carbon low flow. It's halted, but damage done. When in doubt keep it simple and basic. Don't go and make a bunch of changes on account of described scenario. It happens to nearly all sps keepers. I personally use kz Flatworm Stop and Coral Booster together when things look off on the daily, otherwise I use 1/2 as directed, seems to help with coral health and recovery. Not advocating, just my program. Hope it all works its way out for you!
Cheers :)
 
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BranchingHammer

BranchingHammer

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Thanks so much Perry! It's good to know that others are also having some similar issues. This part of the hobby is I guess a bit frustrating. I knew that if there was one person who could talk about a recovering tank and corals, it was you. Your comeback with your SPS tank is truly inspiring. I love your "phoenix" coral, hope to maybe get it one day. :)
 

Perry

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Thanks so much Perry! It's good to know that others are also having some similar issues. This part of the hobby is I guess a bit frustrating. I knew that if there was one person who could talk about a recovering tank and corals, it was you. Your comeback with your SPS tank is truly inspiring. I love your "phoenix" coral, hope to maybe get it one day. :)

Thank you kindly!
It's been a journey to say the least. I just broke hair algae for first time since adding sps to the tank. I didn't use any treatments and continued my program, knowing eventually the war with corals would dictate a winner. Now, on to bubble algae, lol. It too will ultimately get starved out, patience prevails. My point is less intervention, more observation and patiece. Stick to yoyr routine, and let the tank work :)
 
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Thanks for the awesome advice. I guess after reflecting for a bit, I am pretty proud of myself for the success that I have had up to this point. I agree with you, I try not to make it complicated. I just need someone to remind of patience sometimes. :)
 
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Just commenting to say looking good appreciate the updates good and bad. Always nice when people share their tank and provide updates.
Thanks for the kind words. I try to show the true nature of my tank and not just the corals that are thriving. I’ll try to post another picture update tonight or tomorrow. :)
 
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Some actinic pictures that I took tonight:

Montipora setosa: this one glows so much it casts its own reflection on the rock overhang above it.
4798883D-65DF-41F4-8D31-68E64FCEAD73.jpeg

JF slow burn pulling some colors
32FBA46E-E9EC-4451-ABC5-CED9E8B811A1.jpeg


Frogspawn
1E7F9EB7-6DB7-4B49-9230-08C0A7CD57D2.jpeg


Vivid’s rainbow delight starting to become less brown!
20C0FD33-AC29-43C7-B4E4-BBE8DFF62401.jpeg


Here is the Pig Champion that has been giving me some trouble :(
A82DB588-E833-43F5-89EC-0C8C4052ABD2.jpeg


This “poseidon tort” has grown exceptionally
804A5337-D62A-41F6-96E9-F36A28418409.jpeg


Beautiful Aquatic man
D9CC0013-3B62-4F84-9E27-D658260B9389.jpeg
B4F3A3C5-BC5D-4361-8E68-CDBE9B41C6DF.jpeg


Jurnee’s unicorn-center of pic
6ABB61EF-A608-401D-A16C-C28362726490.jpeg


RRC Pink Cadillac
FF24DD86-1C59-4324-B6C1-26A712D41AF7.jpeg


BC “mutha ship” table. Absolutely glowing!!!
21230F14-3D19-437D-A13F-F6B9082BA296.jpeg


I hope you guys enjoyed the pics!
 

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Hey there,
I believe it will always be a challenge to not have a couple acros that are stubborn, go dormant, tn, etc. I have a few that are not happy right now either, while the other 90% are doing great. I use t5's, albeit, my issues I have tracked down to my supplemental lights, sb reefbar blue, burning corals. The effected ones all in same path as the led diodes. I cut the % down to 60% from 100%, this happened twice now lowering t5 unit, while not accounting for leds. I did a normal water change, and am running a little carbon low flow. It's halted, but damage done. When in doubt keep it simple and basic. Don't go and make a bunch of changes on account of described scenario. It happens to nearly all sps keepers. I personally use kz Flatworm Stop and Coral Booster together when things look off on the daily, otherwise I use 1/2 as directed, seems to help with coral health and recovery. Not advocating, just my program. Hope it all works its way out for you!
Cheers :)
What he said.

There are too many variables for every coral to be happy all the time. After 20+ years I still have a constant series of individual Acropora or species that are cranky, looking off, or dying at any one point in time. Lately I've gotten ambitious to try to chase down the little factors that could be affecting them, but most of the time I just let it go...sometimes they turn around and bounce back, sometimes they free up space for something new. With some really valuable finicky corals that I like I've started multiple colonies in the system in various spots. Same water, virtually the same light and flow and sometimes still one will thrive while the other dies.

Spathulata, millepora, and certain tenuis are right up there with the most frustrating corals for my system. Sometimes they do great, sometimes not. Dont sweat it and enjoy the things that do well for you.
 
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BranchingHammer

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What he said.

There are too many variables for every coral to be happy all the time. After 20+ years I still have a constant series of individual Acropora or species that are cranky, looking off, or dying at any one point in time. Lately I've gotten ambitious to try to chase down the little factors that could be affecting them, but most of the time I just let it go...sometimes they turn around and bounce back, sometimes they free up space for something new. With some really valuable finicky corals that I like I've started multiple colonies in the system in various spots. Same water, virtually the same light and flow and sometimes still one will thrive while the other dies.

Spathulata, millepora, and certain tenuis are right up there with the most frustrating corals for my system. Sometimes they do great, sometimes not. Dont sweat it and enjoy the things that do well for you.
Thanks so much for the advice, Tim. It's great to hear some reassurance from a veteran SPS keeper. I try to focus on the positives in my tank everyday, and I celebrate the little wins like encrustment of an acro, or nice PE on a certain day. I will be sure to just keep my routine the way it is.

Thanks so much @ShepherdReefer!

I am slightly saddened that my Battlebox will be one of my last (if not my last) SPS orders for this tank. I have run out of room in the SPS real estate department. Luckily, I started up a new grow out tank just for this circumstance, and when it's ready, let the spending begin!
 
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BranchingHammer

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Just did a small 2g water change on the tank. I’ll continue to do small ones slowly so as to not change up the tank too much.
 
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Here is my current daily routine for those watching and for my own records:

Feed Nori sheet soaked in selcon in the morning/noon
Auto feeder feeds PE pellets 2x a day, morning and evening
Add two pipettes full of AcroPower
Add selcon-soaked frozen cube (mysis or homemade)
Feed two scoops of reef chili (at night or early morning)
Turn chaeto (if I remember)
 
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Hey @drawman, thanks for checking out my tank. I love the blue moon as well. It’s starting to sprout some branches at the base as it encrusts. It’s in a really hard to photograph spot in the tank, but here are some photos I just took:
4AFF31BE-F6F6-4EDB-916A-9B42E60FF3D5.jpeg

57035064-66D4-43C7-B1EF-EF8D929787F5.jpeg


And here are some other shots:

RRC Pink Cadillac. I like the yellow so far, but we’ll see what happens in the future coloring-wise.
4D9582EF-F931-4F07-89A1-B6E1690F61A8.jpeg


Poseidon tort shooting some branches:
CBDAD36D-D9E5-47D2-87D3-F15000E634D1.jpeg


FTS:
00010295-9595-41B6-A92A-E1C2834E065B.jpeg
 
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BranchingHammer

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The brightest orange acro in my tank right now:
BC soft sunset millepora:
8A0B77BE-D19C-4319-BAAC-2C70F88906BA.jpeg


And the vivids rainbow delight behind it is starting to gain some new colors as well:
A2783044-2374-4CEB-9D68-4E7B15215117.jpeg


I am going to raise the lights with mounting brackets even further this weekend, as I feel that I may be blasting the corals a bit too much with a peak of 80% on the three blue channels on the V2.
 
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I wasn't watching alk as closely this week, and now it's at 8.5. I bet I'll see some damage down the road as I let it settle back down to 7.5. A bit frustrated with myself right now, but that's life I guess...
 
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So everything seems to be okay from the alk mishap, but I’m still keeping a close eye on everything and trying to make things as stable as possible. I am also thinking of growing my own phytoplankton to feed to the tank. I think that it might help my display so we’ll see. I was planning on culturing tetra and nanno phytoplankton. Anyone have any suggestions as to which species would be the most beneficial to the tank? I want to eventually culture multiple species at once.
 

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