Bubba's SPS Journey

[Pdash]

Where’s Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison?

You mean Frodo, Gandalf, and Sauron?

 

[SeaDweller]

You mean Frodo, Gandalf, and Sauron?

touche, didn't think about them!

 

[bubbaque]

Day 4 of the sulfur denitrator running and it’s producing no3 free water. I’ll bring my no3 down to 1-2 ppm and try and hold it there.

denitrator effluent

 

[SeaDweller]

Day 4 of the sulfur denitrator running and it’s producing no3 free water. I’ll bring my no3 down to 1-2 ppm and try and hold it there.

denitrator effluent

Bubba don’t lie, that’s RODI water!

 

[panic]

Why do you want to get rid of all your nitrates Bubba?

 

[TX_Punisher]

I just lowered mine to 5 from over 30. Colors are already improving.

 

[SeaDweller]

Why do you want to get rid of all your nitrates Bubba?

New year, new Bubba

 

[bubbaque]

Why do you want to get rid of all your nitrates Bubba?

To put it simple. I want to see if I get slightly better color.

I didn’t have coral issues when nitrate was 50 and phosphate was .22 but corals were slightly darker than what I like

My old tank ran low PO4 and no3 and I thought my colors were great. I want to see if it happens again if I get close to those numbers again.

 

[Reefanatik]

I am happy with my two months growth on the BC Space laser.

BC Space laser by Bubba Rivas, on Flickr


BC Space laser 12-26 by Bubba Rivas, on Flickr

Wow, that's amazing growth. I don't think I get growth like that in a year. I think I need to start posting my parameters and tank info to try and get help cause it seems like I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Da8]

Careful when reducing nitrates if you don't proportionally do the same with phosphates.


I loved the color of your acros. Never thought of changing anything. But you know what you are doing for sure.


Happy new year Bubba!

 

[Fishfinder]

More pictures!

 

[bubbaque]

More pictures!

I am right on it! haha.

This has turned into one of my favorite corals as it matures into a colony. When it's small you don't get many of the two toned polyps but as it grows it gets them and starts to look stunning.

RMF Red Devil
RMF Red devil 12-30 by Bubba Rivas, on Flickr

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I joined the BC growout contest and to possibly get a growth advantage I started to feed a ton of reef roids. My tank usually runs pretty low nutrients no matter how much I feed. Well turns out there is a huge difference in my homemade frozen food compared to reef roids. My po4 went up from .01 to .2 in a couple weeks. When I did the phosphate test I almost fainted, lol.

Color disappeared on a several acros and growth tips gone on a few others. Before my phosphates shot up I would of said color and growth couldn’t have gotten any better.

Wether it’s the quick rise of phosphates or the actual number I don’t know but I’m not going to leave my phosphates high to find out. I increased my chaeto light to help but it wasn’t helping as much as I would of liked. I started running gfo a few days ago to help.

Looks like I may have figured out what happened to my own tank, two months back. Everything was growing nicely with good colors and good PE. I decided my nutrients should come up in a attempt to rev up my growth. I started dosing pellets and reef roids several times a day whether or not the fish were hungry (they would eventually reject it). I also ordered the wrong hanna phosphate regent. I kept getting erratic phosphate reads, always low, so I kept up my feeding frenzy.

Two weeks in, I notice some weird looking algae showing up in my relatively clean tank. Later, I see my corals begin to fade on me. PE started to suffer and corals were looking “sick“. I ordered an ICP test and found that phosphate was 0.22ppm when I thought it was something like 0.04ppm.

STN and my tank becoming completely covered in this mysterious algae eventually took out several of my corals. Now that I stopped all pellets and reef roids, my phosphate is at 0.06ppm and my remaining corals have done a reversal. They went from grey to bright green and PE peaking out. Mystery algae is also on the decline.

I think that it’s the phosphate spike rather than than the phosphate level that can be deadly.

 

[nbd13]

How high above the water do you run your radions.

Thanks

 

[tripdad]

I am right on it! haha.

This has turned into one of my favorite corals as it matures into a colony. When it's small you don't get many of the two toned polyps but as it grows it gets them and starts to look stunning.

How do you even pick a favorite at this point? You have so many outstanding pieces that I would find it almost impossible to pick one. You truly have an amazing group of corals!

 

[bubbaque]

How high above the water do you run your radions.

Thanks

17”

How do you even pick a favorite at this point? You have so many outstanding pieces that I would find it almost impossible to pick one. You truly have an amazing group of corals!

It is tough for sure. As another coral grows out I always start to think it’s my new favorite. When I upgraded I got rid of a lot of stuff that was just mediocre so now it’s all stuff I really like.

 

[nbd13]

Thanks, do you know what your PAR is roughly, say high, medium and low in your tank?

 

[bubbaque]

Thanks, do you know what your PAR is roughly, say high, medium and low in your tank?

I did some par measurements a month or so ago but I don’t remember exactly. I think high was 425 and the low was 250. 80% of my corals were in 375 par.

 

[nbd13]

I did some par measurements a month or so ago but I don’t remember exactly. I think high was 425 and the low was 250. 80% of my corals were in 375 par.

Thanks. If I remember correctly that’s with no diffusers right? I have my radions mounted 16” above the water and only get 380ish at the top of my rock which is 8” below the surface. Seems low to me with 3 radions over a 5’x2’x2’ tank.

 

[justingraham]

Thanks. If I remember correctly that’s with no diffusers right? I have my radions mounted 16” above the water and only get 380ish at the top of my rock which is 8” below the surface. Seems low to me with 3 radions over a 5’x2’x2’ tank.

I think that’s about right
if I had that tank I would have 8 15s with t5 supplements to get the par I have which is on par with bubbas par