Bubba's SPS Journey

[bubbaque]

Bubbaque, in an earlier post you said your nutrients were close to zero/zero and you don't add any supplements. What do you feed your beautiful acros? If my nutrients get anywhere close to zero/zero, some of my acros will start to stn (under both T-5s and leds).

I was feeding a ton of frozen (6-8 cubes a day in my 240 gls total) plus pellets two other times through the day. I would notice though on about 25% of my sps when I would feed they would put out feeder like tentacles, as they seemed hungry.

I was lighting my chaeto 24/7 and it grew crazy so I always just figured my sps was getting enough nutrients. I got tired of dealing with the chaeto and cleaning the glass in my refugium so I just one day threw it away. My po4 on the Hanna phosphorous checker would read 0 and no3 would be low, so I figured it was a perfect time to see what would happen with raising the nutrients.

It's been about 3 weeks to a month since I threw the chaeto away and my po4 this morning was .05 and no3 was somewhere between 10-25 on salifert but it was hard for me to tell what it was.

I feel my sps has never looked better since letting nutrients rise. Back on post #38 you see the red/pink milli and the polyp extension looks okay. Since I raised nutrients it has turned extremely shaggy to where you can't even see the body (I'll take a pic tomorrow). Also, I never get the feeder tentacles anymore when I feed.

Since my nutrients was rising so much, so fast I did decide to add chaeto again but will not let nutrients bottom out again after seeing such positive results with them higher.

As I don't dose any aminos or trace elements but I did add phytofeast for about a week after I removed the chaeto to bump po4 up.

 

[thirst]

Awesome looking sps man!!

 

[bubbaque]

How do you clean cheato?

I just meant I was tired of dealing with it. I didn't like having to throw some away, shake out the detritus. I also had a pump in with the chaeto to tumble it and pieces would break off and clog the pump.

 

[bubbaque]

This looks right for a young example of the Wet Thumbs version of TDF.

Ah I stand corrected then.

I received that frag in a pack of 28 frags from "the coral kings". The name for it just said TDF, so I always just assumed it meant Tierra del Fuego. Other than that I have no idea what it is.

 

[bubbaque]

Here is the milli I was talking about with the increased polyps since raising nutrients. I posted the original pic 1 month ago and the bottom pic I just took today.

Original pic

And the milli since increased nutrients. Pic taken today.

 

[myzislow]

Awesome stuff man, you have great taste!

 

[bubbaque]

Palmers Blue Milli

 

[bubbaque]

I am pretty excited about this one. This is the Matt V Psycho Asylum I received from @Reefnjunkie this morning.

 

[rage1199]

Blue with red polyps I believe

It all depends on the type of light you give it and how much. I run Radions.

 

[Rakie]

@bubbaque been wondering when I'd stumble upon your build thread! Everything is looking good, glad you're seeing improvements with raised nutrient levels.

 

[bubbaque]

I figured I would do an update to a few of the corals.

SC OP

TSA Princess Peach

Pink Caddy

BC Secale

PC Rainbow

 

[bubbaque]

ARC Patrick Star. I reached out to Dan from "The Coral Kings", he helps with ARC and he told me I might be the only one left with this coral, as he lost his colony unfortunately.

Vivids Confetti

Maleficent

 

[Wrangy]

Gorgeous mate! Some stunning colours and pieces!

 

[bwoodward0012]

Great looking corals. Interested to see how your maleficent turns out. I have a piece I bought from another person who purchased it directly from CB (he sent me a screen shot of the purchase and original WYSIWYG frag photo) and it doesn’t really look like I expected it to, as in the red isn’t as deep. Could be because I’m used to seeing the reef raft version around which seems to be a completely different coral. Here’s mine currently under 1st gen radions running a slightly modified ab+ schedule taken with an iPhone 6s during a water change, so it’s not quite accurate as to what the color looks like in person.

 

[bubbaque]

Great looking corals. Interested to see how your maleficent turns out. I have a piece I bought from another person who purchased it directly from CB (he sent me a screen shot of the purchase and original WYSIWYG frag photo) and it doesn’t really look like I expected it to, as in the red isn’t as deep. Could be because I’m used to seeing the reef raft version around which seems to be a completely different coral. Here’s mine currently under 1st gen radions running a slightly modified ab+ schedule taken with an iPhone 6s during a water change, so it’s not quite accurate as to what the color looks like in person.

From the pic it doesn't look as red as it should be but that could be the way the pic shows it. I was just at top shelf aquatics a couple of days ago and we were talking about how we think the maleficent might be the nicest red out there.

I have probably 100 different acros and the maleficent is easily top 3. The top down shot on the first page has that nub sticking out the side. The nub is probably 1/2" now, so hopefully it starts looking less like a frag.

 

[bwoodward0012]

From the pic it doesn't look as red as it should be but that could be the way the pic shows it. I was just at top shelf aquatics a couple of days ago and we were talking about how we think the maleficent might be the nicest red out there.

I have probably 100 different acros and the maleficent is easily top 3. The top down shot on the first page has that nub sticking out the side. The nub is probably 1/2" now, so hopefully it starts looking less like a frag.

Mine started out as a 1/2” nub with a tiny bit of encrusting and it originally had some of that deep red, but it turned completely green and proceeded to just completely encrust the disc for 6 months or more before it finally found its groove and started shooting off branchesin the past 4-5 months. It sits at the very top directly under a puck getting blasted with light and seems to get more red that way. I also had a nice chunk of CB wet dreams that was my favorite piece, but it RTNed and died almost over night.

Really I’m looking forward to seeing the growth pattern of your maleficent, since different lighting and nutrient levels can make a huge difference in color.

 

[bubbaque]

TKC Balrog. This thing seems to be true yellow.

Purple Haze

Confetti Top down

 

[29bonsaireef]

Do you happen to know what par range you are keeping that TKC Balrog in?

 

[bubbaque]

Do you happen to know what par range you are keeping that TKC Balrog in?

Unfortunately I do not. It is about 12" down in the water and my t5's are 11" off the water. I do plan to buy a par meter in the near future, so maybe then I can tell you exactly what it is.

The balrog is about a 45 degree angle away from the light and you can see near the bottom part of it is green. That is the side away from the light. I am also getting better polyp extension on the underside, so maybe it's getting to much light.

 

[UWC]

Your corals look great