Crunchy Banana’s IM SR-60

[CrunchyBananas]

Howdy! I’m making a thread mostly to track progress as a tank journal, and to practice coral photography. The goal for this tank is to be packed with acropora mini colonies, a sort of acropora bonsai tank. Please feel free to drop any questions or suggestions, I always love learning different methods and theories!

Tank:
IM SR-60

Light:
1 hydra 52 HD
2 Hydra 52 standard
2 bulb 24” t5 fixture running 2 coral plus bulbs

Filtration:

Running 1 micron sock (changed every 3-4 days)
Media bag of carbon and gfo
IM ghost skimmer
Ceramic balls in back

Flow:

1 Neptune WAV, ramps up and down 10-30% on Maverick/Malibu
1 jebao crossflow on lowest random setting

Fish:

1 Yellow Tang
1 One Spot Fox Face
1 Banded Hi Fin Goby
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
4 Clowns (2 standard ocellaris, 2 long fin)
1 McCoskers Flasher Wrasse
1 Solarensis Fairy Wrasse

Dosing:

I had an issue running too much aquaforest based on skewed test results from my trident, so I switched to hand dosing All For Reef until the corals take off
Brightwell Coral Amino
Brightwell Microbacter7 after water changes
Brightwell neonitro to elevate nitrates to help keep phosphates in check

Feeding:

Daily: LRS Reef Frenzy and Omega One pellets
Every few days: Nori on a Clip
1-2x a week: benereef, reef chili, and reef roids all mixed up in one container, spot fed

Typical Params:

Calc 460 (salifert)
Alk 9 (hanna/salifert)
Mag 1350 (salifert)
Phosphates 0.03-0.1 (hanna/salifert)
Nitrates 12-25 (nyos kit)

 

[SPR1968]

Very nice, you have some beautiful colour in the tank and great pictures!

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Very nice, you have some beautiful colour in the tank and great pictures!

Thank You!

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Hit a water change yesterday, been battling valonia and some gha but things seems to be getting under control at least with gha

The overdose on aquaforest I think destabilized my tank a good bit allowing the pest algae to take hold. However with two emerald crabs and my foxface, I’m hoping the bubble algae with get more manageable as well.

I’ve ordered vibrant, but am still hesitant on using it because of the horror stories. I’ve actually had some luck overdosing microbacter 7 to impede growth and kill it back some even (I believeI can attribute it to the bacteria at least.)

wanted to post a couple day time pics that aren’t overly blues to track coral growth and algae status. A couple rocks are moved from putting in my wc buckets and pulling algae off.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Noticed some interesting behavior with my space invader pectinia, seems like it fluffs up just before the light comes on, the deflates through the day. Not sure but could be related to my clowns (for whatever reason) performing hosting behavior in it.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Did a light first dose of vibrant, also trying Pohl’s Coral Vitalizer, and I swear some polyps look longer a couple hours after dosing! Probably just my imagination though lol

Also, just a couple other pics around the tank, practicing with filters and getting as true to eye color as possible. I like the look of pulling some brightness out and deepening color. Helps with the sometimes blindingly bright sand beds.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Not too much of an update, but logging starting second week of vibrant, and I’m already feeling like I’m seeing less bubble algae.
Also was taking some pics around the tank and got some good Walt Disney pics sticking the lens in the water.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Just a small update.

I really believe vibrant is working well, the valonia is turning white and falling off the rock after only the second week. Think I’m starting to see dinos pop up so I’m going to do a bit of a lighter dose next week. I’ve read how aggressive vibrant bacteria is at depleting nutrients, so I’ve been dosing neo nitro more heavily along with pohls coral vitalizer and brightwell coral amino. So far coral health seems excellent and some are showing more colors than ever! Namely, my wild mushroom I got 2 years ago that has since bounced up, and is showing some more color on its bubbles.

Also, pretty excited about this gold inferno goniopora frag I picked up, its color is crazy bright under blues! I have to pull so much brightness out just for the colors to separate .

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Skipped vibrant dose this week since dinos were coming in quick. Started adding microbacter 7, extra food, and some neo nitro, it’s what has worked for me in the past at least. I’ll pick up some copepods as well as I feel like adding them has helped with dinos in the past. All super anecdotal evidence of course lol.

new goniopora has been looking great, not even regretting spending more than I normally do on a more expensive coral lol.

Besides dinos, tank has been doing great, hand dosing tropic marin and regular alk tests with salifert keeps params stable and am seeing good sps growth now and everything is coloring up.

Lastly,vibrant definitely greatly reduced my bubble algae in just 2 weeks, I’m really impressed! However, it definitely jacks up nutrient levels and often leads to a bout of cyano or dinos, and I’m no exception. I’ll probably try another dose a bit down the road to control bubble algae again.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Been knocking back dinos, have had good luck with no vibrant dosing, blowing out rocks, holding weekly water changes, and adding heavier doses of neonitro.

In more exciting news, I finally thought of a spot to grow my burning banana stylo that won’t mess with my acro real estate, AND make my tank have a centerpiece appropriate for my name! Anyone else make instant ocean epoxy sculptures?

 

[KJoFan]

Nice tank! How long has it been running? I don’t think I saw you mention that.

Have you taken any par readings? If so, what kind of readings are you getting?

I’m jealous of your sps! I always struggle with them despite my best efforts.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Nice tank! How long has it been running? I don’t think I saw you mention that.

Have you taken any par readings? If so, what kind of readings are you getting?

I’m jealous of your sps! I always struggle with them despite my best efforts.

Thanks! This tank has been set up since April, but the rock and frags were moved from a 75 gallon i had going for about 2 years, all my big colonies went in a work tank.

The Par readings are about 400 at the surface, 300 mid level, and 150-200 in the corners.

Sps definitely take a lot of attnetion but once you have a routine down it becomes easier!

 

[KJoFan]

Thanks! This tank has been set up since April, but the rock and frags were moved from a 75 gallon i had going for about 2 years, all my big colonies went in a work tank.

The Par readings are about 400 at the surface, 300 mid level, and 150-200 in the corners.

Sps definitely take a lot of attnetion but once you have a routine down it becomes easier!

Would you say the dosing of aminos or the combo of roids/chili etc benefit your sticks more?

How do you like the AIO setup?

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Would you say the dosing of aminos or the combo of roids/chili etc benefit your sticks more?

How do you like the AIO setup?

Purely anecdotal, but I feel like the feeding boosts the growth more and aminos boost the coloration.

The AIO is much more difficult to tune in compared to my previous 75 gallon that had a huge refugium. If I’m able too, I’d always like to go for a sump system over AIO since it’s just so much easier to work with and beef up the filtration.

 

[KJoFan]

Purely anecdotal, but I feel like the feeding boosts the growth more and aminos boost the coloration.

The AIO is much more difficult to tune in compared to my previous 75 gallon that had a huge refugium. If I’m able too, I’d always like to go for a sump system over AIO since it’s just so much easier to work with and beef up the filtration.

Thanks for entertaining my questions. I’ll be watching your progress.
I went the less traveled route and went from larger sumped systems down to an IM Lagoon 50 AIO. I like the simplicity and ease of it. I always thought the SR-120 would be a neat tank to have with nice length but not huge volume.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Thanks for entertaining my questions. I’ll be watching your progress.
I went the less traveled route and went from larger sumped systems down to an IM Lagoon 50 AIO. I like the simplicity and ease of it. I always thought the SR-120 would be a neat tank to have with nice length but not huge volume.

Of course! Always happy to help, I’m a fan of the layout of those 120’s as well, nice long run with a tall stand. While I do feel a dumped system with a big refugium is easier, I like the simplicity and aesthetic of this all in one. I think it’d be easier to achieve the results in looking for if I wasn’t going for sps bonsai garden. But after the first couple
Months of difficulty, I really feel like I have it tuned in and things are looking better!

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Picked up some frags (from @doclemonzreef on Instagram) that I’m super stoked to grow out!

 

[jcolliii]

Nice looking frags! Is that first one a milli?

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Nice looking frags! Is that first one a milli?

Thanks! I believe that one is or is a tenuis , the mother colony had a milli growth pattern.

EDIT: here’s the mother colony

 

[Res_Ipsa]

Great looking tank so far! -a fellow SR-60 owner.