Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Such healthy corals!

 

[nyfishkid87]

Wow mark. Drooling over here. Thanks for your additives list

 

[markalot]

Wow, very colorful. i love the pink acro.

Thanks.

Such healthy corals!

Thanks Rev.

Wow mark. Drooling over here. Thanks for your additives list

Thanks, no problem.

Things are still going very well. I really like using droppers for dosing so I bought a box of them. :D

AcroPower is the first to be added to the daily drop list. I started dosing a few days ago and already notice a difference. Last time I used it I could never see any change except for more cyano.

FTS

I have high hopes for this little frag. This is one of the many I almost lost and has been slowly recovering. I recently moved it to higher light and it's responded well. It's infested with some kind of filter feeder so I'm slowly picking them off, trying not to do too much damage at a time.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Stunning pics, bro! So you're liking AcroPower this time around?

 

[markalot]

Stunning pics, bro! So you're liking AcroPower this time around?

Thanks.

Hasn't been long enough to say yet but I'll keep the thread updated. I started 2 drops daily today (from random tiny cap dosing) so it may take a while to dial it in.

 

[drawman]

Tank is looking really nice Mark!

 

[markalot]

Tank is looking really nice Mark!

Thanks Tim!

Took some fish pics over the last week.

Mama Clown

Midas Blenny. 3.5 years with me, 2 tanks, but only the one rock (behind him) for a home.

 

[tqui]

what camera and len are you using Mark ?

 

[markalot]

what camera and len are you using Mark ?

Nikon D3100 and I had been using the kit lens but lately rediscovered how much better pictures look when using my high quality Nikon 50mm fixed lens. For macros I use a 90mm ... can't think of the brand right now but it's not a Nikon.

 

[markalot]

Took PAR readings after lowering the lights by an inch to see where I'm at.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Took PAR readings after lowering the lights by an inch to see where I'm at.

How much difference did you see?

I seriously love your reef buddy!

 

[markalot]

How much difference did you see?

I seriously love your reef buddy!

Thanks Rev.

So far it looks like colors might be increasing, but it's only been a few days. At least no bleaching!

My rockwork is less than ideal and I had a few, let's say, incidents that escalated to a 2 day situation. No losses, no loss of color, and with a lot of epoxy and superglue on my hands I can say the scape is a lot more stable, even if some corals had to move around.

The horrida was one coral the fell off it's mount. Took this pic while it was laying on the sandbed and a little ticked off. Look at the nice blue I almost never see due to the polyps.

Pumps off and just mounted up higher near the edge of the tank, under the same PAR.

I love my tank but I hate working in it. Short sleeve tshirt, cold basement, and my sleeves still getting wet on a regular basis. :D

Naturally during this episode I broke the best branch off the healthiest part of my blue stag. The top was unscathed thanks to it landing right side up. The entire fake branch structure was moved to the right so it will be getting higher PAR now and hopefully deciding to color back up.

All in all everything has a little more room to grow larger now and a few non acros are still waiting to either be mounted in some less than ideal location or make a trip to the LFS.

 

[markalot]

Update. Things going well. Some acros have good colors, some do not, all are growing. I'm in the slow tweak and learn phase that I think many newer acro keepers go through to learn how to maximize colors. If my skill was judged only by using the slimer ... I win. :)

My 3 oldest SPS. Slimer, purple stylo, and Miami Orchid (bottom center).

The only maricultured piece that has done well for me, a giant Valida. This has quadrupled in size since I first got it.

KH 7.0
PO4 .04 to near undetectable
NO3 > 1 (just a hint of color on the salifert test kit)

I am dosing saturated Kalk via timed topoff and now 65ml 2 part daily to keep up with demand.

I continue to use PhosphateRx at 3 drops daily. I slowly ramped up to 5 drops and witnessed color loss so I reduced to 3 drops and am evaluating over the next few weeks. I lost a lot of good reds which are slowly coming back with what I assume is increased PO4 in the tank.

2 drops MicroE daily
2 drops Kalum daily

I've stopped all other dosing for now.

 

[xilez]

Mark, when you are dosing phosphate RX on the daily what steps are you taking to ensure he particulate isn't entering the display tank?

I just placed an order for some in order to drop levels but my tank is only 13 gallons.

Attached is a picture of my place on back sump (albeit it an old picture) but it helps me diagram the flow of water pretty easily.

Where do you think I should place my 10m filter sock?

As you can see, water comes up and enters the area of the skimmer, but there isn't room to put the sock in there (red circle), goes through some chambers (orange circle), and exits at the yellow circle.

I was thinking of adding the drops in the Red circle, and putting the filter sock on the yellow circle. What do you think of this? My thought is some particulate will get sucked up into the skimmer, and what doesn't will end up into the filter sock before it enters my display.

With my tank being smaller (calling it 13g total water volume), should I start with something like 2 drops max and see what the numbers read?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Very nice tank! You're getting nice colors on those SPS

 

[s2nhle]

Very Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Update. Things going well. Some acros have good colors, some do not, all are growing. I'm in the slow tweak and learn phase that I think many newer acro keepers go through to learn how to maximize colors. If my skill was judged only by using the slimer ... I win. :)

My 3 oldest SPS. Slimer, purple stylo, and Miami Orchid (bottom center).

The only maricultured piece that has done well for me, a giant Valida. This has quadrupled in size since I first got it.

KH 7.0
PO4 .04 to near undetectable
NO3 > 1 (just a hint of color on the salifert test kit)

I am dosing saturated Kalk via timed topoff and now 65ml 2 part daily to keep up with demand.

I continue to use PhosphateRx at 3 drops daily. I slowly ramped up to 5 drops and witnessed color loss so I reduced to 3 drops and am evaluating over the next few weeks. I lost a lot of good reds which are slowly coming back with what I assume is increased PO4 in the tank.

2 drops MicroE daily
2 drops Kalum daily

I've stopped all other dosing for now.

What a beauty!

How did the light change go?

 

[wowkingjames]

Love your tank! :)

 

[markalot]

Mark, when you are dosing phosphate RX on the daily what steps are you taking to ensure he particulate isn't entering the display tank?

Howdy,

I do not do anything, the particulates to not concern me based on the small daily dosing. In a tank as small as your I would be very careful with even a single drop daily dosing. In my 40 gallon I dose a drop every other day and at times I think this is too much. The trick is to try and understand how much PO4 you are adding daily or weekly and come up with a stable dose that keeps PO4 stable. Easier to do in a larger tank.

Very nice tank! You're getting nice colors on those SPS

Thanks!

Very Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

THanks for the note, always appreciated. :)

What a beauty!

How did the light change go?

No problems at all, I just made sure no corals were bleaching and tested KH daily during the change. Since then I've had a few issues with low KH, not increasing dosage rapidly enough for the increased growth, but no KH spikes.

Love your tank! :)

Thanks man.

 

[xilez]

Thanks for the reply mark, I wasn't exactly thinking of doing a daily dose. I was thinking of jut adding one drop to keep it around .02-.04, and when it creeps up to .08-.1 adding another drop which I imagine would be every couple of weeks or so.

Would chemipure be a better option (I assume it helps keep phosphate levels down?)