Kato
Active Member
Hi, greetings from the EU. Hope everyone stays safe. I thought it would be fun to post how my 4 first months have been, both the good stuff and the bad (read: my mistakes). Have been reefing for many years but was out of the hobby for the last 4.
First a few pictures as of today.
Equipment:
Redsea skimmer sk600 (large for this setup)
Nyos torq reactor (GAC and Ultraphos in separate layers)
Flow: Maxspect Gyre and a Jabao
Return: Jabao
Doser: GHL doser 2.1
Mechanical filtration: Cups, filled with denitrate and a bit of gravel, then filter floss on top (exchanged daily, takes 10s). Hate socks (sorry)
Lights: 3x Hydra 32hd
Started with dry/man-made/dead rock (cooked and cycled in a can for a month prior to tank introduction). Took 2 other rocks from a Nano I had prior as well
Dosed Vibrant after 2 weeks to prevent too ugly startup. Doing that still
So as you can probably tell, I'm not the kind of guy that waits 12 months before starting SPS. I probably had the first in after 2 months.
What are we dosing:
Pump1: TM All for reef (yes no 2-3 part). All in one. Monitor ALK daily. Currently dosing 18 times a day via doser 2.1
Pump2: 0.5ml vodka once daily
Pump3: Bacteria once daily
Pump4: Acropower once daily
Manual: Reef roids once per week
Parameters:
No3: 5
Po4: 0.08
Alk: 8.2
(haven't measured mag and cal for a while)
First the mistakes and how I overcame them:
# Dinos: Oh no. Before I had my Hana checkers my po4 tests were not accurate enough. Had them go to zero. With dead rock it goes south quickly. Fix: Dose po4 where it needs to be, 3 day blackout, dosing h2o2 at twice a day. After black out run a bit dirtier for 2 weeks, no glass cleaning. Gone
# Cyano: Oh no. I got a bit of bryopsis on a frag that spread, so I wanted to see if Vibrant could take it (it can't). At the same time had made a mistake on my vodka dosing. Instead of disturbing the tank too much, decided to get it over with in one go using red slime remove. Then dose no3 to where it needs to be. All gone.
# Bryopsis: Very small patches here and there and not spreading. Hard to notice. Decided to leave it for now. Will perhaps do fluconazole at some point.
# Corals that didn't make it: My number one mistake I still make to this day is not acclimating the SPS to the lights for long enough. I simply can't wait moving them to their final position. Besides bleaching I got a few with STN. Adjusted, fragged and then fine for those affected.
Many corals were bought relatively large, and growth has been good. I still struggle with red/pink goniopora (look great and then decides to die).
Fish: I have a bit too many fish in there now for my liking. I thought I was buying a very small copperband but it was a larger one. When it came in the yellowtang got aggrssive. 3 days with mirror and now they are all best friends. Its going really well. Copperband didn't eat first 3 days. Mixing mysis with brine scrimp and he will eat it all day long now. Feed twice per day and between meals he picks at the rocks. Tangs get more veggies
I will likely take the clowns back to the LFS at some point. A bit too many fish in there even though they all get along
Routine:
# Weekly 15% water changes
# Replace filter wool daily
# Blow off rocks an stir sandbed every few weeks
We'll see what the next few months brings.
First a few pictures as of today.
Equipment:
Redsea skimmer sk600 (large for this setup)
Nyos torq reactor (GAC and Ultraphos in separate layers)
Flow: Maxspect Gyre and a Jabao
Return: Jabao
Doser: GHL doser 2.1
Mechanical filtration: Cups, filled with denitrate and a bit of gravel, then filter floss on top (exchanged daily, takes 10s). Hate socks (sorry)
Lights: 3x Hydra 32hd
Started with dry/man-made/dead rock (cooked and cycled in a can for a month prior to tank introduction). Took 2 other rocks from a Nano I had prior as well
Dosed Vibrant after 2 weeks to prevent too ugly startup. Doing that still
So as you can probably tell, I'm not the kind of guy that waits 12 months before starting SPS. I probably had the first in after 2 months.
What are we dosing:
Pump1: TM All for reef (yes no 2-3 part). All in one. Monitor ALK daily. Currently dosing 18 times a day via doser 2.1
Pump2: 0.5ml vodka once daily
Pump3: Bacteria once daily
Pump4: Acropower once daily
Manual: Reef roids once per week
Parameters:
No3: 5
Po4: 0.08
Alk: 8.2
(haven't measured mag and cal for a while)
First the mistakes and how I overcame them:
# Dinos: Oh no. Before I had my Hana checkers my po4 tests were not accurate enough. Had them go to zero. With dead rock it goes south quickly. Fix: Dose po4 where it needs to be, 3 day blackout, dosing h2o2 at twice a day. After black out run a bit dirtier for 2 weeks, no glass cleaning. Gone
# Cyano: Oh no. I got a bit of bryopsis on a frag that spread, so I wanted to see if Vibrant could take it (it can't). At the same time had made a mistake on my vodka dosing. Instead of disturbing the tank too much, decided to get it over with in one go using red slime remove. Then dose no3 to where it needs to be. All gone.
# Bryopsis: Very small patches here and there and not spreading. Hard to notice. Decided to leave it for now. Will perhaps do fluconazole at some point.
# Corals that didn't make it: My number one mistake I still make to this day is not acclimating the SPS to the lights for long enough. I simply can't wait moving them to their final position. Besides bleaching I got a few with STN. Adjusted, fragged and then fine for those affected.
Many corals were bought relatively large, and growth has been good. I still struggle with red/pink goniopora (look great and then decides to die).
Fish: I have a bit too many fish in there now for my liking. I thought I was buying a very small copperband but it was a larger one. When it came in the yellowtang got aggrssive. 3 days with mirror and now they are all best friends. Its going really well. Copperband didn't eat first 3 days. Mixing mysis with brine scrimp and he will eat it all day long now. Feed twice per day and between meals he picks at the rocks. Tangs get more veggies
I will likely take the clowns back to the LFS at some point. A bit too many fish in there even though they all get along
Routine:
# Weekly 15% water changes
# Replace filter wool daily
# Blow off rocks an stir sandbed every few weeks
We'll see what the next few months brings.
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