Octo High End SPS Skip Cycle Build....

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Refugium started with 2 golf ball sized chaeto balls. They are growing fast!

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ViVid Durban Poison
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Vivid Joke Acro
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Vivid Crown Royale
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My boy here...hasn’t moved his home in over a month. Use snails, crabs, rocks to guard it. When he wants privacy he covers it with a shell. he came out once for food and I looked inside and he has a castle under there with rooms and shyt. . Don’t go near the entrance cuz if u do he will open his mouth super wide and yell at you. He is too much. Love this guy
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TSA Fruity Pebbles. Also received TSA Carolina Reaper, Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd
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TGC Cherry Bomb - arrived in cloudy water, a different frag in the same container died. Im gonna save this one!
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Vivid Paradise Tenuis...can’t wait for this one to color up


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V


Random shots of the tank. Clown hosting an elegance
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So I'm 15 weeks in with this tank. My goal was to have a SPS dominated tank that thrives and do it quickly. I see so many peoplle say that a cycle takes 8-12 weeks minimum then you should wait until month 6 for SPS others say 12 months. To each their own. I wanted to do it using simple chemistry. I cycled my tank in less than a week and my first sps coral was put into the tank on week 2. I still have that coral today. There were some mistakes made and I lost some coral in the process but I have not lost a coral since late May. My parameters are stable. In addition I have 9 fish, also something I was told not to do. They are all happy, get along and do fine. With a heavy bioload my PO4 is stable at .08 and my Nitrate less than 2. At times I dose nitrate. I run 4 dosing pumps and do weekly water changes although now I am going to move to once a month water changes.

Haters have told me that the uglies are coming......no they arent.
Haters have told me everything will outgrow the tank.....one fish will, the rest will not. I will frag the corals as needed
Haters have told me a crash is coming...no it isnt
Haters will read this and think I'm arrogant and doomed to fail.....I may be but I wont fail, I will learn and adjust.

My point is this....there is no one size fits all when it comes to reefing. There is the safe way and there are other ways. I choose other ways. I still have the first 2 fish i put in this tank during week 1. Only fish i lost was a jumper. I still have corals from week 2, only corals I lost were due to an equipment malfunction that I didnt resolve fast enough. That wont happen again. Stable salinity, PH, Alk, Calcium and Mag....check. Every month i send in for a trident test. Every species of acropora, monti are in the tank and thriving. LPS, Softies.....all good. Will I have issues? Sure, who doesnt? I also dont chime in on threads where people tell others to buy a birdsnest at month 6 or wait 3 months to add a fish. This way is not for everyone but it is for me and it is working just fine.

I used this method on a 150 gallon tank, a 125 gallon tank and a 54 gallon tank.....did not fail then either...this is not my first tank for those that think that...ive been in the hobby since i was 12. 27 years total. Never once went with traditional method of keeping a saltwater tank
 

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So I'm 15 weeks in with this tank. My goal was to have a SPS dominated tank that thrives and do it quickly. I see so many peoplle say that a cycle takes 8-12 weeks minimum then you should wait until month 6 for SPS others say 12 months. To each their own. I wanted to do it using simple chemistry. I cycled my tank in less than a week and my first sps coral was put into the tank on week 2. I still have that coral today. There were some mistakes made and I lost some coral in the process but I have not lost a coral since late May. My parameters are stable. In addition I have 9 fish, also something I was told not to do. They are all happy, get along and do fine. With a heavy bioload my PO4 is stable at .08 and my Nitrate less than 2. At times I dose nitrate. I run 4 dosing pumps and do weekly water changes although now I am going to move to once a month water changes.

Haters have told me that the uglies are coming......no they arent.
Haters have told me everything will outgrow the tank.....one fish will, the rest will not. I will frag the corals as needed
Haters have told me a crash is coming...no it isnt
Haters will read this and think I'm arrogant and doomed to fail.....I may be but I wont fail, I will learn and adjust.

My point is this....there is no one size fits all when it comes to reefing. There is the safe way and there are other ways. I choose other ways. I still have the first 2 fish i put in this tank during week 1. Only fish i lost was a jumper. I still have corals from week 2, only corals I lost were due to an equipment malfunction that I didnt resolve fast enough. That wont happen again. Stable salinity, PH, Alk, Calcium and Mag....check. Every month i send in for a trident test. Every species of acropora, monti are in the tank and thriving. LPS, Softies.....all good. Will I have issues? Sure, who doesnt? I also dont chime in on threads where people tell others to buy a birdsnest at month 6 or wait 3 months to add a fish. This way is not for everyone but it is for me and it is working just fine.

I used this method on a 150 gallon tank, a 125 gallon tank and a 54 gallon tank.....did not fail then either...this is not my first tank for those that think that...ive been in the hobby since i was 12. 27 years total. Never once went with traditional method of keeping a saltwater tank
Awesome looking tank! My only complaint about my 32 gallon is I ran out of room so fast! lol I'm not sure where you are in NC but there is an amazing store in Indian Trail just outside of Charlotte called Nemo's Reef. Two good eons in Greensboro too. I look forward to following your build!
 
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Thanks! I live out Winston but the tank is in my office south of Raleigh. Ive heard great things about Nemos Reef. Triad Reef Critters in GSO and ReefKeepers in Clayton are the two stores i go to in NC. All the corals I buy online from 3-4 different people/vendors. Ive really narrowed that down to 3 places for coral. Couldnt agree more on the running out of room lol Its fun though
 

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Thanks! I live out Winston but the tank is in my office south of Raleigh. Ive heard great things about Nemos Reef. Triad Reef Critters in GSO and ReefKeepers in Clayton are the two stores i go to in NC. All the corals I buy online from 3-4 different people/vendors. Ive really narrowed that down to 3 places for coral. Couldnt agree more on the running out of room lol Its fun though
You absolutely have to visit Nemo's Reef! I live in VA and I drive down at least once a month!
 

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