- Joined
- Nov 2, 2016
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 69
Hey R2R,
I'm two years into this hobby and I need to lean on the experts in keeping SPS for guidance and support! Here is my story:
I started off 6/1/15 with a 75 gallon marine land tank and stand purchased on craigslist. Used the live rock that came with the tank, added a HOB reef octopus skimmer and TLF phosban reactor, two black box LED lights (ebay) and two hydor powerheads and we were off to the races. Over the length of almost 1 yr I added various livestock and frags. Things were going great, I had gotten into a good maintenance routine and weekly water changes. My corals, especially the SPS/acro frags showed great color and decent growth... you would think I would just sit back and be happy and enjoy...but one night, up late reading through the R2R SPS forums with one eye open- I had this amazing vision of beautiful colonies of acropora with beautiful polyp extension dancing in the current of a larger and more well thought out system... I woke up that morning realizing I got the itch to upgrade... and I haven't looked back.
6/1/16 I purchased a 150 gallon SCAquariums tank and stand, lifereef LF1300-S sump and SVS-24 skimmer with refugium attached and began the build. Around the same time, I also purchased an ATI 48" T5 fixture (3 B+ and 3 C+ bulbs) and a reefbrite XHO blue strip to replace the black box LEDs. Next up was aBRS Dual carbon/GFO reactor and a Geo618 Carx with 20lb C02 tank and electronic regulator. The sump is plumbed straight down into the basement and a Blueline 100HD is pumping everything back up to the display @ approx 12 ft. of head. The return flow is supplemented with two Tunze 6095 powerheads which are on interval wave settings. I added an Apex with most of the bells and whistles for redundancy and peace of mind when traveling for work.
I have a mixed reef with mostly zoa/paly, LPS and SPS and some mushrooms. The first 10 months of the new tank has had it's ups and downs. Mostly downs... first I made the mistake of not rinsing the caribsea ocean direct live sand enough... the next mistake was adding a bunch of uncured dry base rock to the seeded live rock when setting up the new tank. Causing a major phosphate leeching event that lasted almost 3-4 months with an insane GHA battle ending in a successful fluconazole treatment. Then after adding 12-15 new acro frags I finally got around to switching from 2-part to turning on the calcium reactor to get it dialed in and I just didn't give it the attention and time I needed to... resulting in Alk fluctuations. I have lost almost all but two or three of my acros... I am tired of spending money on frags with dreams of branching and tabling colonies just to get crushed by waking up to one with RTN or completely lost. This is where you all come in... help me figure out what I am doing wrong.
I am using HW Marine salt, and have been since day 1.
Latest test readings using API for PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and using Hannah for Alk and P04 then using RedSea to verify Alk and also test Ca and Mag:
PH = 7.8 - 8.07
Alk = 8.2 DKH (rock steady for 1 month now) previously it fluctuated between 7.8-10.5 DKH while I had ignorance with my Carx.
Ca = 440
Mag = 1380
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0 < 3ppm (latest test was 0)
P04 = 0
Other things to note: I cannot seem to keep my tank temp below 80.5 in the summer months, currently 7 day temp swing average from apex is 80.5 - 82.5. I am about to add a beast fan above my sump to see if it will help with the temp as I want to be 78-80 year round. I think my Blueline return pump might be the biggest culprit here... Thoughts?
I changed out my DI resin, and filters and am 0 TDS on my 6 stage BRS RODI system. The tank is getting about 4-5 hours of indirect natural light through the day. Reefbrite strip is on from 10am-12pm. T5 Kicks on at 12pm - 7pm and reefbrites back on from 6pm-9pm. Is this lighting schedule o.k.? My T5 light fixture is approx 5 inches above the water (as that is all my canopy will allow without retrofitting it). I have not tested any PAR readings-
I am currently nuisance algae free, except for a bit of cyano... holding rock solid parameters, I adopted the "easy Carx" method and have been holding alk at 8.2 for a month. The RODI is serviced and pumping out clean water. I perform a 25 gallon water change every 10 days, new ROX .8 carbon and GFO every 45 days. Should I run the Carbon/GFO just on an as-needed basis? I see a lot of other reefers run it 24x7 and is what I have done since I began this journey. I do have a problem with putting my hands in the tank often... meaning once or twice a day on average. Usually either when feeding or a turkey baster on the rocks/sandbed to stir up detritus, move a frag that got buried by my diamond goby... whatever the reason.
So... in another two weeks I am going to do a swap with a local reefer and get some nice frags... and I am not going to lie... I am kinda scared, I don't want to lose any of them. Here is the pack I am getting:
Leng sy Monti cap
Forest fire digi
Pink lemonade
Strawberry shortcake
Ora frogskin Setosa
Ora Bird of paradise
Pc rainbow
Blue dragon
Green birdsnest
I am determined to succeed and fulfill my SPS dream, especially with your help and my continuous learning. Let me know your thoughts!
Pics coming up...
I'm two years into this hobby and I need to lean on the experts in keeping SPS for guidance and support! Here is my story:
I started off 6/1/15 with a 75 gallon marine land tank and stand purchased on craigslist. Used the live rock that came with the tank, added a HOB reef octopus skimmer and TLF phosban reactor, two black box LED lights (ebay) and two hydor powerheads and we were off to the races. Over the length of almost 1 yr I added various livestock and frags. Things were going great, I had gotten into a good maintenance routine and weekly water changes. My corals, especially the SPS/acro frags showed great color and decent growth... you would think I would just sit back and be happy and enjoy...but one night, up late reading through the R2R SPS forums with one eye open- I had this amazing vision of beautiful colonies of acropora with beautiful polyp extension dancing in the current of a larger and more well thought out system... I woke up that morning realizing I got the itch to upgrade... and I haven't looked back.
6/1/16 I purchased a 150 gallon SCAquariums tank and stand, lifereef LF1300-S sump and SVS-24 skimmer with refugium attached and began the build. Around the same time, I also purchased an ATI 48" T5 fixture (3 B+ and 3 C+ bulbs) and a reefbrite XHO blue strip to replace the black box LEDs. Next up was aBRS Dual carbon/GFO reactor and a Geo618 Carx with 20lb C02 tank and electronic regulator. The sump is plumbed straight down into the basement and a Blueline 100HD is pumping everything back up to the display @ approx 12 ft. of head. The return flow is supplemented with two Tunze 6095 powerheads which are on interval wave settings. I added an Apex with most of the bells and whistles for redundancy and peace of mind when traveling for work.
I have a mixed reef with mostly zoa/paly, LPS and SPS and some mushrooms. The first 10 months of the new tank has had it's ups and downs. Mostly downs... first I made the mistake of not rinsing the caribsea ocean direct live sand enough... the next mistake was adding a bunch of uncured dry base rock to the seeded live rock when setting up the new tank. Causing a major phosphate leeching event that lasted almost 3-4 months with an insane GHA battle ending in a successful fluconazole treatment. Then after adding 12-15 new acro frags I finally got around to switching from 2-part to turning on the calcium reactor to get it dialed in and I just didn't give it the attention and time I needed to... resulting in Alk fluctuations. I have lost almost all but two or three of my acros... I am tired of spending money on frags with dreams of branching and tabling colonies just to get crushed by waking up to one with RTN or completely lost. This is where you all come in... help me figure out what I am doing wrong.
I am using HW Marine salt, and have been since day 1.
Latest test readings using API for PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and using Hannah for Alk and P04 then using RedSea to verify Alk and also test Ca and Mag:
PH = 7.8 - 8.07
Alk = 8.2 DKH (rock steady for 1 month now) previously it fluctuated between 7.8-10.5 DKH while I had ignorance with my Carx.
Ca = 440
Mag = 1380
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0 < 3ppm (latest test was 0)
P04 = 0
Other things to note: I cannot seem to keep my tank temp below 80.5 in the summer months, currently 7 day temp swing average from apex is 80.5 - 82.5. I am about to add a beast fan above my sump to see if it will help with the temp as I want to be 78-80 year round. I think my Blueline return pump might be the biggest culprit here... Thoughts?
I changed out my DI resin, and filters and am 0 TDS on my 6 stage BRS RODI system. The tank is getting about 4-5 hours of indirect natural light through the day. Reefbrite strip is on from 10am-12pm. T5 Kicks on at 12pm - 7pm and reefbrites back on from 6pm-9pm. Is this lighting schedule o.k.? My T5 light fixture is approx 5 inches above the water (as that is all my canopy will allow without retrofitting it). I have not tested any PAR readings-
I am currently nuisance algae free, except for a bit of cyano... holding rock solid parameters, I adopted the "easy Carx" method and have been holding alk at 8.2 for a month. The RODI is serviced and pumping out clean water. I perform a 25 gallon water change every 10 days, new ROX .8 carbon and GFO every 45 days. Should I run the Carbon/GFO just on an as-needed basis? I see a lot of other reefers run it 24x7 and is what I have done since I began this journey. I do have a problem with putting my hands in the tank often... meaning once or twice a day on average. Usually either when feeding or a turkey baster on the rocks/sandbed to stir up detritus, move a frag that got buried by my diamond goby... whatever the reason.
So... in another two weeks I am going to do a swap with a local reefer and get some nice frags... and I am not going to lie... I am kinda scared, I don't want to lose any of them. Here is the pack I am getting:
Leng sy Monti cap
Forest fire digi
Pink lemonade
Strawberry shortcake
Ora frogskin Setosa
Ora Bird of paradise
Pc rainbow
Blue dragon
Green birdsnest
I am determined to succeed and fulfill my SPS dream, especially with your help and my continuous learning. Let me know your thoughts!
Pics coming up...