Reef_prop88 Tries SPS's (29 gal build thread)

[Reef_prop88]

I just wanted to post up on here some pics of a few corals after a very occasional reef roids feeding. I'm so happy that everything is doing so well after such a short period of time. It's hard to believe this tank is not even 2 months old and everything is actually thriving. The tank is producing a rediculous amount of coralline algae and my blastos in the 1st pic are even showing 4-5 new heads growing since I got them about a month ago.

 

[Reef_prop88]

I went and rented a par meter today... Lets just say I understand now why it's difficult to properly light a mixed reef tank. I finally got to the point with my Radion xr30 at 40% output where the very top of the tank (18" deep tank) is 250-260 par and the bottom is roughly 150 directly under the light. Once I get my frag tank set up I will be switching this tank to sps only so I can crank this light and run par anywhere from 300-450 and possibly bump it up past that over time.

 

[Reef_prop88]

It's been a while since I have updated and quite a bit has changed. At this point I have made the mistake of bottoming my nutrients out like most people do that decide they are going to venture into carbon dosing lol. So now after correcting a small dino problem, I am currently dosing nopox (carbon), nitrates and phosphate to maintain good nutrient levels. I enjoy doing it this way because now I have complete control over my nutrient levels which works well with me trying to optimize the growth potential of everything in my tank.

Also since the last time I updated I have acquired a bunch of corals (mainly SPS) that I will list above in the 1st post. I was a little worried about getting into SPS corals for the first time because of what everybody on here says about their difficulty, but I learned that as long as you don't panic every time there is a little hickup everything will pull itself back together with small planned out corrections.

 

[Reef_prop88]

Quick update. Nothing too eventful has happened lately. I have just been trying to get my alk and calcium to the point where I don't have to babysit it constantly but that is proving to be very hard to do when you have 15+ acros growing in a smaller tank lol.

One coral I wanted to post a quick progress pic on below is my bc aquaman. This is my favorite acro so far and has started encrusting rapidly. It has also started changing to a more red/orange color and losing alot of its blues/greens which I am assuming has something to do with being under 350-400 par g5 radions vs. whatever lighting it was under before. I keep the parameters a little more geared towards growth also with ph 8.2-8.45 (night and day) alk-10.2-10.7 Nitrates 10-15 ppm and phos .05- .10. I also dose nopox and 2.5ml acro power 2x a day.


Bc Aquatic-man 2/2/22

Bc Aquatic-man 2/20/22

One last thing I'm pretty excited about. I entered a year long grow out competition, so sometime this week I should be receiving a vivid insanity frag from Thirstys Reef. Not sure weather to just post progress on here or start another thread?


Here's a couple decent frags I got from a local guy also. If anybody has a clue what the green/blue one is please let me know!