Sabella's 450L mixed reef build thread

[chefjpaul]

[emoji7][emoji7][emoji7][emoji7][emoji7][emoji7][emoji7]

 

[Hella_Reef]

Teach me your ways! I'm by no means sps ready. I put a birdsnest in my tank and it won't last long. I got a good sized colony hoping it takes off. One of my acros started showing color at the base, just not sure about it.

I can teach you, first step, avoid 75 percent of information said by fellow youtubers. [emoji1303]

 

[Sabellafella]

Teach me your ways! I'm by no means sps ready. I put a birdsnest in my tank and it won't last long. I got a good sized colony hoping it takes off. One of my acros started showing color at the base, just not sure about it.

I dont know what to teach you lol, sorta just winging it here, following the same routine since day 1 i could tell you my approach on what i do though. My tank will be 3 years old in september, i didnt start adding heavy amounts of coral untill about a year into it. Really once coralline algae started blooming i then added handfulls of corals here and there. Sps imo fall in the same category as any other photosynthetic coral, the problem lies with pests along with imminent death if something goes south. Litterally, some corals can take a hit, just from changing your protien skimmer, or adding a extra scoopfull of gfo or carbon, maybe even switching foods, or using a potion thats recently came out. You just simply dont know where itll take you, and myself it took little tweaks here and there to get where im at. It truely is important to not make drastic changes, because when you have tons of coral, theres going to be that 1 that doenst fair well if you do. Once coralline algae starts to bloom and does not ever bleach, sps usually thrive in that type of environment. Also, birdsnest are deffinitly not a beginner coral. They thrive and die thrive and die thrive and die, how is that a beginner coral lol? Buy aquacultured frags, are deffinitly a good starting point. Something like red planets, torts pink lemonades and stuff like that. I guarentee if your parameters are in check, theyll do just fine.

 

[pelphrey]

I dont know what to teach you lol, sorta just winging it here, following the same routine since day 1 i could tell you my approach on what i do though. My tank will be 3 years old in september, i didnt start adding heavy amounts of coral untill about a year into it. Really once coralline algae started blooming i then added handfulls of corals here and there. Sps imo fall in the same category as any other photosynthetic coral, the problem lies with pests along with imminent death if something goes south. Litterally, some corals can take a hit, just from changing your protien skimmer, or adding a extra scoopfull of gfo or carbon, maybe even switching foods, or using a potion thats recently came out. You just simply dont know where itll take you, and myself it took little tweaks here and there to get where im at. It truely is important to not make drastic changes, because when you have tons of coral, theres going to be that 1 that doenst fair well if you do. Once coralline algae starts to bloom and does not ever bleach, sps usually thrive in that type of environment. Also, birdsnest are deffinitly not a beginner coral. They thrive and die thrive and die thrive and die, how is that a beginner coral lol? Buy aquacultured frags, are deffinitly a good starting point. Something like red planets, torts pink lemonades and stuff like that. I guarentee if your parameters are in check, theyll do just fine.

Thank you sir! My tank is nearly a year old at this point. Coraline grows at a decent rate, I wouldn't call it fast by any means. But I've not yet seen it bleach. I will say I am 100% better at testing my water. But now I may be chasing numbers just a little much! Haha

 

[Hella_Reef]

I dont know what to teach you lol, sorta just winging it here, following the same routine since day 1 i could tell you my approach on what i do though. My tank will be 3 years old in september, i didnt start adding heavy amounts of coral untill about a year into it. Really once coralline algae started blooming i then added handfulls of corals here and there. Sps imo fall in the same category as any other photosynthetic coral, the problem lies with pests along with imminent death if something goes south. Litterally, some corals can take a hit, just from changing your protien skimmer, or adding a extra scoopfull of gfo or carbon, maybe even switching foods, or using a potion thats recently came out. You just simply dont know where itll take you, and myself it took little tweaks here and there to get where im at. It truely is important to not make drastic changes, because when you have tons of coral, theres going to be that 1 that doenst fair well if you do. Once coralline algae starts to bloom and does not ever bleach, sps usually thrive in that type of environment. Also, birdsnest are deffinitly not a beginner coral. They thrive and die thrive and die thrive and die, how is that a beginner coral lol? Buy aquacultured frags, are deffinitly a good starting point. Something like red planets, torts pink lemonades and stuff like that. I guarentee if your parameters are in check, theyll do just fine.

What do U do for maintenance with equipment and cleaning out the bottom of ur sump and other stuff that may fall into maintenance category? How often? What time do u test each day? And what test kits do u recommend for trace elements? Asking for pelphrey

 

[Hella_Reef]

Thank you sir! My tank is nearly a year old at this point. Coraline grows at a decent rate, I wouldn't call it fast by any means. But I've not yet seen it bleach. I will say I am 100% better at testing my water. But now I may be chasing numbers just a little much! Haha

Don't chase numbers, keep them stable [emoji13]

 

[Sabellafella]

What do U do for maintenance with equipment and cleaning out the bottom of ur sump and other stuff that may fall into maintenance category? How often? What time do u test each day? And what test kits do u recommend for trace elements? Asking for pelphrey

I clean my powerheads and probes every 3 or so months. I litterally soak them in citric acid in a bucket next to my tank, and toss them back in. Sometimes i scrub the prop- The gyre on the other hand, swap out the blades and guards litterally takes 2 seconds. Jebaos i have multiples so i just swap the pump as well if i have to. YET MY Heater return and skimmer pump never cleaned for 3 years untill last week. Never even touched my sandbed ever, prob the worst sand bed ever in the reefing existence. Its all over the place every time i clean the pumps because i forget the lower the speed once their cleaned. Most likely filthy but hey, i got thousands of tinny brittle starts and cerith snails to keep it clean. Bottom of my sump is full of precipitation from my heater, that i have to collect every so often. detritus only settles in one spot. So every now and then i just syphon it out, no biggie. Clean my skimmer cup saturday, 20% water change saturday, topoff topoff saturday lol. Clean my socks the second i see them overflow witch is about 10 days, witch is around the same time i have to swap my kalk containers out. Change floss when it over flows from bubbletrap, rox carbon changed every 2-3 weeks, quarter cup. Right now testing everyday, because i messed up on adding water to the esv 5 gallon bucket portion of alk. So i have to adjust my dosing pump untill i feel safe enuff. Test calc mag and p04 like once a week. Got this cheato reactor i put on, getting a little obnoxious now. Reactor is full in like 8 days, so i have to clean it out. Coralline algae growing everywhere so i have to tend to that as well. Dont recommend trace elements, to complicated for me and most likely for everyone, when it can be eliminated with a simple balling 2 part or calcium reactor. Those elements are designed on growing coral skeleton, food and all those goodies is what grows the skin. So as long as you can tame your filtration to your bioload and not over do it you should be fine.

Other then that, bacteria runs the whole show. Something one should not tamper with.

 

[Sabellafella]

Thank you sir! My tank is nearly a year old at this point. Coraline grows at a decent rate, I wouldn't call it fast by any means. But I've not yet seen it bleach. I will say I am 100% better at testing my water. But now I may be chasing numbers just a little much! Haha

Get some aquacultured acropora, or even montipora. Litterally sets you on the path to success. My first red planet frag when i got back into the hobby grew like a beast under PC lighting in an overstocked 30 gallon. I was hand dosing all at once right into the return, and overfeeding like a madd man. It still grew, on the other hand i could not keep a birdsnest if my life depended on it. Most likely still cant

 

[pelphrey]

Are you still dripping kalk?

 

[Sabellafella]

Are you still dripping kalk?

Using the dos to dose kalk, fully saturated about a half a gallon every day

 

[pelphrey]

I've been doing a lot of reading on kalk, really trying to keep it out of my ATO if I can. My evaporation rates are pretty speratic.

 

[Sabellafella]

I've been doing a lot of reading on kalk, really trying to keep it out of my ATO if I can. My evaporation rates are pretty speratic.

You can use a brs doser, its what ive used in the past for kalk worked great.

 

[Sabellafella]

Got the random flow generator nozzles on today. Very happy how compact this was compared to lockline, performance is at its best with a mere 1,200 gallons an hour pushing through 2 nozzles. Cant wait to show you guys a video of exactly how it works.

 

[pelphrey]

Looks great with that Y adapter installed!

 

[Sabellafella]

Looks great with that Y adapter installed!

I know right? Looks amazing like this,you got one like this too no?

 

[pelphrey]

I would need another RFG, which means I could do away with the 3 sections of loc line on my Y adapter!

I think I may try this! I didn't care for the adapter on the RFG personally. But I may be able to make this work.

 

[Sabellafella]

I would need another RFG, which means I could do away with the 3 sections of loc line on my Y adapter!

I think I may try this! I didn't care for the adapter on the RFG personally. But I may be able to make this work.

Theres an locline attachment he made recently that slips on the fitting from the return, even without the nozzles, you can buy the fitting either to half or 3/4 locline. Use a Y to connect to w.e you want. Its nice and short/small, and aesthetically looks great.

 

[pelphrey]

He sent me both the 1/2 and 3/4 reefer to loc line adapters to review and test out awhile back. I actually bought 3/4" loc line to put on the adapter and in my video mentioned "email me if you want this, I will send it to you for free". I literally had two people email me! Haha

I already had the y adapter and loc line for 1/2" so I kept the reefer to loc line adapter he sent me.

 

[Mal11224]

Got the random flow generator nozzles on today. Very happy how compact this was compared to lockline, performance is at its best with a mere 1,200 gallons an hour pushing through 2 nozzles. Cant wait to show you guys a video of exactly how it works.

Hey man. How's it going? Where did you get that nozzle from? Looks cool.

 

[pelphrey]

Hey man. How's it going? Where did you get that nozzle from? Looks cool.

https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/