SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[sdreef]

I am glad your salt change worked out for you. I found myself in similar situation with not liking the issues with salt and oversea prices. I am in the process of changing to brightwell, so far did 120 gallons ( 40 gallons a weekend) in the 300 gallon tank. My numbers have never been better.

I lost confidence, and decided it was time for a change. One of my local friends had switched from TM Pro to AF Reef Salt after the initial set of issues with TM Pro. His system is similar to mine, and was looking good with the AF Salt.

I didn't know the best way to transition salts, and mixed the TM pro and AF Reef Salt for a couple batches with each progressive batch consisting of more AF Reef Salt. I've been at 100% AF for the past couple batches, and I've been happy with the change to this point. Happy to hear you've also had a similar experience with the change in salt.

 

[1ocean]

Love the tank... I am making the next 40 gallons of new salt now for this weekend. At that point I will be at 160 gallons water change..

 

[ReefRondo]

This tank is incredible. Very well done!

 

[sdreef]

Love the tank... I am making the next 40 gallons of new salt now for this weekend. At that point I will be at 160 gallons water change..

Thank you!

This tank is incredible. Very well done!

Thanks for taking a look and the compliment.

 

[sdreef]

Here's a couple progression shots showing the recovery of a couple of the more browned out corals. Colors and polyp extension continue to improve on everything.

Acrolandia Tenuis in October and then one month later in November. Overall appearance improving daily.

BC Gilded Lily October then one month later. Yellow is deeper and more areas are yellow, most of the brown areas now have a tinge of green. Continues to recover but a little more slowly.

And some of the other acros in the system

BC Kermit Song Granulosa

BC Flamethrower Table

Unknown

Cherry Bomb

RMF Candyland

 

[sdreef]

Update on the purple queen anthias (pascalus). This is a new dominant male in the system. After two years the prior dominant male was relegated to the back of the tank a couple weeks back. Earlier this week, unfortunately I lost him due to ongoing aggression. The dorsal fin of the new dominant male is healing from his battle wounds.

Of the 10 anthias I started with there are six remaining at two years. I lost 3 due to hierarchy issues and fighting. I gave one a heart attack when I trapped a clown tang in a fish trap and popped up from the floor. I startled the female who suddenly started gasping and went belly up. Don't know what else to call the sudden death, but it was unusual. Of the remaining six anthias there are 4 females and one subdominant male and the dominant male that continue to eat well and appear healthy

I am considering adding more female pascalus. The intent for the new fish would be improved acclimation to the system and feeding response due to the already established anthias.

Gem tang made it back to the large display after removal of the copperband. Does well with the trio of captive bred yellow tangs.

Still the favorite fish for everyone else in the family. Doing well after 15 months, but needs to eat a lot frequently.

 

[Hwsreef]

Very nice tank ! Do you still dosing spongexcel?

 

[sdreef]

Very nice tank ! Do you still dosing spongexcel?

Thank you! No, I'm not dosing still. I stopped once the dinos were going away a couple months back.

Currently, I only dose alk, calcium, and magnesium. I've started adding manganese and iodine to my salt water reservoir when I make a batch of new salt as these were routinely low on ICP. I feed heavilyt, but otherwise, I am not currently dosing anything. Contemplating adding live phyto on a regular basis, but haven't started that yet.

EDIT: I'm also carbon dosing currently with TM Elimi NP

 

[1ocean]

Yes I been dosing iodine, amino's and manganese to my 300 also. The goni really responded nice to it and so did all the lps. Been doing it for a moth now. 1/2 the dose..

 

[sdreef]

Yes I been dosing iodine, amino's and manganese to my 300 also. The goni really responded nice to it and so did all the lps. Been doing it for a moth now. 1/2 the dose..

That's good to know. I haven't been doing it long enough to know if it makes a difference, but adjusting the saltwater when I make it up is simple enough.

I like the idea of keeping it simple, but also interested to see if I observe any positive effect dosing live phyto consistently for a period of time. In addition to any health benefits and heterotrophic feeding for the corals, I'm also curious to see if it has any effect on the measurable phosphate levels.

I personally believe in feeding frequently in small quantities and adjusting export to keep up. Carbon dosing has been helpful but affected nitrates more than phosphates in my system, and I continue to change Rowaphos every couple weeks to maintain phosphates 0.1-0.2. I would love it if live phyto also contributes to managing the phosphates.

 

[sdreef]

Some daylight photos from this weekend

Sapphire Blue Millie, new addition. I love blue corals and excited to add this to a prime location. A very healthy piece from @BlackLabelAquatics. Thanks @FarmerTy !

Sniper's Xolotl Millie (Aztec God of Fire and Lightning)

Sniper's Voltron Millie (Acclimating to the system past few months, starting to grow and pick up some new colors)

Splice, can see the pink starting to show up in the new branch and some of the polyps along the base.

Tyree Pink Lemonade

Yellow Anacropora, Really nice yellow coral, still acclimating to system, red polyps

Unnamed Malaysian speciosa

Rainbow Loom

Nameless

Hung's Rainbow. Colors continue improving. Not sure if it is due to size, lower N/P, or just time and acclimation to the system, but consistent growth that seems to be picking up in pace.

WWC AllStar

RRU Unknown piece

Vivid's Confetti

Unknown, a very pretty multi-coral that is demonstrating rapid growth currently.

 

[jmichaelh7]

So no dosing nutrients for you?

The Tyree pink lemonade is a beauty . I like that yellow and red combo

Also, cherry bomb . I like the red polyps wow.

 

[sdreef]

So no dosing nutrients for you?

The Tyree pink lemonade is a beauty . I like that yellow and red combo

Also, cherry bomb . I like the red polyps wow.

No dosing nutrients. I feed freeze dried mysis 5 times per day via the plank feeder, frozen one to two times / day, and pellets once a day. My nitrates currently are around 5 by hanna checker and have been gradually going down since I started carbon dosing. Phosphates are at 0.15 by hanna checker.

Export of nutrient via auto water exchange 20L / day, mechanical filtration, skimmer, 15 gallon refugium with reverse light cycle with chaeto, carbon dosing, and rowa phos in reactor every two weeks.

 

[aaron186]

Entered in error

 

[FarmerTy]

Those coral pics look fantastic! You can just tell happy corals by looking at them. You’ll love it when the sapphire starts growing larger and those polyps go silver and the blue gets deeper. It’s one of my favorite full spectrum Milles.

 

[SaltyT]

Your tank is beautiful and your photography skills are great! Great job balancing frequent feedings and maintaining acro colonies. I let my PO4 get too high over the summer and my acros really took a hit, coralline too.

 

[sdreef]

Your tank is beautiful and your photography skills are great! Great job balancing frequent feedings and maintaining acro colonies. I let my PO4 get too high over the summer and my acros really took a hit, coralline too.

Thank you, it's a work in progress. During the first year of the tank I let the phosphates ride and observed I lost a lot of coralline once I was above 0.5. As I've maintained below 0.2 the coralline has been increasing.

I love my fish. Between the anthias and the various wrasses they require the frequent feeding to keep them fat as you know. My current regimen is freeze dried mysis via an automatic feeder 5 times/ day and frozen twice a day. As I didn't want to reduce feeding, it's been a process of adjusting the export.

I have the standard mechanical filtration/skimmer and I have a refugium. Initially I increased my water change volume. After accounting for displacement the actual volume of water in my system is about 1000 Liters. I increased the daily water exchange to 20 L (2%). I've use rowaphos GFO in a reactor and adjusted the frequency to changing the media every 2 weeks. And, I started carbon dosing which also seems to have helped.
I've started recently adding live phyto 2-3 times per week, but not sure if that will reduce the phosphates. I'm still playing with the volume and frequency of the phyto.

Still figuring it out, but currently phosphates are living in the range of 0.1- 0.2 .

 

[SaltyT]

Thank you, it's a work in progress. During the first year of the tank I let the phosphates ride and observed I lost a lot of coralline once I was above 0.5. As I've maintained below 0.2 the coralline has been increasing.

I love my fish. Between the anthias and the various wrasses they require the frequent feeding to keep them fat as you know. My current regimen is freeze dried mysis via an automatic feeder 5 times/ day and frozen twice a day. As I didn't want to reduce feeding, it's been a process of adjusting the export.

I have the standard mechanical filtration/skimmer and I have a refugium. Initially I increased my water change volume. After accounting for displacement the actual volume of water in my system is about 1000 Liters. I increased the daily water exchange to 20 L (2%). I've use rowaphos GFO in a reactor and adjusted the frequency to changing the media every 2 weeks. And, I started carbon dosing which also seems to have helped.
I've started recently adding live phyto 2-3 times per week, but not sure if that will reduce the phosphates. I'm still playing with the volume and frequency of the phyto.

Still figuring it out, but currently phosphates are living in the range of 0.1- 0.2 .

Tank looks fantastic! I've been carbon dosing to keep NO3 down, but it doesn't seem to do much to lower PO4. I'm using phosguard currently, but should switch to GFO. I saw a comment by Randy regarding phosguard and aluminum. My PO4 got up to 1.96 in August now it's down to 0.41... steady progress!

 

[sdreef]

Tank looks fantastic! I've been carbon dosing to keep NO3 down, but it doesn't seem to do much to lower PO4. I'm using phosguard currently, but should switch to GFO. I saw a comment by Randy regarding phosguard and aluminum. My PO4 got up to 1.96 in August now it's down to 0.41... steady progress!

I've observed the same thing with regards to the carbon dosing affecting the nitrates more than phosphates.

I just received a new ICP test, and interesting you mention the aluminum. There's been aluminum showing up on ICP tests for the past year and I've been unable to identify the source. I don't use any white or ceramic media. I do have some ceramic tiles for some corals and frag plugs, but don't expect this as the source.

I thought perhaps it was related to kalkwasser as a contaminant, and took my reactor off line a few months back and have gone to using only 2 part. I was expecting to see the aluminum go down, but it's still present. The level is steady and I'm at a loss regarding the possible source.

 

[1ocean]

Be carefull with liquid phosphate control items, usually contains lanthanum Chloride which is especially bad for tangs and other fish can't tolerate it either. I have read and seen horror stories of people losing tangs and sometimes almost all their fish ..