Why I still love this hobby, my SPS tank all grown up!

[Crabs McJones]

Oh WOW, that is beautiful!

 

[JHUMike]

beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Abhishek]

I buy the Vanadium from Triton, you use so little it should last you a few years. All the others I buy from ebay or Amazon and mix myself.

You can use Triton if you want, no issues with it at all. But each Triton bottle is around $35 and with the amount I would dose each bottle would last around 2 months. Buying it dry and mixing my own solution cost about $43 total and will last me more than 5 years.

I started with the dosage based on what Triton recommended and have increased the amounts based of subsequent tests.

Mix recipe for the SPS Blend Trace Elements is
into 1 liter of rodi I mix
Manganese Chloride 0.25g
Zinc Chloride 0.14g
Potassium Iodide KI 0.80g

Then I dose 1.8ml per 100 Liters per day.

Right now I have the Iodine out of the mix. But I think it was a mistake on my part and I measured it out wrong, for the last 2 years Iodine was around 40 with dosing the above formula.

Thanks Joe for sharing the DIY recipe. Always excited and honored to have veterans share their ways of reefing and show us the path.
I still remember reading your TOTM thread and what you did in 2002 - many would kill to have a tank of that stature even now .
I wish I could link the thread for people to see what you achieved 15 years back but think am not allowed to link to a different forum !

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Daniel@R2R]

It's been a while since I have posted in the main forums. I've had ups and downs with keeping tanks over the years but when the tank is on a roll, it's the best. So here are some pictures of my 270 Gallon SPS tank.

Tank has been setup for 9 years, but I restarted the tank 2 years ago with only frags. So all growth is from those little frags we buy online.

Brief overview of my system: 270G SPS Tank, 140G sumps, 35G Frag Tank, Ultra Reef Akula UKS-200 Skimmer, Apex, Giesemann Spectra 3x250W MH 4x80W T5, 2xReefbrite Tech 72" Blue LED, Triton Dosing, ARID C30 Algae Reactor, Maxspect Gyre.

My Maintenance is: Ozone 6 hours a day for water clarity. 2 cups Carbon changed out every 4 weeks. Clean out ARID reactor every 4-6 weeks. Dose trace a elements homemade mixture of Zinc and Manganese daily. Dose KNO3 when needed to keep Nitrates at 10ppm. Vanadium, Strontium are dosed every two weeks. Dose microbe-lift Special Blend every two weeks. Skimmer cleaned once a week. filter socks changed daily. Triton dosing for alk/Mg/Ca 334ml per day using Triton Elements. No Water Changes.

Some pictures of the tank and setup. Yes my Phosphates are at 1ppm.

Tank from 5/2016

Tank last month 2017

Some pics

Video from this month.



Equipment Room

Triton ICP test from Dec 6, 2017

This reef is STUNNING!!! Absolutely amazing!! Please keep sharing these photos!

 

[BkReefBaby]

Great tank

 

[kdino]

wow!

 

[EAsalty]

Video from this month.



Equipment Room

Triton ICP test from Dec 6, 2017

Very nice and inspirational for noobies like me

 

[gcarroll]

Awesome Pics Joe! Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Perry]

Looking awesome Joe!

 

[BigJohnny]

Do you dose all 4 parts of triton base elements and then add those additional trace elements on top of that, or does 3a only include magnesium and you just dose 1,2,3a and dose those specific trace instead of 3b? Any reason you don't use core7? 7334ml a day of each part is a lot obviously. Which stuff do you dose by pumps and which by hand?

Also, how long since your last water change and what salt mix do you/did you use? After the birth of my first child I've grown tired of water changes and plan on trying triton.

Also, why do you dose microbe-lift Special Blend? It appears to claim it mainly reduces nitrate but you said you dose kno3 as well. I assume you perceive some other benefit or you would just dose one and fine tune based on that?

Thanks

 

[larangcon]

Those purple queens though....

Gotta love the queens

 

[Rakie]

The SPS got bigger, the LPS got smaller.. Seems pretty legit to me.

 

[JBNY]

Awesome Pics Joe! Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks Greg!

Do you dose all 4 parts of triton base elements and then add those additional trace elements on top of that, or does 3a only include magnesium and you just dose 1,2,3a and dose those specific trace instead of 3b? Any reason you don't use core7? 7334ml a day of each part is a lot obviously. Which stuff do you dose by pumps and which by hand?

Also, how long since your last water change and what salt mix do you/did you use? After the birth of my first child I've grown tired of water changes and plan on trying triton.

Also, why do you dose microbe-lift Special Blend? It appears to claim it mainly reduces nitrate but you said you dose kno3 as well. I assume you perceive some other benefit or you would just dose one and fine tune based on that?

Thanks

I dose the 4 part Triton Elements and dose the trace elements on top of that. I dopn't use core 7 mainly because I was using the Elements before Core7 came out, and I also bought a 2 year supply of the Elements, so maybe in March of 2019 I will look to change.

Last water change was January 2016. I used IO at the time.

I have been dosing Special Blend for something like 13 years. I originally bought it to help with a cyano problem and after felt it helped to keep it a bay and have been dosing ever since.

Gotta love the queens

Yeah, I'm pretty happy they worked out in my tank, I love them.

The SPS got bigger, the LPS got smaller.. Seems pretty legit to me.

haha, yeah the LPS I put in when I just had frags. the ones on the right side are not getting smaller though I keep breaking off pieces and giving them to people.

 

[BigJohnny]

Thanks Greg!



I dose the 4 part Triton Elements and dose the trace elements on top of that. I dopn't use core 7 mainly because I was using the Elements before Core7 came out, and I also bought a 2 year supply of the Elements, so maybe in March of 2019 I will look to change.

Last water change was January 2016. I used IO at the time.

I have been dosing Special Blend for something like 13 years. I originally bought it to help with a cyano problem and after felt it helped to keep it a bay and have been dosing ever since.



Yeah, I'm pretty happy they worked out in my tank, I love them.



haha, yeah the LPS I put in when I just had frags. the ones on the right side are not getting smaller though I keep breaking off pieces and giving them to people.

Cool thanks.

 

[pjr]

Awesomeness! Great SPS growth!

 

[Tony73]

I love your tank

Congrats

 

[Joao junior]

joe beautiful, wonderful !!! what's the secret to making the purple queens pick up food??

 

[mtraylor]

Your aquarium is beautiful. Great coloration on the corals!

 

[UncleSalty]

The results after a year are incredible!!!!

 

[reef_ranch]

Your tank is a rare gem with all of those mature colonies. Thanks for sharing it.

Any trick to getting the Tukas to take the pellets or did they simply start eating them? And what type and size do you feed?