15gal SPS dominated nano

[SkipperTheSohalTang]

Well I think it compounds each day I read this forum, but right now the top 4 SPS on my wish list are Oregon Tort, Pearlberry, a true blue/teal staghorn (purple may be ok), and a nice Efflo (like $500 efflo or similar).

Nice. I've got some awesome acros on my wish list!

 

[EW_Fish]

You know I saw a tank on youtube I want to say around 30g and it had a green slimmer places bottom middle and it grew to the top and all the way to both sides. That reminds me of your tank. lol It will get harder once they get bigger. I had a packed 20g

 

[big54bob]

Nice cube of colored sticks Matt

 

[SCMatt]

Need to get some new pics of the tank and coral but I have to glue a few more pieces to the rock either today or tomorrow. Much to my dismay its getting closer to the time I frag the Green Slimer, the thing is a beast. We'll see, might just let it go until I HAVE to do it. That's kind of been the whole process and idea with this tank, kind of hands off as much as I can and just let it grow how it wants to grow. I added a HOB refugium instead of my HOB Aquaclear yesterday. Chaeto and some new CUC come tomorrow. It allowed me to clean up the display and move the ATO back there and get the skimmer tubes out of the tank, especially the locline return as it was blocking light at the back of the tank. Moved the heater back from the aquaclear to the refugium as well.


I did get a couple photos of the fish though.

And the ever elusive Tailspot. The tort behind him is washed out due to the flash, its really solid blue/purple.

 

[Waterchange]

How are you liking the radion? I just got mine yesterday! What settings did you go for and what's your light cycle like?

 

[SCMatt]

I love it. Though I can only really compare it to my full spectrum DIY that came before it. With the Radion however I've had no problem getting growth or color from the SPS and find that in most cases the water is more at fault for changes than the light. I've found that you can have your whites turned WAY to high on this fixture, they really cut through the water and the sticks don't care for it. Granted I am working with 15" of water depth plus 8" above the water where the light sits, so what only about 2ft of total depth. My settings are customized as far as color goes, tried to get something I liked looking at and the coral responded too. I run them for 10H a day of course only a couple of those hours are at full blast the others are spent ramping up and down on either side of the peak.

My UV and Blues are on 100, my whites never go above 65%, and the fixture itself hasn't maxed 70% yet. Reds and Greens I have fairly low throughout the day.

Not sure if its the best way to go but its been working for me so I haven't really changed it much. If anyone has any tips or suggestions I'm open ears. Its fairly basic and haven't really gone crazy bumping this color up at this time and this one at this time, etc. Kept it fairly uniform and steady across the board. Heres what the graph looks like, kinda hard to read. And then what my sliders look like on the peak of the day.

 

[Waterchange]

Nice! I'm still tweaking things, I went from a fixed spectrum blue and white only so I'm excited to see what this will do to my corals. I've never really struggled with color however my lights were super old and very outdated (Prism es)

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Sweet shots. I just got my radion(gen 1) and it's a million times better than anything I've had. Colors pop so much more.

 

[SCMatt]

Thanks. That shot of the Clown may be one of my favorites I've ever taken.

 

[SCMatt]

I found my Blenny today on the floor, carpet surfing and crispy. Not sure when he jumped, I have a screen top but it doesn't go all the way back because of the stuff I have hanging on the back. Its a risk I take and it bit me here. I've been treating this tank for some algae, what appears to be some Dinos to me (not taking over just trying to prevent it) and he may of jumped due to that or me blacking out the tank for a day or so. Been adding a bit of Hydrogen Peroxide but haven't seen much results from dosing the tank or blacking it out so I think I'm going to take a new approach. Going to make sure my pH is on par and raise it slowly if need be. Nitrates register 0 (crap test kit for this though so that may be off base), phosphates register .05 on my last test, going to test again soon but its still not out of control. The algae currently is more an eyesore to me than a bother to the coral or anything yet, I just would like it gone. Like I said pH is my next test and solution as I think its a bit low atm.

Guess I need a new blenny or small fish then to go with my Clowns. If I don't go for another Tailspot any suggestions on what I could keep in this tank with the two clowns? Anything that will swim around a bit more compared to the blenny?

Also been considering getting an Apex controller....hmmmmm tempting!

 

[SCMatt]

Could of SWORE I posted new FTS and update here, guess I didn't! To many places to post I guess I never hit submit. I just updated the original post to show the true equipment list and such. At any rate here is the update:

Still pondering getting an Apex, its in my cart at MD right now but I haven't pulled the trigger....


New FTS, sorry I wish I could take better FTS, with the LEDs its tough. All of these photos came out a bit dark, I'll see if I can work on them to lighten it up. I've glued more frags to the rocks, free'd up a frag rack and got that out of the tank but I am quickly running out of real estate, sucks because I constantly want more frags. Need a new tank I guess LOL. I think I might swap out some on this current rack for some on my wish list soon. Have another Copps Hulk Milli frag up there as well as another Pink Lemonade that I really have no use for since I have both on my rocks already. Need to get me a Pearlberry and Oregon Tort I think. You can see I have a couple of corals on magnetic frag discs on the side, the ones that want to table more, gonna see what happens. Frees up space on the rack and the rocks.

Pink Lemonade tips and polyp extension, also one from above. Can see the yellow a bit more from above.

In that same area here is the green slimer from above, really getting bulky. Check out how fluffy it looks.

Here is a needles in a haystack I think from CC? This might just be a random aussie delicate deepwater something or other I can't remember. Its from CC though. Can see what looks to be dinos on it (BLEHHHHH), been fighting a mild outbreak of whatever it is in the tank, hasn't really exploded though or bothered the coral really so thats a good thing. Going to raise the pH a bit to see if that helps but its really not taking over or exploding at the moment so I'm not totally freaking out or pulling my hair out yet. Been like this for quite a while.

Perched above my Slimer is my Cali Tort and above that in the photo is my Purple Plasma. Also a crop of the tort.

Anyway that's the update! Its moving right along. Still happy with it other than the brown algae that is more a headache to me than anything else. Going to try and raise the pH a bit and see what that does. Its getting warm here so I can open the windows without issue. Let me know what you think!

 

[joshbbert]

Everything looks fantastic! Do you dose?

 

[SCMatt]

Thanks, yes I use liquid 2 part (B-Ionic) currently.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow I have some much needed work to do to get my nano finally looking like your. Stunning.

 

[stealth57]

How is your light settings coming along? are you planning to run your LEDs at full intensity? I also have Radions' XR15w PRO just recently installed the TIR Standard Lens running at 50% now that ive noticed you running your lights at a lower intensity. I became concerned when i noticed you ran your lights at 30% earlier. I had mine running at 100% intensity for about 5 months with lps and softies as I had thought I wasnt providing enough light for them. I didn't notice much growth with so much intensity with the LPS or softies. I believe they weren't happy with too much light they seemed stunned... but overall healthy looking. I have a 20 gallon 24x24 IM Fusion 20. I recently purchased two Birdsnests and a Acropora before i switched my lights to 50% intensity. A week went by and the birdsnest both completed bleached even though i had them at the very bottom of my tank. Interestingly my Acro was able to tolerate the higher intensity, however i think it likes the lower intensities because I noticed that the polyps began to slowly come out at 70% intensity with your same lighting schedule. BTW i think your tank looks amazing.

 

[SCMatt]

Thanks. I think the max I have my lighting going is 70-75% and that's only a few hours during the day. With that I have my whites turned down to no more than about 60%. Since changing my whites to 60 or less from 100 I've noticed a big change, the sps like it so much more this way. Good color and polyp extension. Those whites really cut through the water and like you my corals did not respond well to high intense whites. I've been running a modified program the last month or so, more blue spectrum time during ramps in the morning and afternoon and less time overall and it seems to work well so far. This was more to do with trying to cut down on some algae growth (cutting overall running time) than anything else.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Very nice! Love the lighting color!

 

[SCMatt]

Thanks! The pictures seem to show a TINY bit more blue than what my eyes see but since dropping the whites down it tends to take on a bluer shade overall.

 

[stealth57]

Thanks. I think the max I have my lighting going is 70-75% and that's only a few hours during the day. With that I have my whites turned down to no more than about 60%. Since changing my whites to 60 or less from 100 I've noticed a big change, the sps like it so much more this way. Good color and polyp extension. Those whites really cut through the water and like you my corals did not respond well to high intense whites. I've been running a modified program the last month or so, more blue spectrum time during ramps in the morning and afternoon and less time overall and it seems to work well so far. This was more to do with trying to cut down on some algae growth (cutting overall running time) than anything else.

I came across Schwings reef radion template I find it similar to the settings you use however he has included cloud features and longer morning and afternoon blue intervals. He runs his whites at 55% I did notice a lot more algae growth with higher white light intensities. Have you ever considered vodka dosing or a little gfo reactor? I used chemi pure however the gfo in that gets used up pretty quickly probably 1 week in my tank.

 

[SCMatt]

I did look around for other people's radion settings when doing mine so you might see similarities with others. Worked their suggestions in with what I saw in my tank, seems to work well. I have considered a small gfo reactor, still on the list. I've tried putting some in a media bag but it never seems to have the same effect.