28g SPS Cube

MobyMD · Dec 9, 2011

Hello Reef 2 Reef! I thougth it was about time that I shared my tank. It has been running with the current setup since June of this year.

Lighting:
DIY 24 3W LEDs, 18RB and 6CW - blues on for 8 hours, whites on for 6 hours
2 24 T5s, UVL 75/25 and super actinic - on for 3 hours midday

Filtration:
Eshoppes 150 hob
Carbon
~50lb live rock
Weekly 10 gallon water change minimum

Circulation:
2 MJ 900s with sure flow mods on a duo wavemaker
Filter return pump around 600gph

Suppliments/salt:
Seachem Ca advance (dry)
Seachem Alk (dry)
VSV 1mL a day
Rea Sea Coral Pro salt

Testing Salifert test kits:
Nitrate- 0
Phosphate- <0.1
Ca- 500
Alk- 8-9dKH
Mg- 1450

Livestock:
Royal gramma
Misbar clown (tank bred)
Chromi
Cuc
30+ sps frags
3 lps
4 softies

For the future I want to make it a bare bottom, replace the current powerheads with a vortech, and of course.....get a bigger tank. Thanks for looking and letting me know what you think.

FTS

ORA Pink Lemonaid

Unknown Acro from Garf.....ID?

mobymd-albums-28g-sps-cube-picture22200-unknown-garf.jpg

Oregon Tort, Acro Gomezi, Acro Miyagi, Tyree Setosa and others

mobymd-albums-28g-sps-cube-picture22198-oregon-tort.jpg

Tweetybird Acro and some Blowpops

mobymd-albums-28g-sps-cube-picture22197-tweetybird-acro.jpg

Acro Lokani

Bluegreen Tenius and others

mobymd-albums-28g-sps-cube-picture22193-side-bluegreen-tenius.jpg

skinz78 · Dec 9, 2011

Looking really good, keep the updates and pic's coming!

MobyMD · Dec 10, 2011

Thanks. I will. I am hoping everything will settle in and really start growing well.

swannyson7 · Dec 10, 2011

Looks good! That rock wall on the background really gives the tank the look of extra depth. 1smile1

MobyMD · Dec 12, 2011

I woke up this morning to my Acro Lokani completely RTNed. I have no idea what happened. I tested and everything was fine. I had another deepwater acro months ago that didn't do well. I wonder why?

SaltWaterDave · Dec 12, 2011

You're tank looks really nice and bigger than a 28g. I like the rock wall in the back as well.

bige · Dec 12, 2011

Nice work. The back wall is awesome!

MobyMD · Dec 12, 2011

Thanks everyone for the kind words. The rock wall on the back was really not that hard to do. I started with Marco Rock and smashed it to small pieces. I used regular two-part epoxy to glue the rocks to the back and filled in the bald spots with dust. It is my goal to have both encrusting and plating montis growing from the back wall.

Johnthebaptist · Dec 23, 2011

How is the growth with the LED set up? What brand did you use and did you like them?

MobyMD · Dec 23, 2011

Johnthebaptist said:
How is the growth with the LED set up? What brand did you use and did you like them?

Well when I first added them it shocked a few of the corals. Everything has now recovered and has shown some growth. The montis are growing like crazy and the acros are all encrusting and shooting up some new growth.

I went with Rapid LED. They are all Cree 3W LEDs. I did a 3:1 ratio of royal blue to cool white. Wish I had some neutral whites to expand the spectrum. But the T5s fill in the gaps. I have loved the color, the glow and the growth!

MobyMD · Jan 2, 2013

It has been a year since I have made an update about the tank. Things are still going well. I have not added any new corals for a while and am just letting everything grow out. I have been happy with the LEDs but I am not sure I am getting the growth that I would with MH or T5s. The colors are pretty vibrant on most of the corals though. Many of the sps have encrusted and made huge bases. I am hoping that they will send up new growth soon. Anyone have any ideas about why the acros are encrusting so much and not growing up??

FTS

Right side

Left side

skinz78 · Jan 2, 2013

Looking great! Most Acro's will actually encrust for a time and then all the sudden they'll start shooting for the stars.

revhtree · Jan 2, 2013

Looks good bro!

jtgordon20 · Jan 2, 2013

Looks good!!!
Just as Skinz says. They'll go up soon.
Still the same regime? How do you like the RSCP salt? I have it also and I can't seem to find an easy way of how much to add per gallon to get 1.026.

MobyMD · Jan 3, 2013

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep watchfully waiting for all of them to shoot to the stars. One acro did just that. The purple with green polyps in the bottom right of the Left side picture. One day I checked it and it had three spikes going up. I already fragged it and put it in my tank upstairs.

jtgordon20: yes still the same regimen. I am still using the RSCP salt. I have been through many different brands over the years and this one seems to work best for me. I have a small cup I keep in the salt bucket and I know 2.5 of those cups gets me close to 1.023. Then I adjust from there. I also have not found the exact amount that will always hit 1.026.

jtgordon20 · Jan 3, 2013

Great to hear that the corals are going up now!!

I just found out about their strict mixing instructions and seems like its better than the way I would mix the salt. At 1.026 is the alk on the fresh salt mix 7? What's the Cal?

MobyMD · Jan 3, 2013

jtgordon20 said:
Great to hear that the corals are going up now!!

I just found out about their strict mixing instructions and seems like its better than the way I would mix the salt. At 1.026 is the alk on the fresh salt mix 7? What's the Cal?

Just a few of them but i am hopeful. More like 8-9 on the Alk. The Ca is between 450 and 500