ADA 30C SPS Mix reef (7 months in)

jeffww · Jul 29, 2019

Tank: ADA 30C (~7.4g, ~7g effective volume)
Circulation: Eheim 250 with a layer of ceramic mechanical media, then activated carbon, purigen, phosguard in that order.
Lighting: 2x Tuna Blue Kessil A80
Corals: Unknown Monti, ORA Purple Stylo, Hollywood Stunner Chalice, Xenia, Green Discosoma shroom.
Other: Kamoer 3ch dosing pump (only doing top offs right now)
Fish: None yet. Going to throw in a black molly and an orchid dottyback or goby probably as the two residents.

I showed a few pics earlier but here is a FTS. Tank is pretty static right now as I wait for Silicon Valley coral farmer's market. Looking to get 1 or two in some combination of birdsnest, red planet, and garf bonsai/ tricolor to put on the brightest/highest flow ledge on my rock. I know about the xenia. Wife just had to have it. It's on its own rock and I think I can keep it under control with a pair of pinsettes.

All in all. Everything is doing okay. Good PE on the stylo and monti. I see a new eye on the chalice every day (I think this will be a problem later). Xenia seems to also be getting bigger every day.

I really wish I knew how to fix the yellow wash you get from adjusting the blue in photoshop. Oh well here is FTS in white light. Letting the snails go at the diatoms before they vanish as the tank matures a bit:

jeffww · Feb 15, 2020

An update! One day I will learn how to take good photos of the reef.
Viewing side 1 you can see how big that stylo, xenia and monti have gotten. The BN next to it is actually a green-tip orange that I bought as a thumbnail frag for 10 bucks. It's browned out as I had a minor bleaching event to bottomed out nitrogen and phosphorous. But we've corrected and are on our way!

Viewing side 2 with my "getting concerningly large Sprung's Stunner". It's about 3 times larger than when I first bought it. Grows very fast but is good at stinging away invading xenia. But I can pull them off with forceps anyways...so maybe I'll change him out for more SPS in the future.

My best growing Acropora. An un-id'd Millepora. Had since September (when I added the first BN) and it has doubled in size from being an nub with no base at all. Next to a new (~2 week) yellow/purple polyp BN, wild blue tenuis, and red dragon (actually growing incredibly fast) and also my very worm/barnacle infested Valida that is somehow still encrusting.

Angle-shot:

Welp that's all. Maybe I will update again in another 6 months and the Acros have really settled in. The main challenge I foresee is surviving the summer.

jeffww · Feb 15, 2020

I also forgot to mention that just 2-3 weeks ago the tank was blanketed in about 2" of GHA which caused my nutrients to zero out. But I just bought more snails and toothbrushed it away. Smooth sailing now for 1 week and counting! I bought reef flux but it didn't arrive before I just fixed it myself haha.