Bubba's SPS Journey

[SneakyTortuga]

The tank turned 3 months old a couple days ago and it’s really starting to find it’s happy place. For the first time my chromis are breeding and you can see all their eggs on the right glass. It’s weird they picked my glass cleaner and algae clip. My wife won’t let me clean the glass now even though I told her they won’t survive.

I have some jawbreaker mushrooms that don’t seem like they want to attach to rubble. I have them in that small container at the bottom of the pic. Any advice to get them to attach?

tank of epic proportions!

 

[bubbaque]

What's your total count on sps now? Looks great!

I tried to count a few days ago and I believe I’m around 160 different ones.

 

[Dugless]

And your favorite?

 

[bubbaque]

And your favorite?

That’s a really tough one as I remember how amazing some corals use to look but still aren’t fully colored up yet in the new tank. What use to be some of my favorites aren’t really anymore due to that. If I’m going strictly off what is going on in the new tank I’d have to say MattV rainbow envy - orange polyps are finally coming in and I’ve always struggled with it in the previous tank.

Others I’m excited about that are growing well and looking good are BC Angelica and BC flowers grow out of grave.

 

[Wrangy]

Dammnnn that's a heck of a three month old tank!! looking fabulous Bubba!!

As for the shrooms, it's just a waiting game unfortunately haha @Rakie might have some tricks though??

 

[drawman]

Bubba I'm jealous...my tank is 4 months old and you make me feel like I'm slacking!

 

[Dugless]

I tried a few times to grab a flowers grow out of grave, but it’s never been available. How long have you had it?

 

[flyfisherman]

I did just that. Tank wasn't even really cycled. I added bottled bacteria, fish and a day or two later I added my first corals. I fed a ton of frozen just to make sure there were nutrients. I did have color lose but corals are healthy and growing. Colors are starting to come in strong now and I couldn't be happier with the direction the tank is going.

Most new hobbiest start their tanks running gfo and doing everything they can to keep nutrients at 0. That is the mistake people make and what I believe causes the myth of new tanks can not support corals.

They barely feed because they are scared of algae so everything staves and dies. I don't have a spot of algae anywhere in my tank but I have massive snails that would take care of anything that tried to grow. If you look at tanks like @FarmerTy and watch how much he feeds you would be amazed. WWC feeds their tanks every hour. @Battlecorals has an article saying sps corals absorb so much nutrients that they alone will keep nutrients down. I think new hobbiest are starting to understand corals need nutrients so hopefully the myth of new tanks can not support corals will one day go away.


Here is Adams article if anyone wants to read it.

SPS SUCK!!!! THE ACRO-FUGIUM WRITE UP

How about a complete reversal of nearly all of the preconceived essential rules to keeping our sps healthy? Now this really isn’t so new a concept, as I’ve been having this conversation with many of you over the years. In fact, so many that I felt it was finally time to just lay this one on the...

battlecorals.com

you have to build up to heavy feeding. if you overfeed a new tank you will be blown up with algae. its a delicate balance. pump the nutrients when you are algae free and stocked with coral for sure. if you brown out, dial it back.

 

[Pdash]

One day, I WILL hug that tank.

You and me both.

 

[AngryMike2016]

We will also hug Bubba

 

[bubbaque]

I tried a few times to grab a flowers grow out of grave, but it’s never been available. How long have you had it?

A while, maybe 10 months. At the time he told me he could only cut a small frag. It never grew for me but now it is so I couldn’t be happier.

you have to build up to heavy feeding. if you overfeed a new tank you will be blown up with algae. its a delicate balance. pump the nutrients when you are algae free and stocked with coral for sure. if you brown out, dial it back.

Thats the issue I personally feel makes reefers fail when they add corals in early.

I fed a ton of food from day one, just as much as my old tanks and the new one only had 3 fish at first. I’m not sure why people worry about algae. Every new tank is gonna get it but get a clean up crew in preparation for it. My tank never got algae that looked crazy bad because of snails and at one point I was feeding 10 - 12 times a day. I still skim the reef discussion forum and I see people everyday telling people with algae to dose vibrant or lower nutrients. I tried to comment a few times telling people to skip dosing stuff and get a cleanup crew that involves snails but people skip over that advice and would rather dose their tanks. My tank was getting covered in coralline after being setup for two weeks because it had nutrients to grow. People need to stop worrying about algae and feed their tanks, even from day one but be prepared with some snails. More early success would come if people did.

I’m not sure what started the high nutrients cause brown corals as many stunning tanks has proved this wrong. Brown corals comes from stressed corals.

We will also hug Bubba

lets not get carried away, haha.

 

[bubbaque]

I know this is bigger than most would want but I have a few this size to handle any algae that would ever pop up. You can see the normal sized turbo on the rock in the background.

 

[rushbattle]

I know this is bigger than most would want but I have a few this size to handle any algae that would ever pop up. You can see the normal sized turbo on the rock in the background.

Where do you get snails? I am dealing with Red turf that needs some giant hungry snails. Have any urchins? I use them mostly for coralline consumption.

 

[Pdash]

Bubba and Duglass have been serious inspiration, I had tanks as a teenager on through my early twenties just dabbling with sps at the end. Well after a bunch of years I decided to get back into it. I tend to agree with bubba. I'm pretty sure I was starving my tank initially. I was constantly dealing with weird algae, brown cyano, dinos, red cyano, and corals that wouldn't grow/color up. As soon as I got a bunch of snails added a tang and started feeding like a lunatic my sps colored up and green flim algae and coralline began growning well. Feel like I wasted the first 3 months of having the tank setup.

 

[bubbaque]

Where do you get snails? I am dealing with Red turf that needs some giant hungry snails. Have any urchins? I use them mostly for coralline consumption.

I got mine from my lfs. They weren’t as large as they are now but I’ve had them a few years.

I have one urchin and I do see where it eats the coralline.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

A while, maybe 10 months. At the time he told me he could only cut a small frag. It never grew for me but now it is so I couldn’t be happier.

Thats the issue I personally feel makes reefers fail when they add corals in early.

I fed a ton of food from day one, just as much as my old tanks and the new one only had 3 fish at first. I’m not sure why people worry about algae. Every new tank is gonna get it but get a clean up crew in preparation for it. My tank never got algae that looked crazy bad because of snails and at one point I was feeding 10 - 12 times a day. I still skim the reef discussion forum and I see people everyday telling people with algae to dose vibrant or lower nutrients. I tried to comment a few times telling people to skip dosing stuff and get a cleanup crew that involves snails but people skip over that advice and would rather dose their tanks. My tank was getting covered in coralline after being setup for two weeks because it had nutrients to grow. People need to stop worrying about algae and feed their tanks, even from day one but be prepared with some snails. More early success would come if people did.

I’m not sure what started the high nutrients cause brown corals as many stunning tanks has proved this wrong. Brown corals comes from stressed corals.

lets not get carried away, haha.

I’ve said it many times that having/chasing low nutrients kills way more sps than elevated levels do. There are so many threads of dying sps with little to no no3/po4, but I have not read 1 where
Sps died from elevated levels.

 

[cFloor]

This tank is gonna be an absolute stunner! Can't wait to watch it progress. I like the channel that runs through the middle of the aquascape. Reminds me of the fingers you see on a real reef.

 

[najer]

Note to self, test later and reply!

 

[SneakyTortuga]

A while, maybe 10 months. At the time he told me he could only cut a small frag. It never grew for me but now it is so I couldn’t be happier.

Thats the issue I personally feel makes reefers fail when they add corals in early.

I fed a ton of food from day one, just as much as my old tanks and the new one only had 3 fish at first. I’m not sure why people worry about algae. Every new tank is gonna get it but get a clean up crew in preparation for it. My tank never got algae that looked crazy bad because of snails and at one point I was feeding 10 - 12 times a day. I still skim the reef discussion forum and I see people everyday telling people with algae to dose vibrant or lower nutrients. I tried to comment a few times telling people to skip dosing stuff and get a cleanup crew that involves snails but people skip over that advice and would rather dose their tanks. My tank was getting covered in coralline after being setup for two weeks because it had nutrients to grow. People need to stop worrying about algae and feed their tanks, even from day one but be prepared with some snails. More early success would come if people did.

I’m not sure what started the high nutrients cause brown corals as many stunning tanks has proved this wrong. Brown corals comes from stressed corals.

lets not get carried away, haha.

I couldn’t agree more with your rant on feeding a ton. My corals were “blah” the last few months and I would feed every few days. Now I’m feeding 3-4 times a day with no algae issues and the corals are looking on point. Moral of the story... don’t over feed in one sitting but feed smaller frequent amounts.

What’re your thoughts on reef roids?

 

[Abhishek]

Hi Bubbaque ,

Had been a while since I checked your build thread . Looking real good my friend ! Great advice to people on feeding more . Couldn’t agree more .

On a side note , are you still using CO2 scrubber ? If so , am interested to know how the small BRS scrubbers holding up against your large tank ? How often do you replace the media even with recirculating of moist air drawn from the slimmer cup ?

Regards,
Abhishek