Bubba's SPS Journey

[tripdad]

After reading that list of corals all I can say is ..........You win! That's a seriously crazy collection, very jealous sir.

 

[bubbaque]

Did you get that paletta pink tip from Adam? Mine grows slow and has no pink too lol

I believe I did. I’m waiting for the pink to show up one of these days.

It's like that TSA Starscream. When they first released it it was selling on their auction site for $90 a frag. Now its five times that...

You can usually get most of the frags cheaper in their auctions. I remember winning the princess peach in their auction for pretty cheap before it became popular.

As they say....You gotta pay to play

I agree. Most high end corals are $200+ and if you want any of those it’s gonna hurt the wallet. For people who don’t care about high end corals or named pieces there are tons of corals for under $50. I use to never pay $100 for a coral.

After reading that list of corals all I can say is ..........You win! That's a seriously crazy collection, very jealous sir.

Thanks! I’m about done collecting for a while once I fill these two frag tanks.

 

[Fishfinder]

You can usually get most of the frags cheaper in their auctions. I remember winning the princess peach in their auction for pretty cheap before it became popular.

Where do they do their auctions?

 

[bubbaque]

Where do they do their auctions?

They use to do a lot on FB but they do less on there now.

 

[TheHarold]

Whats the lighting here? @bubbaque ? Thanks

 

[bubbaque]

Whats the lighting here? @bubbaque ? Thanks

Two tanks run t5's and one tanks runs radions paired with t5's.

 

[AvaS]

That collection list is everyone’s dream!! Absolutely amazing and I hope my collection can grow to even half of yours one day!! I know I have probably asked this a million times but where do you get your grow out tiles, or do you use egg crate/grids, I always can’t find the link or right ones?

 

[bubbaque]

That collection list is everyone’s dream!! Absolutely amazing and I hope my collection can grow to even half of yours one day!! I know I have probably asked this a million times but where do you get your grow out tiles, or do you use egg crate/grids, I always can’t find the link or right ones?

I use to just set the tiles on the bottom of the tank but whenever I would move them around detritus would go flying around. I added eggcrate to keep them an 1" off the bottom and set the tiles on them. Detritus still gets under the tiles but when I pick them up it doesn't cause an issue.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/MSI-Chi...100664317?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-

 

[AvaS]

I use to just set the tiles on the bottom of the tank but whenever I would move them around detritus would go flying around. I added eggcrate to keep them an 1" off the bottom and set the tiles on them. Detritus still gets under the tiles but when I pick them up it doesn't cause an issue.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/MSI-Chi...100664317?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-

Thanks I really appreciate it! I know I have asked before but didn’t remember your response lol! If you don’t mind me asking what levels do you run your alk, phosphates, and nitrates??

 

[dodgerblew]

Impressive is an understatement. I didn't even read the whole list. I fell asleep reading your novel.

 

[BigJohnny]

I use to just set the tiles on the bottom of the tank but whenever I would move them around detritus would go flying around. I added eggcrate to keep them an 1" off the bottom and set the tiles on them. Detritus still gets under the tiles but when I pick them up it doesn't cause an issue.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/MSI-Chi...100664317?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-

Do you cure those in anyway or just throw em in?

 

[AvaS]

Do you cure those in anyway or just throw em in?

I would like to know too as I picked those up and would like to know if they are good to add in after a quick rinse or if I have to wait to cure them!

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Just a freshwater rinse is good!

 

[AvaS]

Just a freshwater rinse is good!

Great!

 

[bubbaque]

Thanks I really appreciate it! I know I have asked before but didn’t remember your response lol! If you don’t mind me asking what levels do you run your alk, phosphates, and nitrates??

All my numbers are higher now than I’d like. I joined a growout contest and to try and get an edge up on the contest I started feeding a lot of reef roids and I mean a lot, lol. My phosphates were always near undetectable so I didn’t bother to check. For the heck of it I tested and they were at .2, I freaked out, lol. I’ve been slowly bringing them down and as if this morning they were .09.

I use to look at my HW and just stare at all the pink, lol. Since the phosphates spiked, it lost 90% of the pink.

I also watched that brs video where they had 70% increase in growth with an alk of 12. I wanted to see if I noticed the same thing. I raised my alk to 10 dkh and some corals don’t seem to like it, so back down it goes.


As of this morning
Alk 9.9 (target is 9)
Po4 .09 (target .01-.05)
No3 5

Do you cure those in anyway or just throw em in?

I use a toothbrush and brush out the cracks under water as there is caked in dust from them being cut. Then I just rinse well in my sink and dry them with a towel and in the tank they go.

 

[TheHarold]

Two tanks run t5's and one tanks runs radions paired with t5's.

Cool, then this hopefully was a good order. A pair of G4 Pro/T5 hybrid fixtures for the big tank. Do you use Blue+ bulbs in those?

 

[AvaS]

All my numbers are higher now than I’d like. I joined a growout contest and to try and get an edge up on the contest I started feeding a lot of reef roids and I mean a lot, lol. My phosphates were always near undetectable so I didn’t bother to check. For the heck of it I tested and they were at .2, I freaked out, lol. I’ve been slowly bringing them down and as if this morning they were .09.

I use to look at my HW and just stare at all the pink, lol. Since the phosphates spiked, it lost 90% of the pink.

I also watched that brs video where they had 70% increase in growth with an alk of 12. I wanted to see if I noticed the same thing. I raised my alk to 10 dkh and some corals don’t seem to like it, so back down it goes.


As of this morning
Alk 9.9 (target is 9)
Po4 .09 (target .01-.05)
No3 5

I use a toothbrush and brush out the cracks under water as there is caked in dust from them being cut. Then I just rinse well in my sink and dry them with a towel and in the tank they go.

Great! I will do the same thing to clean them! Hope I got the right ones lol! My alk is at 9 as of now and I am working on raising my nitrates and phosphates by feeding as maybe getting another little fish this weekend as of right now they are both undetectable or nearly undetectable. Have my first two acros in the tank in a while now and hopefully they will stay happy and healthy and my tank will one day look something like yours!!

 

[bubbaque]

Cool, then this hopefully was a good order. A pair of G4 Pro/T5 hybrid fixtures for the big tank. Do you use Blue+ bulbs in those?

Thats what I use. You should like them. I use 2 blue+ and two actinic t5’s and on the radions I use the ab+ program.

Great! I will do the same thing to clean them! Hope I got the right ones lol! My alk is at 9 as of now and I am working on raising my nitrates and phosphates by feeding as maybe getting another little fish this weekend as of right now they are both undetectable or nearly undetectable. Have my first two acros in the tank in a while now and hopefully they will stay happy and healthy and my tank will one day look something like yours!!

its best not to have them undetectable as it gives you a safety barrier. Feed lots of food and you will be fine.

 

[Abhishek]

All my numbers are higher now than I’d like. I joined a growout contest and to try and get an edge up on the contest I started feeding a lot of reef roids and I mean a lot, lol. My phosphates were always near undetectable so I didn’t bother to check. For the heck of it I tested and they were at .2, I freaked out, lol. I’ve been slowly bringing them down and as if this morning they were .09.

I use to look at my HW and just stare at all the pink, lol. Since the phosphates spiked, it lost 90% of the pink.

I also watched that brs video where they had 70% increase in growth with an alk of 12. I wanted to see if I noticed the same thing. I raised my alk to 10 dkh and some corals don’t seem to like it, so back down it goes.


As of this morning
Alk 9.9 (target is 9)
Po4 .09 (target .01-.05)
No3 5

I use a toothbrush and brush out the cracks under water as there is caked in dust from them being cut. Then I just rinse well in my sink and dry them with a towel and in the tank they go.

Well in all honesty am not even sure if 0.2 phosphates will cause the pink on HW to be lost . There's a lot has changed like alk too as you are trying higher alk for better growth and it's just the time being that the acros are getting accustomed to the changing environment . If you keep your phosphates constantly high with high alk and return to stability , more often than not the acros will regain their true color .
If you don't believe me , ask Adam how much his phosphates are . Mine are constantly over 0.3-0.4 and I don't even attempt to bring them down any further .

Anyways , I don't have HW neither such an amazing collection so take my advice with a pinch of salt . But if it were upto me and I want to raise all parameters for a better growth , I would stick to it and won't reduce them .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[bubbaque]

Well in all honesty am not even sure if 0.2 phosphates will cause the pink on HW to be lost . There's a lot has changed like alk too as you are trying higher alk for better growth and it's just the time being that the acros are getting accustomed to the changing environment . If you keep your phosphates constantly high with high alk and return to stability , more often than not the acros will regain their true color .
If you don't believe me , ask Adam how much his phosphates are . Mine are constantly over 0.3-0.4 and I don't even attempt to bring them down any further .

Anyways , I don't have HW neither such an amazing collection so take my advice with a pinch of salt . But if it were upto me and I want to raise all parameters for a better growth , I would stick to it and won't reduce them .

Regards,
Abhishek

I agree that it could be either the phosphates or alk but it started to lose pink before I did the alk. No other coral lost color or that I noticed. I think a lot of the rainbow corals need low phosphates to bring out multiple colors IMO. As far as the alk I started to notice a few corals didn't like it. Their tips started to get that wrinkly look to them. I'm just going to go back to how thing were.