Bubba's SPS Journey

SeaDweller · Feb 19, 2020

looks like it never skipped a beat. I think there is some artificial story telling going on to create drama and to lure readers back in...

this is the "The Bachelor/ette" of R2R threads!!!

drawman · Feb 19, 2020

Tank still looks great on the long shot Bubba but sorry to hear about the issues. Seems like you're catching things in time. It happens to all of us that are in the hobby long enough.

Skynyrd Fish · Feb 19, 2020

Sorry about your losses.

Graffiti Spot · Feb 20, 2020

Wow I read tank crash and expected the worst. I think you had more of a door ding.

Sucks when stuff turns bad like that though. Hope things bounce back quick! Are nutrients rising now?

bubbaque · Feb 20, 2020

Pedoconfuego said:
Wow I read tank crash and expected the worst. I think you had more of a door ding. Sucks when stuff turns bad like that though. Hope things bounce back quick! Are nutrients rising now?

The denitrator has been off for about 10 days and nitrate has risen some. I tested yesterday and looked to be about 8 ppm from 5 ppm.

Fudsey · Feb 20, 2020

Bubba, you dosing any carbon?

bubbaque · Feb 20, 2020

Fudsey said:
Bubba, you dosing any carbon?

Like vodka, sugar or stuff like that? No I have never dosed any of that type of stuff.

drawman · Mar 7, 2020

Hope all is well @bubbaque. It's finally getting nice out and I'm still looking for your updates lol.

bubbaque · Mar 7, 2020

drawman said:
Hope all is well @bubbaque. It's finally getting nice out and I'm still looking for your updates lol.

Thanks for checking in.

Tank is recovering and things are looking better. I should be back to taking pics in a couple weeks.

EastCoastScaping · Mar 7, 2020

Im excited to see some more pics, they are inspring. Makes me want to set up my sps display sooner

Evaaron · Mar 7, 2020

@bubbaque do you have a early warning coral that shows sign of trouble first and causes you to start more testing? If so which one and what does it do?

Cassklar · Mar 9, 2020

Hey bubba how ho are your lights from the water surface

bubbaque · Mar 10, 2020

Evaaron said:
@bubbaque do you have a early warning coral that shows sign of trouble first and causes you to start more testing? If so which one and what does it do?

I don’t really have any one specific coral as an indicator. When I first noticed the issue I took a picture and when I looked closely I seen the tips didn’t quit look right. A couple days later most showed the same signs.

Cassklar said:
Hey bubba how ho are your lights from the water surface

17”

drawman · Mar 22, 2020

Bubba hope all is well with you, your family, and your tank!

bubbaque · Mar 23, 2020

drawman said:
Bubba hope all is well with you, your family, and your tank!

Thanks for checking in. Yes all is well with me and the family. The corals are starting to look pretty good again but since I have no export system other than my skimmer I am dealing with green turf algae at the moment. None of my tangs or snails eat it, which is driving me insane. I did build an algae turf scrubber and installed it a couple weeks ago to help with the exporting of nutrients and to hopefully get rid of the algae.

tripdad · Mar 23, 2020

Urchins are great at eating the turf algae and certain long spine ones will not pick up or knock over frags. I got lucky and found a nice one. I also have a blue tuxedo urchin, dang thing thinks it's a frag rack, stupid animal.

Robertellis30 · Mar 23, 2020

Not sir if I missed it or over looked it. Only made it through about 50 pages so far lol. But what are you dosing?

drawman · Mar 23, 2020

bubbaque said:
Thanks for checking in. Yes all is well with me and the family. The corals are starting to look pretty good again but since I have no export system other than my skimmer I am dealing with green turf algae at the moment. None of my tangs or snails eat it, which is driving me insane. I did build an algae turf scrubber and installed it a couple weeks ago to help with the exporting of nutrients and to hopefully get rid of the algae.

Keep me updated on this Bubba. I have the same algae and nothing will touch it for me including 3 blue tuxedo urchins. I managed to bring it along from my previous tank. I've resorted to pulling rocks and applying peroxide but it comes back.

john90009 · Mar 23, 2020

After a crash on my biocube I did not have much beneficial bacteria and microfauna survive so a decent amount of green hair algea started growing. I then added a kole tang which helped graze on the rocks and helped get the hair algea down with good clean water changes. The rock became barren but then the turf algea came. And it came in thick. The tang didn’t want anything to do with it and passed away from not enough variety of food. On the cube I do not have a skimmer but now that the kole is gone, I have 3 urchins and a trio of emerald crabs and recently after the death of the tang. The turf algea is now dying back on its own and the rock is going back to being clean. I am chalking up my win over turn algea to the reduction in waste from the kole tang.

ScottB · Mar 23, 2020

Somehow stopped getting notifications on your thread Bubba. Sorry for the troubles. Such a drag it is always the favorite sticks that get hit, but by the looks of it you came out OK. I have some pretty heavy system mods underway so I am walking on eggshells myself. Feel like I am overhauling an engine while in flight. Over the Pacific.

Over what span of time did you implement these changes?
- sand bed
- refugium
+ denitrator

Just like the others, I am a fan of your work with SPS and will patiently and confidently look forward to more stick pics from you. Hang in.