FarmerTy's 215-gallon SPS Tank

[Maximus]

Okay, that wasn't a long reprieve from the macro shots!

These are all actinic shots, how I see them in my frag tank, which is impossible to take a picture of until I got the new camera setup and filter.

Nikon D5300 with Tamron 90mm macro, Avast Marine look down tube with an orange filter all under full actinics.

Ty, which coral is the orange one, 7th pic down?

 

[FarmerTy]

Ty, which coral is the orange one, 7th pic down?

CC Habanero Anacropora. Hey wait! Get back to your Colorado sunburst corner [emoji12]!

 

[Maximus]

I'll be waiting for a frag of it. You can throw it in with the CSB's you are sending me.

 

[Maximus]

CC Habanero Anacropora. Hey wait! Get back to your Colorado sunburst corner [emoji12]!

Ahh, I knew it was an anacropora! I have a large colony of bright, green anacropora. I need a frag of the orange now, stat!

 

[FarmerTy]

You'll be the first cut bud! Its a real head turner!

 

[FarmerTy]

Fantastic pics.. Are you shooting Raw?
I am guessing not with the orange filter on..

Sorry Shred, totally missed your post. I have experimented a bit with raw but not in these sets of photos. Its all new to me!

 

[Mexicanemone]

Your tank is amazing took me three days to go through everything. Between work kids and everything else it’s beautiful I’m thinking of getting rid of my filter socks now lol try doing the no water change also. Hook em horns [emoji1605]

 

[FarmerTy]

Your tank is amazing took me three days to go through everything. Between work kids and everything else it’s beautiful I’m thinking of getting rid of my filter socks now lol try doing the no water change also. Hook em horns [emoji1605]

Thanks Mexicanemone! Awesome name by the way and thanks for following along!

You lost me with the last sentence though... I'm an Aggie! Whoop! [emoji106][emoji106]

 

[bubbaque]

Ty, what is your current po4?

 

[FarmerTy]

Ty, what is your current po4?

0.03 ppm or less usually bubbaque.

 

[FarmerTy]

My nitrates have been slowly increasing to 25-30ppm lately. I've added some more biopellets to bring that down a bit and went a hair less aggressive on the GFO to have some available for the bacteria colonizing the biopellets to use.

 

[bubbaque]

I'm having a hard time keeping my po4 off 0. I use chaeto to keep no3 lowish. When I don't use it my no3 goes to 25+. I've been dosing po4 lately but the next day it's right back down to 0.

 

[FarmerTy]

I'm having a hard time keeping my po4 off 0. I use chaeto to keep no3 lowish. When I don't use it my no3 goes to 25+. I've been dosing po4 lately but the next day it's right back down to 0.

I don't consider that an issue unless you see issues with your corals. I strive for lowest phosphate as possible. With daily feedings and a larger fish population, you really never have to worry about enough phosphate for metabolic processes, its getting dosed daily via feedings.

Nitrate is the nutrient that we all got lost on with getting it to zero. We don't need zero, we need 5-10ppm nitrates is my opinion for best colors in acros. That's where everyone started dosing nitrates, because we all realized zero isn't the answer. I don't consider the same with phosphate... Keep it low as you can go as long as you are feeding your tank a bunch.

 

[bubbaque]

I don't consider that an issue unless you see issues with your corals. I strive for lowest possible phosphate as possible. With daily feedings and a larger fish population, you really never have to worry about enough phosphate for metabolic processes, its getting dosed daily via feedings.

Nitrate is the nutrient that we all got lost on with getting it to zero. We don't need zero, we need 5-10ppm nitrates is my opinion for best colors in acros. That's where everyone started dosing nitrates, because we all realized zero isn't the answer. I don't consider the same with phosphate... Keep it low as you can go as long as you are feeding your tank a bunch.

Thats what I use to believe. My chaeto use to keep my po4 0 and no3 2.5 and it would not drop my no3 any lower, even running the light 24 hrs. I was feeding 6-7 cubes of frozen a day along with pellets. Some of my corals were pale even with nitrate of 2.5. I started dosing phytoplankton for po4 and my corals looked better. I believe there has to be a detectable phosphate levels after seeing the improvements it made to color and polyp extension. I just struggle to keep it detectable now unless I let my no3 go sky high.

Also no3 is produced daily through the fish gills and waste as ammonia, so there should always be some. It seems like the same logic as feeding the fish always has phosphate present. What do you believe the difference is?

 

[FarmerTy]

Thats what I use to believe. My chaeto use to keep my po4 0 and no3 2.5 and it would not drop my no3 any lower, even running the light 24 hrs. I was feeding 6-7 cubes of frozen a day along with pellets. Some of my corals were pale even with nitrate of 2.5. I started dosing phytoplankton for po4 and my corals looked better. I believe there has to be a detectable phosphate levels after seeing the improvements it made to color and polyp extension. I just struggle to keep it detectable now unless I let my no3 go sky high.

Also no3 is produced daily through the fish gills and waste as ammonia, so there should always be some. It seems like the same logic as feeding the fish always has phosphate present. What do you believe the difference is?

What nitrate level are we talking about when you say sky high? I think that would be the perfect experiment for yourself. Allow your system to go up in phosphates and nitrates. Nitrates won't really kill any coral, just may darken them a bit as the level climbs, so the experiment is pretty safe in my opinion.

Mine nitrates are currently 30ppm... My blues and purples are deeper than deep, but some of my reds are borderline maroon. Greens still look good and yellows are yellows. Nothing is dying or having any issues... Heck if anything, they'll probably grow faster with the higher nitrate level.

Phosphates read 0.03 ppm yesterday. Sometimes it reads 0... But at the ppb levels we are testing at, all our results are really just ballpark numbers. Any bit of human error or spots on the cuvette could skew the concentration easily at a ppb level on a hobbyist grade kit not to mention the +/- accuracy of the Hanna unit itself.

For your nitrates and ammonia thoughts regarding fish wastes, yes, I say you are correct but to me at least, the main difference is corals need very little phosphate for their metabolic processes to function versus needing a lot more nitrogen (ammonia, nitrate) to function. So having a baseline of at least 5ppm in the water and having daily additions of nitrate via fish/food is a lot different to me than having 0 ppm of nitrate and just the additions from fish/food. I don't think they function well in that scenario of 0 nitrates with daily nitrate additions but I think they function just fine with 0 ppm of phosphates with daily phosphate additions as they need so little of phosphates to function.

 

[FarmerTy]

We also have to think more than just nutrient levels as that is only one part of the whole picture. I know you're well experienced with acros but for those reading as well, we have to look at the amount of light, water movement, alkalinity levels, etc. Higher light means you can usually support higher nutrients in the tank. More water flow allows for more transfer of wastes away from the coral and they can possibly function with more light and nutrients. There's so much at play that its always hard to give a generic answer on how to make acros happy and how to best color them.

My tank enjoys medium-high light, most are in the 350 par range while some enjoy 450 par and others are around 200-250 par. I have pretty decent flow and feed the heck out of my tank. That formula has always worked for me.

Nitrates in the 5-10 ppm range, par around 350 average, phosphates 0-0.03 ppm, feed the tank tons, keep lots of fish and good poopers, and strong flow!

 

[bubbaque]

My nitrates went up to 25~ over a 3 week period. I didn't see it stopping, so I was getting worried and threw the chaeto back in. Who knows if I would of ever ran into an issue but it's engrained into me to keep lowish nutrients. Having no3 of 25 just wasn't feeling right even though I seen no issue.

 

[FarmerTy]

My nitrates went up to 25~ over a 3 week period. I didn't see it stopping, so I was getting worried and threw the chaeto back in. Who knows if I would of ever ran into an issue but it's engrained into me to keep lowish nutrients. Having no3 of 25 just wasn't feeling right even though I seen no issue.

Perhaps slowly remove the chaeto? Allow for nitrates and phosphates to increase just a bit?

 

[Mexicanemone]

Thanks Mexicanemone! Awesome name by the way and thanks for following along!

You lost me with the last sentence though... I'm an Aggie! Whoop! [emoji106][emoji106]

Thanks lol

Ahh those Aggies lol I’m in Chicago hopefully I can catch a game down there try to go to TX at least once a year. Do you keep anything in the filter sock section of your sump if you have a section for it?

 

[FarmerTy]

Thanks lol

Ahh those Aggies lol I’m in Chicago hopefully I can catch a game down there try to go to TX at least once a year. Do you keep anything in the filter sock section of your sump if you have a section for it?

Just a bunch of live rock in my sump, my biopellet reactor, skimmer, heater, gfo reactor, and carbon reactor.