Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef

markalot · Jan 22, 2016

It's been a while since I updated.

Just before I started to re-scape.

This was probably when it looked the best but those seafoam pallys got out of control and I believe started to pollute the water because I kept having odd issues with SPS while params were steady. The slimer grew just a bit, and the blue stag, wow, really lucked out with that one.

It now looks like this, in the middle of slowly eliminating all of the pallys.

revhtree · Jan 22, 2016

Mark is a Paly Mowing machine!

markalot · May 13, 2016

revhtree said:
Mark is a Paly Mowing machine!

Well, unfortunately that was too much for the SPS and it was like restarting all over again. I did get rid of the palys but most of my SPS suffered from significant tissue loss and I had to frag them up.

I think many would have either quit or started over but I'm stubborn.

It was just a few weeks ago that the frags of my "indestructible" purple stylo began to encrust again.

Throughout this entire ordeal my Lokani just kept on trucking. Color has been better but while other acros were STN/RTN this guy was encrusting and putting on new growth. Go figure.

My [HASHTAG]#katropora[/HASHTAG] has also, finally, started to show some color again.

So I'm happy the pally scurge is gone, fairly happy with the new scape, not happy at all to start over.

s2nhle · May 13, 2016

Cheer, now you can see light at the end of tunnel. Keep it up. be patient.

revhtree · May 13, 2016

How is the paly population now?

markalot · Jun 7, 2016

revhtree said:
How is the paly population now?

Sorry for the delayed reply. Removing the pallys removed too much of the rocks and the tank was a serious funk for a few months. They are mostly under control. I had a spot on a rock near the center I was able to take care of and a few are coming back along the right side but don't pose a big threat. Persistent buggers.

Coral color continues to improve, rapidly for SPS IMO.

[HASHTAG]#katropora[/HASHTAG]

Lokani

Unknown cheap frag.

Hawkins echinata almost died but coming back strong. This was brown just 3 weeks ago.

Through some dumb luck I fragged my Red Robin and moved it to another tank. My main piece died but luckily this survived and I moved it back. Waiting impatiently for it to color up.

My main changes during the recovery was a switch to mostly pellet food away from flake, dosing 3 drops of PhosphateRx daily (no sock, just into the first chamber of my sump), and replaced all bulbs with fresh ATI (2 coral, 3 blue, and a purple).

Most importantly perhaps was treating the tank with interceptor after noticing a mass of tiny white/grey bugs on my Lokani. I lost an acro crab and cleaner shrimp but the corals seemed to wake up just days after treatment.

revhtree · Jun 7, 2016

Still looks good bud!

markalot · Jun 7, 2016

revhtree said:
Still looks good bud!

Thanks Rev.

Bj’s Reef · Jun 7, 2016

Your corals have very nice color. your tank looks nice also.

markalot · Nov 10, 2016

Long overdue update. Still going, staying steady, growth and colors improving.

markalot · Nov 10, 2016

Red Robin so slow to color up but this is the best I've ever managed.

Lokani

#Katropora

Bronc · Nov 10, 2016

Your tank looks fantastic!

FarmerTy · Nov 10, 2016

Looks amazing! The colors are so vivid!

Daniel@R2R · Nov 11, 2016

WoW! Beautiful! Thanks for updating us!

markalot · Nov 12, 2016

Thanks all, much appreciated.

Changes made over the last 6 months:

Switched from all T5 + BML LED strips to a T5 NanoBox 8 puck hybrid along with the BML strips.
Added a Seachem Matrix to a Phosban 550 reactor to reduce Nitrates
Started daily dosing of PhosphateRx (diluted Lanthanum Chloride)
Started daily dosing of trace elements

Params:

6.7 KH (maintained with saturated Kalk and occasional 2 part dosing)
.03 PO4 (last tested a month ago via Hanna ULR)
Near 0 NO3 (I will occasionally raise with CaNO3 but nothing regular yet)

I feed trashy flake food, occasionally some pellets, and Reef Roids about 3 time a week.

Daily Dosing:

2 drops PhosphateRx in 1st sump chamber.
2 Drops MicroE (AquaForest)
2 Drops Lugols
5 drops SpongePower

Weekly I add a cap of Potassion and a cap of Strontium

I'm not sure anything above does any good except PhosphateRx, which allows me to keep steady PO4 which I've found is more important than it being too high. PO4 swings can do a number on acros. I do the drops of MicroE because I rarely do any water changes on this tank and I want to make sure I maintain these elements but don;t overdose. 2 drops is 1/4 of the recommended dose.

I did a new set of top downs and colors continue to improve.

The Red Robin is doing well and continues to ever so slowly gain red.

Big Valida (this was a maricultured piece)

#Katropora

Peach? Dragon.

I call this one Cousin It because it's so darn hairy. It is gaining a nice bright pink.

This is my other pinkish milli, a random frag like Cousin It, and not sure what color it will end up with. Tips are bluish, some pink in the mid sections, with purple green in a few spots.

Here's the pinkish acro with the horrible mustard polyps.

Lokani. Not sure if I mentioned it above but during my 6 months of semi crashing and losing acros this lost color but continued to slowly grow. Rugged and good looking.

Random frag, SSC?

Hairy Horrida

This is another random frag and is a bother. Looks good at the moment but colors will fade for seemingly no reason, then color back up. It may be related to nitrates since I recently added enough CaNO3 to reach 2 prior to a short vacation.

Hawkins

This is the last coral to not regain full color since the issues started almost a year ago. Finally it's showing signs of blue returning.

s2nhle · Nov 13, 2016

wow, very awesome. Thanks

Daniel@R2R · Nov 14, 2016

Beautiful pics!! Thanks for sharing!

revhtree · Nov 14, 2016

Awesome! Bouncing back nicely!

markalot · Nov 28, 2016

My pink acro has really turned into a nice piece, getting pinker by the day.

#Katropora continues to grow rapidly.

As does the not so red dragon.

The slimer is starting to achieve it's rapid growth rate and will fill up this side of the tank in no time. If only my other stags grew this fast.

Poor animated gif of growth over 18 days.

I bumped the Lokani while moving things around and it turned grey for a few days, then colored back up. This is the strangest acro in the tank, and tough. I bumped it pretty hard and nothing broke.