Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef

drawman · Apr 4, 2017

Mark I still think you win tank looks great!

markalot · Apr 4, 2017

xilez said:
Thanks for the reply mark, I wasn't exactly thinking of doing a daily dose. I was thinking of jut adding one drop to keep it around .02-.04, and when it creeps up to .08-.1 adding another drop which I imagine would be every couple of weeks or so.

Would chemipure be a better option (I assume it helps keep phosphate levels down?)

No, it's just carbon and GFO and I don't like using GFO, too aggressive for me and I always had stability problems trying to predict when it was depleted. Your plan sounds good.

markalot · Apr 4, 2017

drawman said:
Mark I still think you win tank looks great!

Thanks Tim!

jackson6745 · Apr 4, 2017

Mark your tank has come a long way. I'm very impressed. Keep it up buddy. You have me very curious about phosphate RX. I'm still using ROWA out of habit (and it works), but I would love to move away from it one day.

markalot · Apr 5, 2017

jackson6745 said:
Mark your tank has come a long way. I'm very impressed. Keep it up buddy. You have me very curious about phosphate RX. I'm still using ROWA out of habit (and it works), but I would love to move away from it one day.

Thanks Rich, that means a lot.

I wish I was more sure about Lanthanum buildup in the system. Every day I have a little more and so far there have been no issues, but everything is always fine until it isn't.

Could it be why some acros refuse to color up, or is it something else. The biggest thing for me is that I have living acros rather than dead ones. A big first step.

Dan I · Apr 6, 2017

Really loving this tank, your tank gives me hope on trying to fine tune my acro growing skills.

DaveRaz · Apr 6, 2017

Very nice. I followed your other thread for a long time and you've helped to inspire my current build. Your set up and livestock look great man. Thanks for sharing.

markalot · Jun 3, 2017

Still going strong, growth and colors are much improved. I lost my favorite pink acro for unknown reasons. In the past I might have reacted but I let it die without doing any significant changes. It didn't like something, not sure what.

Blue only

Husker · Jun 3, 2017

Still dosing the lanthum chloride drops? I think that really might be the cheapest/easiest/most controllable way to keep phosphates low but detectable.

markalot · Jun 3, 2017

Husker said:
Still dosing the lanthum chloride drops? I think that really might be the cheapest/easiest/most controllable way to keep phosphates low but detectable.

I am but it may interfere with the health of some SPS if LC makes it into the display. I upped my dosing to 4 drops daily just before losing the pink acro and it may have played a part in it's demise. I have since reduced to a single drop in the first sump chamber and everything has stayed stable or improved. It's really hard to say if that did it, or if it was something else. PO4 is around .05 now.

renato120 · Jun 4, 2017

Wow! What a beautiful tank!

drawman · Jun 5, 2017

Very nice Mark!

s2nhle · Jun 5, 2017

Very beautiful. Mark! thank you for sharing

xilez · Jun 11, 2017

Everything looks good Mark! Question, if you have a brown sps, do you try moving it up into higher light? if so, about how long does it take to go from brown to colored? would the opposite be true for paler frags?

reef80 · Jun 12, 2017

Your sps are truly stunning!!!

markalot · Jun 12, 2017

xilez said:
Everything looks good Mark! Question, if you have a brown sps, do you try moving it up into higher light? if so, about how long does it take to go from brown to colored? would the opposite be true for paler frags?

Thanks.

I have a couple of brown frags I've yet to color back up after a year of brown. Growing and healthy but brown. Pale indicates not enough nutrients, rich brown but healthy indicates something else. Sometimes acros just wake up, sometimes they don't.

Take this one, for example. it woke up and started to grow but the left side is still dirt brown and will not color up. Go figure.

In my limited experience healthy acros that are going to color up will do so even in lower PAR. Some times acros just don't adapt to tank like, especially mariciltured and/or wild caught, and will refuse to color up or just up and die after a while.

markalot · Jun 12, 2017

reef80 said:
Your sps are truly stunning!!!

Thanks!

markalot · Jun 18, 2017

Messing around with a new D5500 (edit: wrote the wrong number) camera body. Higher ISO has a lot less gain, allowing me to close the aperture and get more depth of field. This angled shot at a milli I placed lower down in the tank came out quite good, ans also shows just how invasive the Xenia is. Because it's harmless to pull and remove I let it grow, then prune every few weeks. SPS seem to enjoy any Xenia 'smoke' that results from pruning.