Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef

[marvelousone]

I did not see where you made the change from your first picture. How do you like the nanobox.

 

[markalot]

I did not see where you made the change from your first picture. How do you like the nanobox.

I like it a lot, and I think the results speak for themselves. Between 7 and 8PM I use only LED's to light the tank and it looks fantastic, but I feel like I need the T5's for health, growth, and color of the acros so the hybrid was the way to go. The Nanobox LED's have a Lime channel which really helps bring up the brightness in the tank without adding too much PAR (Lime is basically white without any Blue, peaking in the green part of the spectrum). Since I have the BML strips on as well I can compare trying to achieve the daylight look with just whites vs Lime. Lime wins hands down.

 

[watdachuck]

What do you dose and/or feed the tank? I have found using bio-pellets very successful at driving down N and P to near nothing, but at the same time seems to starve SPS unless feedings are increased.

 

[markalot]

What do you dose and/or feed the tank? I have found using bio-pellets very successful at driving down N and P to near nothing, but at the same time seems to starve SPS unless feedings are increased.

2 drops Phosphate Rx and lately 4ml NOPOX daily. I dose AF MicroE and AF Vitality daily, that's about it. PO4 and NO3 fluctuate, sometimes higher than others but I stopped testing months ago. I would guess PO4 around .1 and NO3 near 0. I have Matrix rocks in a large bio pellet reactor for helping reduce NO3, but the Xenia is growing as if there is elevated NO3, hence the 2 months of NOPOX dosing to see if I can put some downward pressure on Nitrates. I lost some color when first dosing so I ramped it up very very slowly to the 4ml amount, which is still just a tiny fraction of the maintenance dose. I very rarely do water changes, the last two being very small. MicroE and my 2 part dosing seem to take care of all the trace elements, though I did have salinity creep up and had to do some small changes with RODI to bring it back down last month.

I feed a mixture of cheap flake foods and high quality Hikari pellets. I try and feed BRS Reef Chili once a week.

 

[bubbaque]

Do you feel the reef chili does anything? Compared to reef roids, it seems like it's particles are pretty big.

 

[markalot]

Do you feel the reef chili does anything? Compared to reef roids, it seems like it's particles are pretty big.

It and reef roids were both part of a test on Montipora and both showed equal results. Both are good.

 

[bubbaque]

It and reef roids were both part of a test on Montipora and both showed equal results. Both are good.

I seen that test and they were about the same on montipora but reef roids was the only one to show growth on the other two they studied.

 

[marvelousone]

Would you mind telling how you reto your light fixture. Was that a 8 bulb light fixture.

 

[markalot]

Would you mind telling how you reto your light fixture. Was that a 8 bulb light fixture.

It's a 6 bulb with the pucks installed where bulbs 2 and 5 woudl go. |P||P|

Remember this tank is only 18" front to back so 6 bulb works, but would not work on a 24" tank IMO.

 

[marvelousone]

I have a 8 bulb. I like the ideal of have the leds in the mix. Do you think I could do 6 bulbs and leds. Your par readings are higher than mine are now. I have been wanting to add leds. Is it hard to add the pucks.

 

[markalot]

I have a 8 bulb. I like the ideal of have the leds in the mix. Do you think I could do 6 bulbs and leds. Your par readings are higher than mine are now. I have been wanting to add leds. Is it hard to add the pucks.

Dave at NanoBox built the fixture for me, anything electronic would be hard for me to do.

 

[CoralWealth]

Dave at NanoBox built the fixture for me, anything electronic would be hard for me to do.

any update Mark? I am sure everything is doing great, mostly just wanted to see how good the growth was in the past month or so

 

[markalot]

Hi Cody,

Two part usage keeps rising, KH all the way down to 6 again. Guess the primary offender.

Colors in some acros is down again, I'm guessing it's the NOPOX. I plan to do a full battery of tests this weekend to see where I stand. Growth is way up, you can see all the buds on the Horrida (left of the slimer) which seems to prefer lower light and a lot of flow. One of my oldest Acros, the Miami Orchid, is also reaching up quickly (bottom of pic).

 

[CoralWealth]

everything looks great!

Are you still dosing phosphate RX along with NOPOX? How much are you dosing of each now?

Interested to see where your nutrients stand since you say some of the colora are down (sure doesnt look like it in the pictures)

 

[markalot]

everything looks great!

Are you still dosing phosphate RX along with NOPOX? How much are you dosing of each now?

Interested to see where your nutrients stand since you say some of the colora are down (sure doesnt look like it in the pictures)

I actually bumped the color up in the pic to make it look more like it does to my eye. Not sure if it's the lens or me not knowing how to work the camera. When the tank is doing it's best I might noth have to touch the color or bump the color up 3 or 4 ticks (photoshop), this time it was more like 10, so that's my judge. Also it looks a little drab to my eyes. It's very hard to tell though, I could be imagining things, the pic might be overexposed a bit, contrast might be too low, etc. The little yellow tailed damsel is that super intense blue but I can never capture the color and he's purplish in the pics rather than blue. Maybe I need a photography for dummies book.

I'm at 2 drops PhosphateRx daily, 10ml NOPOX daily. Still dosing AF Vitality and AF MicroE daily at half suggested dose. I mix in AF Kalum (Potassium) from time to time.

 

[amir_dreambox]

Nice

 

[amir_dreambox]

How many drops for af micro e and vitality daily ????

 

[markalot]

How many drops for af micro e and vitality daily ????

3 drops. They are supplements from AquaForest. Vitality is a vitamin mix, MicroE is trace elements. There is no evidence either do anything except take my money, I just am reporting what I dose.

 

[markalot]

Phosphate was 2 ppb! I tested again, 1ppb. Nitrates completely clear. I've overdone it a bit. Reducing my daily dosing to 1 drop PhosphateRx and 5ml NOPOX. If still too low next weekend then I will have to decide what to cut. I really wanted to starve the Xenia of nitrates but that is obviously not going to happen.

 

[CoralWealth]

Where do you dose your PhosphateRx?

Also, when you turn off your return pump to do water changes or for any reason. Have you noticed white bacteria slime coming out? I have noticed it lately and think it is from the NOPOX, I am not worried as it is completely gone within 1 hour usually but just strange. Sure doesnt seem to effect my SPS at all either.