My SPS Frankentank

[mshonk]

The elegance was lovin life today. Then I figured I would try for more tank shots.

 

[mshonk]

Appears the dinos are almost gone. Thank god. I remember when I had them when I started the tank that was a solid two month run.

 

[mshonk]

I bought a bandaid method in the interim. I still havent received it. It had to ship from Germany. I found a few threads that showed results in 10 days. Particularly with dinos. Its called dinoxal. Like $40. I have a lot of sps in the tank and I will gladly use a bandaid until I sort out the source of the problem.

 

[Retro Reefer]

New tank pictures look great.. Love the elegance!

 

[mshonk]

New tank pictures look great.. Love the elegance!

Thanks! Two things I cant wait for are all the sps to color back up (which they are starting too) and for those colonies to grow out.

 

[mshonk]

My garf bonsai was one that I stressed and browned out and the base is coloring back up!!! I also added a part diy algae reactor with my dragons breathe macro. Now I utilize part of my sump for frags. I also picked up a jebao ow 10 and moved my eflux pumps int the sump. One for the frags and one to stir the first chamber to prevent settling.

 

[mshonk]

Frag rack is in now. I just have to shoot the PAR and adjust the lights.

 

[mshonk]

Forgot the pics

 

[mshonk]

So in the name of algae control in spots I can't get to, I resorted to an old method of killing the algae. Boiling rodi water and a turkey baster. I know its better to remove the algae but again its for the most part unreachable. In doing this I was able observe something cool. The hair alage that develpoed from dosing no3 was always untouched by the tang. After I hit it with the boiling rodi water it went from a brownish green to a more vibrant green and now the tang is eating it!!!!! Must prefer cooked veggies.

 

[mshonk]

The first pic wasn't the best but you get the idea.

 

[mshonk]

Grabbed a another piece of rock. I would have bought live rock but the lps I was at is suspect for gnarly hitchhikers. Anyway I am not looking forward to keeping it clean but I needed some space for my acans.

 

[mshonk]

So much is coming around a supposed piece of pearlberry is growing, red polyps on the red planet are coming back, a cali tort that wasnt ever blue is turning blue. Its awesome. These pieces have been in the tank for about 8 months and just maintaining. On another note I will be catching fish and restocking. Tomini nips corals and the 6 line is a 6 line. I took a pick of some or all of what I am considering. I currently dose no3 more fish more poop hopefully no need to dose and hopefully dont add to much. But I really like the wrasses.

 

[mshonk]

Forgot the pic

 

[mshonk]

Since I set up this tank I have had issues with color on my sps. Seems that the approach I did from recommendations in this thread worked. Plus it adds a bit to the backstory and progress of the tank.
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/504602/

 

[mshonk]

Waynes reef acro has come a long way. Cant wait to see some growth.

 

[mshonk]

So I am removed my eflux pumps from the tank. Nice setup just not enough power. Put my $8 cheapos back in their place. Everything is growing well and coloring up well. Think since I haven't documented much I will do a top to bottom on my setup, before and afters, equipment, flow, design, etc. etc. Out of all of the tanks I have had this is my favorite. Going to have to start fragging a few of my corals too. My duncans are growing so well I started with 6 or 8 heads like 6-8month ago and now there are 16 or 17 heads. I have a neon candy cane and it had 6 heads and now has 14 heads, a pink lemonade birds nest that started as a 1" frag, was bleached, colored back up and is now approaching baseball size. I am still working on some of my sps but I had a bunch that bleached and browned out that are regaining their color beautifully plus I like a white spectrum rather than a blue one on my tank and the colors are still great. We all know blue makes the color pop more. I am mostly excited to see a pearlberry frag that I had starting to grow. It was just maintaining for months at a browned out state with no growth.

 

[mshonk]

So I put a 10g tank w/ a lid in my one cabinet as a topoff tank yesterday and after I get some catchup work handled I will start with the top to bottom of what is going on in my setup.

 

[mshonk]

Ok so the breakdown on my lighting schedule:

1. Algae reactor light comes on at 7 am.
2. Frag/sump light turns off at 10:30 am.
3. Blues in the DT come on at noon. 100%
4. Whites in the DT come on at 1:45 pm. 100%
5. Whites turn off at 9:15 pm
6. Blues turn off at 11 pm.
7. Algae reactor turns off at midnight.
8. Frag/sump light comes on at midnight.

 

[mshonk]

Dosing pumps schedule and mixtures:

I use Randy's Reef Alchemy Recipe 1.
and have 3 2L containers to hold alk, cal, and mag.

I mix .4 oz to 1 qt of rodi water for no3 with Stump remover.
I usually go through 7-10 gallons of topoff a week. I put iodine, bio-active elements, iron, and potassium in the top off as needed via Red Sea trace colors tests and additives. Generally .5ml of iodine a week, iron 1 ml every two weeks to a month, Potassium is 1-2ml a week, and bio-active is 2ml week.

I use two jebao DP-3s to dose. I run them independently rather than primary and slave. No reason just did it that way.

Every hour I top off about 110ml. I prefer the dosing pumps because I have had float switch failures in the past. I feel I have more control this way as well as it allowing me to dose trace elements.

4 times a day I dose alk and cal at 1ml each and timed so that there isn't precipitation.
I dose mag at 2 ml a day a ml at a time and every other day I dose an extra ml.
NO3 is dosed at 5 ml through the day at 1 ml at a time.

 

[mshonk]

Feeding schedule:

I rinse brine and mysis in rodi and refreeze it as a sheet.

At least once a day I feed brine and spirulina mysis to the fish. If I do twice a day they are smaller amounts but definitely more than when I feed once a day.

Every other day I put sheet algae in the tank.

Every other day I do two drops of Aqua Forest Aminos and Aqua Forest Energy after the lights go out and turn off the skimmer for at least an hour or forget to turn it on until the am.

I target feed reef roids every other day to every other two days to all of my LPS. I usually put the pumps in feed mode and leave the skimmer on.
Guessing at this but its probably a teaspoon in 20ml of tank water.