SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[Charlie’s Frags]

"Conventional wisdom" would suggest this tank should be overrun with GHA and dead sticks given these nutrients.

@CharliesFrags would love to see this post, but I cannot figure out how to tag him.

I tend to get some GHA going when I push .2 or so and my herbivores get lazy. I feed 3 X a day and can hardly buy a nitrate.

@Charlie’s Frags

 

[GBRsouth]

@Charlie’s Frags

Like a dog chasing his own tail! ;Hilarious

 

[Hydrored]

Not to make @Charlie’s Frags head any bigger but I stopped chasing phosphates and my coral looks better than ever, I will say I don’t believe the same for nitrates though. I have seen negative effects especially for color when my nitrates are over 25. I had a large phosphate spike after taking GFO offline and lost a couple maricultured frags, after a few weeks my tank settled at .13 to .15.

Beautiful tank BTW, I have leaned on your build thread a lot for my new build

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Not to make @Charlie’s Frags head any bigger but I stopped chasing phosphates and my coral looks better than ever, I will say I don’t believe the same for nitrates though. I have seen negative effects especially for color when my nitrates are over 25. I had a large phosphate spike after taking GFO offline and lost a couple maricultured frags, after a few weeks my tank settled at .13 to .15.

Beautiful tank BTW, I have leaned on your build thread a lot for my new build

Uhhh…Thanks…I guess?

 

[Hydrored]

Uhhh…Thanks…I guess?

It was a compliment lol, I followed your advice on it.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

It was a compliment lol, I followed your advice on it.

I know
I know

 

[sdreef]

Not to make @Charlie’s Frags head any bigger but I stopped chasing phosphates and my coral looks better than ever, I will say I don’t believe the same for nitrates though. I have seen negative effects especially for color when my nitrates are over 25. I had a large phosphate spike after taking GFO offline and lost a couple maricultured frags, after a few weeks my tank settled at .13 to .15.

Beautiful tank BTW, I have leaned on your build thread a lot for my new build

Thanks, your new build looks like its going to be amazing!

 

[ScottB]

So curious about your thinking on firing up that Deltec Twin CaRx. I know we are both tweaking on the kalk reactor pH management stuff but I am bored with that now. My pH range is fine as pictured below but still refilling APEX DOS every week.

 

[sdreef]

So curious about your thinking on firing up that Deltec Twin CaRx. I know we are both tweaking on the kalk reactor pH management stuff but I am bored with that now. My pH range is fine as pictured below but still refilling APEX DOS every week.

LOL, I think about it all the time. It was one the earliest pieces of equipment I purchased and I'm really looking forward to getting it going.

As I increased the volume of the kalk I initially ended up supplementing all my calcium with kalk and no dosing. I've been holding off on getting the reactor going until my consumption increased again and I had room to add more calcium.

I am making minor adjustments to the kalk intervals still, but not making any substantial volume changes at this point and am satisfied with the pH range.

Happy to report that things seem to be taking off and I've had to increase the dosing of both alk and calcium via the doser to keep up. Want to see if things keep progressing like this, and I'm targeting getting the twin tech set up in a few weeks.

 

[ScottB]

LOL, I think about it all the time. It was one the earliest pieces of equipment I purchased and I'm really looking forward to getting it going.

As I increased the volume of the kalk I initially ended up supplementing all my calcium with kalk and no dosing. I've been holding off on getting the reactor going until my consumption increased again and I had room to add more calcium.

I am making minor adjustments to the kalk intervals still, but not making any substantial volume changes at this point and am satisfied with the pH range.

Happy to report that things seem to be taking off and I've had to increase the dosing of both alk and calcium via the doser to keep up. Want to see if things keep progressing like this, and I'm targeting getting the twin tech set up in a few weeks.

Awesome photo. Your scape allows for a depth of field and I love when a ton of fish pose together like that.

Whenever I am at my display, my fish just slash back and forth.

 

[sdreef]

Awesome photo. Your scape allows for a depth of field and I love when a ton of fish pose together like that.

Whenever I am at my display, my fish just slash back and forth.

Thank you. I just upgraded my phone, and the new camera is taking much better photos. It's nice when the fish cooperate too!

 

[sdreef]

System is progressing well. I got a few small patches of cyano on a couple of the rocks. I noticed the skimmer wasn't producing much skimmate. Nice to be able to remove the pump from the skimmer independently. I cleared a couple of stomatella shells from the intake and ran the pump in a bucket with citric acid for an hour. Skimmer is back to functioning normally, and the cyano has cleared.

Blueberry gorgonian is doing ok. I lost parts of it to cyano early on, but it continues to survive after 9 months. Blue stripe pipe fish handles the flow in the system surprisingly well and is thriving. I would want to add a second to have a pair, but wouldn't want to risk getting a second male and adding the stress to the system.

A few new frags RRC Jaw dropper, Hung's Rainbow Explosion, TGC Sweet November

Some actinic photos

 

[sdreef]

Combination video of mid day and the evening after the leopard wrasse have gone to bed.

 

[Acropora52]

Things are really settling in and growing!

 

[sdreef]

Things are really settling in and growing!

Thanks, overall really happy with how things are coming along. Some of the frags have become small colonies and are starting to take shape. Others continue to encrust and are showing signs that they will take off soon. Overall things are looking good.

I'm a little worried about the yellow elegance right now. It's one of my favorite corals. Came from Malaysia, and I just noticed it wasn't expanding as much and seemed a little unhappy. Nothing too severe in terms of its appearance, but just looks worse than before. I have 3 other elegance corals in the system that all are doing well.

It's only been in the system for about one month. I'm not sure if it was the location that I placed it in. Maybe it was too much light, too much flow, or it could be something else.

I've moved it to a new location where I had another elegance thriving. I've been debating if I should try dipping it, but have held off for now. Hopefully it was just a location issue and the new location will be more to its liking. I just moved it 2 days ago and I'll give it a couple weeks to settle in. I'm trying to feed it some frozen mysis as well to see if that helps. Not sure if there's something else I should be considering, but I figured this a reasonable first step.

 

[Acropora52]

I think that given everything else is doing well and assuming it's not a new addition, that plan makes a lot of sense. The same species from different locations can have different husbandry requirements and it likely is related to flow/light.

It's certainly a beautiful coral so I can imagine worrying about it.

 

[Hydrored]

Are you happy with your flow now? I was going to run 2 MP60's and 4 MP40 on my 300 but I'm wondering your thoughts if I should just buy 2 more MP60's instead of 40's for a total of 4 MP60's and 2 MP40's?

Either way, I'm going to buy one or the other, I want to move away from the gyres that are on my 210 for the 300.

Thanks

 

[Operator Wrasse]

Are you happy with your flow now? I was going to run 2 MP60's and 4 MP40 on my 300 but I'm wondering your thoughts if I should just buy 2 more MP60's instead of 40's for a total of 4 MP60's and 2 MP40's?

Either way, I'm going to buy one or the other, I want to move away from the gyres that are on my 210 for the 300.

Thanks

I think the extra MP40s would be more visually appealing and provide better flow. Put those babies on the back wall and they'll disappear.

 

[sdreef]

Are you happy with your flow now? I was going to run 2 MP60's and 4 MP40 on my 300 but I'm wondering your thoughts if I should just buy 2 more MP60's instead of 40's for a total of 4 MP60's and 2 MP40's?

Either way, I'm going to buy one or the other, I want to move away from the gyres that are on my 210 for the 300.

Thanks

Currently I have an MP40 and MP60 on each side and a pair reefwave 45 gyre style pump on the back glass on either side of the overflow. If I were to swap out the gyres, I would probably keep the pumps on the back and for that reason I would add MP40s. The MP40s that I have on the sides are adequately sized, and I don't think there would be a benefit to having the broader flow of the MP60s. This is dependent on the aquascape though. I like the MP60 a lot, but I think the MP40s suit my specific application better. I have a friend with a tank measuring 84 x 33 x 26 who has four MP40s and two MP60s and he's happy with that combo.

Regarding flow, I continue to adjust, and I haven't found the right flow pattern yet. The challenge is due to the mixed reef, the difference in the flow requirements of many of the LPS, and more specifically how I had the corals laid out. I've changed how I have the acanthophylia and indophyllia arranged now and have them in a zone. Previously I had them mixed around, and I was turning down the pumps to avoid pushing their tissue around. This was contrary to my goal for the SPS, and having them all in a zone is working much better. It's a work in progress.

 

[Hydrored]

Currently I have an MP40 and MP60 on each side and a pair reefwave 45 gyre style pump on the back glass on either side of the overflow. If I were to swap out the gyres, I would probably keep the pumps on the back and for that reason I would add MP40s. The MP40s that I have on the sides are adequately sized, and I don't think there would be a benefit to having the broader flow of the MP60s. This is dependent on the aquascape though. I like the MP60 a lot, but I think the MP40s suit my specific application better. I have a friend with a tank measuring 84 x 33 x 26 who has four MP40s and two MP60s and he's happy with that combo.

Regarding flow, I continue to adjust, and I haven't found the right flow pattern yet. The challenge is due to the mixed reef, the difference in the flow requirements of many of the LPS, and more specifically how I had the corals laid out. I've changed how I have the acanthophylia and indophyllia arranged now and have them in a zone. Previously I had them mixed around, and I was turning down the pumps to avoid pushing their tissue around. This was contrary to my goal for the SPS, and having them all in a zone is working much better. It's a work in progress.

Thank you for the reply! It’s great to hear your friend has just about the exact tank dimensions as mine, just an inch taller. I’ll grab a couple more MP40’s to match that setup. Having a mixed reef is tough very tough but rewarding. Tank is looking great, one of my favorite build on here