Sps in 20g and under?
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This is from Nov of 2013, so a year old, but somehow I don't have any more recent photos. Just a cell phone pic, but you can see some of the SPS before they got too large, but still with good growth as I got them all from tiny frags. The blue tip green doesn't have any of the crazy growth yet, you can see I started to trim the branches and attach to the base to fill it out though. This was before I went bare bottom and moved the LPS to another system. Their sweepers just get too nasty.
Like I said that is a old photo, you can imagine how much everything grows in a year, but some of the SPS there that might be hard to see are monti digitata, including one that has almost totally encrusted the back wall now (you can see it starting), M undata, 3 types of birdsnests (ORA), m Spongodes , couple acros, pocillopora, various s[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]tylophora and a few I am forgetting. The birdsnest have the best color and grow superfast, just keep them trimmed. Since this cube has no skimmer or other nutrient sink other than waterchanges and a rear chamber with a bit of chaeto in it - that makes it hard for many acros to show super bright colors, so the other sps listed tend to look more impressive. [/FONT]
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joshbbert
Well-Known Member
Stunning tank!This is from Nov of 2013, so a year old, but somehow I don't have any more recent photos. Just a cell phone pic, but you can see some of the SPS before they got too large, but still with good growth as I got them all from tiny frags. The blue tip green doesn't have any of the crazy growth yet, you can see I started to trim the branches and attach to the base to fill it out though. This was before I went bare bottom and moved the LPS to another system. Their sweepers just get too nasty.
Reef Fever
Valuable Member
my 4.5 gallon prior to tearing it apart:
Acropora by dezertdatsun, on Flickr
Blue Birdsnest by dezertdatsun, on Flickr
Ponape Birdsnest by dezertdatsun, on Flickr
Top Down 4.5 Gallon by dezertdatsun, on Flickr
Last photos of it in its full glory:
Acropora by dezertdatsun, on FlickrBlue Birdsnest by dezertdatsun, on FlickrPonape Birdsnest by dezertdatsun, on FlickrTop Down 4.5 Gallon by dezertdatsun, on FlickrLast photos of it in its full glory:
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joshbbert
Well-Known Member
Sps in 4g pico! It can be done. Awesome tank did you move it all to a bigger tank? Also id love to hear what your maintenance was likemy 4.5 gallon prior to tearing it apart:
Last photos of it in its full glory:
Reef Fever
Valuable Member
Sps in 4g pico! It can be done. Awesome tank did you move it all to a bigger tank? Also id love to hear what your maintenance was like
Well, I added a blue velvet nudi because I had found some acoel flatworms that made it past a dip. I wanted to do natural control rather than chemical because it was such a small system. the nudi ended up getting turned into powerhead soup, and despite a big water change killed a lot of the across. The easier sps like the birds nest and pocillopora remained. I ended up tearing it apart and selling everything inside because I wanted to make it 100% SPS dominant. Before, i had such tremendous growth from the softies they kinda overwhelmed the tank despite my best trimming efforts. The tank it still running with new bare rock but Im in a toss up whether I want to start it back up completely or tear it down. Im a professional aquarist for a public aquarium so by the time i get home from working on tanks all day I do the routine stuff on my 104 gallon SPS tank and then I'm kinda pooped lol. So my 4.5, frag tank, and planted tank fall to the wayside most days now. Im sure ill get myself back in gear soon enough. I built that 4.5 out of a fluvial flora, getting rid of it would suck since its one of a kind.
sorry for blabbing on, but maintenance was a weekly water change 50% or more using red sea coral pro salt. The tank was AIO, I built a custom 3 chamber system in the back. once every 2 weeks I would clean the sponges out. The second chamber held live rock rubble and chaeto, the second chamber has water flowing upwards through it so it was essentially "zero bypass". Then the last chamber was simply the return pump and heater. It was really quite easy to care for and the sticks grew like wildfire
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joshbbert
Well-Known Member
Ty for blabbing! My first tank was a 4.5g pico it kinda crashed recently and I moved it all to this 10g. Its good to hear that it can be done with routine water changes and minimal dosing or none in the end I really dont want to dose if I dont absolutely have. Thanks for the input and again what a beautiful pico hopefully you get the time to start it back up some day.
Reef Fever
Valuable Member
i didn't dose at all, just the water changes and RO top off. good luck!
Velodog2
Well-Known Member
A couple more points to add.
If you want to optimize conditions for sps growth by relying on water changes without dosing, you should be careful when choosing your salt mix. Plain old instant ocean only mixes up to 390 ppm calcium which is not as high as I like. I still use it but compensate with additional CaCl adds from my doser when I do my weekly 20% water change. If I wasn't dosing I would find one that mixed closer to 450 ppm. You also want to be sure it has sufficient alkalinity as well.
Also, remember that the more stable you make your tank the better the corals will thrive and grow. I've seen tremendous improvement since adding my doser a couple months ago, but I had clearly reached the point where I couldn't manage by water changes or even with manual dosing additions. The point is that it is not clear exactly where that point occurs. So continue to test regularly, especially just before a water change when your levels will be at their lowest, and again after when they will be at their highest, and remember that the more you can minimize that difference the better your corals will do.
If you want to optimize conditions for sps growth by relying on water changes without dosing, you should be careful when choosing your salt mix. Plain old instant ocean only mixes up to 390 ppm calcium which is not as high as I like. I still use it but compensate with additional CaCl adds from my doser when I do my weekly 20% water change. If I wasn't dosing I would find one that mixed closer to 450 ppm. You also want to be sure it has sufficient alkalinity as well.
Also, remember that the more stable you make your tank the better the corals will thrive and grow. I've seen tremendous improvement since adding my doser a couple months ago, but I had clearly reached the point where I couldn't manage by water changes or even with manual dosing additions. The point is that it is not clear exactly where that point occurs. So continue to test regularly, especially just before a water change when your levels will be at their lowest, and again after when they will be at their highest, and remember that the more you can minimize that difference the better your corals will do.
Chpaige
Community Member
It can be done, just keep up with your water changes, monitor your major trace elements, and you will have a nice little setup in no time, it's harder in a smaller aquarium due to the fact, there is less margin for error.
rkum19
Community Member
Here is my 18 gallon. It is a challenge keeping alk, Ca, and pH stable and I consider a doser and pH probe essential. It is actually the montis, stylos, and birdsnests that are sensitive to changes. The acros don't give me problems.
Very nice, what type lights are you using.
rkum19
Community Member
Beatiful tank wow1!!!
Velodog2
Well-Known Member
Thank you. I have a RapidLED DIY fixture with 28 LED's about 8 inches over the tank. A little too much light for the upper corals, but I can grow sps down on the bottom with it.
