spspirates 150 gallon build

Curiuos, you're dosing vinegar as a carbon source, what made you choose that over vodka or another avenue?
Vinegar for me has no cyanobacteria "side effect", it's dirt cheap and I don't have to keep out of reach.
 
New goodies came in from BSA!! Chunky frags!!!

CB Flaming Bugatti

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Space Invaders Pectinia

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These are beautiful. What's BSA?
 
Just finished reading this whole thread. Great stuff! So much thought and planning went into this build. How do you get such great growth and color with very low nutrient levels? I'm struggling with nuisance algae (bryopsis) and when I lower the nutrient levels too low I loose color in my sps.
 
Wow! Thanks for reading! Well.....I think it's just a combination of everything I do.

I have had bryopsis before in an older reef system. What I found to work after trying everything was adding very hungry large turbo snails. They would mow it down like crazy! Though I really didn't have anything else for them to eat but that. I ran GFO and activated carbon skimmed heavy fed light and did my water changes and it ended up starving out.
 
Seems the only things I am missing are the hungry turbos. I have a bunch of smaller ones, but they don't eat it. I have been driving my nutrient levels way down. What would you recommend to maintain the colors in my sps during this process?
 
Wow! Thanks for reading! Well.....I think it's just a combination of everything I do.

I have had bryopsis before in an older reef system. What I found to work after trying everything was adding very hungry large turbo snails. They would mow it down like crazy! Though I really didn't have anything else for them to eat but that. I ran GFO and activated carbon skimmed heavy fed light and did my water changes and it ended up starving out.
Do you not normally run activated carbon and gfo? Just curious
 
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These are beautiful. What's BSA?
Wow those prices are......very high haha. Did you pay 210 for a space invader frag? I mean those corals look sweet but good lord, that's double everywhere else. If you don't want to discuss that I understand completely and I apologize if this comes off as rude as it is not my intention. I'm just curious if your frags were cheaper or something. I love that flaming bugati!
 
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Seems the only things I am missing are the hungry turbos. I have a bunch of smaller ones, but they don't eat it. I have been driving my nutrient levels way down. What would you recommend to maintain the colors in my sps during this process?
While your trying to extinguish the bryopsis issue I wouldn't try focusing on coloring up your SPS. If you have good illumination on your reef system and your colors are turned down than most likely it's a nutrient issue of some sort. Perhaps more nutrients but in your case that would be a double sword. Focus on finding the variable or variables that's driving the bryopsis and fix that then focus on coloring up your SPS. You'll have to start from the top. Create a check list of options that could be your issue and go from there. The turbos that you have are satisfied grazing on other food than the bryopsis. In my case they had no other food to graze on and turned to the bryopsis.
 
Wow those prices are......very high haha. Did you pay 210 for a space invader frag? I mean those corals look sweet but good lord, that's double everywhere else. If you don't want to discuss that I understand completely and I apologize if this comes off as rude as it is not my intention. I'm just curious if your frags were cheaper or something. I love that flaming bugati!
Prices are fair to the market and sometimes better. Size and quality matters when it comes to collector frags. To each his own. I'm happy for what I payed. The CB Bugatti is nice thanks:)
 
Wow those prices are......very high haha. Did you pay 210 for a space invader frag? I mean those corals look sweet but good lord, that's double everywhere else. If you don't want to discuss that I understand completely and I apologize if this comes off as rude as it is not my intention. I'm just curious if your frags were cheaper or something. I love that flaming bugati!

U are looking at a colony of space invaders pectina for $210 on my site. The piece andy got was a frag and was much cheaper!
 
Prices are fair to the market and sometimes better. Size and quality matters when it comes to collector frags. To each his own. I'm happy for what I payed. The CB Bugatti is nice thanks:)

Lets agree to disagree on whether they are fair or not [emoji6] I understand what your saying for sure though. Either way, you got two awesome frags that will be worth as much as however many times you want to frag them as colonies anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Plus they are dope!
 
U are looking at a colony of space invaders pectina for $210 on my site. The piece andy got was a frag and was much cheaper!
Oh geez did you tap my cell phone? Haha jk. well that makes more sense, looked like a frag to me! I didn't click on the thumbnail nor read the description, however I thought it was expensive and that's why I was asking him if he paid less for his. Got some sweet corals man! Why no acros?

Actually scratch that, Andy I'm sorry don't want to hijack your thread, continue.
 
I just looked through your entire thread and its great. I am in the process of purchasing all the equipment for my first tank. I'm not even ready for the coral knowledge yet but will surely look back at your thread when I am for advice. I do have a question about dosing vinegar, it seems like the best way for nitrate export IMO. How did you figure out what to dose and when did you start dosing. I was planning on running carbon and GFO right off the bat but didn't know about the vinegar. Any advice would be appreciated.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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