Where do your UC frags come from? Here's some information!

sawdonkey · Feb 1, 2015

This was a good read. Thanks.

uniquecorals · Feb 1, 2015

KenJ said:
bio actif or pro ?

"Pro" is probably the one we'd go with..I have personally used the "regular" BioActif for years...my fave.

-Scott

feh · Feb 1, 2015

I didn't know you were using the Triton method on your shop tanks.

feh · Feb 1, 2015

BTW, out of curiousity what do your nitrates usually look like?

uniquecorals · Feb 1, 2015

feh said:
BTW, out of curiousity what do your nitrates usually look like?

I'd have to check, but I think they range up to 2-3ppm, but I'll have to look at the test logs to give you exact numbers!

-Scott

feh · Feb 1, 2015

uniquecorals said:
I'd have to check, but I think they range up to 2-3ppm, but I'll have to look at the test logs to give you exact numbers!

-Scott

I was just curious...

Thanks.

dss190 · Feb 2, 2015

Hi Scott,

So you guys don't run any GFO? Do you guys have any algae problems running you Phosphate that high?

uniquecorals · Feb 2, 2015

dss190 said:
Hi Scott,

So you guys don't run any GFO? Do you guys have any algae problems running you Phosphate that high?

We do run GFO from time to time, and actually, we haven't experienced too much in the way of algae problems...We used to get blooms here and there, but incorporating a fair number of herbivorous fishes, growth and harvest of Chaetomropha in our sumps, and manual extraction of any algae that encroach on corals has worked fine. We have a lot of coralline, but barely any of the more nasty types.

Good question!

-Scott

uniquecorals · Feb 2, 2015

uniquecorals said:
We do run GFO from time to time, and actually, we haven't experienced too much in the way of algae problems...We used to get blooms here and there, but incorporating a fair number of herbivorous fishes, growth and harvest of Chaetomropha in our sumps, and manual extraction of any algae that encroach on corals has worked fine. We have a lot of coralline, but barely any of the more nasty types.

Good question!

-Scott

Of course I transposed a decimal point or something in my mind... better clarify this!

our SPS raceway Phosphate reading ranges from .05- .08

ultimatemj · Feb 2, 2015

I'm curious about the 'balance' y'all are running...when you look up charts for Alk/Cal/Mag balance you often see numbers like 8/415/1280, but you are 8/535/1400.
Is that where you have found is good, or did that come from switching to the Triton method?

uniquecorals · Feb 2, 2015

ultimatemj said:
I'm curious about the 'balance' y'all are running...when you look up charts for Alk/Cal/Mag balance you often see numbers like 8/415/1280, but you are 8/535/1400.
Is that where you have found is good, or did that come from switching to the Triton method?

Great question...We are not really sure, to be quite honest...We are a bit puzzled about the high calcium, but we are taking steps to let it go down a bit. All in all, the numbers may be weird to us, but the coral are doing the talking! LOL We will keep everyone updated on our parameters!

spacetime · Feb 2, 2015

The corals I purchased from UC are growing strong and look great (I was looking for the Eco-gorgs for ages before running into them on UC's page). They are the healthiest coral in my tank and are beginning to grow over the plugs. The customer service I received was top notch. Waiting for my PO4 to drop before ordering some SPS from UC.

Riddler05 · Feb 3, 2015

Very interesting and it is nice to see venders being so transparent. You said that you feed your SPS. I was wondering what you feed and how much do you feed (how often)?

hummer · Feb 3, 2015

What kind if light do you run ?
What is your lighting time?
If leds what are your settings?
If you don't mined I have radions and I'm need some setting input .ty

uniquecorals · Feb 3, 2015

spacetime said:
The corals I purchased from UC are growing strong and look great (I was looking for the Eco-gorgs for ages before running into them on UC's page). They are the healthiest coral in my tank and are beginning to grow over the plugs. The customer service I received was top notch. Waiting for my PO4 to drop before ordering some SPS from UC.

Thanks for the kids words...We hope that the customer service experience is as memorable as our corals! Looking forward to helping you get some "SPS" frags!

-Scott

uniquecorals · Feb 3, 2015

Riddler05 said:
Very interesting and it is nice to see venders being so transparent. You said that you feed your SPS. I was wondering what you feed and how much do you feed (how often)?

We feed them 2-3 times per week, with a "blend" of oyster eggs, and a locally made frozen coral food that consists of extremely fine particle-sized seafoods, and zooplankton. This mix is dispersed in a sort of slurry after pausing the main system pumps. Our corals (ok, the fishes in the raceways, too) really respond well to this stuff!

-Scott

uniquecorals · Feb 3, 2015

hummer said:
What kind if light do you run ?
What is your lighting time?
If leds what are your settings?
If you don't mined I have radions and I'm need some setting input .ty

On our "SPS" raceways, we run 400 watt, 20K "Radium" metal halides on light movers, about 12" over the waterline. We run the lights around 10 hours a day, I believe (I think we adjusted recently). We also run a few banks of T5's over parts of one of our "SPS" raceways. We don't use Radions on our raceways; we have them on one of our display mixed reefs.

They are an excellent, well-made aquarium light, but for our purposes, they are simply not practical, both in terms of cost, light spread, and the sheer numbers that we'd need to cover our 30-foot long raceways in a fashion that would meet our criteria for growth, color, and "time to market." We do use some Kessil A360's on one section of one of our "LPS" raceways, over the Chalices, Blastos, Favia, etc., but we don't use LED over our "SPS" systems at this time.

HTH,

Scott

hummer · Feb 3, 2015

uniquecorals said:
On our "SPS" raceways, we run 400 watt, 20K "Radium" metal halides on light movers, about 12" over the waterline. We run the lights around 10 hours a day, I believe (I think we adjusted recently). We also run a few banks of T5's over parts of one of our "SPS" raceways. We don't use Radions on our raceways; we have them on one of our display mixed reefs.

They are an excellent, well-made aquarium light, but for our purposes, they are simply not practical, both in terms of cost, light spread, and the sheer numbers that we'd need to cover our 30-foot long raceways in a fashion that would meet our criteria for growth, color, and "time to market." We do use some Kessil A360's on one section of one of our "LPS" raceways, over the Chalices, Blastos, Favia, etc., but we don't use LED over our "SPS" systems at this time.

HTH,

Scott

Ty for the response

raultsu · Feb 3, 2015

Just received m triton test kit and elementz. Im waiting for this weather in NY to get better so i can order some SPS

SPotter · Feb 3, 2015

so the triton method is in place of using a ca reactor correct? My initial impression was that this couldnt be automated with dosing pump and I read that you are supposed to remove an equal amount of tank water that is equivalent to the amount elementz you dose. It sounds like I may have misunderstood what I read.