DIY 20L (upgraded from 12g NC)

[avbarr11]

So it has been a while. I've upgraded to a 20 long and it's been running for about a month and a half now. I've added a skimmer, and I just went through and checked all my parameters this weekend. What do you think?

 

Parameters

Salinity: 1.025G

Temperature: 78F

PH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrites: 0ppm

Nitrates: 10ppm

Phosphates: 0ppm

Calc: 380ppm

Mg: 1450ppm

Alk: 11dKH

 

I feel like my pH, alk, and mg might be high! I know my nitrates have been higher than I'd like, and I think this is because I'm still fine tuning my skimmer. My test kit is also an old API kit so I'm going to buy a better one to retest. If these are off, what can I do to bring them in line? I mix my own water with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, and have just switched from tap water to rodi. I know, tap water, bad, stuff will never leave my system, blah blah. It's done now, moving on. Any advice of how I can get my parameters in SPS shape would be awesome . By the way, if you want specifics about hardware and lighting, I just updated my first post.

[avbarr11]

So cool! I just discovered that I have some ball-tipped corallimorphs in my tank! For a while I've been encountering these little guys and they've been so small I assumed they were aiptasia. I'm kind of glad they've survived the super glue and have grown large enough for me to truly identify them . Apparently they are harmless which is awesome because they're also super cute and cool. Here's a photo of what they look like, courtesy of melevsreef.com

I found it impossible to capture these delicate nems with my point'n shoot.

 

Also, here's an updated FTS and some closeups:

I know, the MJ900 looks horrible, but I'm poor and this is a ghetto build.

 

 

New yuma and riscordia I picked up at a frag swap

 

A pocillipora I got as well

 

The birdsnest that got a trim for the frag swap. Hopefully it will color up more once the tank has been running for a while.

 

FES with beautiful DIY sump from a 10G. What a mess that was.. also a WAY oversized skimmer that's producing some great skimmate. Won the skimmer in a raffle, my lucky day!