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Tuffryu's IM Fusion 10: SPS McLovin


Tuffryu

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Man, I am so glad to see this UI update to this site. I was willing to offer my own services to update this ancient interface.

 

Some update pics.

Hydnophora is extending well and liking the water :)

 

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Duncan is sprouting new heads. I think like 3-4. Awesome $5 frag.

 

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FTS

I lost some acro frags for some reason, but hey...I'm coming to realize that with a small tank, you have to expect shit to stress out and die. Just need to keep buying different frags to see what my water params are good for I guess.

 

I would love to get rid of GSP, polyps and mushroom crap...but oh well. #noregrets


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Removed the big hairy mushroom at the bottom along with the GSP clump and took them into the LFS for a swap. 

 

I'm guessing this is a favia of some sort.

 

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Had to move things around a bit a scape some things. Moved birdsnest and digi up top. Along with the favia they gave me another birdsnest frag. A little hard to see but it's in front of the orange cap.


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Much better now. GSP and xenia are 2 things I'll never do again.


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  • 2 weeks later...

Magnesium in.

Instructions say it needs to be shaken before used so I'm not sure if I should use my dosing pump or not. Thoughts?

Let me know if you all know.

 

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Alk finally back to reasonable level.


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FTS: 2-27-17


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  • 2 weeks later...

Testing NO3 and PO4 - looking okay.

 

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This orange digi is overgrowing the plug, almost to the glass rack. Need to find a location for him.


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Bottom shot of the guys on sand bed. Duncan was looking awesome before the emerald stepped all over him.

 

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So last week, I increased the temp from 77 - 79/80. I think this is the temp I'll try to maintain going forward as everything looks much better.

Problem is, my damn heaters are starting to fail - both in tank and my spare. Just ordered the Finnex 50 through amazon prime so i'm hoping i get it soon before things start dying :(


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New heater in. Thumbs up for the Finnex model.

The control pad makes it soooo much easier than messing with the dial thing on top of the aqueon heater. 

 

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I like the Finnex heaters, but double check the temp with another thermometer. My last one was off by a good three or four degrees. The three I bought before the current one were all right on target, though, so I may have just gotten a bad one. The difference was my first three had the mechanical controller, and the lastest one had the electronic controller.

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3 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

I like the Finnex heaters, but double check the temp with another thermometer. My last one was off by a good three or four degrees. The three I bought before the current one were all right on target, though, so I may have just gotten a bad one. The difference was my first three had the mechanical controller, and the lastest one had the electronic controller.

 

Yea I always have the regular thermometer hanging in the tank. SO far so good.

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My peppermint shrimp has been a great addition to the tank - taking out aiptasia and what not. But in the past months he's been tearing up all of my snails.

I thought they were just dying maybe due to starvation, but I was literally buying new snails almost every other week.

 

I used my small fish net and a pointer stick, trying to catch this thing for hours - knocking coral frags down etc. Terrible idea. After doing some research, I came across a few vids that showed how to catch fish/shrimp using a water bottle. 

 

Ta da....my first fish/shrimp trap.

 

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Held the bottle at the bottom of the tank...less than 10 mins and bam!

 

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Took the peppermint to the LFS for some credit - which was the intent.

 

But found myself bringing sexy back.


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I see why everyone is so intrigued with these things. They're amaze. Simply beautiful. 


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Happy Sunday. It's water change day!

 

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Trying this stuff.

Read lots of good feedback on it so I'll give it a try. My PO4 isn't too high - approx. .01-.02 ppm, but I'd rather have them at 0. Not sure what silicate levels are. 

 

This container treats 100gal, so I eyeballed about 1/10th of the brown stuff inside and rolled up in the cloth that came with it.

Will test in a couple of days.

 

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Just in. 

 

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This shot probably looks familiar to you Teeny :). Thanks for your notes on turning the pump upside down. Works like a charm!


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Started it last night and hopefully it breaks in soon. I'm keeping the Mame for my Fluval spec 3 - when I start it up again. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Damn, it's been a while since I posted.

So I haven't bought anything in weeks - incredible. I take that back, I bought a small green pocillopora that I should photograph. What I have been doing is less frequent water changes and some more feeding. I am experimenting with lighting as well as increasing nutrient levels. I've been running a undetectable tank for a while and not getting the extension that I want from the acros, especially after running the new skimmer.

 

I've been doing lots of reading on the NO3 topic and the most interesting bit of info I found was this survey chart from an old thread on reefcentral. These are votes on the best nitrate levels for sps - granted I have no idea what else is in these tanks from the votes but it's interesting to see. 

 

I would usually freak out if nitrates were 1-2, but 2-5?! Shiiiiiiit.

 

I'm interested in hearing from folks who are running nitrates at this level, with successful SPS polyp extension and growth.

 

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People grow great sps at all kinds of nitrate levels, but I've never had good luck at super low levels. In general under 5 is a good goal but even higher can be ok. World Wide Corals shoots for about 15, for example. 

 

I think stability and a balanced tank is more important. 

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3 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

People grow great sps at all kinds of nitrate levels, but I've never had good luck at super low levels. In general under 5 is a good goal but even higher can be ok. World Wide Corals shoots for about 15, for example. 

 

I think stability and a balanced tank is more important. 

 

I'm realizing that low levels is not best for growth. I think I will shoot for 3-4 and see how it goes. My LFS has sps tanks in the 5-10 range. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not a ton to report, but I did move some stuff around. There was a big hairy mushroom that was beginning to over grow and cover my green plating digi, so I cut it off the live rock and he floated away underneath main rock.

 

My experiment to raise my tank from an undetectable tank to increased nutrient is starting to take notice. 2-5 NO3 ppm is what I'm shooting for and I think I've managed to find the right rhythm to achieve this. CA was also low so I'm in the process of raising to 400+.

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The acro frags have increased color in tips where before they were looking pale.


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Below shot has nothing to do with raised nutrients as these pavonas were always encrusted on the rock. Really hardy corals. These and digitatas are impossible to kill. 


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Happy Monday!

 

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HighCurrent

Tank is looking good!

 

I try keep my NO3 around 15 and I keep my PO4 nearly undetectable.

 

keeps colors looking banging and allows you to pound the tank with light a little more. I run a biocube skimmer strictly for aeration. 

 

I too dose Acropower as needed to keep my nitrate elevated. 

 

Just my .02!

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2 hours ago, HighCurrent said:

Tank is looking good!

 

I try keep my NO3 around 15 and I keep my PO4 nearly undetectable.

 

keeps colors looking banging and allows you to pound the tank with light a little more. I run a biocube skimmer strictly for aeration. 

 

I too dose Acropower as needed to keep my nitrate elevated. 

 

Just my .02!

 

Thanks man! Certainly appreciate the knowledge share in your water params. 

What I'm finding is that certain sps do better with elevated NO3 while others don't. I am continuing phosban to keep PO4 low as possible so I can feed more, and I think it's working. 

 

Also upped my lights as well. I may have done too many changes at once this month but we'll see. 

 

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Shot of where the green plating digi was getting stung by the hairy mushroom that's been removed now - and replaced with this birds nest.

Problem is I left a tip of the mushroom on the rock, and it's now growing back :(

 

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Finally broke out the the RS foundation test kit.

This shit is no joke - has everything and more. I ran out of ALK tests from my API kit which is the reason I bought this one. The readings are completely different where the API was showing 7.5 dKH and the RS kit is showing 10.3!

Yea - like OMFG. 

 

Note to self, buy a good test kit.34285296101_5b47c31318_b.jpg

 

Alk - 10.2-4 dKH

Cal - 400

NO3 - 4/5ppm

PO4 - .2ppm

Gravity - 1.25

Temp - 78-9

MG - 1380

 

boom. 

 

 

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17 hours ago, HighCurrent said:

Good tests are worth their weight for sure.

 

Completely agree. The API is probably best for cycling tanks and certain other parameters but not so much for established systems. 

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SaltyBuddha
41 minutes ago, Tuffryu said:

 

Completely agree. The API is probably best for cycling tanks and certain other parameters but not so much for established systems. 

Wow that kinda scares me. Next investment for sure

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