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My 75gl sps dream

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Flare1185

Well I'm late but its better then never. I decided to finally start one but my tank has been up for a few years now. I bought this off someone that used to work at ocean gallery 3 years ago and have been working towards a dominant sps tank for a few months now. First off it's a 75gl with 30gl sump. It has a mag 7 or 9 for return and I just purchase a used SWC 180 skimmer. For flow it has a mp20 vortech, tunze 6100, and a koralia evo 1400. Lighting is a 48 diy cree leds. Only one side is operationally right now because I'm waiting for some leds to fix out some burnt out. I have two reactors running in the sump one for bio pellets and the other is for GFO. I currently have a mix reef with my current list of fish are 3 percular clown that have been together for about a year. Dominant female and male are breeding every few weeks. Brittle starfish, sand sifting starfish, purple tang, flasher wrasse mccosker, solar wrass, a spotted mandarine, and a newly acquired harlequin shrimp. For my corals I have a few zoas, lps, sps, and a few anemone. I'm trying to get rid of the anemone and work towards more sps. My latest parameters on 1-28-12
* 0.01 P04 the closet I've been to 0.
* 12.1 dkh alk.
* 537 calc.
* 1130 mag.
* 50 nitrate.
I just changed my GFO because my P04 climbed up to .13, but enough talk lets get to some pictures. Quality of won't be very good because its taken by a camera phone.

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mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Looks great, don't worry about the camera phone, I took pics with my cell phone for a long time before I bought a DSLR. How much of the biopellets are you running and what kind? Keep an eye on that alk, I know you are bringing it down.
 
howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
Looks good dude! Did the frags I gave you make it?

I spied that little Clemnetine polyp! Pretty sweet!!
 
F

Flare1185

I'm running BRS bio pellet. Used 2 cup and it looks like it's all still there. I didn't dose any bacteria with it but it's been one month and I see no changes in my nitrate. I got fuzzy small hair algae growing all over so I'm going to try vinegar dosing to see of that helps. I started with 2ml tonight.
 
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Flare1185

howze01 said:
Looks good dude! Did the frags I gave you make it?

I spied that little Clemnetine polyp! Pretty sweet!!
Click to expand...

Man you got good eyes! The clementine still only have 3 polpys but i got it when there was only one and that was a month ago. All your frags are doing great. Most of them are encrusting the plug just haven't grown any taller yet hopefully once I put a few more LEDs in and fix my nitrate problem them will take off.
 
howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
It's good that they're encrusting. They have to grow out to grow up well. Keep those Clementines growing, they're awesome!
 
downbeach

downbeach

Flare1185 said:
I'm running BRS bio pellet. Used 2 cup and it looks like it's all still there. I didn't dose any bacteria with it but it's been one month and I see no changes in my nitrate. I got fuzzy small hair algae growing all over so I'm going to try vinegar dosing to see of that helps. I started with 2ml tonight.
Click to expand...

What kind of reactor are you using? With what pump? The pellets should just be moving/tumbling very slowly,something like your GFO, just so they don't start to clump. Most articles I've read say it could take up to 8 weeks for you to notice any real affects. I've had mine running for about 3 months now and it still appears that the original amount I added are still in the reactor.
 
F

Flare1185

TLF with mesh mod Maxijet 900 or 1200. I believe I have it tumbling too fast. I need some sort of restricted valve for it.
 
howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
Flare1185 said:
Thanks you, really appreciate it. Just need to figure a when I'll be in your area.
Click to expand...

I work right down the road from Brian. I can get it from him if it would be easier. I have his cover for his GH overflow anyway so it's no biggie.
 
F

Flare1185

Let see if I can post this video. I finish lighting for my 2nd part of my 75gl its a lot bluer then the other one because I added a few more royal blues. I will have to adjust and dim it down a little. Went to ocean gallery and pick up a sweet orange plate and a potter angel in QT. Can someone chime in and evaluate my QT tank. It's 15gl but only using 10gl with a heater a maxijet1200, sponge seeded in my 75gl and a small piece of live rock.

 
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F

Flare1185

Recent parameters.
* .22 P04 = just changed out GFO
* 25 nitrate = need to bump vinegar dosing to 40ml
* 9.57 alk = am I safe?
* 600 calc = am I safe?
* 930 mag = gotta bump it up gonna try Randy's recipes

Seeing some growth on sps only a few cm in the past week. Added a few more corals lately so will update with pictures soon.
 
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howze01

howze01

NJRC Member
The QT looks good to me. I don't think I saw a cover though did I?

Your PO4 and NO3 are both still high. Alk looks OK but Ca is pretty darn high. what's 930? mag? I think that's pretty low.
 
F

Flare1185

Yea no cover, probably should look into that. Agree my P04 is way too high but usually when I change out the GFO it drops it fairly fast. I'm not sure if biopellets are actually doing anything to lower the N03. I'll take a video of how fast it's turning and see if there's too much flow in there or not. I'm curious as to why my Calc is so high. I recently bought a nice softball size sps colony and all my other sps are growing but I'm also doing 15gl water change every week so maybe it's replacing too much and not used up fast enough yet.
 
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