Any local SPS keepers?

[Jmcdaniel0]

This is very true SPS colonies look amazing when you can grow them long term. I have not seen David's tank, but I would imagine its quite nice!

 

[seased]

Thanks for the kind words! Actually, some of my first sps frags came from Dave and evilmel. I have always been impressed with your tanks. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge over the years.

I still have a piece of a lime green acro I got from Dave over 5 years ago. In fact, it may be closer to 10. It came from 90 or 120 gal tank you had against the wall by the stairs.

 

[cee]

Ah, the beloved 90, my first foray into a reef tank in TN, the memories! I just can't recall the coral but it was 10 years ago or so. Quite an impressive feat David!

My first reef tank was at 14 years old, 1978. You do the math LOL. First SPS was 1992 - I failed. Few people understood how to care for them back then.

 

[wrfreeman]

@Ryan15236: I've got some SPS in my tank and have a monitpora digitata frag I could give you if you're interested. It's been growing really well in my tank. I'm in your neck of the woods so just let me know when you can run by I've also got a Photon fixture so you won't have to worry about light acclimation. The acros I've added to my tank have all lost their color pretty quickly while everything stays bright and colorful, but they continue to grow. The feedback I'm getting is that I've been running my tank too clean and the Nitrate and PO4 need to be at least be at measurable levels. Although it could be that they were grown under metal halides and they've had trouble acclimating to the LEDs. I've stopped running my GFO and carbon reactors, but still need to start feeding a little heavier. I currently just feed A+ pellets once, three days a week. I had an algae outbreak a few months ago so cut back on the feeding and improved my water change regimen. The algae is gone so I need to be careful with increasing my feeding. Here's my SPS stock list:

Birdsnest
Poccilopora
Stylophora
Hypnotic Montipora Digitata
Orange Montipora Digitata
Montipora Spongodes
Anacropora
Turbinaria
Rainbow Milipora
Tri-color acro (although it's pale right now)
Green potato chip Pavona
Purple/Pink fuzzy Pavona
A couple of chalices and what I believe is an elephant nose.

 

[Ryan15236]

Sounds good @wrfreeman

I will PM you sometime and we can work something out on the digitata. Always looking to increase my SPS stock.

I wonder why your acros are fading. My acros seem to be doing the best for me as far as color and growth. I am having more problems with birdsnest and milka stylo.

Are you happy with your reefbreeders light?

 

[wrfreeman]

yeah I've been real happy with the light. That is interesting though because my birdsnest, stylo and pocillopora are growing like weeds and the colors are great. Weird. Do you feed your coral and if so how often?

 

[wrfreeman]

Actually, all my SPS are flourishing except the acros. The anacropora is also doing great. It's a question of, do I risk upsetting the balance that's presently keeping everything flourishing just to make the acros happy? My LPS are of course doing great. Well my acans have done something weird. I started with three 3-head frags: one blue, one red and orange, and one pink. They all grew to 10+ heads over a year or so, but they've basically turned pink. The blue one almost died off, but is now coming back (but it's still pink). For the record, I don't feed any of my coral at all. I used to spot feed them all the time, but i got tired of algae blooms. I'm going to start feeding Coral Frenzy once a week at night when the lights go off and maybe spot feed once a week during the day as well. I'll just need to stay aggressive and consistent with water changes and cleanings. I also need to make sure I stir up the substrate once a week to kick up any detritus hanging out in there. The corals seem to like that anyway.

 

[Ryan15236]

My green and rainbow stylo are doing well just that milka is being difficult. I have been happy with my reefbreeders as well. It may not give as good of color of some of the higher end lights but I'm getting good growth and the programmability for the price is awesome. I feed my hammers, torch, brain, Duncan's, and trumpets once a week with some small pieces of shrimp. I also feed the whole tank 1-2 times a week with that cobalt coral food. I can't think of the actual name at the moment. I'm getting pretty good color on my green acro, purple acro, green slimer, rainbow Mille, and tri color granulosa.

On my 125 gallon tank I only change out 2-3 gallons a week. I also only have a 2 clowns and a firefish ATM so that will change as bioload increases.

 

[Ryan15236]

I picked up this green acro frag about two weeks ago and it's been doing pretty well for me so far. And I seem to keep some algae in the tank. Annoying but it's never bad at all when it does come.

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

Actually, all my SPS are flourishing except the acros. The anacropora is also doing great. It's a question of, do I risk upsetting the balance that's presently keeping everything flourishing just to make the acros happy? My LPS are of course doing great. Well my acans have done something weird. I started with three 3-head frags: one blue, one red and orange, and one pink. They all grew to 10+ heads over a year or so, but they've basically turned pink. The blue one almost died off, but is now coming back (but it's still pink). For the record, I don't feed any of my coral at all. I used to spot feed them all the time, but i got tired of algae blooms. I'm going to start feeding Coral Frenzy once a week at night when the lights go off and maybe spot feed once a week during the day as well. I'll just need to stay aggressive and consistent with water changes and cleanings. I also need to make sure I stir up the substrate once a week to kick up any detritus hanging out in there. The corals seem to like that anyway.

hey just thought i would chime in... SeaChem makes two products that i swear by. They are Aqua vitro fuel and vibrance. i have several of both here at the house you are welcome to a bottle of each to try.

 

[Ryan15236]

I am thinking about trying the aquavitro fuel. I have heard some good things about it. What exactly is it? Is it like an amino acid supplement. I haven't looked into yet but am going too and probably give it a whirl

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

I am thinking about trying the aquavitro fuel. I have heard some good things about it. What exactly is it? Is it like an amino acid supplement. I haven't looked into yet but am going too and probably give it a whirl

it is an amino acid supplement. it really does work. i use it in all of my tanks. Vibrance is an iodine supplement.

 

[Ryan15236]

Do you test your iodine levels when using or just follow a recommended dosage?

 

[Jmcdaniel0]

i test everything before i dose it. but it seems i need to dose it more often than i used to. it could be my water supply has changed or this new bucket of salt has less in it....

 

[wrfreeman]

Thanks Josh. I picked up a bottle of Two Little Fishes Acropower that I started using a couple of weeks ago. I fed some Coral Frenzy last night and dosed some of the Acropower at the same time. I'm going to try and do that once or twice weekly.