Bubba's SPS Journey

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

ashr said:
those are more like colonies haha! Looking great!!

Thanks. Some are starting to get some size to them. Hopefully one day they will all be colonies.

JonJ · Aug 9, 2018

bubbaque said:
RRC Pink Cadillac. I have yet to see one with the pink body like the original one did.

Are you talking about the pic of the huge colony on reefbuilders? Maybe the pink develops more once it grows out. I have mine at the very top of my rock getting blasted with light and current. It’s growing really compact -but like yours, I wouldn’t call it pink.

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

JonJ said:
Are you talking about the pic of the huge colony on reefbuilders? Maybe the pink develops more once it grows out. I have mine at the very top of my rock getting blasted with light and current. It’s growing really compact -but like yours, I wouldn’t call it pink.

Yeah the Reefbuilders pic is what I was referring to. I would love for it one day to start to get that pinkish body. I guess time will tell. It's one of my fastest growers, so hopefully it's not too long.

JonJ · Aug 9, 2018

bubbaque said:
Yeah the Reefbuilders pic is what I was referring to. I would love for it one day to start to get that pinkish body. I guess time will tell. It's one of my fastest growers, so hopefully it's not too long.

Agreed, it is a fast grower!

AvaS · Aug 9, 2018

This thread continues to wow me! A lot earlier In the thread somebody asked you to list your top five favorite acros you have in the tank. Now that things have grown out a little as well as you’ve added a few new pieces to your collection what would you say would be your top five?

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

AvaS said:
This thread continues to wow me! A lot earlier In the thread somebody asked you to list your top five favorite acros you have in the tank. Now that things have grown out a little as well as you’ve added a few new pieces to your collection what would you say would be your top five?

Top 5's are so hard to do, lol. They do seem to change often for me as things color and grow. This is what I would say it is now but ask me in another two months and it will probably be different.

1. MattV Psycho asylum - it photographs so bad for me. My pics always make it look average at best. I take pics all the time to share of it but delete them because I don't want to represent it bad. This one is a stunner in full daylight.

2. Homewrecker - still small but is just getting better and better. When I would see pics of the HW I'd think it wasn't possible for a coral to look like that. I'm a believer now.

3. CB Maleficent - I am a fan of red and no coral compares to this. I seen some people say it's a renamed red planet. They must of not of seen a real CB maleficent or seen one that's colored down. I have red planet and this looks nothing like it. It's a true beauty!

4. Acid trip milli - it's so colorful, to make pics look realistic I have to dull the pics down. You can see it in the top frag tank pic on the left.

5. Pc superman - it's really not just a red table with blue tips. It's got some other colors thrown in with the red. The blue tips is just an added bonus.

honorable mentions

Arc ultra milli - really nice bright pink to it and different shades of green deep down where it gets less light. Not sure how this one didn't become one of the hot must have corals because it should be.

Battlecorals aquaticman table - Mine is just starting to branch and it's getting those nice growth tips you see in Adams pic. This ones gonna be a stunner and I can't wait.

WWIII · Aug 9, 2018

Have you ever had an icp test done on your system? Just wondering since you don't really dose anything and do relatively minor water changes. Seems like a lot of guys are following tritons recommendations to the t, but maybe we all would be better off doing the @bubbaque method!

FarmerTy · Aug 9, 2018

bubbaque said:
Top 5's are so hard to do, lol. They do seem to change often for me as things color and grow. This is what I would say it is now but ask me in another two months and it will probably be different.

1. MattV Psycho asylum - it photographs so bad for me. My pics always make it look average at best. I take pics all the time to share of it but delete them because I don't want to represent it bad. This one is a stunner in full daylight.

2. Homewrecker - still small but is just getting better and better. When I would see pics of the HW I'd think it wasn't possible for a coral to look like that. I'm a believer now.

3. CB Maleficent - I am a fan of red and no coral compares to this. I seen some people say it's a renamed red planet. They must of not of seen a real CB maleficent or seen one that's colored down. I have red planet and this looks nothing like it. It's a true beauty!

4. Acid trip milli - it's so colorful, to make pics look realistic I have to dull the pics down. You can see it in the top frag tank pic on the left.

5. Pc superman - it's really not just a red table with blue tips. It's got some other colors thrown in with the red. The blue tips is just an added bonus.

honorable mentions

Arc ultra milli - really nice bright pink to it and different shades of green deep down where it gets less light. Not sure how this one didn't become one of the hot must have corals because it should be.

Battlecorals aquaticman table - Mine is just starting to branch and it's getting those nice growth tips you see in Adams pic. This ones gonna be a stunner and I can't wait.

I just need a frag of that maleficient from you and I'll have the list! Hint hint! [emoji12]

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

WWIII said:
Have you ever had an icp test done on your system? Just wondering since you don't really dose anything and do relatively minor water changes. Seems like a lot of guys are following tritons recommendations to the t, but maybe we all would be better off doing the @bubbaque method!

I do dose Fuel now and that does have trace elements in it. I had an ICP test done a long time ago so I'm sure it's not relevant anymore. I would do one again but I'm not sure what good it would do. If something went wrong, could I make it go back to what an ICP said my system was when it was doing well? Maybe but it seems like it would be a struggle.

I feel over the past couple months my system has really found its groove. More colors are coming out than before but maybe it's because things are grown out more. I feel things couldn't get much better than now **knock on wood**. I haven't really done anything different the whole time, maybe the whole maturity thing isn't a lie. I do have Bryopsis that likes to grow only in my frag tank I would like to get rid of but I'm too scared to dose the reef flux to get rid of it in case it messes up the balance my system has found.

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

FarmerTy said:
I just need a frag of that maleficient from you and I'll have the list! Hint hint! [emoji12]

You will have the first frag!

FarmerTy · Aug 9, 2018

bubbaque said:
You will have the first frag!

Woohoo!

snakejacques · Aug 9, 2018

I need one too LOL

bubbaque · Aug 9, 2018

FarmerTy said:
Woohoo!

You're always on top of it with these gifs!

AngryOwl · Aug 9, 2018

When you discover this thread... read every page, every post...drooling ;Drool and dreaming you can have the same results one day when you grow up... and there is no FTS :mad:

;Playful Seriously though this is amazing and inspiring. Would love to have you update you current dosing and general maintenance routine since it seemed to have changed slightly since the beginning, ie. dosing kalk, Fuel..

Lastly, random question, when you receive a large pack of frags, lets say 10-15 or so... and put them in the tank, how do you manage the change that will happen in ALK consumption? I would assume it would change as the new corals are now taking up more ALK... but how do you anticipate that so there is not a major swing? Does this question make sense? lol

AvaS · Aug 9, 2018

bubbaque said:
Top 5's are so hard to do, lol. They do seem to change often for me as things color and grow. This is what I would say it is now but ask me in another two months and it will probably be different.

1. MattV Psycho asylum - it photographs so bad for me. My pics always make it look average at best. I take pics all the time to share of it but delete them because I don't want to represent it bad. This one is a stunner in full daylight.

2. Homewrecker - still small but is just getting better and better. When I would see pics of the HW I'd think it wasn't possible for a coral to look like that. I'm a believer now.

3. CB Maleficent - I am a fan of red and no coral compares to this. I seen some people say it's a renamed red planet. They must of not of seen a real CB maleficent or seen one that's colored down. I have red planet and this looks nothing like it. It's a true beauty!

4. Acid trip milli - it's so colorful, to make pics look realistic I have to dull the pics down. You can see it in the top frag tank pic on the left.

5. Pc superman - it's really not just a red table with blue tips. It's got some other colors thrown in with the red. The blue tips is just an added bonus.

honorable mentions

Arc ultra milli - really nice bright pink to it and different shades of green deep down where it gets less light. Not sure how this one didn't become one of the hot must have corals because it should be.

Battlecorals aquaticman table - Mine is just starting to branch and it's getting those nice growth tips you see in Adams pic. This ones gonna be a stunner and I can't wait.

Thanks for replying! I like to hear what everyone’s favorites are from time to time and see as they change when they collect new frags and pieces start to grow out! I would love to see a picture of the MattV psycho asylum once you get one you are happy with! I hope to get a frag of everything on your hit list one day (especially the MattV I have always lied that coral) but I will just continue to live through you and many other inspirational reefers for now

bubbaque · Aug 10, 2018

AvaS said:
Thanks for replying! I like to hear what everyone’s favorites are from time to time and see as they change when they collect new frags and pieces start to grow out! I would love to see a picture of the MattV psycho asylum once you get one you are happy with! I hope to get a frag of everything on your hit list one day (especially the MattV I have always lied that coral) but I will just continue to live through you and many other inspirational reefers for now

I think as corals grow they change how they look and that is part of what keeps our hobby interesting. I posted a pic of the Mattv Psycho Asylym over on Facebook about a month ago and as soon as I posted it, I regretted it, as it didn't do it justice.

For the most part I try and make my pics look accurate and not under all blues. Some frags I pay a lot of money for and if it looks like a turd under daylight, I will still post it. If you are ever in the market for a frag on the list and want to see what it looks like in daylights before you buy, let me know and I would be glad to post it. I have been disappointed to many times by juiced up pics.

AngryOwl said:
When you discover this thread... read every page, every post...drooling ;Drool and dreaming you can have the same results one day when you grow up... and there is no FTS :mad:

;Playful Seriously though this is amazing and inspiring. Would love to have you update you current dosing and general maintenance routine since it seemed to have changed slightly since the beginning, ie. dosing kalk, Fuel..

Lastly, random question, when you receive a large pack of frags, lets say 10-15 or so... and put them in the tank, how do you manage the change that will happen in ALK consumption? I would assume it would change as the new corals are now taking up more ALK... but how do you anticipate that so there is not a major swing? Does this question make sense? lol

When I look back over time you are right as some things have changed. I think I still keep it pretty simple but every ones idea of simple is different. Here is the full run down of what I do and don't do. It's gonna be long, so you might need your reading glasses, lol.

Calcium reactor and kalk for alk and calc
I use a co2 scrubber for ph (which I am a believer in higher ph now)
I use a refugium for nutrient export
I dose Fuel and Acropower a couple times a week but I don't know if it does anything. Fuel for sure makes my glass get dirty fast though.
I feed a whole bunch of food!

That pretty much sums up what I do.

Here is what I don't do.

I don't change much water as the last "water change" was when I added water when I setup a frag tank about a month ago. I don't even have salt right now. When I have salt I would like to do 10% a month if possible. The problem is as I start to get more water volume, you need larger and larger water changes to make any difference. I hate mixing up 30 gallons of water to change 10%. @FarmerTy I think went years without a water change and he has great colors and growth.

I don't use filter socks unless some people are coming over and I want to polish the water.

I don't target feed any coral.

I don't fear algae. In my new frag tank you can see some algae on the eggcrate. I need to buy some turbo snails and it will be gone. People who have algae issue I believe need to get more snails or something to eat it and it would go away.

I no longer chase numbers and I think this is a lot of peoples down fall. There was a time I was chasing po4. I felt I had to have detectable po4, even though most stuff looked good. I would test in the morning and it would be 0 and then dose and test and see it was up. Next morning 0 again and I would dose again. After about 3 weeks I started to see stn and I asked myself what am I doing this for. It was all for a number. After that I said I won't do it anymore and I haven't. I tested no3 this morning and it was clear as water. My corals are not pale, I don't have burnt tips, so I did nothing. I am not even sure 0 nitrate and higher alk causes burnt tips as most say. My alk is 9.2 and no detectable nitrate.

I test alk every 2 -3 days so when I get a large order of corals I usually catch any kind of swing but I haven't really noticed any before. 10 - 15 frags isn't going to drop your dkh a whole lot though.

AngryOwl · Aug 10, 2018

bubbaque said:
I think as corals grow they change how they look and that is part of what keeps our hobby interesting. I posted a pic of the Mattv Psycho Asylym over on Facebook about a month ago and as soon as I posted it, I regretted it, as it didn't do it justice.

For the most part I try and make my pics look accurate and not under all blues. Some frags I pay a lot of money for and if it looks like a turd under daylight, I will still post it. If you are ever in the market for a frag on the list and want to see what it looks like in daylights before you buy, let me know and I would be glad to post it. I have been disappointed to many times by juiced up pics.

When I look back over time you are right as some things have changed. I think I still keep it pretty simple but every ones idea of simple is different. Here is the full run down of what I do and don't do. It's gonna be long, so you might need your reading glasses, lol.

Calcium reactor and kalk for alk and calc
I use a co2 scrubber for ph (which I am a believer in higher ph now)
I use a refugium for nutrient export
I dose Fuel and Acropower a couple times a week but I don't know if it does anything. Fuel for sure makes my glass get dirty fast though.
I feed a whole bunch of food!

That pretty much sums up what I do.

Here is what I don't do.

I don't change much water as the last "water change" was when I added water when I setup a frag tank about a month ago. I don't even have salt right now. When I have salt I would like to do 10% a month if possible. The problem is as I start to get more water volume, you need larger and larger water changes to make any difference. I hate mixing up 30 gallons of water to change 10%. @FarmerTy I think went years without a water change and he has great colors and growth.

I don't use filter socks unless some people are coming over and I want to polish the water.

I don't target feed any coral.

I don't fear algae. In my new frag tank you can see some algae on the eggcrate. I need to buy some turbo snails and it will be gone. People who have algae issue I believe need to get more snails or something to eat it and it would go away.

I no longer chase numbers and I think this is a lot of peoples down fall. There was a time I was chasing po4. I felt I had to have detectable po4, even though most stuff looked good. I would test in the morning and it would be 0 and then dose and test and see it was up. Next morning 0 again and I would dose again. After about 3 weeks I started to see stn and I asked myself what am I doing this for. It was all for a number. After that I said I won't do it anymore and I haven't. I tested no3 this morning and it was clear as water. My corals are not pale, I don't have burnt tips, so I did nothing. I am not even sure 0 nitrate and higher alk causes burnt tips as most say. My alk is 9.2 and no detectable nitrate.

I test alk every 2 -3 days so when I get a large order of corals I usually catch any kind of swing but I haven't really noticed any before. 10 - 15 frags isn't going to drop your dkh a whole lot though.

Thanks for this rundown! This really helped, I find it so interesting how different individuals approaches can be but they all get similar results. Some rely on equipment and heavy dosing, some by water changes, etc. But your tank is a classic example of keeping things simple IMO.

AvaS · Aug 10, 2018

bubbaque said:
I think as corals grow they change how they look and that is part of what keeps our hobby interesting. I posted a pic of the Mattv Psycho Asylym over on Facebook about a month ago and as soon as I posted it, I regretted it, as it didn't do it justice.

For the most part I try and make my pics look accurate and not under all blues. Some frags I pay a lot of money for and if it looks like a turd under daylight, I will still post it. If you are ever in the market for a frag on the list and want to see what it looks like in daylights before you buy, let me know and I would be glad to post it. I have been disappointed to many times by juiced up pics.

When I look back over time you are right as some things have changed. I think I still keep it pretty simple but every ones idea of simple is different. Here is the full run down of what I do and don't do. It's gonna be long, so you might need your reading glasses, lol.

Calcium reactor and kalk for alk and calc
I use a co2 scrubber for ph (which I am a believer in higher ph now)
I use a refugium for nutrient export
I dose Fuel and Acropower a couple times a week but I don't know if it does anything. Fuel for sure makes my glass get dirty fast though.
I feed a whole bunch of food!

That pretty much sums up what I do.

Here is what I don't do.

I don't change much water as the last "water change" was when I added water when I setup a frag tank about a month ago. I don't even have salt right now. When I have salt I would like to do 10% a month if possible. The problem is as I start to get more water volume, you need larger and larger water changes to make any difference. I hate mixing up 30 gallons of water to change 10%. @FarmerTy I think went years without a water change and he has great colors and growth.

I don't use filter socks unless some people are coming over and I want to polish the water.

I don't target feed any coral.

I don't fear algae. In my new frag tank you can see some algae on the eggcrate. I need to buy some turbo snails and it will be gone. People who have algae issue I believe need to get more snails or something to eat it and it would go away.

I no longer chase numbers and I think this is a lot of peoples down fall. There was a time I was chasing po4. I felt I had to have detectable po4, even though most stuff looked good. I would test in the morning and it would be 0 and then dose and test and see it was up. Next morning 0 again and I would dose again. After about 3 weeks I started to see stn and I asked myself what am I doing this for. It was all for a number. After that I said I won't do it anymore and I haven't. I tested no3 this morning and it was clear as water. My corals are not pale, I don't have burnt tips, so I did nothing. I am not even sure 0 nitrate and higher alk causes burnt tips as most say. My alk is 9.2 and no detectable nitrate.

I test alk every 2 -3 days so when I get a large order of corals I usually catch any kind of swing but I haven't really noticed any before. 10 - 15 frags isn't going to drop your dkh a whole lot though.

Thanks so much for the response as well as the info about your dosing and maintenance schedule. I will keep your offer in mind as I wooof like to eventually grow my collection with a goal of it being even half as nice as yours!!

Anirban · Aug 10, 2018

bubbaque said:
I think as corals grow they change how they look and that is part of what keeps our hobby interesting. I posted a pic of the Mattv Psycho Asylym over on Facebook about a month ago and as soon as I posted it, I regretted it, as it didn't do it justice.

For the most part I try and make my pics look accurate and not under all blues. Some frags I pay a lot of money for and if it looks like a turd under daylight, I will still post it. If you are ever in the market for a frag on the list and want to see what it looks like in daylights before you buy, let me know and I would be glad to post it. I have been disappointed to many times by juiced up pics.

When I look back over time you are right as some things have changed. I think I still keep it pretty simple but every ones idea of simple is different. Here is the full run down of what I do and don't do. It's gonna be long, so you might need your reading glasses, lol.

Calcium reactor and kalk for alk and calc
I use a co2 scrubber for ph (which I am a believer in higher ph now)
I use a refugium for nutrient export
I dose Fuel and Acropower a couple times a week but I don't know if it does anything. Fuel for sure makes my glass get dirty fast though.
I feed a whole bunch of food!

That pretty much sums up what I do.

Here is what I don't do.

I don't change much water as the last "water change" was when I added water when I setup a frag tank about a month ago. I don't even have salt right now. When I have salt I would like to do 10% a month if possible. The problem is as I start to get more water volume, you need larger and larger water changes to make any difference. I hate mixing up 30 gallons of water to change 10%. @FarmerTy I think went years without a water change and he has great colors and growth.

I don't use filter socks unless some people are coming over and I want to polish the water.

I don't target feed any coral.

I don't fear algae. In my new frag tank you can see some algae on the eggcrate. I need to buy some turbo snails and it will be gone. People who have algae issue I believe need to get more snails or something to eat it and it would go away.

I no longer chase numbers and I think this is a lot of peoples down fall. There was a time I was chasing po4. I felt I had to have detectable po4, even though most stuff looked good. I would test in the morning and it would be 0 and then dose and test and see it was up. Next morning 0 again and I would dose again. After about 3 weeks I started to see stn and I asked myself what am I doing this for. It was all for a number. After that I said I won't do it anymore and I haven't. I tested no3 this morning and it was clear as water. My corals are not pale, I don't have burnt tips, so I did nothing. I am not even sure 0 nitrate and higher alk causes burnt tips as most say. My alk is 9.2 and no detectable nitrate.

I test alk every 2 -3 days so when I get a large order of corals I usually catch any kind of swing but I haven't really noticed any before. 10 - 15 frags isn't going to drop your dkh a whole lot though.