How to successfully keep SPS Corals!

[el richie]

Great thread guys love the awesome pics and the info being put out

 

[BigJohnWoody]

I am in awe Rossco. I can't imagine your effluent drip on your reactor on that tank. You must go through a carton of media every 2 months. Lol. Very nice and please keep us posted on the LED's.

 

[kungfujoe]

wow this is an awesome thread.. keep this rolling...

 

[Tabasco1]

Sonny-absolutely stunning tank. Love the openess of it. What do you have on the back wall to make the glass look like that? It looks like a cloudy blue/grey? Gives the illusion of being in the ocean and the depth of the water trailing off. It is great. Would appreciate if you don't mind sharing.

Thanks!

 

[GR808]

rossco, your tank is one sick beast!!!! GREAT JOB

 

[Stpatrick]

I'm definitely a lightweight in this discussion, but I've had my 180g up for just over a year and it was first real attempt at keeping SPS. I've been successfully keeping saltwater tanks for over a decade, but previous reef tanks were LPS & Zoa dominated. Over the first year, my growth and coloration has been good and my tank is quickly filling in.

Dosing:
For dosing, I dose 2-part via dosing pumps and magnesium manually. Once every month I adjust my dosing amount according to the system needs. I run a ULNS, so I've found that 15 drops of Brightwell's CoralAmino brings out the best coloration in my corals and prevents the pastels found in starving corals found in some tanks. I also dose 3 drops of lugols each day due to it's potassium content to help maintain blues & purples in my tank. My ATO runs through a kalk reactor to help keep Ca & Alk steady.

Water Quality:
I do 40 gallon water change every 2-3 weeks using RC salt. As far as filtration goes, I run a fuge with a DSB, Chaeto, and LR rubble. My skimmer is a Octopus Extreme 200 upgraded to a Bubble Blaster 3000 pump. I run WM EcoBak, Rowaphos, and Carbon in reactors 24/7.

Lighting:
I run 450w of LED (ReefFiltration Gen2 fixtures) along with 468w of T5. I'm confident that the LEDs can grow coral on their own, but I like having the piece of mind with the T5s producing a broader spectrum. The T5 fixtures houses 12x39w bulbs currently comprised of six ATI Blue+, two ATI Purple+, two UVL SuperActinic, and two Current 10k. Here's my light cycle:
7:00 AM: Actinic T5s ON (Actually two UVL Superactinic & two Blue+)
9:00 AM: LEDs ON
11:30 AM: Daytime T5s ON
1:30 PM: Daytime T5s OFF
4:30 PM: LEDs OFF
7:00 PM: Actinic T5s OFF

Coral Feeding:
I broadcast feed a mix of ReefNutrition Oyster Feast & Coral Frenzy every three days. Once per week I feed my tank with baby brine shrimp. Although this is predominantly for the LPS & fish, some feeder response is noticed in the SPS as well, so I'm assuming that they are feeding on the BBS.

Parameters:
I keep salinity at 1.026 and my temperature range is 79-80 F. Calcium is kept in the neighborhood of 430-450 and I keep my alkalinity at 8 DKH. While this is on the low end of preferred alk levels, I've read that maintaining higher alk levels in an ULNS can be probelmatic. Magnesium is kept between 1300-1350 and pH fluctuates between 8.3-8.5 depending on the time of day. I strive to keep nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia at zero, but many aquarists have noticed improved coloration when maintaining NO3 levels in the 5-10 range (I offset this loss of color by dosing amino acids and through supplemental feeding of my corals). I try to keep phosphates as close to zero as possible and they usually measure between 0 and 0.02 on a Hanna calorimeter.

Are you dosing 15 drops of coral amino daily? Great thread. So so valuable you guys. Thank you.

 

[Surf&turf]

Beautiful systems everyone!!

 

[FaviaFreak]

you guys all have awesome tanks! keep up the good work!

 

[swannyson7]

Are you dosing 15 drops of coral amino daily? Great thread. So so valuable you guys. Thank you.

I dose the AAs every other day. The Brightwells coral amino isn't all that concentrated, but I have some Zeovit amino acid concentrate that I'm going to try when I run out of the Brightwells. Supposedly the dosing on that is 1 drop per 25 gallons, so I'll see how it compares as far as effectiveness & value.

 

[Roberto Denadai]

Hi,

My old SPS tanks :

And this is my new tank , I have a lot of frags yet :

 

[soccerbag]

Very nice Roberto. Welcome to R2R! Please share your strategies and details as listed in the 1st post of the thread. You have a beautiful setup and we would love to know more about it! : )

 

[revhtree]

Roberto, stunning! Welcome to R2R!!

 

[bige]

Roberto, that is sick (in a good way)! Welcome and do tell more about that system.

 

[rossco]

Thanks again everyone for all the positive comments. The effluent rate on the Geo 618 is 150 ml per minute with a bubble rate of 110 bubble per minute and an internal pH of 6.65 -6.7 , pretty much have it maxed out. I go through about 2 pounds of media per month. In the 75, if the alk crept up and I shut off the reactor in the AM to let the alk come down, 12 hours later the alk would have dropped 2 points. I am so looking forward to the stability of a larger system. The corals all seem to be happy and are coloring up again under the LEDs. I am still not quite done dialing in the aquascaping, and am hoping to be able to post some pictures in a month or so.

 

[agsansoo]

Roberto's tank looks too clean .... Even the frag plugs are bright white. LOL

 

[low profile]

rossco. Thank you for sharing.
Your tank is really the inspiration.
Look forward to seeing your new tank.

 

[Roberto Denadai]

Hi Guys,

My tank is very simple. I have a bk 180 , I am dosing balling to keep alk, ca and Mg. I do 10 percent per week water changes. My flow is a MP 40, MP 10 and Tunze 6045.

I´m using here a white acrylic in the bottom and all my rocks are made with plastic. I also have 3L of siporax in my sump and I am using the new dimmable Sunpower 8x39 ( 2x white , 4x blue and 2x pink )

That is all guys. I do not dose nothing here. Keep it simple.

The coral colors is not good yet because this tank has just 30 days.

Best Regards

 

[SteezySPS]

I like the clean tank. Looking forward to seeing it when the corals grow large. The acropora on the very far right by the glass looks very nice.

 

[Just Clownin Around]

my old tank
110 acrylic
kalk in top off
skimmer run 24/7
small fuge in sump
flow was 2 vortechs mp40's

this was early on in the tank

 

[Just Clownin Around]

my new tank
70g cube 30*30*18
40g frag tank
lighting
2 ai sol blue

2 part dosing
b-ionic
skimmer
atb elegance custom
flow(almost 80x turnover)
2 tunze 6045
2 tunze 6055
return
tunze 1073.
now

was