Jesse's 20L SPS tank

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reefman23

New Member
Man I am lousy at keeping secrets. :roll: I planned on posting this after the tank progressed more, but I have already told a couple of you, so I decided to just go ahead and start a new thread for my tank as it is going in a new direction. I have made the decision to switch over to an SPS-dominated reef along with some zoanthids/palythoa and caulastrea. ONe of my main inspirations for this decision is John aka. JohnandDawn. Thanks again John! :evil: :mrgreen:

I started by getting some Salifert test kits including Ca, Alk and Mg (all for $30.. not bad, huh?). These levels have consistently measured as follows:

Ca= 410 ppm
Alk= 8.0 dKH
Mg= 1300-1350 ppm

SPS people... how do those numbers sound?

The second thing I am working on is increasing the flow in my tank. Right now I am only at 35x turnover rate. I am going to be adding 2 MJ 1200's (580 GPH) and an Eheim canister filter to run carbon (160 GPH). After these additions I will be at 1,400 GPH, or 70x turnover.... double what it is now.

So far I have only one frag. I am dedicated to making sure that it won't stay that way for long! I have a few LFSs that are great sources for SPS frags and small colonies. At this point I think I will be focusing on A. Millepora, but I know for sure that there will be at least one A. Yongei in this tank! Gotta love the slimers.

Here are a couple pics of my first purchase. It is an aquacultured blue A. millepora.

This is close to what it looks like with full lighting...




This is a picture with the WB adjusted...




This is with the flash...




I will keep everyone updated as my tank progresses!

Jesse
 
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johnanddawn

New Member
that is awesome jesse - you will not regrete it!
your params are just fine - i don't test mag though so i'm not sure there.
you will have plenty of flow - a natural wave timer on the maxis would be a good idea though. you may have trouble keeping the sand down with that much :)
another thing you could add is an IV dripper - i drip Kalk as all my make-up water

that milli is gorgeous! great color and the shape is perfect already branching! i don't recognize the plug do you know the source? it must be someones tank raised frag.
a mili theme tank sounds like a very cool idea. ORA alone has 4 dif ones and there is another one out there that i would like to get my hands on - some call it a rainbow milli (or prostrata) its pink, aqua and blue, a lot of people have it and it goes by other names as well
anyway good luck look foward to watching your progress
 
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reefman23

New Member
Thanks guys!

John, I'll ask the guy at my LFS. He fragged the colony and I'll find out where he gets his plugs. I believe this is from either HIS personal tank or a friend's tank. Here is a picture of the plug if it helps...



Ive seen that rainbow online and it is pretty darn nice. There is a "watermellon" on frags.org that is pretty cool too. The ORA frags are nice... I wanna find a store around me that sells them.

Ill look into the wave timer as well. Any one in particular that you like?

Jesse
 
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brandon

New Member
Sweet :D

The levels seem fine Jesse, except most sps people keep mag at around 1400 or so, but i had mine at 1300 and they did fine :D

i vote for a FTS!
 
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Jennie

New Member
Well your first piece of the collection is beautiful Jesse!

Can't wait for the updates on your tank!

:mrgreen:
 
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jay

New Member
Looks like an attractive collection that you are going to be starting up!
I'm going to have to keep a close eye :shock: on this thread to see your progress.
It's truly inspiring to see someone try something new.

Cheers,
Jay
 
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johnanddawn

New Member
thats cool - getting a frag that someone has grown in their tank is always the best, although i must add that i've always had good luck with ORA and F&S originals too

i use the natural wave - never had any trouble with it. also a little trick i read somewhere - cut the nozel of your maxis off tight to the propeller housing - you'll get a diferent direction of flow each time it turns on, cuz the prop spins the opposite direction each cycle
 
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reefman23

New Member
brandon said:
Sweet :D

The levels seem fine Jesse, except most sps people keep mag at around 1400 or so, but i had mine at 1300 and they did fine :D

i vote for a FTS!
Click to expand...
Thanks guys. I tested the Scripp's water before I did a 10g water change yesterday and the test results sort of surprised me. Here are the results:
  • Mg= 1,260
  • dKH= 7.68
  • Ca= 380
So I made the proper adjustments to the Scripp's water and did the water change. I just tested my tank... a little over 24 hours later... and these were my new results:
  • Mg= 1,450
  • dKH= 8.32 (2.97 meq/L)
  • Ca= 470
No bad, huh? Almost picked up a couple of frags today, but thought it was more important to get the flow situated in my tank before doing so ;-)

I need to pick up some astrea snails too... my rock is getting a little fuzzy!

Thanks again for all your kind words. I will be keeping you all updated regularly with this one.

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
Okay... so it has been 4 days since my last test. No testing, no water changes. Here are the new results:
  • Mg= 1425
  • dKH= 8.00 dKH (2.86 meq/L)
  • Ca= 430
Those results were pretty much what I expected. Now I can work on a regimen to keep these levels more stable.

I will most likely be doing daily, one gallon water changes in place of biweekly 5-10 gallon water changes. This should help kep everything more constant rather than the up-and-down effect that larger biweekly changes can cause.

My milli is doing fantastic, BTW. Great PE, great color... maybe even some growth??? J/K!

So John... what do ya say about maybe sending some frags my way?? ;-) ;-) :thumbup:

I may go with the MJ900's instead of the MJ1200's... what do you all think? Either way I will probably have them on a Natural Wave.

Here is a top-down I shot today. The color is lightening up a little bit...




Jesse
 
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johnanddawn

New Member
yep that thing is nice - i see 7 potential growth tips, frags are always a bit slow to get going but with all those tips it will get started a bit faster :)

i think the mj 900's would prob be a better choice - proper placement is going to be very tricky in a shallow tank like yours

i just may have some frags that would interest you....

as far as your test go those are perfect - now at first (and probably for a very long time) your Ca demand will be very low. I have managed to keep my params reasonable with just 100% kalk top off water but even though i have resisted it i am going to have to go to randy's two part. for you though, you could use any of the two parts because you won't need very much (if any with your water change routine) so conveinence outweighs cost at this point. according to this sight - about 8 oz's of kalk a day should keep you where you want to be (~ 420, 3) but you'll have to see what works for you
http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html
 
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reefman23

New Member
Thanks John. I agre with you about the 900's. I'll get a couple of those on a NaturalWave. I think with the return running through the SQWD and alternating every 8 seconds or so and the 2 900's alternating as well, that will provide a very random, natural movement.

I am pretty happy with the params too. I know almost exactly how much evap I have, so I really think your drip idea will work well. I have also looked into Randy's Two-part... sounds good.

Thanks a lot John.

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
I have yet to get the MJs... probably pick those up this weekend.

I started doing daily one gallon water changes 5 days ago and the results have been pretty good so far. My Ca and Alk have remained stable without daily dosing. I have the Ca and Alk set a little higher in the fresh saltwater and this seems to be keeping the levels up in my tank.
  • Ca= 430
  • Alk= 8.48 dKH (3.03 meq/L)
  • Mg= 1,400
It looks like I will have several nice frags coming my way in a month or so, so I am just focusing on getting this tank SPS-ready before then.

I think the only thing left to do is get some added flow with the MJs and adding my canister to run carbon.

BTW, I thought I'd post a FTS shot for a couple of you you have been wanting one...



LOL... technically it is a top-down FTS, right?!

Just thought this was kind of a cool shot that shows the different colors of the lamps that I am running. From front to back (left to right), ATI aquablue special, ATI Blue Plus, UVL Super Actinic, ATI Blue Plus.

Jesse
 
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reefman23

New Member
I may be picking up several SPS frags tomorrow, so Ill post pictures if I do.

In the meantime, I figured I'd post some pictures I took today!


I finally got a somewhat decent picture of my clow... these things are next to impossible to shoot!




Next are some candy canes I got from Steven (dragon79) a couple months ago:

THEN


NOW



And a couple great shots of my pom pom:






That left anemone fluoresces like crazy!


That's all for now.

Jesse

Check this out... 3 mouths!
 
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drty811

New Member
great pics....i really love those pom-pom crabs. as of acouple weeks ago i just spotted mine, havent seen him in months, never knew he even lived throught the crash. he lost an anenome though. cool littel critters.
 
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reefman23

New Member
My levels are just about right, now I just have to figure out a way to keep them a little more stable. They are as follows:
  • Ca: 390-430
  • Alk: 8.00-8.64 dKH
  • Mg: 1,390-1,440
  • PO4: 0


I also have a few new additions! I got a pretty sweet deal on this Acro... not sure what species it is though.






I also picked up these two pieces... the reddish acro and the green yongei. Not such a great deal... :roll:




Jesse
 
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