Lazy Saturday. SPS Conversation

[Salty Cracker]

Okay, so those growing sps (or trying).  What do you add specifically for the sps?  Besides flow and light etc.

Me:

Reef crystals, 30 gal water change weekly
Alk, Ca - Dosed with BRS dosers
Mag - 300ml (I think) per gallon of Ca
Marine snow - 2-3x weekly, 5 capfuls.
Reef roids - 1 spoon 2 x weekly
Fuel - 3 capfuls 3x weekly
phyto (not sure the brand) 2x weekly
cyclopeeze 1x weekly


I also add pellets and mysis, but those are mostly for the lps and fish. 

I used some coral food from Royal Aquarium that seemed to work well, and I've never tried chili.  What are you doing in your tank?

 

[reeffreak]

I use IO salt  20 gallons bi-weekly, reef roids and cyclopeeze and everythign you listed besides the coral snow, phyto and fuel. Try the reef roids out instead of the reef chili .. also BRS wont ship food over the border, just an fyi

 

[Reef Hero]

Nice thread here salty.....
I just got home from work and am working on adding carbon (BRS rox) as well as GFO (BRS high capacity)...... Below is what I am currently doing....

Reef Crystals.....5% WC every week
Rowaphos (250ml in phosban 150) changed monthly
ESV BIONIC 2 Part (dosed manually early every morn but hoping to finally get my ghl doser setup as well today)
Prodibio BIO Optim and BIO Digest (alternate recommended dosage every 15 days)
KZ Coral Snow w/ 4 drops of KZ Zeobak (every third day)

I run my skimmer so that it runs kind of wet....I have to empty every three days.
I am feeding my fish new era flakes and pellets. Also feed PE mysis once a day. About once a week I will feed brine shrimp (fish seem to go crazy for it now). I do not direct feed any corals. I do however put in some cyclopeeze every month or two.
I run very high par via ATI.... 3 blue plus, 3 actinic, and 2 coral plus......with all lights on I have 855 par just below water surface, 526 midway, and 325 on SB. Without coral plus I have 556 par just below water surface, 355 midway, and 217 on SB.
It was surprising just how much par these two coral plus bulbs add.

With my setup I am seeing terrific growth on sps, lps, chalice,etc....



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[Giglio324]

110 gal total system. 15 gals WC every 2 weeks RC
dosing BRS 2-part
Soon to hook up a calcium reactor...hopefully
Feed my fish nls pellets and brine shrimp alternating each food each day.
Besides that no additional supplements are added. I am getting good growth nothing crazy fast but i am seeing growth steadily.
The one chalice i have is doing great.
Hopefully will have something to frag when time comes for the swap.

 

[harleymike]

Here is what i do. I am totally new too all this. But i have growth and nothing is dieing. Yet.
65 gallon, no sump, no skimmer.
Cannister filter with floss and carbon only, gfo reactor and about 90 pounds of live rock, 60 pounds of live sand.
two damsels,one yellow tang, one hippo tang,two clowns, one cleaner shrimp, and one solar wrasse
10 percent water change every week, using top finn salt and ro/di water.
I add fuel for corals 2x a week, kent marind zooplex 2x a week, kent marine essential elements 1x a week.
Spot feed some lps with shrimp and feed fish pellets and flakes.
Combination of sps and lps in this tank.

 

[jroovers]

Lately I haven't been adding a whole lot.  Running BPs and skimming fairly heavy.  Feeding two to three times daily with NLS pellets and mysis.  Water change once per week.  More than anything, I've been trying to pay closer attention to my Alk and Ca levels and sticking to once weekly water changes.  I tested on the weekend and was shocked to see my Alk at 6.6 and Ca at 380 (not surprised to see Ca at that level but I haven't seen Alk below 7 in a coon's age).  I bumped them up and increased my daily dosing.  I need to replace my T5s, they are about a year old.  My focus moving forward is going to be pretty much strickly once weekly water changes and closer monitoring of water parameters, and I'm going to change my bulbs.  I have stopped dosing snow and oysterfeast, as I think I'm balanced nutrient wise.  I add 5 to 6 drops of Lugols once every one to two weeks into about 145 gallons of system water.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Where are you guys getting lugols?

 

[Can Reefer]

I use Kent Marine Essential Elments

 

[Salty Cracker]

I use Kent Marine Essential Elments

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but can't trace elements be replenished by regular water changes and a good salt?  I've never added anything like this.  ?

 

[spyd]

I run the following on my 180G tank:

- 500ml - Biopellets
- GFO / Carbon
- Dose 2 part - ALK / CAL / Mg. ALK is pretty steady at 8. Cal steady at 430. Mg sits at around 1200.
- 20% water change every 2 weeks using RC salt.
- Running a RDSB in my frag tank until my frags are ready to be fragged...  Then, I will be removing it.
- Feeding Once a day. Mysis and Nori 1 day, then NLS pellets the other day.
- Target feed LPS every 3 days or so using Mysis.
- Dosing MB7 once a week. 4 capfuls at a time.

 

[harleymike]

Probably right about the water change and essential ellements. I wondered the same thing.
But it seems too be working.
Once my tank is more mature, or i go too a bigger tank with sump. I will cut my water change down too every other week.

 

[Reef Hero]

I have been running BRS GFO HC as well as Carbon Rox since the weekend.....in addition to what I already had......good so far.....
What is everyone running their GFO and Carbon in? I am running all my media in tlf 150 reactors......I gotta find a filter sock to put on the output of the carbon I think......some small particles seem to exit.
Oh, and I FINALLY got my ghl doser setup and am currently dosing 95ml of each that I listed earlier in this thread......I don't know what to do with all this time I got now in the morning......zzzzzzzzzzz.

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[Salty Cracker]

I use the TLF reactors too, and yeah, I have a tiny filter bag on the output, some stuff is determined to get out.

I rand the hi-cap for about 6 months since my tank was a cesspool, now I'm running the granular (cheaper) and levels are always below 0.00 (gotta get a more sensitive checker one of these days!). 

 

[Reef Hero]

What one you got salty? You wanna borrow mine?


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[Salty Cracker]

What one you got salty? You wanna borrow mine?


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I've got the hanna phosphate, I may sell it and get the phosphorous one, it's supposed to be WAY more precise, no?

When I started, I was at .78PPM.  Just crazy.  Everything died except palys, because those are already undead. 

 

[Reef Hero]

I got the phosphorous one.....I will bring it with me on sat.
You can see what you read with that...... Where are you getting your filter socks for the output from the reactors?
Anyone know of anything more precise than the Hanna ulr phosphorous checker?


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[Salty Cracker]

I got the phosphorous one.....I will bring it with me on sat.
You can see what you read with that...... Where are you getting your filter socks for the output from the reactors?
Anyone know of anything more precise than the Hanna ulr phosphorous checker?


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Cool!

I had a little drawstring filter bag, no idea where I got it, I just rinse it out once a month when I change media.  Works great.  I son't have one on the bio pellet reactor, if those things get loose, not really worried about it.

 

[jroovers]

Where are you guys getting lugols?

Its been so long since I got mine, I can't remember.  I have the Kent Marine Lugol's, I must have ordered it online somewhere with another order.  I think most stores will carry it or a similar product.  Not what I would consider an important additive.  Some claim that it is good for bringing out purples in SPS, and I think manufacturers claim that it helps corals recover from light shock.  It can also be used for dips.

 

[Reef Hero]

Who is running bio pellets??? This may be my next venture......positive input needed tho


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[Salty Cracker]

I run pellets, you can check out the chamber on sat.  But don't look in the tank!