ckyuv Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 for the mental health, I've been told having a reef tank helps that... or does it cause it? I'm gonna go with helps that. The calming soothing glow of the tank. The gentle presence of swaying LPS. The graceful drifting Naso on the perpetual flow of warm pure water that I have the pleasure of providing him. The bitter-sweet symphony of love I feel for my tail-spotted blenny, as he munches on my new $100 sps frag. Ahhh... heavenly bliss! All this as you cool the house to 70 degrees while heating the tank to 78 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 SPS FEVER SETS IN... Went to Sam's yesterday for a little SPS lesson - what did he send me home with? A veritable garden of top-shelf acro. Here's the final tally: ORA Purple Plasma ORA Screaming Green ORA Blue Voodoo ORA German Blue Digi ORA Purple Stylo ORA Bird Of Paradise Pink Purple Prostrata Pink Digi Pink Bird's Nest Milky Way Mile Tealberry Jedi Mindtrick PC Rainbow Red Robin Stag Rainbow Nebula Pink Branching Cyphastrea Longberry Setosa Plus he threw in some frag cement, coral dip, and a one-on-one session on gluing frags (though from my pics you'll see It's gonna need a bit more practice) On a few of them, I think I covered about half the frag to get them to stick on some of the rockwork! Takes time to perfect the art, I guess. Also had the pleasure of bumping into Reburn on my way out. He gave me some great tips on how to successful keep SPS in a tank that's less than 30 days old - speaking from experience, of course - LOL Ok, so now for the bad news. The display Refugium is officially becoming a frag grow out tank for SPS now. RIP seahorses, pipefish, macro... sigh, there's little hope once SPS fever has set in. I'm a goner. SAM'S GARDEN 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 We got one more Sam!!! Keep converting everyone! Those frags are gonna look great in that tank once it all grows out! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That is a great haul! You probably already know this, but you need to really watch your alk after introducing so many sps frags. I learned that the hard way ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 That is a great haul! You probably already know this, but you need to really watch your alk after introducing so many sps frags. I learned that the hard way ... Bah - What's Alk? I'm good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Full Tank Shot Rocks will come out, and tables will lower, once things start to grow out. I wanted to get everything right up against the light to start. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOceanTraveler Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Wow, that is great! You picked up some amazing stuff. Can't wait to see it live! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrEnuf Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 I swore I wouldn't get too many SPS until my move this summer, I've brought home 5 since setting up the tank! Great looking frags! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAM Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 How's the frags doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 The SPS I got from Sam are all doing awesome! There was only one that was DOA (a perfectly PC fragged rainbow acro, bummer...), but other than that, 18 out of 19 of the frags I got from Sam are thriving two weeks later! I have had some rock work tumble, so have broken a few along the way, and have fragged the pieces. This has resulted in about a half dozen mini frags from the originals that I got. Here's some pics: Milky Way Millepora ORA Purple Stylopora, ORA German Blue Polyp Digitata, ORA Bird of Paradise Seriatopora (Just a tiny little frag that broke off bigger one, abd is doing great! already branching), The little green guys peeking up in the back are pieces of an ORA Screaming Green Birdsnest frag that I busted up pretty good by accident - I'll call it a happy accident now... This is the bigger Seriatopora that the frag in the (above) chunked off of (oops). also a Setosa frag (one of three now growing off the rocks) on the left side, an ORA purple plasma, and a longberry acropora peeking up at the top right side of the pic. Letting these sit on the frag shelf for now: That's a tealberry acropora in the middle, a ranbow nebula next to it on the left, a tricolor valida on the right, the two frags that are blurred out in the pic at the back are a Cali Tortosa on the right and a red robin stag on the left. This are my newest additions, a meat-eating bushy marine sponge, with a sun coral next to it (their both NPS, with the white trails coming off the sponge being a kind of NPS) They require daily spot feeding too, and I understand may be hard to keep for more than 6 months Really cool though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAM Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Looking good man. Come over and get that PC Rainbow back free replacement lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Looks great! Keep an eye on the alk with all those SPS additions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Reef haus, I'm very happy to see all the new additions are doing well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Lookin good! Are you sure that pic you put as Milky Way Mille isn't your prostrata? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 That would be SAMs purple tonic prostrata. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Yes - He neatly labelled all the little packets they came in, and I promptly lost track of what was what. Its sorta like a where's waldo game of "can you pick the coral" from the google images of the list of names I was given with what is growing in my tank... Not really sure I can tell the difference between several of the different types yet, but that big purple thing really does stand out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Looks great! Keep an eye on the alk with all those SPS additions! Water Parameters as of this AM Temp 78.2 Salinity 1.026 PH 8.0 NO3 <1.0 PO4 0.075 NH3 0.001 Ca 450 KH 12 MG 1350 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Alk is on the high end of the recommended range but as long as everything is happy, I'd just leave it alone. Just keep an eye on it as the SPS frags become acclimated to your system and start growing. What do you measure your PO4 with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Reefhaus, One thing that helps me when I get a large order is I put all of my frags on a frag rack for a couple days. I take a fine point dry erase marker and write on the outside of the glass which piece is what. After a day or two of studying I can tell you with 100% certainty which piece is which. As I acclimate them to my light and move them out I don't seem to ever forget after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 What do you measure your PO4 with? Elos http://www.elos.eu/gammaprodotti/analisi/wateranalysis~45/index.html?spt=gammaprodotti/analisi&title=wateranalysis&id=45&prodtitle=&prodid=&sub=index&synSiteLang=2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 2/15/2015 UPDATE I'm moving! Just down the street, but a big ordeal for my tank build none-the-less. So... moving fish into the 50 gallon, while I'm moving. Then will move everone back home! They actually seem to like the 50... Take a look (lightening sponge still eating!!!, the sun coral is going on 3 weeks without opening) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 The sponge looks awesome! When I couldn't get my sun coral to open before I read about cutting the bottom off a bottle, put it over the coral, feed it and cap it so there is no flow. It took a couple times of doing it but it finally started coming out on its own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReefHaus Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 03/28/215 UPDATE Moved the tank in to the new place. Here's what I learned. There is no such thing as "moving a reef tank". You might move the equipment, but the rest is a salvage operation. Having said this, I had fairly low die-off. Almost 100% of my losses were due to my setting a tray of frags out and forgetting them (doh!) - lost a half dozen plugs! Other lesson I learned: it really helps to logistically separate the "livestock move" from the equipment move. I set all the livestock in another tank for 48hrs while the former tank settled in the new location. Ready for round two Sam? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Actually that FTS looks pretty good. Seems like in a few weeks it should be back to normal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Bingo man. So many of us have been through these same struggles in the past year. It is indeed a salvage operation at best. And many of us crashed and burned even going super slow with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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