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Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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Well, more like 2 ? and rimless, but all you dirty folks stopped in to check it out.
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I have a small thread on another site but I was chatting with another reefer and was convicted to start one on here.
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A brief History:
My name is Scott, I start in saltwater about 6yrs ago and dove straight into reefs. I started off with a 65g lps, softy, and anemone tank. I then picked up a 55g to mess around with and do fowlr, but that never really took off. I then sold the 65g and moved it contents into a 125g. I then moved and only kept the 125g but added a Cardiff 24g to the mix which had seahorses and sponges in it. At that point I also tried to add sum sps to my 125g most of which were unsuccessful. I then moved again and knew that I was getting married soon, so I got rid of both and moved a few o the corals and my fish into a new 57g oceanic rimless. (Funny story, a heater in the 125 tank exploded on the night I was going to propose to my wife; it happened about 10min before I planned on proposing, cracked the sump and dumped about 40g of water into the carpet. The way she jumped into action to help shut everything down and clean up. I knew she was the one.) I then decided to take the tank in a new direction of sps, as I was inspired by a former member (wobbegong) after I visited his tanks and saw what was possible. That next yr was a touch and go style of reefing, sum things did great, others? not so much. Last July I got married and had to make a decision on whether I was gone keep going with this or not. I did not want to keep looking at a crappy tank all the time, and with my wife still in pharmacy school, my one income would limit my tank fund. I decided to stick with it and do the best I could. I have made many changes to the tank over the last yr. It has still had its ups and downs, but I feel that while I still am no expert I am a more responsible reef keeper.
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Current changes I made to the tank.:
My father inlaw and I built a custom oak stand with a side 5g nano plumed in. (The stock oceanic particleboard stand fell apart after only a few months of use)
Built a custom sump/fuge/future frag area out of a 20g tank.
Hooked up a tlf 150 with npx beads, that is the plummed into the 5g tank I have.
Swapped out my 2 koralia evo 1400s for 2 mp10w
Got rid of most of my rock and made 2 custom ?towers?
Switched over from 6bulb t5 to kessil leds
Painted the back glass black
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Plans to be done.
Get my frag section up and running in my fuge
Possibly pick up a blue reefbrite / xho (looking for a deal)
Pick up a pair of bangai cardinals for the nano in hopes of breeding
Pick up a blue star leopard wrasse
Looking into switching salts from tropicmarin pro (probly to reef crystals)
Restock my snails (only have a few)
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Current Issues I need to address:
Getting my cal and dkh back in order (360 and 11) when I came back from vacation end of august it was (180 and 18)
Cyno issue not major, but annoying
Npx beads are sticking (using maxijet 1200)
Setosa showing a bit of white (and praying my birds of paradise recovers from the messed up pars in August)
Stock:
Main tank:
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Sps only (for now)
Yellow tang
Midas Blenny
Potters leopard wrasse
(4) Chromis
Randalli goby
Nano:
Zoas
Dendro and sun polyp
Mangroves I brought back from my trip to Brazil in August
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I think I have given everyone far more then they want to read. When I get home tonight I will try to put up some pics. My tank if mainly frags with a few small colonies.
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If you have any questions or suggestions I am all ears. I am here to learn.
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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Well, as promised here are my mediocre shot of my the tank. My friend is borrowing my slr so that pics aren't the best. Not that I am a great photographer, but the its nicer then my point ad shoot.

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Alot of my montis are still recovering from the par issue I had when I got back. Esp my 2 large caps on the sides, the colors used to be sick. I have a single, 2" ultra teal maxima clam from dfs, looks like it was sent with aptasia on it.

The left and right kessils are 10k and the middle is 15k. I think I will replace the middle with a blue reefbrite.

I can't wait to get all the frags off my sand too.
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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Hey, Thanks.

Kessil leds. The tank is a tiny bit bluer then the pics, but I might switch out the 15k kessil in the middle for a blue reefbrite. I like the look of the 10ks. The 10k looks more like a 14k and the 15k kinda like a 20k. I believe they will be coming out with an actinic version too (was previously gonna be called 20k, but I heard they renamed it)
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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So, aside from coming home to see the npx beads clumping, I also noticed one of my my acros (not sure if it's a tricolor, wasn't labeled) tips are looking a bit whiteish. Further inspection looks like it is not growth. It might be some bleaching. Only thing I could possibly blame it on is the addition of the 3rd 15k kessil 2 my 2 10k kessils. It is the highest coral and almost directly between the 15k and a 10k. Maybe too much light, but the 3rd light was added almost 2weeks ago, and if I recall the 10k was previously almost right on top...

On a cool note I spoke with kessil today and they have shipped out some of there new atinic (20k) leds. I think I will end up taking the 15k off and using it for frags. I will probly replace it with either the 20k kessil or a blue reefbrite. I am thinking the reefbrite might be more what I am looking for, but I am very interested in the new kessil and what it look like.
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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So after looking at several pictures and comparing I have determined that the acro, and maybe a milli) might be suffering from from alk burn.The only thing that has me puzzled is that my cal is 400 and my dkh is 10. And I did not rush getting them back in order. It has taken me about 2months to bring it from the 180 and 18 levels the tank was at. So why would it be doing this now and not when the parameters were so crazy.

Any thoughts?
 

CONSTANTNE

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Location
New Jersey
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Nice to see you start a thread! Tank looks real clean with those kessils. Aquascape is awesome too.

I agree, it might be alk burn with the SPS. I remember hearing a while back that if you are running pellets or a ULNS system (ultra low nutrient system) like zeo you want a lower alk. Maybe someone can confirm this as its been a while since I looked into those methods.
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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Nice to see you start a thread! Tank looks real clean with those kessils. Aquascape is awesome too.
Thanks.

I agree, it might be alk burn with the SPS. I remember hearing a while back that if you are running pellets or a ULNS system (ultra low nutrient system) like zeo you want a lower alk. Maybe someone can confirm this as its been a while since I looked into those methods.

Ya, I know the other night you mentioned maybe the beads having that sort of effect. Also I have been leaving my fuge light on 24/7 over my cheato. I know ppl do that to avoid alk swings and having it drop, but is it possibly that could be hurting more then helping?
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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So, I relucantly trimmed off the tips of the 2 corals having issues. I am trying to bring the alk down, in hopes that will stop the burn. I am adding cal and continuing my weekly water changes.

Funny enough, I got a few frags a couple weeks ago, like strawberry lemonade which is staring to encrust and ora tricolor which is encrusting and showing minor growth.

Strange how corlas are effected diffrently.
 
Location
Bronx
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Depends on how quickly your levels went from the old parameters to the new ones i had a similar issue with my tank just recently where my alk shot to 10.6 from 8 and my millie was the first affected but now everyone is starting to recover i will be posting some new pics later on this weekend to show the improvement hope this helps and very nice tank and stand like the molding nice touch
 

Shananagans

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Location
Tucson, AZ
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So, when I got home tonight I decided to take the pellets offline. I put some gfo back in the reactor and will build it up slowly. I got my alk down to 9 (cal 420) and still had tips turning white and getting cover by algae. I am also going to black this film algae that has been forming on them as well. I will see how it goes.
 

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