Emerald525 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 It's nice to come back with perfect parameters and more importantly everything looking great in the tank!???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Yes! I was so nervous being away lol. Im really hoping my corals color up. I started doing acropower because I'm not feeding anything to the tank at the moment maybe that will help the corals out too. Idk I'm a noob Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Well personally I find to keep sps dosing and testing are important because they like stability and don't tolerate he swings particularly in alk that I have with water changes. This is why I don't have a lot of sps in my tank. Lps and softies tend to do fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 For some reason my Alk is always pretty high it's my calcium that drops. My Alk is around 9.5 right now (I want to drop it to about 9) and my calcium is only at 300 (which I am working on raising). I'm going to do a water change right now and test tonight for Ca and Alk then not dose for ~3 days and see my tanks consumption. I really would like to get my calcium up to about 400-420 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Yes your calcium is low which is fine for softies but you need calcium to be 400 or more. I actually got a Red Sea kit and my parameters were spot on bit my sunset monti has lost color and my guess is the slight swings that happen because of just doing water changes. I do 4 gallons a week which is 20 percent which is a lot. It's just easier to mix salt in a 5 gallon bucket. I dont need to do that much but I just have the right amount of salt dialed in to 4 gallons a week. The Lps and zoas for the most part look great with that. If you are using Kent salt the alk usually runs low. I'm using Red Sea coral pro which is more expensive but again with a 20 gallon tank the expense of doing water changes is still pretty minimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 I currently just use reef crystals. Calcium is about 455 at 1.026sg I do about 1 gallon change every 3-5 days. Im going to just stick with the water changes for a week and test every few days to see what levels are at and what I need to do to keep them consistent. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Noticed during my water change that my Unknown SPS is turning white on the side facing the back wall. I moved my light more centered and tried to tilt it to see if getting more light would fix it. Other than that everything is doing well Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 That's never a good sign when you start seeing the sps turning white like that. They tend to be the most sensitive. Some are hardier like birdnest and I have one of those in my tank and still managing to keep alive the sps from the growout contest. My torch took out a few of my other ones too though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 I hope my hammer doesn't sting any of my SPS. I want to move it to a better location so I can eventually get a monti cap to over hang the right side. I think that would look cool. But who knows I might just end up being terrible at SPS lol but nothing is dead so far Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkerBouchard Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Tank looks like it's coming along nice, I'm really a fan of these IM tanks. Super clean. Good Job so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I hope my hammer doesn't sting any of my SPS. I want to move it to a better location so I can eventually get a monti cap to over hang the right side. I think that would look cool. But who knows I might just end up being terrible at SPS lol but nothing is dead so far Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Hammer probably is okay. The torches tend to stretch out more but I just love the way it looks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Thanks for the kind words Parker! And yeah torches are awesome looking when they stretch out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Photo of my Unknown showing some nice polyp extension. Other thank trying to raise my calcium levels everything is going well. I hope I can get this guy to be more colorful soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 Ordered some BRS 2 part to help maintain healthy Ca, Mg, and Alk levels. Recently my calcium and mag levels have been super low so hopefully my SPS stay ok until it shows up and hopefully it Helps them grow[emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 I got some new frags today (thanks sappington!) just a few quick pics and I'll get better ones up tomorrow! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 So I had an awesome swap with Steve (ssapington). Got to see his wonderful tanks and learned a lot in the little time I was there. I ended up taking home a generous amount of frags and have been staring at my tank with googly eyes since last night. Here is what I got! Photo Dump!! Tri Color: Orange Setosa (Kinda washed out but you can see it better in other photos): ORA Red Planet: Orange Monti Cap: Red Acan: Armor of God w/Ultra Red People Eater: Magician Zoa: GB Juggernaut: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Very nice stuff, your tank is coming along wonderfully! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Thanks Cody [emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 (edited) Never done a full top down so trying it out. Moved some stuff around after this but here it is Edited March 2, 2016 by bowen1022 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadySaber Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 I hope to get my tanks looking nice like that. Ok we decided to add a few zoa to our tanks since I keep murdering chalices. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 Thank you lady! Now the trick is keeping everything growing and happy. Good luck with the Zoas! Sorry to hear about the chalices. I used to not like Zoas but they are growing on me[emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadySaber Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Thank you lady! Now the trick is keeping everything growing and happy. Good luck with the Zoas! Sorry to hear about the chalices. I used to not like Zoas but they are growing on me[emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah us too I had two frags once and just didn't care for them gave them a new home, but now I have a few spots that would make a good place for them. I'm sure your tank will do great. You still just do doing water changes? No protein skimmer right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 I knew you would come around to zoas haha! They are the best, so many colors and they are pretty hardy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 Yeah us too I had two frags once and just didn't care for them gave them a new home, but now I have a few spots that would make a good place for them. I'm sure your tank will do great. You still just do doing water changes? No protein skimmer right? I have a skimmer now. I'm using the IM one. And I am still doing water changes once a week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowen1022 Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 I knew you would come around to zoas haha! They are the best, so many colors and they are pretty hardy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Haha yeah they are sweet especially because you don't really have to 'worry' about them Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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