Paratore

I have some stuff I am looking to trade or sell at the meeting this month if anyone is interested

Zoos: AOG, kiwi zoas, sunny D, and eagle eyes.

Softys: purple hairy mushrooms and bright green mushrooms.

LPS: metallic green frogspawn, metallic green hammer and then a purple and green oops one which is a mix between frogspawn and hammer

Here are a few pics, they are a couple months old so everything has grown out quite a bit. Let me know if you wanna see pictures of anything else!

Thanks for looking!

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That would be awesome, thank you! I'll send you a pm:)

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Thank you everyone for responding! I really appreciate all of your feed back. Keep them coming!

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As most of the people will agree it is all about quality lights, flow, parameters, and stability.

Those are the basics though, I want to hear what some set ups look like. What kind of lighting they run, what they dose, what they use for flow, basically how they run their system.    Kind of just create a bank of SPS knowledge for people looking to get into the SPS world so that they can be prepared as possible and have the best fighting chance at a successful SPS reef

Everyone says that you just need flow, good lights, and stability but never elaborate on how they have achieved those things in their own reefs.

I looked through our SPS thread and couldn't find thread like this so I thought it would be a good one for all of us new guys looking to get into SPS and even for some of you more experienced reefers out there! This is a thread for you to share what you do to be successful. Please tell us your dosing, lighting type and schedule, what levels you shoot for, all the way to the frequency of your water changes, aquarium size, and everything else in between! Please only post your specs and info if you meet the following requirements.

1. You are successful at growing most/many types of sps corals.
2. You have been successful for an extended period of time. (more than a year at least)
3. You are successful at producing the BEST colors from your sps corals. (no brownies) 
4. You have successful colonies of sps corals and not just frags.

Don't get me wrong. I know new people can be successful but in this particular thread I am looking for those with the criteria above that will share their experience for all.

Also if you will please share a photo of your sps aquarium and some advice you have for people looking to join the world of SPS corals! The best way to learn is through others mistakes, so please share! 

I know there are tons of you on this forum with amazing SPS tanks so please let us know how you do it!    

Don't break the chain still goes on, before and after Jeff mentioned it, it's that most people just share the love with no strings attached. Man that sounded a little funny.

I have a Yellow Porites,Larry Jackson Tricolor, and a Gumby Tortuosa out there on DBTC that has really brought some nice colored corals to many many peoples tanks. We can always start more threads with that in mind but I tend to trade or just give things away. Now that you mention it maybe we should start up at least a couple more Don't Break The Chain threads here soon, did they get lost during the data issue?.

 

Who wants some DBTC porites!

I would also love to jump on this DBTC when you start your thread for it! Might even have enough zoas for my own DBTC in a couple weeks

I believe that my zoas are up to 11 heads +1 baby now! That's a total of 6 new heads I believe!

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Perfect, I should be able to swing by and grab it on Saturday. I am just not sure on a time because I have a lot of stops to make up there. But it will be sometime between 1-5pm haha.

I think I will actually be able to come get it from you. Would you be free on Saturday? 

Does anybody have either a 10 gallon or 15 gallon tank they wouldn't mind parting with? I am using it as part of my new sump creation so I would prefer to not to buy a brand new one from Petco haha. 

Preferably near me (corvallis) but I am headed to portland this weekend so that area works also.

If you like coding, play with electronic, and save lots of $$$... Do a DIY controller with audrino mega. Total cost less than $200 and building it is just as entertaining as the reef tank itself.

 

Here are a small list of features I programmed:

-Skimmer pump turn off if sump level increased by 0.5" and restart when sump level is within.

-Skimmer pump off for 3hrs if skimmate rate is high.

-skimmer pump off if skimmate is full

-wave pump intensity sync to moon phase

-wave pump oscillation frequency randomized 4 times per day with auto slight variation to prevent splash out.

-LED control for sunrise, peak, cloud cover, sunset, moon phase.

-pH controlled kalk ATO

-Temp controlled heater and fan

-Control auto feeder 3x daily and pause return pump 10min

-SMS warnings and log all data every 10min

-upon power restored from outage.. retrieve time from internet and auto recover operation.

Sounds interesting, I'll have to check it out.

Very true, maybe a couple lifetimes and just maybe I'll come close ha.

Just ask her to keep the frag tank at her house and be like, come on honey, this way we will have quality time "all the time".

And I think many of us here are addicts in one form or another, it is just a matter of how deep you get into it, I for one ave admitted I have had a problem years ago, and that is the first step.

 

I am not yet prepared to take the second step, recognizing a higher power that can restore sanity.

Right now the higher power I think of is the divers and coral farmers propagating more frags for me to get my hands on...That, gives me sanity.

 

hahahaha spoken like a true reef addict. I haven't reached your level yet but give me a few years and I bet I will get there. 

Just throwing this idea out there, but my friend in California says that his club just meets once a month at different sponsors stores to hang out, swap frags, socialize, and buy coral from the shops. I think it would be cool to do that same kind of thing for our meetings if we do not have a set speaker. We could go to places such as Premium Aquarium, Cuttlefish, Critter Cabana, Upscale and others for our meetings. It is great business for them and helps get their names out there to our members. I'm not sure if the sponsors would want to host those event but I think that it would be something good for the next Vender Relations Chair to look into if the sponsors and members are interested.

My girlfriend says that I have an addiction LOL

I only have experience with the apex....but here are my thoughts on it. It's a bit pricier. I remember when I was doing research I asked the same types of questions and someone made the suggestion that you should buy for the controller you'll need in a year, not the one you want to try now. THat is sage advice. I bought the junior and I'm out of expansion modules already. They limit you at 4. Plus, buying all the bits and pieces adds up. I wish I would have started with a higher unit. But anyway...it's expensive.

 

Thing is - super easy. Basically plug and play. I had some issues linking my ecotech stuff, but I worked through it with their online forums, and it's all good now. Apex Fusion (their online portal) is awesome. I can access the controller from any device and see all the levels, turn things on/off, reprogram etc. It's great.

 

Really the only drawback is the price. Here's the real test though - look and see how many used units and stuff are for sale. You wont find anything. Sure they come up every now and then but they're snatched up just as fast. That should tell you a lot about how much people love these things. 

 

Anyway. Go for it. 

Man the apex does sound pretty awesome, thank you for all the feed back! correct me if I am wrong but the apex website and mobile site work on macs and apple devices right?

This is kinda like the refugium question, if you can have\afford one why not. There are no negatives to being able to monitor or control things in my opinion. Now is it mandatory, No. many people run very nice tanks without one they just pay more attention to their systems.

As people have recommended go for something better than a Jr or basic unit as from what I gather you seem like some one who will be upgrading\adding on again soon. Lights, skimmer, sump, frag tank, and now a controller, next is a display tank...

Someone must have gotten a raise.

haha I have had so many questions because I am reducing some stuff on my system such as the lights and sump but some of the other questions like this one are long term plans since I do not have my dream system yet due to living in my fraternity. I like to dream of my future system in a couple years. A lot of these questions also apply to my dads tank. He is not very knowledgeable in the saltwater world and he is wanting to get into reefing so I am helping him set his system back up since he was only a fish guy before. He is the kind of guy who likes to just enjoy the tank without doing much to it so I am trying to help him set up a pretty automated tank and figured a controller would be perfect for him. I actually can't set up a frag tank anymore  My roommates said it was to many tanks in our room lol!

Im going to be working a lot more so I figured I would spoil myself and get a better skimmer and lights for getting into SPS haha. 

thanks for all of the responses! so it looks like two of the better ones are reefkeeper and Apex. What are the pros and cons of both that you guys have found?

I am thinking about adding a controller to either my reef or my dads reef but I am not sure if its worth the money. Mostly adding this thread to see what peoples opinions are about their controllers. Would you guys recommend them? Which one? Just let me know what your experience has been with them. 

Thank you in advance!

Also a nice card:)

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Make me an offer, I'm open to anything! Coral, nano light, fish, cash. Just let me know you have.

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 Just ask in the forum. I'm sure someone will be glad to give you some.

 

Right now, I may have a few large amphipods, but I have mostly Mysis Shrimp, which seem to do great in tanks that are already established with copepods!

What is the advantage to keeping Mysis shrimp instead of having lots of pods?

I think bare bottom is easier to prevent detritus buildup. I know when I had a remote fuge and finally removed it there was lots of detritus at the bottom (even with a filter sock and skimmer before it). If you have the chaeto tumble it avoids this and grows the ball 360 degrees around. I don't personally tumble mine but don't keep sand either to avoid any buildup. As said, both methods work.

 

Pods can be bought or you can get some cheato from the share thread from someone who has them already. Also some keep "pod condos" that can be transferred to others tanks to seed them with pods.

Thank you for your input! I think I'm going to leave it bare bottom!  hmm never thought of keeping pod condos. Going to have to do that so when its my time I can share the love!

 Just ask in the forum. I'm sure someone will be glad to give you some.

 

Right now, I may have a few large amphipods, but I have mostly Mysis Shrimp, which seem to do great in tanks that are already established with copepods!

Once I have my refugium all set up I will defiantly hit up the people of PNWMAS for some pods!

The bare bottom/substrate debate really doesn't have a right or wrong answer. I have kept both. For ease of maintenance, bare bottom may be better. I like substrate for aesthetic reasons and for burrowing organisms. It is all a matter of personal preference. If you have a refugium, it would seem best to have the pods.  I don't see a point of having so much current in a refugium that the Chaeto tumbles. You can stock it with pods(copepods, amphipods), although eventually they will usually find their way into your tank!

Sounds good to me! Thank you!

One another note, where do you guys get pods for your refugiums? The only place I have found them is at my LFS but they are a pretty penny.

Looks like I'll be tossing him out to be on the safe side!

I can't see any reason why to be against having a refugium if you are going to take care of it properly.

 

With the space you have I would probably go with a bare bottom chaetomorpha refugium. I would skip sand and rock all together. IME there is just not enough benefit in pod production from that small of space that you would see a noticeable difference to warrant the extra care that adding rock and sand would require. If you stick with just the chaetomorpha you can get a large benefit from the nutrient breakdown without the risks of creating a "sink".Pods will still grow like crazy in chaeto as well, so your not sacrificing to much there IME. But as far as products like Miracle mud and what not, you won't see enough of a benefit in a refugium that small to warrant it.

 

The largest benefit will be the breakdown of nutrients, which will also help your protein skimmer to work much more efficiently.

 

If you are carbon dosing you may get to a point like me that even with heavy feeding of your system you are unable to keep any algae alive in your refugium. If that happens, then a refugium will be of little benefit to you.

 

JME

On top of a those good reasons to have one, it's nice to have an area for more delicate organisms like tiny feather dusters, etc., that would normally be eaten in the display tank. I'm moving the small amount of Xenia to just my refugium, before it gets a chance to take over the tank! I have some awesome large fluorescent green Palys in the too, that Mandinga gave me. I know they have strong palytoxin, so that seemed the best place for them. I'm definitely a refugium fan. Go for it! I had tons of pods in there, but they ended up being overtaken by Mysis Shrimp. It's still a good tradeoff.  They mostly eat copepods, and there are still a lot of Gammarus (amphipods). Refugiums take on a life of their own!

Thank you both for all the information!! I know that JME said to keep it bare bottom with just chaeto but what is your two cents JManrow? Also, should I have the cheato tumbling? Stock it with pods or what?