honkit

By the way, what sort of sps frags (species and color) do you have in your tank? Are they all frags or a mixture of colonies and frags?

Wah great scaping and great healthy growth - where did you get those nice albrohosensis staghorns?

Regarding parasites, a good way to identify them on your sps frags is to use the macro setting on your camera (or a macro lens if you have a DSLR camera) and with the appropriate magnification, any parasites or pests can be easily spotted.

Cool. When you eventually upgrade to a larger tank, I would recommend a titanium drop-in coil cooling unit which utilizes an aircon compressor for heat exchange.

Definitely RO/DI water. You will have a LOT less algae problems and impurities (such as heavy metals) in your tank water if you only use RO/DI water for all saltwater mix.

For cooling, I would suggest an Artica 1/4 hp chiller. Always overspec your chiller if you are referring to manufacturer specifications. Stable tank temperatures are extremely important for the good health of your sps frags.

Great aquascaping. Are you using those white crates to support your rock structure?

Cool write-up. Since you are cultivating SPS frags, what sort of cooling and water flow systems are you utilizing?

The "simpler" methods of just adding calcium, bicarbonate and magnesium and regular water changes are actually quite regimented as regular testing of water quality and parameters and good nutrient export still need to be practised vigorously for sps corals to take root and grow with good colouration. From my personal experience, the major difference between simpler regimes and those that employ more supplementation is the utilization of probiotics. Bacterial supplementation will reduce nutrient levels by another degree which would enable tank owners to be able to keep more fish and/or more demanding SPS corals such as certain challenging species from Fiji and Tonga waters. Which method of probiotics one prefers is a matter of personal choice, budget and dedicationas a variety of options exist such as DIY vodka dosing, biopearls, fauna marin's ultralith system (which I use), zeovit, Redsea's Nopox system, etc or even comibantions of 2 or more methods.

Thanks for the kind words.

Full polyp expansion at least 6 inches across. Selling for 20 dollars. PM for arrangements.

Pink table mille with blue tips

Blue tip valida

Some random shots Aussie encrusting monti

There is a thread in SRC which stated where to buy hanna checkers. The search function would yield the thread.

Use Hanna phosphate checker. I have not used a phosphorous checker before. I don't think dosing trace elements is necessary if regular water changes are being done.

A phosphate level of 0.08 is rather high for keeping SPS corals especially for the more sensitive ones. The preferred range would be anything from 0.04 downwards. Also, titration test kits are completely useless in measuring PO4 levels as they do not detect organic phospates. A Hanna PO4 checker is the only reliable home test kit. The Reef Color elements are meant to be standalone products to be used in nutrient poor water as a means of tweaking certain colours. They only enhance colours and to some extent calcification/ growth and do not replace the mandatory addition of calcium, bicarbonate and magnesium as well as regular water changes.

First off, it seems that your tank may have water quality issues if you sps corals are turning brown in colour. Rectify that first before using additives like reef color elements to tweak colours. Browning is caused by high nitrate and phosphate levels and sometimes by sudden spikes or drops in alkalinity. With nutrient poor water, reef color elements works very well in enhancing SPS coral colours as evidenced by my tank.

Welcome to the SPS club!

The pink millepora with the blue-white tips is stunning and an excellent buy. When it grows, it will take on a tabling shape if you have high, chaotic flow.

Tank video as of today

!!! Colours are dazzling!!

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Growth of my blue nobilis and loisettae staghorns August 2012 Nov 2012

Update on the supplement part of things - I have been using fauna marin's reef color elements 1-3 for the past 3 weeks and so far the results have been good e.g. greens have more vibrancy and reds are more pronounced in colouration. Some SPS corals have had a growth spike recently although I am unsure if that is attributable to the color elements additives. Everything else has remained the same for my regime and husbandry.

Frags for sale in Sengkang. PM for price. Thank you.