My First SPS Tank

[Stryder78]

Hello Guys,

Just wanted to share my newly setup marine tank. Its a custom made 2x2x2 size cube with sump. After some suggestion from LFS, i went Triton way even i don't have enough knowledge on it.

My sump is designed to have a 20% volume for the refugium, and the flow arrangement is from refugium-->skimmer-->return pump.

Here is the picture of the tank with cabinet and sump.

Equipment Lists

1. Maxpect Razor 120W 16000K

2. Vertex Omega 130

3. Reef Octopus DC5500

4. Hailea HS-66A

5. Jebao WP-25

6. Jebao WP-10

7. GemSurfs Dosing Pump GSD-3-M

8. AutoAqua Smart ATO

9. Dymax 6500k lighting for sump

10. 5 Stage RO filter (Zero)

Used Black and White Live sand (I think Caribsea Livesand), Tropic Marine PRO salt, and Aquaroche Designer Rocks, and DI water for initial setup.

During cycling for 2 weeks, i just feed the tank with a couple of frozen mysis shrimp. Did not use the Razor lighting, but already placed chaeto and caulerpa and turn on the lights on sump 24/7.

After 2 weeks of waiting and testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate, and waited for these to become zero, I added my first fish and corals. I managed to complete (i think) my cycling quickly because , I used Pro Digest to speed up the bacteria growth on my tank, around 1 vial per day, for 4 days. I also encountered diatom bloom but only after adding my corals. Diatom quickly vanished after a week maybe because I used Nualgi at that time.

Here are the list of livestocks that i have until now (1 month),

1. 3 chromis

2. 2 clown fish

3. 1 algae blenny

4. 1 goby

5. 1 cleaner shrimp

6. 1 turbo snail

7. 1 Crocea Clam

corals,

1. pink birds nest (fiji) small colony

2. green acropora colony

3. Millepora colony

4. Monticaps

5. frogspawn

Here are the detailed/close-up equipment pictures,

My newly setup doing pump,

My Skimmer,

My dosing container, and water top-up,

My ATO sensor, (I don't know how to rotate this picture)

My wavemaker and return pump controller, (I don't know how to rotate this picture)

My Chiller,

My corals and fish picture, you can see here my bleached montipora at the center, dont know if already dead!

My pink birds nest is not so pink anymore, and some parts below are maybe bleaching,

Here are my problems encountered,

1. First, Montipora, completely bleached, I thought that this is the most hardy sps. probably because of alkalinity swing I encountered at the beginning (from 6 to 10 dKH)

2. My Pink Birds nest has also bleached part at the bottom, at first I thought it was because of the hairy crab (already removed), but I think is slowly getting covered.

But one thing is that the polyps are now slowly showing, compared to the first week I acquired.

I know my tank is very young, and my fault of not having patience in a hobby that normally should have.

I don't know if the montipora is dead (should I throw it)?

How about the birds nest? Will the bleaching will continue? Do I need to frag?

I'm Dosing Triton, 20 ml per day (dosing pump-for 24 hours, maybe 10 droplets per hour), Nualgi 2ml per week (dosing 0.5 per day on 4 days).

I stop dosing Pro-Digest after cycling completed.

I feed my fish once a day with small pellets.

I feed zooplankton once a week (0.5ml).

Chaeto and Caulerpa thriving with lots of pods.

3. What other corals can I place on my SPS tank? Zoas? LPS?

Any inputs and suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Here are my recent parameters, almost stable.

[Stryder78]

Forgot to mention, special thanks to fellow reefers justin, philip, and doc9937 for my setup.

[tofubox]

Love the tank and the scape bro. Very neat looking refugium light!

I reckon you can keep the montipora as it is, theres always a chance it can recover. Had one that was fully white but recovered in a month to full green. No harm leaving it as it is.

As for the Bn, if its losing tissue from base up, than u could consider fragging the healthy part. Or u can always gamble, if ur alk is stable, with gd flow n lighting, the BN can recover and grow back. Happened to mine as well.

You can place any other coral you like bro. If you are aiming for ULNS, than your options may be a bit more limited, else, i don't see any problem adding zoas, arcans, hammers, torch, brains, pratas...list goes on....

Plenty of potential for the tank, keep the updates coming!

Good luck!

[Stryder78]

tofubox, Thanks for the suggestions. I will keep the montipora and wait for it to recover. For the BN, i will monitor more. Hope they both will recover.

By the way, what is ULNS?

[Stryder78]

Another question, do you know gemsurfs dosing pump? there is Working time setting and the default is from 8:30 to 20:30.

I wanted to dose 24 times per day, so do i just set each pump working time from 0:00 to 23:30? Setup is 20ml/day in 24 cycle for each pump.

Thanks in advance.

[doc99337]

Camping here for updates. Stock slowly.

ULNS= ultra low nutrients systems; mainly you keep SPS.

[Planted]

Very nice tank. As new as it is, I hope ur equipments takes care of the initiation process. Hope to see your updates w beautiful sps colonies! ^^

[Stryder78]

Thanks doc99337. I will try to stock slowly especially fish.

Thanks Planted, I also hope they can. I will post update on my sps.