Cali Kid Corals

Derek's 225g - Magnifica / SPS Reef

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Joined the 2-plank gang today!
 
Coral reefer said:
Different foods?
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Yeah the timing required for pellets and mysis is so different, it makes sense to use two feeders. My CBB eats the freeze-dried mysis but not pellets - so this is a good way for me to keep him regularly fed without having to rely so much on frozen!

@JVU I see what you are saying now using the largest pump opening and mysis - they come out pretty fast and often rise to the surface. Luckily my CBB is smart enough to pay attention and pick off the floating ones - and nobody else seems to notice, so this works out anyway!
 
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Don.Julio91 said:
What’s this one called? Is it one of the super sensitive to parameter swing Acros? I like SPS like these that add movement to the tank.
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This is just a random MC colony I picked up, don’t remember where. don’t think it’s anything named but it’s nice.

My parameters swing and have swung quite a lot and I’ve never lost any acros because of it FWIW.

Darkxerox said:
Which montipora is that last one?
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It’s the WWC grafted monti I think, I got it a couple swaps ago and it didn’t do much for a long time but now it’s starting to really look good and grow!
 
derek_SR said:
This is just a random MC colony I picked up, don’t remember where. don’t think it’s anything named but it’s nice.

My parameters swing and have swung quite a lot and I’ve never lost any acros because of it FWIW.



It’s the WWC grafted monti I think, I got it a couple swaps ago and it didn’t do much for a long time but now it’s starting to really look good and grow!
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Nice gives me hopes I can try my luck/skill level at one and won’t break the bank doing it. Whats “MC”?
 
I have finally succeeded in getting my nitrates down from 75+ to now testing in the 3-10 range. I have been dosing 30ml vodka/day for a good 3 months now, although I'm not sure it's actually doing anything. I think the main factor in the reduction has been a huge amount of water changing, both AWC (up to 5g/day at one point) and manual (60g changes a couple times each weekend).

I haven't really noticed any improvement in my corals - as typical for my tank, growth is very good but color is just so-so. Really trying to achieve the colors that @RandyC and @dandemeyere get in their SPS tanks, who run pretty similar husbandry to mine. My red dragon is growing so fast it's more of a white dragon right now (see pic above).

Going to let things cruise like this for a while and see what happens.

General husbandry summary since it's been a long time:


  • 10 no3
  • .08 po4 (not dosing any LaCl these days, it just stays in this range)
  • 6-8 dkh alk
  • 7.9-8.3 Ph
  • 75-81 temp (heater never turns on - this is the natural swing this time of year)

  • Skimming fairly wet
  • No mechanical filtration
  • 1-3g AWC/daily (variety of salts, have a stockpile of stuff i got onsale. mostly IO right now)
  • ESV 2 part dosing mixed with TM elements
  • 5L kalkwasser each night
  • 30ml vodka/day
  • 650 peak PAR for 7hrs, although this varies a lot throughout the tank - some acros only get around 300-350.
  • Feeding TDO + freeze dried Mysis multiple times daily, 1 sheet of nori daily, and 2+ frozen feedings daily
  • GAC every couple of months for 2-3 days
 
derek_SR said:
I think the main factor in the reduction has been a huge amount of water changing, both AWC (up to 5g/day at one point) and manual (60g changes a couple times each weekend).
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How much water can u make/store a day.

To be able to do multiple 60gal water changes on 1 weekend Wow.

I have 2 55gal barrels but couldn't currently even mix one of those barrels to get get 50gallon of salt mixed.

Beyond mixing salt in the tank themselves. (Still need to get the mixing barrel set up with pumps or whatever crap is needed to mix and move water from one barrel to other. , I only have the one to hold the rodi water currently in use. I use a bucket to scoop water from that barrel to 5 gallon buckets and hand mix my salts. Don't have a way to mix salt in the other barrel I have yet beyond maybe a 2×4)

I can't currently fathom being able to change so much water multiple times on one weekend. Even if my other barrel was set up to mix salt water.

Takes me a few hours to even heat up 5gallon buckets of saltwater. Couldn't imagine how long to heat up 60 gallons in a emergency, right now it probably take me 24hrs unless I heated water on the stove or propane burner.

All that to say your setup has to be crazy efficent to go between auto water changes, to being able to do massive water changes.

Definitely something I would like to work out a plan to get to the capacity like you. Especially with my 210gallon in the works.
 
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Coral reefer said:
I wouldn’t let heating water stop you. I used to do 100 gal at a time on my system of 360 gal and would lose 3-4 degrees. No big deal.
Get a pump to recirculate in your barrels and a good RODI setup
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Wow, good to know. I kinda thought it would be alot worse so no real major temp dropping concerns just swaping 50 gals or so in a 210, well probably 240gal including sump.
 
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