My minimalistic 180g SPS tank

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

Thanks Matt! Everything is looking very good lately (knock on wood) and I will have to take some new pictures this week, if everything continues to go well over the next couple weeks and colors improve I will probably add more frags.

I am not sure what those angels are, will have to look into them. I am scared to add angels in here till the frags are bigger. I had a Regal and Emporer but both ended up picking at the corals so I had to sell the Regal and I moved the Emporer to a 300 gallon fowlr I have running, that I am about to add a coral cat shark and stingray too.

The genicanthus family of angels are all planktivors and will not touch your corals. They are also dwarf angels so don't get nearly as large as most angels. They are beautiful, do amazing in pairs or harems, eat anything you add to the tank and are pretty non aggressive. Pretty much the perfect reef fish, imo..

[maxxII]

Might see some aggression between the anthias and the Genicanthus angels, but they are definitely a fish to consider.

Might also consider blue throat triggers or another Xanthichthys species of trigger. These triggers are generally considered reef safe and are open water swimmers and feeders.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Pife

I'd feed some more and leave your skimmer on. It provides a large amount of oxygen to your system. Brs reef chilli is full of po4.

I am adding 6 green chromis too, hopefully they will make it and not kill eachother. I will leave the skimmer on and with the acropower see how it does. I never used brs reef chilli but may need to check it out

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

The genicanthus family of angels are all planktivors and will not touch your corals. They are also dwarf angels so don't get nearly as large as most angels. They are beautiful, do amazing in pairs or harems, eat anything you add to the tank and are pretty non aggressive. Pretty much the perfect reef fish, imo..

I will need to look into these, thanks!

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by maxxII

Might see some aggression between the anthias and the Genicanthus angels, but they are definitely a fish to consider.

Might also consider blue throat triggers or another Xanthichthys species of trigger. These triggers are generally considered reef safe and are open water swimmers and feeders.

I always considered a trigger but thought they wouldnt do good in my tank, not sure why I thought that but I will have to check them out.

[Geeray]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

I always considered a trigger but thought they wouldnt do good in my tank, not sure why I thought that but I will have to check them out.

I know a guy that had a blue throat trigger and it decimated his snail population.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Geeray

I know a guy that had a blue throat trigger and it decimated his snail population.

I honestly probably have 5-10 snails so that wouldnt be a big deal to me. We will see how the algae changes if at all once I finally (hopefully) get my phosphates off 0. I did add 6 more blue chromis yesterday, I have 7 now and they all swim together.

I think it helps that I have a lot of other bigger fish that are very active, but we will see how they do over the next couple months.

[lynchmob3000]

Nori has a lot of po4. A sheet a day along with spirulina flakes and you'll have some phos in no time!


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[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by lynchmob3000

Nori has a lot of po4. A sheet a day along with spirulina flakes and you'll have some phos in no time!


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I will have to do this, I only feed nori about twice a week because the tangs rip it apart in seconds and the big pieces just float around

[reefmutt]

ALso, another beneficial byproduct of feeding nori is the production of the amino acid aspartic acid once the nori is metabolized by the fish..
That is the main ingredient in Acropower, by the way..
Source: Reefvet, from mhucasey's thread..

[RivieraBayReef]

Great looking setup! Love the rock work.


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[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

ALso, another beneficial byproduct of feeding nori is the production of the amino acid aspartic acid once the nori is metabolized by the fish..
That is the main ingredient in Acropower, by the way..
Source: Reefvet, from mhucasey's thread..

Awesome, I am definitely going to be feeding nori more. Just tested phosphates again with hanna ulr and again got 0. This is getting frustrating, I may have to look into adding phosphates directly.

Originally Posted by RivieraBayReef

Great looking setup! Love the rock work.


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Thank you!

[codydemmel4]

Everything is continuing to go on the right track (knock on wood) and I will try to get some pictures this coming weekend as I am leaving today to go to the NFL draft in Philly (Go Eagles!)

I also placed an order with Adam for a Battlecorals pack so I am excited for that. I am going to wait probably 2-3 weeks before I have him ship them just to make sure everything is stable and continuing to get good PE and stabilize my phosphates off 0, which looks like I have been able to do but increasing my feeding and feeding nori almost everyday. Recently the past 3 tests I have got 6, 10 and 6 all three were after feeding a lot but still a lot better then being off 0 and I have noticed increased PE both during the day and at night.

[Pife]

Sounds like you're heading in the right direction! Have fun at the draft.

[KJoFan]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

I will have to do this, I only feed nori about twice a week because the tangs rip it apart in seconds and the big pieces just float around

Fold the nori sheets up into small squares and clip it or even better, rubberband it to a piece of rubble or a frag disk and drop it in. This way they will only tear off little bits and not big chunks.

[codydemmel4]

[codydemmel4]

[codydemmel4]

[kevlow]

Wow! That last piece just got my attention. Do you think that is a true yellow with bright green end polyps? It does not appear to be a stressed pastel green. If so, then that is a truly beautiful piece with incredible potential. I need some of that color in my tank.!

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by kevlow

Wow! That last piece just got my attention. Do you think that is a true yellow with bright green end polyps? It does not appear to be a stressed pastel green. If so, then that is a truly beautiful piece with incredible potential. I need some of that color in my tank.!

Unfortunately I think it is going to end up more green just because that's what I really see when the blue leds come on, but I've never had a true yellow before so I'm not sure. Anyway it is by far the brightest coral in my tank.

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

Unfortunately I think it is going to end up more green just because that's what I really see when the blue leds come on, but I've never had a true yellow before so I'm not sure. Anyway it is by far the brightest coral in my tank.

I think it looks like a great score. To try to maintain the yellow, I think I would try to have it in the highest par possible to keep the green away.

Good luck. I will be following along.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by kevlow

I think it looks like a great score. To try to maintain the yellow, I think I would try to have it in the highest par possible to keep the green away.

Good luck. I will be following along.

Yeah I was thinking about that but didnt wanna bleach it, looks like I will be moving it tomorrow

[HuskerBioProf]

If yellow is what you are after, Pink Lemonades are the easiest across to keep really yellow in my opinion. I have a Pink Floyd that started yellowish, but it is so small and pales every time the tank has any fluxuation.

[codydemmel4]

Well everything was looking great but I have noticed again tip recession on some of the corals even though the alk has been very stable from 7.5-8, never once have I tested it and it was above 8.

Phosphate tested at 0.04, nitrate tested 10.

The one parameter that was off was calcium as somehow that got all the way up to 490 when i usually keep it at 420.

One thing I am wondering, I have not changed my bulbs in 11 months. Could that cause the tip recession? I figured it would just brown and not cause me to lose some of the corals, anyways I bought 2 new blue plus that will get here today and I am going to change them and change 2 a week till all are changed. I am just very confused how my corals look great for awhile and then all of a suddent they get hit with this tip recession. The anemones and LPS look great and I am getting very good coraline algae growth all over the rocks and back wall.

The pump on my skimmer broke on Friday, so I have not had a skimmer running since then but phosphates and nitrate did not budge but could they have something to do with this too? Just seems like when I have something going in the right direction and looking positive, I take a step back again.

[tripdad]

Hello Cody, unfortunately that last statement fits a lot of us. Hang in there, your tank is young yet and it will get better as you go. I'm liking that little "yellow" coral too, best of luck with it.