Quote:
Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi
Thanks Steve. I'm glad you posted the FTS for all of us. I am very impressed with the colors you are getting compared to me, but I don't have a sand bed. I assume that I'm not giving my bacteria a chance to colonize.
What salt mix do you use? Can you share your params? I am very impressed with the deep purple/blues.
Also, are you wet skimming or dry skimming?
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It should still work with just LR but, yes, the sand does help. Vodka dosing does not make for bright colors, it only helps. During the summer I stopped dosing just because I was too busy to deal with the tank and my nitrates were like 10-15 ppm and I actually had some of the best colors then (except for the purples... They looked more brown). Light, I believe is one of the biggest factors in coral colour. I run a 250W halide with 4x24W T5s, which is actually a stupid amount of light considering that many similar sized SPS tanks run 4-6 T5s. What is your set-up?
I switch my salt fairly regularly but recently I've sticking with good old Instant Ocean (switch back and forth between reefers best and the regular stuff). My parameters... errr... I don't actually measure anymore. I can just look at the tank and know what params are high/low based on what is happening in the tank. The last time I measured a couple weeks back (and they're fairly stable, so I'm probably not too far off these numbers now) the params were:
Amm: 0 ppm
NO2: 0 ppm
NO3: <2 ppm
PO4: forgot to check but no algae. It's typically around 0.02 ppm. I actually don't go for zero. I find SPS get really unhappy at zero.
Calc: ~430 ppm
Alk: 7-8 dKH
pH: 8.2
Temp: 79F (went to 86F in the summer before I had my chiller set up
)
As for skimming.... I don't really subscribe to any particular school of thought on this but I guess I am more on the side of wet skimming. I've found that with my skimmer, if I skim dry, I get tons of skimmate building up in the neck (reducing performance) rather than making it into the cup. By keeping it more wet I avoid that and don't have to clean the skimmer as often.
As you can see, a lot of what I do is very subjective. I have a "feel" for the tank and I constantly experiment; I just make little tweaks as needed. I swear by metal halide (though I am setting up a LED cube experimental tank for my office) and I think highlight is one of the keys to my success.