Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[sphelps]

That Pectina is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. I don't know why people bother with SPS when stuff like that is available

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Scythanith

Space invader looks great! Looks like it's been doing some wild drugs though haahaa. That's a great growth pattern! Mine is flatter, with folded lobes. You see less of the raised skeletal features. I wish mine did more of that. Easier to frag like that as well.

Mine's usually puffier. It's been mad since I fragged it (again). Yours grows faster though - I think you said you feed yours? I don't feed mine.

Originally Posted by sphelps

That Pectina is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen. I don't know why people bother with SPS when stuff like that is available

That's why it gets to stay in my SPS tank.

[Scythanith]

I feed mine pretty regularly. NE LPS pellets and PE mysis & brine shrimp.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Scythanith

I feed mine pretty regularly. NE LPS pellets and PE mysis & brine shrimp.

Goes to show it works! I fed mine a few times when it was just a little frag, but not since.

[Myka]

I rearranged the rock a bit to make it more appealing until the corals grow in. The frags on the sand on the right won't be there long. I found a nice shady spot for the Trachy, and it's very happy. The anemone was migrating, so I peeled it off, and banned it to an island. It took the dummy Clowns a full 24 hours to find it even though it was only moved 10". You can see them in the pics hovering around where the anemone was.





I even found a shady spot for the Zoas.





Here's the new Desalwii frag.



The unknown piece (which is probably a second Desalwii, oops)



Echinata



Lokani (didn't make it)

[Myka]

EDIT: Wow, just because I type at 72 wpm doesn't mean I should write a dang novel! Sorry guys!

Today it's cold and raining outside. I wanted to get the stand panels cut, but hubby doesn't want to move his old truck out in the rain to make room to do the woodworking. So I decided to tackle the right side rock structure that's been driving me nuts. I spent an hour messing with it and I'm still not content. I think the tallest point of it is too tall and that the right structure looks too much like the left structure. Ugh... While I was doing that I epoxied 5 frags/mini colonies to the rocks (Hawkins "Echinata", A desalwii, A sarmentosa, A lokani, A insignis) and now I don't think I'll sleep tonight as I worry about Epoxy Tank Brown Freak Out (herein referred to as ETBFO) Episode 2.

I bought a couple of 5' pieces of 1/2" aluminum tube and a tube bender to make a couple light brackets. I bent the first one and it went smooth. I bent the second one and it broke. So I drove halfway across the city to go get another length cut. I bent that one, and broke it too! They are closed now until Tuesday, so no light hanger this weekend.

The tank is really starting to color up now, though a few pieces are still struggling. There is noticeable weekly growth too. I started taking photos of every piece on the 1st (or close to) of each month. So I will have some pretty cool growth sequence photos in a year.

I picked up a Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker, and my tank reads 0 ppb. I've been feeding the fish 3x a day, and lots too. I added a Cleaner Shrimp to help clean up the mess I'm making. I've been allowing my filter pads to sit in the sump for 2 weeks without cleaning. I've been dosing a homemade Sodium nitrate solution to supplement NO3 and the tank has been going through about 0.25 ppm per week. Is the tank "using" the nitrate or is it "processing" the nitrate? I don't know.

The sand bed is driving me nuts. It is Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade, and it's so uniform that it looks fake to me. I have a small bag of Caribsea Super Reef sitting on the table beside the tank right now, and I'm humming and hawing about adding it. What to do? What do you guys think?

The other thing that's driving me nuts is the salt mix I'm using - H2Ocean. As the years roll by it seems the alkalinity slowly gets higher and higher. I tested today's new bucket:

Cal 415 ppm (Salifert)
Alk 9.6 dKH (Salifert)
Mg 1230 ppm (Salifert)

Unfortunately, only Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, and H2Ocean are available locally. We had Tropic Marin Pro Reef for one batch, but my LFS didn't bring it back in. I tried to convince him to order a pallet of Reefer's Best when it was on sale this summer, but I couldn't pre-sell enough to convince him. So I bought a bottle of Muriatic Acid, and I'm going to lower the H2Ocean's alkalinity. I like to do 50-75% water changes 3-4 times per year, and I can't do that with 9.6 dKH when my tank is 7.0 dKH and full of SPS.

Cool new screen! I have a buddy that has a 3D printer and I got him to print me up some custom round screen frame corners to fit into my one-piece eurobrace. I notched a hole in the two back corners to accept the wires for the powerheads. The corners are sweet! These are V1.0, and he's working on improving the design a bit. If anyone else wants some made, send me a PM!

[Howie]

Nice job on the screen cover! Looks great!

[Proteus]

How is the deswalli colouring up. I was eyeing them up at the lfs you got it from but thought I'd wait to see what yours does.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Howie

Nice job on the screen cover! Looks great!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Proteus

How is the deswalli colouring up. I was eyeing them up at the lfs you got it from but thought I'd wait to see what yours does.

The Desalwii completely browned out after a few Bayer dips, but is starting to show some color now. All I see is green tips right now - Desalwii shouldn't have green tips. I think it just needs some time to figure out what it's supposed to do. Crazy PE on it though.

On the brighter side, I got the panels for the stand cut, glued, and trimmed up. I just need to fill and sand, and then I can paint them next weekend. It was cold and wet all weekend here, and next weekend is supposed to be nicer - will be warm enough for painting. I'm attaching all the panels to the stand with magnets. Hubby wasn't keen on the walnut beer ledge, so for now it will just be gloss dark gray to match the kitchen cabinet bottoms.

[WarDog]

Pretty cool Minder, and looking good. What do you think you should do in regards to the substrate?