Sps Tanks...care, suggestions, things I am missing etc....

[marine_freak]

Hi everyone my name is Shawn and I live in Lima, Ohio which is a small town between Dayton and Toledo. I have been in the hobby for about 10 years and have recently turned my attention to going with a sps tank. I have a 180 gallon Reef tank ( 72x24x24) with 250 lbs of live rock Tonga Kalleni, fiji, and Florida comprise most of it. The crushed coral bed is about 3". I have 3 250 watt HQI metal halides burning german 10k bulbs and 2 175 watt halides burning 20k bulbs. I also have 4 2ft VHO actinics over the tank which comprises approx 7 watts a gallon. I have a Korallin 3002 calc reactor, a Marine technical concept pro b protien skimmer and a Iwaki 100rlt running the whole show. My sump is 100 gallon custom acrylic sump. I have a blue tip table Acropora hyacinthus approx. 4"... a brownish pink cats paw Pocillopora eydouxi 7"-5"... and a very nice little Acropora Austera 4"... they are all about 5" from the water surface....... and in very high current. I keep my calcium at 480, alkalinity 4.5-4.8, Ph 8.0-8.3. I add Lugols Iodine 2 drops every other day and add 2cc of trace elements(Combisan). I plan on packing this guy with sps's I would appreciate any feedback from people who now have sps tanks.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[Len]

Hi Shawn!

Your setup sounds fantastic. The only thing that I think needs changing is the crushed coral substrate to fine aragonite sand. CC is not the best for dentrification nor is it the best habitat for most substrate-dwelling animals.

Instead of Combisan, I suggest you switch to C-balance. It's far better and complete then Combisan and will encourage SPS growth. I don't bother with iodine replacement anymore, but nothing wrong with doing so. Personally, I found it has no observable affects one way or another.

If you have pics, share them I'd love to see your tank. Mine can be found at www.reefscapes.net (sorry for the shameless plug).

Slow weekend here due to the holidays

 

[Anonymous]

Your setup sounds very cool! The only thing I can suggest is to second Len's post--replace your sandbed with a live sand, fine grained substrate. Do you have any pictures of your tank you can post??

 

[Ralphyhp]

Marine_Freak, I second Len and Matt but the only thing you didnt mention is a RO/DI unit, this really helps on keeping a very healthy SPS coral Tank. The perfect subtrate for a DSB is Aragonite sand as Len mention, Crush Coral use to hide too much detritus on it and for consequence rice your NO3 levels and by the way, welcome aboard :wink: Ralphyhp

 

[Ralphyhp]

I said rice for raise 9 :wink: Ralphyhp.