FarmerTy 215-gal No Water Change SPS Tank

[reefmutt]

cool! Looks like the arms of a basket starfish.

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

cool! Looks like the arms of a basket starfish.

I didn't even think of that but it does! Sweet!

[ReeferDash]

Originally Posted by FarmerTy

Glass + acro =

That's amazing!


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[FarmerTy]

One of my favorites in the tank... Blue lemonade.

[Chopper65]

Where do they come up with the names for these?
Beautiful pictures as usual TY

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by Chopper65

Where do they come up with the names for these?
Beautiful pictures as usual TY

Adjective randomizer on the internet.

[FarmerTy]

Frags Farmers Red Robin Stag showing some gorgeous color and white polyps lately.


Abrotainoides encrusting and coloring up. I can see a dark red all along the tip and hopefully it starts to develop the green base as well.


Frag pack I'm sending to NY.


1st frag batch for local who's buying 1 of everything in the tank.

[markalot]

Ahh, another red robin. Good luck, will be interesting to see how it progresses in this tank. When all is right with mine the coralites get blood red, otherwise it's a nice brown red with a strange greenish and dark grey base.

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by markalot

Ahh, another red robin. Good luck, will be interesting to see how it progresses in this tank. When all is right with mine the coralites get blood red, otherwise it's a nice brown red with a strange greenish and dark grey base.

Yeah, I've always casted it aside for more exciting corals in my opinion but I gave it some good real estate towards the front of the tank and its been pleading its case to stay there.

Oddly, lower light (150-200par) and lots of flow has been treating it well. Hopefully I'll get those blood red coralites you are talking about. I was just surprised to see white polyps.

[markalot]

Mine is sitting around 400 PAR in high flow. This was close to the best I've been able to get so far, with the end polyps white.



After a few days of glory it faded back to more of a rust. If only they could talk I wouldn't have to guess.

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by markalot

Mine is sitting around 400 PAR in high flow. This was close to the best I've been able to get so far, with the end polyps white.



After a few days of glory it faded back to more of a rust. If only they could talk I wouldn't have to guess.

Its purdy!

Maybe I'll try a piece at 400 par and see how it colors up.

What's the one to the right of it? Kind of looks like my blue lemonade I have in the tank. It looks awesome!

[markalot]

I nicked named that Katropora a few years back because I got it from a lady in New York who calls herself MetroKat. We believe it was a wild caught from Divers Den and it's probably a subulata but not 100% sure. It loves high nitrates and the tips will get a bright purple at 10+. Now that I run lower nitrates it's been rather dull compared to the last time my tank looked good.

[FarmerTy]

I think if I take a top down of my blue lemonade, it looks very similar, well, at least the colors do.


Why are you lowering your nitrates? I always found best colors at around 5-10 ppm of nitrates.

[markalot]

I bet that is the same, or something very close.

Above 10 nitrates I had a lot of trouble keeping reds, though it may have been elevated PO4 as well. This go around I've been having fantastic luck with reds but lacking on most purple highlights. I didn't really intend to run nitrates very low but after 6 months of running Seachem Matrix in a reactor they dropped and stayed low. I do dose CaNO3 every once in a while and right ow they are at 5 but I'm not sure if that's due to dosing or more feeding or the reactor getting dirty. If I can achieve 10 I will to see if I can also keep the reds.

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by markalot

I bet that is the same, or something very close.

Above 10 nitrates I had a lot of trouble keeping reds, though it may have been elevated PO4 as well. This go around I've been having fantastic luck with reds but lacking on most purple highlights. I didn't really intend to run nitrates very low but after 6 months of running Seachem Matrix in a reactor they dropped and stayed low. I do dose CaNO3 every once in a while and right ow they are at 5 but I'm not sure if that's due to dosing or more feeding or the reactor getting dirty. If I can achieve 10 I will to see if I can also keep the reds.

Yeah, my phosphates stay super low while I keep my nitrates at 5ppm. I'd almost guess that it was the phosphates that was the culprit when yours was lacking in color but that's just a guess.

When I went fallow, I dosed potassium nitrate to maintain my nitrates. Interestingly, when I returned the fish to the system and stopped dosing, the nitrates stayed the same but the color got 5x better!

[reefmutt]

I wish I could get a frag pack from you!
.. I also wish my nitrates would come down from around 30ppm and p would come down below .15..

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

I wish I could get a frag pack from you!
.. I also wish my nitrates would come down from around 30ppm and p would come down below .15..

Boo! Why the higher nutrients? Changing some stuff around in the tank?

[reefmutt]

No..p has always been practically uncontrollable for me and N has gone through the roof since everything stopped growing in my tank..
Also, cheato no longer grows in my system. Just stagnates and gets eaten by my urchins. Actually, come to think about it.. that could be adding to my nutrients...

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

No..p has always been practically uncontrollable for me and N has gone through the roof since everything stopped growing in my tank..
Also, cheato no longer grows in my system. Just stagnates and gets eaten by my urchins. Actually, come to think about it.. that could be adding to my nutrients...

What are you running besides chaeto for nutrient control? Water change schedule?

[reefmutt]

10% wc per week.
Big skimmer
12 liters Seachem matrix in 3 baskets. Maybe i need better flow.
Smallish dsb
Cheato- which won't grow..
I think most of it is just that the corals aren't pulling as much as before. When they were growing like mad..

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

10% wc per week.
Big skimmer
12 liters Seachem matrix in 3 baskets. Maybe i need better flow.
Smallish dsb
Cheato- which won't grow..
I think most of it is just that the corals aren't pulling as much as before. When they were growing like mad..

Any thought to ditch the chaeto and go with some GFO in a reactor for phosphates? You can increase water change percentage to lower nitrates as well.

[reefmutt]

Forgot.. I use gfo constantly as well..
My reservoir only holds 10% of my system volume. I don't have the time or energy to do more than 1 wc a week..
I'm not too concerned. They'll come down one way or another.
I like the natural approach with cheato. I might try some iron dosing.
Thanks, Ty!

[FarmerTy]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Forgot.. I use gfo constantly as well..
My reservoir only holds 10% of my system volume. I don't have the time or energy to do more than 1 wc a week..
I'm not too concerned. They'll come down one way or another.
I like the natural approach with cheato. I might try some iron dosing.
Thanks, Ty!

No problem! You should just do the no water change system like me. I'm the king of lazy.

[reefmutt]

Ha! Been there. That's usually what happens to me when things are humming along. When I'm limping through a screw up, I get a bit more diligent.

[FarmerTy]

Top-down look of the abrotainoides. Can say its settling in nicely.