What Should I Get For The 60 Cube

So I've had a rough two weeks in terms of fish livestock for the reef....but I'm not going to vent anymore so I am focusing on water parameters and corals...my stability issues have for the most part been corrected with me find the right dosing amount to keep my kh at roughly 9.5 to 9.8 and my calcium at upper 400s hovering near 480....my sps corals are still somewhat unhappy and are either not fully extending, not extending at their base, fading, or not showing any bad signs...

Blue monti digita

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Blood lepto

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Orange monti

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Orange pavona

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Green monti

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Purple pavona

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Blue pavona

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

I recently also got a mint pavona frag and of all my sps my pavona are doing pretty well so I am not particularly worried

Mint pavona

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

No corals have died but I am still perplexed as to why they look off....if it is the lack of stability how long will it take after stability is achieved for them to start looking great again...I also found out that my nutrients were all undetectable which I know can cause corals to fade....to counter this I've upped fish feeding slightly and have started dosing red sea 2 part coral food....all my soft and lps look great so I'm perplexed on the matter

 

So finally I have some money to spend on upgrades and I am unsure of what is best to do....initially I wanted to get a basic dosing system for the 2 part as I wanted to fully automate the system....I am still leaning towards this but I could also invest in a gyre/programmable wave maker...finally I could just put it towards the eventual light upgrade from the prime to the hydra....help on this decision is appreciated

 

New lighting as longer as your wave makers are doing their jobs.

 

New lighting as longer as your wave makers are doing their jobs.

I'm pretty sure they are...I have 3 small ones one being a programmable aquami...the other 2 are relatively cheap singular mode ones...the water is circulating in the tank but it's nothing great and is definitely not good enough for the tougher sps like acros....

I order the hydra 26

 

Are you planning to keep acros ? Your corals are gorgeous by the way

 

Are you planning to keep acros ? Your corals are gorgeous by the way

I say no now....but I must admit that no is not nearly as firm as it was 3 months ago...if anything I won't delve into them until I feel I've perfected taking care of the sps I have currently....I made a similar "deal with myself" for sps in general when I was trying to master lps

Also thank you it means a lot....its hard for me to see the beauty as I get tunnel vision on all the imperfections here are the sps that have been acting temperamental

Colorful birdsnest close

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Colorful birdsnest

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Purple sps

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Pink birdsnest

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Stylopora

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Forest monti digita

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

Also here is my blood lepto

Blood lepto

• Ernest Sacco
• Jan 24, 2019

 

I think acros are nice but there not for me at the moment altough we all want that beautiful mixed reef tank that's show worthy it takes years of expirence and commient but with enough expirence and knowledge we can be succesful. I know what you mean by the imperfections my tank was having a small cyano outbreak thankfully that's over with.
Also do you feed your corals ?

 

I think acros are nice but there not for me at the moment altough we all want that beautiful mixed reef tank that's show worthy it takes years of expirence and commient but with enough expirence and knowledge we can be succesful. I know what you mean by the imperfections my tank was having a small cyano outbreak thankfully that's over with.
Also do you feed your corals ?

I feed frozen mysis to my fish and I would occasionally squirt some into my larger lps....at night I sometimes will give my bubble coral, my bullseye candcane, and my scolys a squirt of mysis and a light dusting to everyone else....as of now I've started dosing red sea 2 part daily

 

You seem to be doing a good job how are you dosing alk and calcium etc. Unstable alkilinty is a killler in sps dominated tanks.

 

You seem to be doing a good job how are you dosing alk and calcium etc. Unstable alkilinty is a killler in sps dominated tanks.

I'm dosing 2 part ESV...I dealt with instability for a few weeks as I started dosing in different amounts in an attempt to get my calc up...it destabalised everything and lead to the death of my original purple stylo frag....as of now I have been measuring daily and have gotten it to stay relatively consistent at 9.5-9.8 and calc at 480 by dosing 25ml a day...I'm hoping my found stability will allow everyone to come back....how long should it take to see positive effects from this?....also I do a 10 gallon water change weekly with coral pro salt so that should be taking care of the trace elements

 

I'm pretty sure they are...I have 3 small ones one being a programmable aquami...the other 2 are relatively cheap singular mode ones...the water is circulating in the tank but it's nothing great and is definitely not good enough for the tougher sps like acros....

I order the hydra 26

Congrats on the purchase. Pretty sure you will be happy with the Hydra 26HDs as they are fantastic lights. I run a pair of them on a rail mount above my 90 gallon standard tank. I run mine on the 18K setting (recommended by my LFS) and run them for 8 hours with an hour of ramp up and an hour of ramp down. For the most part I stick to Euphyllia Corals (ie Frogspawn, Hammer, Torch) but I have a Zoanthid Frag as well that seems to be responding well to the lighting.