Moving up from the 40 Breeder world

[Justin]

It's been awhile since I've posted any threads of my own on the site but I wanted to take this opportunity to solicit some advice from the knowledgeable reefers here and document the process of my 100 gallon build.

For a couple of years now I have been running with a 40 breeder and truly loving the dimensions and space that the breeder tank offers. When the wifey mentioned she wanted another kitty, I quickly said yes and then hinted that if she can have a new kitty, I can have a new tank. It was a little sneaky but she loves her kitty and I'm going to love my new tank.

I was able to purchase a nice 100 gallon tank with a nice sump, and Bubble Mac Skimmer from Cuteowow awhile back. Since then I've been refinishing the stain and slowly making some cosmetic touch ups like including a water proof skin in the stand, new stain and modding the hood to accommodate my new lighting setup and a couple of fans.

Current setup:
Livestock
(1) Tail Spot Blenny
(1) Rainford Goby
(2) Scissortail Dartfish
(1) Green Mandarin
(1) Yellow Watchman
(1) Pencil Urchin
CUC from Reefcleaners... He gives you so much livestock that its insane to keep track of it
(1) Fuzzy Chiton-Reefcleaners
(1) Bangaii Cardinal- My other two died while in QT. I might try and find another 2 to make a little school of them
(3) Lyretail Anthias- I lost a couple of them due to not eating and had to replace them with some LFS ones. I finally got them to eat Cyclops and Artic Pods
(1) Male McCoskers Flasher Wrasse- I sadly lost my female once she was put into the DT. Not really sure what happened but she looked a little weak in the QT a day before I added her to the DT. I will need to find some females for my dude!

Coral
Appleberry Monti
Red Digi
Blue Digi
Duncan
Frogspawn
Turaki looking coral
Purple Gorgonian
Monti Setosa
FireCoral
GSP Rock
(2) Sunset Rose Bubble Tip Nems
(3) Mini Rock Anemone (my lone guy split in three once I introduced him to the tank)
Trumpet Coral
Various Zoas- I forgot the name to a bunch of them but I know I have some gatorade Zoas from Elegant Reef
Green Torch
Monti Spongodes
Bonsai Coral
Purple Plate Coral
ORA Scripps Green Stag
Raspberry Lemonade Table Acro

Equipment
SICCE Syncra 4.0 Return Pump
Seaside Aquatics CS-1 Skimmer
(2) Rapid Led Dimmable Onyx light fixtures
(2) DIY T5 Bulbs running Actinic + and I forgot the other one
(2) Vortech MP10 EWS with Battery Backup
(2) Jebao WP-40
(1) JBWave controller box
(3) BRS 1.1ml Dosing pumps

[Justin]

My plans for the plumbing are the following:

I have three drain lines; (2) 3/4 inch and (1) 1 inch drain line. I plan to use the 3/4's for my returns and setup a durso standpipe for the 1 inch drain into the sump which will be split between the two filter socks and Refugium. The return line will at first be split between the tank itself and a manifold which will fuel my Dual Reactor, and two other reactors or units which I have not determined just yet. I typically like to have at least two options for hooking something up and at the very least use one of the drains as a water change drain for the system.

From the manifold, the line will split between the two return lines and be redirected to flow over the surface of the water to diffuse any surface skim and keep aeration at a premium. I realize that splitting the return will decrease the flow considerably but I also plan to have the following for flow in the tank:

(2) MP 10's along the back wall rotating between modes via the Apex
(2) WP 40's on wave mode pushing flow back and forth in the tank. I might just go with the one but I could always try to program the two so that only one is on a time through the day

This should be plenty of flow for SPS and avoid any dead zones as the corals grow. This will be my first time dealing with Jebao's but I've heard good things about them despite the cheap plastic construction. I may in the future upgrade my returns to flow through a wavemaker or Sea Swirls to get more random motion in the tank.

The following is my plumbing ideas for the tank. Please let me know your thoughts as I have not glued anything just yet. Reading Big Pun's 105 build, he mentions using two return pumps rather than one to avoid a system crash when one of the returns goes bad. Having dealt with this before in my 40 breeder, I'm thinking about doing something like this for this tank build.

Anyway, my plumbing ideas:

24742

[Justin]

As I'm still re-staining the stand and building a taller platform for the tank (I"m not a big fan of having to bend over to view a tank), I'm taking the time to also deal with the issue of tiny scratches on my glass front and sides. I bought some Celium Oxide to buff out the glass. Anyone have any tricks or advice for me?

[jrsatx20]

have u used the jebao before.

i have the wp-25 in a 90 and its on the lowest setting and its a lot. imo i think u could do a wp-25 and a wp-10

[kkiel02]

Is there a reason you aren't getting their new pumps? For the glass just take your time I heard it takes a long time. I've never done it but thought I was going to have to when I got my tank. Yes two pumps are better than one. I used to do two but at the moment I'm back to one since my new overflow isn't as fast as my megaflows.

This is what I want to do for reactors on a little sps tank- run gfo for phosphates and a bio pellet reactor for nitrates and of course a nice powerful skimmer to help both. I wouldn't run it off the return personally because I feel water circle back and keep repeating the flow through the reactors vs going up to your tank. My dream sps sump goes-
1. biopellet reactor
2. Skimmer
3. Gfo reactor
4. Then return back up to the tank.
I would then dose Kalk in the ATO as I do now for calcium.

Hoping my wife will let me splurge and setup a 40b.

[Justin]

Jrsatx20- I have never run the Jebao's before. I did a little research on them and for the price tag, they are supposed to move quite a bit of water. Through my research I saw a number of people using the WP 40's for the size tank that I have. When I bought the pumps, I was a bit leery of the power of the pumps but once I get them in this week, I'll try them out and see if if they are too powerful and determine if I need to trade down to the WP 15's instead. The WP 40's will do the brunt of the water movement in my tank and I wanted to make sure I eliminated any possibility of dead zones. I would have gone with a single MP40 but the price tag alone drew me away. Worst case scenario, I can always return the pumps via amazon and trade down.

[Justin]

kkiel02 (http://www.maast.org/member.php?8043-kkiel02)-

I used to run GFO, carbon and a bio pellet reactor in my 40 breeder. For awhile it was bothering me that I could not keep any SPS in my breeder for longer than a couple of days before they started bleaching. What irked me was that they would do fine in my QT tank but as soon as I placed them in my DT, they would bleach. Through some deducing I determined that it was the bio pellet reactor that was stripping the tank of nutrients and the Carbon pellets were releasing something in the water that was feeding cyano. I since took the pellets off line and the cyano was reduced to a nice small patch that my cucumber can handle and my SPS started flourishing. After talking to some folks about it, they all mentioned that it is best to keep it simple and not get dragged into the latest hype. Advice that has finally allowed me to keep some nice SPS colonies.

I hear you on the separating the reactors from the return line, but to be honest, I was avoiding adding another pump into my sump to feed my manifold. I typically do not have the gate valve of my dual reactor fully on, so in theory not all of the treated water recycles through the reactor. I like to think that most of the treated water makes it back up to the DT.

The 40 breeder layout is awesome. Plenty of room for ideas on aquascaping. I'm planning on using my 40 breeder to upgrade my 20L planted tank. I'm sure my freshies will love the extra space and water volume.

[kkiel02]

Cool sounds like you got it under control. I was just bouncing ideas around some are what I'll hopefully be doing soon. Why did you decide against the new jebao pumps? Was it the price difference?

[Justin]

kkiel02 (http://www.maast.org/member.php?8043-kkiel02)-

I used to run GFO, carbon and a bio pellet reactor in my 40 breeder. For awhile it was bothering me that I could not keep any SPS in my breeder for longer than a couple of days before they started bleaching. What irked me was that they would do fine in my QT tank but as soon as I placed them in my DT, they would bleach. Through some deducing I determined that it was the bio pellet reactor that was stripping the tank of nutrients and the Carbon pellets were releasing something in the water that was feeding cyano. I since took the pellets off line and the cyano was reduced to a nice small patch that my cucumber can handle and my SPS started flourishing. After talking to some folks about it, they all mentioned that it is best to keep it simple and not get dragged into the latest hype. Advice that has finally allowed me to keep some nice SPS colonies.

I hear you on the separating the reactors from the return line, but to be honest, I was avoiding adding another pump into my sump to feed my manifold. I typically do not have the gate valve of my dual reactor fully on, so in theory not all of the treated water recycles through the reactor. I like to think that most of the treated water makes it back up to the DT.

The 40 breeder layout is awesome. Plenty of room for ideas on aquascaping. I'm planning on using my 40 breeder to upgrade my 20L planted tank. I'm sure my freshies will love the extra space and water volume.

[Justin]

Cool sounds like you got it under control. I was just bouncing ideas around some are what I'll hopefully be doing soon. Why did you decide against the new jebao pumps? Was it the price difference?

Ultimately, yes it was definitely the price tag on the pumps. For a single MP40, the price was going to run in upwards of 400+(even if I found one used), but for a 1/4 of the price of the MP 40 I could go with (2) WP40's and get the same wave motions and equal if not more water flow. The only downside is that I control my MP10's with my Apex and I do not think that Jebao has anything that can communicate with the Apex. So now I'm pretty much forced to program them via their internal controller and through the outlets I plugged them in at on the Apex

[Dean]

Co grays on the new build man. I saw that set up when he had it going at his salon. Very nice foot print.

[kkiel02]

Oh didn't mean mp40. Jebao made some new pumps that are supposed to have a wider flow pattern but are wireless like the mp40. There is a link about them on here somewhere..

[Justin]

What a pain... this new tank I got had a ton of little scratches and a couple of bigger ones. Looking online, I found some methods of polishing the glass. After getting my polishing kit, I set out to start smoothing out the glass panes of the tank. What a back breaking process. I was finally able to get once side to an acceptable level with only a few scratches showing. It sure takes awhile to get it here. Based on my calculations, it will take roughly 2hrs per side and 4 hrs for the front of this tank!

Anybody know of a shop in town that does glass polishing?

[Zack]

Got any pics of the kit? Will it work on low iron glass?

[Justin]

I ordered this on thier website:

http://www.eastwood.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/412x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p39687.jpg

http://www.eastwood.com/pro-glass-polishing-kit.html

It's working but it sure takes awhile.

[Justin]

So its been awhile and I finally have the 100 gallon wet and all of my livestock moved over except for my Anemone, which split in the process of moving it.

Despite all of my planning, researching and wishful thinking, I still managed to take on some heavy loses. I lost a bunch of my corals when a heater in the tub I put them overheated and killed some yellow stripped cardinal fish I had in the container. Interestingly enough, my pair of cleaners shrimp and most of my Montiporas survived. Of my Acro's, only the smallest sliver of polyps survived on many of them but with nothing left but to be optimistic, in a couple of months these little polyps will encrust again and provide me with the same epically beautiful colonies I once had.

Of the causalities, was a beautiful mother colony that somewhat resembled a Turaki and/or an ORA Orchid. I never knew what it was but the coral would change from a cobalt blue in full light to a teal color in less light. I have a couple of polyps that remained on two of the plugs I made from cuttings. I'm hoping for the best for this coral, as it was truly an epic show piece.

At least the Frag Swap is a couple of weeks away, and I can be on the search for a few really eye popping corals to add to my collection. I for sure am looking for:

A nice tabling Acro
the elusive Jack O' Lantern Leptoseris

[Justin]

Here are some pics of my new setup.

Full Tank Shothttp://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_2944_zps93f95805.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_2944_zps93f95805.jpg.html)

View from the Left Sidehttp://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_2970_zps6df65c8a.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_2970_zps6df65c8a.jpg.html)
View from the Right Side
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_2969_zps1a10976b.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_2969_zps1a10976b.jpg.html)

[Justin]

These are some pics i took right after coming back from a week long vacation. Looks like everything is doing pretty well, including my nice hair algae colonies. Did some cleaning and scraping to remove my garden off of the rocks and give my corals some retail space to grow.

[Justin]

Shot of the equipment side:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/Sump001_zps545c0976.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/Sump001_zps545c0976.jpg.html)http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/Sump002_zps7b635718.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/Sump002_zps7b635718.jpg.html)
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/Sump003_zpse3b6ff1d.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/Sump003_zpse3b6ff1d.jpg.html)

[Justin]

I decided to get a JBwave so that I have the ability to control not only the Jebao pumps, but I can also put them into sleep mode after a set time. I had read that the light sensor is something to be desired for the pumps, and this setup allows my reef to have a not so turbulent night of sleep.

[Dean]

Really nice set up Justin. Hated to hear you lost your sps man. I did move that turaki frag I got from you up to higher light and it took off! The first fragable branch is yours.

[Justin]

Thanks Dean. Yea, I noticed that the branches that hit more light really took off and took a blue color. Still an awesome coral. I'm glad its doing really well in your tank. I may take you up on that offer once your colony takes off.

[Tx Medic]

Looks sweet man.

[Justin]

Thanks man. I like the layout of your tank as well. The large rock pillar slight off center to the left is really nice. Very interesting shape!

[Tx Medic]

Thanks man. I like the layout of your tank as well. The large rock pillar slight off center to the left is really nice. Very interesting shape!
Yeah I had a lot of very large rocks and I am going to try my hand at some sps this time so I have some high light real estate

[Justin]

If i could offer some advice, consistency is crucial. Get the parameters set and keep it that way, and they will grow. I use kalk to help with that.

[Tx Medic]

I have never dosed before but once I get my ato set up I will try my hand at kalk

[Justin]

So its been awhile since my last post and thankfully things have been running pretty smoothly lately with the tank. A couple of the changes that I have made are:

I finally got (2) female McCoskers for my strapping male flasher
Added my (2) Bubble Tips to the tank
I started to add about a cup of Vinegar to my ATO reservoir to help with two things
1) I read that it helps your Kalk last longer
2) I am using my Vinegar as a sort of Carbon Dosing that is done slowly as the Sump is topped off


The main reason for the dosing of carbon is that despite my parameters being nice and steady and my corals doing great, I just cannot seem to get my tank ph to rise above 7.55. Now I know that chasing PH is not a desirable thing and the fluctuations with it could upset my coral colonies, but I just would like to see my Ph at the 8.2 mark I once had with my 40 breeder.

Without a doubt, I know that the bulk of my issue is caused by dissolved CO2 in my tank water. Mainly caused by the effectiveness of insulation in my home and that I have a pretty tight fitting hood above my tank. I run fans in the hood to remove the heat away from the LED's and T5 that are timed with the lights, but I'm sure there is also trapped CO2 in the air between hood and tank.
To counteract this, I have been using BRS's CO2 scrubber pellets that are hooked up to my Skimmer air intake tubing and I run an air stone in my sump to hopefully help with gaseous exchange.

Nothing.... the Kalk doesn't even help keep the PH high with me dosing about 3 tbsp/ gallon of ATO (roughly 13 gallon container)

After reading these articles,
http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/carbon-dosing-in-laymans-terms/
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/116-vinegar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

I also believe that due to my frequent feedings to my Anthias, 3-4X a day of Frozen rotifers or cyclops, and an Ehiem auto feeder set to feed 2x a day, I may have quite a bit of bacteria that are producing so much that they are consuming not only the nutrients from the food but also the carbon from my Alk, which in turn adds to lowering my ph. Now instead of a light green algae film on my tank glass, I see a white film. Which is great because it shows that the bacteria in my tank is consuming a lot of nutrients and replacing some algae in the tank.

I have seen a reduction in the amount of hair algae in my tank but I have seen an increase of some Cyano on my sand floor and on the outer edges of my rock work, where the lights do not hit as high; and of course small single bubbles of bubble algae!

Because they are very small and my tank is fairly deep, i have dragged my feet in trying to pry and suck the little bubbles out. Not to mention they are typically located in the back of the rock work, where it is conveniently hard to reach. This is also true with vacuuming my sand to get rid of the nutrients in the sand that are feeding my Cyano. All of which can be easily fixed if I were to get off my butt and do it.

Some of my thoughts on the rather small expansion of Cyano and Bubble Algae are:

My bacteria is consuming Nitrogen at a very good pace but some of it is converting over to PO4, which in turn is what is feeding the algae. The fact that the algae is not blooming like crazy despite my heavy feedings, sort of confirms this for me. I am waiting to exhaust all of my bought GFO so that I can implement a LaCL3 reactor to help eliminate the PO4 traces in my tank.

With the Bacteria consuming Nitrogen at a good clip and using LaCL3 to bind and percipitate out the PO4, the algae and Cyano problems should be corrected.

For those that are reading this, I will show some of my research on LaCl3 that I have been doing in a later post....

Enjoy my rantings and thank you for reading

[Dean]

Man can reef tanks get complicated... I am very impressed with your research and knowledge Justin!

[Justin]

Thanks man. You know the biggest problem with them is the consistency piece. If they were as forgiving as FW systems, it would make life so much easier

[furam28]

Nice setup jndragon! When you say you can't get your pH above 7.55, is that even when the lights are on? What are you using to measure your pH? If its an Apex probe, make sure its calibrated, and also use a second chemical test such as a cheap API kit to confirm it. I was also having a slight pH issue with my tank. But that was only during dark periods. When lights are on my pH is a nice 8.2. But at night, it will drop to below 7.8. I have my skimmer off because I have a fishless coral only setup. So I hooked up an airstone and airpump to run at night and that has helped in keeping the pH slightly higher at night, but its still not 8.2. I am going to try running a skimmer with outside airline to see if that helps. Do you have a sump / refugium? If so, you can consider reverse lighting: have refugium light on at night.

[Justin]

Sorry furam28 for taking awhile to respond back. Here are my answers to your questions:

When you say you can't get your pH above 7.55, is that even when the lights are on? With the lights on the Ph is 7.55 and slowly coming up to 7.61, at night it drops down to about 7.36 but that is because of the O2 being consumed by the algae and what not
What are you using to measure your pH? I have a Neptune Apex with a Ph probe. I recently calibrated it about 3 months ago and everything was fine.
Do you have a sump / refugium? I have both. My sump has a rather large Fuge area with plenty of Cheato and other Macro Algae.

I try several things to try and raise the Ph of my tank short of using a buffer. I used to use a buffer but the crazy fluctuations in my Alk got me concerned about my SPS frags. Although my Ph is a little low at times, I still notice some decent growth in my frags and I am sure that once things settle out, my Ph will slowly raise to acceptable levels. My Alk, Ca, and Mg are all taken care of my Kalk dosing via my ATO so I'm not too worried about the chemistry of my water. With the Summer being rather hot this year, my House just had a lot of pent up CO2 in the house. I might even try to grow some indoor plants to consume the CO2...if my cats will not destroy them in the process.

[Justin]

The MAAST meeting yesterday was pretty good and it was cool to see some pics of the Sea World backroom setups. It was cool to hear more information regarding controlled breeding of corals and the information presented was pretty much following the same info that was presented at MACNA by the folks in England. If you have not seen the video, I put a link below to the discussion. Really impressive the process and procedures that were taken to induce spawning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PDxw36lKx0&list=UUcJv2rQDivg8NwXIxydJ86A

I know that a couple of us had some questions regarding photography of corals under Blue LED's. I saw this article in Reef Hobbyist and wanted to share it with the group:

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/magazine-tiled-q4-2014-26.html

[furam28]

pH of 7.36 at night is pretty low - its way outside acceptable reef parameters. If my pH fell below 7.6 I start seeing STN on my acros. You mentioned a few SPS in your livestock list including raspberry lemonade acro (a really nice acro by the way. closeup pics please!). If you say they all look healthy, I highly highly doubt your pH is that low. Before you start worrying about it, the 1st thing I would do is measure pH with a 2nd method to confirm. Easiest would be do get a basic color change test kit, such as the API high range pH test to see if it is consistent with your apex finding. You can also take a water sample to your LFS to get tested. Make sure you don't have the water outside your tank for too long because your pH will change slowly. If you want to check your night time pH, make sure your tank room is completely dark even in the morning, and take out a sample in the morning and go to LFS.

Once you have established that your tank pH is indeed that low, a few things I would do first:
1) mix up some fresh saltwater and check pH of that. Instant Ocean salt mix should give around 8.2 when mixed.
2) measure your alk level. get the API reef kit if you don't have it already. if you have a really low alk, that can explain the low pH.
3) how far is your tank from a wall to the outside? are you able to run an airline from the skimmer to the outside. if your house has high CO2 (which is usually the case in San Antonio due to running A/C and leaving windows always closed), adding a few indoor plants is not going to make any difference. Remember - indoor plants will be producing CO2 at night, so its going to make it worse if anything!
4) since you have a refugium, I would strongly suggest doing reverse lighting cycle: your display tank has light during the day, but your refugium has lights off during day, and lights on at night. If you have a lot of chaeto, that will help against the pH swing.

Since your corals are doing fine, don't do anything drastic - especially don't try adding "buffer". For example Marine Buffer from Seachem contains borate and will totally screw up your alk readings. I don't have a kalk reactor, so I dose 2-part, and for my alk I dose Reef Buffer (not Marine Buffer) from seachem which is same as dosing alk but has a different ratio of carbonate to bicarbonate to help with keeping pH slightly higher.

[Justin]

Yea I figured the probe itself was probably faulty and needing to be replaced. I thought that I would be getting some STN or bleaching with low PH parameters but things are growing, albeiet slowly. Going back to the probe, I tested it with calibration fluid and with clean water and it showed normal results. Granted this was about 3 months ago. I will have to check it out again sometime this week. I will have to follow your advice and also use one of the simpler PH test kits to verify that my PH is that low. I want to say that I did awhile back and things matched up to the 7.5 range but I will need to recreate the results again as it has been awhile.

I do what most reefers do and run my fuge on a reverse light cycle. Due to the heavy feeding for the Anthias, my macro is growing rather quickly and I will need to probably trim it back in about a month or so. As for the Raspberry Pink Acro, it was a beautiful frag that I got from Barrier reef. It actually looked this one:

http://www.barrierreefaquariums.com/productcart/pc/catalog/raspberrylemonade_zpsb79385f4md.jpg

Sadly, I think I lost it during the upgrade from my 40 breeder to my 100 gallon. I had a faulty heater in the tub with some gold striped Cardinals that killed the cardinals and in turn they killed my acros. Surprisingly, all of my Monti's and LPS survived, just the SPS bleached or were severely hurting. I fragged as many of my corals as possible to try and save them and one of the three unknown plugs has this awesome coral on it. I can't really tell as the plug is still fairly brown and I have some cyano trying to take over some of my plugs. I am hoping that in a month or so, I can start to tell what these three "mystery" plugs are. I really do hope that my guy survived the move. I was pretty bummed about this one, a yellow Staghorn, unknown teal acro colony and bonsai frags that I had. I was able to save a bit of the Staghorn but the teal and lemonade are yet to be identified

[Justin]

I was reading ReefBuilders today and this truly awesome article was posted. The view and camera angles were spectacular. If you manage to see it, tell me if you thought about wanting to have a frag of the Blue Acro Mother colony that is showcased in the video:

Enjoy
http://reefbuilders.com/2014/10/15/rolling-deep-awesome-video-papua-guinea/

[Justin]

Alright, I think I found salvation for my tank and it comes in a bottle...

For those of you reading my ramblings, I've been experiencing issues with the PH of my tank and crazy ALK swings. The ALK I can understand because of my frags growing and what not but, I was almost getting pure water level ph readings in my tank; ph of 7.14! Some advice was given to test my Ph with something else to confirm if my probe was off, and the probe is correct on the ph level. For the past couple of weeks, my ph was slowly dropping down from 7.20 to about 7.14 but still getting polyp extension. In the past week and a half, I started noticing that the tips of my corals were showing signs of burnt tips, which is a good indicator of high alk in my tank. The only problem was that my Alk was extremely low, causing me to dose quite a bit to bring it back up. This in turn would bring the Ph down further and I could also see the Alk precipitating in the water column. Many of you can correct me if I am wrong, but a precipitation of Alk when dosing and burnt tips would indicate high Alk levels.

My parameters typically when tested would be:

Alk: 114-135 ppm roughly 5.6 dkh
Ca:420-485 ppm a little too high but I have frags so I gave it some margin to play with

Mg: 1300-1600 ppm Its a little high but I have been using Tech M to deal with a couple of spots of Bryopsis. Pun I know you told me to toss all rocks, frags with the stuff but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of some nice frags.


After talking to Louis at Elegant about it, he thought that my current ALk test kit was causing issues and that I should use another one. As an FYI, I have been using the Hanna Tester for Alk with no problems before and Red Sea for everything else. Lo and Behold, my Alk was being understated and I was overdosing my Alk. This coupled with my Kalk dosing via ATO, was starting to illuminate the problem in my tank. I was basically overdosing Alk in my tank and also throwing the ion balance out of wack with the even dosing of Alk and Ca via my Kalk.

I have since gone to just using pure RODI water for my ATO and things have been recovering slowly with the exception of my Ph. Mainly because I can truly get a gauge of what is being dosed in my tank without having to factor how much the Kalk was dosing via my ATO. Now my test levels were ideal but Ph was still low. After googling the issue further, I discovered that I have an ionic imbalance in my tank and that the ion imbalance also skews the ph despite having the correct levels.

My solution.....AquaVitro Balance.
http://www.aquavitro.com/products/balance.html

This stuff is amazing and I was able to slowly get my Ph back up to the low acceptable range of 7.75 for my tank. I still use a CO2 scrubber for my Skimmer and I'm still looking to get that ideal 8.0-8.2 range....slowly of course. My latest test came back with the following:

Alk: 12.26 dkh using Red Sea now
Ca: 525 ppm Ca still a little too high
Mg: 1200 ppm
ph: ranges from 7.72 to a low of 7.4 at night. Still need to get it up but I'm happy for now

[furam28]

Glad to hear you were able to figure out the problem and the pH is getting better. What was your highest Alk level when you first figured out the problem and tested correctly? Such high alk (> 12) can definitely cause a lot of problems, but I doubt it would lower pH.

I would also be cautious about using aquavitro balance. Its basically a "base", which is the opposite of an acid. So ofcourse if you add it to your tank its going to raise your pH. But as you do so, you may be screwing with your tanks buffer. NSW and your tank has a great buffer system composed of carbonate and bicarbonate. In chemistry, what a buffer does is "buffer" against pH swings. So for example, if I took a glass of pure water and dropped a few drops of hydrochloric acid into it, the pH would plummet from 7 to 5 or 4 in no time. Same with a base such as sodium hydroxide. If I dropped a few drops into pure water, it would shoot up from 7 to 11 or 12. But if that water was "buffered" with something like Alk, that few drops of acid or base wouldn't be able to make that kind of swings. That's why its so important, because in your tanks, the living organisms in there (fish, coral, bacteria, algae...) are creating acids and bases all the time. In short, my advice would be: its okay to dose aquavitro this one time to raise your pH to the ideal level, but after that, if you find yourself having to constantly dose aquavitro, then there is something seriously wrong with your buffer system. In that case, regularly dosing aquavitro into your tank over longer periods will only harm the buffer more. If that's the case, I would try to dig deeper.

A few things I can point to: (1) Vinegar is mildly acidic. I know it shouldn't affect pH much, but since you are already fighting pH, I would rather dose vodka or sugar instead. Make sure you calculate properly. Vinegar is 5% carbon, while vodka is about 40%. So you will use 1/8th the dose. (2) Check your salt mix. What salt are you using. A good salt mix should provide the perfect buffer, and there shouldn't be such low pH. There have been instances where bad batches of salt have been the culprit for pH swings. (3) When you over-dose carbon (vinegar or vodka) you get a lot of bacterial growth. These bacteria will produce a lot of CO2 that will lower your pH. You mentioned white slime in your tank, which is indicative of a lot of bacterial growth. If your nitrates are at 0, I would cut the carbon dose down to half, and monitor nitrates.

[Justin]

Furam, you are awesome. Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I was worried about my buffering system as well. My highest my tank alk has gone up since using the aquavitro has been 12.26 dkh and that was on Halloween. I haven't tested it yet but I would like to say that it is much less now. Hopefully not down to the 5 dkh level but somewhere in the 10 area. After your last suggestion, I have stopped using the vinegar in my ATO. I was a little concerned about the white film on the glass and did not want to strip my tank to clean for fear of bleaching my corals the way I did when I had a bio pellet reactor. With all of the feeding I do due to the Anthias, my concern are Nitrates but I have not tested them in the past two weeks.

Check your salt mix. What salt are you using. I use Kent's Reef Salt Mix. No particular reason why I went this route but I have been using it for the past three years on both my 40 breeder and now 100 Gallon.

I think the advice you gave is pretty solid. I noticed that I got a precipitation event in my tank after dosing enough Balance to get my ph levels high enough. After testing the tank the next day, I noticed that my Mg levels plummeted dramatically but my Alk was fairly unchanged, which would add credence to what you were saying about my buffering capacity going out the window. I am due for a testing tonight and will post measurements.

[Justin]

Alright, managed to do a water test with the following parameters:
Alk: 10.07 dkh
Mg: 1800 I'm dealing with some Bryopsis so I'm dosing with Tech M
Ca: 160! This is really low
Ph: 7.33

So now I'm slowly dosing to get up to 400 ppm. I'll test in the morning for my Ca and adjust accordingly. I think once I get my Calcium dialed in, I can probably add about 2tsp of Kalk/ gallon in my 13 gallon reservoir. I think this will be the max for me and then does anything else that my tank needs via good old dosers. It sort of feels good to kind of see what I believe is the end of this tunnel. I know my corals will appreciate it.

[furam28]

Good that you tested. Calcium at 160 is unbelievably low. I would test with a 2nd method, just to make sure. If its in fact that low then either your Alk is too high and you are not reading it correctly because really high alk will cause massive precipitation of calcium, or the aquavitro balance you added caused your Ca to precipitate. At this time, my suggestion to you would be:

1. Get an API saltwater kit as a 2nd opinion. Its only $20 on amazon, and even though its not highly accurate, its a good way to double check.
2. Test a fresh salt mix to make sure your salt is not the culprit.
3. Try to minimize all dosing. Do you have a lot of large SPS colonies in your tank. If not, there shouldn't be too much of a demand for Ca or Alk. Only thing you should be dosing are Ca and Alk (or kalkwasser since it contains both Ca and Alk). I use Seachem Calcium Advantage because it also contains Mag and Strontium at the right ratio so I don't have to worry about dosing those as well.
4. First get your Ca and Alk levels right. Since you are battling low pH, I would suggest keeping your Alk between 9 and 11. At lower Alk, buffer capacity is reduced so you have a chance of bigger pH swings. Once you have proper Ca and Alk levels, the only way to fix your pH problem would be to reduce CO2 in your tank - use Co2 scrubber, better aeration, reduced algae, reverse lighting...

Good luck. I am having my own small battle maintaining pH at night (my issue is mainly algae in DT which is producing too much Co2 at night, so I am working on getting the algae under control), so I am glad if I am able to help.

[Justin]

I moved the ph Probe from my return area to my fuge area, opened up some windows and turned on a fan and the ph went from 7.14 to 7.3. Also ran some test and got back the following:

Alk: 12.26 dkh
Ca: 600
Mg: 1860
ph now reads 7.29

I really do not know what is causing it. About to get my water sample tested at an LFS and will post findings. I might have to try a third ph kit to verify that it is not my probe that is messed up. I heard something about the probes being sensitive to things. I might move the probe into the skimmer section to get a better read on the water.

[Justin]

I guess the third time is the charm. I was finally able to get my ph tested at Texas Tropical and lo and behold my ph was at around 8.2-8.4. What a relief. Needless to say that I threw out my ph test kit and ordered a new probe for my Apex. Now that my parameters are in line with the exception of my calcium being a bit too high, I will start the process of calculating how much to dose my tank every day.

Thanks for the help and support guys.

[Justin]

Its' been awhile since I've posted. I was sick for quite awhile and my in laws moved in with me, so I just didn't have any time to post on my own blog. Well since I got better I've noticed that my SPS frags seem to be STN'ing around the tips. At first I thought it was too high of Alkalinity but I was keeping my Alk at around 9-10dkh. I then thought it was some kind of pest but nothing was discovered or any bite marks of any kind. This puzzled me some more and I did some research and found a couple of threads that indicated for some folks that chloramines in the water were the culprit and that you could not detect them on a TDS meter. I set out to get some Amquel or Chloramine neutralizing agent. Once I administered the stuff, I still noticed STN on my frags a few days later. I also did my annual replacement of my filters in my RODI and quickly ruled this possibility out. Now I was stumped and almost decided to skip out on SPS and stick with Euphylia and zoas but not wanting to give up so easily, I was determined to figure out what it was...

Long story short, I think the problem arose from two things; a GFO and GAC change I did about a month ago and inconsistent Alk levels. About a month ago is when I noticed the issue and I think the corals were acclimated to the low amount of PO4 and nutrients and when I changed the dual reactor, it scrubbed the whole tank too clean and the corals freaked out. As for the Alk, I was playing with my BRS doser and at the first sign of bleached tips, I instinctively thought my alk was burning my tips. I turned off the reactor but was only dosing Alk once a week, which may have caused some unfavorable swings in Alk for the colonies. I since reduced my reactors output dramatically and dosed some Brightwell Koral Kolor to add some nutrients back into the tank. I am also now actively trying to figure out how much Alk I go through in a day and will use a more reliable Apex program to set my doser to dose the right amount.

Hopefully, these things will help alleviate the issue and allow my corals to bounce back and regrow around their tips. The frustrating thing is that while I had the 40 breeder, things were growing so well and now that I moved up, its been a difficult journey to say the least. I guess I'll just keep pushing through the frustration and keep it simple with the tank. I almost went back to Kalk dosing via ATO but I am reluctant due to the build up it leaves in my sump.

I'll post some pics later...

[Justin]

So I was messing with my SLR and took some updated pics of my reef. Here you go:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3190_zpspgcgaozi.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3190_zpspgcgaozi.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3189_zpsuyyg10df.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3189_zpsuyyg10df.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3187_zpspb8odggm.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3187_zpspb8odggm.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3184_zpsv0wbqmjf.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3184_zpsv0wbqmjf.jpg.html)

[Justin]

My attempts at Macro shots without a macro lens:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3211_zpsevqvrcck.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3211_zpsevqvrcck.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3205_zpsm3crwuzi.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3205_zpsm3crwuzi.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3206_zpsm15kppqb.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3206_zpsm15kppqb.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3199_zps2qztnzdo.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3199_zps2qztnzdo.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3196_zpsx9tvcbs8.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3196_zpsx9tvcbs8.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3192_zpsld1azerw.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3192_zpsld1azerw.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3193_zps2w6knopg.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3193_zps2w6knopg.jpg.html)

[Justin]

So awesome. I decided to give my wifey some space for her favorite corals (zoas) in our next upgrade. As it is not up and running, I will put the species I bought for her from Ebay. Hopefully, these guys will grow nicely and I can frag them out and make something on the side to help offiset my costs on the new build.

Without further adieu the corals I got from Golden basket:

Looks like a varient of Darth Mauls
http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/Album%20040115/IMG_5203-001_zpszasajvpq.jpg


Not sure what they are but they appear to be more of the above with something else:
http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/Album%20040115/IMG_5248-001_zpsyfvoyq7u.jpg

Darth Mauls

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/Album%20040115/IMG_5193-001_zps02gnnzl7.jpg

Rapture:

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/Album%20040115/IMG_5190-001_zpsyoxfjioc.jpg

Some multi colored head with fire skirt zoas:

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/ALBUM%20030115/IMG_4980-001_zpsankyf8n8.jpg

Cosmic Fire

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac279/goldenbasket_pics/Album%20040115/IMG_5191-001_zpsud0pdbs6.jpg

I also put in an order with Mr. Cobb for some Bali Cultured Corals:

http://baliaquarium.net/pictures/acropora-cerealis-lavender.jpg

http://baliaquarium.net/pictures/acropora-secale-tricolor-3.jpg

http://reefbuilders.com/files/2012/08/acroporasuharsonoi.jpg

http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/rmpeters1/DSC_9482-1.jpg

[Dean]

That GoldenBasket seller on eBay has some really nice stuff. Excellent with DOA claims also.

[Justin]

Is that the guy you worked with last time? My bad on the no communication man!

[Dean]

No problem Justin. Yes I have purchased through him on several occasions. He's a stand up guy.

[furam28]

saw your tank at saltyfish yesterday. its going to be a sweet build!

[Justin]

Awesome. I finally got my new toy for the tank today:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3032_zpskiqmkjhc.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3032_zpskiqmkjhc.jpg.html)

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3034_zpspecesado.jpg

Before

(http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3034_zpspecesado.jpg.html)http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3035_zpsrypcyzgo.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3035_zpsrypcyzgo.jpg.html)

After

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/100%20Gallon/IMG_3036_zpsdclzmih2.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/100%20Gallon/IMG_3036_zpsdclzmih2.jpg.html)

Not much but its still pretty cool to see PE up close

[Justin]

Awhile back I put an order in for the upgrade to the new quiet versions of my MP10's. Not a full replacement but instead a replacement to the driver unit itself. The things cost me about $50 bucks each and I have three of them so it does put a bit of a damper on my budget but if they are more energy efficient and run quieter, money well spent. I must have been one of the first ones to order them because its been like 6 weeks and nothing in the mail so far. This morning I was planning on giving them a call when I got the following:

Your EcoTech Marine, LLC Invoice
Thank you for your order with EcoTech Marine, LLC. Included is a copy of your Invoice.


Tracking Info:
Tracking #:###############
Return Tracking #:N/A
FedEx Tracking (http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?)
UPS Tracking (http://www.ups.com/WebTracking/track?loc=en_US&WT.svl=PriNav)


So fingers crossed!!!!

[Zack]

Woot!!!!!!!

[Justin]

Sad day today! I recently bought an Aussie Golden Torch over the weekend but I noticed that the coral wasn't really opening up in my QT. After a couple of days with no polyp extension or anything, I took my baster and blew some water over the coral. I discovered that gunk and chunks were blowing out of the skeleton and eventually the whole flesh of the coral blew off. For fear of nuking my tank, I did a massive water change for the total amount of my QT, about 12 gallons, and kept the skeleton in some very slow flow with very dim light to see if anything remaining will grow back. I'm looking to be optimistic as I took in a blasto from Zack that looked like a goner and it is slowly growing three small heads!

[Cammed_02]

Sorry to hear man, that golden torch was going to be a nice addition. Where did you get it?

[Justin]

Thanks man. I got it at Southseas, they only had two and I got the good one. Sadly, I won't be seeing it in my tank unless my frag heals up!

[Justin]

Just got these in yesterday. I'm going to hook them up today!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/04/29/61d26121c311fa8b99849f9de52aa432.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Justin]

I just got a text from Rob with Mr Cob's Corals about my Bali Shipment coming in. So stoked to get these pieces. I pick up tomorrow and do the start of my QT period in my frag tank. I need to make some room in my frag tank. I've got the Mr Cob coral and a shipment from Exquisite Corals coming in tomorrow too!!! I'm going to need to get rid of some stuff or something real quick!

I got the following corals from Exquisite:

EC Rainbow Spathulata Mini Colony

http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-z8djsi/products/105/images/509/rainbow_Spathulata_Mini_Colony__40561.1431210345.3 86.513.jpg?c=2

EC Ultimate Strawberry Shortcake Acropora LG


http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-z8djsi/products/104/images/505/6__66755.1431210311.386.513.jpg?c=2
EC Mastermind Acropora


http://cdn3.bigcommerce.com/s-z8djsi/products/88/images/464/Mastermind_Mother__66186.1431207263.386.513.jpg?c= 2