New House...New Tank! [Archive] - Page 2

Justin

Tue, 17th Jan 2017, 08:18 PM

For those looking for a dosing calculator for NO3. I found this really useful guide that allows you to choose your concentration of dosing solution and how much you plan to dose and it will calculate the increase in NO3 to your tank. Really useful for getting a starting level on your consumption:

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/calculator.htm
According to this calculator, I just dosed 845 ml to get my parameters to 1.28 ppm. Using my Red Sea test kit, I got the following reading:

.75ppm .....lol.

Dosing NO3 is extremely frustrating. So far I've added about 845ml of the .25 tsp to 1L solution and I really haven't moved the needle yet. I really need to get to the level I want, before I can start daily checking my level to see what my consumption is. I'm going to add another 1155ml to bring to a 2000 ml of solution!

28119

I will dose this amount and test later tonight to get my base reading so I can start myself on the path of knowing what NO3 I consume on a daily basis.

Justin

Wed, 18th Jan 2017, 08:50 AM

Measured the tank NO3 and its reading 1.5 ppm. I need to dose a bit more later today.

FarmerTy

Wed, 18th Jan 2017, 01:19 PM

Just a heads up, I was recommending to others in Austin to just dose up to 5ppm as when I did it, I had no repercussions raising it to 5ppm in a day.

Upon several members doing that, some had gotten hair algae or cyano almost instantly. So, perhaps your careful meticulous increase of nitrate is the better approach. I suspect my oversized UV unit may have something to do with why I didn't pay a price for it or perhaps my aggressive phosphate removal as well.

Justin

Thu, 19th Jan 2017, 03:24 PM

hmmm, I have taken gfo completely offline in my system. I just use my bacteria and macro to help with export.

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Justin

Fri, 10th Feb 2017, 06:12 PM

I have crabs!!!

The good kind.

Last night I was able to pickup some Maricultured items from World Class Aquatics that I ordered last week. I don't normally like to order maricultured items because of the following:

They don't seem to do well for me in my tank. Most last only 6 months save for one lone Secale I ordered 2 years ago
Because they come from the ocean in "farms," the potential to get something harmful is much higher

You are kind of cheating at SPS. I say cheating because I admire folks that have large colonies that they grew from a lowly small frag. To me, the ultimate test of your skill set as a reefer is the ability to grow some good sized colonies. Don't get me wrong, I have had a few maricultured pieces but they were not the ones that I would like to show off to folks checking out my tank.

I do however like to have maricultured colonies for the following:

You do get a fairly large colony from the get go that you can also frag and sell and recoup your money
Because they come from "farms" out in the ocean, you have a chance to pickup some cool hitchhikers. The corals I have came with some barnacles and other water sifters that would add to the diversity of my tank
Most importantly, you have a chance to get some ACRO crabs!!! On this order, I was able to get 3 of the little guys and possibly a little one and one lone gorilla crab

The gorilla crab would be a disaster if I let it go in my tank. You can tell the too apart because the acro crabs are smoother and come in either white, black, brown or auburn color. Gorilla crabs are usually harrier and come in an algae green or brown color. Their eyes are also a solid gray zombie-like look to them and acro crabs have black eyes.

I immediately acclimated my acro crabs and with the use of a clear tube, I was able to get them down into my existing acro colonies in my tank. The gorilla crab was put into a make shift mesh container in my 40 breeder tank because my wife did not want me to kill it. I offered to put it in my fuge tank but she wanted to see the crab and admire its zombie eyes!

The mari colonies I put into a makeshift nano tank that I have and seeded with water from my DT. I will keep the colonies in this little nano for about a month so that I can watch and observe for any bad parasites that could possibly wreak havoc to my tank. I usually dip my corals in bayer for 10mins but since there could be some beneficial pods, and other small crustaceans I may want in my tank, I decided to wait a month to observe and see. I already noticed a few coco worm/ sifters on the colonies and I don't want to kill them but encourage them to grow in my tank.

Here are some pics:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/Feb%2010th%202017/20170209_2254451_zpsjktorcbu.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/Feb%2010th%202017/20170209_2254451_zpsjktorcbu.jpg.html)
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/Feb%2010th%202017/20170209_2349401_zpss2ph8dqe.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/Feb%2010th%202017/20170209_2349401_zpss2ph8dqe.jpg.html)

klwheat

Fri, 10th Feb 2017, 07:09 PM

Nice find!

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Justin

Fri, 24th Feb 2017, 05:56 PM

So I finally pulled the trigger and decided to order 3 more Black Leopards for my tank. Reading up on these guys, they actually like and prefer to live in groups of 3 or more will do an amazing job of picking any annoying critters in my tank and corals. I ordered them from Blue Zoo Aquatics and they should be coming in tomorrow morning. Here is a link to the site and another that had some good intel on the species:

https://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productDetail.asp?did=1&pid=1005&cid=290

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/wrasses/BlackLeopardWrasse.php

klwheat

Sat, 25th Feb 2017, 10:22 AM

Beautiful fish. You'll have to post a pic of them when you get them. I may have to get a set for the new tank when it's done.

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Justin

Mon, 27th Feb 2017, 01:20 AM

Will do. I just observed them slowly exploring their qt/ grow out tank. They gave me 2 medium and one fairly large one that I think could be a male. If so, my little male will have 3 ladies to make his harem!

Justin

Wed, 17th May 2017, 12:24 PM

It has been a very long time since I have since updated this thread. Well I have been dealing with some serious pests in my tank and decided to go fallow in my dt for about 2.5 months now. Hopefully, plenty of time to allow the pests to die due to no host/ food source. During that time, I have been slowly working on a new fuge to replace the plastic tote version that I have been using since the initial install. My new fuge adds about 48.4 gallons extra to my system. It has three compartments but I think I like just the 2. The new area has the following sections:

Plenty of space for macro to grow
Nice area for reef rubble to allow pods and stuff to grow
and a make shift frag rack area

Dimension wise, the fuge is about 21 x 21x 24 high. The water level gets to about 21 inches high and is gravity fed from my one of my drains. This means that "dirty" nutrient rich water will fill this fuge up before it goes into the fuge area of my original sump. Nothing is really in this area except for some sand and spare change out trickle filter sponges.

The following are pics of my fuge build:
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_113936_zps8hb2tqdk.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_113936_zps8hb2tqdk.jpg.html)

Securing the 1/4 thick acrylic sheets
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_113935_zps2f8j6xhp.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_113935_zps2f8j6xhp.jpg.html)
showing the holders for my dividers and rack
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_151042_zps7nexplob.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_151042_zps7nexplob.jpg.html)
The sides glued up
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_151038_zps9bm5lxeo.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170128_151038_zps9bm5lxeo.jpg.html)
Water testing
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170227_133724_zpsoyta0u9r.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170227_133724_zpsoyta0u9r.jpg.html)
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170227_133725_zpsepcy1zra.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170227_133725_zpsepcy1zra.jpg.html)

I made my fuge a little too big for the opening it was going into as well as the one of the hinges to one of my doors. As my reefing buddy, Jeremiah says, measure 5 times and even then its one not enough!!!

I had to drain my original sump, remove it and then place the new fuge and the original sump back into the stand. I had impeccable timing as all of this was the morning of Mother's Day and my beautiful and understanding wife was helping me out. Here are the install pics:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_090710_zpsmfeomx1q.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_090710_zpsmfeomx1q.jpg.html)
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_092018_zpsfrgu7gxf.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_092018_zpsfrgu7gxf.jpg.html)

A rare chance to clean my stand floor and a shot of my awesome wife:
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_092022_zpsnkuzbzh2.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_092022_zpsnkuzbzh2.jpg.html)

My new fuge installed
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_101648_zpsvwgl8clh.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_101648_zpsvwgl8clh.jpg.html)
http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_101651_zpssuongemm.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/New%20Fuge%202017/20170514_101651_zpssuongemm.jpg.html)

For those with quick eyes, you will also note that I also took the opportunity to upgrade my CO2 tank to a 20lb one. I was able to get a pretty decent deal on a used one from A-1 fire, where I usually go to get refills on my CO2. I changed the tank because I just found myself refilling the thing almost every other month and wanted to decrease the frequency a bit.

Justin

Wed, 17th May 2017, 12:48 PM

I've been also "jonesing" for my acros after losing quite a bit of my stuff during tank moves and my pests. To help jump start, I also bought a few nice pieces when I saw them on deal. Here are the latest that I've bought:

These are from a use on R2R:
RRC peakcock
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag7045-01-jpeg.514470/
Green Goblin

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag7089-01-jpeg.514472/

Pink Lemonade
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag7053-01-jpeg.514477/
Hot Fuzz
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag6964-01-jpeg.514478/

https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag6926-02-jpeg.514479/
Wolverine
https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/imag6987-01-jpeg.514480/

I got these from ebay:
Green Tenius - This one didn't make it
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/262964193107-0-1/s-l140/p.jpg
Mystery Acropora
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/262964193160-0-1/s-l140/p.jpg
Grape Juice
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/262964196575-0-1/s-l140/p.jpg
I also got a freebie Acro Chester as well

And recently on Facebook from Fraghouse corals these guys which will be coming in tomorrow:
FHC Purple Power
https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18424118_1220217058089660_4268371347568474682_n.jp g?oh=8fc8d9eebae4809719e430b5b7af8d09&oe=59A717DF

Reef Pets Purple Monster
https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18519659_1220201724757860_952818914690800741_n.jpg ?oh=f2579359593769dc0920a0e1b741c117&oe=5977BAB7

Zack

Wed, 17th May 2017, 02:52 PM

Got a chance to checkout the setup today and you did a great job on the sump man! Also loving seeing your tank doing so well after all the bad luck last year. That torch is a stunning piece.

Justin

Sun, 21st May 2017, 09:22 AM

morning before lmar fts
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170521/7a0ddd0a05b35cc157edf1e9e11632a7.jpg

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Justin

Sun, 21st May 2017, 09:24 AM

here are some shots by section from left to righthttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170521/b4163d5631b00a2c986a05451504ae22.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170521/0108137d1459fd4dbc33facb51e19489.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170521/d5523f1eb2e4e572a476bd1b6011c69c.jpg

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Justin

Sun, 21st May 2017, 10:30 PM

Yet another frag swap on the books and I have to say that the turnout was spectacular. I was a little worried with the rain coming in that we would lose the numbers but I was proven wrong. We had some great vendors come out and I was able to score on some nice pieces for my tank. The next shot is a pic of my frags coming out of my Bayer Dipping regimen and drying a bit before putting them in grow out / QT tank for 2-3 weeks of observation.

Here is what I was able to haul from the swap:

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/135%20Gallon/SPS%20Frags%20May%202017/20170521_2144141_zps4loig2t8.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/135%20Gallon/SPS%20Frags%20May%202017/20170521_2144141_zps4loig2t8.jpg.html)

From top row left to right:

Unknown maricultured acro frag
unknown maricultured acro frag

Bottom row left to right:

Aqua SD rainbow Millie
Unknown aussie acro
unknown maricultured acro
Walt Disney (it was missing about 2 of the colors for a normal WD while in the tank but still a beautiful frag once it grows and I can sort of tell its potential)
Unknown maricultured acro

As you can tell, I'm not too hung up on names. I like to get corals based on the colors that catch my eye. Obviously, names are easy to convey to most folks the colors of the coral but I have found that getting unknowns can be a bit of fun and a guessing game to figure out what they are. Obviously, I will need to post some pics wet and in my tank under lighting. I was able to check the frags with my black light and the pe is looking good. Crossing my fingers that things go well with the observation phase.

Justin

Fri, 26th May 2017, 09:30 AM

Latest update:

Since I've gotten back into Acros after my little set back, I have become more diligent with my ALk testing and trying to get my parameters in check. As an FYI, my tank has the following parameters:

Alk: 9.5
Ca: 385
Mg: 1420
NO3: 1.5
K: 340
PO4: 0

For the past couple of days, I've been measuring my ALk to make sure that I have everything dialed in. With new frags, I know that my intake of ALK will increase once my frags are happy and start to grow. My alk measurements have been:

5/23/17 ALK: 9.58
5/24/17 Alk: 9.63
5/25/17 ALk: 9.13
5/26/17 Allk: 10.36

Naturally I was alarmed at the high alk today but last night I also turned on my Alk doser and using the BRS calculator for 200 Gallons, I may have overdosed my tank. So, I decided to tweak my programming for that of 160 gallons and check it from there. Based on what I found between 5/24 and 5/25, my tank went though about .50 dkh of Alk. If I managed to get everything tweaked perfectly with the new dosing, I should be steady at 10.36 or a little lower. My goal is to stay within 9 to 9.6 if possible. I'm not necessarily trying to chase my Alk numbers, but I'm trying to find a healthy medium that I can maintain consistently. Once I have that, then I should have the perfect scenario for growing my sticks.

In keeping with the theme of creating a perfect scenario for sticks, I also borrowed the PAR meter prior to the swap and discovered that my PAR levels were much lower than I thought I had. I ordered myself another RapidLED Onyx light to help with the spread and I also kicked up my intensity higher to achieve an average PAR value of about 500 -600 PAR where I want to place my corals; the left and right side of my tank on the shelf rock. I still think that once my corals become a little more adapted, I might need more PAR in their growth areas. Then again, higher up the PAR increases, so that also gives my corals a place to want to grow and get taller.

I was just watching a video by Jason Fox at this years Reef Currents and one of the big things that I took from the presentation was that for his tanks, he really focused on really 2 things:

Good Water Quality
FLOW

He mentioned that he gets his phenomenal growth and color due to his extremely high flow and using blue lights for a good chunk of the day. He mentions that in the deep, the corals are fully saturated with blue light, as it is one of the few colors that gets filtered last. Pretty much what I thought but I decided to re-look at my light spectrum and try and get a little bit more blue. I was thinking about perhaps looking at getting some reefbrite blue led strips to help with the blue color. Still doing my research but I think I'm on the right trail.

Here is a link to that discussion:
https://youtu.be/oFih0XkoHd8

Next time I will need to post some updated photos of everything.

Justin

Sat, 27th May 2017, 09:03 AM

So my latest measurements for Alk show that I am slowly getting my doser dialed in. In addition to my Ca Reactor, I was dosing about 85.9 ml of alk a day which brought my Alk reading to 10.58. Yesterday it was reading at 10.36 dkh. So I'm just a little bit higher today than yesterday. I decided to change out my alk programming for my doser to dose about 75 ml/day and see where that takes me tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be dialed in and I can set it and test every week instead of daily.

Now once I get my doser dialed in, I'll turn it off until my tank naturally dips down to the level of alk that I want, which is about 9dkh. I figured that I go through about .50 dkh a day in consumption, so that would only take me about 2.5 days to get to that target. In case some of you are wondering what my programming looks like, here it is:

Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/006:12/053:48 Then ON
If Time 10:00 to 22:59 Then OFF
If pH > 8.45 Then OFF

I use the following site to help generate my code for my dosers:

https://www.reeftronics.net/adpg/dosingcalc.php

klwheat

Sat, 27th May 2017, 09:33 AM

I like the code generator tool. Just checked it out. Curious why it says it's not recommended for DOS pumps though.

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Justin

Sun, 28th May 2017, 06:42 AM

the program came out before the DOS appeared. My guess is the DOS uses a different set of coding. I don't have one so it's an assumption.

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Justin

Wed, 7th Jun 2017, 02:59 PM

Alright, so I've been chasing my alk numbers trying to get some consistency over at least 3 days at minimum. Until the Alk doser comes out and is cheaper than 1k, I'll still check my alk 2x a week. I've started to go back to dosing NO3 again and trying to target a 4-5 ppm. in my tank. Until then, I need to still find out what my NO4 levels are at. I just recently dosed about 3g of Spectracide stump remover which should get my tank of 180 gallon ( I figured I have about 20lbs of rock) to about 2.7ppm. I'll have to check my levels over the next couple of days and try and find out when my NO3 consumption will be. Here is a screen shot of the calculation tracker I used:

http://www.theaquatools.com/fertilization-calculator

28352

Justin

Fri, 9th Jun 2017, 05:45 PM

Today I had to clean up and re-introduce more Reactor media for my Geo Calcium Reactor. I had noticed that the bubble gauge was full of sediment and that my output drip line kept getting clogged. As I'm going out of town next week, I really cannot have my reactor not introducing much needed skeleton material into my tank. Due to the cleaning and refilling of media, I have start my daily consumption numbers again. Its tedious and mind numbing but it also feels good to know that my consumption is increasing like crazy which only means one thing....my sticks are growing!!!

I also ran a NO3 test and found no trace of nitrates from my 3gs of dosing. I dosed the tank 3grams in 1 cup of RODI 2 days ago and nothing. Today, I decided to up my dose to 5 grams or 1 tsp, just to make it easier to measure out the quantity of stuff I need. I'll have to do another test later today or tomorrow morning to see if anything reads up on the test.

Justin

Fri, 9th Jun 2017, 05:47 PM

I also did some rearranging in the tank. Here is the latest fts

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/24e0ffe28415cf869d2b765e7d4c1cd6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/ef9c8383d2dc8e6d6d16cf3a29df4e6d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/e44f262683510190d20a019cdf42b3b9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/f791c2fa65fb0bc7486485c55560d422.jpg

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Justin

Fri, 9th Jun 2017, 05:50 PM

Originally I had my euphyllia garden in the center, but I didn't like how thrashed my torch was getting at different times in the day. I decided to center him in the overflow and move my Duncan and golden frog/ torch wall colonies to the back right where the flow is less but light is about the same.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/3022c6b90853bca0de6e9669d3c6d3c2.jpg

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Justin

Fri, 9th Jun 2017, 05:55 PM

some closeups with my Samsung s phone

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/1317e1c09b4414d8041219aa42e00363.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/c123fccf6a0e0f1bb162de0086ef6801.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/46134badc730b68670ade74f10b5ffe5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/758d5e3e6a22769bd33f8bf443d70fad.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/ed25a4fc388d4077e8ab586f00c0c656.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/a6b69ad07c861cb526a27d64ebd139f2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/e9a42fa62d844f1329ea056df9780221.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/ba57083865999bf1a51ca8964c817fa8.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/f43580dea772cd44a68bca94259622ea.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/313626c019b4e021d4556efdb05d2cd4.jpg

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Justin

Fri, 9th Jun 2017, 06:01 PM

some closeups of my favorite pieces
cali tort from Troyhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/df5659e12ce06e86610c024d6a40ec3f.jpg

walt disney
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/59b3733768b5f0d02fad9e41eb6a5d0f.jpg

Appleberry palawesis
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/a6b733aaef2d3b11d40cc1045fc1b1b3.jpg

orange passion
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/0c786d0202d596aa5a89863327257036.jpg

utter chaos
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/a8f017ae46cba0ce664b3a461e7f6f4a.jpg

pagoda cup
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/1ac655eb8fa13b55ed0890ca8cac9da3.jpg

and of course my torch
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170609/550c328948f37155a17388201886e497.jpg

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Justin

Sat, 10th Jun 2017, 08:46 AM

After 8 grams total, I was able to finally hit 1 ppm of NO3 today. Now to monitor NO3 to see what my daily consumption is and then I'll just dose my tank up to a 3-4 ppm No3 and then use a doser to keep my levels stable. This should bring out the colors in my corals and help with growth. WHen I get back from my work trip, I'll set about re-dialing my Calcium reactor to follow this guys metric. Its a little long winded but he brings up some good points:

https://youtu.be/gwlvfgDvQqg

klwheat

Sat, 10th Jun 2017, 08:58 AM

Sounds like a good plan. Tank's looking beautiful!

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Justin

Sat, 10th Jun 2017, 10:45 AM

thanks man. after the recent crash, I've been doing things real slowly and trying to calculate dosages and keep things steady. so far so good

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FarmerTy

Sat, 10th Jun 2017, 07:47 PM

What do you think lead to your crash Justin?

I'm glad you're taking the slow and steady approach!

Justin

Sun, 11th Jun 2017, 10:30 AM

What do you think lead to your crash Justin?

I'm glad you're taking the slow and steady approach!

Hey Ty, How is the baby?

It was a combination of a lot of things. I discovered that I somehow got AEFW in my tank when I noticed the tell tale signs of bite marks on both my favorite Tri Color and GARF Bonsai colonies. I also noticed that my green slimer on the other side of the tank was acting funny as well and when I turned it over, I found a large bite mark with eggs in the pocket. I immediately took all of my acro frags out of the tank and put them in my 40 breeder grow out. I forgot to turn off or re-calibrate my calcium reactor and with this the decreased demand, I was dumping too much solute into my tank. This in turn caused my Huge colony of purple Pocillopora to shoot its polyps out in the tank and increase the nutrient levels in the tank. I then in turn used GFO to help bring the levels down and the decreased nutrient level with a high Alk level, I typically run at 9.4 dkh, caused further alk burns on my other SPS corals. Mainly my Green Metallic Pocillopora, birdnest, Pavona. When I figured it out, I was able to correct the issues before they got worse but I had lost half of my huge sized Pocillopora and half of one of my tiny colonies of green pocillopora. Everything is fine now thankfully.

Sadly, I lost a lot of my SPS frags and mini colonies during the move as well. As you know, SPS once at a certain size get more and more sensitive to massive changes to their environment. I lost a lot of them over the course of 2.5 months, while my tank was going fallow. The lighting, flow and chemistry of the frag tank were different enough to further stress my stuff. I also was pretty aggressive about dipping with Bayer every other day for 2 weeks, then 2x a week the following 2 weeks and then once a 1 for 2 more weeks and the final 2 weeks was just observing and hoping.

It was in the 40 Breeder, that I finally lost my GARF and some of my nicer frags. My tri color had to be cut down to about a 1/3 of its size and it has absorbed what I believe are green Clade zooxanthellae because it has turned into a gnarly green color and has lost all of its original purple, blue and tan colors of its original algae.

Lesson learned, dip everything and observe for at least 2 weeks before introducing anything into your tank. With this last round of corals, I made sure I gave myself plenty of time in qt, to observe for any pests and give any eggs plenty of time to allow the eggs to hatch and check to see if there are pests. I also filter the bayer dip water through a fine net to collect any debris from the dip and visually verify if there is anything with a magnifying lens.

Justin

Sun, 11th Jun 2017, 10:46 AM

Well with the fresh reactor media, I noticed that my alk spiked a little higher than normal. I really wish the ALK defender and other similar tech were out already. I will go back and tweak the alk doser and when I get back, I'm going to work on just dialing in my ca reactor. For now, I just want to get the level steady enough to be fine while I'm out on a work trip next week. So far so good but I would have preferred some consistency! Eventually I'm sure.

I also noticed that my NO3 levels are at .5 ppm on the DT. This is great because it took my about 5 grams to get to 1ppm on my tank and from when I dosed the 5gs and got a reading of 1 to now, is about 2 days. So i'm basically going through about 1.25 grams of Spectracide a day. I'm going to play it super safe and just calculate a dosage of about 1.0 grams/ day or 1g/ 2 days. Since I'm going to be out and unable to test my nitrates on a daily basis during my work trip. I'm going to just dose enough to get me to 3ppm and let it naturally bring my levels down. I'll re-test on Saturday my levels and if I did my math correctly, be able to check my daily consumption and match my dosing appropriately.

So if my level is .5 ppm today and I'm out for 5 days with a (conservative) consumption of 1 gram a day. I would need about 5 grams to handle the consumption. Dosing it today, should bring my NO3 level to 1.5, since it took me 5 grams to get to 1ppm. If everything turns out fine, then I should be .25 ppm or 0, since I'm going a little conservative. Hopefully I'm right, if I'm wrong then my Macro Algae will consume the excess and I should get a nice boost in growth in my sump and more food for my pods!

klwheat

Sun, 11th Jun 2017, 11:33 AM

So sorry to hear about your coral loss 😞 Glad you're taking it slow and steady. Looking forward to seeing how the spectracide dosing goes!

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BBQHILLBILLY

Sun, 11th Jun 2017, 08:42 PM

Sorry to hear your setup crashed . We are all reefers and share the same interests. It's no fun when this happens. Hang in there and I wish you the best

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Justin

Fri, 30th Jun 2017, 07:36 PM

It's a been a minute but I managed to get quite a bit done since my last post. I don't remember how far back it was but I was trying to figure out what my daily intake of KNO3 would be. Well I finally managed to get an initial dose and track it for roughly 9 days until it was completely exhausted and reading a 0.0 using Redsea NO3 test kits. During that time I used about 1 tsp/ 5 grams of Spectracide dissolved in about 1 cup of RODI water. Based on that info, I go through about .45 grams of stump remover a day.

I also realized that BRS encourages that you calibrate your dosers as they don't actually move at 1.1 ml/ min. After discovering this piece of information I found out that my dosers moved at the following rates:

Alk Doser: 1.8 ml/ min
Ca Doser: 0.75 ml/ min
KNO3 Doser: 1.22 ml/ min

Make sure you calibrate your doser if you are using them!!!!

So my program is as follows:

Fallback OFF
OSC 000:00/000:22/059:78 Then ON
If Time 21:00 to 19:59 Then OFF

I dissolved about 1.66 cups of spectracide into 1 gallon of RODI. Based on a planted calculator I use, I should be able to get about .45 ppm of NO3 daily into my tank. My only concern is the small amount I need to dose on a daily basis and since my doser runs at about 1.22 ml per min, I need it to really be on for only 22 seconds a day at most. I will create my initial dose to get my tank to about 2ppm, and roughly 2-3 days from now, my tank should still be at 2ppm. To verify, I will test my tank water 2x a week for the next 2-3 weeks to verify I'm at 2ppm NO3.

Justin

Fri, 30th Jun 2017, 07:43 PM

Oh, I forgot to list what else I've done to my tank:

I was able to change out my T5 lighting, it was about 6 months already. I have the following spectrums:
(2) ATI Actinic
(1) ATI Blue +

I was also able to get from BRS some fittings to hookup to my Calcium Reactor Effluent line to my unused BRS Dual Reactor. The effluent line is a standard 1/8 airline tubing but the BRS reactor is 1/2 tubing. I had to "ghetto rig" a nice little adaptor from 1/8 to 1/4 and then 1/4 to 1/2. Eventually I need to just order the right piece online and get rid of the conversions I have going on. I decided to put some Reborn Calcium reactor media in my unused BRS Dual Reactors. Mainly since I don't use Carbon or GFO anymore, these things were just taking up space in my tank and I had plumbed them from my manifold. All I needed to do was cap my manifold john guest section that fed the reactor and plumb my effluent line into what is in essence 2 calcium reactor media chambers to help offset the excess CO2 and low pH from my reactor. My effluent line now is no longer set at a dripping rate but at a constant flow. Why? I noticed that after a few days, my effluent line would clog and throw off my Alkalinity and create too deep of a swing for my acros. Now the problem I have is getting my reactor set at the right pH to match my consumption with a constant flow. I originally set it to 6.8 but that was still too much alk in my tank and I have since moved it to 7.2 today. Tomorrow I will test to see if I am stable and continue to test daily until I get my alk dialed in. Good thing I bought 2 sets of hanna alk checker reagent!!!

Justin

Fri, 30th Jun 2017, 07:50 PM

While I was doing all of these modifications, I noticed one of my stag frags that was starting to color up with a nice purple base color with blue polyps bleach out from the base and stalks but no other coral was bleaching out. I immediately freaked out and stopped what I was doing to do an assessment of the damage and see if I had a tank wide epidemic. Luckily, everything else was happy with massive PE. I did discover that my show piece Torch had its polyps pretty close to what my stag was growing but didn't do anything about it thinking it was fine. Well I should have trusted my gut and moved the sucker back because he killed my nice stag! Bear in mind that my torch piece is sitting on its own magnetic rock piece from aqua mags
http://www.aqua-mags.com/

I had originally placed this guy right in the middle of my overflow so that it could use up the "dead space" caused by the overflow, but I sadly realized that he needed to be a little bit more to the right. My flow was so strong and the polyps were so massive, that the torch literally reached out and touched everything around for about 6 inches to the left of it.

I'll have to post pics of my tank setup and PAR map from the loaned par meter I had this week.

Justin

Sun, 2nd Jul 2017, 12:55 PM

Here is an updated FTS with my par levels

http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy358/jndragon79/FTS%20shot%206-26-17%20updated%20PAR%20Levels_zpsupaosted.jpg (http://s807.photobucket.com/user/jndragon79/media/FTS%20shot%206-26-17%20updated%20PAR%20Levels_zpsupaosted.jpg.html)

Justin

Sat, 8th Jul 2017, 08:53 AM

Everything is looking pretty good today. I'm almost there in dialing in my Ca Reactor again. Just when I thought I had it, I noticed today after my daily Alk test, that my alk dropped again much lower than anticipated. The only cause I can see is that my coral frags just consumed a ton of alk in preparation for growth. After finally testing my PAR values and getting them back in line and my Ca Reactor back in the hunt for dialing itself in, my tank is at a new steady and most important consistency. So what do I do.....I went ahead and bought myself another frag. This one from the FB group Official SPS Frag Swap Page. Here is a pic of the frag I'll be getting next week:

Its a WWC Clathrata
http://i.imgur.com/CK53KaO.jpg (http://imgur.com/a/YcQLV)

http://i.imgur.com/Ab5Et8d.jpg

I'm also trying out a new image server since Photobucket really sucks right now with the ads and long drag times.

klwheat

Sat, 8th Jul 2017, 09:15 AM

Beautiful new frag. Glad things are getting stable!

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Justin

Sun, 9th Jul 2017, 12:38 AM

Beautiful new frag. Glad things are getting stable!
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Thanks man. I'm glad that things are stable as well. Now I just need them to start growing vertically. I've been checking some frags on ebay as well that are looking promising as well :P

Aztec Gold
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/m0GkEMcJN5hFpFhuhDGVcOw/s-l200.jpg
Bali Shortcake
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/m_9piZb5tRRWvUfgcxETohg/s-l200.jpg
Hot Fusion Monti
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mUauZxHkl_w68bRtDzymmuA/s-l200.jpg
Komodo Island
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mfTMK-Wocv1KH40W8p_ShkQ/s-l200.jpg
Northern Lights Tenius
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mJLmooIgvQnTdJs9Z8iNSvQ/s-l200.jpg
Cornbread Maleficent
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mSfi8l051fiRjoSk8aQTTMg/s-l200.jpg
Rainbow Rose Milli
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/m3KUIcZBJgI_jnlBT7lKZVg/s-l200.jpg
Raunchy Redhead
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/m/mLtB0DJF6EDitYhNN5bfq7g/s-l200.jpg

klwheat

Sun, 9th Jul 2017, 08:05 AM

Hmm...never would have thought to look on eBay for frags

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Justin

Sun, 9th Jul 2017, 08:18 AM

you get lucky at times. I haven't had a bad experience yet

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Justin

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 04:39 PM

This is the best part of our community, for a nice hookup for helping a fellow reefer with some apex issues. Got some nice little frags and a frag of a coral I banked with him but kept killing in my tank due to issues. Last time I had this guy was when I was still dealing with bryopsis.

Minh Tri color already showing pe!
PC Rainbow showing pe
Mystic blue staghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/dee9c02441f29fa79f16eab5da6c7d3e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/0730e065b70e584742f5e89273a44d89.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/93ad5e57aa95d95f4f44e4ec40520fa4.jpg

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Justin

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 04:46 PM

Btw, I never won those eBay auctions. The universe was telling me it wasn't meant to be and after they went way past my threshold, I walked away. I do however want to get my hands on a cb maleficient.

anyhoo, some makeshift macro shots using my Samsung 7 and my fish portal.

my mango passion frag and renegade metallic pocillopora in the background

jf jack o lantern
ultra acan I got back in nov. lmar
the gnarly green mega torch I have
my soon to be mega purple pocillopora colony
golden wall froq spawn
my tri color colony with some other frags from lmar
fuzzy walt Disney. still no growth but he's happy
I forgot the name of this battle coral frag and my orange digi colony in the backgroundhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/c316730ee7a96e0aba6d34a96d13869c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/e73fb47617b15f113d7179f2a56e3ffa.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/11df397bbfb21fcf519a009d70915a81.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/fd8d214312a8a687be72fca9032dab1a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/055ce5c24b6a3836e1283b62ac5c9898.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/17b8810f5745678773162e1061564679.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/86fed0971f43c9cc5488bad472e643d6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/b78d713514fd6e264fcb0237e4271b3e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170725/ed2f58fd4021331e46578ee8b378a063.jpg

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FarmerTy

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 04:49 PM

Those are some fuzzy, happy sticks there Justin! What's your new regiment for adding frags now?

Justin

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 05:32 PM

Thanks man. My procedure is that I still use Bayer on frags for dipping. I tend to try and get pieces from the tip of a coral colony rather than a piece of a base. I put my new frags on new plugs and ditch the base all together. If the piece is encrusted, I cut the frag as close to the base without getting it and make a new frag. I make an exception on the encrusted piece. I keep the base after the dip in my QT/ grow out tank and observe. Waiting 2 weeks allows me to monitor for both Nudibranchs and AEFW, basically most problem pests. I also observe my pieces for about 2 weeks before putting them in my DT.

Those are some fuzzy, happy sticks there Justin! What's your new regiment for adding frags now?

FarmerTy

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 05:35 PM

Thanks man. My procedure is that I still use Bayer on frags for dipping. I tend to try and get pieces from the tip of a coral colony rather than a piece of a base. I put my new frags on new plugs and ditch the base all together. If the piece is encrusted, I cut the frag as close to the base without getting it and make a new frag. I make an exception on the encrusted piece. I keep the base after the dip in my QT/ grow out tank and observe. Waiting 2 weeks allows me to monitor for both Nudibranchs and AEFW, basically most problem pests. I also observe my pieces for about 2 weeks before putting them in my DT.That's an awesome QT regiment for new frags! Keeping the plugs was my Achilles heel when I first got into SPS. Got me into all sorts of trouble with pests. I just toss them now.

It's cool that you went the extra step to observe and treat them too so you can save encrusted bases as well.

Zack

Tue, 25th Jul 2017, 07:56 PM

Man I'm stoked to see how things are on Sunday. That torch is magnificent.

Justin

Wed, 26th Jul 2017, 11:32 AM

Thanks Zack. it's getting there

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Justin

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 09:40 AM

Today I found this weirdest thing in my fuge. looks to be a jelly fish! pretty cool.

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FarmerTy

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 09:41 AM

Today I found this weirdest thing in my fuge. looks to be a jelly fish! pretty cool.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using TapatalkPicture? That sounds interesting!

Justin

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 09:50 AM

Lol, sorry Ty. I was uploading it to Youtube so that it can seen.

https://youtu.be/cY6MirUc0Dg

FarmerTy

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 09:56 AM

That's pretty cool. It undulates like a jellyfish. Sometimes the attached polyp stage could come in on a frag or rock and then transform into the free swimming medusa stage like you have in your sump. Super cool find!

Justin

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 10:38 AM

I know right? I was thinking the same thing but none of my frags, rocks, etc. were near anything that could have domestically held a jellyfish. Its been a long time since I've had anything that came from the ocean. Still pretty cool.

If anything, it proves that my fuge is really doing a great job of providing for my micro and macro fauna.

FarmerTy

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 10:47 AM

leliataylor

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 05:02 PM

How big is it? It look a lot like a medusa stage hydroid or jelly.

Justin

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 06:07 PM

About the head of a thumbtack at most. Pretty cool, right?

leliataylor

Fri, 28th Jul 2017, 06:31 PM

Very cool! Time to set up a jelly tank. Can you get a close up of it with a macro lens? I would love see if we can't get a positive ID on it.

Justin

Thu, 10th Aug 2017, 09:11 PM

It has been a minute since an update. I had to take a back seat to my tank and stuff due to a tree landing on my car this past weekend. I will have to say that it was my first time having a tree totally demolish my car. I was thinking about getting a new car due to some expensive repairs that needed to be done and I guess the universe decided to force my hand.

In terms of tank, I made a really stupid mistake of dosing too much magnesium directly in my tank instead of in the return section of my fuge. Well I paid the price as 3 of my frags started to STN on me. I'm bummed but more importantly ****ed at myself for being lazy and not putting my Mg directly into my return section. I knew I screwed up when I saw the thick Mg slowly engulf some of my corals. Well it took about a week to two weeks after I messed up. This is typically the amount of time I have found that it takes for acros to react to something negative in their environment that for an STN reaction. Fortunately, it is only isolated to a few corals and not tank wide, which is a great sigh of relief.

In the theme of rolling with the punches, I now will have some room for some new goodies that I might snatch from MACNA. I'm in the hunt for a Pink Floyd and Maleficient. Not really for the name but because the colors are truly beautiful.

I also decided to take off my jebao pumps and just go with the 2 MP40's hooked up with a WXM that changes the modes throughout the day. Based on the ecotech website, 2 MP40's are a lot but if I can keep the pumps dialed down to around 50- 60%, it should be good to go for my acros. Only time will tell if the flow is low enough to allow my acros to grow vertically and still have the flow to help get nutrients to them. What sucks is that hitting a few with Mg, didn't help me out. The good news is that my CaRx is dialed in so now I can test a frequent as 3-4 days in between.

Troy Valentine

Thu, 10th Aug 2017, 09:37 PM

alton

Fri, 11th Aug 2017, 06:08 AM

Darn sounds like a bad week, hopefully things start to pick up. What days will you be at MACNA? The wife and family are going, me for one day at MACNA, the wife and brother/his wife to party in New Orleans the whole weekend. I am just trying to figure out which is the best day to attend?

Justin

Fri, 11th Aug 2017, 07:18 AM

I'm planning on going Saturday and maybe parts of Sunday. I was nominated to be a contestant to win a free flight and macna pass by masna, but I don't find out until the 18th. If I don't win, then I'm going to drive out. We should meet up and grab a beer or two.

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Justin

Fri, 11th Aug 2017, 07:21 AM

Wow Justin sorry about your car! I hope the insurance company gives you a fair value for your vehicle. A new vehicle it just the right recipe to forget about the old one.

Back in 2011 I dosed too much Magnesium as well and wiped out a large Idaho Grape colony. I was so bummed. I hate being grossly negligent when my corals die. Unfortunately that is usually how it goes for me. The tank is doing so well that I just need to go and screw things up! How high did your Mag go?Hey Troy. the mg itself didn't go up too high, just to about 1400 but when I dosed it, it was directly in the tank and on top of a few frags. How is your new tank doing by the way?

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alton

Fri, 11th Aug 2017, 08:04 AM

Justin

Tue, 15th Aug 2017, 05:44 PM

Well I think we are finally past the tree landing on my car issue. Thanks to the folks at USAA, we were able to get my car labeled as totaled and a settlement check is heading my way. Just in time for me to go shopping at MACNA in good Ole Nola!

My tank took a bit of a down turn recently that I just couldn't put my finger on. I started to dose a few of my plugs start to show signs of burnt tips and receded a bit from not only their tips but also from around the further most encrusted areas. I can't put my finger on it but based on prior experience, it would leave me to believe that I am showing signs of alk burn. The crazy thing is that in the past, I saw signs of alk burn when I ran too much GFO and kept my dkh at around 9.0. This time around, my dkh was around 8.17 and I no longer run any GFO or phosphate removal medium except for my macro algae in my fuge. I will say that after an overdose fiasco with Stump remover, my NO3 was a little high at 16 ppm, but based on the research I found, that would just cause browning in my corals. I also stupidly dosed Mg directly in my tank and the heavy Mg solution surrounded some of my corals, which in turn showed bleaching but still surviving. The burnt tips intrigued me and I found some interesting threads on R2R that make me think the following may have happened.

Since I reset my PAR values on my LED's light to hit my corals with roughly 350 PAR, my corals were hit with some strong lightening which in turn sent the photosynthesis sections of the corals into overdrive and starts to produce energy and also multiply the bacteria within the corals. Add to this scenario with a slightly higher dkh than natural seawater and high NO3, my corals were in overdrive with growth and food production. The only limiting factor was the PO4, which in turn created "Alk burn" symptoms. I have since lowered my dkh to roughly 7.50 dkh and the "burn" effects have stopped. Take into consideration that during this whole "burn" period, I had massive polyp extension and my coloration was just as vivid as before. I really do think that my macro algae stripped the PO4 from the water, making the available Alk and Ca higher than the corals are used to and they consequently went through an Alk burn.

Long story short, I plan to keep my dkh lower at roughly 7.5 and closely monitor my PO4 readings with a Hanna checker. Yesterday my reading showed my PO4 to be roughly .06 and I hope to keep my PO4 steady at this level to help aid in my NO4 reduction naturally. I also went ahead and bought some Seachem Phosphorus to help dose PO4 into my tank to keep my PO4 levels at a constant .06. My theory, and hopefully I am right on this, is that with the added PO4, my corals will have plenty of both N and P for daily metabolic functions and growth. I put some links to my research below from R2R and a pic of the phosphorus I plan to use. My current levels of K are at roughly 360 and I need them to be at 400. The beauty of this product and Stump remover, is that they both contain K. This will help me get to an acceptable level of 400 on my potassium!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/light-alkalinity-nutrients.319223/page-6#post-3963240

https://thereefshop.com.au/images/Flourish%20Phosphorus.jpg

FarmerTy

Tue, 15th Aug 2017, 06:02 PM

I love that this hobby fosters a desire for knowledge and playing detective in your own reef version of CSI! Great work on the research into the potential issue Justin.

I alleviate any issues with alk burn by keeping my alk at 7.0-7.5 dKh at all times and feeding a ton to the tank to always have available nutrients, while stripping excess to make sure there aren't too many nutrients. :)

Justin

Tue, 15th Aug 2017, 08:47 PM

Thanks Ty. Its one of the many aspects of this hobby that I really enjoy. There is just so much info out there from some really talented and knowledgable folks out there that you can find a solution or a discussion to a lot of topics on the hobby. I guess I sort of feel like a mini marine biologist of sorts with my tank. I'm going to out in Austin around 9/11, if you are free, I would love to check out your system and get some key take away's from you. Not to mention check out that awesome Vivid Aquarium Confetti you picked up.

The one thing that continues to plague me with my tank is the lack of significant growth in my acros. For many of my corals, I have great encrusting action but true vertical growth is very slow and coming. There are a few that are showing tons of mini vertical growth spurts with massive PE but no new vertical branches yet.

I originally thought that my flow was too great, which I think it was and with just the 2 MP40's, I'm still seeing the same PE extension throughout my tank. Now I'm wondering if low nutrients, specifically P is the limiting factor in my growth. I haven't tested the rest of the RedSea coral color test kits, mainly because the tests are a pain in the *** to perform. The metrics I was able to test were:
Alk: 7.39 dkh hanna
Ca: 475 Redsea
Mg: 1260 ( I was able to add some more Mg but will do it over 3 days back up to 1390) Redsea
PO4: .06 Hanna
K: 360 Salifert
Strontium: 360 Salifert
NO3: 16 Redsea

Even though I work from home and able to feed and monitor my tank throughout the day, I have been pretty busy and haven't been able to feed as heavily as I normally do. Mix this with me re-aligning some of my fuge bulbs to get more light in my fuge, and I think my macro was actually out competing my corals for available P. I can only monitor my levels and dose accordingly. Once I get my Seachem Phosphorus in the mail. I can see if keeping my PO4 at .06 consistently will help. I do like the idea of keeping my pH at 7.5 to keep things close to natural seawater and avoid further possibility of "alk burn." So far, things are steady again and I can continue to track the recovery of my reef and hopefully see it grow again!

FarmerTy

Wed, 16th Aug 2017, 09:20 AM

I've never had the issue of no vertical growth. The two things that I can think of that affects growth shape the most is intensity of light and amount of flow. Corals, particularly hard corals tend to flatten out with higher light and higher flow and grow more vertical with less flow and light but that's just generalities. Hopefully your lower flow experiment will yield some interesting results.

That's what I like about this hobby, you have to wear many hats to he successful. Part electrician, part biologist, part disease specialist, part mechanic, part researcher, part experimenter, part nutritionist, part physics expert, part lighting expert, and part chemist. Those with the most successful tanks tend to have the ability to excel in most of those categories.... or have a ton of money. Haha.

Justin

Thu, 31st Aug 2017, 11:39 AM

Its been a few days but I'm finally back from MACNA and adjusted back to life in San Antonio. The show overall was great with lots of great product and corals to see. I was able to snag several frags of pretty good size from a couple of vendors. Of note, Ocean Life was the vendor of choice for me as they were working out some great deals and their frags were a pretty good size as well. Among the multiple frags, I was able to snag the following named corals and the rest were unknown:

Confetti (not the greatest pic)
http://i.imgur.com/ApGHq7w.jpg

Pink Tip Paletti
http://i.imgur.com/75Mr5AR.jpg

Here are some unknowns
http://i.imgur.com/DLUn2fV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vY4Jrq5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/C75jcp5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mQ6teqn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4p6phf5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YcOiXXU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JIiFoGN.jpg

It was a tough journey back and all of my flights were cancelled so I had to load up in a car with a friend their and make the car drive back to town. What would have taken me only 8hrs ended up being about 15 hrs of drive time. Sadly, my rest was not the only thing that suffered. In the ride, I lost a fox flame and possibly 3 other frags. I have been checking on the nearly dead frags daily and have noticed some PE still but almost all of the skin is gone. It has happened that corals can make a comeback as long as the polyps are intact. The recession has stopped from the first day and when fed a meaty diet with vitamins and aminos, the frags should turn around

Justin

Thu, 31st Aug 2017, 12:07 PM

As many of you know, I won this year's Neptune Hobbyist of the year award. As a winner, I was given a full ride to MACNA an award and a $500 spending spree with them. Eventually I'm going to have to upgrade my system to the new "toy" but I went with the following items:

Spare Aquabus cable for just in case. I was missing one
Their Multi Purpose Pump
Flow Monitoring Kit
a 1/4 Flow Sensor kit with magnetic mount
(2) Optical sensors
the Solenoid valvle

Lunar Module with 3 LEDs
magentic rack

My goal with the FMK and extra sensors is to create some backups for myself in case the tank overflows again. I do need to pick up some leak detectors and I was able to check that the FMK can allow me to hookup some Leak detectors to it. I also wanted the FMK to monitor the output of my Ca Reactor. I've been having issues with keeping my output steady out of the Reactor. My hope is that with the new module, I can monitor the output and get my reactor dialed in on the right metric every time I have to clear the line for debris.

I got the lunar module for the heck of it. Supposedly, you can link them with the actual lunar cycle, and who knows; maybe someday I'll get a spawning event! Now I need to start selling corals and gear to get myself an upgrade and eventually the trident kit.

alton

Thu, 31st Aug 2017, 02:00 PM

Hope everything pulls through for you. Although I missed most of Macna, I am glad we came back a day early. Looks like I have a 50/50 shot at going next year since it is in Vegas (another place my wife can lose money)

Justin

Thu, 31st Aug 2017, 02:27 PM

Vegas should be fun. I hope you enjoyed macna. It was great to hang out with you. Part of me wished I left early by then again I wouldnt have won the icp test for a year or synergy overflow

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FarmerTy

Fri, 1st Sep 2017, 08:00 AM

That's looks like a decent chunk of the confetti!

I have the FoxFlame if yours doesn't make it Justin. Its coloring back up nicely after going from LED to T5 and should be fully back to normal in a month it seems.

Justin

Wed, 20th Sep 2017, 09:46 AM

Awesome Possum. I might take you up on that in time

That's looks like a decent chunk of the confetti!

I have the FoxFlame if yours doesn't make it Justin. Its coloring back up nicely after going from LED to T5 and should be fully back to normal in a month it seems.

Justin

Wed, 20th Sep 2017, 10:04 AM

Today was an interesting day. While checking on my tank this morning, I noticed that one of my fave pieces, my Battle Corals Battle Juice, was halfway bleached but nothing else was looking upset or bleached. No idea what happened over the night, but it literally just bleached half of itself. What sucks is that it was coloring up nicely and starting to grow itself into what would be a nice tabling growth form. My only guess to the cause was either one of two things:

I have been having some issues with alk since getting back from my trip to Boston and as a consequence, my torch has been a little ****ed and shedding some of its tentacles. I can assume that one of these broke loose and found itself near my battle juice and stung it

Or the recent alk swings have been messing up my parameters and the battlejuice just decided to let go.

I have noticed that my effluent line, which runs at a steady drip, would sometimes get clogged forcing me to open the valve all the way and then try to reset it. Its one of the reasons why I got an FMM, which i haven't set up yet, to get it back on the right flow rate each time. This time around, I decided to open the valve all the way to help reduce the frequency of clogging. I think my alk just fluctuated too much. I didn't adjust my CO2 tank to a high enough pH and so a lot of alk was dosed into my tank. Not really a lot but my dkh increased a full point over night. I doubt this was the major cause but I really cannot have wild fluctuation in my tank.

Justin

Wed, 20th Sep 2017, 10:19 AM

Yesterday I put an order in for a new light fixture to help illuminate my tank. I currently have (4) Rapid LED onyx fixture with none in the middle of my tank, preferring to make this spot a low light area for some of my corals. Over the course of the last 2 months, I have noticed that the corals in this spot, just don't look as great as before when they had more light, not mention that my tank is slammed with acro frags from Macna and trading and I need to create more areas to mount frags. To do this, I plan to create another pillar or two for the middle of the tank and as usual, I will drill holes in the rock work to allow me to place my DIY frag plugs and allowing myself to modulate where the coral frags will go.

My new light....will be the new Corona light that Rapid is selling. Some of the benefits of this light are that they resemble the Radion fixture, using 2 large LED arrayed bulbs for lights. They also have about 38 LED's compared to the 28 that the Onyx lights had. The other benefit is that the new fixture uses the Fish bit app for programming and I can map my light to any reef in the world to simulate the needs of that area. Its a cool feature but not really needed. The main reasons for the new light are:

I need to illuminate my center area and my Onyx lights are getting a little old and my buddy that owns the company, mentioned that the lights lasts about 7-8 years or more with good care. My lights are about 7 years and are still kept in pretty good condition with no salt creep and some dust settling. I want to try out the light and if I like it, I'll get 4 more next year when I do plan to overall my lighting fixtures.

I ordered some flat rock pieces and I have a few large dry rock pieces from previous tanks that I can use. What I'm thinking about doing is creating two pillars that are linked with several flat pieces of rock to simulate ad C shape with the opening facing the front. The ledges will slowly elevate with the top most part getting the most amount of PAR. I'm thinking about aiming for a 425ish par level at this point. I can also put low light pieces in the valley or create a cave with a piece of rock work and put my ultra acan colony on the top of cave. Still brainstorming ideas!

I'll post pics of my progress as my rocks come in

alton

Wed, 20th Sep 2017, 03:24 PM

Sorry about your coral, but you are very brave to keep a torch. Gary Powell showed me once what his torch did overnight once in his tank, and I vowed to never own one.

Justin

Thu, 21st Sep 2017, 08:33 AM

Oh yea, what happened?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

alton

Thu, 21st Sep 2017, 08:53 AM

He went to his tank one night when everything was sleeping and his torch was reaching their tentacles 8" to 12"+ zapping other corals. I have seen my regular frogspawn reach out up to 6" only once to kill two mushrooms. Which was really strange since it was surrounded by the same type of mushrooms around it's base and with no issues. The Hybrid Frogspawn or Scubio Steveo Frogspawn is also aggressive, it just doesn't have the reach power of the Torch.

FarmerTy

Thu, 21st Sep 2017, 08:55 AM

Case in point, look at the bit of setosa you can see in the top left. The torch stung it so much it caused RTN. Fortunately, the gold torch never really reaches out stingers. Unfortunately, I placed it so close to that torch that when it expands during the light it's within capable normal reach of stinging the setosa.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170921/2d7f3d3127b6c5171132f3cdb3aebc43.jpg

alton

Thu, 21st Sep 2017, 04:17 PM

Justin

Thu, 21st Sep 2017, 04:54 PM

Still waiting on the beach and palm tree

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Justin

Thu, 5th Oct 2017, 09:26 AM

Its been a hectic couple of weeks for both my tank and with work. I just got back last week from a trip to Chicago for work; and when I tested my Alk, I discovered that it crept up to 10dkh. I've been playing with it to try and get it back down to 8dkh without turning my CO2 tank off completely. With the hectic alk swings in my tank, my large torch is not too happy and a couple of my heads have died back but the base stalk is still going pretty steady. Googling the issue, I found that torch's don't really like alk swings and the one in my tank is no different. Since this torch has been with me through some serious disasters, I expect it to pull through. Now that I'm slowly dialing my alk back down, it should start to recover on its own.

I usually try to find the source of my corals issues and these alk swings are caused 100% by myself and messing with the effluent line to my Calcium Reactor. I got tired of constantly having to mess with a clogged line and consequently trying to redial my line back to the same flow rate. I haven't been able to install my FMM because my work computer will not let me install any programs and my wife's laptop has an OS issue that I need to fix. Until then, I decided to go with a steady, open flow, to my effluent line. Because more effluent is released into my tank, my alk shot up and I didn't catch how much in time and so my alk shot up to 10dkh. Naturally, the sudden increase shocked my corals and my torch reacted accordingly. The CO2 ph benchmark I had programmed changed from a stop point of 6.5 to now 7.45 pH.

I originally thought a stop point of 7.00 was enough, but running an alk test proved that this was not the case and my alk jumped back up to a 10.30 from a comfortable 8.5 dkh. Way too quickly for both mine and my corals liking. It sucks to have this drastic change but running my effluent line at a constant rate will be the best thing for my tank and corals in the long run. So for now, I need to ride this wave until I can get dialed back into the 8.5 to 9.0 dkh range.

On a side note, I also got my shelf rock from BRS and a new light for the middle of my tank. I decided to go with the new RapidLED Corona fixture and let me tell you, I love this thing. So easy to program and setup. Once you have the fish bit app installed, I was able to sync my fixture to my wifi and geosync my light to 1 of 6 coral locations in the world. I synced mine to Komodo, Indonesia, based on the fact that I "think" most of my corals come from this area but I could be wrong. Now I need to save up some cash and get (4) replacements to my current set of lights and go all Corona to get a seamless sync and ditch the use of my vdm port and more cables running into my apex controller.

Here is a review of the lights from Reefbuilders:

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/11/10/rapidled-corona-has-a-lot-going-for-it/

Justin

Fri, 20th Oct 2017, 11:00 AM

I think I finally got past my alk swings. For some of you not following along, I got tired of constantly battling an inconsistent flow coming out of my calcium reactor. Every now and then I would see my flow rate slow down to eventually a full stop due to clogging of my effluent line. In the world of Calcium reactors, I have found that there are two schools of thoughts:

A slow steady drip
constant flow

Both schools have their pros and cons but after battling clogging for some time now, I decided to follow the constant flow school of thought. My problem was finding a starting point. In that process, I sadly but my tank through some nasty alk swings and lost about 3 frags and a few heads on my prize torch. With that said, I finally got my tank alk down to about 8.5 from a high of 10.5 about 1.5 weeks ago. Historically I like to keep my tank alk at about 8.5 but since my Macro algae is doing a heck of a job pulling nutrients, I'm thinking about going a little bit lower as I'm still noticing a few alk burn tips on 2 of my acros.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I'm using the new Rapid LED Coronas. These things are so nice and easy to use. Here is a shot of this sleek piece of equipment:

https://i.imgur.com/DZRA8iY.jpg

I also noticed that my prize torch is trying to reach out to touch his neighbors. Right now its fine and this limb is the farthest out and closest to my tri color valida. I'll have to keep an eye on it but I really hope it doesn't get any fancy ideas!

https://i.imgur.com/wtMUomp.jpg

SantaMonicaHelp

Thu, 2nd Nov 2017, 06:47 PM

So have your corals been coexisting lately?

-Kamran

Justin

Fri, 3rd Nov 2017, 10:00 AM

So far so good. I have noticed that my torch occasionally wants to reach out but nothing serious.

So have your corals been coexisting lately?

-Kamran

Justin

Fri, 3rd Nov 2017, 10:08 AM

I think I finally got my alk in line and my corals are starting to settle in. My beautiful green torch showed the most damage with it losing about 6 heads in total. As it stands, its nice and settled but I will continue to observe it. Its a bit of a bummer but I remember only have one head and accidentally cracking the head when I tried to cut it off its plug originally. Since I've had it, it has produced a ton of heads. I will eventually probably clean up the dead heads but its a fighter and in time it will return to its previous glory.

The other day I had the par meter and I decided to test the PAR under my new Rapid LED Corona unit. Its hitting at around 350 par in the middle with the Blues at 65% and the whites at 50%, so I have plenty of wiggle room to increase PAR over time to about 400 PAR. I took the liberty to test my other lights and came to the realization that my PAR on the right side of my tank was only at around 250 to 280! This is way lower than I originally thought and forced me to wonder if that was the explanation for my less than normal growth rates of SPS.

Well I've had these lights for about 5 to 6 years now, and I think they are close to their end of life span. Most folks quote LED's being good for about 9 to 10 years and these are about halfway but using an inferior technology. The new Corona I have, is using the new style of LED pucks and has double the LEDs and looks very similar to the Radion bulbs. They are marketed as using close to or similar LED arrangements as higher end LED's. Anyway, I'm looking to see if I can score on 2 more of the Coronas and eventually replace all of my old Onyx fixtures.

Today I also finally got my plumbing parts to hook up a Next reef canister filter to my manifold. I'm planning to run just a cup of carbon in this reactor to help clear up the water and see if I can get more PAR down to my corals. I've noticed that the water is not as crystal clear as I would like from time to time and I think using a little carbon will help out. To most, the water is pretty clean due to the prodigious use of my micro bubble scrubber, but I think it can be better.

SantaMonicaHelp

Fri, 3rd Nov 2017, 05:16 PM

So far so good. I have noticed that my torch occasionally wants to reach out but nothing serious.

Good to hear. Hopefully the SPS will grow normally once you get the lights replaced.

-Kamran

Justin

Fri, 3rd Nov 2017, 06:33 PM

That's what I'm hoping too. On the other side, where I have the newer lights, I'm seeing some growth tips already on frags I put in there about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, my higher end pieces are on the right side where I need to increase my PAR. On this side, I have the following frags I really want to grow out:

Walt Disney
Confetti
Cali Tort
my long time Tri Color Valida

Just put my order in, so hopefully I'll have the lights here by sometime next week in time for our meeting at my house on Sunday!

Justin

Tue, 7th Nov 2017, 02:30 PM

Alright, I finally got off my *** and decided to work on the blank space in the middle of the tank. Since getting a center fixture, I now have this need to put up some rockwork to capitalize on the space. I cannot justify the cost of my light to just grow some LPS and zoas. With that said, here are some pics of my rock work. As with the other stuff, its going to be modular with holes already pre-drilled to house my custom frag plugs and the shelving will be modular for the shelf work. I will be creating 2 or 3 pillars that I can reposition to create some overhangs and caves for my fish. Here are the pics:

Here is the smaller rock with a little cave:
https://i.imgur.com/FUT1Pxn.jpg

Top down showing my holes and the space I have for SPS corals
https://i.imgur.com/RQV7vsO.jpg

Here is the larger rock work showing off a cave I'm making:
https://i.imgur.com/Zr9DH2T.jpg

I'm using Marco rocks mortar to create a nice smooth slope from the sand floor to avoid the number of nook and crannies for detritus to accumulate on the sand floor border. I'm also trying to sculpt a little cave for one of my fish to use, mainly my Watchman
https://i.imgur.com/Zr9DH2T.jpg

Top down of the up most shelf showing my modular holes and space for some sps frags:
https://i.imgur.com/gB7Er5B.jpg

Finally, a shot of the two next to each other to show one configuration I can use in my tank.

https://i.imgur.com/2Cr67YN.jpg

I still need to use more of the mortar to cover up the acrylic rods I'm using to position and stabilize the formation. After this initial set dries, I will then proceed to fill in the sides a bit and create more crevices and caves for fish to hide in and what not. I'm hoping to be finished by Thursday or Friday so that I can have the pieces in my tank this weekend in time for the meeting at my house.

I want to try and create a dome or half moon shape with the middle being a spot to showcase a coral of my choosing. I'm thinking about using it to highlight my blue trumpet colony but I was also playing with the idea of getting a clam and putting it in there. Still lots of decisions to make!

I also put an order in for (2) Coronas to replace the fixtures I have on the right side. Next month, I'll grab two more to complete my look.

Justin

Wed, 8th Nov 2017, 05:03 PM

Here is an updated FTS with the new rockwork:

https://i.imgur.com/ERkBRp6.jpg

Left Side:
https://i.imgur.com/TLSYhen.jpg

Center:
https://i.imgur.com/UcRShxJ.jpg

Right Side:
https://i.imgur.com/RNSiGL9.jpg

alton

Thu, 9th Nov 2017, 06:42 AM

Looking good, how does the new led perform versus the older model?

Justin

Thu, 9th Nov 2017, 12:31 PM

Looking good, how does the new led perform versus the older model?

It looks cleaner and takes less cables to get the dimming effect. Overall, I really like it and I don't have to mess with Apex programming for it. The spread is pretty nice and the colors look great. You can match it to a reef in its fish bit programming, so I plan to set it and forget it. Hopefully my 2 new ones will come in before the meeting so I can show them off. Right now, you can adjust the following:

White
Blue
Red
UV

I don't like to mess with LED colors too much because I can never get them right. The biggest hang up is while the other lights are dimming the lone Corona I have is off color but in time when I get all of my lights replaced it will look more streamline. In terms of PAR, this thing does a pretty good job. At 60% I'm getting about 350-375, eventually I'll raise things up to about 80% or 90% to target a final PAR of about 400-450 and leave it there.

The new rock work has some really high pieces for light loving corals, so I'll have to slowly adjust those to the new levels. I'm on the search for a few more new corals. I just saw that Joe Knows reef is about to do a live sale this weekend, so hopefully I catch some pieces that get my attention. I typically like corals that have multiple colors or have Polyps that contrast sharply with the base. I think this is why I like the following pieces:

Tri Color Valida
Bonsai
Purple Monster
Confetti
WD
Purple Haze
WWD Clathulata
Sunset Monti
The Planet acros are nice as well.

I am on the hunt for a Blue Suharsonoi and possibly some nice looking maricultures but my track record isn't the greatest with those.

klwheat

Thu, 9th Nov 2017, 10:30 PM

Ok, so out of curiosity, why 400-450 PAR? That seems pretty high compared to 250-350 from BRS’s video.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Justin

Thu, 9th Nov 2017, 11:17 PM

You are right, it is a bit higher but my goal is 450 at the top most where the top most shelf in the middle is and by the time it gets to mid level it will probably be around mid to high 300's. I have some light loving pieces that I want to move up there. On average it will be around mid to high 300's around the middle of the tank i think. Of course I'll slowly adjust everything to the mid 300's first and gauge if from there. Similar to what you did Larry.

This also got me thinking about my growth rates and the color spectrum that I have in my tank now. After watching Jason Fox's video on how he likes blue light and how corals are used to this spectrum in the wild to sps envy of some folks growing stuff like crazy. I started doing some reading and found that although blue gives you the best coloration in corals, white helps with the growing speed. WWC and some other folks tend to keep their display tank coral growth in check by going more bluer in their spectrum, similar to what Jason Fox was talking about. Because I'm still looking to get more growth and colony development, I'm leaning over to a whiter spectrum now too. I still have my T5's for blue enhancement, but my white LED's are dialed significantly back to about a 20% difference.
I'm still debating on this idea and this entry is merely me thinking out loud, but I'm playing with the idea of running my white lights at the same level as my blues. Which would put my whites and blues peaking at around 85 at their highest level during the day. This peak I think will only last about 3-4 hrs with whites only and of course have the rev up and downs to that level. I will keep the blues at their normal schedule, only really impacting my whites, UV, and other colors (labeled as red with RapidLED). Of course there will be a slow transition to this level over the course of a month or two but I'm curious if I would start to see a significant difference in growth with more white light.

There is also the other school of thought, which is...stop tinkering with things and leave it alone. The curse of having LED's and way too many options to mess with them!

Here is a link on some articles that Mike Paletta wrote on the "master" of reef keeping in their tanks with a comparison. Some of my ideas came from what Julian and few others are doing with whiter tanks. Let me know you're thoughts

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tank-parameters-of-some-masters.263/

Part 2
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/following-the-masters-part-two.305935/

alton

Fri, 10th Nov 2017, 07:09 AM

Justin

Fri, 10th Nov 2017, 10:55 AM

Quote: There is also the other school of thought, which is...stop tinkering with things and leave it alone. The curse of having LED's and way too many options to mess with them!
Your best statement ever, the biggest problem with most LED manufactures is you get too many options. I feel as a manufacture they should give you the percentages of each zone/channel to get a certain spectrum. You set it and forget it. This is the main reason I love my BML's. Everything is preset, I just adjust my lights to a 80% max or something close to get the PAR I want and enjoy with no tinkering.

I agree Alton. I can't count how many threads I've read about comparing LED's to Halides and T5's and the best argument I've read, was that there are just too many variables with LED's that people screw it up. T5's and Halides are a simple plug and play type of thing and the user doesn't have to do a thing but watch their stuff grow. Too many folks have "found' their own percentage that works and then other start to use it and swear by it. Talking with Rudy from Golden Basket, he does not use any dimming and sets everything to 100% and he grows things like no other. I think I need to stop goofing around with my lights and go back to basics.

Justin

Sat, 11th Nov 2017, 06:10 PM

Hectic day today with the gloomy weather, house stuff and getting ready for our meeting tomorrow. The wife is going to be making some awesome dishes for the folks swinging by the house for our Holiday meeting.

Some good news:

I got my (2) New Coronas in the mail today, which I will need to put up tomorrow after the lights turn off. I don't want to stress anything with the lights doing some funky things. So tomorrow, I will see how they work in sync as will everyone else.

I also scored on some sick pieces from the Joe Knows Reef life sale today. They will look great in the new center section of my tank:
Joe's Fantasy Island Acro
28491

Lemondrop Acro L3
28492

Tweety Bird Acro
28493

Cherry Bombs
28494

Grape Limeade G5
28495

klwheat

Sun, 12th Nov 2017, 09:41 AM

Looks awesome! I won’t be able to be there today, but I’ll have to come check out the new setup one of these days.

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Justin

Sun, 12th Nov 2017, 11:43 AM

No worries.

So it took awhile for me to get the lights up on my light rack. Apparently, I goofed and made the rails a bit uneven causing issues with sliding the fixtures on the rails. With the help of my wife, we finally got all of the lights up, only to find that one of the new lights has a security issue that needs to be fixed by the fishbit guys. Shouldn't take awhile but will more than likely be fixed tomorrow or later in the week I hope. Till then, the one I have will have to do some double duty for a bit. They have 2x the number of LEDS as the old ones, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Justin

Tue, 14th Nov 2017, 12:21 PM

So I finally got my first ICP testing and results are kind of mixed. I need to google how to lower the following:

Aluminum: Mine is .07 and Fiji is .05
Arsenic: Mine is .03 and Fiji is .01 Surprisingly, Florida is pretty high at .04. It's a poison and I'm running Carbon as of last week, so I think its gone now
Boron: Mine is 8.74 and Fiji is 4.57
i could probably add Barium
I need to lower Iodine
increase my Potassium
My lithium is sky high: Mine 6.11 and Figi at .18
Add some Molybdenum
I need to lower my Silicon

28504

alton

Tue, 14th Nov 2017, 04:19 PM

Are you buffering your tank causing the high Boron?
Do you add Iodine explaining why you are testing high?? So many times I hear about reefers that dose Iodine, i never have, and see no reason too.

Justin

Tue, 14th Nov 2017, 05:07 PM

Nope, I'm not dosing anything save for what is in my Calcium Reactor and occasionally some AF vitamins and trace elements when I "squirt" my tank with my own mix of phytoplankton, nanochloropasts, reef roids and frozen rotifers.

I think I need to dump the mix and make my own without the vitamins and trace.

Justin

Wed, 15th Nov 2017, 04:50 PM

Lots of stuff going on today!

Today I got my order from Joe Knows Reef. Overall, the order was pretty good with frags packaged nicely and even had a thermal pad to keep them warm. The only negatives I could see were:

No freebie frags- I got freebie candy but that was it. I was under the impression there were going to be some free frags. Most due and its to the point where I get down right dissappointed if there aren't any

The frags weren't labeled. Luckily, I had pics from the auction to figure out what each frag was. Obviously, they were not the same color as the auction but some were pretty muted. In time, they will color up but its a shame that they were pretty subdued, but its to be expected with the weather being the way it is.

I will hand it to Joe that his frags were secured in what appears to be epoxy, so they were secured pretty well. I had some PE in the bags but after a dip, they were ****ed but I would rather be safe than sorry after dealing with the pests that I have had this year!

Here are some pics of the process:
https://i.imgur.com/0WkvSaJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UgJoqEG.jpg
Grapelimade
https://i.imgur.com/7MlY5EN.jpg
auction pic
28505
Cherry Bomb
https://i.imgur.com/XSLH2a2.jpg
28506
Fantasy Island Acro
https://i.imgur.com/R3x2ZBZ.jpg
28507
Tweety Bird
https://i.imgur.com/Bd7LEry.jpg
28508
Lemon drop acro
https://i.imgur.com/9toOipj.jpg
28509

Justin

Wed, 15th Nov 2017, 04:52 PM

The Holiday meeting was awesome and I was able to score on some pieces thanks to Thomas:

PC Rainbow
https://i.imgur.com/rQvWCaS.jpg

Red Dragon ( A huge frag of this guy)
https://i.imgur.com/O24fVLE.jpg

This morning I also some nice action down in my fuge as well. There was a crazy pod convention going on in my fuge and this is a video of it:

https://youtu.be/aJyMK1a7c08

SantaMonicaHelp

Wed, 15th Nov 2017, 09:34 PM

Nice one. ;)

-Kamran

Justin

Wed, 15th Nov 2017, 11:51 PM

Nice one. ;)

-Kamran
Thanks man. Now to see if my sticks will grow vertically.

Justin

Sat, 25th Nov 2017, 01:56 PM

I hope everyone had a great and safe Turkey Day. My day was pretty low key and low maintenance for the tank. I'm still waiting for my 2nd ICP test on my tank water. I think I'm going to test my SW Reservoir as well to see if I have Li in the water there. I'm a little concerned at the elevated levels and decided to post my questions and testing on R2R on Randy Holmes- Farley on thread for water parameters. Based on his comments and others, the 2 areas for potential concern were my Ca and Li levels. Not sure what caused my Li to increase except for possibly my Aqua Forest Vitamin Regiment or the Nano Chloroplasts. If anything, it could have been from AF. I have since stopped using it and curious to see if the levels have dropped or at least remained constant in my tank. If they are constant, they I know it came from the AF line.

Bottom line, I need to find a way to get it out of my tank. Short of several water changes, not sure how. I need to first see if the Li is present in my change water.

Aside from that, I was able to bring into the DT out of QT a few frags I picked up from auctions or trades. I did however slightly brown out and fade one of my Joe knows reef frags because I put it in too high of initial light. Once I saw this, I quickly moved it to another less bright location. I'm pretty proud of myself for being pro-active and making holes throughout my rock work and for frag DIY Frag plugs that I can swap out corals around my tank to suit their light and flow needs.

I'll have to post some pics tomorrow. Too tired from Black Friday shopping and I just got myself a few PS4 games that the nephews and I want to play. Really hooked on Horizon. Such a great game. My hopes is that my renewed interest in games will help me keep my hands out of my tank and let things grow.

Justin

Wed, 6th Dec 2017, 12:23 PM

Its been awhile since an update and for the most part everything is going well. I noticed that my effluent line for my Ca reactor was a little slower than normal and so I decided to take out my canisters and rinse them out to help free up any loose particles that could be causing a clogging.

I also finally setup a few items that I bought on the black friday sale BRS had. The gear I bought was:
Tunze Nano scraper
Tunze Long Scrapper
Bio Pure Big Block
Some carbon and GFO
Plumbing part to fix clean up the plumbing from my Ca Rx to my BRS 2 part reactor. Prior to this, I was using a series of transition tubing to include a latex tube that I found could possibly crack and make a mess over time. I also found some algae growing on the clear airline tubing part of my transition and decided that I need to go with a darker color...black

So what I did was order a 1/8 to 3/8 and then 3/8th to 1/2 to fit my BRS dual stage reactor. For the 3/8 and 1/2 tubing parts, I am using black rigid RO tubing to keep algae growth at bay and to avoid any areas of possible clogging of materials from the Ca Rx.
https://i.imgur.com/LjSId5s.jpg

Since I decided to keep my alk low at 7.5 to 8.0 dkh, I know that I need to watch my PO4 levels and keep things low to prevent the PO4 from Precipitating out the Alk and keeping my corals from absorbing the alk to build their skeletons and grow vertically!!! (an issue I seem to keep having in my tank). Since I'm currently using my BRS dual reactor as a secondary and tertiary release of CO2 from my system, I decided to go out and get myself some Nextreef reactors. I love these reactors and they can hold quite a bit of media, easy to clean, and you can swap out the connectors for murlock connectors, which I did. The problem is that the business went under so I had to go out and find some used ones. I had a spare one but needed another for Carbon. Fortunately, i found one locally but I sadly cracked the area where the canister meets the lid while loading up my car. So I had to go out and use some Weldon 16 to repair the crack and sadly, wait a few days for the seal to fully cure before use.

Now that I have them installed, I'm running roughly a 1 1/4 cups of media for both Carbon and GFO on my tank. Since I was burned in the past with burnt tips with too much GFO and stripping my tank, I was pleased to find that none of my sps frags showed the signs of burnt tips while using my GFO. So now, my tank cabinet is really cluttered and I need to clean up my cabling, which I was able to buy some 3d printed parts to help me with that. More on that in another posts.
https://i.imgur.com/S7Fjo3Z.jpg
I was able to also get some new frags of some nice pieces from my buddy Mike Z and also my beloved Minh's Tri Color which I banked with him years ago and repeatedly kill due to some stupid alk swings or another. Mike was nice of enough to give me a nice big frag for holding some of his corals, and it has been about a few days and my frag is looking nice and happy with some good PE. It was a super fast grower and show stopper for me in the past, and I hope it will continue to do well for me in the future!!!

Now for some pics:

Leftside of my tank
https://i.imgur.com/x0vBjvG.jpg

One of the sps racks on my right side:
https://i.imgur.com/r0EgFNk.jpg

I'll have to do an updated FTS when the lights come on at full blast

Justin

Wed, 6th Dec 2017, 12:38 PM

Since I'm now running GFO and carbon, I decided to run the output in my macrofuge to help create some more flow for my carpet nem and clowns to have. I hope the nem will love the extra flow to bring food into its mouth. I decided to make a quick video of my sump area for you guys:

https://youtu.be/tXX5KnaFAJ8

One thing I need to do now is clean up my wiring. I was able to order some 3D printing stuff from a local guy. I'm planning on doing an orange theme with the gear and I will eventually be taking my doors off and screwing the metal hardware off and painting them orange to help protect them a bit from rust and humidity on the sump. Here is a pic of the stuff I got:

Tubing holders

Red sea vial holder
Hanna Vial Holder
Mount for my kindle fire to make it a bit cleaner on the outside
https://i.imgur.com/OFRiVcQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/YkhnynC.jpg
If you would like to order some parts, check out https://printed3d.parts/shop

He is making quite a bit of pieces and can make custom pieces as well, just shoot him an email

Justin

Wed, 6th Dec 2017, 01:21 PM

Alright, I finally got my second ICP test report. THe isues with Li seem to be going down with the discontinued use of Aqua Forest dosing my tank:

https://i.imgur.com/PPLQlVG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Jtnq4dp.jpg

alton

Thu, 7th Dec 2017, 11:48 AM

Looks like everything is doing well. I used the Black Friday week at BRS to upgrade to a Chloramine Monster and get all new RO/DI Filters including a new membrane from BRS. I was tired of paying $60 for a 99% rejection membrane only to drop to 80% in 6 months.

Justin

Mon, 11th Dec 2017, 11:41 AM

Wow, that is a drastic change in efficiency after so little of time. Granted I try to change all of my filters in my RODI once a year, but 80% is allowing way too much through and way too costly to change. Marcello was mentioning that he was visually seeing his filters and rejection rates decrease in front of his.

My tank is now finally starting to really grow after stabilizing my alk, installing a GFO and carbon reactor. I'll have to shoot some pics of new growth, but I'm seeing tons of new growth on my new stag and even on my WD frag.

https://i.imgur.com/HNjLp8D.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xZ5bgar.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PdmVFNA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/n6fzAW0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kypgVrt.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1UtWNV9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7ZEDfvS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JxtTrWp.jpg

Justin

Mon, 8th Jan 2018, 01:42 PM

Its been awhile but I was dealing with some stuff on my tank. As many who have been reading my thread, and thank you for that, I am running a GEO reactor that feeds into a converted BRS Dual Reactor which in turn flows into my Macro area of my fuge to help with excess CO2 and the low pH coming out of my reactor. I know that most blogs, video, threads, say that you can set it and forget it on Calcium Reactors, I want to say that this is totally false and that you should be monitoring your Alk fairly religiously if not daily if you have the time to do so.

The reason behind my statement is that by testing my Alk on a daily basis, I use a HANNA checker, which makes it easier, I can tell what the consumption of my corals is and if they are happy or not. If I noticed the following:

My ALK drop sharply: My corals are happy and growing like crazy and I need to redial my reactor to the new consumption
My Alk is steady within a 10 point difference: My reactor is dialed in and my corals are consuming the alk that is consumed from my reactor
My Alk rises sharply: My corals are upset and no longer consuming Alk and are in "save/ hibernation" mode. Time to re dial the reactor or turn it off depending on the reading

Well about 2 weeks ago during the extreme cold weather we had recently, my tank starting sending me updates on my Temp dropping to below 77.0 to roughly 76.4 on a couple of days. I since adjusted my heater temp settings and things have stabilized. This one event is the only unknown variable I can determine that caused the following;

My corals stopped consuming as much Alk and my Reactor continued to add dissolved material into my tank spiking my alk to an 8.85 from a standard 7.8 to 8.0 standard alk setting that I keep my tank at. I have been using carbon and GFO and this month I went with 2 cups instead of 1.25 that I normally use. I thought my alk was low enough to prevent any alk burn on my acros and things were normally fine. However, due to the cold spike, my corals freaked out and shut down their consumption rates and the alk in my tank shot up and with the GFO, I started seeing the alk burn on some of my corals like:

Ty Farmer Blue Bonnet
PC Rainbow
Green Torch
Ty Farmer unknown
Minh Tri Color
Jason Fox Jack O Lantern Leptoseris
A bit on my Walt Disney
Purple Monster

Out of habit and curiosity, I test my Alk on a daily if not every two day basis to check for stability. I noticed the Alk slowly rising on my tank from 7.8 to 8.12, which typically happens at times to a 8.46 2 days later! With the holidays I didn't do anything like adjust the pH set point of the reactor, which I do to limit the amount of Alk in the system, and then I checked my water 2 days later on the 5th and saw it climb to 8.85. I freaked and reacted too quickly and ......

I turned off my CO2 regulator, and the Alk dropped down the next day to 7.11. No bueno for my torch, which is naturally sensitive to Alk swings. I saw the first signs in the form of a head that popped off and was sitting on the sand floor wedged between the floor and a rock. This was my first sign that the swing really upset it. Since then I have set my pH to 7.52 and my alk has slowly raised back to normal levels of 7.95. My corals are back to being happy and my alk has dropped down to 7.62pH. Another swing but not in the negative direction for my torch. Now I'm back to redialing my Co2 to get the right amount of alk in my tank for coral growth!

Bottom line, do not assume that everything is on auto pilot. If I did, I probably would have lost a lot if not all of my acros due to the steadily climbing Alk situation in my tank. Here is shot of my alk consumption over the holidays:
28546

Justin

Mon, 8th Jan 2018, 02:32 PM

Here are some pics of the alk damage to the following corals:

Ty Farmer Blue Bonnet
http://i.imgur.com/eatnglV.jpg (https://imgur.com/eatnglV)
My beautiful Green Torch
http://i.imgur.com/R9M8IqB.jpg (https://imgur.com/R9M8IqB)
JF Jack O Lantern
http://i.imgur.com/fROQf12.jpg (https://imgur.com/fROQf12)
Minh Tri Color - This is one of my favs and I always check to make sure it is doing well. This is the 4th frag from Mike Z, that he gave me after I first banked it with him. Minh lost his original colony so this one is rare to find locally.
http://i.imgur.com/3iwK6hO.jpg (https://imgur.com/3iwK6hO)
PC Rainbow- He is looking beat but still has PE, so I'm hoping it will recover
http://i.imgur.com/bnqgXNE.jpg (https://imgur.com/bnqgXNE)
Ty Farmer unknown
http://i.imgur.com/Yh2mY22.jpg (https://imgur.com/Yh2mY22)

Justin

Mon, 8th Jan 2018, 02:33 PM

I basically need to get myself the Apex and a Trident to help keep my Alk steady! Now I need to just save the money to get both :at_wits_end::cry_smile:

alton

Tue, 9th Jan 2018, 06:43 AM

I basically need to get myself the Apex and a Trident to help keep my Alk steady! Now I need to just save the money to get both :at_wits_end::cry_smile:

Ouch on what happened to your corals, but Lucky Eagle Casino is only a short drive away?

Justin

Tue, 9th Jan 2018, 10:16 AM

I know right, with my luck I could lose more money! My pH has stabilized at 7.78 this morning. So my past couple of readings is as follows:

1/2/18 -8.46 (Cause for concern but still acceptable by most standards)
1/5/18 - 8.85 (Crisis mode)
1/6/18 - 7.11 ( I shut the CO2 off, too drastic of a dip for my liking but now I'm in the zone I like to be in)
1/7/18 - 7.9 (CO2 back on and set for 7.52 pH cut off)
1/8/18 - 7.62 (Adjusted CO2 to 7.50)
1/9/18 - 7.73

Justin

Fri, 12th Jan 2018, 11:12 AM

So today is a good day and yesterday was a nightmare.

First off, I have been slowly seeing my Alk become steady with the following readings:

1/7/18 : 7.9 dkh
1/8/18 : 7.62 dkh
1/9/18 : 7.73 dkh
1/10/18: 7.73 dkh

And finally today my DKH was measuring at 7.56 dkh, looks like my corals are back to being happy and absorbing Alk again. Now to keep it that way and keep it steady. To get at this dkh, I set my apex to tune my Calcium reactor pH to 7.49. I think I will keep it here and stop tinkering with the pH. Lol, only time will tell.

So yesterday was a nightmare. I do not have the best of luck when updating my apex units and the process is a bit tedious and nerve racking. The last time I had to do this I somehow corrupted my EB8 power block and my system was out of commission for about a week while I was waiting for Apex to return my unit back to me. The worst part was that I had to go on vacation for a week during this time and my friend, who is not reef savvy, was nervous as hell to take care of the tank while the apex was out. Poor guy had to check manual timers and what not while I was talking to him over the phone and walking through the process with him.

So back to my story, I decided for some reason to try and upgrade my Apex units on a day that I had a client meeting at 130 in the day. It was roughly 10 am when I was bored and decided to attempt this feat. I first tried the software update on my frag tank which utilizes an Apex Jr. This went relatively smoothly and I thought upgrading my main system would be just as easy.....I was wrong!

As soon as I tried to do the update, my Apex system went into bootload mode, for those that do not know what this means; the whole system goes according to what you program you fallback statement to be. This meant that my WXM, which cannot have a fallback mode, shutdown which consequently shutdown my MP40's. My lights went out and for my original Rapidled Onyx lights that run off of cables, this was expected. My new lights are wireless but the power cords are plugged into an apex outlet to be programmed on off when the lights get too hot or if there is an issue, ie a fallback mode. So the following hit my tank for about an hr while I tried to get my system out of bootloader mode on a failed update launch.

My lights were out
WXM out and consequently MP40's
Heaters were out but I wasn't too worried about these
My Calcium reactor was out
skimmer out

Overall, not too much to worry about but it still is cause for concern. Considering I had no errors or issues with my frag tank. After re-attempting to load the update firmware 3x, I was able to get a good update and my apex cycled through the new programming and was able to turn back on. For about an hr, I was sweating bricks and worried I may have corrupted my system again!

The good news, I heard the new Apex system updates itself and based on my little misadventure, worth the heft price on the system. I will eventually upgrade to the new system for my main tank to be able to capitalize on the Trident module when it comes out.

Now that I have my system updated, I know can use my FMM module. I need to do a little research on setting up the module and getting the most out of my prize from Neptune last year!

Justin

Fri, 12th Jan 2018, 11:19 AM

Looking at my system, I am still perplexed on my slow growth rates on this tank versus the growth rate on my previous tank. Aside from a few new things, nothing has really changed with the exception of the following:

I was running Kent Marine Salt instead of the Instant Ocean I'm running now
I did water changes roughly every month
I am running a Calcium reactor now
My macro algae use is much higher now

With the Calcium reactor, I dont feel the need to do more water changes or at least montly ones but I might go back to Kent once I run out of my current instant ocean

I have been looking at perhaps I'm missing some trace elements or something in my water column. Based on my ICP test, my Iodine levels are a little low at .02, when some other natural reefs are at .05. Not too much of a difference but maybe enough of a change. I have read that NO3 is needed as well as some PO4 for coral growth. I might go back to dosing a bit of NO3 in my tank and measure the results for a month. If nothing changes, then I will stop my NO3 dosing and try my Iodine levels and test for a month.

I think this month I will start with Iodine first and test with 2 drops of Lugols per week and pair it with some ICP testing to verify my Iodine levels and see if I am getting any absorption from my corals. If I notice it, then hopefully that was the missing piece.

Its annoying but the detective work is kind of interesting to me

Justin

Sat, 20th Jan 2018, 04:05 PM

Here is an updated FTS:

http://i.imgur.com/1i0Cpio.jpg (https://imgur.com/1i0Cpio)

Left Side:

http://i.imgur.com/a0s1dJf.jpg (https://imgur.com/a0s1dJf)

Right Side
http://i.imgur.com/R0UuEXX.jpg (https://imgur.com/R0UuEXX)

Justin

Mon, 22nd Jan 2018, 12:29 PM

So I borrowed the Par Meter this weekend and managed to take some readings with the following PAR Maps of my tank:

http://i.imgur.com/5O1xUx5.jpg (https://imgur.com/5O1xUx5)

Fuge Below: I need to get a brighter light if I plan to have some nems for my clowns to host in and survive:
http://i.imgur.com/lCTiAew.jpg (https://imgur.com/lCTiAew)

I can also put them in a basket and float them

and my frag tank
http://i.imgur.com/FNwZAPm.jpg (https://imgur.com/FNwZAPm)

This one needs an overhaul in the lights. I might be replacing my Chinese Black boxes for my 2 remaining apex lights and have them on a 100% so I don't have to worry about programming them. I have some spare moon lights I can use as well.

My Corona programming so far:
http://i.imgur.com/ITEKI19.png (https://imgur.com/ITEKI19)

Justin

Mon, 22nd Jan 2018, 12:32 PM

Last night I was messing around with my black light and took the following shots of m some of my LPS with their feeding tentacles out and happy:

Dragon Soul Favia
http://i.imgur.com/EC7NM7o.jpg (https://imgur.com/EC7NM7o)

My trump coral frag that is for sale
http://i.imgur.com/dnUK8ha.jpg (https://imgur.com/dnUK8ha)
http://i.imgur.com/0BB7b0G.jpg (https://imgur.com/0BB7b0G)

One of my Tiger tails stretching out:
http://i.imgur.com/Hg9NKYZ.jpg (https://imgur.com/Hg9NKYZ)

Trumpet mother colony:

http://i.imgur.com/xIsS65j.jpg (https://imgur.com/xIsS65j)

Justin

Tue, 23rd Jan 2018, 06:05 PM

Couple of upgrades to the tank. The other day I had a hard time taking one of my doors off due to rust from the prolonged saltwater exposure in the sump area. I saw a video from Reefer Gil on how he used spray paint to protect the metal but also add a bit of color to his tank stand. So in the spirit of Neptune Apex, I decided to paint my hardware a flat orange color. Let me say, it came out nice:

Here are some pics
http://i.imgur.com/WfsFfp2.jpg (https://imgur.com/WfsFfp2)
http://i.imgur.com/w9Z3CVt.jpg (https://imgur.com/w9Z3CVt)

Here is a pic of my system with all of the doors off:
http://i.imgur.com/q5DJSWk.jpg (https://imgur.com/q5DJSWk)

I also decided to take the advice of Mike Zimmerman and start using the Zeovit 4 color system. Last night I went with 20ml of each bottle ( the instructions require 30ml but I wanted to be cautious). You are supposed to dose this system once per week, so I'll monitor the system for about a month or two and see how it does.
http://i.imgur.com/JpAPfAB.jpg (https://imgur.com/JpAPfAB)

Troy Valentine

Wed, 24th Jan 2018, 12:26 AM

Hi Justin

Your tank looks really good! those are really good PAR numbers Justin! I wish mine were that good.
Good luck on the Zeovit additives.

alton

Wed, 24th Jan 2018, 09:38 AM

Did you paint your hinges orange?

Justin

Thu, 25th Jan 2018, 01:56 PM

I did, I saw a guy I follow on Youtube called Reefer Gil do it and it looked really nice. Not to mention that I want to limit or eliminate the exposure of my hinges to rust from the surrounding sea spray in the sump. I also painted the screws as well and I have to say that it looks really nice. I like the sharp contrast of the black stand with the orange hinges. Its not too glaring but definitely pops!

Justin

Thu, 25th Jan 2018, 03:17 PM

Hi Justin

Your tank looks really good! those are really good PAR numbers Justin! I wish mine were that good.
Good luck on the Zeovit additives.

Thanks Troy. My numbers have been pretty solid so far. I get a bit of variance with my Calcium Reactor but its within acceptable ranges I believe. I dosed NO3 and PO4 and I have to say that my tank gobbles up PO4 very quickly. I dosed PO4 last week and the reading gives me a 0 on my Hanna meter. I'm going to dose the amount suggested by the brand at the bottle of:

.8VP = M

Where V is the volume of my water in gallons, P is the PPM level I am looking for and M is the measurement in mL of the amount to dose.

I'm going to get a gauge on how long it takes to consume the PO4 and figure out a dosing regiment with it. I also tested my NO3 today and it read 1.5 today vs my last reading 4ppm yesterday and the day before after dosing 16mL on the 18th. I'm starting to feel great about how well my tank is doing and I'm starting to look forward to seeing some serious growth. Already, I'm noticing new growth tips on several of my corals since I lowered the lights to the most recent PAR shared.

Justin

Fri, 2nd Mar 2018, 11:31 AM

Man time sure flies. Its been quite awhile since I've done any updating. I have pretty much been putting a lot of my notes in the Apex Fusion tool to keep track of changes and what not to my tank.

Here are some notes that I have been taking:

28584

Some of the things that I have been doing on the tank have been installing some equipment that I have been dragging my butt on.

Installing a Skimmate locker to reduce the frequency of me having to empty the skimmer cup
https://imgur.com/4Y6w8qc

I took down my (2) Nextreef reactors and replumbed my BRS Dual reactor for just carbon and pillow stuffing. Since I use the outflow of the reactors for flow in my Macro Fuge, I had to redo the tubing so that it can flow back into the Macro Fuge. The only problem is that it was to flow from one side to the other side of the tank and back to the other side again to go back into my fuge. It's a nightmare but that's how I have the reactor installed to save space.

With one of the reactors, I converted it into a 2nd chamber for my Calcium Reactor to help with the excess CO2
http://i.imgur.com/WVkRizy.jpg (https://imgur.com/WVkRizy)

Lastly, I got a sweet deal on a beautiful Sherman for my poor Onyx clowns that exist in my fuge. If you recall, I kept my clowns in the sump because they were getting stung by my now deceased Green Torch (I'll talk about it later). To help make this space more of a home instead of a punishment, I have been on the market for a nem to put with them.

I love anemones in reef tanks but I HATE how they move in a tank and cause issues with stinging and possibly getting shredded by a power head. To skirt this, I decided to put the nem in my fuge with my clowns. Here it is in all its glory

http://i.imgur.com/EO9uJ2z.jpg (https://imgur.com/EO9uJ2z)

Justin

Fri, 2nd Mar 2018, 11:51 AM

So I mentioned the issue earlier, which I seem to have issues with for some time now, is with my Alk fluctuating. I love using a calcium reactor for its ease of use and the ability to add exactly what the corals need in the form of Alk, Calcium and trace elements for building their skeletons. The issue I have been having is trying to get my Calcium reactor dialed in with the demands of my tank. After a point, I just sort of gave up on my reactor when I discovered that my pH probe was busted and that my tank was experiencing some moments of high alk and then low alk levels. No bueno for anyone with SPS frags or even some LPS. Due to the fluctuations, I lost my prize Neon Green Torch colony. This loss really hit me hard as I had taken care of that colony since it was a single head and I accidentally cracked it while trying to move it from its frag plug.

After talking with a buddy of mine, Awais, about my issues and how he is running his reactor. He directed me toward the following thread that talks about using a medical grade peristaltic pump to handle the drawing of reactor effluent into my tank.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2368618

I had mentioned in earlier posts that my effluent line would frequently get clogged or the rate would be inconsistent, which would add to my issues with my tank. Awais was kind enough to let me borrow a spare pump to try on my system and let me tell you....I am sold on them. This thing is beautiful and super easy to program and leave it alone to do its thing. To plumb it, I had to take my reactor feed line off of my manifold and put the line into my fuge and set the pump to pull water from my fuge into my reactor and then back into my tank again. This is thing works flawlessly and I have been able to set my flow rate and walk away. The only issue I had so far is that I failed to realize that the feed entry point was open and my brand new sherman let itself get sucked in. Once I saw this, I freaked out and immediately created a strainer, which you can see in my previous post, to prevent the nem from doing it again. With that said, here are some pics:

The Master Flex pump
http://i.imgur.com/N2Tzbew.jpg (https://imgur.com/N2Tzbew)

A shot of the tubing that enters the pump and then exits back toward my tank
http://i.imgur.com/eHRo9RA.jpg (https://imgur.com/eHRo9RA)

The blue line is my ATO line, which lives in the space behind my tank in what would have been a master closet but is now a storage area in my house

And once again my GEO Reactor
http://i.imgur.com/WVkRizy.jpg (https://imgur.com/WVkRizy)

I am still working on dialing my reactor down but I am getting pretty close to getting it set. With this Master Flex pump, it is so much easier to dial in my effluent rate. I had mine originally set for the following:

Reactor pH: 6.5
Effluent: 50ml/ min

This proved to be too much and I have since had it dialed in over the past couple of days to the following:
reactor pH: 6.8
Effluent: 70ml/ min

I have been monitoring my Alk over the course of the week and after the initial spike after seeing I set the parameters too low, which spiked my alk up to 10dkh. It has since slowly been coming down to now 9.18dkh. I am working to let the Alk slowly dip back down to 8.5 dkh, at which time I should be completely dialed in to my tank's needs. Its was bumpy at first but not things are getting pretty smooth. I'm finally starting to see growth on corals that I didn't normally see it on and whole new frags growing from where some of my colonies had encrusted and I since moved to another spot and now I have the coral growing in two places:

New fire coral frags growing
http://i.imgur.com/2fpFlyr.jpg (https://imgur.com/2fpFlyr)

Bottom left of my Tri Color Valida colony. The color is still off but its growing again!
http://i.imgur.com/MhkqmbF.jpg (https://imgur.com/MhkqmbF)

an Unknown but beautiful acro I have
http://i.imgur.com/JBVviiM.jpg (https://imgur.com/JBVviiM)

same acro with new bud growth everywhere
http://i.imgur.com/ycc3ulk.jpg (https://imgur.com/ycc3ulk)

And its fairly a new frag but this Echinata is showing new growth "nubs"
http://i.imgur.com/3rOFtm4.jpg (https://imgur.com/3rOFtm4)

Justin

Fri, 2nd Mar 2018, 12:02 PM

So since my tank is finally starting to come around. I was bullish and pulled the trigger on some nice frags from Pieces of the Ocean. One of my fav pieces is a Peach Spathulata. Which is one of my favorite types of SPS along with Suharsonoi's that I don't have in my tank. I had a few pieces years ago but lost them in a move. Now I'm starting my collection up again:
Unbagging
http://i.imgur.com/SlJ75tw.jpg (https://imgur.com/SlJ75tw)
Pink Tip Acro
http://i.imgur.com/mTpWqWL.jpg (https://imgur.com/mTpWqWL)
Bad pic
Blue Jade
http://i.imgur.com/c0uN92E.jpg (https://imgur.com/c0uN92E)
Peach Spathulata
http://i.imgur.com/EW5iv3U.jpg (https://imgur.com/EW5iv3U)

I saw took a quick video of my flow and polyp movement of my Pink Tip

https://youtu.be/szKyftvHf3M

I have read that the flow in a tank should be just strong enough to slightly move your sand. I quickly discovered that I was getting a bald spot in a particular spot. To avoid constantly moving the sand back, I placed some 3" frag disc in the spot and move the sand around the discs. This seems to help with the spot. I certainly don't want to adjust my flow or the rock work so this work around is perfect

http://i.imgur.com/l2yXv5n.jpg (https://imgur.com/l2yXv5n)

Justin

Fri, 2nd Mar 2018, 12:03 PM

I was looking at my photos taken from my Samsung and I have come to the realization that I need to start using my DSLR to get at least some decently focused pics for this thread.

Justin

Sun, 11th Mar 2018, 11:28 AM

Preparation can save you so much heartache!!!!

Last night as I working on building some outdoor furniture, I came in to get some water and chill in front of the tank when I noticed that my Return pump kept power cycling back and forth. If this was my first time, I would have been super worried and panicking but since this is now my 2nd situation, I was mentally prepared.

As an FYI, i currently was running a SICCE 4.0 pump since the start of this tank. I had a 4.0 on my previous tank where this situation happened. Fortunately for me, I am a bit of a pack rat with reef gear and I had several Rio pump leftover, specifically 1700 and a 2100 pump. Hearing the pump cycle several times and my apex blowing my cell phone up with several alert text messages, I swapped out my returns and reorganized my wiring to make it easier to do maintenance. Sicce pumps come with like 8 ft of power cable, which is a hassle to deal with when you have so many other cables and run them into an electric cabinet.

I thought something was fishy when my FMM module would show my flow rate drop from 700 to 400 over the course of a month and half. Thinking nothing of it, I just chocked it up to random fluid dynamics. After installing my Rio pump, I have noticed that my flow has been fairly steady sitting from 530 to 525! Installing this FMM has really let me see the performance of my pump and consequently my system.

Since so much is hooked up or programmed to my return being on, I took a quick second to verify that I had redundancy within my tank for such an incident. Currently I have the following items tied in with my Return Pump:

Calcium reactor recirc pump
Carbon reactor which also provides flow in my macro fuge for my Sherman Anemone ( This guy needs more flow so I hooked up a small Powerhead and tied it in with my return plug)
Skimmer

If I lose my Return, I have the following backups to keep life going in the main tank:

(2) MP 40's for flow
Spare Heater in the Overflow section of the tank

The only things I would lose would be everything in my macro fuge, sherman and in my cryptic zone. If the power was out for too long and these environments were to start dying it would pose a problem for my tank when the return picked back up. Fortunately, I have a backup generator still in its original packaging for power and some battery bubblers for some flow and oxygen. The beauty of these environment is that they like little to no flow so using the bubblers would be the perfect amount of flow for them.

alton

Mon, 12th Mar 2018, 06:03 AM

You bring up a great issue of keeping spare pumps and heaters just in case. I keep a Pan World pump with the same fittings as my Ecotech M1 so if there is a failure it is a quick swap on my 180. I also keep a spare Rio for my office tank.

Justin

Tue, 13th Mar 2018, 09:22 AM

Yea redundancy in this hobby is mission critical to say the least! Although I am nowhere near the level of Ty, I plan to get there someday. So far I have the following backups in place:

Plenty of spare Rio 1700's just in case my 2100 craps out; as well as spare propellers
I currently run 2 heaters in my tank, one in the overflow and the other in my macro fuge; with another 2 smaller heaters for just in case
I have a spare Gyre 250 I won on an auction in case my MP40's crap out on me.
I also have a spare MP40 Wetside and a spare Driver for just in case. Eventually I'll have to find myself a dry side spare as well
I Micro bubble scrub in my tank to help boost the efficiency of my skimmer but with the macro algae I have, going without my skimmer and feeding a bit less would not hurt my tank
I use both LED and T5's to light my tank. So if my LED's go out, I still have my T5 bulbs and vice versa. I also have a spare 4ft Halide/ T5 combo I could also jury rigged temporarily
I also have a large 60 gallon container for my salt water that I try to keep full in addition to a 30 gallon RODI unit that I can quickly process into Salt Water. I will eventually create a 3rd container to help degas CO2 and reduce the need to change out my DI resin so frequently. I will swap out my 40 gallon to hold RO water with an air stone to help degas the CO2 in the water. From there I will pump this water through my resin and into a 55 gallon food grade drum to store my RODI. Basically giving me the ability to store roughly 155 gallons of water!

TexasTodd

Sat, 24th Mar 2018, 09:32 AM

Great thread and so nice you continue to update.

Calcium reactors can do amazing things to a tank . Probably the healthiest I've seen any of my systems was with one, but, they are so tricky and I couldn't get thing right without GFO. GFO is also tricky. Combined was too tricky for me. I did notice the corals seemed to be more solid / less fragile than just using kalkwasser.

Todd

Justin

Fri, 20th Apr 2018, 10:17 AM

It has been quite some time since my last update. Some big changes were that I was gone for about 10 days traveling throughout Peru and visiting a friend that has been teaching English for about a year and half now. The trip was awesome, but my tank sure suffered while I was gone. Now I don't know exactly what happened to my tank but I can only speculate that my nutrients ran pretty low with less than normal feeding, my alk was fluctuating and my lighting was set to support a certain amount of nutrient levels. When those levels were low, the light was too intense and my corals went into shock. Again, I honestly do not know what happened to my tank. All I can say is that since I have been back, i have been keeping an eye on my alk levels and feeding heavily again. I also stopped all forms of automatic dosing which included taking my CO2 tank offline. To keep the media still active, I still use my Masterflex to pull water from my macro fuge through my reactor and back into my system.

I have also set my tank down to a dkh of 7.5. Mainly to match the levels of the tank of Oceanlife Aquariums. Prior to my trip, I won a frag pack from Oceanlife but with the trip coming up I asked to have the frags delivered after I returned from my trip. I also had won some live sale auctions from Fraghouse corals as well and asked for those to be delivered. Must have been providence because I had some bleaches in my tank and now I had some replacements to keep my tank full.

After coming back, I decided to test my alk daily to get a gauge on how well my corals are bouncing back. For the first couple of days after I hit 7.5dkh, I noticed that I needed to dose about 20 to 40 ml of Soda Ash to maintain my levels. The past couple of days, I noticed that my corals seem to be happier and my consumption has slowly climbed to 40 to 60 ml of Soda Ash daily. To maintain this, I decided to use a BRS 1.3ml/ min Doser and set it to dose 20ml from 2200 to 0800 to keep dkh somewhat up. For the difference, I'm going to be dosing that manually for awhile until I can gauge that my consumption has picked up where I need to increase consumption via a Reactor of some kind.

My idea is to go back to basics and keep things super simple with this tank, since I keep having issues with it. During my investigative stage, I found out that my returns were not pushing enough flow, it was more of a trickle and I started thinking that my tank was not getting enough processed water from my macro fuge, skimmer and carbon reactor and this could have added to the issues. So I took down my manifold and had my return shoot water through to my 2 returns with no other hindrances. Now my flow is significantly more and I would like to think that my DT is getting more processed water from my sumps.

I also found that my pH was significantly low staying around 7.8 and as slow as 7.65 at times. Thinking it had something to do with my house being super energy efficient and the number of people that hang out around the tank. I decided to hook my CO2 scrubber back to my Skimmer intake as well as my microbubble scrubber pump. The pH has since raised back up to an average of 8.26 during the day and a 8.0 at night. Much much better. All in all, I'm hoping the tweaks and modification will turn my luck around and get this tank back up and running.

Sierra_Bravo

Fri, 20th Apr 2018, 09:20 PM

My wife is from Peru. It's been quite awhile since I've been there. I sure hope you had a decent food guide while you were visiting; Peru has amazing food with a lot of variety. While we lived in South Florida I took for granted being able to eat it whenever I wanted - I'd kill for a good Peruvian restaurant in San Antonio. Luckily my wife cooks quite a few dishes she learned from her mom.

Sorry to hear about your tank. Every time I go out of town I dread what I'm walking back to. I've been lucky.

I started using a scrubber not to long ago myself feeding it from the skimmer cup. Similar to yours I saw an increase from 7.9 to 8.1 and things took off in the tank. I'm also lowering my dkh to stay around 7.9 whereas before I was trying to maintain 8.5. My tank seems to like being at that lower number. Heck, Adam from BattleCorals runs his tanks even lower. I'm not sure why people push theirs to 10 or 11.

Good luck with getting things back in shape.

Justin

Sun, 22nd Apr 2018, 01:03 PM

Thanks Man. The food was AMAZING! There is a decent joint off of Bandera and I think Eckhert or Huebner that I've been to that's not too bad.

I'm hoping that with the increase in pH, things will start to take off. It gets a bit depressing seeing stuff start to bleach or ****ed off and you have no idea what is going on. I'm planning on doing a 30 gallon water change later today but I need the temp to rise a bit more in brute trashcan before doing the WC. My buddy Brandon mentioned to me to check the Calcium levels on my tank as well as those will get depleted as well. Not sure why I didn't think of this sooner, but I also decided to test my Calcium levels and found that I dropped from 445 to 405 over the course of 3 days. Putting my consumption of Calcium at roughly 150 ml/ day. I'm going to play it safe and set my BRS doser to dose about 100ml per day. I calibrated my doser and it pumps at roughly .75 ml/ min and not the advertised 1.1 ml/ min. If using a BRS Doser, or any doser for that matter. Be sure to calibrate it to make sure you know the exact rate of your doser. Here is the programming for my Calcium Doser:

Fallback OFF
OSC 030:00/011:06/018:54 Then ON
If Time 21:00 to 08:59 Then OFF

I will continue to monitor both Alk and Calcium and hope that I coming closer to streamlining my tank toward the positive direction.

Sierra_Bravo

Sun, 22nd Apr 2018, 09:03 PM

Just remember the pH kicking up with the CO2 scrubber usually creates a very rapid rise in alk depletion and you will need to re-adjust as it levels out.

TexasTodd

Mon, 23rd Apr 2018, 07:12 AM

Justin

Wed, 25th Apr 2018, 05:47 AM

Thanks for the update Justin. Sorry for the issues. Extended trips are really tough if you don't have someone adept at reef tanks to check in on it. You might check with your favorite shop owner next time. Even if it costs you a bit, it's worth it. Glad Brandon mentioned your calcium; I was wondering the same.
Todd

Thanks man. Yea, I'm glad he mentioned it because my Ionic balance would have been out of sync and cause who knows what kind of problems. The tank so far has been fairly steady. I did however change a few things:

I decided to dose my alk throughout the day instead of only at night to avoid creating spikes in my dosing and consumption.
I'm also looking into re-instating my manifold but have a separate pump power it instead of the return to keep the flow the same back into the main system
With the manifold back on line, I'm also thinking about putting my UV filter back online. I was doing some research on some bacteria that likes to target weakened SPS and causing them to STN. Not sure if that is what I have but I have a Sterilizer that is about 18 watts that i can use. Eventually, I might upgrade it to something stronger just to be on the safe side. I don't see too many negatives and having clearer water and hopefully, if I have it, killing this bacteria will be a huge win.

So far so good in terms of consistency with my system. As my consumption picks up, I will more than likely have to stop the 2 part dosing and go back to my Calcium reactor but I don't anticipate doing that for several months if not next year. By then, hopefully I will have developed some nice little colonies again.

Justin

Wed, 25th Apr 2018, 10:17 AM

Today was a good day. I did my routine daily testing of both Alk and Ca and had no need to dose anything. First time in a long time that I did not see any fluctuations in Alk and Calcium.

TexasTodd

Wed, 25th Apr 2018, 05:27 PM

Justin

Mon, 30th Apr 2018, 11:09 AM

Nice. Yeah, I think UV is good. Personally I like 03 better, but it's more expensive and a little trickier...but doesn't add heat. I always ran mine low and only at night. I'm no guru at it, but there are things a UV or 03 break down that then lets a skimmer remove that a skimmer can't pull before the conversion. I'm sure a chemist on here can explain! Benefits beyond just the bacterial / infection benefits.

Thats good to know. I know there are a lot of great things that a UV or Ozone can eradicate and then you later skim out. I thought about Ozone a long time ago but its just too much I think for me to handle. I hear the benefits are really good but I just don't want to have deal with another hard core piece of equipment. Calcium Reactors are at the top of the list until I eventually get a KH Guardian or Trident to help me out.

I did however eventually bought myself an Apex 2016 head unit to upgrade my system. BRS had it on sale for $350 and with about 80 or 90 of BRS cash and some other side cash I had from doing store audits, it came out to about $200 bucks for an upgrade to my apex and I can now get auto updates and free up a much needed outlet on my power strip for something else or another EB8 or EB832!

I also scored on some awesome pieces at L*MAR this year. I'll have to do another post with plenty of pics of the haul and an updated FTS.

TexasTodd

Mon, 30th Apr 2018, 11:33 AM

I had $440 vaporize from my wallet at LMAR. Good stuff though.
I always ran my O3 at night only when nobody was in the room, so no worries about health issues.

Justin

Mon, 30th Apr 2018, 04:30 PM

I had $440 vaporize from my wallet at LMAR. Good stuff though.
I always ran my O3 at night only when nobody was in the room, so no worries about health issues.

I ended up spending about as much. I picked up the following:

Matt V Psycho Asylum
Pink Floyd (Banked it with a friend)
Maleficient (Banked it with a friend)
Pink Cadillac (Banked it with a friend)
JF Foxflame
JF Jack O Lantern
Bizarro Cyphastrea
Alex Fischer Ice Bane
Unknown Tort

Justin

Tue, 8th May 2018, 10:39 AM

Its been awhile since I posted some pics.

https://i.imgur.com/CKimsqW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zMdIYGF.jpg (https://imgur.com/zMdIYGF)
https://i.imgur.com/ETSzOB5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/s5uL3St.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/elQFtJv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xAFqpQK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4YDdsLL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7gJeAKb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8IxD0bu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/O8mQJi7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4oYR83g.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aZBaWAd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1xpW7ZK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/T5mnSV9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/iH38ZM9.jpg

Justin

Tue, 8th May 2018, 10:43 AM

Here are some pics of my haul from LMAR this year:

JF Foxflame
https://i.imgur.com/swEVddF.jpg
Red Hyacinth
https://i.imgur.com/O8mQJi7.jpg
Freebie Tenius from Uchin
https://i.imgur.com/35R2lZs.jpg
Matt V Psycho Asylum
https://i.imgur.com/T5mnSV9.jpg
Purple Orchid
https://i.imgur.com/zUtTnn3.jpg

I also got some corals from Mike Zimmerman, mainly one I banked with him years ago

Minh's Tricolor
https://i.imgur.com/xxqJe2K.jpg
Blue Voodoo
https://i.imgur.com/scXCper.jpg

JF Jack O Lantern
https://i.imgur.com/Ong8F5B.jpg

Justin

Tue, 8th May 2018, 10:46 AM

And some of my fish
Black Leopard Wrasse and Obilgate Cardinal
https://i.imgur.com/HZFJc2X.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OBL0NCR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3h7EHC7.jpg
African Exquisite Wrasse
https://i.imgur.com/aROarEn.jpg
"Dennis" our foxface
https://i.imgur.com/8C18OAl.jpg
"Vlad" our Vampire Kiss Tang
https://i.imgur.com/zwU7ibE.jpg

and some side shots of the tank
https://i.imgur.com/avgbWfv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nxwX0zR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DdKTTiN.jpg

Justin

Fri, 1st Jun 2018, 11:07 AM

Redundancy is crucial

I had learned from my buddy Ty Farmer the importance of having a backup to your system. Although, I do not have exactly 100% redundency of all my gear and life support system in my tank. I will say that I am slowly working towards this goal and started by having:

spare Jebao pumps, not used in the tank currently
Battery Backup for each of my MP40's
I have a Gyre 250 that I won on an auction that I have not opened up yet
I bought a Jebao DCP 3000 DC pump and plan to get another and have them plumbed in parallel and tied to each other via the apex. When one is shown to decrease in power consumption, the apex will rev the next one up to compensate for the flow. Still working on how to get this down
I use both T5 and LED lights for my lighting. The newer models that I have are not connected to the Apex except via an outlet that turns on the power plugs. The lights themselves are wifi and get their programming via Wifi
I have 2 heaters in my tank; one in the overflow box and the other in the sump

Well...my pre-planning proved to be so beneficial when the evening of the MAAST meeting, my tank started crashing. I had no clue what was going on but I noticed that my return was off, my skimmer had overflowed (its programmed to turn off if the return is off) due to the increased water height and overfilled my skimmate container, which in turn flooded my sump basin and triggered the leak detector but DID NOT turn off my return or ATO line. My ATO continued to turn on and my heaters were not coming on. When I checked my Apex Fusion, I discovered that all of my outlets on my EB8 that controlled my main stuff were greyed and not recognized and I had a bunch of new tiles. After determining it was not a bad aquabus cable, I turned my sights on the EB8 power bar or my Apex head unit.

To make a long story short, I discovered that when my Apex controller unit would lose power, the EB8 would also lose power, expected, but when it gets power again, it instead of following the normal programming, would install itself as a new EB8 and have its own default programming that would be set on. Hence some things were off and others were on as well as any switches or leak detectors that were linked would not work as the outlet was no longer "connected".

I originally thought it was my controller unit and so I luckily scored on an Apex 2016 head unit that was on sale on BRS but I failed to hook it up due to it being too wide for my equipment cabinet. Once I moved everything over and simulated a power outage, the EB8 did the same thing. Leading me to believe that it is the EB8 that is faulty. I then took my mission critical items off the power supply and plugged them directly into an outlet. This would be my return and heaters. I then decided that I needed an another EB8 or....get myself the EB832 to go with my 2016 apex. Since none of my lfs's carried any in town, I bought one off BRS to earn some points toward the Trident eventually and also a ext power supply for my controller head unit. This power supply will be plugged into a UPS as well as the EB8 that houses my return, skimmer, and a heater. Eventually, I will save some cash to get myself another EB832 to replace my other EB8 and plan to re-distribute my key essential equipment between the various Power blocks on my apex system.

Justin

Fri, 1st Jun 2018, 11:15 AM

Once I submit my faulty EB8 to Neptune for repair, I will have a backup EB8 and a backup head unit, granted it is a Classic head. I also realized that my WXM was acting up and would lose my MP40's and they would go dark. I cleared the memory of my MP40's, but one occasionally shows as missing but still works. My concern is if the WXM acts up again and my MP40's shut off due to lack of communication to my Apex Controller. This is odd as each of my MP40's has a backup but if they lose communication to the WXM, they power down. To offset this, I'm debating on the 2 solutions:

Take my MP40's off the WXM to keep them independent. I would lose my variable profile switching that I created but would have a safety in case my WXM has an issue again
I have a single 250 Gyre and currently working on getting another pump. The Gyre I have, has a controller that can control another pump. I might plan to setup a gyre on either side of my tank and synced together with the controller that is independent of my Apex. My only concerns are flow and position in the tank. Due to the sleek design, I might put them on the back wall and at a very low speed to just create a gentle current that still allows for flow around my corals but I can rev up in case of my WXM acting up again

I also need to create a float sensor for my skimmate cup to shut off my skimmer in the event it overfills my skimmate container.

alton

Fri, 1st Jun 2018, 04:13 PM

My controller runs heater and lights. Pumps are on their own.

Justin

Sat, 2nd Jun 2018, 10:52 AM

Its good to have them seperate but then again you don't get the customization as I would with the WXM. Still I like the idea of having gyres as backup for flow

Justin

Mon, 4th Jun 2018, 02:50 PM

Thought I'd post some videos I shot today

https://youtu.be/C0e2g5NKt4U

https://youtu.be/CHeolMNGvbA

https://youtu.be/PE9vd-QjDyA

Left Side
http://i.imgur.com/CqlJCz4.jpg (https://imgur.com/CqlJCz4)

Center
http://i.imgur.com/Z5efTJX.jpg (https://imgur.com/Z5efTJX)

Right Side
http://i.imgur.com/0If9LC8.jpg (https://imgur.com/0If9LC8)

Justin

Fri, 8th Jun 2018, 12:09 PM

So a couple of days ago I scored on a Gyre 250 pump on ebay and it arrived yesterday. I had originally won a complete pump and controller on an auction from Oceanlife aquariums. I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to create a backup flow pattern for my tank in the event that my Apex craps out on me again. I had noticed during my recent outage, that both my MP40 controllers were blank because they were "slaved" to the WXM on my controller.

With that said, I put each of my pumps on either side of my tank facing toward the center of my display and opposing each other. I liked this arrangement as I could basically add a gyre on either side of my tank and also get some good rippling action to break up the oil slick I was starting to see a bit on my water surface. I wanted to imitate the flow pattern advertised by the guys at BRS but to do that for the period of time that they mentioned, the gyres would need to be programmed by an apex. This would defeat the purpose of having the gyres so I stuck with the default programming that allows the pump to alternate back and forth between the two. The only issue is that the pumps do this every 20 seconds and ramp up to a level of about 20%. Anymore and the flow would be way to strong and cause issues with my sps and sand.

I do have options now. I could do the following:

Stick with current setup with the Gyre's independent of the Apex and MP 40's programmed by the WXM
Have the Gyre's programmed by the Apex and use the programming that BRS has for the rolling Gyre across the tank and put the MP40's on their own on possibly reef crest or Lagoon mode

This new option adds a bit more cost as I would need to get the Apex interface box for each of the boxes, which is hefty penny to say the least. I could certainly use the funds for something else on my tank. I think I'll just play with this current assortment for awhile and gauge my thoughts on changing it later in the year or next year.
http://i.imgur.com/GxOIItK.jpg (https://imgur.com/GxOIItK)
http://i.imgur.com/wthpRrR.jpg (https://imgur.com/wthpRrR)
https://youtu.be/QM9G2ndUKiY

Sierra_Bravo

Fri, 8th Jun 2018, 12:43 PM

If part of the concern is maintaining flow if there is an issue with power, keep using the Gyre controller separate from the Apex and buy an Icecap battery backup. That will allow you to have one of the Gyres continue to work off the battery backup at whatever power level you designate on the Gyre controller when you set that option.

I have two XF-250's and run them on a custom program in which the first pump has a steady flow at 30% while the second pump pulses random up to 60%. The pattern then alternates every three hours with the second pump on constant and the first on random pulse. I borrowed this from WWC's flow patterns. I then have two 2100 GPH powerheads that do alternating 3 second pulses to create additional random currents and eddies. I did it this way because down the road I can point the directional powerheads wherever I feel I might need additional flow.

Even with all that I don't get too much sand moving around. It moves a little, but not where it is problematic. I'm surprised you are getting it blown around on 20%.

Justin

Fri, 8th Jun 2018, 01:08 PM

Thanks Man. You commented before I could make another post. I will for sure get myself a battery backup for my gyre's so that I have them on a backup as well. I love the flow that that the Gyre's offer and the water movement at the top of the tank and causing the ripples is really cool to see. I honestly get sand movement on the right side of my tank only. I think this is because of the rock layout as well as the MP40 that is now coupled with the gyre on that side. I'm not too concerned as it helps keep my sand clean with the subtle movement from the flow.

I still get a little upset knowing that I have each of my MP40's, total of 2, on a battery backup but when the Apex craps out, they go blank. Totally defeats the purpose of having the battery backup mode and why I wanted to have flow that was not connected to my apex. I had originally used 2 Jebaos on a JBWave to offset this but I didn't like the bulky power heads and flow patterns from the Jebao's. The gyre's are a better flow pattern for my tank.

Still room for thought to see how I want to set my tank up. I really like the idea of the moving gyre that BRS showcased but I also don't feel like spending money on the apex adapters. For now, I'll just look toward getting my hands on a backup for the gyres.

Justin

Mon, 25th Jun 2018, 11:51 AM

So ****ed today!

Last night I noticed that my Coralvue 18 Watt UV Sterilizer was not on but the outlet showed that it was supposed to be. When I pulled the light out to observe, i was pleasantly surprised to get a shock telling me that something shorted. Loe and behold, there was a link in the sterilizer that allowed water to enter into the ballast and consequently shorted the system. I pulled the electrical component and left the "shell" with water running through it and thought nothing of it. After about 30 mins, I walked by the tank to notice that it was cloudy and everything was sliming up as well as my zoas closing up. I can only guess that it was something to do with "seal" clouding up the tank as I noticed that it was coming apart.

Anyway, I immediately did about 60 gallons water change and was processing another 60 gallons to do today. I woke up this morning to find that the skin on a couple of my frags that I run in a raffle was off and polyps gone on those frags. My "nicer" frags like my Walt Disney, Minh Tri Color, Matt V Pyscho Asylum, Rainbow Tort, Purple Passion survive. With my black light I can see polyps and the skin looks super thin or almost gone. I've saved corals before with no skin but Polyps with plenty of meat foods to help offset the lack of photosynthesis. I'm just crossing my fingers that I only lose 3-4 that I can see. I would be super bummed if I lost the ones I named. What sucks even more is that I was getting some super nice consistency and being rewarded with awesome growth. Knowing that everything is in shock and panic mode, I turned off my 2 part dosing entirely and just waiting and biting my nails to see if everything will pull through.

This part of the hobby sucks so bad!

Here is a short video I posted on Youtube literally a day before the incident occurred.

https://youtu.be/9aZ4hK3ADAY

Sierra_Bravo

Mon, 25th Jun 2018, 07:33 PM

That really sucks, Justin. I hope the damage is minimal and everything recovers quickly. Always something.

alton

Tue, 26th Jun 2018, 07:51 AM

Sorry to hear that too Justin!

Justin

Tue, 26th Jun 2018, 02:18 PM

That really sucks, Justin. I hope the damage is minimal and everything recovers quickly. Always something.

Thanks man. Yea, I know for sure I lost 3 pieces. My WD and Minh Tri Color are still showing PE and have a little of skin left. I'm just waiting to see how severe the damage. I'm hoping that the pieces that are super stressed will calm down and start to color back up. Only time will tell sadly!

Justin

Tue, 26th Jun 2018, 02:18 PM

Sorry to hear that too Justin!
It sucks for sure!

Justin

Thu, 12th Jul 2018, 09:42 PM

Its been awhile but I have managed to clean up quite a bit and get the tank back on all 8 or 12 Cylinders. Some of the changes I made after the UV fiasco are:

Took the UV completely out. I put one on the tank because my fear was that a bacteria or something was running rampant in my tank and would prey on the already weak SPS frags I had, causing them to stress even further. I found a couple of threads discussing it and I had an 18 Watt laying around. Big mistake!

I went back to gradually adjusting my Dosage using BRS 1.1 ml Dosers to match my tank consumption. In an effort to go with something a bit more reliable, I decided to hook my doing up to the Apex DOS. I love this piece of equipment. I no longer need to use a separate website to help me with the Apex coding for the Doser. I literally tell it how much to dose and the time frame and the wizard does the rest. Of Course I have to go into the Advanced coding to add a few more lines, like if the pH is higher than 8.50 to shut down the Doser. Once I get a 1 link cable, I can also free up an outlet on my apex system. With the BRS dosers, I had to have a separate outlet for each doser. I was using 3 for my tank!

I tried to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible

Religious water changes on my system. I every week perform about a 30 gallon water change to my system with fresh Kent Marine Sea Salt. In an effort to make it easy to do and therefore allow me to be religious about WC, I have made the process super easy and only takes about 15 mins at most. I'll have to post a video of my water change process tomorrow during my weekly water change

After speaking to a fellow reefer buddy at the last frag swap, JJ, I have been religiously dosing the following in my tank every morning. Not sure if it makes a difference but since doing all of the above and this daily dosing, the tank is doing extremely well:

Kent Iodide 1ml
Kent Pyhtoplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)
Kent Zooplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)
Kent Chromoplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)

The tank is doing so well that I fear in a couple of months, I might have to go back to using a Calcium reactor to offset my needs and use the DOS as a backup. I 'm hesitant to go this route due to the issues I had in the past but my tank is consuming Alk and Calcium like crazy and I will have no choice but to go with this more reliable method. I'm currently Dosing the following amounts:

Alk: 85.1 ml throughout the day
Ca: 181.4 ml during the daylight hours of 0930 to 2030

28687

To make up for the loss of frags and space, I've been fortunate to have some great local reefer friends that have given me some corals but I also put a couple of orders with Joe's Knows Corals and Golden Basket.

From Joe Knows Reef the following

BC Indigo Stag
http://i.imgur.com/hvc4H9v.jpg (https://imgur.com/hvc4H9v)

Event Horizon
http://i.imgur.com/UYSYp9P.jpg (https://imgur.com/UYSYp9P)

BC Secale
http://i.imgur.com/WjsPomj.jpg (https://imgur.com/WjsPomj)

Apocalypse Now
http://i.imgur.com/9C3f7LO.jpg (https://imgur.com/9C3f7LO)

Tyree Pinky the Bear
http://i.imgur.com/ndW91aS.jpg (https://imgur.com/ndW91aS)

PC Rainbow

Wild Irish Rose - This is my favorite coral from him and the reason for the whole order

All of them in my BAO frag case, which makes it so easy to dip, transport and hold frags
http://i.imgur.com/C6DGPdw.jpg (https://imgur.com/C6DGPdw)

Finally a pic of them on a temp frag rack before placement in the tank
http://i.imgur.com/vhuVtlt.jpg (https://imgur.com/vhuVtlt)

Justin

Thu, 12th Jul 2018, 09:58 PM

Prior to my vacation last weekend to Miami, my sand sifting starfish made the 3rd attempt to walk on the glass. Fortunately or unfortunately, I found him caught in the intake of my MP40's and 3 of his arm; which healed about 2 months prior to his last attempt, were severally damaged. I told myself that this was the last time I wanted to see this and decided to get myself some MP40 guards to prevent snails, my cucumbers or my poor starfish from getting snipped by the blades. I do not like the foam guards for the MP40's because they in my opinion collect way too much detritus and need to be cleaned too frequently for my lazy tendencies. I had previously made anemone guards based on a design I found on one of the forums online with screen netting and acrylic rings.

The problem I had with these guards was that they too were collecting detritus pretty frequently and stuck out way too much and became an eye sore. After reading a post from Reefbuilders on 3d printed guards, I did some digging and found 2 manufacturers. The original creator quoted in the thread was based in the UK and the mailing time would be way too long for my impatient nature.

https://reefbuilders.com/2018/03/28/anemone-protection-guard-newest-innovation-3d-printing/

Fortunately I found another designer on Ebay and they were local for not that bad of a price and with a pretty sleek design very similar to the one in the article.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printed-Ecotech-Marine-Vortech-MP-40-anemone-guard/302690485930?hash=item4679c246aa%3Ag%3AKP4AAOSwP4d awQa6&_sacat=0&_nkw=3D+Printed+Ecotech+Marine+Vortech+MP-40+anemone+guard&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

Yesterday after coming back into town, I received my guards in the mail and couldn't wait to open them up and install them on my tank to protect my inhabitants. I was a bit dismayed that the original front guard did not fit the slightly rounded front of the new MP40 housing units but the order came with another attachment that was a simple ring that locked into little grooves and allowed the water flow to become less inhibited. Snails and anything that can brave the strong flow could in theory still move in front of the MP 40's but at least the sides where the openings are greater or blocked from my reef pets.

Overall the quality is pretty solid, the notch to hold the front piece is a little weak but then again its 3D printed and fairly cheap. Here is a pic of the guard in use

http://i.imgur.com/LFKSCa0.jpg (https://imgur.com/LFKSCa0)

Justin

Tue, 31st Jul 2018, 05:59 PM

Its been awhile since my last update and I am happy to report that the tank is running smoothly. Since taking the Calcium Reactor Co2 tank offline, the tank has been pretty stable. I have managed to keep the tank at a steady:

Alk: 7.5
http://i.imgur.com/fbMX6XQ.jpg (https://imgur.com/fbMX6XQ)

Calcium
http://i.imgur.com/smS7ZCp.jpg (https://imgur.com/smS7ZCp)

Here are a couple of coral shots and a video

Front Shot

http://i.imgur.com/qzoyyKa.jpg (https://imgur.com/qzoyyKa)
One of the pieces I am constantly checking to see how happy it is

BC Bubble bath unicorn

http://i.imgur.com/ukF0t8j.jpg (https://imgur.com/ukF0t8j)

Apocalypse Now

http://i.imgur.com/JOgmKQH.jpg (https://imgur.com/JOgmKQH)

A huge colony of Seaworld Stag

http://i.imgur.com/MmlVGKt.jpg (https://imgur.com/MmlVGKt)

Purple Orchid

http://i.imgur.com/BcZ7fAR.jpg (https://imgur.com/BcZ7fAR)

Nice unknown Mari-cultured with an acro Crab!

http://i.imgur.com/H6zrxfp.jpg (https://imgur.com/H6zrxfp)

Another on my constant observation

Walt Disney - This guy has constantly grown for me, considering that I almost lost it earlier in the year with the crash. Colors are still off but I'm sure it will come back

http://i.imgur.com/C8rL5jh.jpg (https://imgur.com/C8rL5jh)

My Lt/ Vampire Kiss tang- Vlad

http://i.imgur.com/AnCmj1L.jpg (https://imgur.com/AnCmj1L)

The last Tri Color Valida frag I have after losing my main Colony and to the right an Oragne Spathulata
Having had a blue and a rainbow years ago, I have been on the hunt for one. I finally found this Orange one from Rudy Batara at Golden Basket

http://i.imgur.com/OgOfqE3.jpg (https://imgur.com/OgOfqE3)

I forgot the name of this Tenius but I thought i lost it during the crash as well. Its since starting to grow nicely and hopefully gain its color back

http://i.imgur.com/Dbm52nm.jpg (https://imgur.com/Dbm52nm)

Wild Orchid

http://i.imgur.com/rmm9sHH.jpg (https://imgur.com/rmm9sHH)

So glad this piece is growing nicely. Minh Tri Color

http://i.imgur.com/LAP4Sxk.jpg (https://imgur.com/LAP4Sxk)

Right side with my Green Nepthea and Tubbs Blue taking center stage

http://i.imgur.com/FRMzDJi.jpg (https://imgur.com/FRMzDJi)

Justin

Tue, 31st Jul 2018, 08:42 PM

Here is a video of the tank:

https://youtu.be/xMBto3OovGo

Sierra_Bravo

Tue, 31st Jul 2018, 09:07 PM

Glad you're making a comeback. I wish I could keep my alk as stable as yours has been the last two weeks.

Can't wait to see that bubblebath uni grow and color up.

Justin

Fri, 3rd Aug 2018, 11:16 AM

Glad you're making a comeback. I wish I could keep my alk as stable as yours has been the last two weeks.

Can't wait to see that bubblebath uni grow and color up.

Thanks man. I'm glad that things are finally turning around for me.

Justin

Fri, 3rd Aug 2018, 11:33 AM

*Knock on wood*

My tank has been doing extremely well. I am currently still using 2 part for my dosing needs but I fear I may need to go to a combination of 2 part and my calcium reactor again if the growth continues to increase. I originally thought to myself that I should go back to a reactor once my consumption exceeds 200ml /day. That has since passed and I am still reluctant to go back to the reactor for fear of messing something up. Currently this is my dosing schedule and times of dosing using the Apex DOS:
http://i.imgur.com/6g3wXHt.jpg (https://imgur.com/6g3wXHt)

http://i.imgur.com/JCPj2jT.jpg (https://imgur.com/JCPj2jT)

What I think I might need to do is slowly go back to a Calcium reactor once I reach probably 500ml/ day and get my Alk dialed in with the reactor and use my 2 part Caclium to offset the difference. Currently I'm only dosing 74ml/ day to maintain a 7.5 dkh but I'm dosing about 382ml/ day of Calcium to keep my Ca at 1450 ppm. A huge difference but with no clam in my tank, I can only assume that my sps and Coraline algae are consuming Calcium at roughly 400 ml/ day!!!!

Here are some pics of corals for everyone to check out. I also was super lucky and won a raffle for some unique newly released frags from Oceanlife Aquariums in Houston, courtesy of Nick Nguyen:

Walt Disney - color is still off but it is growing and fuzzy as ever
http://i.imgur.com/mVLbVfg.jpg (https://imgur.com/mVLbVfg)

Rainbow Tenius I thought I lost from OLA
http://i.imgur.com/Z5cg1yQ.jpg (https://imgur.com/Z5cg1yQ)

Orange Spathulata from Golden Basket
http://i.imgur.com/m0u0614.jpg (https://imgur.com/m0u0614)

OLA Summer fest in my tank
http://i.imgur.com/l0GFETC.jpg (https://imgur.com/l0GFETC)
Nick's original pic
http://i.imgur.com/AmhmSXo.jpg (https://imgur.com/AmhmSXo)

OLA Dragonite in my tank
http://i.imgur.com/WjunahB.jpg (https://imgur.com/WjunahB)

Nick's photo
http://i.imgur.com/iQjntgS.jpg (https://imgur.com/iQjntgS)

OLA Tutti Fruiti in my tank
http://i.imgur.com/VRCrVpX.jpg (https://imgur.com/VRCrVpX)

Nick's photo
http://i.imgur.com/zxI6Gor.jpg (https://imgur.com/zxI6Gor)

OLA Daydream in my tank
http://i.imgur.com/HqugX2C.jpg (https://imgur.com/HqugX2C)

http://i.imgur.com/EFF4M9d.jpg (https://imgur.com/EFF4M9d)