180 gallon reef update 3-28-15

Well diving in!!!
Many Reefers out there have excellent results from using the program and their reef tanks look amazing.

I am however doing a slower decent as with anything new it is best to go slowly so that you can acclimate and not shock your tank corals and inhabitants.

On 12/2 I started manually dosing the following at half strength:
For my tank vol it recommends 9 drops I am using only 4 drops instead and plan to increase 1 drop per week till I reach the full recommended dosage. While it may take me a little longer to see results I am ok with that.

Pro bio s - Daily 4 drops
Np pro - Daily 4 drops
Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops
Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops

Af power food - 1 scoop - Sat-Sun

On 12/4 after testing my water I installed the chambers that will house Components 1+2+3:
Dosing 1+ at 25ml per day
Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day
Dosing 3+ at 25ml per day

These will be monitored and dialed in appropriately with rigorous testing using Red Sea tests.
Alk was at bit high at 9.5 so need to slowly lower it to 7.5-8.0.

On 12/5 the first 20% water change made with 1/2 Probiotic reef salt and 1/2 Instant Ocean.
Bought two boxes at Black Friday sale so will be using it till gone.

Will share my progress with you all here.



 
Well today marks one week since the implementation of the Aquaforest reef products.
When it comes to the dosing of Pro Bio S and Np on a daily bases I have not as of yet noticed a decline in phosphates and nitrates. But to be far there has not been an increase either. As a reminder I am not dosing full strength yet.
Each week I will increase each dosing element by one drop till I get to the recommended dosage for my size tank. I'm at 4 drops per 27 gallons the products recommend 9 drops per 27 gallons.

The regime of dosing these during the week keeps me engaged and allows me to see what if any changes occur:
Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 4 drops
Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops
Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 4 drops

What Neg/Pos observations with corals has been?
No negatives so far. On the positive side I have noticed mostly a more robust look to all the zoanthids.
All sps's have nice polyp expansion but no signs of growing. Too soon as they have all been introduced into the tank within the last week to two weeks.

As for the:
Af power food - 1 scoop - Sat-Sun week 1
I increased to 2 scoops week 2.
This is way below the recommended dosage but again taking things on the precautionary side so that I can attribute any negative impacts on the tank.

On Components 1+2+3:
These are being dosed at 20ml a day for components 1+ and 3+ This maintains my Ca at 450 and my Mg at 1350

I had a little problem with a high alk that over several days has finally come down to 8 dkh. I have learned thru the forum that if you want to maintain a ULNS that you need to keep alk lower.
It will take me a few more days to dial in the component 2+ so that I can maintain a steady 8 dkh.

Now on to the so called "bad news"

Prequel:
3 weeks ago noticed that the right side over flow water was a bit higher than it should. I did not give it more attention. When changing filter socks I would close the ball values so again nothing struck out at me.

2 weeks ago I noticed that there was something plugging the intake in the over flow box on right because water was now really high. I took the pipe out and saw that the water did not drain. At this point you would think that this should have been the piano that would hit me on the head right? Wrong I ignored it!!
Forward to present day:
On Wednesday of this week I had a bit of a disaster but it was a disaster that I learned from. A costly mistake in the long run.

I woke up to find the actinic lights on at 7am. Not good! Come to find out the return on the left got clogged!!! Water return to the tank overflowed and fried the brand new cable modem and............ The Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Elite controller, SL1!!! Ouch!!!

I took the pipe that drains into the sump on the left side of tank and found the culprit! A snail was stuck inside. I was able to get it out and place the pipe back in. Snail still alive so it went back into tank.

What would be the chances of both pipes being clogged at the same time? The pipe on the right side was clean as a whistle. This meant the the clog is elsewhere in the line. My lfs suggested that it is most likely another snail and it is stuck right in the bulk head. I shined my cell light but could not see anything. So that may mean the clog is elsewhere in the line that leads to sump.
That will be a project for next week.

Other than that everything else shut off automatically except the LED actinic lights, because these were not on the power trips on the DA.

I got the main pump, the skimmer back on. Now plugged MH lights to old school timers and the search was on for the DA SL1.
I could not find one for sale anywhere, Amazon, Ebay not even DA had it. This lead to the cost in my lazy *** mistake!

Went and picked up a new Neptune APEX! Yep $800 later I could have totally avoided spending but have to eat and swallow that caster oil!!
So far the modem was replaced by cable company and now trying to figure out the setup of this puppy!

More on the setup later............
 
Hey buddy!!! Good to see you're still reefing. I've been following your tanks for many many years.

Sorry about the overflow issues. Hopefully next week you'll sort it for good.

Do you intend to use the zeomix at all?

Would love to see updated photos of your sps please.
 
Ouch, indeed!!
Would love to see some 'before' shots and then watch the AF system take hold!
Good luck with it!
 
Hey buddy!!! Good to see you're still reefing. I've been following your tanks for many many years.

Sorry about the overflow issues. Hopefully next week you'll sort it for good.

Do you intend to use the zeomix at all?

Would love to see updated photos of your sps please.

Hi sahin!
Oh boy I can not show you any pics of the sps bc I no longer have them!
I was away from home due to work for 9 months this year and no one could really take care of tank for me. I lost every frag except some zoe colonies, record mushroom and a superman monti which I thought died but it is coming back.

On a positive note all the fish have survived!

This past October I had a long sit down talk with myself and toyed with the idea of taking it down and selling stuff or battening down the hatches and starting again! The starting again won out!

I have in the last couple of months purchased new frags and the AF products are showing some great promise.

As for the some of the other products like:
Ricco Food
Photo mix
Garlic oil
Fish V
These guys not yet

I will also add some kind of media (other than the live rock in the DT) to the sump where bacteria will colonize.

I will take some pics of the reworked aquascape as the older one proved to have some weaknesses. But really like the design of aquascape now.

Stay tuned!
 
Ouch, indeed!!
Would love to see some 'before' shots and then watch the AF system take hold!
Good luck with it!

reefmutt yes ouch! for sure!
I will take some photos using my iPhone. I too want to keep track. Right now 30 something frags are on egg crates at bottom of tank in the acclimation process.

Will document that before I start to glue these babies to a better local.

I have been reading and looking a threads in the sps forum to give me ideas.
I want to do things not only for the best place for that particular coral but but also for color combination for aesthetics.

Clean canvas with fresh start, I'm totally excited!!
 
Today I went ahead and cut the pvc pipe under one of the over flows. The first one that got clogged which I ignored if you remember from the last post. Anyhow the culprit was the snail. Perfectly stuck in the bulkhead and perfectly suctioned where even when I drilled a hole no water came out.
Once cut I took a wood dolly and shoved it thru the pvc towards the overflow and BAM! The water that had been trapped went gushing and draining towards the 10 gal tank that I normally use for top off water. There was literally about 3 gallons worth of water in the overflow!
With a little cutting here and there and 2 hours to wait and let the pvc pipe glue set, the overflow is back in shape.



Dirty water



All fixed! No leaks (keep fingers crossed)!
 
Any news on new corals and the new dosing regimen?

Hey reefmutt,
Things with dosing the AF products are going really well.
At the moment I am dosing the still under the recommended 1 drop per 27 gallons but the only thing I noticed on week 2 was a growth of diatom brown algae on glass. This has been showing up less and less this week.

Week 3 dosing is as follows:
Pro bio s - Daily 6 drops
Np pro - Daily 6 drops
Af energy - Mon-Wed-Fri - 6 drops
Af build - Mon-Wed-Fri - 6 drops
Af vitality - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 6 drops
Af aminomix - Tue-Thurs-Sat - 6 drops

Af power food - 2 scoop - Sat-Sun

Components 1+2+3:
Dosing 1+ at 20ml per day
Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day
Dosing 3+ at 20ml per day

My test readings have been as follows:

Ca 400 -425
Mg 1300
Phos .8ppm*
Alk 7.6
NO3 25*

Both Phos and No3 have not increased since taking the bio pellets offline and the pos has decreased in half over the 3 week period. No3 I have not seen any drops yet. I will continue to monitor these two parameters to see the where they go as I dose Pro Bio S and NP pro.

After the disaster I purchased an APEX which as you all know can set you back a month's worth of mortgage lol. Anyhow after setup I truly love the fact that I get text alerts from the cloud based program called "Fusion" of my salinity and PH levels.
So far the controller handles Main pump, skimmer, all my lights. I will need to connect my doser and eventually my MP-40's.
Then from that point I can spend and add and spend and add lol!

My fav feature is controlling lights, pump, skimmer while at work. I plan on adding a web cam so that when I leave on weekends to work I can monitor the tank remotely by watching it live.

Now about the corals:

Week 1 purchases all were very inexpensive frags from WWC all are doing fine except a Hollywood stunner chalice and an unknown sps. Both have shown anger towards my ALK issues but none have completely perished nor have gotten to the point of no return. Both seem to be coming back. The chalice started to STN from the outside to the in but has stopped. The sps shown burnt tips but has also stopped. All zoes are super opened and look totally happy.

Week 2 purchases were aquaculture corals from Reefers Direct and they have lost color but polyp expansion is super. They were not happy campers after the bayer dip nor happy about the ALK spike. But no tissue recession, just a little brown but full polyp expansion. I expect a full recovery from them.

Week 3 purchase was from a local reefer. Got from him several pieces;Red Planet, red setsoa,

Week 4 purchase was from a local eBay seller. Bought several pieces:RA Figi tri-color sps, RA Midnight Fame Monti, RA Purple Monster, RA Purple w/ Green Polyps Birdsnest, RA Yellow Loripes. Went to pick those guys up and ended with a few more pieces mummy chalice, Aussie Highlighter acro, Fuzzy Blue Vermiculata, RA hot pink encrusting goni, RA rainbow pocillipora, blue tip tenuis, electric blue millie.

Week 5 purchase from WWC Green Thumb Tenuis, WWC Cool Efflo


Here are some pics:

Red digi


Orange setsoa


Leng sy cap


TSA Blue Monster


Tubbs stellata
 
Here are some more pics:

ORA Red Planet



WWC Green thumb tennis


RA Midnight Fame monti


RA purple monster


Purple w/green polyps pocillipora


Figi Tricolor
 
Some more pics:

Yellow loripes


WWC Cool Efflo


Aussie Highlighter


RA Fuzzy green Chester


RA Hot Pink Panther Goni
 
Yet some more lol:

Electric Blue Millie


Blue Tenuis


Blue tip stag


Fuzzy Blue Vermiculata


6 of 7 Barlett Anthias
 
Here are the sponges that were growing in my tank during my 9 month leave of absence from taking care of the tank. They are still going which means they are getting nutrients from the water and I'm sure the AF products.








These guys also survived:



 
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