Having trouble keeping SPS happy.

[rkaires]

2 & 5 are dusk/dawn?

Correct.

 

[JG1]

Great man, all good signs. Right before I started to seem my sps coloring back up I started to see new coraline growth taking off. If my fuge stayed as clean as yours I would still be running it. I put mine back online and in like a week CCA and other algae had started to grow. I refuse to deal with the CCA again.

I think I have so much light that it's hard for the coralline to grow. I have a few spots growing on the black plastic vortech shields but I haven't noticed any on the rocks yet. Hopefully with the new lights, being less intense, I'll get some nice purple coralline going.

 

[JG1]

Good luck with the chaeto. I think there's a couple things you're going to be seeing happen in the next month or so. Your tank is extremely clean....not just in design but in maintenance of the system. Aside from there maybe being too much light for your LPS, they may have been in too low of a ULNS system to support them. That, coupled with the bright light could have hurt them long term. My fuge did well for the first few months of the tank being set up. Slowly the chaeto died regardless the amount of flow or light I offered. To this point, I have tried to run a fuge 3 times and each time the chaeto disintegrated.

I had added the chaeto because my PO4 was always around 0.05, which is a little high for SPS. I don't want it at zero, but I don't want 0.05 either. Hopefully I can maintain somewhere in between.

I have a nice 3 eyed pink boobie chalice frag that isn't a happy camper. I think you're right, the water is too clean and the light is just WAY too intense. Although I envisioned the tank to be primarily SPS, I do like some LPS like chalices, scholymia's, blasto's (love blasto's), and such.

Keep an eye on it. If it starts to melt a little each week, your system is most likely incapable of feeding it enough nutrient to grow, which is not necessarily a bad thing. You could always add another fish. In fact, measuring a .01 on your Hanna Instrument may be a telltale that it may die out pretty soon. There's no sense in feeding the tank more just to support the chaeto...unless of course you're interested in keeping macro algae displays.

I will keep an eye on it. I do have a decent fish load though....6 small chromis, 1 small purple tang, 1 tiny hippo, 1 firefish, 2 wrasses, 1 flametail blenny. My intention of feeding the tank more was to hopefully bring up my NO3 a little. I'm still measuring <1ppm. I'd like to be 3-5ppm.

Check out Dan Rigle's TOTM http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/75-tank-of-the-month. He has some good insight with respect to keeping a mixed reef with a healthy refugium. More often than not, the people that have great SPS colors, happy LPS and a macro algae refugium all at the same time are carrying single digit nitrate levels like Mark Polletti, Keith Berkelheimer and Dan Rigle. Running too low on either nitrate or phosphate is sort of counterproductive to the overall balance of these mixed reef systems. Within reason, the tank has to be fed well to support the whole "benthos" without reaching a tipping point. Dan's got a great eye for the little nuances of minor changes that he makes. If his colors brown on his sps while LPS look happy, he'll feed a little less and turn things around. Likewise, if LPS look unhappy and won't open and his SPS look pale, he'll up the feedings.

That's exactly what I'm hoping to do, increase the NO3 a little but it's just not budging. I don't know if I need more fish poop or heavier feedings. Even thought about changing my filter sock less often.

I was told a while back that with my two Vortech MP40's on full blast alternating reef crest mode in a 72" and 18 wide tank was way too much flow and that's why they weren't opening their polyps. After personal obserfvation and trusting what I was seeing I concluded it simply wasn't enough. I added two more MP40's and voila, polyp extension and happy SPS. When you study the habits, maintenance and equipment of the best systems on these forums you get a sense of what the majority of people at the zenith of the hobby do.

This is another area in which I've been experimenting. I believe I had too much direct flow before. I've readjusted the positioning of my vortechs and IMMEDIATELY afterwards a few SPS corals had extended these LONG sweeper like polyps....kinda looked like the sweepers on my chalice frag. I've never seen these SPS do that before. I'm trying to keep adequate flow while avoiding direct flow. Especially while trying to keep some LPS happy as well.

None of them seems to rush their systems at all, and almost all trust themselves over their equipment every time. I still remember Steve Weast saying he didn't believe in a cleanup crew because he himself was the best and most efficient member of his cleanup crew. You obviously know what you're doing or you wouldn't have such a sweet setup and overall understanding of what's happening in your system. You need to trust yourself and not push too hard too fast.

Yeah. I've already told myself the tank will be a year old before things starting looking the way I want them to look. That's fine. As long as the tank gets healthier as time goes, I'll be happy....even if it is a slow process. It's very rewarding to see these animals thrive.

I can't wait to see that tank in person. Maybe I should be looking for a smaller, sexier setup instead of the direction I'm heading!!

No, definitely go BIG....LOL! Big and Sexy! I can vicariously have my dream tank through you...lol. One day perhaps. I'd love to have a huge system like that. I need to be able to have success with a smaller system though first!

 

[JG1]

First I want to say nice setup you got there. The PM is a beast, do you have any lps or softies? Do you find it hard to keep their colors? I think my PM puts out wayyyy too much light. Most of them look pale.

Second, is that just detritus accumulating in your sump or is that precipitation? I only ask because I notice that happening when dosing in a low flow area of my sump which made me have to adjust my BM constantly. Now I dose right next to the drain and all is good.

That's exactly what it is, precipitation from my B-Ionic alk solution.

The filter sock really calms down the turbulence in the first section of the sump, which doesn't help the two-part solution in mixing well. You think re-route the tubing to be right in front of the return pump?

Yeah, I have some really nice ricordia and a couple chalice frags. I'd like to get more LPS (blasto's, scholymia, etc), but the PM is just WAYYY too intense. That's why I'm downgrading to the 6 bulb PM. Not only that, but I'll be able to dim it as well if need be.

 

[JG1]

Hope you don't mind JG1. This is an older FTS of my tank.

Don't be silly Bob. Of course I don't mind.

Just got my ESV salt mix. Really excited to mix some up. I just have no idea how I'm going to accurately measure 10 gallons of RO/DI. I mean I might be able to estimate somewhere around there. Say filling two empty buckets of RC salt, but not sure I'm able to precisely measure this. And it's not like you can just add a little more of less salt, because then the other trace elements will be out of whack for that particular salinity.

 

[Alex T.]

You'll notice a ridge in the plastic about an inch down from the top of your RC bucket. That's the 5 gallon mark.

 

[mike810]

That's exactly what it is, precipitation from my B-Ionic alk solution.

The filter sock really calms down the turbulence in the first section of the sump, which doesn't help the two-part solution in mixing well. You think re-route the tubing to be right in front of the return pump?

Yeah, I have some really nice ricordia and a couple chalice frags. I'd like to get more LPS (blasto's, scholymia, etc), but the PM is just WAYYY too intense. That's why I'm downgrading to the 6 bulb PM. Not only that, but I'll be able to dim it as well if need be.

I initially had it by my return pump also but still got a little bit of precipitation. Try in front of the skimmer output if you can, if not then I would put it by the return and hopefully that will help mix up the solution better for you.

 

[rkaires]

Don't be silly Bob. Of course I don't mind.

Just got my ESV salt mix. Really excited to mix some up. I just have no idea how I'm going to accurately measure 10 gallons of RO/DI. I mean I might be able to estimate somewhere around there. Say filling two empty buckets of RC salt, but not sure I'm able to precisely measure this. And it's not like you can just add a little more of less salt, because then the other trace elements will be out of whack for that particular salinity.

I was surprised how easy it was with the measuring devices they supply. The instructions they supply are simple to follow.

 

[JG1]

You'll notice a ridge in the plastic about an inch down from the top of your RC bucket. That's the 5 gallon mark.

Awesome. I thought that was about what 5g was but now I know for sure. With the ESV mix you have to accurately measure the water before hand, as there are 4 different components that are added is specific amounts per the gallons designated. So you might be able to fix the salinty, but Ca/Alk/Mg/all other elements would need adjusting to which would be impossible.

 

[JG1]

I initially had it by my return pump also but still got a little bit of precipitation. Try in front of the skimmer output if you can, if not then I would put it by the return and hopefully that will help mix up the solution better for you.

I think I found the problem. When I turn the return pump off, the dosing tubes become submerged under water in the sump. I looked at the Alk line and it has precip running all the way up to the pump. I think the saltwater is making the Alk precip in the lines then it gets dumped in the sump. I'll raise it so it's always out of the water and see if that helps.

 

[JG1]

I was surprised how easy it was with the measuring devices they supply. The instructions they supply are simple to follow.

Yeah it looks really nice. They give you a whole set of measuring cups and a little measuring beaker. I have a nice digital scale that measures in grams that I'll probably use instead.

 

[JG1]

The business end of the tank