Jonny's Elos System 70

[jonnybravo22]

I read the recommended dosing if your NO3 is below 1 but greater than 0.25 OR PO4 is above 0.04 to dose 2mL / 25 gallons. On my system (conservatively 100g, I normally estimate more like 110g - 115g), that's 8mL per day. I'm starting off with half of that: 4mL per day spaced out on a doser.

 

[Tripod1404]

Is this because it feels synthetic? Why don't you like it long term?

Not because it is synthetic but because it can artificially drive nutrient way too low if it is done excessively. It is okay if you use it to drop you nutrients at a certain level and stop dosing. If the values stay at that point, it mean your tank naturally adjusted to those nutrient levels. But if it starts to rapidly raise again after dosing stops, it means your tank is not supporting it and you are just forcing it artificially. So long story short, it is okay if your tank naturally support low N and P levels. But if it can only be maintained at those levels by continuously dosing carbon, it can cause more problems than good (like GFO). So it needs to be done with moderation. If you have no prior experience, starting with RedSea NoPOx might be a better choice as it has predetermined dosing guide.

My NO3 and PO4 have both been halved over the course of 2 weeks. Presumably due to the cyano bloom in the sump area. Perhaps this fluctuation is dangerous for the corals. I haven't heard anyone say yet that the absolute levels are bad.

Your absolute values are not a big issue. You would probably not get very good color at that nutrient levels, as coral will brown. If color is your goal you should shoot for <5ppm nitrate and <0.05ppm phosphate. But your current values if stable, should not kill corals as long as alk is balanced. People do grow SPS corals under much higher nutrient levels.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Thanks. Funny I've been thinking for the first time in forever that my corals have good color now (particularly with the LEDs added). In part it's that the color is staying rich and dark vs. faded I guess there's even more upside from here.

 

[jonnybravo22]

Update: I am 3 days into dosing DIY NOPOX.

I wouldn't really say I have noticed anything yet. It's a small dose anyway. Will keep watching.

I have 4 or 5 small patches of cyano in the display, that appeared at the same time that cyano took over my sump (prior to starting carbon dosing). I syphoned out almost all of the cyano from the sump, so it's mostly clean there now except for what is hanging onto my remaining chaeto. It looks like a small amount has returned in the last day or two. I have a lights out in the sump area going right now, I'll leave that for 4 days.

Here's the sump:

Here's is what the skimmer is producing at the moment, seems pretty frothy.

Seems like I should get rid of the last bits of chaeto holding on:

 

[jonnybravo22]

A note on lighting
My current schedule is:

6:30AM - 5 DIY CREE XP-G3 Royal Blue on
7:30AM - 1st bank of 2 T5s (blue+, purple+) on
8:30AM - 2nd bank of 2 T5s (blue+, purple+) on
[currently off: 1PM - 4PM 250W MH, 14K Phoenix (3 hrs when active)]
5:30PM - 1st bank of 2 T5s off (10 hrs)
6:30PM - 2nd bank of 2 T5s off (10 hrs)
8:30PM - LEDs off (14 hours)


I added the LEDs for accent color to kind of help the corals "pop" and because my anemone loved LEDs when an AI unit was my primary light years ago.

I feel the lighting schedule is a bit long, but It's that way mainly so the fish wake up before I leave so I can feed them and so I have an hour or so to watch the tank after dinner. Maybe I should adjust but not sure if this would be related to STN issues.

The reason I have the MH bulb inactive at the moment is that it's a lot of light with everything on, and while I think that's awesome for potential growth in the future, I've found that the more light I add it's like a catalyst that works both ways. If other things are good, I think super powered light makes things do well, but if something is off / corals are unhappy adding a lot of light has made them RTN within a day or two in my experience.

It's like a risk reward thing. Keeping it to just T5s or T5s & LEDs is like making a small bet, vs putting everything on the roulette. I don't gamble, these references are probably wrong.

 

[jonnybravo22]

A few tank pics for tonight:

Again sorry for the white balance , i haven't taken these into post.

As you can see I finally have coralline algae covering lots of the tank (this rock is where it started and it is the most covered. But it's like 90% covered)

Frag pics

This is the one that is doing a little attempt to encrust:

Algae issues at the base. A snail cleaned up a lot of the hair algae the other night, but its persistent.

Other coral that is covered in algae at the base (this one has STN on the majority of the underside as a bonus!)

 

[jonnybravo22]

Parameters:

5/20:
1.026
ALK - 8.32 (down from 10.02 on 5/14; I've simply stopped dosing to allow levels to drop; new target 8.5)
CAL - 430
PO4 - 0.089 (Hanna)
NO3 - 0ppm (API)

Status update: I have begun to get a light coat of white hair algae on the rock surfaces in the display. I realized this might be related to lights off in the sump. I got advice to remove the chaeto from the sump and I did. But I believe I still need lights on in the sump to at least grow some hair algae on the rocks out there so it doesn't grow in the display.

My alk has dropped as desired to line up with a more "low nutrient" approach. My test kit is not sensitive enough to know if I'm actually at 0 or something slightly higher.

So far I've noticed no change in the corals that have STN. Not necessarily worse that I can tell, but not better either, which maybe is still a good thing.

These are however getting a lot of algae on the frag plugs, so at night I place turbo snails on the frag tree and the usually mostly clean it up.

I'm a week into dosing DIY NoPox. Last night I increased the dose from 4ml/day to 8ml/day in 4 parts on my doser.

Presumably it would be ideal to get PO4 down from .089 to .05. If my nitrates are actually at 0, not sure how I would do that at least with dosing b/c my understanding is that both are required for any to have uptake.

 

[jonnybravo22]

GARF Bonsai now showing STN from the base.

Man it's just one coral after another. Same story every time, they look nice to start, never really grow any, a few weeks go by and then they start dropping like flies with STN from the base. Wish I knew how to keep them alive.