Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

Thanks Connor. Not much choice when installing in a closet but it does simplify placement and plumbing. It's all gravity.


That's all pretty standard ingredients.. it's the 'minerals' down at the bottom that would could be more detailed..
I really know nothing about tin.. it's such an odd one to be accumulating.. I know it ain't cheap but have you thought about mixing a batch of salt water in your usual way and then sending a sample of that for testing? See if tin comes back in your makeup/wc water..
A tds of 1-2 would not freak me out.. let's me know it's time to change resin but not that you are poisoning your system..

Yeah in a month when I send in the other triton sample, I am going to send one of my new saltwater to make sure its not that
 
Hey Matt.

Do you have a preference between the Siporax or the Matrix ?? Is there reason to believe that one is more effective then the other?

I currently use Matrix and am happy with it. At first I learned the hard way that I had to keep the detritus cleaned out from the media basket of Matrix. After that it was clear sailing. Because of this, I think the Siporax would be easier to keep clean.

Also will be following with great interest your new dosing schedule. Zinc, Iodine, Manganese seem to be key elements . These appear to be common to Zeo, AF, Biggles Juice, JB NY's schedule, and now your program. Everyone is trying to find just the right equation for their own tank's balance.

Good Luck.

Kevin.
 
Yeah in a month when I send in the other triton sample, I am going to send one of my new saltwater to make sure its not that
Good plan. Post your results, I'm curious.
Hey Matt.

Do you have a preference between the Siporax or the Matrix ?? Is there reason to believe that one is more effective then the other?

I currently use Matrix and am happy with it. At first I learned the hard way that I had to keep the detritus cleaned out from the media basket of Matrix. After that it was clear sailing. Because of this, I think the Siporax would be easier to keep clean.

Also will be following with great interest your new dosing schedule. Zinc, Iodine, Manganese seem to be key elements . These appear to be common to Zeo, AF, Biggles Juice, JB NY's schedule, and now your program. Everyone is trying to find just the right equation for their own tank's balance.

Good Luck.

Kevin.

Thanks Kevin. It has been said that siporax is more porous but it is such an inexact science trying to measure how many 'pores' is enough for any given tank. I use both matrix and siporax. And in the new containers, the siporax is not stacked so it won't necessity stay any cleaner. I think that matrix is probably a better bang for the buck when one considers availability, cost and maintenance of the two products... just my non scientific opinion..

So I thought I'd post some shots is some of my troubled corals.. as a record. Hopefully I will see these turn around..
They all show the same tip degradation. They are not coming in contact with anything. The corals just start to look dry and then the tips recede. I also have a few struggling planas as well..
The first and worst effected coral:

Back when it was healthy:


One of the most recently affected:

Back in health almost exactly two months ago:


Paletta pink tip or apple jax:


And probably my most indicative example. It is actually growing from the top but the lower left side is looking dried and irritated.

But even the growing part doesn't look as good as a month ago..



I'll post some healthy coral shots a little later..
 
Ok.. here's a couple random shots..
First.. furiosa is making a comeback. After losing the entire large colony, the mother colony that was growingnoff to the side took a major hit and half died, browned out and
Took forever to recover but it's getting better and better.. here's a close up:

Here's a shot of what was sold to me as a RR pink lady. It looks exactly like my pink matrix, however. It is getting very cozy with my not so colourful pink Cadillac that:

Good ol red dragon.

Two very happy corals. Not hurting each other despite the encrusting into each other.

Another pink matrix piece I have:

Aussie red tabler:

My rr red diablo that just sits there and looks good but doesn't grow..

Old growth and new..
This is from Fragbox.. Habanero.

Finally, my only remaining jaw dropper. The rest of the pieces died. This one is not out of the woods. I'm hoping this photo doesn't jinx it..
 
What a collection of Acros. :inlove:

They all look awesome. My red dragon never extends its polyps. I am certain that I have never seen any of these corals (except the red dragon) in marine shops around here.
 
As noted, that Red Dragon is near perfect. That is exactly what I am hoping for with my frag.
The Furiosa is breath taking.
 
What a collection of Acros. :inlove:

They all look awesome. My red dragon never extends its polyps. I am certain that I have never seen any of these corals (except the red dragon) in marine shops around here.
Thanks Bulent, so many corals out there! I'm sure you've seen the Aussie tabler. I think it's pretty common.
Here's a shot of another piece I have of it. Well, this was back a couple months when it was still red.. it has browned out a bit..


As noted, that Red Dragon is near perfect. That is exactly what I am hoping for with my frag.
The Furiosa is breath taking.
Thanks Kevin. The more flow you give a red dragon, the more densely it grows.
I find this coral barely encrusts at all. My colony got so big that the glue gave out and I had to frag it back and reglue a piece. I'll probably have the same issue afain, in several months.. it's a fast grower for me.
 
Did some flashlight shots, about an hour before lights on..
Kinda neat to see the pe..










I have been experiencing a significant increase in demand from my ca reactor. Alk has dropped and I am compensating with more co2 and a bit more kalkwasser..
I am seeing more and more lights out pe..
 
I would say theyre very happy. looks awesome!

Remind me of your params again please and what po4 and nitrate youre aiming for.

Cheers!
 
Thanks Cody.
Po4 has been around .13-.18 N around 50-30 for 6 months.. every since my alk debacle.
Alk is now around 6 (adjusting ca reactor and kalk to bring it up) but up until a few weeks ago was stable at 7.3
Ca is around 420.
I am waiting results of the Prodibio Biodogest and Bioptim additions. I will do tests again his weekend, time permitting but I'd like to get n back around 10 and p between .03 and .08. Hoping the Prodibio will accomplish this along with my matrix and siporax..
 
Thanks Cody.
Po4 has been around .13-.18 N around 50-30 for 6 months.. every since my alk debacle.
Alk is now around 6 (adjusting ca reactor and kalk to bring it up) but up until a few weeks ago was stable at 7.3
Ca is around 420.
I am waiting results of the Prodibio Biodogest and Bioptim additions. I will do tests again his weekend, time permitting but I'd like to get n back around 10 and p between .03 and .08. Hoping the Prodibio will accomplish this along with my matrix and siporax..

That is incredible with both Alk and Phos being high. The last couple of times the LFS tested my Phos it always comes out .18. I can drive my nitrates down but not my Phosphate. I can dose more fish and coral food and only the Phosphate goes up. The Matrix and Pro Bio S seems to keep Nitrate in check.

Not too long ago these numbers would have predicted doom for our tanks. Now we seem to maintain good colors and growth at numbers that we feared in the past.
 
Pretty much since setting up this tank, I have battled high po4. I used to use a ton of gfo but since I stopped, po4 didn't move much so I just stopped using it altogether. The amount I was using wasn't cheap and it wasn't really doing anything..
I could say that my coral have looked better with lower po4 but I can't be sure that it was/is the po4 levels that was making them look one way or another..
I have toyed with going Mark's route and using lanthanum chloride but I'm going to wait out the Prodibio a bit..
So I was playing with the camera.. took a bunch of shots but here are a couple of my typical artsy fartsy shots. I really love contrasting colour and depth of field when I can.. here's a couple that came out well:
This will be a better shot when the in focus coral gets out of its funk and develops a bit of colour and growth.

Here's another this little coral is on fire. So is the suharsonoi (?) behind it..

This is the coral behind..

And here is the shot of the background corals from the first pic.
 
Very nice Matt! I've used the LC myself, it brings the phosphate value down for sure, but I'm starting to wonder about phosphate and whether it is as detrimental as first thought. My levels are super high right now but there is no expected algal bloom that I would expect from it. Getting the value down may result in better growth, so I'm hoping my system will bring the value down, but otherwise I'm not inclined to rush it...
 
Thanks Cody.
Po4 has been around .13-.18 N around 50-30 for 6 months.. every since my alk debacle.
Alk is now around 6 (adjusting ca reactor and kalk to bring it up) but up until a few weeks ago was stable at 7.3
Ca is around 420.
I am waiting results of the Prodibio Biodogest and Bioptim additions. I will do tests again his weekend, time permitting but I'd like to get n back around 10 and p between .03 and .08. Hoping the Prodibio will accomplish this along with my matrix and siporax..


If you are having such good success where you are now even at the elevated levels, why do you wanna lower it? I am having such a hard time getting my p04 off 0 ppb with the url hanna. I just got 1 today after feeding flakes 7 times and frozen 2 while adding 6 more blue chromis. Have no idea how I cant get them off 0 with only a skimmer and cheato for export.
 
Very nice Matt! I've used the LC myself, it brings the phosphate value down for sure, but I'm starting to wonder about phosphate and whether it is as detrimental as first thought. My levels are super high right now but there is no expected algal bloom that I would expect from it. Getting the value down may result in better growth, so I'm hoping my system will bring the value down, but otherwise I'm not inclined to rush it...

If you are having such good success where you are now even at the elevated levels, why do you wanna lower it? I am having such a hard time getting my p04 off 0 ppb with the url hanna. I just got 1 today after feeding flakes 7 times and frozen 2 while adding 6 more blue chromis. Have no idea how I cant get them off 0 with only a skimmer and cheato for export.

I'm with you Matt, I've given up trying to forcibly move po4 levels down. I forget, are you using any algea based nutrient reduction?
I gave up using algea when it just stopped growing..

Cody, why not turn the light off on your cheato and see what happens? Or remove it and see where p goes.. might just give you the bump you need.. or if that scares you, how about reducing the photoperiod by half?

It's funny that you guys have just posted on my thread about po4 issues. And it's funny that you guys have the exact opposite issue.
I don't see a big issue with po4 and potential coral health and colour- except if the corals are getting none. Excess po4 doesn't seem to have nearly the detrimental effect that 0 po4 does..
For me, I have always had high po4 BUT I have also ALWAYS had issues with bubble algea and bryopsis.
This has been my motivator to try to reduce it somewhat.. but I'm not going to try anything drastic..

Heres a few more shots.
Here's the first coral I saw start to respond to the Bioptim doses.
The purple has darkened nicely, I think. Beside growth taking off..

Ssc is exploding with growth:

Just a good colour shot..

More colour. This purple beast is also exploding in growth. And the 24k orange
Creamsicle is growing even though it's base is being swallowed by the beast..

Just a neat shot of a ice fire frag next to an lps..
 
The pellets I was using seemed to sort of peter out and stop growing bacteria, and the nutrient numbers weren't really falling at all, so I started looking around at other systems. I had never tried old school chaeto filtration, so I have given it a go. I needed to reduce expenditures on the tank and it's cheap(actually the chaeto was free) and so far pretty effective(in that the corals are happy and the nuisance algae is not there). I slapped together a chaeto reactor out of parts on hand and a 20 dollar 12' strip of led grow lights. I also have an 11 gallon tank with chaeto in it.
 
I am giving chaetos a try this time.
In my previous tanks I always used GFO......Always.

Wanna try a most "natural" approach in this tank.

The tank is still a little new (6 months old now) and there's no much fishes but, untill now, my phosphates are steady 0,0.
Let's see...
 
I've used gfo, but I always run too much. Currently sitting at .06ppm po4 and 1ppm nitrates and my sps have never looked better.
 
The pellets I was using seemed to sort of peter out and stop growing bacteria, and the nutrient numbers weren't really falling at all, so I started looking around at other systems. I had never tried old school chaeto filtration, so I have given it a go. I needed to reduce expenditures on the tank and it's cheap(actually the chaeto was free) and so far pretty effective(in that the corals are happy and the nuisance algae is not there). I slapped together a chaeto reactor out of parts on hand and a 20 dollar 12' strip of led grow lights. I also have an 11 gallon tank with chaeto in it.
Well, Matt, if the cheato grows and I assume it will with the elements dosing you are doing, it will most certainly have an impact on nutrients. It is a very effective method, no doubt. Since my cheato stopped growing in late 2016, it is the first time I have run a personal system without an algea fuge... the cheato calls to me often. But for now I am going to try algea less. Curious to know how you like it once you get it up and growing.
I am giving chaetos a try this time.
In my previous tanks I always used GFO......Always.

Wanna try a most "natural" approach in this tank.

The tank is still a little new (6 months old now) and there's no much fishes but, untill now, my phosphates are steady 0,0.
Let's see...
Hey Alex thanks for checking in! There could be a debate about whether using cheato in an sps tank is truly 'natural'. Some might say, there is no macro algea in a reef but I think that there is algea growing everywhere in the ocean, in every surface that coral is not growing in. It just gets eaten as it grows. I've been playing with using an urchin or other algea water in the fuge with the algea so that some of it gets consumed and 'recycled' back into the tank as nutrients.
I find cheato always grows better in younger systems.. with time, I have had a harder time keeping it growing. I assume it needs trace elements and vitamins that it exhausts from the system. So, then the question becomes why am I adding things to keep the algea alive and how much is the right amount.
Your tank is looking good so far , Alex!
I've used gfo, but I always run too much. Currently sitting at .06ppm po4 and 1ppm nitrates and my sps have never looked better.

I'd like those numbers.. maybe a bit higher n.. I found my best colours at around 5ppm n but I am going to try a bit higher and see what happens.. but that is when my p was around .1-.15..

Just took a couple macros... macros.. I luv da macros..



Pink matrix against the ever encroaching nauty spiral..

Closer, dammit!!!!!!

Colours..
 
Wow! Those blues are jumping right out at the camera. Everything looks healthy and picture perfect. I love the three colors in the last pic on post #2232. And the Frankenberry-like acro in the first pic at the top of the page, is a tasty, must have coral.
 
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