Scotty freddy
New member
Wow Matt! Looking great bud and getting really nice colour and good PE! Good work mate :thumbsup:
Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail
- Thread starter reefmutt
- Start date
naterealbig
Premium Member
WTH is BFC?
JB NY
Active member
Matt, so sorry to read about your father. I've had a few close calls with my dad the past few ears, I can only imagine how the loss must feel. My condolences.
I think the tank is looking good, the corals are definitely looking better and with good coloration. I wonder if you up your Nitrates would it pull your P down more. I found that was exactly what happened in my case. Either way mighty nice pics you have been showing!
I think the tank is looking good, the corals are definitely looking better and with good coloration. I wonder if you up your Nitrates would it pull your P down more. I found that was exactly what happened in my case. Either way mighty nice pics you have been showing!
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Matt, I am very sorry about your father. Please accept my condolences.
plyle02
Active member
Matt,
#1, I am very sorry to hear about your Dad, I hope you are doing ok, I feel for you, and my heart dropped to see your update on the page before. In all sincerity, I hope you and your family are doing ok in these times of loss. That said, I still do appreciate seeing your FTS, it looks well planned and all those beautiful corals will fill the tank in short order. Keep up at things, what an amazing job you have done, you should be proud my friend!
#1, I am very sorry to hear about your Dad, I hope you are doing ok, I feel for you, and my heart dropped to see your update on the page before. In all sincerity, I hope you and your family are doing ok in these times of loss. That said, I still do appreciate seeing your FTS, it looks well planned and all those beautiful corals will fill the tank in short order. Keep up at things, what an amazing job you have done, you should be proud my friend!
reefmutt
Active member
it's Andrew trying to find friends... best friends contest..
he's desperate... nobody really likes him because his tank is to nice!
notice that he has the highest number in this best friends contest....
Aussies... :dance:
thanks Scotty...i don't like you much either because you are another Aussie with a way too nice tank... two actually... at least your not desperate for friends like some Aussies i know..
Sahin, we know Andrew is all about the science!:bum:
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reefmutt
Active member
Joe, Bulent, Perry, thank you very much for your kind words. Each passing day gets a little less weird and a bit less sad than the previous one..
Joe, i had a very stable n and p level of 4 and .14 respectively for quite some time and things seemed fine. i was adding the kno3 3 times per week and potassium seemed right around 400.. hard to test for, though.
i decided to increase the flow through the pellet reactor and add another 250 ml or so of pellets in an attempt to pull the p down lower.. it worked - down to .06 ish. However, to do this i have had to add about 4 times as much nitrate. i am now adding cano3 4 days a week and kno3 3 days a week to keep n at 1 ppm! I'm scared to add any more for fear of raising my calcium and potassium too high..
my rocks must just be saturated with phosphate... that's what i get for using old rock from an old fish only system... I can only imagine that eventually the p will be exhausted to some degree...
i must say that since lowering the nutrients, i have had even better pe and more corals are starting to color up and grow..
Perry, I am still not sure i like the scape.. i like elements of it but not all of it.. tough to place corals when they are frags and anticipate how they will grow out.. Anyways i have that rabbitfish in there who is randomly taking bites out of my corals, so he may have to come out. if so, there will be a re scape in my future.
Joe, i had a very stable n and p level of 4 and .14 respectively for quite some time and things seemed fine. i was adding the kno3 3 times per week and potassium seemed right around 400.. hard to test for, though.
i decided to increase the flow through the pellet reactor and add another 250 ml or so of pellets in an attempt to pull the p down lower.. it worked - down to .06 ish. However, to do this i have had to add about 4 times as much nitrate. i am now adding cano3 4 days a week and kno3 3 days a week to keep n at 1 ppm! I'm scared to add any more for fear of raising my calcium and potassium too high..
my rocks must just be saturated with phosphate... that's what i get for using old rock from an old fish only system... I can only imagine that eventually the p will be exhausted to some degree...
i must say that since lowering the nutrients, i have had even better pe and more corals are starting to color up and grow..
Perry, I am still not sure i like the scape.. i like elements of it but not all of it.. tough to place corals when they are frags and anticipate how they will grow out.. Anyways i have that rabbitfish in there who is randomly taking bites out of my corals, so he may have to come out. if so, there will be a re scape in my future.
sh8g8delik
New member
Matt, sorry to hear about your father buddy. Mine was the reason i stayed in this hobby after failing the first two times when i was younger. He would always find time to stare at the tank after a 12+ hour day working so hard to raise his 5 kids. He passed away 11 years ago and not a day passes by that i dont think about him. Whenever i look at my tank i think of my father staring at it from the other side (mines a peninsula) and it makes me smile. Find comfort in others when it gets rough, it helps tremendously. This lovely people on this forum helps alot too.
You have some awesome looking corals Matt! Can't wait until they start looking like mini bushes!
You have some awesome looking corals Matt! Can't wait until they start looking like mini bushes!
JB NY
Active member
I would add more NO3 to the system, right now you are nitrate limited, meaning that the removal of your phosphate is limited by the amount of nitrate you have in the system. I would up the N3 to about 3-5ppm and see if the P comes down, I think it will and you should see numbers for the P at around .02 soon. Once you have that happening you can decide what you want to do.
BTW I don't think you need to worry about adding too much K with the KNO3, for every 5ppm of N you only add 3.5ppm of K, you can have K numbers in excess of 550 and still not have any issues, IMO.
I am not sure how much you are adding, I add 20ml a day, with the solution I am using that is enough to raise my N by ~0.7ppm. I originally started with 30ml a day which would raise it by 1ppm and this was just enough to slowly raise the N in my tank, once it got to about 5ppm I dropped the amount to where it is now, and I am able to maintain NO3 at 5ppm with daily dosing at 20ml.
BTW I don't think you need to worry about adding too much K with the KNO3, for every 5ppm of N you only add 3.5ppm of K, you can have K numbers in excess of 550 and still not have any issues, IMO.
I am not sure how much you are adding, I add 20ml a day, with the solution I am using that is enough to raise my N by ~0.7ppm. I originally started with 30ml a day which would raise it by 1ppm and this was just enough to slowly raise the N in my tank, once it got to about 5ppm I dropped the amount to where it is now, and I am able to maintain NO3 at 5ppm with daily dosing at 20ml.
Myka
Reefing since '93
So sorry to hear about your father Matt. I hope his passing was as peaceful as can be. My FIL passed in April at only 64 years old after 9 months battling lung cancer. End of life sucks, and I can't even imagine if it was my own father. My heart goes out to you.
That Acro with the black polyps is amaaaaazing!!! Where did you find this stunner?
That Acro with the black polyps is amaaaaazing!!! Where did you find this stunner?
madkeenreefer
New member
Great to see another SPS obsessed reefer from Quebec.
Following
Following
reefmutt
Active member
Anh, thank you for those words, it's always interesting how we connect to the people around us- here and gone.
Acro bush is my plan! I can wait either.
reefmutt
Active member
Joe, I'm not sure I agree that I am n limited. Maybe... Two years ago, I had my system n limited and my p sat at around .15-.2. Even using literally pounds of gfo, p went nowhere. My tests showed .5 ppm n. Back then, getting n over 1 started to pull down p..
This time, once I added more pellets and flow in my pellet reactor, both levels fell to my current levels of 1ppm for n and .06 for p..
Having said that, what you say about k levels makes me feel more comfortable about adding not kno3. I use Seachem Flourish Nitrogen- 28ml 3x a week. The rest is cano3 4xtimes a week- crystal form - about half a teaspoon each day. I have not been able to find solid kno3 because it is a loosely controlled substance- being a prime ingredient in bombs..
So! I will take your advice and try raising my n a few more points up to see if p moves..
I'll keep you posted!
I use Red Sea test for n and I use the salifert high resolution test kit for p. I gave up using the Hanna ULR checker because it was WILDLY inconsistent and made me crazy..
I test twice a week.. Recently because of my consistant results, I have been going one week between tests.
reefmutt
Active member
Thank you Myka. End of life does indeed SUCK! My condolences to you and yours as well..
That piece came from Raging reef from a wild piece he received.. He has been calling it Purple Rain. As we all know, we can't have a cool sps without a name!
Great to see another SPS obsessed reefer from Quebec.
Following
Thanks and welcome! I used to know 3 or 4 guys with stupid nice tanks in Montreal.. Unfortunately, they all went through relationship issues and moved or shut down their tanks.... I'd love to see some nice sps reefs around here. I know there are some out there but I don't know them.. Except for 74killer but he been a little scarce, lately..
Do you have a build thread? I'd love to check out your system!
Myka
Reefing since '93
Thank you Myka. End of life does indeed SUCK! My condolences to you and yours as well..
That piece came from Raging reef from a wild piece he received.. He has been calling it Purple Rain. As we all know, we can't have a cool sps without a name!
Yes, thank you.
Can I buy a frag of this Purple Rain from someone? I think yours is too small to be asking (yet haha). That is a great name - though not how I would picture a coral with this name to look like.
JB NY
Active member
I don't think it can hurt. Going from 1 to 5ppm on your NO3, should have any real change, might make the coral a little more colorful though.
That stinks you can't get the KNO3 in powered form, it costs $3 for a pound of it here and it lasts a long time.
