Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[biggles]

Talk about a porn frag parade lol............ loving all those acros Matt but i especially like that black polyp purple rain, that acro is crazy beautiful :spin2:

Were you saying you were upgrading to 250W Radiums from the 150's mate or was that someone else ?

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Matt.... Yep... to tweak or not to tweak... The eternal reef question... Does changing to 250w from 150w fall into the tweak category???

No, that's an improvement. If you kept changing to different lighting technologies that would be tweaking

 

[markalot]

Love the new pics.

 

[reefmutt]

Nice, feels awesome to see progress and the tank getting better!

Thanks, Rodney.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. When the reef is good, everything is good..

Post as much as you want, no one is complaining here! I reeeeallly love the second one with the Purple body, smooth skin, and green corallite rims. And I'm thrilled to hear you say that you are enjoying your reef:bounce3:

Thanks Matt, it's turning out very nice. I'll take a few different angles of it, on the weekend. Just because you are interested..

Talk about a porn frag parade lol............ loving all those acros Matt but i especially like that black polyp purple rain, that acro is crazy beautiful :spin2:

Were you saying you were upgrading to 250W Radiums from the 150's mate or was that someone else ?

It's funny, that purple rain is getting great love!!
Yes, Andrew, I have procured a pair of lumen bright mini reflectors. They are 16 inches by 16. I should be able to get them stuffed behind my panels hiding the mess. I may have to get rid of one t5 but it'll leave me with 4.. I can handle that..
I'm very excited to move up to 250s. The 150 aren't the true Radium look, I don't think. And the ballasts I have are the select a watt models with the 'hqi' setting which over drives the bulbs to get the most from them.
Can't wait to get them installed..

 

[reefmutt]

What's this one? I have something similar, but mine has a bit different coloration. It was sold to me as a Double Doozy frag. I'm not doubting that it is, but I never see pics of frags just the original Mother Colony pic.

Hey Randy, here's a couple older shots of this piece.. It was just called a Taiwan deep water.. Basically, a no name.. If you can, post a pic of yours.. I'd love to see it..

Side:

Top down:

 

[ct_vol]

Top down:

I'm digging the top down. You don't notice the yellow polyps from the side. Yours is definitely different from mine seeing the top down. Has the same fat corallites though. I'll try and post a pic in the next couple of days. I've had them on the camera a while, just never uploaded and posted.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Keep up the good work!

 

[glaukos]

Here's a few new shots from tonight.. Not my best.. But I'm addicted to taking photos..
The infamous black polyped purple rain.. Grown a bit..

A red Diablo that hasn't grown in months but has encrusted..

Sermentosa I added a couple weeks ago..

Hawkins which was completely white when I got it.. Slowly getting some color. Hopefully after green comes blue!

This no name is kinda cool..

That's all I got for now..
I think I have to let things grow out a bit.. Although, I'll probably have more new frags by the end of the week.. Next week for sure...
I can't stop...

Missed that post......just:eek1::eek1::eek2::eek2:

 

[.Chris.]

You may have already answered this somewhere so forgive me if it's a repeat.

At what level do you keep calcium, alkalinity and magnesium and the major trace elements like potassium/iron/etc? And do you notice if the colouration of your coral changes based on those levels (specifically the major three)?

 

[ct_vol]

Hey Randy, here's a couple older shots of this piece.. It was just called a Taiwan deep water.. Basically, a no name.. If you can, post a pic of yours.. I'd love to see it..

Well here it is. I need to get some other angles, but this was the only reasonably decent pic I could find. Still doesn't show the coloration all too great. It's becoming one of my favorite corals. Turquoise, Blue and Purple. I guess I just like the different Corallite growth pattern. I've had it a few months, but it's just now taking off for me. I took this pic 2 weeks ago and I can't believe the difference in size. Looking forward to seeing both mine and yours grown out.

 

[reefmutt]

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Bob!! I'll do my best..

Missed that post......just:eek1::eek1::eek2::eek2:

Thanks, Mike! I appreciate the love!!

You may have already answered this somewhere so forgive me if it's a repeat.

At what level do you keep calcium, alkalinity and magnesium and the major trace elements like potassium/iron/etc? And do you notice if the colouration of your coral changes based on those levels (specifically the major three)?

Hey Chris, calc/alk are usually around 430 and 8. Mag I have elevated right now for the bryopsis- near 1900..
Potassium is so hard to test for because I never got my hands on a mythical salifert test kit before they were discontinued. Using the Elos test kit I get somewhere around 400..
Iron, always tests 0 unless I have just dosed. Since I am dosing FM Color Elements and the cheato is growing very well, I stopped dosing plain iron.. I assume the system is getting enough..
As to colour changes , I don't think I could really say since I don't think the nutrient levels have been quite stable enough to claim that any colour change was due to one level of calc/alk or another..
The more I play with mag levels to control bryopsis, the more I think it is fairly inconsequential to the sps. Whether my mag is at 1300-1400 or closer to 2000, the sps seem fine..
I did notice that both my bristle star and snails were acting a little funny with mag at 2000 but nothing has died and they seem fine now, so maybe it wasn't anything to do with the mag level..
Strontium, I want to start adding a bit since JBNY has showed me how effective it can be for growing corraline algae but I haven't started adding it yet.. I do assume I am adding extra SR. when adding purple up to my make up water.. And I have decent corraline algae growth already.. I have an SR test kit but have yet to use it....

Well here it is. I need to get some other angles, but this was the only reasonably decent pic I could find. Still doesn't show the coloration all too great. It's becoming one of my favorite corals. Turquoise, Blue and Purple. I guess I just like the different Corallite growth pattern. I've had it a few months, but it's just now taking off for me. I took this pic 2 weeks ago and I can't believe the difference in size. Looking forward to seeing both mine and yours grown out.

Randy, that's a nice little coral but, honestly, to me, I see little resemblance.
Looks more like a sermentosa..
Nice though!

 

[reefmutt]

Well here's a small photo update! More to come
Acro kursorini(?) I am told..



Fiji mini colony doing really well:

Ok... GUESS what famous coral this is.. Hint: the photos of this particular coral usually look stupidly better than this. It's only been in the tank a week and I don't expect it'll ever look like the RR photos.. Side:

Top down:


I have been changing things again.. I am weening the tank off of bio pellets - not happy with them... I'll explain in the morning. Gotta go to bed..

 

[cFloor]

Very nice! I'm not sure what RR coral that is, but it looks like it has tons of potential. Good stuff

 

[sahin]

Nice photo buddy. :beer: Why are you getting the system off the AIO BP? Krzysztof Tyc's tank does awesomely with these pellets. Well it will be interesting to know your reasons. As far as I can see from the photos, your Acros are doing very well.

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks, guys.
When I got back from vacation and had the p drop and coral brownout, as well as the green slime algae all over the tank, I was again in 'what the hell am I doing?' mode..
I was thinking about what you said to me, sahin, a few pages back about doing what I used to do and I also came across two threads- Alex Costa's monolith thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2523704 and nemodan's Daniel's RSM 250 SPS tank : http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2522791
Both of these guys let their systems' biology take care of themselves.
I found this very inspiring.. My system is more than large enough to handle my bioload.
When I started out on this tank 3-4 years ago, I started playing with carbon sources and never stopped. Yes the AIO biopellets have been very effective and have allowed me to manipulate my nutrient levels but they have also contributed to red slime, green slime, rapid nutrient swings and clogging and brown fines everywhere... I'm sick of having to keep such a close eye on them.
Yes, they work.. Just as well as any carbon source does but in my experience (my experience) they don't work any better than any other carbon source or pellet..
So... About 6 weeks ago, I added a second protein skimmer, doubled the light over my cheato fuge and deepened my dsb. And, of course, began reducing the flow through the aio pellet reactor. Oh yeah, and stopped testing...
OH! And one other important thing: I've added some seachem's Matrix and have been adding zeozyme and zeobac a couple of time a week as well as some other bottled bacteria.. I'll do this for a while longer and then maybe slow this down once the tank is well seeded with new bacteria..
The Matrix will obviously take a couple of months to get established- not sure I need it but why not? Can't hurt..
I've been reducing the flowthrough a bit every week and have been reducing my nitrate input and feeding a bit more.
I tested yesterday for the first time in a month..
N was 1ppm..
P was .04 on both of my Elos high res test kits while the stupid Hanna eggs gave me 0 on the phosphate and 30 (.09 ppm p) on ULR phosphorous. The more I use the green eggs, the more useless I find them (in my experience)...
So I have reduced the flowthrough again and in a week, I will remove the pellets completely.
I am pretty confident that my system is large enough to take care of itself...
I really want to get back to a non carbon driven system..

Ok couple more photos.
Purple rain has grown a bit


One of my deep water frags that is beginning to not look like a drag any more..

Here is what it was a while back.. Late May.

And here's the cheato I removed yesterday..

 

[markalot]

Nice "clump" of chaeto. If I had space for a large refugium I do think I would go the natural route, but only because it tends to move things slowly, which is key for me. I'm now on 3 months without harming an acro since removing GFO. I never guessed PO4 swings were killing my corals, even though everyone warns it will. I'm a bit dense.

Up to this point it seems biopellets and/or carbon dosing lowers nutrients slowly enough that everything stays healthy.

 

[Cyberdude]

I got a bad case of dinos. My cheato hasn't grown an inch in the last month! If used to be on steroids lol. I just pulled my gfo out. Turned off my skimmer and run a little bit of carbon. Not even cleaning the glass which finally has a little green algae on it.

 

[nemodan]

Matt .... You really removed that full bucket of Cheato !!!! I have never seen so much all together and nice color. She is eating all your Phosp...... Good !!!

I feel very proud of your words, thank you !!!

I have added a movie of my tank to my thread. Every day that pass and I do not have an issue I smile very big !!. Today I found that my salinity was a little high. I am still scratching my head how it happened. Every weekend with the WC I test the salinity of the tank and the new water....and yes, I do calibrate my refractometer with a 35 ppm standard and check it with RODI water (has to be perfect 0). But today, using 3 different refractometers that I have, the salinity was 38 ppm when I like it at 35 ppm.

Well, slowly, during the week, I will be taking sea water and the ATO Will compensate with RODI.

Cheers and.....FANTASTIC pictures and very nice solid colors !!!

Daniel

 

[nemodan]

I got a bad case of dinos. My cheato hasn't grown an inch in the last month! If used to be on steroids lol. I just pulled my gfo out. Turned off my skimmer and run a little bit of carbon. Not even cleaning the glass which finally has a little green algae on it.

View attachment 329176

Your Cheato hasn't grown an inch because there is no food for them. I believe the GFO took it all..... Or Am I missunderstanding your posting ?

 

[reefmutt]

Nice "clump" of chaeto. If I had space for a large refugium I do think I would go the natural route, but only because it tends to move things slowly, which is key for me. I'm now on 3 months without harming an acro since removing GFO. I never guessed PO4 swings were killing my corals, even though everyone warns it will. I'm a bit dense.

Up to this point it seems biopellets and/or carbon dosing lowers nutrients slowly enough that everything stays healthy.

Hey Mark, part of the reason I'm trying to remove my pellets is because I find that they can reduce nutrients very quickly, if you are not in top of things constantly.. When I went on vacation, my mom wasn't feeding quite as much as I usually do and my p dropped by more than 50% in 7 days.. A couple corals rtned and many browned out.. I'm hoping that the dsb, cheato, skimmers won't be quotes as harsh... We'll see, I guess..

I got a bad case of dinos. My cheato hasn't grown an inch in the last month! If used to be on steroids lol. I just pulled my gfo out. Turned off my skimmer and run a little bit of carbon. Not even cleaning the glass which finally has a little green algae on it.

View attachment 329176

I don't envy you one bit.... Often when the cheato stops growing, it's because it has become iron deficient.. You could try adding some iron to the system..... HOWEVER, I am not that familiar with the protocols for dealing with dinos.. Maybe the iron would make them worse... But maybe a black out while dosing some iron while the cheato fuge is lit may jump start the cheato and help it outcompete the dinos...
I'd love to see a photo of your dinos, if you are able/willing to post a shot...

Matt .... You really removed that full bucket of Cheato !!!! I have never seen so much all together and nice color. She is eating all your Phosp...... Good !!!

I feel very proud of your words, thank you !!!

I have added a movie of my tank to my thread. Every day that pass and I do not have an issue I smile very big !!. Today I found that my salinity was a little high. I am still scratching my head how it happened. Every weekend with the WC I test the salinity of the tank and the new water....and yes, I do calibrate my refractometer with a 35 ppm standard and check it with RODI water (has to be perfect 0). But today, using 3 different refractometers that I have, the salinity was 38 ppm when I like it at 35 ppm.

Well, slowly, during the week, I will be taking sea water and the ATO Will compensate with RODI.

Cheers and.....FANTASTIC pictures and very nice solid colors !!!

Daniel

Your Cheato hasn't grown an inch because there is no food for them. I believe the GFO took it all..... Or Am I missunderstanding your posting ?

Thanks, Dan!
Your thread really inspired me... I hope I can get the same results in a few more months.. I will check out that video, for sure..
I have no idea how salinity could go UP in a closed system with an ato.. Very strange..

Here's another shot or two..
Top:

Side:

And is is the base growing over from where I pulled the coral off from..

So now I have a second colony starting. The new growth is awesome..