Lets hear your Aquarium Husbandry & Parameters!

[Zik]

Hey guys,

I remember reading the 'Reef Parameters of the Masters" article some months ago, and thought to myself that one thing missing from a majority of the article was actual husbandry the aquarist practices. Its not vital information learning that one master doses potassium regularly, without knowing how often & how much they practice water changes - which (according to what I've ready in the past) - replenishes most potassium needed. So lets hear your practices & some levels you keep your tank @!

Some questions you can answer:
PRACTICES:
• How often & how big of a % of water changes do you perform
• IF you use them - how often do you clean / replace your filter floss/socks/etc
• Do you run carbon/gfo/other media? How often do you replace it?
• What type of CUC do you stock - and which do you avoid
• 24/7 skimming, or part-time user
• How often do you clean your glass

EQUIPMENT
• FLOW! - What do you use for flow? Where do you place them? What type of motion do you use - steady / wave / surge/ etc
• Lighting - What type of lighting (led / mh / t5 / combo) do you use, and how long do you have it peak for
• Do you use media reactors / or simply place media in your socks / sump baffles (if you use media)
• If you are dosing - what are you dosing / how frequent / and (as mentioned earlier) how often do you do water changes - as this as a big impact on how often people replenish trace elements if needed
• Feel free to include any additional info you use on equipment, such as C02 Reactors, filters, etc

PARAMETERS
The one we all love to ask =)
• Where do you keep your Alk/CA
• Salinity & temp
• Nitrates & Phosphates
• Trace elements
• Anything you add that we typically dont'/can't test for? (such as aminos)

LASTY
Feel free to include any additional information / secrets / practices you do that you feel really help you with your set up.
Also feel free to include any info that you highly advise against that have hurt you in the past.

I'll start by sharing mine below! We have some insane tanks in So-Cal, so lets get y'all to chime in as well! schnitzel, slief, 02, chez - where y'all at?! =D

 

[Zik]

PRACTICES:
• How often & how big of a % of water changes do you perform
- typically 10% ever 1-2 weeks
• IF you use them - how often do you clean / replace your filter floss/socks/etc
- I rinse out my socks every ~3 days or so
• Do you run carbon/gfo/other media? How often do you replace it?
- Carbon in the sump baffle right before the return chamber
• What type of CUC do you stock - and which do you avoid
- Currently only have a few snails. Tend to avoid hermits due 1 rouge that caused the eviction notice for the rest. considering restocking
• 24/7 skimming, or part-time user
- Running skimmer 24/7 in the sump, empty the cup every 2-3 days or so, just to keep the cup clean
• How often do you clean your glass
- I find myself cleaning a haze every 2-3 days or so

EQUIPMENT
• FLOW! - What do you use for flow? Where do you place them? What type of motion do you use - steady / wave / surge/ etc
-In my 75g 4' tank, - I have 2x Jebao pumps on 'wave' setting on opposite sides/corners (front left, and backright) to help gyre up the water. I also have 2x current usa EFlux small ones in the middle backwall to help disturb / randomize the gyre a bit more - on surge mode.
Lastly, 2x returns on opposite back corners - feeding water to the wavemakers to mix into the tank
• Lighting - What type of lighting (led / mh / t5 / combo) do you use, and how long do you have it peak for
-2x Programmable Chinese black-boxes & 1x blue+ t5. Black boxes peak @ 54b/27w for 6x hours, and t5 on for 8x hours
Black boxes also have 1/2 of the OPTICS removed to help w/ spread & reduce intensity of penetration on coral higher up
• Do you use media reactors / or simply place media in your socks / sump baffles (if you use media)
- Right now, only carbon in the sump. no gfo
• If you are dosing - what are you dosing / how frequent / and (as mentioned earlier) how often do you do water changes - as this as a big impact on how often people replenish trace elements if needed
- All my coral are small frags, so I only dose Alk/CA (b-ionic 2 part) daily. Alk drop is only ~.2dkh a day atm
• Feel free to include any additional info you use on equipment, such as C02 Reactors, filters, etc


PARAMETERS
The one we all love to ask =)
• Where do you keep your Alk/CA
-CA ~ 420, Alk ~9
• Salinity & temp
1.026 with Instant Ocean basic, and 77-78 temp
• Nitrates & Phosphates
~5ppm nitrate and .03-.06 phos
• Trace elements
• Anything you add that we typically dont'/can't test for? (such as aminos)
- I add KZ Phols Extra @ 3ml a day, but going to reduce since my tank doesn't have big colonies to consume it all

LASTY
Feel free to include any additional information / secrets / practices you do that you feel really help you with your set up.
Also feel free to include any info that you highly advise against that have hurt you in the past.
- So far me.. I was having HUGE issues with RTN/STN on newly aquired frags. 2-3 days after intro into the tank, they'd go.90% of them
Tried switching everything up, not using bayer for dip, light acclimation, water acclimation, adding nitrates (when I had 0). You name it!
I've come down to resolve this problem (so it seems) the moment I got a good RODI unit, and added a chloroplus carbon filter to it! I used to use the ROBuddie, and 6x months later still didn't replace 1x cartridge besides DI. I would let TDS get to ~4 before changing. Thankfully, SLIEF let me know that Simi Valley uses chloromine, and I was 99% sure it was in the tank. I dosed a bit of prime, got a new RODI system - added a chloro filter on it, and everything that was RTN-ing just.... stopped

I had a few coral I kept using as 'testers' (Red dragon, which would die within 2x days, and a cali-tort which would lose color 1x day, burn tips day 2, and be bare skeleton day 3).

I now Have a red dragon that's been in the tank for over a month, and still great! I got another tort this past week, and so far it has no color loss - and still has PE! I want to say I'm towards the end of resolving my STN/RTN issues I had for newly aquired specimen.


Now with things finally going steady, I'm looking forward to improving PE on most (especially millies!) and regaining color I once had before having to switch tanks due to a leak, and stress everything out.

Looking forward to reading your guys' journeys!