Looking to hire experienced reefer for consult

JustAClownFish said:
I don't know why you mentioned BRS. They just came to the same conclusion that the Kessils aren't as powerful but they didn't say that 85 par will kill corals... You have 5 Kessils. Five dude!!! There are many people who use Kessils with great success and they do not have your problems. I've seen SPS only tanks with Kessils.

You're saying your readings are accurate and the guy's readings I quoted must, therefore, be wrong because YOU are infallible since you have been in the hobby for 20 years, right?:rollface: How do you know your PAR meter is accurate? Just because it's new it means it's accurate? How much doe the 20 years add to your 'experience' when you have to offer someone to pay them to help you? :headwallblue:

Just think about what you said. You said you turned up the intensity and the coral bleached and then you went ahead and concluded that not enough PAR is killing your corals. How does that make sense?

Tidalgardens states that 50-150 par is low to medium lighting. Even SPS can do fine in 85 par if the spectrum is right.

The store I worked at had the shittiest LED fixtures from China, Tawain and what not, 10 -20 years old and super dim, nitrates were around 160ppm, skyrocketing phosphates etc. yet his corals (LPS AND SPS) were doing OK and of course, softies were doing great. Just OK, but they were alive and you can't keep your corals alive under high tech Kessil LED's? Yea sure. You're deceiving yourself.
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Do you really think that this kind of dialogue you're spewing will get you a positive response or even get someone to take you even the least bit serious? Try being more reasonable and helpful and less combative and offensive. Sorry to break it to you but reading your posts, whether your knowledge is right or wrong you come off like some know-it-all dbag.
 
I've been here before and still battling with phosphates. It's either too high at times with gha starting to come out or too low. I have the same types of coral and my lps are happy at .05-08 and sometimes up to 1 and I measure it with a Milwaukee Mi412. My monti and birds nest can handle it also. I have always recovered from low phosphate with a small amount ( under half of a 1/4 spoon) of Reef roids mixed in with my fish food once a week. I'll start there if you want to increase it. Good luck
 
dodgerblew said:
Do you really think that this kind of dialogue you're spewing will get you a positive response or even get someone to take you even the least bit serious? Try being more reasonable and helpful and less combative and offensive. Sorry to break it to you but reading your posts, whether your knowledge is right or wrong you come off like some know-it-all dbag.
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Dodgersblew+1
It never amazes me how the threads will end up here.
There are thousands of threads and personality types and tanks out there so I never understand why there is a need for this combative and off topic behavior.

I for one have been around a long time. Owned stores and propagations and rescued corals and built simple and designed high end tanks, and every time I read a thread I learn something and sometimes from people that have just started the hobby specially since they are not set in their ways.
The forums are a platform for sharing knowledge and learning. It would be amazing if we could keep it that way since I remember the days that there were no forums and if we ran into a problem it would be a nightmare to get a wealth of experience and information within hours or days.

Cheers and happy reefing to all.
 
IMO - Your tank isn't mature enough to sustain the corals. Maybe within the next 6months your 200g will have to beneficial bacterial needed. It's not the parameters that you should be concerned about. It's the stress of a newly created environment. What color is your film algae that grows on the display front? My two pennies.

- Larry
 
waterman78 said:
IMO - Your tank isn't mature enough to sustain the corals. Maybe within the next 6months your 200g will have to beneficial bacterial needed. It's not the parameters that you should be concerned about. It's the stress of a newly created environment. What color is your film algae that grows on the display front? My two pennies.

- Larry
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A saltwater tank doesn't take 12 months to be able to sustain corals IME. My tank is 6 months old at this point. I have green algae on the glass, diatoms on the sand and a bit of coraline on the back. My corals are already starting to bounce back after adding Phosphates and slowly turn up the lights. I have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to recover most of them.
 
GV,
There's your evidence. I'm focusing on your diatoms in the sand and bits of coralline algae on the back wall. Again, it seems like your tank is still in the stages of cycling....your sand will be your biggest clue regarding your NITROGEN CYCLE. Once you have more beneficial microfauna/macroalgae species populate inside of your display, you've more of them throughout your system. I could only guess that you feel that a clean tank in a healthy tank which in fact it's the opposite.

Again, IMO and in my own experience enclosed system do not reach full maturity until about 12months of algae growth. It's going to take time to establish 200g diaplay. Hopefully this helps you sleep a little more at night.

Busy hands in the display interferes with the natural process of maturity. Good luck with your corals and display.


Larry
 
Just an update:

My Kessils are now at 72% and everything is doing well once again. It turned out to be my lights after all. I'm still fighting a diatom bloom after I dumped Reef Roids in my system. I installed a Santa Monica Filtration ATS and that's been helping as well. I'll probably eventually settle at about 80%. Lesson learned. Kessils are good lights but need to be cranked to get appropriate par levels for LPS and SPS.
 
five.five-six said:
Great news! How about a FTS!
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<a href="https://ibb.co/dsajyx"><img src="https://preview.ibb.co/kBPcJx/IMG_0022.jpg" alt="IMG_0022" border="0"></a><br /><a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>image url</a><br />

So my lobo and chalice are still recovering. Everything else is doing OK. Still battling some major algae issues. Phosphates are back to 0 and Nitrates are 5-10. I've been vacuuming the sand on a weekly basis.
 
ycnibrc said:
If your phosphate is at 0 then your corals are starving. Turn off skimmer GFO anything regarding reducing phosphate. Let your tank run a couple weeks u will see improvement. How is your Coraline algae when u see pink Coraline start growing on the wall thats the indicator that your water chemistry in balance.
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This is the best advice that OP has received. I am an old school reefer that is skimmerless and feeding heavy. Nature has had 5 billion years to work out Dynamic Equilibrium to maintain marine ecosystems. Using bioindicators like coralline growth to indicate a healthy maturing reef.

Garden,
Did I understand correctly, that this system is 8 months old?
 
vuqchu said:
Here is what I would do if it were my tank...

Stop auto water change.
Not sure if your RODI has chloramine blocks but add Prime to both tank in the sump and also top off
Can't tell if it's a reactor in your return chamber...if it is then turn it/them off
Adjust skimmer to skim dry or just turn off
Take dosing off

This is the most important...Feed the crap out of the tank. However, I don't see any fish so you may have to do amino. Keep on doing it until you see algae the more the better. Feed phyto if you have it. Keep on feeding.

Even if you keep SPS...do the same thing.
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Interesting to hear “feed the crap out of the tank”. I agree 100%.


I recently dealt with a 25 year old 75G, 6” deep Jaubert Plenum that had Janitor crew decimated by Wrasse. So I vacuumed a 6” deep sandbed to 2” in a 25 year sandbed while maintaining a mixed garden with sponges, clams, softies and ornamental macros. So, against my better judgement, with 45 years of reefing experience, I feed heavily. Flake food, frozen food and live mussels feed twice a day. The mussel juice goes into the water and the filter feeder feathers come out.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FDt8QTAp0Cs
This was taken five years ago. The baseball size GSP rock in vidio now covers all of back wall and half of right side.l
 
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Garden,
After reading your complete thread, you should disregard everything that I said. I don’t think that my artistic expression of a reef is the same as your vision.
Happy reefing.
 
Looks like the tank is coming along very nicely.. Congratulations.

I too am running Kessil a360we's.. I use 3 over a 4x2x2 120g. I too started out with mine at about 45% and saw little growth.. an early acro browned out and my tubbs stelatta looked pale.. A month or two ago I started increasing my lights intensity and photo period and I have started to see some of the color come back and noticeable growth on many of my corals. I am currently running my lights for 9 hours with max intensity at 72%. My lights are 8" over water and spaced 12" apart at center.

Out of curiosity, what is your spacing and what intensity are you running now and for how many hrs/day? I need to get a par meter but have not bit the bullet yet.

Cheers.
 
spiritwalker said:
Looks like the tank is coming along very nicely.. Congratulations.

I too am running Kessil a360we's.. I use 3 over a 4x2x2 120g. I too started out with mine at about 45% and saw little growth.. an early acro browned out and my tubbs stelatta looked pale.. A month or two ago I started increasing my lights intensity and photo period and I have started to see some of the color come back and noticeable growth on many of my corals. I am currently running my lights for 9 hours with max intensity at 72%. My lights are 8" over water and spaced 12" apart at center.

Out of curiosity, what is your spacing and what intensity are you running now and for how many hrs/day? I need to get a par meter but have not bit the bullet yet.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I have 5 evenly spaced across my 7x2x2 tank. These are mounted 12" above water and max out at 80% over a 10 hour period. The lights run at their max for 5 hours per day. I have 2 lights mounted on the right side facing inward. These lights are about 6-7" above the water and max out at 20% (I'm currently acclimating my SPS to more light). I get about 300 PAR 6" under water on the right side and about 200 PAR on the left. I keep two zones so I can have a Mixed Reef and not bleach all my other softies and LPS.
 
spiritwalker said:
Thanks GV.. Looks like I might be getting close to where I need to be.. Time to suck it up and get the meter..
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I would think at your mounting height along with having 3 over 48" you should be good for a mixed reef as long as SPS are all in the upper half of the tank. My mounting height is the reason I have to crank mine higher. I'll probably end up around 85% Int and 45% Color. I'll try and take a picture of my canopy tomorrow so you can see my lighting arrangement.
 
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Here's what the light setup looks like under my canopy. The two lights facing inward made all of the difference.

<a href="https://ibb.co/W23HZxx"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/DRb1hVV/IMG-0414.jpg" alt="IMG-0414" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/fDqw6CB"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/TWY3jHp/IMG-0413.jpg" alt="IMG-0413" border="0"></a>
 
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