Mark's 150 (72x18x27)

[markalot]

Mark the "best looking coral" is stunning. The tank looks great also. How big was that monti when you got it? Mine is the same color but MUCH smaller! Oh and I actually picked up 2 frags over the past few weeks. I am pretty sure one is a turaki, but I'm not sure on the other. A local reefer traded it at the LFS and then I ended up with it. I have been really happy with my tank stability over the past month I have been working hard at it after adding the acros. Colors still aren't great but hopefully will improve....

Howdy,

that monti was a little thumbnail frag I got by mistake when ordering something else. It took forever to get decent size and then took off. I think stability was the key. It did fine through alk swings but when the alk got stable it really took off.

 

[markalot]

Time for a small update. 10 days ago I started NOPOX dosing, 15ml a day, and added a vial of BioDigest on day 1 and 5. Today Nitrates are down to 2 and I'm a bit nervous they might drop too low. Switched to a maintenance dose of 5ml a day and I've started added Seachem Fuel along with the usual reef roids for coral food. Fuel seems to have the same positive effects of Acropower with less Cyano, but the cyano reduction might be from the lower nitrates as well.

KH: 8.3
PO4: ~ .03
NO3: 2 (both salifert and nyos test kits)
Potassium (man this test sucks): 360

I have a bottle of Brightwell Potassion and I occasionally add a cap here and there.

As the weather warms I've had to turn the fan back on in the sump to keep the temp around 80. This changes evaporation which means I've been slowly dialing my timed topoff back in. About the only thing this will effect is skimmer performance if the level drops too low, but apparently that hasn't been an issue.

I am declaring the Montipora Eating Nudis gone, or at least to lazy to bother me anymore. First monti purchase in a long time is this Jedi Mind Trick undata.

Apparently they crapped out my Idaho Grape cap all over the tank. I found this nice piece growing in back and was able to break it off and mount it up front on the skeleton of my old green cap. You can see the green cap is coming back as well, out of focus in the back.

Mystic Sunset monti growing back.

Moved this big square acro frag up top. Picture doesn't look like much but it's getting some green and red coloration.

FTS

 

[Saltwaterwill]

Very neat job, j like the way u made your flexible tubing look, very professional congrats

 

[tmantaylor18]

Looks amazing mark! Do you spot feed your anemone?

 

[markalot]

Looks amazing mark! Do you spot feed your anemone?

Thanks!

Nope, I've never fed him, hoping he'd stay small but he keeps growing and growing ...

 

[sahin]

Nice progress. Love the Lokani. I have a 3/4inch stick of it. Waiting for it to grow.

 

[markalot]

Thanks Sahin.

I took a couple of top downs yesterday. I'm about ready to pull and frag this blue tip acro in the first picture below. It has this bad habit of showing faux AEFW damage and then losing skin while gaining these odd clear polyps. All the while it's putting on new growth and the tips look healthy. This has been going on for over a year now and I've had it with this random frag.

Blockhead is looking better and better, moved up into its final position earlier this week and already it's showing some brighter colors.

My UC Blue Tenuis frag has done very well, gaining blue instead of losing it. Shows up with purple shading in pictures but bright blue to my eye.

No matter what I do this acro keeps looking better and better. I need more like this!

This one used to be mounted high up at around 500 PAR. It did not look very happy so I've moved it over to lower light to see how it does. Pink polyps.

:beer:

 

[sahin]

Nice! :beer: Your corals are like mine; in various stages of colour up. Some look great, some not so. Time should make them look better hopefully.

 

[markalot]

Nice! :beer: Your corals are like mine; in various stages of colour up. Some look great, some not so. Time should make them look better hopefully.

Thanks Sahin.

My nitrates remain low, 0 to 2, maybe a little too low. After months and month of 15 nitrates I got rid of them in just 10 days with no adverse reaction in the tank. This Red Sea NOPOX is good stuff, I just followed the directions. I understand Vodka will work as well but I like the fact NOPOX mixes a couple or maybe 3 carbon sources. I don't like the fact the ingredients are not listed.

Equipment Changes:

I was experimenting with an algae scrubber. I did not follow the startup directions so results might have been better but I'm still taking it offline, no real need for it. More algae grew on the sump wall than in the scrubber.

There was an air pocket in the algae growth. Took sump offline and scraped / netted to remove.

Found a teal Montipora digitata frag to add to my SPS collection.

The big purple stylo seems extra bright with the lower nitrates.

Random LFS frag coloring up nicely, but all acros that look like this tend to RTN in here. :worried2:

I'm going to grow another big green birdsnest, until I need the space for an acro anyway. Cobbled together 3 random pieces laying around the tank. Glue and putty all over!

I took PAR readings with All T5's on plus my two BML strips.

 

[markalot]

Now for some *gasp* non SPS pictures.

This unkown Red Goniopora was grown from a small chip. I mounted it to a larger rock and buried the rock in the sand when I moved it in here.

I swear I just mounted this Meteor Shower cyphastrea just a few weeks ago. Fast grower here in around 250 PAR.

War Coral feeding response to Reef Roids.

 

[markalot]

The last thing I need is another pocillopora, so when the LFS I "donate" frags too offered this one for just a few bucks ....

I am guessing Pocillopora verrucosa.

 

[Chrisrush]

Hi Mark. Interested in your NOPOX usage. What was your PO4 when you started and now? I've got a bottle of NOPOX but have been hesitant to use it. My PO4 hovers around .03-.05 (which is fine), but I can't seem to get any nitrates to show up. Ideally, I'd like to be around 1-3 ppm. Thinking about dosing KNO3 to try and boost the nitrates a bit. I run about 1 cup of ecobak biopellets. Noticeable algae on the sand bed and a few spots on LR. Other LR are clean. Would like to drive the PO4 down a bit to get rid of the algae.

 

[markalot]

Hi Mark. Interested in your NOPOX usage. What was your PO4 when you started and now? I've got a bottle of NOPOX but have been hesitant to use it. My PO4 hovers around .03-.05 (which is fine), but I can't seem to get any nitrates to show up. Ideally, I'd like to be around 1-3 ppm. Thinking about dosing KNO3 to try and boost the nitrates a bit. I run about 1 cup of ecobak biopellets. Noticeable algae on the sand bed and a few spots on LR. Other LR are clean. Would like to drive the PO4 down a bit to get rid of the algae.

Hi Chris,

my PO4 is typically .03 - .08 maybe. Using the salifert test, doubling the reagents and water, then reading the chart and dividing by 2. Nitrates have always been my problem, this tank has never been able to filter them properly. NOPOX dropped nitrates from 10+ to 2 in 10 days of daily dosing 15ml. PO4 did not seem to move but I turned the reactor off to prevent dropping them too low.

The GFO reactor is still off and I'm simply observing and testing every week. My maintenance dose of NOPOX, according to the directions, is about 6ml a day which I have been doing since Nitrates hit 2.

I'm really new at this whole nutrient control thing so what I observed might not reflect what actually happened. I did add a neck extender to my RO skimmer 4 weeks ago but it was still unreliable and I was dumping it weekly. Since dosing NOPOX the skimmate has been very dark and smelly with me having to dump the cup every 3 days.

I would not use NOPOX to lower phosphate, instead I would start to feed the heck out of the tank and see if you can boost nitrates any. Phosphates don't seem to bother anything in my tank until they climb over .15 or so. That said I'm still battling some brown acros and I'm not sure why. It could be they need more time now that nitrates are low, or it could be phosphates are higher than I think.

 

[Chrisrush]

Hi Mark,
Thank you for the update and the info on your tank and NOPOX. I have been reading a few threads on low nitrate and I believe that my tank may be nitrate limited which is why my PO4 won't drop and I have some algae. My idea is to dose KNO3 until I achieve 1 ppm. I'm not looking to get to 0 PO4, but I would like to erradicate the algae and boost some colors in the tank by having a trace amount of nitrates. I feed the fish and coral quite a bit already, and I worry that feeding much more will only increase PO4 and not nitrate. I'll give the KNO3 a try and see what happens. Ultimately, I'd like to add some more fish but I need to set up my QT again.

Hi Chris,

my PO4 is typically .03 - .08 maybe. Using the salifert test, doubling the reagents and water, then reading the chart and dividing by 2. Nitrates have always been my problem, this tank has never been able to filter them properly. NOPOX dropped nitrates from 10+ to 2 in 10 days of daily dosing 15ml. PO4 did not seem to move but I turned the reactor off to prevent dropping them too low.

The GFO reactor is still off and I'm simply observing and testing every week. My maintenance dose of NOPOX, according to the directions, is about 6ml a day which I have been doing since Nitrates hit 2.

I'm really new at this whole nutrient control thing so what I observed might not reflect what actually happened. I did add a neck extender to my RO skimmer 4 weeks ago but it was still unreliable and I was dumping it weekly. Since dosing NOPOX the skimmate has been very dark and smelly with me having to dump the cup every 3 days.

I would not use NOPOX to lower phosphate, instead I would start to feed the heck out of the tank and see if you can boost nitrates any. Phosphates don't seem to bother anything in my tank until they climb over .15 or so. That said I'm still battling some brown acros and I'm not sure why. It could be they need more time now that nitrates are low, or it could be phosphates are higher than I think.

 

[aggie13reef]

That blue Tenuis looks awesome. I keep waiting for something like that to show up in my LFS. I have never seen a teal digi either, just reddish orange and green. Where are you finding all of these :fun5:

 

[markalot]

That blue Tenuis looks awesome. I keep waiting for something like that to show up in my LFS. I have never seen a teal digi either, just reddish orange and green. Where are you finding all of these :fun5:

The teal was a lucky find at the bottom of a frag tank. I got it for free, though if course I paid plenty for a few other frags.

 

[markalot]

I've been dosing Pohl's Xtra Special for 3 days, about 3ml a day. This is way below the prescribed dose. The cyano loves it but some of the colors are also changing. A few very light acros have darkened a bit, and some might be showing more color.

The new Poci is changing, for the better I think.

I would say the biggest change in the tank is the anemone, which is stretching out much further than normal and has taken on a deeper red. Not sure I like this. :worried2:

As far as Acros, the only noticeable change I can photograph is the base of my so called teal acro, which has taken on a deep muddy teal color.

This one has also been losing brown on the tips and is really starting to improve, but so far impossible to capture in a photo. Keep in mind these changes might be from the lower nitrates and all Pohl's is doing is feeding the cyano. :spin1:

 

[markalot]

Phol's Xtra Special as seemed to work as a good cure for this blue tip acro that was bleaching, or something. Of course it might have been something unrelated, always, but this coral was looking really bad just before I started adding Phol's and the improvement is pretty darn good. It looked as bad as the first pic 5 days ago.

Before

Now

This coral has never been happy since I bought it as a random frag. It has incredible blue tips but then the base tends to recede.

Original Frag

I don't know what the heck it likes. More light tends to bleach it out, less light tends to make it recede. :headwalls:

 

[markalot]

Other than some corals showing richer browns, and a lot more cyano, only the teal acro has shown a marked change, rapidly losing brown in favor of the blue it's supposed to be.

The CR Rainbow Acro is a richer brown and is starting to show some more color, just barely.

I'm going to pause adding Pohl's until the weekend due to the cyano. Nitrates remain around 2, PO4 < .05.

Latest FTS

 

[sahin]

Its a challenge isnt it? But still, I think some of your corals are looking great. Which brand of two part are you currently dosing?