Mark's 150 (72x18x27)

[markalot]

Thanks for the idea Max, I'll be looking into that if I can't get things under control.

Update ...

So Nitrates had sunk to 2 or a little lower and I backed off the output of my recirculating biopellet reactor. Nitrates did rise a little, but PO4 also rose to .12. :headwally: I guess the good news there is that these all-in-one pellets do seem to be putting a dent into the PO4.

I increased the output and am preparing to dose nitrate if I need to in order to keep it elevated, but my understanding is not to do this unless I can actually drive nitrates to 0. AN order of bulk GFO and a 2 liter jug of Phosguard arrive today and my plan is to suck the sump clean using my buckethead, then replace the GFO to tackle the PO4 problem again. I suspect it will exhaust in a few days.

My blue tenuis, a coral I've never been able to keep alive, is mostly dead now. Apparently it can't take any elevated phosphates, or it is sensitive to phosphate swings. My slimer is still green, but not bright impossible green. All other SPS look healthy, just lacking color.

 

[markalot]

I've failed to get any clarity as to what is going on.

I turned up the BP reactor flow last night, cam home today and noted the colors looked better than yesterday. Tested.

PO4 down to .06 (hanna)
NO3 at 2.5 (salifert)

Phosphorus from the output of the GFO reactor is 0 - 4pbb.

So the GFO is not exhausted yet, the AIO biopellets seem to be able to remove some phosphate, as advertised, but I expected a bigger drop in nitrates. :fun5:

Time for a water change and then I'll test again tomorrow.

 

[markalot]

I'm seeing some positive results already, and after making a spreadsheet of all my logged values it's becoming more obvious that all my problems stem from phosphate issues.

I was sitting at 8KH for months and suddenly KH spiked to a little over 9. The first sign of trouble was a birdsnest losing some skin and a blue tenuis turning zombie purple. I turned off the dosing pump and KH remained elevated, above 8.5, for a few days. I added a cup of GFO and within a day KH dropped to 8 so I turned the doser back on.

Soon after that my GFO reactor clogged due to the pump sucking in a bunch of detritus. I noted cleaning it out, replacing the GFO, and putting a filter bag around the pump so it wouldn't happen again.

Later that week I started noticing some good color but I also happened to test PO4 and saw some blue on the salifert test, so I replace the GFO again this time using 2 cups. Over the next week KH dropped to 7 and I noted a lot of new growth.

Recently I was messing around with the equipment, trying to run GFO only part of the day, and playing with a Hanna ULR tester. I happened to catch a PO4 rise prior to KH changing so I was able to correct it quickly.

Today I'm at 6.7 KH just prior to a water change, so things are still growing. Unfortunately I can't ignore PO4, so I must test on a regular basis and replace media if needed until whatever is causing so much phosphate pressure is done.

As far as any noticable difference, I wasn't expecting any but the red cap actually shows it already. This was solid dark red yesterday and already shows brighter red near the edges.

The subulata has had great color for months now, and since I had the camera out ...

 

[troubadour11]

Well it looks like things are well under control for you right now. Just keep dialing it in. [emoji106]

Your last two pics were cool, thanks for sharing.

I've been using a Hanna url phosphorus meter as well lately. I've been keeping alk around 8 or so and dosing 60mL vinegar daily in my set up. I think I was struggling with a massive Po4 imbalance for the last 4-6 months or more. I took to starting the carbon dose and running a dual reactor of gfo. I test weekly with the h.url and wait until I see a reading on it, then change out my gfo.

It seems like this would strip the water of nutrients to much, keeping the url at 0, but I still have some algae spots that grow for the tang to graze. And there is a +/- error factor. So since there is algae to graze on, I know either something is still leaching Po4 or my input is high enough to keep some Po4/No3 in the water column. Despite the h.url reading 0.

I'm not focusing so much on color though. I'm happy if my corals are alive. But ever since I started this method, sps has improved and I'm getting growth and new heads on lps. I think I was processing no3, but not po4. Almost 6 months later, I think I'm finally getting things balanced back out.

I hope to eventually go back to 1 carbon, 1 gfo in my reactor and adjust my carbon dose a bit as needed. But keep at it and it will right itself. I rode it out on my tank for half a year now, but things are getting exciting again.

Anyway, it's always nice to see what you're up to. It gives me a good basis to learn from since our systems are being run somewhat similarly. Although you've got me topped now with the biopellets and stuff.

I look forward to seeing what's next. I hope to get growth, color, and stability like yours one day. Maybe soon if I can keep things on the right track

 

[markalot]

Hi Troub, thanks for the visit!

I've declared all out war on PO4, ignoring all the advice I've collected in the past about making sure not to drive PO4 too low. In this tank I don;t think it's possible to eliminate PO4, at least not in the short term.

Using GFO, Phosguard, Lanthanum Chloride (one dose), and AIO BioPellets I've reduced PO4 to .03 over 4 days. Phosphate was starting to rise a bit in from the output of the GFO reactor so I replaced it with about 2 cups of PO4X, which is GFO covered in some kind of polymer. Man, this stuff stinks, STINKS, but seems to work well. DId not require much rinsing and I had to keep flow very low because these micro pellets fluidize very easily.

PO4 now down to .02 as of the last measurement, KH dropped to 6.7 so I upped my dosing by 5ml a day and added a cap of Alk until I can determine if the KH drop is temporary or not.

As far as livestock, the tank is coming alive. Getting the beginning of color on some acros that have been brown for a long time, and growth rates are increasing at a pace I'm sure many SPS keepers are used to but that I've never seen. My slimer is now 15 inches across and 9 inches tall, creating new branches seemingly daily. My acans and 2 chalices have also shown a big improvement, which is the opposite of what I expected. Polyp extension of all SPS is improved.

 

[markalot]

Update.

I've been keeping a spreadsheet of params and notes for the first time in my reefing career. It's a huge help and much better than writing values on a calendar.

This is a trimmed copy as I'm tracking how much I feed and a few other observations.

               [U] KH                      PO4     NO3[/U]

6/3/2015				0.07	      GFO turned off
6/4/2015				0.05	
6/9/2015	7.1			0.06	3
6/11/2015	7			0.09	3     GFO turned back on
6/14/2015				0.06	2
6/15/2015				0.12	5     Added bag of Phosguard, increased biopellet reactor flow
6/16/2015	6.7			0.06	2.5
6/17/2015	6.9			0.05	2.5   Added second large bag of Phosguard
6/18/2015				0.03	2
6/19/2015	6.7			0.03	
6/20/2015				0.03	
6/21/2015	6.7			0.02	2     Replaced GFO with PO4X4 (1.5 cups)
6/22/2015					
6/23/2015				0.06	
6/24/2015	6.6			0.14	      Replaced both bags of Phosguard
6/25/2015	6.4			0.06	2     Replaced PO4X4 with 1.5 cups GFO

First thing to note is the PO4X4, which is supposed to be better than GFO, simply did not work. It smelled out of the bag and PO4 started to rise as soon as I added it. I will not be using it again. I polished off a full 2 liters of Phosguard to get PO4 quickly back under control! I've also gone through almost all of my ULR reagents for the Hanna meter. :clown:

I DO have visual results, and the corals are damn happy, so I am making progress.

This is a CR Rainbow Acro that has been brown until this month.

This sarmentosa is finally starting to color back up.

This smooth skin, possibly a jacquelinae, has healed over a dead spot and showing good color (that is difficult to capture in a photo).

The little caps, survivors of the deadbeat MEN, have really started to pick up growth speed and color.

The pinks? Well, the pink milli is showing hints of pink again but still mostly brown.

I'm now trying to understand how my feeding is effecting PO4. I fed a 1/2 tablespoon of Reef Roids on 6/20 and 6/21 and I'm wondering if that contributed to the rapid rise in PO4 when I switched to PO4X4?

You can see KH has started to drop and I've manually dosed twice to keep it around 7.8 and increased the dosers from 60ml a day at the beginning of the month to 80ml today. Growth has exploded, color has improved, but it's costing me $$$.

 

[Cosmojo]

Stunning tank!

 

[markalot]

Stunning tank!

Thanks Cosmojo, it's a work in progress!

 

[joshky]

Looking great! Really liking the colors of the CR Rainbow. :thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

Looking great! Really liking the colors of the CR Rainbow. :thumbsup:

Thanks Josh. Phosphate has remained low for the past few days now.

1.5 cups GFO added 6/25 and replaced with 1.75 cups GFO on 6/28. PO4 has remained at or below .05 and things are looking pretty darn good.

PO4 is near undetectable as of yesterday evening, Nitrates around 5 but I've been tweaking the BP reactor output to try and lock NO3 at about 2 or 3. A couple of days ago I had barely measurable nitrates so I backed off the flow a bit.

At the moment I'm trying desperately to get my KH back above 7.0. It seems every extra ml I put into the tank gets eaten by the slimer. :mad2:

6/19 I increased daily dosing to 60ml.

As of yesterday dosing is at 95ml a day and KH is 6.7 and still appears to be dropping slowly. :jester:

 

[sahin]

Wow! Looking great!!! :beer: Are you still dosing Seachem Fuel? I'm thinking of picking it up next week.

 

[joshky]

Have you considered adding kalk to your system to cut down on dosing?

 

[markalot]

Wow! Looking great!!! :beer: Are you still dosing Seachem Fuel? I'm thinking of picking it up next week.

Thanks!

No, I stopped all food potions while working on the phosphate issue, unfortunately I also cut back feeding which has led to some loss of color. I have to remember that testing for inorganic phosphate is basically telling me what happened last week, not what's going on now. Just a couple of days of increased (but not crazy) feeding has snapped a few things back. Most color loss was in the montis and LPS, not the acros.

Last 2 days I've done 1/2 tsp reef roids each day. Will probably only do that twice a week and see how it shakes out. I've increased fish feeding as well, mostly flake, small amounts at a time. I have been guilty in the past of clouding the entire tank with food and cackling madly.

 

[markalot]

Have you considered adding kalk to your system to cut down on dosing?

Hi Josh,

yea, and that's a good idea, but I haven't done anything yet. I used to use Kalk in my topoff but the evaporation rate varies too much. My last purchase was a big recirculating bio-pellet reactor and now there's not a lot of room for a kalk container.

 

[markalot]

Update.

Not much progress to show, I've been working on nutrient export issues.

Lovely graphs! Every drop in PO4 has been me adding new GFO.

I'm now up to 1 liter of AIO biopellets with about 100ml of standard biopellets as well. Yesterday I did my first dose of CalciumNitrate to raise NO3 from 0 (clear via salifert testing) to around 2 - 2.5. Per instructions from Mhucasey I added the solid to an overflow which dissolved slowly and raised nitrates over about an hours time. I have turned off GFO, hopefully for good. I also added 3 blue/green chromis and a Coral Beauty Angel, who I expect will nip at my corals if he ever comes out of hiding.

My BFC is now 1.26. :fish2:

Random Pics

Mirror is up when I add new fish, getting crowded in front of it. Clowns are moving about 5mph toward the side and right after this picture was taken there was a big pileup and scatter. A fun evening of entertainment. You can also see color loss in my big red monti cap. All my red and purple montis, plus an undata, nearly died for no reason I can surmise.

Some frags coloring up. Random acro

Red Dragon, which has now filly encrusted over that dead spot.

 

[markalot]

Forgot the FTS

 

[Wazzel]

Looks good Mark.

 

[mhucasey]

Mark, i spent a good chunk of time this weekend reading this thread from beginning to end, and what a journey it has been. The tank looks great! I saw lots of parallels between both of our tanks, trying different things to solve problems, switching up lighting, obsessive parameter watching. This hobby is pretty addicting!

A note on your MEN issues - I had the same thing happen but I went over a year with no evidence of them. No bald patches, no visible MEN, no additions of Montis. Then I lost my yellow corps wars when he jumped out of the tank. Two weeks later i started seeing bald patches in one Monti. Within weeks they were friggin everywhere :headwalls:

Luckily by then my love for Montipora had dwindled, so I aggressively ripped out every piece that was infected. Only a few small pieces were brought over to the new tanks. I cooked any rock that had montipora with Hydrogen peroxide before putting it back in the flubber tank. So far so good. I would bet your wrasse is just keeping them contained, they are too tenacious to just die off - which gives you a perfect excuse to buy wrasses!:lol:

Ill be following your thread from now on!

 

[markalot]

Looks good Mark.

Thanks, and thanks for visiting!

 

[markalot]

Mark, i spent a good chunk of time this weekend reading this thread from beginning to end, and what a journey it has been. The tank looks great! I saw lots of parallels between both of our tanks, trying different things to solve problems, switching up lighting, obsessive parameter watching. This hobby is pretty addicting!

A note on your MEN issues - I had the same thing happen but I went over a year with no evidence of them. No bald patches, no visible MEN, no additions of Montis. Then I lost my yellow corps wars when he jumped out of the tank. Two weeks later i started seeing bald patches in one Monti. Within weeks they were friggin everywhere :headwalls:

Luckily by then my love for Montipora had dwindled, so I aggressively ripped out every piece that was infected. Only a few small pieces were brought over to the new tanks. I cooked any rock that had montipora with Hydrogen peroxide before putting it back in the flubber tank. So far so good. I would bet your wrasse is just keeping them contained, they are too tenacious to just die off - which gives you a perfect excuse to buy wrasses!:lol:

Ill be following your thread from now on!

Hi Matt,

thanks for following along. In the picture of all the fish on the glass you can see my sixline and his missing upper lip. He had some kind of accident a few days after I got him nearly 2 years ago. He very well may be eating the nudis, he constantly surprises me! Next tank ... ha, this tank if I re-build it, won't have a sixline. I suspect some of the color loss in my montis might be related to the nudis but I can't find them yet.

I too have lost my love affair with montipora, caps take up too much space and encrusters always have to be beaten back. A dead monti cap is a great place to put another acro! :jester: