Mark's 150 gallon

[markalot]

Thanks Matt and scrap.

I measured PAR again and again it was above my targets. Grrr. Water is crystal clear, so I decided to place the meter in a single location (where it would be still) and take various measurements at different light configurations. Here we go.

Lighting is BML 20K, A, B, C, C, B, A, BML 20K.

Key:
A = pure actinic, B = actinic blue, C = Coral.
B70 = blue/violet LEDs at 70%
W30 = white LEDs at 30%

With bulbs aprox. 9" above the glass lids.

B70, W30 = 271
B100, W30 = 286
B70, W100 = 300
B100, W100 = 316
B0, W30 = 234
LED Off = 225

Now, with B70 and W30 I raised and lowered the T5 fixture.

8" = 286
9" = 271
10" = 258

To keep the browned acro at the target 350 PAR I am running the lights at 9", B70, W30.

Whew! Posting so I don't lose this.

 

[markalot]

Besides lowering PAR by changing bulbs yesterday and raising the fixture I also super stirred the gravel making a complete and total mess, the tank was solid grey by the time I finished. Today things look much better. Besides the water being super clear the frog spawn is extended more than it has been for weeks. Maybe I can save it after all.

Ah, and a visit to my LFS ended up costing me some money. They has 2 pieces of flubber that I can never resist.

Both the acan and blasto have some orange on them. Haven't had issues with blastos in here, but my red acans recently receded and died.

 

[markalot]

I found a few pictures of when I was joking with the owner of the nasuta, which we call the Katropora and how it liked nitrates. It tends to match the test results.

This was in January 2015

By May I had my nitrates under control, around 5.

Lower nitrates did help reduce the bubble algae, but I kind of miss those days.

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Wow that sucks. Im in the same boat, i completely depleted no3 and phos with prodibio and my acros are on a decline. My tank looks and grew very good when my nutrients were high but algae was taking over. Im at a standstill now not know what to do. I have raised no3 to 10ppm but things havent gotten better yet. Guess i have to sit and wait, and pray u dont loose any other sticks. Good luch and subscribed

 

[markalot]

Wow that sucks. Im in the same boat, i completely depleted no3 and phos with prodibio and my acros are on a decline. My tank looks and grew very good when my nutrients were high but algae was taking over. Im at a standstill now not know what to do. I have raised no3 to 10ppm but things havent gotten better yet. Guess i have to sit and wait, and pray u dont loose any other sticks. Good luch and subscribed

Hi, thanks!

I had a lot of brown SPS when nitrates were that high but looking back on it I probably should have reduced just a little and then given away the acros that obviously needed a lower nitrate environment.

 

[markalot]

I did a little moving around last night. A couple of months ago I had to chop up my smoothish skin green acro (green polyp invasion) I called Kentucky Blue Grass. Of course Kentucky Blue Grass is a grass from europe and isn't really blue so this seemed like a perfect name for this unknown acro.

Anyway if encrusts fast and seems to like highe rlight so I positioned it a little behind the browned out nasuta. A little friendly competition.

Just a bird, but it will fill in fast. I let this grow large, sell off most of it, and keep a few frags around in lower light where it survives in a slow growth state. Bring it out in the light and growth is extremely fast, though color isn't as great.

FTS. This is LED only and that blue stag looks amazingly blue ... it's not this blue. Some day I will have an Oregon tort to satisfy my need for pure blue.

 

[markalot]

PO4 appears to be .15
NO3 5
KH 7.5

Going to retest PO4 this afternoon since I fed reef roids yesterday evening and this sometimes inflates the PO4 reading.

 

[mhucasey]

The best thing I did for PO4 testing was invest in a Milwaukee(Martini) colorimeter. Clear, repeatable results where you can re- zero independently of testing. I'm not very confident about my judging of shades of color on the test kits

 

[markalot]

The best thing I did for PO4 testing was invest in a Milwaukee(Martini) colorimeter. Clear, repeatable results where you can re- zero independently of testing. I'm not very confident about my judging of shades of color on the test kits

The ELOS high rez or professional is very easy to read, I really like it. Looks like PO4 is really .14 or so, way up there. Colors look a little pale, I guess, but nothing major.

 

[markalot]

Decided to turn BP reactor back on but bleh, rotten water. Flushed 10 or so gallons through it and out to do a water change. Measured the PO4 on the last bucket of flush water and it's only .09 compared to .15 in the tank. Youza. Running just a trickle on the output so I don't drop things too fast. Obviously the GFO in the all-in-one was in fact keeping PO4 low.

 

[markalot]

Broke out the Hanna ULR and got 45 or .137 so I'll call it .14 PO4

 

[glaukos]

Great pics mark,that bird will be ball sized soon enough buddy:beer:

Bubble algea is completely gone now?

 

[markalot]

Great pics mark,that bird will be ball sized soon enough buddy:beer:

Bubble algea is completely gone now?

Thanks Mike!

No, but the Foxface gets all the stuff he can reach.

 

[nemodan]

Broke out the Hanna ULR and got 45 or .137 so I'll call it .14 PO4

Mark.... Are you happy with that value ? You had a smile there.

Or I am missing something..... As always :uhoh2:

Daniel

 

[markalot]

Mark.... Are you happy with that value ? You had a smile there.

Or I am missing something..... As always :uhoh2:

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Happier than with it at < 0.03, but I'd rather it be .06 - .08.

 

[nemodan]

Hi Daniel,

Happier than with it at < 0.03, but I'd rather it be .06 - .08.

Ok... I see now :hmm6:


I did some measurements yesterday in my tank:

P. 0.06 ppm .... Hanna

No3 0.5 ppm .....Salifert

Alk 7.36 dkh .......Salifert

I was lazy to continue with Ca and Mg .........

I will continue in the following days checking P because last measurement (2 weeks ago) was 0.04 ppm . It could be just the Hanna window of error. But because I increased my fish population significantly with the bigger fuge. I want to see if the Macro can keep with their work.

Cheers
Daniel

 

[joshky]

I found a few pictures of when I was joking with the owner of the nasuta, which we call the Katropora and how it liked nitrates. It tends to match the test results.

This was in January 2015

By May I had my nitrates under control, around 5.

Lower nitrates did help reduce the bubble algae, but I kind of miss those days.

That is insane.


It was really pretty when you had decently high No3!!!

 

[aggie13reef]

Mark,
Sorry to hear about your nasuta losing color, hope it gets back to its beauty quickly! Also got to love the recent LPS additions.

 

[markalot]

Thanks guys.

So I did my weekend top downs and I have to say some of my red colors appear to like higher PO4.

If this one wasn't so darn fuzzy the skin would look amazing. I still can't believe this is coloring up so well ... a random frag.

The so called pink milli is looking ok, it hasn't lost nay pink, but come one, this is pretty weak. :lolspin:

The Palmers Blue is looking decent.

The block is also continuing to look good, and now the polyps have green centers.

Wild Aussie also continues to show good health and a few new colors.

Lokani is yet another set of colors. Showing those scratch marks again so I may have to dip.

On the bright side you can see the Nasuta is showing polyps with green centers now and the base has more green. Other than that, how brown it is.

I had to scrape clove polyps away from the SSC again. Looking darn good at the moment.

Turned this one around for a better pic. I'm a sucker for red and orange.

 

[aggie13reef]

What do you use to scrape the clove polyps away?