Mark's 150 gallon

[milsaltnewbie07]

Wow Mark that sucks man. Really feel bad that your tank is responding in such way. It almost seems that no matter what you do, something else goes bad. But thats how cruel and unforgiving this hobby is at times. However, this is just a lesson and we move forward. For now k.i.s.s and whatever dies of chuck. Good luck brother

 

[Reefheart]

Hi Mark,

I'm trying to start keeping sps but your struggles have been quite daunting for me. I'm trying to work out the logic in your approach - from what I read in the forum so far, there are tanks that do well in both high and low PO4 - then why do you choose to take the low PO4 approach and throw out the ones that don't survive? instead of vice versa, maintaining a higher PO4 and throw the ones that don't survive?

 

[markalot]

Hi Mark,

I'm trying to start keeping sps but your struggles have been quite daunting for me. I'm trying to work out the logic in your approach - from what I read in the forum so far, there are tanks that do well in both high and low PO4 - then why do you choose to take the low PO4 approach and throw out the ones that don't survive? instead of vice versa, maintaining a higher PO4 and throw the ones that don't survive?

Hi Reefhart,

mainly because my big stags love low PO4, the healthy parts of the slimer have already started turning an impossible green. If it wasn't for the stags I might make another choice but right now I've got 3 that are hurting at high PO4. I also want to color my nasuta back up, which loves very low PO4 and actually prefers nitrates above 10.

Here's a good pic of the nasuta in the middle, the base of the Miami Orchid with the dead spots, and the Valida out of focus at the left rear.

My large wild Aussie, that was in horrible shape and covered with bugs a month ago, has made a fantastic recovery.

... and of course the Lokani. With this one I think all credit goes to the fact it sat for over a year in a store tank with not enough light and plenty of water quality issues. A real survivor.

Let's see how the stags look in a week.

Good luck, don't let my troubles worry you, I think I have problems of my own making due to never doing a full restart since my very first tapwater setup. Also, keep in mind, I tend to be a drama queen when it comes to these darn acros.

 

[markalot]

Wow Mark that sucks man. Really feel bad that your tank is responding in such way. It almost seems that no matter what you do, something else goes bad. But thats how cruel and unforgiving this hobby is at times. However, this is just a lesson and we move forward. For now k.i.s.s and whatever dies of chuck. Good luck brother

Thanks man, we'll see if I have anything left in a week or so. A restart wouldn't kill me at this point.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Mark,

Those staghorns are very impressive. Am I right in what I see? You glued some of the frags on glass. Yes?

 

[markalot]

Hi Mark,

Those staghorns are very impressive. Am I right in what I see? You glued some of the frags on glass. Yes?

I have two mag plugs (large plugs with magnets) so it looks like one is on the glass. Everything else is on the rocks.

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Wow Mark
Prime example of survival of fittest. Crazy how your tank is on semi meltdown and yet some of your sps look stunning. That Lokani is gorgeous

 

[markalot]

My plans to nuke the tank by rapidly dropping PO4 were foiled by a clogged pump. DAMN YOU FICKLE FATE! PO4 down to .09 this morning using the Hanna ULR.

I am threatening to restart again, something is just odd about this tank and acros, some doing bad, some doing fine.

This is the little pink frag I got as part of the trade for slimer pieced. I figured it was doomed but suddenly showing more color and looking good. WHat tank are you in?

Hawkins

Horrida branches looking good, better than they ever have for me, but recession on the base and up the main branch (bottom of pic).

SSC 'like' replacement I grabbed a year ago. Much like the Lokani this one always seems happy.

Palmer's Blue Milli

Now here is the blue stag branch on the right of the tank. Decent coloration except for the center. Look at the odd bubbles on the skin.

I ordered a 3 pack of Poly Filter and will continue to run them in case there is something nasty in the water. Also doing water changes every few days, typically 5 gallons at a time.

KH 7.3 and losing about .3 a day. I turned topoff on for 24 hours which raised KH to 7.6 so i turned it off again and am topping off manually. Silly tank anyway.

4 pics left, so here's some backup SPS in my 40. 4 T5s in a poor fixture only produced 300 PAR max on the acros, most down near 200.

Red Robin

Small nasuta frag

Teal Stag w slimer in the background

KBG Acro

 

[kevin_e]

I was in your shoes not long ago when I upgraded to my 120. For whatever reason, I just wouldn't get the tank right. After months of trying, it is now thriving. My rocks were leaching phosphate and my tank kept having algae blooms and precipitation issues. I ended up hand scrubbing every rock of algae, but what really did the trick was reducing phosphates slowly over months using GFO. The algae blooms stopped, likely from reduced nutrients. Hang in there.

 

[markalot]

Hi Kevin,

thanks for the visit and encouragement. It's odd because I know some folks can run PO4 above .1 but when i do stuff starts dying and dying fast. My big red cap is finally showing significant improvement now that PO4 is below .1, and here I thought caps could tolerate higher PO4. Something else must be rising and falling with PO4 but who knows what?

 

[mhucasey]

I'm totally baffled as to what could be causing your problems, but hang in there buddy.

 

[markalot]

Thanks Matt.

Lost the Red Dragon last night. No real surprise.

To make sure the tank is not suffering from LARS I'm trying to do at least one cleanup task a day here. This morning it was clean the sump fan, which was caked with dust and not doing much to increase evaporation. Yesterday I blew out the sumps left and middle chambers, sucked the water out with my trusty pond pump, and replaced with fresh saltwater.

My sump is a showcase of how not to plumb things. :lolspin:

I've been running floss above carbon (and poly filter) to try and catch extra muck.

This morning KH remains at 7.3, PO4 down to .06, Nitrates a little high, near 10. Salinity is 1.024 and I'm going to slowly raise it back up to 1.026, where I usually run it, by replacing evaporation with saltwater.

The big valida is looking quite nice again, hopefully a sign of things turning around ... maybe.

 

[markalot]

PO4 down to .06 this morning and .08 this afternoon. Replaced the GFO since the output was also a little high. I figure something is leaching, just need to get it down and keep it down for a while.

The polyps on the big red cap came out today and the overall color is improving.

I moved a purple poci from my other tank into here to see how it fairs. I fragged and moved it months ago when it started to decline. Both frags recovered quickly in the smaller tank, but will this one hold it's health? If not then it adds to the evidence that something is seriously wrong in here.

The Lokani, however, looks fabulous.

 

[markalot]

PO4 down to .04 (14)

On my live camera both the slimer and blue stag looked to have RTN'ed at the base but no, just brown and ugly. Whew. I still half expect something like that to happen but I shall continue to lock PO4 low and keep it low.

The red cap now looks red and the LPS have better extension today. Go figure.

The Lokani, fabulous. :lolspin:

I thought I saw some changes .. KH down to 6.8 after being stuck above 7 for a week.

 

[Wrangy]

I'm really glad to hear that things are perking up again Mark it's been hard reading the updates so I can only imagine how rough a time you've been having! At least you've always had the lokani to keep you company! lol

 

[markalot]

Thanks Dom, things are always better then they seem. I'm most upset at the silly slimer, which is dead on the bottom, dead on the tips, but looks great now in the middle. :crazy1: This is the first time in the years I've had it that I've burnt the tips ... guess I can cross that off my list of things to experience.

 

[markalot]

Took some top downs to document where I'm at.

The slimer worries me a bit, the green color is crazy green but the tips and base are stressed. The recession at the base has stopped but I'm not sure how recoverable some parts of the coral are. Look at this odd green.

Amazingly some tips have polyps again so the beast might recover without me doing anything. *crosses fingers*

The upper part of the blue is starting to show new growth while the lower part is dirt brown, but with bright blue polyps.

More irony with the Miami Orchid. The poor thing injured top and bottom the in between is a very nice purple.

Very thankful that this big aussie looks to be in great health again, though partially zombified with coraline.

Nasuta is very dark but the green is gaining.

The red cap, which was white and no polyps 3 days ago.

Valida

Lokani. That bright branch on the left is all new growth. While everything else is going tits up this damn thing is growing. :lmao:

 

[drawman]

Lokani looks real nice! I hope things are turning around for you Mark.

 

[markalot]

Lokani looks real nice! I hope things are turning around for you Mark.

Hi Tim, thanks, I need all the well wishes I can get. :thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

I have noticed / learned that by the time damage shows up the 'episode' is usually over, so I think things have settled back down. Unfortunately this means some of the acros are zombies and will eventually die, while others should. I hope, either recover or stay healthy.

One tip of the blue stag showed a bright spot yesterday, and today the entire tip is a good bright blue. I only wish the base looked better.

This is the only noticeable change. A few other corals look healthy enough.

So now I'll babysit for a month, keeping things as stable as possible, and see where the tank ends up. KH has dropped to 6.5 with topoff+some kalk on, a good sign.