Mark's 150 gallon

[reefmutt]

Nice Mark!
Glad to see the continued improvement.
Keep an eye on that last one.
When the yellow highlights really come out and the red/purple deepens, it'll be a stunner.

 

[markalot]

Nice Mark!
Glad to see the continued improvement.
Keep an eye on that last one.
When the yellow highlights really come out and the red/purple deepens, it'll be a stunner.

Thanks Matt!

KH 6.5 down from 6.8 a week ago.

PO4 .07 (22 ULR) which is up .02 from a week ago.

NO3 trace which is down from a slightly pinkish trace a week ago.

I've dropped Vinegar to 10ml per gallon topoff, going down to 5ml this time around.

I will resume 2 drops of PhosphateRx Daily and bump the Kalk mixture up just a little bit.

 

[markalot]

Top downs.

 

[markalot]

Cousin It

Look how aggressively it grew over the dead tips.

1 month ago

Today

Red Robin ain't red, but yet another few unique shades.

 

[Wrangy]

Mark the tank is looking top notch! So glad to see the acro's doing so well again mate The colours have come back in a glorious fashion!!

 

[kevlow]

Everything looks healthy and robust! That Cousin It with the blue hair do just got on my must have list.

 

[joshky]

Wow Mark, tank is looking great man! I see so much improvement in those acro shots from previous ones, tank is definitely headed in the right direction. It's a good feeling coming back from vacation and seeing your tank running right on your return, isn't it?

 

[reefmutt]

Holy crap, Mark!!!
Beautiful!!
What an unbelievable turn around.
The corals all look so good and my girlfriend is having a growth spurt!!
Really top notch photos as well!

 

[nemodan]

As Matt wrote ..... very nice !!!

You did it !!

Best
Daniel

 

[glaukos]

Mark i really don't know why but i love when i see corals taking back the their lost growth and beauty
Hats off to you for getting them back there!

A good reefer keeps his corals healthy but the one who can save them,is even better/skilled:beer:

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Looking great bud.. about time

 

[Stapleton840]

Very nice !

 

[markalot]

Mark the tank is looking top notch! So glad to see the acro's doing so well again mate The colours have come back in a glorious fashion!!

Thanks Dom, it's been a long road.

Everything looks healthy and robust! That Cousin It with the blue hair do just got on my must have list.

Thanks, I'm a big fan of Cousin It!

Wow Mark, tank is looking great man! I see so much improvement in those acro shots from previous ones, tank is definitely headed in the right direction. It's a good feeling coming back from vacation and seeing your tank running right on your return, isn't it?

Good, and a great relief! Thanks.

Holy crap, Mark!!!
Beautiful!!
What an unbelievable turn around.
The corals all look so good and my girlfriend is having a growth spurt!!
Really top notch photos as well!

Thanks Matt, I love to take photos as much as I love to look at others.

As Matt wrote ..... very nice !!!

You did it !!

Best
Daniel

Thanks Daniel, I do hope we see more of your tank!

Mark i really don't know why but i love when i see corals taking back the their lost growth and beauty
Hats off to you for getting them back there!

A good reefer keeps his corals healthy but the one who can save them,is even better/skilled:beer:

Very kind work Mike, I really appreciate it.

Looking great bud.. about time

It is about time, thanks!

Very nice !

Thanks.

Change has slowed but still marching on. Th stags are finally lumbering back to life and KH is at 6.5 and I'm struggling to keep in there. I've been slowly increasing Kalk, scared to death of adjusting KH too fast.

My favorite, the subulata, is getting its mojo back. THere's a significant break in the colony, the trunk is 75% dead, so the base is branching out as well.

I have some pink!

If I had to complain, and I always have to complain. the Lokani looked better with deeper colors when the tank was having issues. :lmao:

 

[Reeflife916]

Top downs.

Beautiful top down shots! Looks really good

 

[biggles]

Wonderful recovery Mark, colors and regrowth are looking great

You have some stunning pieces mate, i especially like this red and sparkly green polyped one - going to be crazy pretty imho :thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

Wonderful recovery Mark, colors and regrowth are looking great

You have some stunning pieces mate, i especially like this red and sparkly green polyped one - going to be crazy pretty imho :thumbsup:

Thanks Andrew, that one gets a little better every day. It had the slight pink glow before the troubles but was never this rich.

So I learned a lesson in CO2 pooling the other day, luckily nothing bad happened. Note that I have not calibrated my PH sensor for 6 months so the actual numbers are probably off, it's the change I was worried about.

Yesterday my PH alarm went off as PH dropped to 7.69. What?

The goof ended up bring closing up the house due to the high outdoor humidity AND changing the HVAC fan setting so it only ran when the unit was on. This saves money, especially at night, since the fan is not re-humidifying the air which causes de-humidify mode to run, but it also also led, apparently, to the house co2 pooling in the basement in the early morning.

The fix was to ensure the skimmer was pulling from the outside correctly, putting the house fan back on medium, and putting soem carpet under the basement door to slow the flow of air down from the rest of the house.

This was the low from this morning.

At right after 16:00 in that graph you can see where I pulled the outdoor line from the skimmer then ate dinner. PH actually dropped while all the lights were one, showing how important puling outdoor air is for this tank.

What a royal pain! I need to kick some breathers out of the house. :wavehand:

I've noticed over the years that any adjustment is slow so I expect PH will slowly be able to climb back up over the next few days to its previous normal low of 7.85 (windows closed).

 

[glaukos]

Corals look awesome mark:beer:

 

[Wiskey]

Thanks Daniel! It may sound crazy but all my maintenance is done on feed timers. B is used to shut down the sump, skimmer, and topoff long enough for me to complete a water change and clean the skimmer. I don't trust my old brain to remember anything. :facepalm:

This may be an old post, but it is fantastic advice! I can't tell you how many times I forgot to turn something back on! Now I do the same thing. Water change is a 1 hour timer, that way if I get distracted everything comes back on anyway!

Whiskey

 

[rovster]

Looking great! Glad to see you on the up and up. I must have missed it, but how did you figure the whole pH CO2 thing? Are you just venting to the outside? Have you considered a CO2 scrubber?

 

[markalot]

Looking great! Glad to see you on the up and up. I must have missed it, but how did you figure the whole pH CO2 thing? Are you just venting to the outside? Have you considered a CO2 scrubber?

Thanks.

I tried a scrubber, ate up the media too fast. In the summer and winter the tank usually sits on the edge but manages to stay near 7.8 for the low. It's a combination of skimmer intake to the outside, Kalk, and a purposely leaky window (where the skimmer intake is) that brings in just enough fresh air.

And, apparently, it's also important to keep the air in the house mixed to prevent all the bad stuff from pooling in the basement. It's at 7.75 right now, so still a little low, but I have yet to see any negative effects in the tank. I usually leave the basement powder room exhaust fan on to help suck in air through that leaky window but this morning I turned it off. Looks like that's another piece to this silly puzzle.