Mark's 150 gallon
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
reefmutt
Active member
Man oh man, I love these shots!
What an amazing turnaround, Mark
You have colonies, not frags!!
Especially love the shot with the yellow tang.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Woops, left the flash on. No wonder the wife complains the stand is dirty.
I like the side shots and I've finally scraped and cleaned enough I can take a few.
You really have come back strong after all the issues. I am very impressed and happy for you! The tank is looking fantastic!
markalot
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Wow. Mark your tank is on the road to a real thing of beauty, it's looking amazing! I love those side shots, keep it to man.
Thanks Josh!
Thanks Matt and Matt, as always.
I hope so too Mike!
Last Saturday my first bottle of PhosphateRx ran out so i stopped, cold turkey, and started doing 4 drops of vinegar and 4 drops of CaNO3 daily.
PO4 = .04
NO3 = 2
KH 6.7
In other words, no change, except my skimmate stinks with just 4 drops of vinegar a day.
Visually, while health is good I lost some luster, especially on the reds. Not sure why, maybe the PO4 test was wrong, maybe not enough food, but something changed. Pondering continuing the experiment or opening the new PhosphateRx and continuing with what worked.
markalot
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Hi Matt,
Yea, kind of has me stumped. Did I blow an entire bottle of PhosphateRx for nothing.
I did make a few other changes I need to review as well. I stopped dosing MicroE due to a growing, possibly irrational fear, of the copper content. Could that explain the color loss?
As long as health stays good I'm ok with losing a little color as I try and figure this out. :reading:
markalot
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SO I thought about what happened and ended up moving to a larger dose than before. I had first reduced the MicroE dosage from 2 drops a day to a single drop. After a week I noticed the acros losing some luster and instead of going back to what worked I stopped all dosage. :rolleye1: I've now continued dosing at 3 drops daily rather than 2, which is still 2 drops less than the recommended.
It's probably placebo but the Lokani has regained some very puffy skin and really cool blue/cyan hue. I think all the acros look better but I doubt that would really react to change that fast.
In addition to continuing the MicroE I've also started up PhosphateRx again but at only 2 drops daily since I am continuing vinegar at 5 drops daily. I'm still gobsmacked at how just 5 drops of vinegar can turn brown algae smelling skimmate into raw black stinky sewage.
So here's where I am for this week:
3 drops MicroE
3 drops Kalum (same dose instructions as MicroE)
2 drops PhosphateRx
5 drops vinegar
5 drops CaNO3 (my own mixture, no clue of the potency)
5 drops SpongePower
1/4 tsp Reef Roids or Reef Chili or Coral Frenzy
2 squirts (dropper full) of AcroPower.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
FTS
This is an awesome FTS Mark. Well done. Are you happy with growth rates?
markalot
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Thanks Pife.
Thanks for visiting Daniel!
Yep, can't really complain. I wish the slimer would grow slower and I wish some more difficult acros would grow faster.
Thanks Sahin, it's been a long road.
So corals looked even better yesterday with the pink acro getting a nice pink shine back with purplish growth tips. Is it all MicroE? I think more water changes would have fixed this as well. The difference between 3 days ago and now is pretty remarkable.
Cousin It has regained the nice red but continues to look stressed with very little polyp extension. What in the world is wrong with this coral?
My brown frags from the maricultured piece, both of them, are now such a rich brown they appear to have been dipped in chocolate. :facepalm: I am half tempted to move Cousin It down lower and put one of these right under the light at 500 PAR and see what happens.
The Xenia continues to slowly take over and only the slimer can fend it off. It looks like a war zone where the xenia moved in too close and has been nuked down to a pile of tan goo on the rock. I suspect the blue stag could defend itself as well after seeing a frag in the sandbed kill half of a monti it fell on. I'm always amazed at how defensive healthy acros can be.
I visited the makeup aisle in Walmart and bought a nice pair of large tweezers type things with a flat head that should make pulling the Xenia out a little easier. The ladies where most impressed I chose the Revlon version rather than some generic for a few bucks less. They did seem confused, though, when I explained I thought these would hold up better in salt water. :jester:
markalot
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Oh, those do look nice, thanks for the tip Rich!
markalot
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... and KH dropped all the way to 6.1 after remaining steady for over a week. I'd say what I'm doing is making something happy.
Color is still a little off but growth is showing up everywhere so I think color will follow.
Cousin It has regained color in the center but still 'hairless'. It's also showing some green on the growing edges as growth picks back up.
My test frag is about the same and also showing some green over the edge that had to heal.
The Red Robin has browned, as it will do when any little thing changes, but growth is very fast.
You gotta love a slimer, but the rate of growth can be frustrating.
fts (click for larger)
Color is still a little off but growth is showing up everywhere so I think color will follow.
Cousin It has regained color in the center but still 'hairless'. It's also showing some green on the growing edges as growth picks back up.
My test frag is about the same and also showing some green over the edge that had to heal.
The Red Robin has browned, as it will do when any little thing changes, but growth is very fast.
You gotta love a slimer, but the rate of growth can be frustrating.
fts (click for larger)
markalot
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KH 5.7! Good grief. I'm wrestling with the beast trying to get it slowly back up. I have new growth sprouting up on most of the acros now and ignoring the low KH things look fantastic. So what's in the secret sauce? Is it the MicroE, the AcroPower, the 5 drops od CaNO3 daily, the vinegar? I'll stick with the current dosing and see how it goes.
I'll stick with the current dosing and see how it goes.
