Mark's 150 gallon

[markalot]

The Lokani is an incredible coral. I moved what was left of the parent to the back of the tank and it's completely turned around and is now encrusting rapidly over old skeleton. I know, pictures, hopefully tonight. Even the frags are encrusting fast. I think they grew more while the power was out. Makes me wonder if I should shorten the overall light cycle.

Alk stable at 6.7 to 6.8 last night with doser off from 10PM to 10am.

Will continue 6am and 8PM readings for a for more days before deciding I'm good to go. This weekend I want to get a 1PM measurement just before the T5's turn on to judge how high the daily Alk value is.

 

[markalot]

Poofy healthy looking skin makes me very happy.

Pretty good color capture of the horrida. A very nice light blue, when the polyps aren't hiding it.

Alk spike followed by extended period without lighting ended up increasing the color saturation of this one. Perhaps it's telling me my lighting period is too long? Color is best described as mint ... a light blue with pink blush near the tips. Not the showiest, but expensive looking. :lmao:

 

[nemodan]

Hi Mark

My 2 cent. Once you have achieved your desire Alk value, start the doser at night and allow it to dose small amounts during the day. I have mine dosing from midnight till 6 pm.

As you stopped your doser, now you will need to calibrate it again. I will be measuring every day, at the same time, let say 9-10 pm (in my cycle). And do small adjustments to the doser.

What I do when I have a peak of alk is to reduce the dosing volume and test alk every other day. To give time for biological adjustment. I will continue reducing the dosing until the doser and all the corals (with their consumption) give me a lecture of my final wanted Alk.

From there I just measure alk once or twice a week. Until I detect a deviation (+ or - alk than the decire) and start the adjustment again.

For example, now my Alk have been dropping slowly to 6 dkh and I have been adjusting the doser 2-3 ml (increase) per week to keep it around 6.5 dkh.

Then, something will change in the tank biology and corals will not be so active. As soon as it is over 7 dkh, I will start reducing the dosing slowly. BUT I never stop the doser !!!

Just my experience my friend. Corals looks AMAZING!!!. Keep those pictures coming.

Best
Daniel

 

[Reefer40b]

Hi Mark

My 2 cent. Once you have achieved your desire Alk value, start the doser at night and allow it to dose small amounts during the day. I have mine dosing from midnight till 6 pm.

As you stopped your doser, now you will need to calibrate it again. I will be measuring every day, at the same time, let say 9-10 pm (in my cycle). And do small adjustments to the doser.

What I do when I have a peak of alk is to reduce the dosing volume and test alk every other day. To give time for biological adjustment. I will continue reducing the dosing until the doser and all the corals (with their consumption) give me a lecture of my final wanted Alk.

From there I just measure alk once or twice a week. Until I detect a deviation (+ or - alk than the decire) and start the adjustment again.

For example, now my Alk have been dropping slowly to 6 dkh and I have been adjusting the doser 2-3 ml (increase) per week to keep it around 6.5 dkh.

Then, something will change in the tank biology and corals will not be so active. As soon as it is over 7 dkh, I will start reducing the dosing slowly. BUT I never stop the doser !!!

Just my experience my friend. Corals looks AMAZING!!!. Keep those pictures coming.

Best
Daniel

I usually do the same as far as alk dosing goes. I never stop the doser just keep it running but back off or add about 5ml a week to keep it in my target range. Test every other day when adjusting and just weekly when it going steady. :thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

I didn't turn it off once two years ago and crashed my tank. Obviously I have a different viewpoint. Low Alk doe snot flat out kill Acropora like an Alk spike will.

I dose full strength Kalk, so dosing is not 100% off, just the two part.

 

[markalot]

Update.

I now know what killed some of my acros, and of course it was another dumb mistake by me. My calcium doser had been acting up, sometimes the dosing container would still have solution in it when the Alk ran out. I thought I had corrected this, I tested a few months ago, but I severely underestimated the dosing error. Calcium tested at 260.

It took an entire gallon of the BRS Calcium two part to get it back up to 450. Since then everything has taken off and pretty much returned to normal.

The Lokani and the two frags I have are rapidly growing and have that healthy glow back.

Look at all the polyps, it can't decide where to grow next.

We went on vacation soon after i discovered the issue so I dosed enough Calcium to get the tank to reach 320 and then let it ride at for the 6 days we were gone. Alk was 5.9 when we returned but everything looked great. Alk usage has continued to rise since then.

I rescaped a but a couple of weeks before we left to fix some shading issues (it was more the calcium issue than shading, but I didn't know that yet). I also had to get the big sarmentosa off the back wall because the mag rock was know longer strong enough to hold it. One benefit it it's now close to the front and easy to get a picture of. A very pretty acro, for green, with a pink glow on the tips.

 

[Ucantwin]

The issue was with calcium and not low p04?

 

[markalot]

The issue was with calcium and not low p04?

That's my best guess at this point. Calcium had been dropping the entire time, I lowered PO4 which probably pushed some acros over the edge but I suspect they would have suffered anyway.

Still, it's just a best guess. I said 'I now know' above ... a statement I should never make when it comes to a reef tank.

 

[nemodan]

Nice to see that things again are starting to go well.

Cheers
Daniel

 

[Wrangy]

Gorgeous Mark!

 

[markalot]

About time for an update.

With calcium fixed and now a couple of months healing things are doing quite well.

This one almost died but man, what a recovery. It's still stuck, very slow base growth, but great color.

It's near impossible to get top downs on the left side of the tank. Might need to trim some.

 

[markalot]

Lokani recovering nicely.

... and now I have two frags of it.

 

[reefmutt]

Holy crap , Mark! Fantastic turnaround.
Just beautiful.
Haven’t check d in since your calcium issue.
Human error is such a b i t c h!!
I’m in love with this your lokani all over again

 

[janci]

Fantastic, Mark.
Wonderful colors and growth.
Happy tank!

 

[Alex Costa]

Very nice pics!!!!
The final FTS is impressive.

 

[Wrangy]

Absolutely love it Mark!! :inlove: the tank is really looking beautiful!!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Very nice pictures.

 

[Trevor40]

Beautiful tank! Now to go back and read the whole thread.

 

[Trevor40]

Reading this thread makes me want to try lower alk ranges. I have never consistently been below 9 dkh. I am really loving your coloration. How many hours is your light cycle?

 

[markalot]

Reading this thread makes me want to try lower alk ranges. I have never consistently been below 9 dkh. I am really loving your coloration. How many hours is your light cycle?

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

It's a 12 hour light cycle, t5's only on for 5 hours. Without the T5's PAR is around 250 max. The Lime (white) LED channel is on for 8 hours.