Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

I paid big bucks for an Apogee but now you can get just the sensor and USB it to a computer to take measurements.

I think I might go that direction...though the Neptune Apex PAR sensor setup is cool too. It would be nice to have it record the values rather than calling them out to the wife:lolspin:

 

[mhucasey]

The same thing happened to me last year. After 11 months of use, I observed that PAR readings of my old ATI tubes actually went up rather than down. I hypothesised that this was due to spectrum shift towards green/yellow/orange/red. Coral colours started to suffer slightly despite increase in PAR. I then changed my tubes swiftly.

The first time I had the use of a PAR meter I loaded the fixture with very old bulbs and checked the readings and was startled that the bulbs older than 10 months put out almost the same PAR as the 6 month old bulbs. I think you are right that the spectrum shifts but the sensor still calculates a good number. My wife and I could both see the visual difference between blue pluses running in the side by side tanks where one had old bulbs and the other brand new. The old bulbs looked blue green.

 

[mhucasey]

Matt

In my system, with the fuge and Matrix, do you think will there be a benefit if I dose daily Pro Bio S , to keep the bacteria population. Just only the AF bacteria suspension.

What do you think ? , Could it be positive or negative ?

Thanks
Daniel

Daniel, while I don't think that your tank issues are specifically due to the change to AF salt, I would feel bad reccomending you change your established system now, especially if you had additional issues. I hope you understand.

I myself haven't had the bacteria to dose for over a week and my system is doing very well. I wasn't paying close attention to the amount of ProBio S I had and ran out, and it was back ordered so I won't get it until this week.

I'm a huge believer in the system but I think it's best to go with the carbon source, bacteria, and strong skimming at a minimum rather than setting up a hybrid. I'm hoping your tank continues to recover and I still scratch my head at what could have exactly gone wrong. If you saw some of the crud I've put my tank through without having issues you would see why it baffles me. The only time I had issues like you are seeing was when I ran Zeovit. Random bouts of STN really tested my devotion.:headwally:

 

[nemodan]

Daniel, while I don't think that your tank issues are specifically due to the change to AF salt, I would feel bad reccomending you change your established system now, especially if you had additional issues. I hope you understand.

I myself haven't had the bacteria to dose for over a week and my system is doing very well. I wasn't paying close attention to the amount of ProBio S I had and ran out, and it was back ordered so I won't get it until this week.

I'm a huge believer in the system but I think it's best to go with the carbon source, bacteria, and strong skimming at a minimum rather than setting up a hybrid. I'm hoping your tank continues to recover and I still scratch my head at what could have exactly gone wrong. If you saw some of the crud I've put my tank through without having issues you would see why it baffles me. The only time I had issues like you are seeing was when I ran Zeovit. Random bouts of STN really tested my devotion.:headwally:

Thank you Matt. You are correct. I need to keep doing what I was doing before.

I do not think either thar AF salt has anything to do with my issues. But I am convinced they are due to all the changes I have done. With those changes and the outage in some way I have Alk issues. What else could be generating burnt tips ? I understand or have read a lot that, low nutrients with high alk ( ~ 9 dkh) is the culprit of burnt tips. Plus I have suddenly this RTN in many corals.

Nevertheless, these SPS reef tanks are complex like hell. What works for you, in your system, can be a disaster in mine or not so good. The other way is true also.

Thank you for your honest answer.

Best !!!
Daniel

 

[rburns24]

-
"I understand or have read a lot that, low nutrients with high alk ( ~ 9 dkh) is
the culprit of burnt tips. Plus I have suddenly this RTN in many corals. "

Hi Dan. I'd pretty much "bet the farm" that's your issue, too. I've gone through
that more times than i would like to admit, but if you stick with it, you'll be back
to where you we're relatively soon. It's just the day to day waiting that's a killer :headwally::headwally:.
-

 

[mhucasey]

-
"I understand or have read a lot that, low nutrients with high alk ( ~ 9 dkh) is
the culprit of burnt tips. Plus I have suddenly this RTN in many corals. "

Hi Dan. I'd pretty much "bet the farm" that's your issue, too. I've gone through
that more times than i would like to admit, but if you stick with it, you'll be back
to where you we're relatively soon. It's just the day to day waiting that's a killer :headwally::headwally:.
-

Yes, thats my suspicion as well. When Dan used a salt with lower KH and more bacterial activity(AF) his Alk dropped and somewhere in working too hard to bring that value back to where it was previously I think some overcompensation happened. Then he had some power outages that may have further complicated the overall biology of the tank.

I really think people worry about low ALK too much, but less than they once did. My tank was down to 6.4 last I checked. I bumped up the CaRX a little since it has been dropping due to increased growth but I haven't re-checked since then. The corals prefer lower ALK in my experience.

 

[mhucasey]

Thank you Matt. You are correct. I need to keep doing what I was doing before.

I do not think either thar AF salt has anything to do with my issues. But I am convinced they are due to all the changes I have done. With those changes and the outage in some way I have Alk issues. What else could be generating burnt tips ? I understand or have read a lot that, low nutrients with high alk ( ~ 9 dkh) is the culprit of burnt tips. Plus I have suddenly this RTN in many corals.

Nevertheless, these SPS reef tanks are complex like hell. What works for you, in your system, can be a disaster in mine or not so good. The other way is true also.

Thank you for your honest answer.

Best !!!
Daniel

One other reputed cause of burnt tips is Potassium overdose, but I've not seen such a thing. My Potassium levels are usually a bit high, as high as 454(target 390-400). I doubt that happened in your case, however LOW potassium will hit Birdsnests and Pocilloporas with STN. There was a lot of that in your tank. Its all very confusing...

 

[scrapz]

One other reputed cause of burnt tips is Potassium overdose, but I've not seen such a thing. My Potassium levels are usually a bit high, as high as 454(target 390-400). I doubt that happened in your case, however LOW potassium will hit Birdsnests and Pocilloporas with STN. There was a lot of that in your tank. Its all very confusing...

Ammonia burning from feeding old frozen could also be the issue. My buddy turned off the flow while feeding his fish and a few pieces of food landing on a more delicate coral. After the flow turned off, everywhere the food landed resulted in burnt tissuem just a thought.

 

[mhucasey]

Ammonia burning from feeding old frozen could also be the issue. My buddy turned off the flow while feeding his fish and a few pieces of food landing on a more delicate coral. After the flow turned off, everywhere the food landed resulted in burnt tissuem just a thought.

Very interesting...im glad i leve the flow as-is when feeding. i make the fish work for their food!

 

[Big E]

The first time I had the use of a PAR meter I loaded the fixture with very old bulbs and checked the readings and was startled that the bulbs older than 10 months put out almost the same PAR as the 6 month old bulbs. I think you are right that the spectrum shifts but the sensor still calculates a good number. My wife and I could both see the visual difference between blue pluses running in the side by side tanks where one had old bulbs and the other brand new. The old bulbs looked blue green.

Yup..........it's mainly spectrum shifts with older bulbs. I've tested old vs new many times.

You can usually tell when the whole tank looks a little drab it's time for a bulb change. Growth slows down which also relates to color..........less growth less bright colors on tips, ect.

It's why I've tried to tell people spectrum is more important than par.
Any lighting system can create enough par, but getting full spectrum or correct spectrums for acro color can be tricky.

 

[mhucasey]

Yup..........it's mainly spectrum shifts with older bulbs. I've tested old vs new many times.

You can usually tell when the whole tank looks a little drab it's time for a bulb change. Growth slows down which also relates to color..........less growth less bright colors on tips, ect.

It's why I've tried to tell people spectrum is more important than par.
Any lighting system can create enough par, but getting full spectrum or correct spectrums for acro color can be tricky.

Ive done a lot of searches but haven't been able to find a spectrum test of an old bulb. I would love to see a comparison, it would be very interesting.

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
A couple of unexpected hiccups happened over the last day. First off, I found that the water level in the sump was way low- the top off system wasn't adding water. This is partially because of the design - my top off reservoir is small so that the system won't just add tons of fresh water without stopping. When it drains the reservoir quickly, the pump runs dry and goes into fault and stops. The top off reservoir is fed from the RO/DI system and as long as smaller amounts of water are taken, it replenishes itself without this happening.

Two days go I cleaned the skimmer, especially the needle wheel. It took a little while to dial in and was skimming very wet, and the top off pump was running like crazy - this must have been when the pump ran dry. Evaporation lowered the sump level further.

Easy to remedy - I added some freshly made salt water(~2 gallons or so) to compensate for the wet skimmed water loss and some fresh water and got the level back up.

Then i looked over to the calcium reactor to see if it needed any air cleared from it. No bubbles. Crap. I turned it off two days ago to clear air and forgot to turn it on, and I hadn't set up an alarm for this one yet. I got it back up and running and took a deep breath to check the tank ALK..........4.1.......:uhoh2:
Well the corals dont seem to mind so I just turned the peristaltic pump up by one rpm(+~3ml/min) and ill let it get back up to normal values slowly.

Corals don't seem to give a care:

 

[deaclauderdale]

Looking good, I especially love the red of the coral in 3rd pic (millie)? Glad you caught the little gaff with your Calc reactor as well. Have you now added an alarm to notify you if things aren't returned to their normal operating conditions?

 

[mhucasey]

Looking good, I especially love the red of the coral in 3rd pic (millie)? Glad you caught the little gaff with your Calc reactor as well. Have you now added an alarm to notify you if things aren't returned to their normal operating conditions?

Thanks! The red coral is an ORA Red planet. I'm happy I had the low water or I might not have caught the CalRX issue. That outlet used to be for Magnesium addition and has an alarm set up for it, so I just needed to rename it and turn it on, so pretty easy. With the apex I hopefully don't make mistakes like this twice

 

[deaclauderdale]

Thanks! The red coral is an ORA Red planet. I'm happy I had the low water or I might not have caught the CalRX issue. That outlet used to be for Magnesium addition and has an alarm set up for it, so I just needed to rename it and turn it on, so pretty easy. With the apex I hopefully don't make mistakes like this twice

I figured the millie wasn't a millie given the growth pattern, but the PE on that puppy is sick.

 

[Diesel3443]

Man, looks good even with the miss. Just don't spike it up too fast!

 

[reefmutt]

4.1! wow.. I've been in the 5s for an extended period without problems but 4.1.. wow..
those corals are looking super awesome amazing.. I do love that yellow/purple pair of echinatas (?) on the same plug..
and that tenuis continues to look like a rainbow..
they all.......... watch Matt lust after other Matt's acros!!

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Wow Matt speechless!!!!. 4.1 is insane man, funny how out tanks will tolerate lower alks better than high. Pretty sure thats growth from this jungle AF juice lol.

 

[mhucasey]

Man, looks good even with the miss. Just don't spike it up too fast!

4.1! wow.. I've been in the 5s for an extended period without problems but 4.1.. wow..

Wow Matt speechless!!!!. 4.1 is insane man, funny how out tanks will tolerate lower alks better than high. Pretty sure thats growth from this jungle AF juice lol.

Thanks guys, I didn't get terribly worried about the Alkalnity being low, but its pretty dang low. The corals haven't skipped a beat, looking good as they have been. I remember that Andrew Graham admitted after his TOTM article that his alk was close to 5.5. It didn't hurt his tank any:lolspin:. I've just slightly increased the CaRX output and it should close the gap in a week or so. It was at 6.5 before I accidentally shut the reactor off.

those corals are looking super awesome amazing.. I do love that yellow/purple pair of echinatas (?) on the same plug..
and that tenuis continues to look like a rainbow..
they all.......... watch Matt lust after other Matt's acros!!

Those dual coral mini colonies are all over the place at AquaSD. It was everything I could do to not go back down this last weekend, they probably had 50+ mini Millie colonies, some with two and even three color varieties on the same base. There will be more in the future, I'm sure...

 

[mhucasey]

Pics from tonight, amber gel filter only, zero retouching, iPhone 5: