Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
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mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I knew there was a third choice, thanks.
You're welcome, and don't worry, it will have zero effect on your calcium levels...unless you want to raise your nitrates to 1000 or something
markalot
...
You're welcome, and don't worry, it will have zero effect on your calcium levels...unless you want to raise your nitrates to 1000 or something
:dance:
1 pound of calcium nitrate in a cute package on it's way via Amazon Prime.
reefmutt
Active member
You're welcome, and don't worry, it will have zero effect on your calcium levels...unless you want to raise your nitrates to 1000 or something
Don't be so sure.. When I was using calcium nitrate, I was adding enough to raise my ca levels by about 20 ppm.
I have 300 gallons of water and I was adding about 1/3 - 1/2 teaspoon per day (the little white salifert spoon) to keep n at around 4 ppm with aio pellets running. And a ca reactor. To keep ca and alk balanced and not too high, I had to compensate with a little alk.
But if you are not adding too much, it won't have a huge effect..
I've since switched to potassium nitrate..
Unfortunately, salifert potassium tests kits are no longer available and the rest of the test kits suck so I can't test potassium very accurately..
I may start alternating between cano3 and kno3 just to be sure I don't overdose.
Very interesting description of your cyano issues, Matt. Very informative.
Everything clearing up?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Very strange that you were burning that much nitrate. I used to add 1/16th tsp to the old system to raise nitrate by about 1.5ppm. I used 1/8 tsp this time with a system volume of 200gallons. I would be more worried about raising the potassium level too much rather than calcium levels personally.
With Calcium Nitrate, Ca(NO3)2, you get two Nitrate for each Calcium so if you are raising Nitrate by 1ppm you should only raise Calcium by 0.5ppm. Contrast this with Potassium Nitrate, KNO3, its a 1 to one relationship. Anyhow, that was why I selected Calcium Nitrate.
Things are improving for the most part, though the new anemone was looking pretty rough. The other Nem is out of control huge so I don't think there is anything about the system that is causing it. I moved it to the LPS "Flubber" tank after I snapped these pics:
The Nem is at least 10" across, maybe a full foot. Luckily there is enough room for it in the Flubber tank...
The rainbow coral continues to look great and it's growing. Its also very hard to get an accurate picture as it glows like its in a rave club:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Update:
Over the weekend I had a mini shopping spree for Father's day, taking advantage of some sales at the LFSs. I picked up a Yellow flowerpot and an orange torch coral for the Flubber tank, a tuxedo urchin, more Astrea snails, and some SPS frags. Ill get some pictures up when I get a chance
Had enough salt for about 25 gallons, so I did a minor water change Monday - I haven't been adding supplements while the tank recovers so I was hoping teh WC would serve that purpose.. Some of the corals responded afterwards but overall the tank is about the same, slowly improving and the amount of Cyano is going down.
I have mostly left the Alk and Calcium pumps off since the Alk has stayed stable at about 8-8.3, and Id much rather it dropped to between 6 and 7. I'm monitoring closely.
I also have been playing around with the lights. I really like the look of the flubber tank lighting right now, which is 5 blue plusses, two fiji purples, and one ABS. I have been trying like crazy to mimic it with 12 bulbs and it just wasn't clicking. I've tried lots of different things and at the moment It is 3 blue plus, 3 super blue, two fiji purples, two KZ new Gen, one KZ coral light(similar to ABS) and believe it or not, one coral plus. Ill probably change the whole thing again soon because I have a serious commitment problem when it comes to Bulbs.
After the initial setup, and all the chaos of the different stages of the project I used a small 4" filter sock off and on to strain out particles from the SPS reef overflow. I generally do not like mechanical filtration because they become waste traps, so I was changing the sock daily. When I added the cyclonic filter, I directed its outflow to the sock and made a more permanent mounting location.
I have now removed the sock and will not be using it going forward. I've always had better luck without constant mechanical filtration and looking back It seems like the Cyano really kicked in when I started using the sock all the time. It may be coincidence but I feel like it may be contributing. I guess I will see how removing it affects things. I've never noticed a significant difference in water clarity when using a sock compared with not using one, but it undeniably removes gunk from the system.
Over the weekend I had a mini shopping spree for Father's day, taking advantage of some sales at the LFSs. I picked up a Yellow flowerpot and an orange torch coral for the Flubber tank, a tuxedo urchin, more Astrea snails, and some SPS frags. Ill get some pictures up when I get a chance
Had enough salt for about 25 gallons, so I did a minor water change Monday - I haven't been adding supplements while the tank recovers so I was hoping teh WC would serve that purpose.. Some of the corals responded afterwards but overall the tank is about the same, slowly improving and the amount of Cyano is going down.
I have mostly left the Alk and Calcium pumps off since the Alk has stayed stable at about 8-8.3, and Id much rather it dropped to between 6 and 7. I'm monitoring closely.
I also have been playing around with the lights. I really like the look of the flubber tank lighting right now, which is 5 blue plusses, two fiji purples, and one ABS. I have been trying like crazy to mimic it with 12 bulbs and it just wasn't clicking. I've tried lots of different things and at the moment It is 3 blue plus, 3 super blue, two fiji purples, two KZ new Gen, one KZ coral light(similar to ABS) and believe it or not, one coral plus. Ill probably change the whole thing again soon because I have a serious commitment problem when it comes to Bulbs.
After the initial setup, and all the chaos of the different stages of the project I used a small 4" filter sock off and on to strain out particles from the SPS reef overflow. I generally do not like mechanical filtration because they become waste traps, so I was changing the sock daily. When I added the cyclonic filter, I directed its outflow to the sock and made a more permanent mounting location.
I have now removed the sock and will not be using it going forward. I've always had better luck without constant mechanical filtration and looking back It seems like the Cyano really kicked in when I started using the sock all the time. It may be coincidence but I feel like it may be contributing. I guess I will see how removing it affects things. I've never noticed a significant difference in water clarity when using a sock compared with not using one, but it undeniably removes gunk from the system.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I'm glad that things are going in the right direction Matt, that rainbow acro looks pretty cool mate.
Thanks Andrew, I got another picture of it that is a bit better at representing what it looks like, I killed almost all the blue lights to get this. With the blue light on the tips glow a lot more:
And some pics from dining room side of the reef - the cyano is disappearing from this side very nicely:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I'm cautiously optimistic that things have turned a corner Here are some pictures I took last night:
This guy is one of the few pieces of one of my first corals. The tank move almost did him in:
This was originally a light blue tricolor morph in the old tank. It went very brown for a while after moving in and now its coming up with colors it never had before:
And this is one of the new frags I got for Father's day - a blueberry millie:
And one of the others, it will be pink with yellow coralites when it colors up:
Here are some pictures I took last night:
This guy is one of the few pieces of one of my first corals. The tank move almost did him in:
This was originally a light blue tricolor morph in the old tank. It went very brown for a while after moving in and now its coming up with colors it never had before:
And this is one of the new frags I got for Father's day - a blueberry millie:
And one of the others, it will be pink with yellow coralites when it colors up:
JB NY
Active member
I have the same issue, I keep trying different combinations trying to find that one magic combo that I like. It's a sickness, when the big long box shows up on the front porch my wife just shakes her head. :crazy1:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
My wife loves sales, in a completely irrational way. Therefore I just buy a bunch of bulbs when they go on sale and she praises me for getting a good deal
reefmutt
Active member
My wife loves sales, in a completely irrational way. Therefore I just buy a bunch of bulbs when they go on sale and she praises me for getting a good deal
I WISH!!!!!
Corals are looking good!
Love the first and the second one- sermentosa, I assume. I want to try a piece of that. Fiji gets some nice sermentosa..
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Yep, Sarmentosa...Its taken all the changes without any effect. And I love the pink tips!
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