My 65 Gallon

[glennf]

salifert kh and Ca test are fine...
redsea PO4 test is fine, but a measured 0,12ppm is in reality 0,08ppm.
in the useable lowrange (0,00-0,16ppm) just substract 0,04ppm.
anything higher than that is not interesting to measure so precis. At higher po4 than 0,1ppm (real value) you just need counter measure te be taken...

 

[2_zoa]

salifert kh and Ca test are fine...
redsea PO4 test is fine, but a measured 0,12ppm is in reality 0,08ppm.
in the useable lowrange (0,00-0,16ppm) just substract 0,04ppm.
anything higher than that is not interesting to measure so precis. At higher po4 than 0,1ppm (real value) you just need counter measure te be taken...

Hi Glenn, I'm not sure what your getting at?

If I buy the Red Sea PO4 test I should subtract .04 from the reading, right. If I buy another test like, the ULR checker. Then take action if the PO4 should raise above .16ppm. In such, I should have bought a lower range test in the beginning. Right?

What about the other things going on in the tank? Why must I dose ammino acids to keep things alive? I looked tonight and I have nice color spots showing up on my montipora. Hopefully it comes back. The chalice though, that's another story. I should probably remove it from the tank.

 

[2_zoa]

I found 5.5lbs of rubble I had on hand. It's dead and dry but I went ahead and threw it in the sump. Maybe it will help after a while.

 

[2_zoa]

Anything new with the tank?

 

[glennf]

Hi Glenn, I'm not sure what your getting at?

If I buy the Red Sea PO4 test I should subtract .04 from the reading, right.
YES.

If I buy another test like, the ULR checker. Then take action if the PO4 should raise above .16ppm.
ABOVE 0,1PPM REAL VALUE..TAKE ACTION

In such, I should have bought a lower range test in the beginning. Right?
HANNA PO4 ULR CHECKER IS THE ONE TO HAVE...



What about the other things going on in the tank? Why must I dose ammino acids to keep things alive? I looked tonight and I have nice color spots showing up on my montipora. Hopefully it comes back. The chalice though, that's another story. I should probably remove it from the tank.

amino is for fine tuning. take care of the mayor elements first.

kh 8-9 , ca 420-440, mg 1300-1400
K 380-430
po4 0,06-0,08ppm, no3 1-2,5 ppm

 

[2_zoa]

amino is for fine tuning. take care of the mayor elements first.

kh 8-9 , ca 420-440, mg 1300-1400
K 380-430
po4 0,06-0,08ppm, no3 1-2,5 ppm

Well, I can't test for K. I don't have the test.
I got my new NO3 test today and it's reading 5ppm. Salifert.
My KH is about 10.
My PO4 is and has been a mystery for me. I guess I could bomb the tank till I get a reading?

I'm really in no better of a position then I was in the beginning. I've now lost 2 corals and my monti is on the brink of being removed. I'm holding on to desperation with it.

 

[2_zoa]

Anything new with the tank?

Yea, I've lost 2 coral. Both my chalice corals bleached and receded to nothing.
I got my new salifert NO3 test. It's reading 5ppm.
My monti is bleached badly. I mean real bad. I'm hoping to be able to bring it back but I just don't know.

I need to come up with a way to waterproof the temp probe on my new Rancho temp controller.

On Sunday, I built a fast down and dirty manifold to allow me to put wooden stones in the skimmer. I also removed that shelf it had inside it. I never liked the air input from the boss hog stone. The bubble size and the fact that the body wasn't full of bubbles always bothered me. I ran it so I could say I gave it an honest go with it. Here is the wooden stones filling up the reaction chamber.

 

[2_zoa]

Well, my tank continues to go downhill. I've been dosing PO4 and to my supprise the tank hasn't really blown up. The glass gets dirty to where I clean it every day to get rid of the slight haze on it. My coral still haven't responded and I've now lost my monti. A funny thing to me is, the Xenia hasn't grown either. I thought it would have just taken off with PO4 addition to the tank. I keep the nitrate at 5 still. Again, I've stopped all other dosing, a carbon source a long time ago. Including aminos since Glenn's last post. Which makes me wonder yet again why I have to dose in order to keep coral alive. The only thing going into the tank is food and 1ml of PO4.

Thank you Glenn for stepping in and trying to help. Your tank is and will remain an inspiration to me. I started this thread to share my tank and get some help. I guess since it's not the latest and greatest gadget ran super SPS tank, (I know yours is not one of those) it's not worth others advice or time.

I was really hoping to get some help with my setup. I will not be posting in this thread any more.

 

[glennf]

Never give up. Ask the right question on the right places and especially listen/read the real message, than this tank wil become a living example of people who never give up.

 

[Bent]

How is that blue spot jaw doing?

 

[2_zoa]

I lost him. He decided to go carpet surfing. I had a small strip that was still open with my tops on. Otherwise he was doing awesome. Out swimming and eating big time. Such a cool fish. I will replace him.

 

[glennf]

I lost him. He decided to go carpet surfing. I had a small strip that was still open with my tops on. Otherwise he was doing awesome. Out swimming and eating big time. Such a cool fish. I will replace him.

Pitty . Such a nice fish

 

[Bent]

That sucks. I want one but I've heard they are poor captive candidates.

 

[E46Twist]

Sorry, I haven't been on.





In doing my Nitrate test I ran out of drops. So I wasn't able to complete the Nitrate test. I'll order one up here in a day or two.

I recently purchased Red Sea test kits to check against my other tests that I've been using. This is my first time using them. I like them and I don't like them.

Red Sea numbers
Kh=9.5
Mg=1740
Ca=420
The KH test is the main reason I don't like the Red Sea tests. In their video on how to perform the test, they state that it should turn pink. My test never did. I did the test twice and they both just turned more pale in blue color until it turned yellow. That is where I decided the test was done and at that point. It read that KH was 9.5. Maybe its bad or I did something wrong??

API numbers
KH=9
CA=380

Elos test
MG=1250
I'm really not sure why Red Sea and Elos tested so widely apart here? I plan on doing the Red Sea test again later on today. I plan on a small water change so I'll pull the sample before hand. I'm also gonna pull a sample from the fresh mixed water and testing that.

PO4= My Hanna checker came in at 0. It always does. I have the 713 model and I know a lot of folks don't think they're sensitive enough for a reef tank. I bought it before I read that the ULR tester is preferred.

As far as dosing. I don't dose anything but amino acids to the tank. I bought some of Red Sea's reef energy. I'm almost out and I'm gonna continue with Elos Omega ammino's. The Elos is what I used before trying the Red Sea. My coral doesn't grow so nothing is really being used up. No need to dose. I dose the amino acids cause as I stated earlier, if I don't. My coral loses all their color and die. Just like whats happening now. I've been gone and the tank hasn't been dosed. So things are dieing now. I can't think of any other reason. The amino's is what has brought back my coral every time they have started to die.

The tank has always shown zero PO4 on my checker. The tank USED to be high in NO3 all the time. Then it flipped and it now is always on the bottom end of the NO3. Maybe my NO3 test went bad and I took that as getting a hold of the issue. However, when I dosed NO3 to correct the low reading (I would boost it up to a reading of 2.5-5ppm) on the test. It would take a few days to a week to use up the NO3 that I dosed.





Thank you for your response. I can't really say if it's the lighting or not either. This tank has never done well so I can't say if the lights work or not. I've seen these lights work on another tank. They work well IMO. I believe I have other issues then the lights on this tank. It's the first tank I've ever started from a sterile state. I used dry rock and dry sand when I stated this tank. Something I wanted to try and experience. Maybe that's why I have all the issues. It's just now starting to mature?

Putting all the issues I've had with this tank aside. I always think that it isn't dirty enough. My frogspwan hasn't really grown since I put it in the tank. The hammer hasn't grown and it turned pale a week or two after it went in the tank. The gorgonian and the toadstool hasn't shed on a regular basis until I began feed the tank phyto daily. One of the zoa colonies hasn't grown any new heads until recently. Recently I started dosing Red Sea's reef energy (a little after the phyto) cause I wanted to try it. I'm just about out of it now as I only bought the small bottles. I'm not sure I'm going to purchase anymore right now. I think I'm going to just keep up the phyto and see how things go.

Sorry I did not read the last few posts but your comment on maturity clicked with me. I started a sterile system in fall of 2013 and used only 5 lbs of live rock to seed it(175 lbs of rock!) it was not until recently that I noticed an absolute explosion in micro life. Not every rock is covered in tiny inverts and it has gotten to the point where I am considering only running my skimmer for a few days a month because it just won't produce much anymore( I am way understocked so I am not suggesting others do this.) my rocks is scary clean now a days, and I don't really have any hermits or snails. I am still glad I went with dry rock but imo starting that way and using very little LR for seeding is going to take a while to get a truly mature tank. That being said I was able to keep all kind of coral well before I noticed all this growth. Just because organics are not showing up does not mean they are not there.

 

[E46Twist]

Also I may have missed this but how often are you doing water changes and with what salt?

I only do mine for element replacement but if I miss a week my tank tells me fast.