My Very Shallow Reef Tank Re Do

kevlow said:
Mike, That name is very appropriate.
At an Orlando trade show a vendor wanted to sell a 1" frag of Red Planet for $120.00. He gave me an exotic name and said that this was there own house morph of Red Planet so it was very expensive. I said then that everyone's coral is their own morph as soon as they put it under their own lights.
I met Perry at that show and commented about the made up names and pricing. It was a good lesson and a good laugh. As soon as your new frag adapts to your own system it becomes your own "house morph" therefore much more valuable.

I think that this piece is now known as Perry's Planet. My own house morph of Rommels Watermelon. [With his permission, of course].

Yes, I do consider myself quite fortunate because I usually start with small brown or tan frags. This Perry's Planet and the Green Slimer are the best condition frags I have started off with. Look forward to seeing them growing into nice colonies.
Click to expand...


LOL :) Thank you very much for the kind words Kevin :) Mike, over here it is referred to as Rommels Watermelon, but you know, so many corals, so many names, and so many morph's. I call it purdy, cause it sure looks pretty :) Cheers, tank is looking really good Kevin!
 
Very nice set -up.I am interested in your nutrient (Nitrate and Phos) usage.It looks like it is working very well for you.
I think my tank is too clean and I will start feeding a little heavier.
 
Ricardo18 said:
Very nice set -up.I am interested in your nutrient (Nitrate and Phos) usage.It looks like it is working very well for you.
I think my tank is too clean and I will start feeding a little heavier.
Click to expand...

I think that too low nutrients was a problem. Everything colored up and started growing when I raised nitrates. At first I dosed liquid nitrate when my tests showed zero. I saw improvement. So then I started feeding heavier both fish and coral food and stopped dosing nitrates. Now i keep the bottle of Neo Nitrate ready in case I test really low and need a quick bump on nitrates.

Also, when my phosphate rose to .1 I dosed nitrate and it helped push the phosphate back down.

I would like to keep the tank at about 5 nitrates, 10 at the most. Phosphate at .03-.05 seems to be a happy place.

I did let nitrates get as high as 25 and it turned out to be detritus build up in the basket of matrix. Once I cleaned the media basket and used one filter sock, nitrates returned to normal. I will say that my colors were good and saturated while at 25.

Skimming, filter sock, weekly water changes, and daily detritus removal are my methods of export a the moment.

I have to ask about your photo with your name. I recognize the blue Radical, but what is the car on the left?
 
Last week I added two more fish [green/blue chromies] to the tank. I don't know if that is the reason for the increased growth this week or it is just coincidence. Maybe just everything starting to mature but several pieces have noticeably increased their growth rate. I have decreased the coral food but increased the fish food as well as adding the two more fish.
Possibly the added bio load was just enough to kick start things; or, maybe has nothing to do with it at all.
 
I decided to try AF Comp123 several weeks ago. I discontinued my ESV two part. Nothing was wrong, everything was fine. I thought I would see if there were possible trace elements that I was not getting with my Biggles Juice program of KC, Lugols, Matrix, and carbon.

I started off dosing 50ml just like my ESV. That has climbed all the way up to 180ml daily to maintain 7-7.3 dkh. Wow.

Things were growing ok before the switch but seemed to slow down the first week or so after the change. This last week or two growth has resumed. I guess I will just continue on for a while and see what happens.

The biggest change has been with nitrates. They went down when I cleaned out the Matrix basket. Now I am feeding frozen foods like mad, added two more fish[11 total now], continued flake and pellet, resumed oyster feast and powder food, and still at 1 nitrate and 0 phosphate. I don't know if this is related to the Comp123 or just Matrix efficiency. I am not building up much on the glass and no radical increase on the skimmer cup. I have even dosed liquid nitrate several times to bring the number up.

I think my colors look there best at 5-10 nitrates. The PE is definitely best at those numbers.

I also currently dose 2 drops of Pro Bio S to jump start the bacteria.

If I am having to dose nitrates to get off 0, should I discontinue the Pro Bio S till the numbers raise, or should I leave the dosing the same and just keep feeding more to the fish till nitrates come up??
 
Last edited:
You're in a good position. Keep feeding. I think that's the best situation, when nutrients are low and you can feed a lot. You just have to keep an eye on them..
I don't think the bacteria dosing by itself will really affect nitrates.
Interesting what you said about cleaning the matrix and the n dropping.
I had a similar situation. I started shaking my baskets of matrix to remove all sorts of detritus and after a week, nitrates started to drop. I had to reduce, by more than half, by np pro.. Now they are stable at a lower level and I am feeding more.
Also, maybe the increase in growth has helped reduce nutrients. Corals can suck up a bunch when they are growing.
And might I remind you, your last photos were 3 weeks ago. ;)
 
reefmutt said:
You're in a good position. Keep feeding. I think that's the best situation, when nutrients are low and you can feed a lot. You just have to keep an eye on them..
I don't think the bacteria dosing by itself will really affect nitrates.
Interesting what you said about cleaning the matrix and the n dropping.
I had a similar situation. I started shaking my baskets of matrix to remove all sorts of detritus and after a week, nitrates started to drop. I had to reduce, by more than half, by np pro.. Now they are stable at a lower level and I am feeding more.
Also, maybe the increase in growth has helped reduce nutrients. Corals can suck up a bunch when they are growing.
And might I remind you, your last photos were 3 weeks ago. ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you Sir. I will continue on with the dosing and increase the feeding. I am long past my comfort level on the feeding side of things so I am into new territory now.
I am now shaking and stirring the matrix basket a couple times a week. Nitrates and Phos are staying bottomed out.

Will post some pics soon. I wanted to see some significant change to post after using the Comp123. Instead, there was a little slow down in growth initially. Now some stuff is taking off and the tank seems to be finding it's new balance. If I can get the nutrients up a little it should bump the color and PE. Then I just need to get the wife's Ipad for a quick photo session.
 
I will try to post a couple of descent photos. Unfortunately we are somehow locked out of the Ipad, so I will resort to the cheap cell phone camera.

I have been approximately a month on AF Comp123 and have started to see some accelerated growth on a few pieces and some activity on some long dormant corals. I hope this next month brings some big changes in improved growth.

Here are a couple of pics of some increased growth corals.

This Green Smooth Skin is taking off very quickly now.
<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14192009_1321106401247823_589083589217417611_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14192009_1321106401247823_589083589217417611_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14192009_1321106401247823_589083589217417611_n.jpg"/></a>

Orange/Fire Digi is branching on all arms. I need to get a side pic of this as well.
<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14222336_1321116821246781_5482130701795060576_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14222336_1321116821246781_5482130701795060576_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14222336_1321116821246781_5482130701795060576_n.jpg"/></a>

The Red Planet has gone into Beast Mode.
<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14095774_1321106337914496_8242503088545153965_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14095774_1321106337914496_8242503088545153965_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14095774_1321106337914496_8242503088545153965_n.jpg"/></a>

And one of the four new inhabitants in the tank since last photos.
Groucho.
<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14258286_1321140891244374_7245642612733826036_o.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14258286_1321140891244374_7245642612733826036_o.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14258286_1321140891244374_7245642612733826036_o.jpg"/></a>
 
I have a Blue and a Green plating chalices that are apparently snorting or main lining the Comp123. They were growers already but they may be the main cause for my 65/70 gallon system consuming 180ml a day.They are now huge and growing fast.

The Blue was fragged back and moved out of the light. It's color is not as good with the reduced light but it recovered fron the cutting, healed, regrew and stated new plates.
<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14291628_1321118624579934_8890522247446851177_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14291628_1321118624579934_8890522247446851177_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14291628_1321118624579934_8890522247446851177_n.jpg"/></a>

The Green has started two spiral sections since the last photos and is out of control. This will definitely get cut back soon. It is 12" across in all directions.

<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14202667_1321118581246605_3028790611592987252_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14202667_1321118581246605_3028790611592987252_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14202667_1321118581246605_3028790611592987252_n.jpg"/></a>
 
The sump is doing well. One half of it now has a light and has some frags and lps.

<a href="http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/kevlow1/media/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14264927_1321106291247834_6123388500057132254_n.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc458/kevlow1/Facebook/Reef%20Tank/14264927_1321106291247834_6123388500057132254_n.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 14264927_1321106291247834_6123388500057132254_n.jpg"/></a>
 
Dude,
Kevin no wonder you are burning through 180ml per day of Component system, this is your sump, for real....lol.... That looks like a display ;)
 
plyle02 said:
Dude,
Kevin no wonder you are burning through 180ml per day of Component system, this is your sump, for real....lol.... That looks like a display ;)
Click to expand...

This was my attempt to keep everyone in the house happy. My wife and sons really like those pieces which I wanted to get rid of to make room for acros. I figured they are good rocks with lots of life for bacteria and filtration so I moved them down below. I put a cheap led black box on it and the corals are loving it. My two college age sons think that lighting is better then my expensive stuff on the display. lol.
 
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