Updates:
(1)
Since it is raining this weekend, I'm hoping to try and get some good shots using Ken's photo tips. I suppose this means I will need to get Gimp or Paint.NET so that I can alter my white balance in post.
(2)
My hair algae is entirely gone, which is good.
(3)
I've been battling a little (actually a lot) cyano, which isn't good. My understanding is that this is generally caused by one of three things: lack of flow, excess nutrients, poor filtration.
My current flow is my return (which isn't real strong) and 4x Koralia 425GPH nanos. The nanos are all along the back, pointing forward.
I make my own RO/DI. I have never changed the membrane, but I still get 0 TDS out of the system. I have changed the pre-sediment filters (not recently) and the silica buster (recently). It is a SpectraPure MaxCap (I think MaxCap) unit. I tested a fresh batch of salt water for phosphates and came up with zero.
My filtration is a Bubble Magus NAC6, BRS dual reactor with GFO and Carbon, and a filter sock. I've got a couple small pieces of LR in my sump, but it is maybe 1/2 lb.
I did two water changes whis week (Sun and Wed). In the later one I took some advice Jake gave me and vaccummed out the sand bed. I had never done this on my BioCube, because I has sugar sized sand, and it would just suck up into the siphon. Quite a bit of fine-powder/depris came out of the sand. My water params seem fine (more below), but I am still getting the cyano. I'm thinking that because I didn't really rinse the sand much when setting up the tank, that it may have a build-up of nutrients that are fueling the cyano, which mostly shows up on the sand.
I'm also wondering if because my LR has very little to no coraline on it, the cyano doesn't have enough competition for the nutrients. I need to make some more RO tomorrow, but will continue to vaccum the sand bed in sections. The section I vaccummed on Wed is still pretty clean.
(4) Tested my params today
Phos 0 - I'm pretty sure Phos always reads zero, since algae consumes it
Nitrate 0 - API test kit measures 0 and 5, so it could be in between, I suppose
Ph - 8
Alk - 7
Cal - 380
Alk and Cal are low. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt. It claims to have 9 and 450 as the base numbers at 1.025 salinity. I suppose it cold have been consumed by Wed. My refract could also be off, but it calibrated fine when we tested them at the meeting over the summer. I have some B-Ionic two part that I am thinking of dosing.
(5) Bad news: I was attaching some of my frags from the meeting to my rockwork and knocked the rock over....the Birds of Paradise hit the back wall. It is actually in pretty good shape, but broke off a bunch if 1/2" tips. The rest of it stayed intact. I scooped up all the tips and glued them to frag plugs. They fit in with the rest of my tiny frags. All in all the piece seems to be doing fine, and now I have a bunch of tiny frags, but I sure felt like an ******* when it happened. The net result is that I redid my scape on the right and like it much better now.
Questions:
(1) Much of my SPS color seems kinda ho-hum. I'm sure many will attribute it to my using T5s, but I'm wondering if my poor Alk/Cal levels are the main issue. I'm planning to dose the B-Ionic. If this is the reason for the blah coloration, how quick could I expect to see a turn around. I'm going to dose slow and test each day as I go, so I'm assuming it might be a while. My slimer and the other SPS from my BioCube have been encrusting like crazy, so myabe I am just needing to start dosing more. Once the coarline starts coming in, I'm sure this will be even more of an issue.
(2) Is there anything besides TDS and phosphates that I should check to ensure that my RO/DI is being produced at high quality.
Any other thoughts/opinions welcome. Thanks to everyone for always being a good resource.
