Order of operations help... Vets please chime in

[becon776]

Thanks!
Well its a partnership, I dislodge them and the ff tales interest in them. Small ones he manages to eats larger ones he ignores. Being lazy I just let them attach to the korralias. Every third day I clean those off. I am thinking of getting 3-4 emeralds just on a short term basis. There are TONS of little bubbles forming. I know its hit or miss w them and have had a bad actor in the past. But its worth a shot. Plus right now I'm messing the the tank so much that a lot of detritus does get stirred up. The ff is busy with the remnants of hair algae and caulerpa. The kole tang is always busy bit I'm not sure what he's doing. I think I saw him eating thebvermwtid spider webs, which would be awesome.
Yeah the corals are super happy and it starting to show. The slimer is back to growing so fast I swear u can almost see in on an EOD basis. A Milli that I counted as dead under rock stack for a year is actually showing a few polyps.

 

[tmz]

Looks like progress. A few thoughts going forward :

Zero PO4 and NO3, as you reported, likely reflect the consumption by algae ; at some point true zeros for nitrogen and soluble reactive phosphate( inorganic phosphate and bioavailable organic phosphate) are not optimal for corals; they need some for many life functions. IME, PO4 around 0.02ppm to 0.05ppm with nitrate barely detectable ,say 0.2ppm , is adequate for corals and low enough to minimimize nuisance algae. So, when I use gfo or other phosphate removers, I tread lightly particularly when zero readings occur;rapid drops in PO4 in the very low ranges does severely stress some corals and calms,IME.

A well functioning ro/di protects not only against the day to day quality of the water supply but also the pipes ,etc., which can leach free heavy metals like copper at levels fine for you and me and the fish but lethal to corals and other invertebrates . Copper unbound by organics is toxic to invertebrates at levels as low as 30 parts per billion, a level well below the testing range of hobby grade tests,for example.

If at some point you opt for organic carbon dosing, I strongly prefer soluble organics( vodka and vinegar ) over biopellets and or sugars or other complex carbohydrates to avoid monomers and complex bacterial cascades and for ease of dosing and precise control over the amount of organic carbon being added. This thread may be of interest at some point:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134105&highlight=organic+carbon+dosing

 

[becon776]

Agreed, I think about the copper frequently... I have had great success with tap. However that was in east end section in a mansion that was built in like 1870. I think some of the pipes were actually wooden. Lol. Also, water was pulled from hemlock not Ontario. A much more oligotrophic body of water and regulated watershed.
I may he taking a position at gonna soon as a nuclear chemist. If that comes to pass I'll have multimillion dollar equipment to test on getting able to get to ppt in most cases. It would be interesting to see what actually comes out and to see EXACTLY how good these Hanna testers are.

On another note fface are incredible fish he has eaten every bit of hair algae.. Caulerpa etc... He is now clearing valonia that he can break off.