Pete's 110 build

[psteeleb]

Any room for some mangroves in your sump? Just a thought

I could fit some in my sump. I tried one early on but it didn't make it. Maybe my system was to young at the time. Next time I place a live order I'll see about picking up a couple, thanks for the feedback.

 

[aquaph8]

Could it be related to the timing of your test like testing soon after a feeding where some potential still floating nutrients are getting interepreted by the test as nitrates?

That's what I was thinking

 

[psteeleb]

it looks like the spawning event my limpets went through paid off, I found two lil limpets in the tank

6 months ago I videod this, I'll get some pictures of the babies later
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[drummereef]

it looks like the spawning event my limpets went through paid off, I found two lil limpets in the tank

Too cool!! How's your pellets doing Pete? Mine are clumping like crazy, so much so there's barely any movement in the reactor - plenty of flow just not a lot of tumbling. What's your experience?

 

[psteeleb]

Too cool!! How's your pellets doing Pete? Mine are clumping like crazy, so much so there's barely any movement in the reactor - plenty of flow just not a lot of tumbling. What's your experience?

My bio-pellets have also been clumping some. I cranked up the flow about 2 weeks ago and it has helped but I still get some clumps that hang around the bottom close to the sides. My guess is 15% of the pellets will clump, but I found that by shaking the reactor (more like a rocking back and forth) the clumps will break free, become suspended in the turbulent flow and break up. I just have to remember to check it every few days.

My Nitrate readings actually went up a bit and are now between 5 & 10ppm but I'm also behind on my normal water changes and let my filter sock go way longer then normal between cleanings. My cheato has also grown to the maximum space allowed in the refugium and needs some major thinning out.

Bottom line is my increase in nitrates may be caused by a lack of maintenance combined with only using 75% of the recommended amount of bio-pellets. I'll get the maintenance caught up this weekend and see where it brings me. After a couple days if the nitrates stay the same or go up I'll add more pellets and go from there.

Other then three corals every thing looks great (excelent growth and colors). The three corals in question are a chalice, the Montepora Undata and my orange gorgonian. The chalice actually seems to be growing faster but has some burn marks around he edges. The Montepora Undata appears to have lost some of its luster, it is still pretty, has great color but the skin seems thinner then normal (if that makes sense). The orange gorgonian also seems thin and not opening as much, I suspect it got week when I cut back on the feeding a bit and hasn't recovered. Before this all started it was eating and growing great so I hope this is just a temporary setback. The other gorgonian are doing great.

I cut back on the Ca reactor to drop the Alk some. I was running about 10.5 and now its around 8.5, I'll try to hold it there to see if it helps the corals any. I'm not sure its been proven but there is some speculation that running high alk readings with bio-pellets causes issues like burnt tips but I haven't seen any on my acroporas.

Last week my Mg tested about 1250 so I brought it up closer to 1350. It may have been what caused the issue with the Undata.

 

[drummereef]

My bio-pellets have also been clumping some. I cranked up the flow about 2 weeks ago and it has helped but I still get some clumps that hang around the bottom close to the sides. My guess is 15% of the pellets will clump, but I found that by shaking the reactor (more like a rocking back and forth) the clumps will break free, become suspended in the turbulent flow and break up. I just have to remember to check it every few days.

My Nitrate readings actually went up a bit and are now between 5 & 10ppm but I'm also behind on my normal water changes and let my filter sock go way longer then normal between cleanings. My cheato has also grown to the maximum space allowed in the refugium and needs some major thinning out.

Bottom line is my increase in nitrates may be caused by a lack of maintenance combined with only using 75% of the recommended amount of bio-pellets. I'll get the maintenance caught up this weekend and see where it brings me. After a couple days if the nitrates stay the same or go up I'll add more pellets and go from there.

Other then three corals every thing looks great (excelent growth and colors). The three corals in question are a chalice, the Montepora Undata and my orange gorgonian. The chalice actually seems to be growing faster but has some burn marks around he edges. The Montepora Undata appears to have lost some of its luster, it is still pretty, has great color but the skin seems thinner then normal (if that makes sense). The orange gorgonian also seems thin and not opening as much, I suspect it got week when I cut back on the feeding a bit and hasn't recovered. Before this all started it was eating and growing great so I hope this is just a temporary setback. The other gorgonian are doing great.

I cut back on the Ca reactor to drop the Alk some. I was running about 10.5 and now its around 8.5, I'll try to hold it there to see if it helps the corals any. I'm not sure its been proven but there is some speculation that running high alk readings with bio-pellets causes issues like burnt tips but I haven't seen any on my acroporas.

Last week my Mg tested about 1250 so I brought it up closer to 1350. It may have been what caused the issue with the Undata.

Good to know you are experiencing the same with the pellets. Definitely interested to see how the macro algaes fare while running the pellets too. I've heard one or the other will try and outcompete for available nutrients and eventually starve the other out. But other people say they cohabitate fine together. Will be interesting to see how they fare on your system.

 

[psteeleb]

Nitrates back down to 2 - guessing it was the dirty sock

 

[SushiGirl]

Nitrates back down to 2 - guessing it was the dirty sock

You should keep your laundry outta the tank!

 

[iwishtofish]

That spawning video is great. They look like they are on fire!

 

[drummereef]

Nitrates back down to 2 - guessing it was the dirty sock

Well that was quick!! :lol:

 

[psteeleb]

Well that was quick!! :lol:

I guess I could have got a bad reading but most likly dirty socks :lol:

 

[psteeleb]

You should keep your laundry outta the tank!

haha - so no more prerinsing in the sump??

That spawning video is great. They look like they are on fire!

thanks - when my wife first saw them she said something in line with them smoking

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here's a ~1 month video of my 4 new maricultured corals - still doing great

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[Nammy]

That awesome video. Real nice tank

 

[psteeleb]

That awesome video. Real nice tank

thanks Nammy
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For those following my nitrates are at 1 ppm per red sea test kit and I decided to check my po4 and found it actually was detecting over 0.03 on the salifert test kit. Not expecting any I decided to check the GFO reactor and found the had flow stopped - I had turned it down to a very slow flow but I guess the valve got enough build up on it the flow stopped. I pulled out my new Hanna checker and it showed 0.27 and the next day 0.16 so unless I got a bad reading it's dropping and I hope to get it back down to undetectable or at least below 0.03ppm

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Some top downs but not with my photo box

Left table on my strawberry tabling acro

and the right table

chips - the lower table of 2

this is an acro I got from a local reef club member - it shows more purple on the tips from the sides so I was surprised to see so little from the top

and a couple acro crabs (I have 4 total)

 

[psteeleb]

Po4 today is at 0.04
No3 <2

you can never consider yourself out of the woods when keeping a marine tank but I think I may finally have the high Nitrate chapter past me.

I'll continue to run the bio-pelletes at 75% of recomended and try to keep my ALK more in the mid 7's - to low 8's for a while and see how things do. Over all 90% of the corals look great but my Undata still seems pale and thin skinned, so I'm keeping my finders crossed that it makes a solid recovery.

 

[iwishtofish]

Beautiful pictures, Pete. I still can't believe your tank is so young.

Where do you prefer to keep your Ca and Mg lately? I saw your plans for your alk - do you think 9 dKH is a good goal for a tank without pellets or carbon dosing (mine)?

 

[psteeleb]

Beautiful pictures, Pete. I still can't believe your tank is so young.

Where do you prefer to keep your Ca and Mg lately? I saw your plans for your alk - do you think 9 dKH is a good goal for a tank without pellets or carbon dosing (mine)?

yes - but as your corals grow out you may want it just a tad higher. I was keeping mine in the upper 9s, low 10s with no issues. I can't swear to the undata and chalice issues being high alk related but some people seemed to think theres an issue wiht running bio pellets and high alk, so I dropped it. Assuming things improve over the next week or so I will probably try to bring mine back up a tad as I like having that extra 2-3 DKH insurance as it only takes a couple days of not dosing for it to drop to dangerous levels.

my Ca was around 450 from what I recall. I was never regimented at checking it like I do alk, as I found as long as I kept up with the ALK the Ca was fine. I'll check it tonight though and repost.

thanks

 

[psteeleb]

here are my urrent Ca and Alk readings:
Ca 420
Alk 7.44 dhk

 

[iwishtofish]

yes - but as your corals grow out you may want it just a tad higher. I was keeping mine in the upper 9s, low 10s with no issues. I can't swear to the undata and chalice issues being high alk related but some people seemed to think theres an issue wiht running bio pellets and high alk, so I dropped it. Assuming things improve over the next week or so I will probably try to bring mine back up a tad as I like having that extra 2-3 DKH insurance as it only takes a couple days of not dosing for it to drop to dangerous levels.

my Ca was around 450 from what I recall. I was never regimented at checking it like I do alk, as I found as long as I kept up with the ALK the Ca was fine. I'll check it tonight though and repost.

thanks

here are my urrent Ca and Alk readings:
Ca 420
Alk 7.44 dhk

Ok, thank you very much for that info. I like to try to obtain guidelines from the owners of tanks I really like. I just got my alk up to 9 finally, but sometimes it pushes 10, and I can't seem to narrow it down. Maybe when I get my magnesium up from 1175 to about 1375 it will be easier. I also just got my Ca up to 440 from 380 (over the course of 3 or 4 days). Talk about letting things slip!

It will be interesting to see how things go when you raise your alk up a bit. Do you attribute the success of your corals to the amount of nutrients you feed the tank? I've often heard that 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates can actually contribute to SPS corals suffering from nutrient-deficiency. Obviously not in your case!

 

[psteeleb]

I've often heard that 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates can actually contribute to SPS corals suffering from nutrient-deficiency. Obviously not in your case!

I'm begining to believe that's a very true statment, be it the trates themselves or what generates them I don't know but it sure seems the corals are doing well in a high nutrient system.

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here's a chalice I finally got around to mounting after buying it over a month ago