Rocknut's 150 gallon in need of some advice

[rocknut]

So I have a tank thread over in the general forum, but was hoping for some "SPS" specific guidance and advice from the kind people on this forum. With that said, I will try to give a nutshell recap of my tank as some background. I have been keeping reef tanks for about ten years, but have moved around a lot, so haven't had a tank setup longer than two years at a time. I have had a few successful tanks, and a few disasters. 
My current setup has been up and running since July of 2013, and should be up for the long haul, as my wife and I finally purchased a house last spring with no intention of moving. Anyway, here are some specs:

- 150 Gallon display tank (60" x 24" x 24") built by James at Envision Acrylic. Tank is beautiful, and has a coast to coast overflow running the entire back length of the tank. It was my goal to get the most surface skim possible with the coast to coast, and use a Tunze Wavebox to keep as much junk in suspension as possible. Also to use a strong return pump to carry as much water as possible from the overflow to the skimmer.

- Skimmer is a Bubble King Supermarin 200 (cost an arm and a leg, but wanted to try one just once). Runs great and consistently, and pulls out a lot of junk from the water.

- Lighting is an ATI Sunpower 8 x 54 watt. Originally used (4) ATI Blue +, and (4) Aquablue specials, but I changed over three bulbs and currently use (5) ATI Blue +, (2) Coral +, and (1) Purple Plus.

- I am using a Tunze wavebox, and a Tunze 6105 and 6101 for flow in the tank.
- I have a 250 watt heater, and a ¼ hp chiller hooked up.

- The whole thing is controlled by a Profilux 3, with a four pump dosing station currently dosing CA, ALK, and MG using BRS formula additives.

- I have been dosing (1) vial of Prodibio Biodigest twice each month since the beginning of the tank. I also picked up some Microbe Lift and am planning to dose a ½ dose on alternate weeks.

- There are: (1) Lieutenant Tang, (1) Mellanarus Wrasse (2) Bartlett's Anthias (2) Lyretail Anthias, and (1) small Tailspot Blenny in the tank. Feed one cube of frozen mysis each night, rinsed in RO/DI water, with a pinch of flake in the morning.



This is the tank in July, just after it was first set up, and the live rock was added.







So, as someone that firmly believes that the strength of the whole system is only as strong as its weakest link, I really tried to put together the best quality/performing equipment that I could afford. I also was trying to keep things as simple as possible with this tank, using some tried and true methods after having a disaster using Zeovit on my last tank. In fairness, I know that Zeovit works, so not knocking it at all, just for whatever reason gave me a lot of trouble. Basically baffled everyone on the Zeovit board. Anyway, with that in mind, I am using BRS GAC for additional filtration, and just started using some BRS GFO about two weeks ago. The one variable that I tried for the first time with this tank is to run Warner Marine Ecobak biopellets which have been online since day one. Regarding the biopellets, I think I found a weak link in my system as I did use a standard Vertex media reactor to run the pellets, and I don't think the tumble has ever been correct (super fast in about 20% of the pellets, and no movement on the rest). That being said, I ordered a recirculating biopellet reactor that should be online this weekend.
As someone that isn't super detail oriented in life, I have made myself stay very disciplined with my reef tanks, and never miss a weekly water change, and test everything 1-2 times each week to stay on top of everything. I also break down the skimmer every 2 months for a full clean, Tunzes every month, etc.

 

[rocknut]

So, with that background out of the way, I have been having some issues with the tank, and feel like things aren’t running the way they should be, and am hoping for some thoughts and ideas from everyone here on the SPS forum. I waited about two months before adding anything to the tank, and have added a few pieces over the past six months, but nothing since November now. Wanted to get some initial stock in place, and then let things run for awhile to make sure things were progressing before adding anything else. About one month ago started getting some base recession, and some burned tips on several of the acro pieces:



The tip burn, and recession around the base is most noticeable on this coral. This was also the fastest growing coral in the tank up until the recession.




This was purchased as a colony from Diver’s Den, and was looking great, starting to take on a bluish tint, but also had some tip burn pieces that I trimmed off.


I had it drilled into my head pretty hard when I was running Zeovit that burned tips = ALK spike. However, going back to day one of my tank the minimum ALK test ever was 6.8 DKH, and the max was 8.5 DKH, and these levels never fluxuated by more than 0.5 DKH in any given month. So I have a hard time placing the blame on an ALK spike, but maybe? My thought was that I had some sort of nutrient spike that caused the coral growth to slow down, and then caused the ALK uptake to slow down, and my ALK number to rise from the 7.5 that it usually is, up to the 8.5 level that it eventually rose up to. I have never had much algae in the tank, clean the glass every four – five days. However, I noticed a huge pocket of algae booming out of several spots on the live rock about the time I noticed the recession and burned tips, so even though my nutrients have tested out pretty low (NO3 typically around 2-3 using the Red Sea kit, and PO4 measuring 0.02 – 0.05 on the Hanna checker), I’m assuming that there were still considerably more than my test were showing, they were just being sucked up by the algae.




This is a photo of the big patch of algae that seemed to explode overnight. There are probably three to four other spots in the tank that are about the size of a quarter (and have stayed that way for several months) in addition to this, but this is the primary spot.

So that brings us to today. I have increased my water changes to 10 gallons twice each week (20 gallons total each week) using ESV salt to try to get things back in balance (zero TDS Spectrapure MaxCap since day one). Also, started running GFO for the first time two weeks ago. Regarding the Ecobak biopellets, I have never really felt like they were working as they should be, mostly because I couldn’t get my nutrient levels down to the zeros that others report. From what I have read, it seems like people usually get their NO3 down to zero, but have a little bit of PO4 that hangs on, but I still have/had both. I am hoping that this is because of the design of the Vertex reactor that I have been using, which is why I ordered a recirculating reactor.
So my plan is to push ahead with the Ecobak pellets, and keep up with the extra water changes, using GAC and GFO going forward. With that in mind, any ideas on the burned tips and base recession from the pics? I would hate to miss something that I should be correcting, and not address the real issues at hand in the tank?

Few other thoughts:

- Replaced three of my ATI T-5 bulbs right around the time the burned tips/recession happened. However did this one bulb at a time never more than one bulb in two weeks. Figured I was safe, but maybe not?

- Went away on vacation over Christmas, and when my Mom was watching the tank, she got worried that the autotop off wasn’t working and adding some additional RO/DI which caused the skimmer to overflow the day before I came back home, dumping about a weeks worth of skimmate into the tank. Not sure anything looked worst than before I left, but ? I added an Avast Marine Skimmer locker after this to avoid this happening again…

- Haven’t been able to QT corals, but do several dips before adding anything to the tank. I did pick up Monti eating nudibranches on one of my three monti pieces. Anyway, they are on frag plugs, so I am treating by pulling out the remaining two once a week to dip in revive. That being said, I have spent quite a bit of time with the flashlight at night, and don’t see anything else in the tank to be worried about.


Here are my water parameters:

ALK – 7.6 DKH (use Hanna checker, and Salifert to make sure results seem to match up)
CA – 430 ppm (Salifert)
MG – 1360 ppm (Salifert)
K – 380 ppm (Salifert)
Salinity – 34 ppt using calibrated refractometer. Typically at 35 ppt and I’m trying to slowly bring it back up to that level.
NO3 – 2 (Red Sea kit)
PO4 – 0.05 (Hanna checker) =/- 0.03 so could actually be as low as 0.02 or as high as 0.08.
Temp – tank runs about 78-79 this time of year, and 80-81 in the summer.







Anyway, I appreciate everyone taking the time to read this big long thread, and I appreciate the experience and advice that everyone has to offer. I’ve been doing this for long enough to understand the importance of stable parameters, going slow to not shock the corals, but I definitely feel like I’m “missing something”. I’m hoping that a year from now I can have this thread filled with “after” photos of big, healthy corals!

 

[KritikaL]

How long do u have the lights on for?

 

[MAthU]

That algae looks like Bryosis, (not sure on spelling) the dark green patches. But it's been a few years so I could be wrong. I had high p04 due to Stagnate water issues.

It sounds like your doing all the right things, I hope someone can give better input then me!
Your corals are showing good PE.

 

[rocknut]

How long do u have the lights on for?

First off, thanks for taking the time to read my big long thread. I had the lights on for six hours up until last week. I have been increasing the time up to seven hours. Figure I'll bump up to eight hours eventually.

 

[rocknut]

That algae looks like Bryosis, (not sure on spelling) the dark green patches. But it's been a few years so I could be wrong. I had high p04 due to Stagnate water issues.

It sounds like your doing all the right things, I hope someone can give better input then me!
Your corals are showing good PE.

Thanks for reading my post! I was thinking bryopsis as well. Definitely "feather" looking.