Top down shots

Ed, I want to ask you question. I have recently keep getting po4 readings around .25-.36, I saw earlier In the thread that you had readings similar. Looking at your tank It doesn't look like your corals were suffering at all. My corals have good pe and the colors are better now than they have been in awhile but not the best. I am keeping up with water changes and dosing, should I just let it ride and stop testing for po4 ? I ask because I am driving myself crazy and 8 years ago I had a thriving sps tank without ever testing for phosphates.Btw your tank is very inspiring and I always look forward to updates!
 
I lowered my level mainly because of some nuisance macro algaes & green slime my snails wouldn't eat.

I don't check often but i'm usually around .10 as an average.

I'd just put the PO4 tester away if you're happy with growth and color. Nitrates have affected my colors negatively more than PO4.

The way I look at those nutrient numbers is to check when everything looks awesome then those become your target numbers. I never understand why people want to force their system to meet some mythic perfect readings that don't exist.

My frag tank has been set up for a year & I have never checked PO4 on it.
 
Yup, would love to see pics of the new tank even if its not running yet. A build thread would be very nice to follow along Ed. :)
 
Big E said:
I lowered my level mainly because of some nuisance macro algaes & green slime my snails wouldn't eat.

I don't check often but i'm usually around .10 as an average.

I'd just put the PO4 tester away if you're happy with growth and color. Nitrates have affected my colors negatively more than PO4.

The way I look at those nutrient numbers is to check when everything looks awesome then those become your target numbers. I never understand why people want to force their system to meet some mythic perfect readings that don't exist.

My frag tank has been set up for a year & I have never checked PO4 on it.
Click to expand...


Hi Ed.I see you had a problem with green slime.I am battleing with it more than a half year.I am not dosing anything for few months,just feeding and waterchanging .Parameters are in check,RO/DI is 0,and no luck.Could you tell me how you got rid of the slime and what could be the problem?
Thanks,Viktor
 
I agree witg Big E. I rarely do any testing now. I m doing it maybe once every 1 or 2 months (kh only) just to ensure my ca rx is working properly. After a while, you just got too tired to test and wanted to enjoy the tank more. I m using coral color and PE as my indicator. Might not be the best method.
 
viktor72 said:
Hi Ed.I see you had a problem with green slime.I am battleing with it more than a half year.I am not dosing anything for few months,just feeding and waterchanging .Parameters are in check,RO/DI is 0,and no luck.Could you tell me how you got rid of the slime and what could be the problem?
Thanks,Viktor
Click to expand...

Summer of '12--
Like I mentioned in my other post, that was when my PO4 was high. It actually got above .50 and then I just used some GFO for about two weeks to get it down to around .15.

I adjusted down my vinegar dosing from 25mls a day to about 8mls and thats where things settled in at.

I also basted the rocks every evening about 15 minutes before lights out to remove any detritus that was loose on the rocks.

The cyano started cropping up again about 5 months ago and I stopped dosing vinegar. It went away in about a month.

The actual problem was my skimmer underperforming from day one & I knew that. Even though the bacteria was sucking up the PO4 my skimmer just couldn't keep up, so the nutrients just cycled back into the tank.

When I went off the vinegar I put im my friend Dan's skimmer on line and it worked much better.

I now have a Aqamaxx Cone 3 on my new tank, which I have mentioned I was going with a new skimmer on the new set up.

Long story short-------- you have to look at how your getting nutrients to the skimmer, how the skimmer performs......is it sized right, for example. The best thing to do in most cases is to look at your export system. Try to avoid throwing more toys and chemicals at it a look to see if the basic design is working to peak levels.
 
sahin said:
Yup, would love to see pics of the new tank even if its not running yet. A build thread would be very nice to follow along Ed. :)
Click to expand...

Build threads aren't my thing........you're not going to see pictures of equipment purchases, and updates every time I fart.:lol:

I do enjoy showing progress pics of the corals and sharing my experiences, so that's what's going to be in this thread.

Everything is in the new tank for a few months now......it took me all of an hour to do as I used all the same water, rocks and equipment.

It looks like a store's frag tank so, there aren't going to be any detailed tank shots till I get my aquascaping done to how I like it and show something I'm happy with. I also have to make some decisions on what corals make the cut...........I have way too many right now.

I'm also still contemplating having all frags again, as a lot of my newer pieces are small and I have about 5 larger colonies I'm keeping in this set up as of now.
 
Hi Ed,...I really liked your post #247,...a lot of good info,and food for thought when you actually dissect it line by line(at least for me). Thanks,---Rick
 
Kreeger1 said:
Ed, how did your corals do from the cherry trip? Forgot to ask at dinner the other night
Click to expand...

Everything is doing well. I only bought 2 acros and the other four are a favia, zoas and an encrusting goni.

Here is a shot a few weeks ago of their Rainblow Table in my frag tank. It looks about the same now minus the algae since I got some turbos to clean that up.

I'm not sure why they call it rainbow.........I bought it because I liked the pink/red combo it had.

tableCCrainbow_zps99b3ec8e.jpg


The other acro is the Passion Fruit. It was getting slightly bleached on the rack, so I moved it way down and now it's a brown turd. I'll get some pics of that once it colors back up.
 
Hi Ed,

I have been using your recommended tube combination (3 Blue + and 3 coral +) for the past seven months. I have been really happy with it.

In a few months time, I will be replacing my tubes again. Have you ever tried 4 blue + and 2 coral +? I would be interested in your view.

Thanks

PS. In your last photo, I have noticed a lot of small bubbles. Do you have cyano outbreak?
 
I've never tried 4+ and 2 coral+ because I only have 4 bulbs. It will give you a more blue ambient look, I'm not sure how it will effect coral color.

Speaking of T5s..........has anyone noticed that Coral Vue is re-introducing the Ice Cap Ballasts? I've seen new DIY/retrofit packages now being sold with the Ice Cap ballasts.

I can only guess that there is a market and demand that wasn't previously there. Since the VHO bulbs are being phased out, I'm thinking a lot of large tank people are looking for a substitute and T5's with Ice Caps are a perfect fit for more par than standard driven T5's for tanks over 24" deep.

Or maybe for people that want to go old school or back to the future when they had success with t5.


On the picture-------
That's just algae..........it looks nasty because the picture is so close up. The largest bubbles in that pic are less than 1/32 in diameter. The snails were just slacking off and haven't got up there.

That's a shot in my frag tank that's separately plumbed. If you stood in front of that tank and was viewing the whole tank it looks spotless.

Here's a pic I took yesterday of the same rack. They are about 8 days apart.
I actually want harmless film algae like that to grow as it tells me I have a good flow of nutrients through the tank's cycle for the corals to achieve the deeper colors I like.--

RainblowMonti_zpsf0e9e746.jpg
 
It's been a while and quite not what I expected when I switched tanks. It has taken a good 3.5 months for the corals to really start responding. Even though I used all the same water and rocks the balance still got knocked out of whack. I also had to run the tank fishless for about 6 weeks.

I'm back to about 85% of my old colors. The tank now looks like my early pictures in July of '12. I'm working through some minor algae, dinos, ect. I don't really care about the algae as the coralline growth will follow and out compete over time.

Here's a few shots as of today. I have a lot of arranging and changes.....mainly deciding aquascape and picking the corals that I want to keep in this tank.

Here's a top shot of some of the left side for later reference as I go along. It's a bit raw and I'll move a few corals around.

topgroup_zps4d656320.jpg


This Penn acro has turned into a gem. It's some sort of thin staghorn and took me 7 months to color it up. Don't give up on some of your turds you never know how they'll turn out.

penn_zps8a852072.jpg


Rouge and Penn acro I like the contrast of these two, but I'll separate them later on.

rougepenn_zpsffe2d9c2.jpg


Front shot of a nice group..........I'll be doing more of these pics now with the clear front of this rimless tank.

frontleft80_zpsf2545d82.jpg


I picked this up from my friend Colton for helping him out. The purple skin and blue coralites really pop out.

matrix_zpsb8828109.jpg



This will be a nice group over time......needs to color up a bit better.

topleft80_zps36090be6.jpg
 
Hi Ed, does this tank also have the same combo of T5? Is there any reason you ran this tank fishless for 6 weeks?
Nice color by the way!
 
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