Well I guess I have an SPS tank...

[.Chris.]

So

Did some more tests tonight. Calcium and mag dosing seems to be dialed in. Holding steady at 460 and 1500 now. Alkalinity stability is there, but too low. It remains around 7.0 which I feel is too low for a high nutrients system like mine. I'd like to keep it around 8.2. I've upped the dosage by another 33%, from 60ml Red Sea Foundation B, to 80ml daily. Believe it or not, I started at a dkh of 5.6 when I got my dosing system online, and I went from dosing 8ml daily, which is what I calculated to increase kh by 0.5 dkh weekly. Apparently my aquarium is smarter than I am.

I borrowed a friend's Hanna phosphorous checker, since I am convinced it's more accurate than my Red Sea. I know part of my phosphate issue is my RODI unit. I haven't changed the membrane in over a year, and the last batch of DI resin I put in there less than a month ago has already been used up, and that's only the second time I've changed it in 15 months. So clearly soemthing was up. Finally got out the trust TDS metre...10 TDS after DI. Oops. Gotta check it more often. No clue how long this has been going on for.

Anyway, I'm sure that's not entirely the issue, but partly. According to the Hanna checker, PO4 is at 0.18. Fairly consistent with the 0.16 I was getting with my Red Sea, surprisingly.

RO water is at 0.11.

Interesting note though. I checked the out on my inline TDS metre, and it spiked all the way up to 30 before settling in at around 7. The way I top off my tank, the unit is directly connected to my sump, with a sensor and solenoid valve opening and closing my RO auto top off line (with a float valve failsafe). So each time my solenoid opens, TDS spikes to 30 for about 15 seconds, before dropping down to 7.

Could that TDS of 30 topping off my sump 4-5 times daily be part of the problem?

Also another interesting note, I got the exact same result as a friend of mine who just did the same test on his RO unit. And he has an identical unit as mine, bought at the same time from the same place. Coincidence, right?

 

[.Chris.]

Interesting...

I just checked the PO4 in my flubber reef...I got a reading of 0.11, just like my RO. I was nearly certain (though I haven't checked in forever) that my flubber tank had 0 phosphate. 4-6 inch sand bed, plus plenty of softies sucking in nutrients, very few fish, almost no algae growth on glass, and absolutely no algae on sand or rocks. Always assumed it remained 0 in there.

So possibly this hanna checker is a POS? I need a better test kit. How's Salifert?

 

[reefmutt]

I have more to say but I'm going to bed, now..
.. you have the same po4 as me. And my ro unit works the same as yours.... Hm...
But most of the ro units I look at do this when starting up. There is a spike and then tds drops down after a few minutes of operation..
Po4 test kit: elos high resolution phosphate test kit.. The best. Most accurate, most consistent and easiest to read..

 

[reefmutt]

Come to think of it.. I have a couple at my place.. I was using two and comparing results.. They gave the same results.
I'll bring you one, next time I'm in..

 

[.Chris.]

I have more to say but I'm going to bed, now..
.. you have the same po4 as me. And my ro unit works the same as yours.... Hm...
But most of the ro units I look at do this when starting up. There is a spike and then tds drops down after a few minutes of operation..
Po4 test kit: elos high resolution phosphate test kit.. The best. Most accurate, most consistent and easiest to read..

Just makes me wonder if that initial spike could cause issues long term. Most people fill a bin or aquarium with RO for waterchanges and top off so the amount of high tds water that gets into the system is comparatively smaller than mine since I have mine turning on several times daily.

I'd greatly appreciate that test kit! I'm curious to see if it gives a different result. A lower result Haha.

I'll put up new pictures tomorrow when I give the glass a scrubbing. I'm having some die off at the base of one of my oldest and healthiest colonies. Slightly concerned it'll spread further. Might have to do surgery and frag off the healthy portion.

 

[.Chris.]

So Matt (reefmutt) gave me an Elos Pro PO4 test kit to use, and lo and behold, previous tests were incorrect. I'm getting a reading of 0.10 or so (between the 0.092 and 0.14 on the test, and closer to the former), which is far more agreeable than the 0.16 from Red Sea, and 0.18 from the Hanna checker. Did not check my RO source again, but I'll assume there's still something funky going on there and change the membrane and DI resin anyway. Flubber reef is (annoyingly) at 0.03 p, probably the result of having a 4" DSB in the tank itself.

With this result, not nearly as in a rush to do something about p, so I'll live with it for now. I suspect vinegar would help bring both p and n down, but I won't go there yet. N remains high, but don't want to say how high since I don't trust the Red Sea kit. I will try Salifert when I get my hands on one.

Alkalinity is (finally) on the rise. 7.5 now, after bumping my dosing to 80ml/day from 60ml/day. I will likely have to lower the dosing amount to stabilise it at 8.2 or so, but we'll see how that goes!

And finally, the mystery of the bleaching base on one of my acros will likely be resolved by me fragging out the major branch of it, and chucking the rest. Not sure what it is, but it's continuing to climb up the base, and I'd like to take care of it before it gets worse.

No new pictures for now, since I'm running out of the house at the moment, but I'll try to get some this evening when the lights are on.

 

[.Chris.]

So no idea where this tissue loss came from all of a sudden but it kept going so I decided to frag it out to be on the safe side. Nothing else seems to be affected by it. So I took the two largest unaffected frags and glued it down to its encrusted base. Still kinda looks natural. Eventually it'll grow back.

 

[reefmutt]

Chris, in the first pic, right up near where the flesh stops and the white begins, there is a beige cluster that looks distinctively (pretty much exactly) like aefw eggs.. Hard to really tell because it get too blurry when you expand the photo.. But the shape, colour and location really look like them..

 

[.Chris.]

I have the original photo in higher resolution. It looks more like algae to me... But not sure. We'll have to wait and see now.

 

[reefmutt]

Well, if you chopped and glued, maybe they are history anyways..

 

[.Chris.]

Well, if you chopped and glued, maybe they are history anyways..

So it was definitely that. I happened to not have thrown out the parts I fragged off and it was absolutely eggs. I'll keep a close eye on it for now and Bayer dip them if necessary.

 

[reefmutt]

Get some peppermint shrimp in there..
They love aefw eggs..

 

[.Chris.]

I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but for now, here's the scoop:

I have not water changed my tank for three weeks, partly due to laziness, partly too busy, partly as an experiment. The only things I have done are clean the front glass (only because I had someone over), empty the skimmer cup once as it was about to overflow, took 4 of my 6 chalices out with the other two being removed tomorrow morning.

I forgot to check my alk dosing container, so alk dropped from 7 to 5.5, and I worked hard to get to that 7. Back to square one there.

Nitrate dropped from 16 to 0.25...no joke. Phosphate dropped from 0.14 to 0.09. Matrix kicking in finally?

Almost all remaining corals have excellent PE and colour. Even some of my formerly reject fijis are coming back. One is stubbornly pale pale pale green, wondering if it'll come back, but I doubt it as PE isn't wonderful.

I think I will continue this nonwaterchanging for a while. But with this step, the question becomes, should I dose my Red Sea ABCD colours? Or some equivalent? To replenish trace elements. I've resisted doing so until now.

Also, still considering dosing vinegar. Though with the current reduction in nutrients, I'm not as sure anymore.

Totally off acropower. I think I quit on that. The cyano basically went away when I stopped using it, and I've seen better everything since, so. Waste of money there. Ah well.

Also, nearly due for changing my tubes. I am soliciting suggestions on what I should use. Gman or ATI or a combination of both. I have six tubes total, 4 54w, 2 39w. I currently have 2 Aquable+ 39w, 2 Lagoon Blue 54w and 2 Actinic+ 54w, all Gman. I was thinking something like 3 ATI Blue+ 54w, 2 Coral+ 39w, 1 Purple+ 54w.

 

[reefmutt]

Seems your system is really beginning to get well established with bacteria.. Good!
Trace elements .. Tough question.. Maybe go half dose?
I wouldt hink vinegar should be off your 'to do' list now that nutrients are way down... But by the same token, you may want to keep that acropower around.. Or start feeding more fish or coral food..
As for bulbs, personally, I think it has little to do with coral colour and more to do with how you want your tank to look.. Assuming you're not going to go with kitchen lights...

Didn't I hear you say something about pics??

 

[.Chris.]

Yeah yeah, pictures are incoming now. I just took a lot of shots of each colony/frag individually, so prepare for coral porn.

With how well the tank is doing, I am honestly loathe to touch anything. To dose ABCD, I would need another dosing pump absolutely, because I am far too lazy to do it manually with regularity. On top of that, I have a widely varying schedule, so I wouldn't want to miss a day if I started the process.

Current parameters are as follows:

kH 6.5 (Red Sea, up from 5.7 a week ago)
Ca 450 (Red Sea)
Mg 1400 (Red Sea)
PO4 0.09 (Elos Pro)
NO3 0.02 (Salifert and Red Sea)

So pretty happy about that. Not really sure if I should touch anything based on that. PO4 is a little high, but not unmanageably so. I MAY start dosing nitrate to see if it reduces phosphate, but more feeding would also do the same, so I'll probably (finally) rig up my dry auto feeder to feed twice a day, plus feed frozen on days where I remember to do so/am home to do it.

Light bulbs get changed out next week. Going to go significantly bluer. I decided on 3 Gman Actinic+, 1 Gman Aquapink, 2 Gman Lagoon Blue. If I find it too blue, I'll ramp up my Maxspect Razor higher in the white, as it's only peaking at 30% right now.

For now I think that's all the change I will do. Observe for a month with heavier feedings and changed light configuration to see how the tank reacts. Next step will be to decide on the Red Sea ABCD, vinegar, and a return to acropower, based on the way the tank reacts to this.

Can't think of anything else for now. So here's some porn.

Sargassum Trigger (Name: Smiley) Photobomb



Remaining piece of tricolor acro after fragging it to attempt to remove AEFW eggs. Seems fine. Needs a permanent home, but my coral glue is rock hard (and brand new, which ****es me off).



A previously white out millie, which seems to be going greenish blue. I got it because it had a pale yellow body with blue tips, but it went white, and now this.



Nice purple maricultured piece. Not sure if this will be it's final colour, but it's been holding on for a while. Had to move it recently, as my big *** carpet anemone was stinging the base. Will remount properly soon.



This frag is a red sea purple stylo, which my friend bought at the same time as I bought a frag of the same, at the same size. I plan to rescue it...



Because this is the same coral, but this is my frag...clearly mine won this round between my buddy and I.



Another maricultured frag. It was originally a pale green body with blue tips. Went almost white, seems to be coming back now.



This is by far my favourite piece right now. Nothing really on growth yet, but the colours are so nice. The green is pale, but extremely vibrant, and the purple is bright and happy looking. Fantastic PE too.

 

[.Chris.]

Boring green acro, but a good grower. Had a much bigger piece, but I never removed it from it's stone plug and it looked ugly, so I fragged off the biggest piece, and reglued it down minus the ugly rock.



Green slimer really taking off.



Medium Sarmentosa colony, the colours went from yellow-green with pinkish polyps, to the standard Sarmentosa colours of green body, reddish brown polyps. I like it though.



Green and pink stylo frags.



And lastly, FTS. My big green monti colony is mangled right now as I just broke up a huge piece to clear up some viewing space. I actually have a question regarding this: If it was only attached to my overflow, would the monti support itself? I'm strongly considering removing more and letting it grow on the overflow, without support from the base.

 

[markalot]

Boring green acros are the best, they live when everything else dies.

Tank is looking good, hope you find that blue stag!

 

[glaukos]

Boring green acros are the best, they live when everything else dies.

:lolspin::lolspin:
So true mark,so true!

Tank looks good chris and i love the trigger
When the corals grow even more, it will be awesome.It won't be long before that green monti take over all that free space in the middle of the tank.
You must have some serious flow too with all these pumps huh?

 

[.Chris.]

Boring green acros are the best, they live when everything else dies.

Tank is looking good, hope you find that blue stag!

I so hope that never happens, but if it does, I'll be happy the boring green one lives.

:lolspin::lolspin:
So true mark,so true!

Tank looks good chris and i love the trigger
When the corals grow even more, it will be awesome.It won't be long before that green monti take over all that free space in the middle of the tank.
You must have some serious flow too with all these pumps huh?

My big anemone will probably keep the monti under control. I think it would look pretty impresisve if it filled up the whole centre, though. Nothing else is going there, so.

I have a Gyre XF130, that I run at 100% forward, and 50% reverse, switching every 15min. Then I have a Jebao RW-4, and a RW-15, synced up to run on Jebao's version of the Reef Crest mode, at lowest power. And then I have my return pump which splits into four nozzles, from a Jebao DC-12000 pump.

 

[reefmutt]

Looking good Chris.
Nice clean algea free tank!! Mumble grumble..
I think the monti will support itself, but like Mike said, it won't be long until it grows into a monster.
Love the sargassum!