200G IM EXT (First tank ever)

[vittpsu21]

A good hydrometer should be all you really need to reference off, in the long run! — I seem to recall that many reefers around here like the Tropic Marin hydrometer; test your water in a graduated cylinder or other container that isn’t just flowing tank water!

It turns out, the simplest solution is sometimes the best, I have discovered what was causing it, and it is embarrassing. Despite measuring and marking when I do my weekly water changes.... I was overfilling my tank by a few gallons which was leaving salt behind.

When doing my water change this week I paid extra attention for hours and noticed that the line in my sump didn't go back down to 7.5 inches but instead hovered at 8. SOOOOO I have been putting too much saltwater in, it evaporates, the ATO doesn't kick back in because it shouldn't until 7.5 inches and then leaves the salt behind. Embarrassing.... but I did notice it this week and siphoned out the extra until the ATO kicked back on.... so that should stop the creep this week and now I know how to fix it going forward :( now to get my salinity back to where I want it over time lol. So embarrased

 

[UncommonSense]

Despite measuring and marking when I do my weekly water changes...

Many reefers use a highly sophisticated piece of tape to mark the operating return pump chamber water line!

 

[vittpsu21]

Despite measuring and marking when I do my weekly water changes...

Many reefers use a highly sophisticated piece of tape to mark the operating return pump chamber water line!

I’ve been taping my display, measuring down 2.5 inches then taping there. But I must just be blind lol or I turn the wave makers back on and the motion throws me off lol

At least now I know and understand why, I was going crazy trying to figure it out. It made no logical sense lol

 

[vittpsu21]

Alright been a bit on an update --- so here we go

We officially started dosing 2 part Bionic today, we started with their suggested 1 ml per 4 gal, so I did about 45 ML to start and will test tomorrow now to see how much it goes up! My softies, particularly the xenia were not looking happy and I have to attribute it to the alk as its been steadily dropping week over week!

Other than that the QT is still running and copper is in, the display tank is still pretty ugly but all part of the process just gotta wait for things to smooth out! I did up the CUC just slightly to help after about 2-3 weeks as I noticed they were not able to keep up!

 

[vittpsu21]

Meant to note also, the Alk was down to 5.3 after weeks of falling, most of the corals don't seem to care the GSP/Zoa/Mushroom all looked fine. The xenia though was not happy, so hopefully that will come around as I slowly bring my alk back up

 

[X-37B]

Meant to note also, the Alk was down to 5.3 after weeks of falling, most of the corals don't seem to care the GSP/Zoa/Mushroom all looked fine. The xenia though was not happy, so hopefully that will come around as I slowly bring my alk back up

Use the BRS calculator for exactly how much to add. It makes it simple.

 

[vittpsu21]

Use the BRS calculator for exactly how much to add. It makes it simple.

I was looking at this, they mention in their directions to not do it too fast, and for a starter dose to do 1ml per 4 gal, so I did about 45 ml. They said to test tomorrow after 24 hours and then figure out what I will need to do to raise/maintain it? I did think 45 ml was a small amount but it kinda makes sense

 

[X-37B]

I was looking at this, they mention in their directions to not do it too fast, and for a starter dose to do 1ml per 4 gal, so I did about 45 ml. They said to test tomorrow after 24 hours and then figure out what I will need to do to raise/maintain it? I did think 45 ml was a small amount but it kinda makes sense

It will give you the amount to bring it from 6-8 as an example.
Just dose the amount over a few days. Works well. I dose enough to bring it up .5dkh at a tim with no issues.

 

[vittpsu21]

I was looking at this, they mention in their directions to not do it too fast, and for a starter dose to do 1ml per 4 gal, so I did about 45 ml. They said to test tomorrow after 24 hours and then figure out what I will need to do to raise/maintain it? I did think 45 ml was a small amount but it kinda makes sense

It will give you the amount to bring it from 6-8 as an example.
Just dose the amount over a few days. Works well. I dose enough to bring it up .5dkh at a tim with no issues.

Awesome this was my plan I’ll look at the call after tomorrow when I see how my raise has gone

 

[vittpsu21]

Alright well, we started dosing, at first things were going smoothly and raising slowly, then with all things we hit a bump. Dosing 65ml and watching my alk drop yesterday for the first time, which tells me either I am having some precipitation I dont see or something else is going on! I am waiting to test again today after I do a water change and dose again, however, I have been waiting 1 hour between the parts and dosing in different locations! So we will see what today holds, as we were slowly climbing out of the really low 5.4Alk reading we had to start!

We are also in the ugliest of ugly stages right now and just keep up with things waiting for things to turn the bend! I did increase the CUC size to try to assist a bit but nothing drastic!

 

[vittpsu21]

This was our graph for reference... so bit perplexed on yesterdays reading

 

[vittpsu21]

Little update - we have discovered the culprit some weeks ago on the dosing! The reagent I was testing with was somehow bad, so when the new reagent arrived and we tested we discovered that we had climbed to 8.5. We did it slowly so all was ok but we adjusted quickly and instead went to a dose that keeps up with our consumption and no more!

Also unrelated our chaeto has really taken off from what it was originally! I believe it will be time to harvest soon and our numbers all look much better, other than phosphate which I assume it being consumed by the tail end of our ugly phase. Boy was this phase ugly and long, it wasn’t until the last week or so that I really saw it starting to lighten see the rocks under and the green on them. Which Google tells me will be our next step! I imagine in the next week or two we will see it clear mostly and I can then move the fish from the QT over as they have been there for 2+ months. I wanted to wait until the ugly phases slowed a little before doing it. I don’t take a whole lot of pictures during this time because boy it was ugly lol. But here is one as it’s starting to lessen…so imagine if you will what it looked like at its worst.

 

[vittpsu21]

Life has been crazy and we haven't updated much, though, not much to update on. We are currently still just going through what seems like the longest diatom ugly phase imaginable. I know it is normal, cyano has finally showed up in 2 patches on the sand, and green algae under the diatoms. We also have some coraline moving from a plug onto a rock, so seems like things are just progressing and I need to keep on waiting. The holidays and such have stopped me from moving the other 7 fish into the main tank at this point, so hoping to do that at some point in the near future. For now both tanks are pretty happy though

 

[vittpsu21]

Still ugly but some signs of Coraline starting to come in perhaps! Been a long ugly stage that’s for sure!

 

[UncommonSense]

Still ugly but some signs of Coraline starting to come in perhaps! Been a long ugly stage that’s for sure!

Yup! That’s coralline!

With time, it will start to take over larger and larger areas, to the point where cleaning it off the viewing panes can even become a bit of a nuisance!

 

[vittpsu21]

Yup! That’s coralline!

With time, it will start to take over larger and larger areas, to the point where cleaning it off the viewing panes can even become a bit of a nuisance!

the Dinos are fading pretty rapidly off the back wall and breaking off the rocks, just in time for the nice red to show up on the sand. So seems like I am progressing normally, just turns out that much dry rock has a lot of uglies in it :P

 

[vittpsu21]

Alright, another little update, we have diatoms still but fading very rapidly, the tank really does seem to be progressing. The cyano has come in full force, but thats to be expected, we also see our first stalk of aptasia. I really want to avoid just throwing chemicals at stuff, so I am going to attempt to go get 2 peppermint shrimp tomorrow and add them int he hopes they may attack that aptasia. Then go from there, all in all the tank is about 4-4.5 months old and the rock is really starting to show some coraline/green algea and really starting to come along. I am going to be moving over the 4pj's + firefish into the display this weekend after 2+ months in observation. I also then plan to pick up my next set of fix to start them in qt which will be wrasses and a filefish!

 

[vittpsu21]

Alright, another little update, we have diatoms still but fading very rapidly, the tank really does seem to be progressing. The cyano has come in full force, but thats to be expected, we also see our first stalk of aptasia. I really want to avoid just throwing chemicals at stuff, so I am going to attempt to go get 2 peppermint shrimp tomorrow and add them int he hopes they may attack that aptasia. Then go from there, all in all the tank is about 4-4.5 months old and the rock is really starting to show some coraline/green algea and really starting to come along. I am going to be moving over the 4pj's + firefish into the display this weekend after 2+ months in observation. I also then plan to pick up my next set of fix to start them in qt which will be wrasses and a filefish!

Little update to this, the peppermint shrimp ate the aptasia already lol. Did not expect it to be so fast, so probably got lucky! They both also come out when I feed which is very cute to watch

 

[vittpsu21]

Well we finally moved over the qt fish into the display tank, 4 pjs and a firefish! They all seem happy, we also loaded the qt with the next set we plan to put in which is 2 wrasses and a filefish!

 

[vittpsu21]

Alright I do have a bit of a question here, after xfering the fish over into my display....5 of them I started to take some ammonia readings just incase (I haven't tested in months because things have been stable no additions etc).

However I tested yesterday and got a reading of 0.26 on my Hanna (much higher then before when I used to test 0.03/0.05). I though maybe some interference or something (I had dosed concentrated phyto, 2 part, and fed before), so I waited 24 hours and tested again today, it came back as 0.31. I expected this number to drop, with how large my tank is and how much rock/sand, etc there is. I assumed there would be more than enough bacteria in the tank to just handle this small addition?

I know Hanna tests both toxic and non toxic ammonia, all my corals/inverts/fish all seem normal and happy. My question is, are 5 fish really raising the ammonia this high? Or could my baseline have been higher and I just hadn't tested in months (I stopped after a week of the first 3 fish and getting the 0.03-0.05 readings). Or is this something I need to be concerned about/my bio filter isn't keeping up?