210 Miracles cube

BoomCorals · Dec 2, 2018

biecacka said:
Wow.
Amazing looking tanks. How are you liking your new CaRx?

Corey

Thank you.

It’s working really well for me and was a painless upgrade. I was super worried that ALK was going to be difficult to get into the sweet spot again but it didn’t really budge so far!

BoomCorals · Dec 3, 2018

I recently begin dosing RODI saturated with kalk at night in attempt to even further raise the pH in my reef. So far, it hasn't impacted my pH or my ALK levels so I may need a faster dosing pump than the 1.1ml/m that I'm using. Currently its running constantly from 11pm to 9am. Before messing with this further I was thinking of trying out a different approach.

Although increased calcification of coral would be nice it's not my ultimate goal.

I'm getting cyano buildup in the early morning and afternoon, in lower flow areas like the refugium and wrasse display (that has fine sand). The cyano is almost completely gone by 6-7pm just to return the next day 5am - 5pm. The ph is at it's highest point at around 8-9pm and there is hardly any cyano in my system at this time. I wondered if keeping the pH with less of a lower dip would have positive effects.

I'm toying with running microbubbles at night or early morning through my return pump. I've read many of the benefits and it seems like a cheap easy thing to try to improve the cyano issue. Curious people's thoughts on giving it a try..

bubbaque · Dec 3, 2018

I think dosing kalk at that rate you may not see it do much. I am dosing fully saturated kalk with the BRS 50ml/m and it turns on for 1 minute every 8 minutes. It seems to make up 90% of my evaporated water. I would see if you can get it to make up most of your evaporated water and then see what kind of difference it makes on your ph.

I am curious to see your results with the microbubble scrubbing.

BoomCorals · Dec 3, 2018

bubbaque said:
I think dosing kalk at that rate you may not see it do much. I am dosing fully saturated kalk with the BRS 50ml/m and it turns on for 1 minute every 8 minutes. It seems to make up 90% of my evaporated water. I would see if you can get it to make up most of your evaporated water and then see what kind of difference it makes on your ph.

I am curious to see your results with the microbubble scrubbing.

I think I would need to do similar amounts of saturated kalk to make a difference. I'm going to need a bigger reservoir.

I'm curious too; seems like it wouldn't hurt to at least give a try. Minimal investment and the risk of something going wrong seems low.

BoomCorals · Dec 5, 2018

Checkout what I picked up last night! So excited.

bubbaque · Dec 6, 2018

Very nice! The way your corals look I'm sure it will be stunning.

bubbaque · Dec 11, 2018

Any difference with the microbubbles?

saintsreturn · Dec 11, 2018

Just went page by page and i am beyond impressed. The decision to display a refugium the way you did turned out magnificent! It is better than some of the tanks i have seen in major aquariums! When i move again, i may hire you to come help me setup the new tank at the new house LOL.

But seriously, amazing!

BoomCorals · Dec 11, 2018

bubbaque said:
Any difference with the microbubbles?

Still waiting for the wood diffuser to come. I got everything else yesterday. I’m going to use an aqualifter to pull outside air through co2 media and run 12 hours each night. Hopefully it’ll come tonight!

BoomCorals · Dec 11, 2018

saintsreturn said:
Just went page by page and i am beyond impressed. The decision to display a refugium the way you did turned out magnificent! It is better than some of the tanks i have seen in major aquariums! When i move again, i may hire you to come help me setup the new tank at the new house LOL.

But seriously, amazing!

Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time to check it out! The display refugium was originally going to be my clam tank, because they’re so much better looking top down. But after I found just how beautiful macro algae can be I just went more that direction.

saintsreturn · Dec 11, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time to check it out! The display refugium was originally going to be my clam tank, because they’re so much better looking top down. But after I found just how beautiful macro algae can be I just went more that direction.

I have seen some pretty ones, but not in the way you display them. I seriously fell in love with that setup and have since been searching for information and costs to do something smaller, but similar in my place. The hard part will be the wife haha

hockeyhead019 · Dec 11, 2018

Epic setup, I would strive to have something that looked like your fuge, let alone your DT! Lol. I love the aquascape of the tank

BoomCorals · Dec 11, 2018

hockeyhead019 said:
Epic setup, I would strive to have something that looked like your fuge, let alone your DT! Lol. I love the aquascape of the tank

Thank you. I’ve always loved aquascapes that have overhangs and minimalistic use of rocks. If I had more self control I wouldn’t have anything on the sand, but I always need just one more coral and run out of space!

BigJohnny · Dec 14, 2018

@BoomCorals

Tanks looking great bud. How quickly did you raise the alk from 7-8.5 in your tank? I'm considering doing something similar. Did your tank stall at all?

Thanks

BoomCorals · Dec 14, 2018

BigJohnny said:
@BoomCorals

Tanks looking great bud. How quickly did you raise the alk from 7-8.5 in your tank? I'm considering doing something similar. Did your tank stall at all?

Thanks

Thanks @BigJohnny. I’m not sure where you read I increased my ALK. I haven’t changed mine in a couple years. I did once and it did not go well. Lots of burnt tips and unhappy corals. So now I keep around 7 all the time.

Quinn

BigJohnny · Dec 15, 2018

BoomCorals said:
Thanks @BigJohnny. I’m not sure where you read I increased my ALK. I haven’t changed mine in a couple years. I did once and it did not go well. Lots of burnt tips and unhappy corals. So now I keep around 7 all the time.

Quinn

I guess it was way back in Oct 2017, didnt realize. I read the whole thread in one go so didnt keep track.

"My alk was 7 and stable. 95% of the corals are fine, but a few look unhappy still. It’s not a pest. I’ve experienced aefw and nudis and I’m positive it’s neither. One of the corals impacted was a lepto. But I have the same coral in the same water under different lights and it’s fine. Also had a larger colony 5 inches from a frag of the same coral, colony died, frag is growing.

My alk is being consumed at levels I’ve never seen before and recently had to start adding kalk to my ATO as well as two part being dosed in addition to the calcium reactor. I’ve seen growth increase even more with bumping alk up to 8.5"

So you had increased growth but then it went downhill after that basically?

BoomCorals · Dec 15, 2018

BigJohnny said:
I guess it was way back in Oct 2017, didnt realize. I read the whole thread in one go so didnt keep track.

"My alk was 7 and stable. 95% of the corals are fine, but a few look unhappy still. It’s not a pest. I’ve experienced aefw and nudis and I’m positive it’s neither. One of the corals impacted was a lepto. But I have the same coral in the same water under different lights and it’s fine. Also had a larger colony 5 inches from a frag of the same coral, colony died, frag is growing.

My alk is being consumed at levels I’ve never seen before and recently had to start adding kalk to my ATO as well as two part being dosed in addition to the calcium reactor. I’ve seen growth increase even more with bumping alk up to 8.5"

So you had increased growth but then it went downhill after that basically?

I didn't even see increased growth when I bumped my ALK. I think my nutrients or potentially my micro elements were limiting. I've also seen the same where I'll lose a coral, but have frags of it recover. I've even had it where a coral will start to STN or even RTN and I'll cut off a couple frags in hopes to save at least one piece. Sometimes it works, and the frag continues to grow; sometimes it doesn't and both the colony and the frag goes. I too know I'm pest free, so I always think it's nutrient related. I've seen the worst RTN when my nutrients get too low. I've done a few Triton tests and although there's no smoking gun, I have seen some micro elements decrease over time despite me doing water changes. I would like to change more, but with so many coral (and macro algae), it's hard not to drop the nutrients too low with a big water change.

@BigJohnny Have you done an ICP test?

Tft12 · Dec 15, 2018

Wow, you create some amazing displays! Your reef and macro algae tanks are beautiful.

BoomCorals said:
I've even had it where a coral will start to STN or even RTN and I'll cut off a couple frags in hopes to save at least one piece. Sometimes it works, and the frag continues to grow; sometimes it doesn't and both the colony and the frag goes.

Thanks for sharing these parts too. It's always very helpful when people with systems that look like yours also share when things aren't going 100% perfectly in every corner of the system at all times.