65 gallon mixed reef
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Very nice!
OP
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mjr
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Thanks guys!
I think the tank was fast tracked by two things.
1. 40 lbs of live rock for the sump that came from an extremely well established 300 gallon system.
2. Nutrafin Cycle. I added a bunch early on before I added the established rock because the tank started with 80 lbs of dry Marco rock, and 80lbs of dry sand and I read that it is best to help the dry rock and sand establish with additives. Seemed to work.
I went through the algae stages all at once in month one. Every kind of algae you could imagine. My algae had algae which had algae. It was insane. Bryopsis tried to take hold and seemed to stay thin, but increase slowly. it disappeared after I started dosing kent iodine and strontium. I do have some kent tech m on hand, but my mag levels are already insanely high (1500-1600) partially due to IO salt mix so I really was not able to use the kent mag to control the algae. It is possible that the kent iodine and strontium had nothing to do with it, but that was the only thing I did different right before the algae disappeared.
I have some nice oolite sand to put over top of the Marco sand, but aside from that I think I just need to let everything settle in and grow. Sps seems to be growing a couple mm a month at this point and softies have reproduced a bit as well. Growth rate seemed to really increase when I tarted pushing my alk over 9-10 dkh. I have been keeping the calc pretty stable at 440-460, and nitrates seem to hover between 10 and 30.
I think the tank was fast tracked by two things.
1. 40 lbs of live rock for the sump that came from an extremely well established 300 gallon system.
2. Nutrafin Cycle. I added a bunch early on before I added the established rock because the tank started with 80 lbs of dry Marco rock, and 80lbs of dry sand and I read that it is best to help the dry rock and sand establish with additives. Seemed to work.
I went through the algae stages all at once in month one. Every kind of algae you could imagine. My algae had algae which had algae. It was insane. Bryopsis tried to take hold and seemed to stay thin, but increase slowly. it disappeared after I started dosing kent iodine and strontium. I do have some kent tech m on hand, but my mag levels are already insanely high (1500-1600) partially due to IO salt mix so I really was not able to use the kent mag to control the algae. It is possible that the kent iodine and strontium had nothing to do with it, but that was the only thing I did different right before the algae disappeared.
I have some nice oolite sand to put over top of the Marco sand, but aside from that I think I just need to let everything settle in and grow. Sps seems to be growing a couple mm a month at this point and softies have reproduced a bit as well. Growth rate seemed to really increase when I tarted pushing my alk over 9-10 dkh. I have been keeping the calc pretty stable at 440-460, and nitrates seem to hover between 10 and 30.
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