75 Display with 25 Sump

[vlangel]

Everything looks great!

 

[kevgib67]

Update 11/1/2026

Been a while since my last update. I keep having troubles with my posts when drafting that if I take too long I loses them. I had had to start over three different times now.

I forgot to add my Duncan when I posts pics of all my LPS corals.

Here is a picture!

Very nice Duncan that is extremely happy in its current location.

Yesterday, I went to my local LFS and bought 3 more LPS corals for my birthday!

I bought my first “Goni”.

For now it is happy in its new home.

I also got this new Favia coral.

Hopefully will be good where I put it. Will have to keep an eye on the Goni as it about 4” away.

My last purchase was this “War Coral” Favite.

Was looking for some color for the sand bed. Looks like if they go well will accomplish what I was going for. I have not had good results with Favia before but that was before I started doing and parameters stabilized. I am confident now that all these will do well.

Here are some of my SPS corals I have.

Walt Disney Acro

I have the most hope for this coral. To date probably my most expensive coral. It is at the top of my reef and is doing well. Have had this coral now for about 3 weeks. It does appear to be growing already.

Blue Oregon Tort

Hard to get a good shot of this one with all the blue light. It is up towards the top of the reef. It is happy and has been in the tank for roughly 3-4 months. It survived the alkalinity spike last month. It has doubled in size maybe more.

This birds nest is probably one of the stars to the SPS.

This coral has probably quadrupled since purchased. Bought this about 3-4 months ago. Same with this coral survived the alkalinity spike.

Not sure what type of green Acro this is

It is growing well. 3-4 months in the tank. It is almost time to trim the birds nest back or these two will start to touch.

Here is a green Slimer that is doing well

This picture does not do it much justice. Must be an older picture. It is much bigger now. Probably twice this size. This acro has been in the tank for about 6 months now.

I will post this for now so I do not lose it again and write another to continue this post.

Very nice, well done!

 

[ccook]

Update 11/14/2026
Been almost two weeks since my last post.

Have several items to talk about today.

Trident NP update - Since the advanced replacement unit was installed a few weeks back it has been performing flawless. Definitely extremely happy with the results. I have validated my NP readings with Hanna readings a few times. PO4 dead on each time. NO3 yesterday measured at 5.8 by the Trident. This morning I tested with Hanna at 6.7. Well within the +- limits. I did perform the calibration using my Hanna results today’s in place of my NP testing for today. Tomorrow’s test should be good.

A couple weeks back Apex came out with its new Fusion App update. I was selected as one of the beta testers. I provided some feedback and they came out with an update shortly afterwards with my recommendations addressed. At first I was excited and then I started to not like it originally because it was really buggy at first. However, those items were addressed and now I have really grown to like it now. There has been mixed reviews/opinions on it. I do believe as this gets widely used and people do get used to the changes it will be more of a positive vs a negative. I really like the widget.

Last week I had a Trident ACM “Test A Fail”. Glad I installed my Tridents into the Printed Reef mini cases. I was able to take it apart really easy for access to see what was going on. I quickly found that the real problem was a “No Water Sample”. I found the Cuvette not filling up with sample water from my sump. Upon inspection I found a blockage in my sample line. I was able to clear it however, the Cuvette would still not fill with any water. I could watch the pinch valve work properly and the pump working properly. I was able to observe when the pump was spinning in the opposite direction for the waste line I could see small droplets of water moving in the clear line. So I took the guts out and made sure to clean the sample line from the manifold all the way to the sump and even through the 2 couplers. All was clear. Upon running the Trident again to prime the sample line the Cuvette still would not fill with water. I could hear a slight pressure releasing in the near the manifold when the pump was running and the pinch valve was open. So I believed the manifold to be plugged as well. I did open a trouble ticket with Neptune. And then the next day I called because I wanted to see if they sell the manifold separately. I spoke to a gentleman and he said they do but an actual Trident Support Tech would have to troubleshoot with me first and then the TS Tech would send me a link to purchase one after verification.

The gentleman did ask if I had used a pin to try to clear the blockage in the manifold and I said I had not as I was unsure of how the manifold was ported internally. I then decided to take it apart and remove the manifold. I did watch a video from Reef Dudes about the installation of the DIY Maintenance kit and saw that the manifold has a grove on the 12 o’clock position to align the manifold correctly once reinstalled. I felt comfortable now to remove the manifold. I am glad I did. The ports are real small so I had to use a very small safety pin. I found a complete blockage on the supply line side in the manifold. That blockage was very tough to clear out and took multiple attempts to get that safety pin through it. I wanted to be sure that the manifold was clear in all lines and the safety pin went all the way down without issue on all the other ports, so I knew for sure the issue was the blockage in the manifold ing the manifold. Once I cleared it I put everything back together and ran the sample prime function. BAM water now was making it to the Cuvette. The Trident alarm cleared and has been running successful test ever since.

My ticket still has not received any answer yet though I kept updating the ticket. I still want a replacement manifold as a backup and replace it when I receive my DIY Maintenance kit that will be here Monday. Not confident they will respond on that though. Just glad I was able to fix it. I can tell you that with the issues I have had with the NP and now the ACM I am extremely confident in my ability to troubleshoot and repair my Tridents.

These are really brilliant units but are very temperamental. Everything has to work properly to get good readings. I believe most nonbelievers in the Tridents just do not understand how they work. Once I understood them I am confident I will have these for a very long time especially since I can get the DIY Maintenance kits for both units. I will ensure I keep them in good working order. I also did cut the waste line so it does not sit in the disposed reagent. You can cut that line to length just not the sample line. That is directly from Neptune support.

So while the Trident was down for a few days I could not keep up with the daily testing so my Alkalinity dropped to under 8 DKH. It dropped all the way down to 7.23 DKH and. Calcium dropped to 370 ppm. Now that it is testing properly I have readjusted my All 4 Reef and Kalk dosing. My Alkalinity is returning back to 8 DKH. Still have a little bit to go to get the calcium back to over 400 but I am taking it slow.

Going to submit this comment now and write more on another comment so I do not loose what I have already written.

 

[ccook]

Update 11/14/2026
Been almost two weeks since my last post.

Have several items to talk about today.

Trident NP update - Since the advanced replacement unit was installed a few weeks back it has been performing flawless. Definitely extremely happy with the results. I have validated my NP readings with Hanna readings a few times. PO4 dead on each time. NO3 yesterday measured at 5.8 by the Trident. This morning I tested with Hanna at 6.7. Well within the +- limits. I did perform the calibration using my Hanna results today’s in place of my NP testing for today. Tomorrow’s test should be good.

A couple weeks back Apex came out with its new Fusion App update. I was selected as one of the beta testers. I provided some feedback and they came out with an update shortly afterwards with my recommendations addressed. At first I was excited and then I started to not like it originally because it was really buggy at first. However, those items were addressed and now I have really grown to like it now. There has been mixed reviews/opinions on it. I do believe as this gets widely used and people do get used to the changes it will be more of a positive vs a negative. I really like the widget.

Last week I had a Trident ACM “Test A Fail”. Glad I installed my Tridents into the Printed Reef mini cases. I was able to take it apart really easy for access to see what was going on. I quickly found that the real problem was a “No Water Sample”. I found the Cuvette not filling up with sample water from my sump. Upon inspection I found a blockage in my sample line. I was able to clear it however, the Cuvette would still not fill with any water. I could watch the pinch valve work properly and the pump working properly. I was able to observe when the pump was spinning in the opposite direction for the waste line I could see small droplets of water moving in the clear line. So I took the guts out and made sure to clean the sample line from the manifold all the way to the sump and even through the 2 couplers. All was clear. Upon running the Trident again to prime the sample line the Cuvette still would not fill with water. I could hear a slight pressure releasing in the near the manifold when the pump was running and the pinch valve was open. So I believed the manifold to be plugged as well. I did open a trouble ticket with Neptune. And then the next day I called because I wanted to see if they sell the manifold separately. I spoke to a gentleman and he said they do but an actual Trident Support Tech would have to troubleshoot with me first and then the TS Tech would send me a link to purchase one after verification.

The gentleman did ask if I had used a pin to try to clear the blockage in the manifold and I said I had not as I was unsure of how the manifold was ported internally. I then decided to take it apart and remove the manifold. I did watch a video from Reef Dudes about the installation of the DIY Maintenance kit and saw that the manifold has a grove on the 12 o’clock position to align the manifold correctly once reinstalled. I felt comfortable now to remove the manifold. I am glad I did. The ports are real small so I had to use a very small safety pin. I found a complete blockage on the supply line side in the manifold. That blockage was very tough to clear out and took multiple attempts to get that safety pin through it. I wanted to be sure that the manifold was clear in all lines and the safety pin went all the way down without issue on all the other ports, so I knew for sure the issue was the blockage in the manifold ing the manifold. Once I cleared it I put everything back together and ran the sample prime function. BAM water now was making it to the Cuvette. The Trident alarm cleared and has been running successful test ever since.

My ticket still has not received any answer yet though I kept updating the ticket. I still want a replacement manifold as a backup and replace it when I receive my DIY Maintenance kit that will be here Monday. Not confident they will respond on that though. Just glad I was able to fix it. I can tell you that with the issues I have had with the NP and now the ACM I am extremely confident in my ability to troubleshoot and repair my Tridents.

These are really brilliant units but are very temperamental. Everything has to work properly to get good readings. I believe most nonbelievers in the Tridents just do not understand how they work. Once I understood them I am confident I will have these for a very long time especially since I can get the DIY Maintenance kits for both units. I will ensure I keep them in good working order. I also did cut the waste line so it does not sit in the disposed reagent. You can cut that line to length just not the sample line. That is directly from Neptune support.

So while the Trident was down for a few days I could not keep up with the daily testing so my Alkalinity dropped to under 8 DKH. It dropped all the way down to 7.23 DKH and. Calcium dropped to 370 ppm. Now that it is testing properly I have readjusted my All 4 Reef and Kalk dosing. My Alkalinity is returning back to 8 DKH. Still have a little bit to go to get the calcium back to over 400 but I am taking it slow.

Going to submit this comment now and write more on another comment so I do not loose what I have already written.

Continued from above 11/14/2026 update.

On Veterans Day this week my LFS was offering a free frag to veterans. I drive out to the shop to pick mine out. This is what I chose. This is a grafted Monti of some sort. Colors are amazing on this.

Then I also purchased this hammer coral.

These are both on a frag rack for now acclimating to my tank. They both looked to be doing fine however, this hammer as soon as I moved the rack I saw what appeared to be a bunch of pieces of the coral displaced into the flow of the tank. I hope that was not polyp bailout. The picture attached is afterwards.

Last week, I also ran into an issue with my other Geourgous hammer that I posted before. One day I noticed that that some polyps were starting to bail out and I had no idea why. Then later that night I walked by the tank a couple hours after lights out. I noticed my Chalice had some very long stinging tentacles out and appeared to be stinging my coral.

This is the chalice:

And here is a before and after photos of my hammer:

So disappointed in this. Never realized that that Chalice could do that. Now I know what caused my Kryptonite Candy Cane damage. That coral was sitting on the other side of the Chalice. Now it looks as though I do not need to get rid of my Aptasia Eating Filefish. I do not believe it is eating coral.

I moved the Chalice to the corner of the tank all by itself now and it seems to be doing ok there. My LFS recommended me to dip the hammer in Two Little Fishies Revive. She said it should recover. I dipped it on Wednesday night. Today is Saturday and it does not look like it has lost any more polyps. Time will only tell. I do run carbon but I need to change it out today. My flow sensor is not reading any flow out of the carbon reactor. I do believe the flow sensor is bad. Because when I change the carbon it will slowly ramp up with measuring flow and then go back to zero. That sensor will just have to stay where it is. I have replacement flow sensors but I do not want to deal with piping for now.

Other than that, remaining corals are doing well.

Everything else is continuing to explode with growth.

All fish are healthy and doing well.

PH issues appear to have been solved! Getting that Air Recirc for my skimmer was a game changer. I do have to run very dry in my skimmer because last week my CO2 reactor filled with tank water causing my CO2 absorbent media to be ruined and ineffective. Since I adjusted my skimmer, cleaned out my reactor and changed out the media the PH has really been exceptional. Peak PH hits 8.31 daily and drops down to about 8.11 overnight. All with windows closed.

I have ordered another Tropic Marin ICP plus test, some Fluorine and some Manganese to add to my daily dosing. Those two trace elements seem to be continuously be low on each of my ICP test results. Usually not even measurable or detectable amounts. That is even with dosing all for reef and the block elements. So I will go slow and follow the directions. Will see how that goes.