90g Mixed Reef

leahfiish · Jan 25, 2018

I'm not sure if the favia is gonna make it, it keeps getting worse. I'm not sure what the issue is although I suspect alk swings. I have started testing my alk every day again. Yesterday it was 8.1 and today it was 7.8. So I dosed some reef builder and I'll check it again tomorrow. I'm also using 1/2tsp of kalk per gallon in my top off water using a Tunze osmolator that I finally set up.

In other news... My new tank is finally in. I'm aiming to transfer everything in 2 weeks, all at once because I'm reusing my sump. I will make another post on that and start a new thread closer to the time.

leahfiish · Jan 27, 2018

Still having water chemistry woes.
Dealing with my frustration by working on the new tank.
I got 40lb of caribsea shelf rock and am starting to fill with RO. Working on aquascaping. The goal is lots of flat spaces for coral disks, and minimal shading. That means I'll probably be working with a "V" or "M" shaped rock structure, hopefully with lots of little steps along the slopes. I also am trying to leave space on all 4 sides of the tank for better flow. Finally, I really like arches and overhangs so I'm trying to encorporate them where I can.
I kind of wish I had more dry rock to work with to get the aquascape done while the tank is dry but I think it will be important to move my existing rock over when I transfer everything so I'm trying to leave space for that and plan how it's going to look.
Here's some progress pictures. I like to look back at these to see previous ideas.

What I have now:

I like it a lot at the moment but I do wish I could get it about 4" taller.

leahfiish · Jan 30, 2018

I'm an idiot and didn't realize that both my nitrates and phosphates had gotten way, way too high. I think that's causing my coral problems. Last night my nitrates were 64+ (red sea) and phosphates were 0.36 (red Sea). I did a 20g water change and I really hope that will hold things over until next week when I transfer everything to the new tank. I am also a little concerned that if I do a transfer to all new water that it'll be a shock for the corals to go from such high nutrients to lower nutrients, so I'm considering using a little bit of old tank water.
The corals affected are my green chalice (most recently), my fascination favia (almost dead), and a red chalice although it was buries in the sand for awhile and never really recovered properly from that.
I will be so sad if I lose this chalice, it is definitely one of my favorites.