Acer new 150 build

acer · Oct 23, 2018

Well- it looks like the refugium leak was a false alarm - I must have spilled a bit of water on the side when adding water yesterday and it took a while for it to run down and accumulate in the front - no water there today. Whewww!! so today will run tests and post them and hopefully between the new RODI TDS readings of zero, and new salt ( Fritz reef pro instead of reef crystals) my numbers will be good.

acer · Oct 25, 2018

Ok testing numbers which still is baffling to me as I have not disease anything in months. My Alk is 8.12, salility is 1.026, mg= 1230, po4= .006. Nitrate= between 1ppm and 2ppm- ahaaa this might be the issue. Caused by RODI. I can't do ca+ as my reagent is too low- ordered more from Bulk reef.

acer · Oct 25, 2018

Latest picture. Note , basically lost all Across.

acer · Jan 6, 2019

Update: still having issues with slow death of sps/Acro coral. Added new Regal Angel. I may have the deaded Dinoflagellates- see second pic.

acer · Jan 20, 2019

Started a new thread asking about Dino's- looks like no Dino's, only Vermitid snails. The Regal is doing great. Decided to get my act together and test tank again- I know.. Duh... I just got frustrated because my parameters we're good, but sps corals were dying anyhow. My Hanna ultra low phosphate test= .184.. ya, well that won't help Acros. Nitrates we're under 1 ppm. I could not test ALK because the reagent leaked out. So after 2 water changes and running Gfo reactor today my po4 tested .095. Mg+ = 1200, Ca+= 464. That's the good news , bad news is I finally got my Alk Hanna reagent and results are pretty ugly = 6.44 DLK. Yikes!! Added 200 ml BRS soda ash liquid (raise tank to 8.0 according to the BRS calc) to my 5 gallon ATO which will slowly add the supplement over the next 2 days. I didn't want my PH to change by dumping 200 ml of ALK supplement.

vlangel · Jan 20, 2019

Glad to hear all the good news. The bad news is not so bad. Just adjust slowly, or so I am told when it comes to acros.

Beautiful angel btw!

acer · Jan 20, 2019

Thanks, and happy New year my friend.

vlangel · Jan 21, 2019

Thanks Ted and Happy New Year to you and yours as well.

Millimylilly · Jan 21, 2019

Wow! Beautiful tank!

acer · Feb 5, 2019

I have been updating my build thread in the local club area so that area gets some traffic = Pittsburgh local club area 3RMAS = https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acers-build-thread-3rmas-area.266338/ please feel free to comment here or there.

acer · Feb 7, 2019

Ok today's test results. ALK= 7.84, CA+=452, Mg+=1440, but po4 = 47 ppm. Have not done a water change since I started testing nearly ever day. The Fritz pro salt in my new water mixing station tested 6.4 ALK. So, I guess doing water changes will actually decrease my ALK. Taking that into account maybe I should not try to keep ALK 8-8.5, maybe 7.25- 7.75. I know, don't chase numbers. However, if u are not aware of a goal for a parameter its tough to keep the tank consistent which is the real goal.

Ok plan of attack for today= 20 gallon water change which should reduce Po4 and Alk. Also Thin out the Cheating - it's pretty dense , so hopefully that will also create more po4 control. No dosing. Test Alk and Po4 tomorrow.

Comments welcome.

vlangel · Feb 8, 2019

Well Ted, your numbers are healthier than mine. I was dosing blind for quite some time and my Alk is almost 12! CA is 400 and Mag is 1400. Nothing looks bad but I only have a couple sps and they are old sturdy ones that have no doubt endured a lot of fluctuations and I do not think that softies and LPS are as sensitive.
Anyway it seems that you are on the right track to getting your tank to find its balance.

acer · Feb 8, 2019

I am still not totally convinced I am loosing SPS/acros due to tank parameters- Maybe a microscopic bug or a fish that decided to eat them, just not completely sure.

count krunk · Feb 8, 2019

flatworms maybe? see any evidence of that?

count krunk · Feb 8, 2019

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/flatworms-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty-terrifying-part-1.530/

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/flatw...-pretty-terrifying-part-2-and-conclusion.531/

acer · Feb 8, 2019

Have 3-4 wrasses...including a melanurus . Still I guess that's possible, I looked with a magnifying glass, but not with a microscope.

acer · Feb 8, 2019

ALK this evening is 7.56. I retested my new water mix (Fritz pro blue box) and ALK was 6.8 at 1.027 salinity and 78 degrees.

acer · Feb 17, 2019

Ok update: delayed due to my stupidly dumping a 1/2 shot of kalk paste I was using to inject mojo's I found. So ALK testing was useless. But this week without any dosing my Alk was between 7.0 and 7.3. Testing this AM :

ALK= 7.2
PO4 = .095 ppm
No3 = 2 ppm

Edit: One more "snaffoo" or "learning moment"- my pinpoint PH probe unit has been reading 8.2 night and 8.35 day for months now. I decided to check it against solutiuons of 10.0 and 7.0 and it was high on the 7.0 and low on the 10.0 by more than I am comfortable with. So I took looked through my drawer of new equipment in and find a new BRS PH probe- never been used. I proceed to go thru the calibration for the new probe as I suspect the old probe ( 2 years old) is no longer working well. And sure enough my real PH is not that good- more like 7.96- 7.99 which is not bad, but certainaly not the 8.2-8.35 that I was thinking it was. My Salifert PH kit confirmed about 8.0.

According to Mike Paletta's speech last night at the 3RMAS Club meeting (well done Mike). If I remember correctly (he talks fast), Mike suggested target numbers for a colorful mixed reef should be around 8.2-8.4 PH, Po4 =.05 - .077, nitrate about 1 PPM among other parameters ( ALK, CA,Mg) and trace elements. Yes, those are just numbers as each system is different and you should go for consistency, do not chase numbers (yep guilty as charged ..LOL) and do massive corrections all at once.

acer · Feb 19, 2019

I tested my Po4 this evening after a I fed and its really high = .18 PPM. My Alk tested at 7.3 DKH so I think I have the ALK stabilized. Did a 15 gallon water change yesterday so expected my po4 to come down - not go up. Hopefully, its because I just fed coral and fish ( homemade club food from 2 years ago I think) an hour earlier. So will test tomorrow morning. I think I will be throwing that old food out. I will also test nitrate tomorrow.

vlangel · Feb 19, 2019

acer said:
I tested my Po4 this evening after a I fed and its really high = .18 PPM. My Alk tested at 7.3 DKH so I think I have the ALK stabilized. Did a 15 gallon water change yesterday so expected my po4 to come down - not go up. Hopefully, its because I just fed coral and fish ( homemade club food from 2 years ago I think) an hour earlier. So will test tomorrow morning. I think I will be throwing that old food out. I will also test nitrate tomorrow.

Ted, if the display is not having nuisance algae problems, then the higher PO4 is not a problem because the cheato is utilizing it. Macro algaes flourish if the ratio of nitrate to phosphates is in a 30:1 ration as long as they have access to carbon.

Most reefers would be horrified at my PO4 which is between 1 and 2 ppm! My NO3 is 50ppm and the tank is clean as can be...no more cyano and no nuisance algae. I am getting away with that because of my macro algaes. For the record I am working on bringing it down closer to nitrates being 20 - 30 ppm and phosphates being under 1 ppm for the sake of my inverts. I feed really heavy because I have 12 blennies and gobies in the tank which need to eat 2-3 Xs a day. My LPS are loving it though.