I found going from 80g down to 43g, using the same water, the Params were quite high compared to the larger volume of water. This tank was to be LPS only. I watched the params, used WC over a couple months to lower Alk, I definitely wasn’t used to 9.5. Fed the LPS, adjusted Radion lighting , checked params twice weekly and most importantly watched the reactions of coral. Beautiful, intense colors, Alk lowered, p04 readable, n03 readable and increased with dosing of stump remover. Increased lighting and flow, again watched coral reaction, then I did it...added the acro..JF Homewrecker. Glued the frag as it came from JF to a small rock which I could gradually move up. This way if it didn’t like the spot, back down to the bottom of tank still intact on rock. So far it’s worked, great PE and color. Tank is a Red Sea Reefer170 with 2 mp10s for flow set on reefcrest, alternating. I’m also one that had a very clean, stripped tank with all the gadgets. Back to simplicity...
Acro killer sadness... any tips?
- Thread starter Salty-Sailor
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I was struggling for the longest time with acros...at least 1 year or more.
I began to keep my alk, cal, temp, salinity and water changes very stable this past couple months.
I'm dosing 5ml alk and cal and it generally stay at 8.0 +/- and 430 +/-
My old acros that were brown are starting to color up nicely and polyps are starting to stick out heavily.
I wasted at least $3k on acros before they started coloring up anf not browning out within a week or rtn/stn within a couple days.
I try and keep my hands out of the water as much as possible
My Nitrate is 0
My phosphate is 0.08 according to triton.
My hanna checker was telling me my phosphate was 0 for the longest time now.
You need to get a phosphorus hanna checker, it reads in the ppb. You will have to do a simple math equation to figure out what it is in ppm.
I highly recommend for you to do a triton test or even an ICP test. The ICP tests can be found on Amazon for $29.95. I shipped mine out on Monday and got the results back on Friday.
Hope this helps.
I began to keep my alk, cal, temp, salinity and water changes very stable this past couple months.
I'm dosing 5ml alk and cal and it generally stay at 8.0 +/- and 430 +/-
My old acros that were brown are starting to color up nicely and polyps are starting to stick out heavily.
I wasted at least $3k on acros before they started coloring up anf not browning out within a week or rtn/stn within a couple days.
I try and keep my hands out of the water as much as possible
My Nitrate is 0
My phosphate is 0.08 according to triton.
My hanna checker was telling me my phosphate was 0 for the longest time now.
You need to get a phosphorus hanna checker, it reads in the ppb. You will have to do a simple math equation to figure out what it is in ppm.
I highly recommend for you to do a triton test or even an ICP test. The ICP tests can be found on Amazon for $29.95. I shipped mine out on Monday and got the results back on Friday.
Hope this helps.
It is OK if your N and P is really low a long as you are not artificially stripping them with GFO, organic carbon or LC. Stop doing all of this and let nature, bacteria and the tank do their thing. When you interfere, this can become very bad. I know that nobody who is newer wants to hear this, but usually take a year or more for a fresh tank to get pretty stable and be good with acropora - the complete cycle (NO3 to N gas as the last step) takes times... and even long with dry/dead rock. For all of the time that you interfere, it will need to be paid back in at-least equal time once you stop interfering.
I don't think that ICP will tell you anything substantial, but who knows.
I don't think that ICP will tell you anything substantial, but who knows.
OP
OP
Salty-Sailor
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yes i do. i have a pink setosa that seems to be doing well, i keep pretty close to the acros and also two different monti's that are not doing well. both monti's are in different light and flow but both aren't happy.
OP
OP
Salty-Sailor
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50% flow would rip the flesh off my LPS and softies. maximum flow will kill everything. just between the gyre/mp40 & the Mp10 that would be 9,000GPH of flow at max not including return.
Try the KISS approach. For me it works, all i have in my sump is a skimmer, bunch of rock and a bag of carbon and a bag of seachem phosgaurd. I have lots of fish and feed them now 10 Hikari frozen cubes a day and add a little reef roids to the thawing cubes, then poor it in slowly as the fish consume the food. My tanks water volume with sump i estimate at 80 gallons since i have ALOT of live rock. I do a 15 gallon water change every 1.5 months with red sea pro salt. I manually dose and keep my alk between 7 and 9. Once a week i throw in some Kent essential elements and coral vite. I also throw in red sea reef energy a and b once a week. I have 5 Kessil 160we tuna blues lighting the tank for 14 hours a day. As far as the acros go most grow at what i would consider quickly.
Flippers4pups
Fins up since 1993
Just got done watching a presentation from Todd Gardner on larvae rearing. His statement on how the marine research community needs to invest time and research on microbes and micro bacterial strains made me think how this has an impact on our reefs. So little is known at this level. Using quality live rock or aging a newly set up tank ( a year or more) to establish these bacterial strains and microbes that support a healthy reef is simply anecdotal from our perspective.
More research is needed. More than just buying some bottled bacteria and dumping it in or waiting a year to season a tank.
More research is needed. More than just buying some bottled bacteria and dumping it in or waiting a year to season a tank.
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