Bored? How about Mentoring a Newbie?

[road_runner]

Not yet

Shipping status says, it was delivered today at 12pm. Pls confirm

 

[Scott Christenson]

Shipping status says, it was delivered today at 12pm. Pls confirm

Yes, it did arrive, I'll be working on that today. I'll let you know how it goes.
And, thank for the right up, it was very informative.
Week 4 water change will be Wednesday and that's when I will report back on testing.
Thank you, thank you

 

[Gaspipe]

I'm kind of embarrassed to ask, but any updates?

 

[Scott Christenson]

Sorry for our being absent on this thread. Here is an update for you:
Tank and it's inhabitants are doing well
After the week 4 water change I had:
Alk went from 10.9 to 10.2
Cal went from 400 to 425
Mag went from 1095 1170
Po4 is .14
Nitrate is 0
I installed Apex's autofeeder and an automatic top off system via Apex's BOB connector
Week 5 water change is happening today
Will post new test results today after the water change
Tomorrow I will send in the Triton water sample for testing
I switched salt to Tropic Pro Marine
I'm adding Reef Complete daily to slowly bring up the cal and mag, that is working great
Once we get the Triton test results we will discuss a dosing strategy

 

[Gaspipe]

Sorry for our being absent on this thread. Here is an update for you:
Tank and it's inhabitants are doing well
After the week 4 water change I had:
Alk went from 10.9 to 10.2
Cal went from 400 to 425
Mag went from 1095 1170
Po4 is .14
Nitrate is 0
I installed Apex's autofeeder and an automatic top off system via Apex's BOB connector
Week 5 water change is happening today
Will post new test results today after the water change
Tomorrow I will send in the Triton water sample for testing
I switched salt to Tropic Pro Marine
I'm adding Reef Complete daily to slowly bring up the cal and mag, that is working great
Once we get the Triton test results we will discuss a dosing strategy

Curious, I believe you guys spoke about “goal parameters” but wasn’t finalized due to the type of tank you wish have. Have you decided? And if so could you please also include the target/goal parameters (or range, I know everyone here says stop chasing numbers! Stability is key). But I just like a reference since I’m new and can’t remember what’s a good or bad number.

Thanks for this ride!!!

 

[Scott Christenson]

Curious, I believe you guys spoke about “goal parameters” but wasn’t finalized due to the type of tank you wish have. Have you decided? And if so could you please also include the target/goal parameters (or range, I know everyone here says stop chasing numbers! Stability is key). But I just like a reference since I’m new and can’t remember what’s a good or bad number.

Thanks for this ride!!!

- Salinity 35ppt
- Alk 8 to 9dkh
- Ca 380 to 450ppm
-Mag 1250 to 1350
Temp 74~80 (choose the target temp and lets keep it within +-3degree at the most, I maintain 74 +-1degree because I like colder water animals and coral)
Nutrients (NO3>5ppm, PO4>1ppm ) levels lets keep it medium to low
Trace elements TBD (we will not track it yet)

in term of husbandry lets continue with the weekly 20% water change, once we reach our target levels we can drop to 20% biweekly or 10-15% weekly

in term of testing
long term we will weekly test Salinity/Alk/CA and NO3
monthly PO4 and Mag

Is this what you were looking for?

 

[Scott Christenson]

I also added a reservoir box of fresh water for my ATO

 

[Scott Christenson]

Week 5 Water Change is complete:
Alk went from 10.2 to 9.4
Cal went from 425 to 445
Mag went from 1170 to 1140
NO3 went from 10 to .2
PO4 went from .14 to .08
Will send in Triton sample tomorrow morning
Suggestions?

 

[Scott Christenson]

We are going to remove the rowaphos for now and see what happens to the PO4
We are also going to turn off the Media Reactor to see if we can get the NO3 to come up a little
He also asked that I slow down the skimming to increase NO3
Triton test is going in tomorrow
We are going to continue the ReefComplete dosing for now
PO4 target is 0.2~0.08
NO3 target is less than 1 more than 0.15

 

[Scott Christenson]

 

[fuelman]

corals are looking happy. nice job!!!

 

[Gaspipe]

Any updates? Are your water parameters where they need to be and tweaks are no longer needed?

 

[Luckyduck]

..

Hey you gave some great information on this post! I am mid cycle right now and trying to figure out what I'm dealing with, day 17. Dino, diatoms or Cyano? I am running a hang on back refugium with Chaeto and grow light that runs 9 hours opposite the main tank. I used dry rock and live sand. Seeded the tank with Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter Start XLM & Quikcycl. Salinity 1.025, PH 8, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrates 50ppm, Nitrites 4ppm, Calcium 500, Alkalinity 8, Magnesium 1280, Phosphates .08 & Iron .01. I plan on dosing Iron to a level of .05 once my cycle is finished to help the Chaeto and I want to add a Red mangrove. I would like to lower the Phosphates to between .03-.05 because I know iron can cause excess algae growth when phosphates are above .05. Would I benefit from using a small amount of Phoslock in a filter sock to help keep phosphates at a lower level? Can phosphates stop or curb diatom growth? Do I just want to let whatever I have assuming it's not destructive run its course? I probably should not be doing any iron right now to keep that algae from going to a full bloom correct?