Dan's 120 Reef Reboot
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PicassoDan
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Thanks Kent! Full tank shot
What's the latest with your tank planning?
What's the latest with your tank planning?
PicassoDan
Active Member
Got new phosphate test reagents and tested ZERO on the Hanna 736 (low range phosphorous test). Might have something to do with the dinos. So dosing begins.
Dosed enough to raise the system by about .1 ppm, we'll see where it goes.
Dosed enough to raise the system by about .1 ppm, we'll see where it goes.
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PicassoDan
Active Member
6 hours after dosing, phosphate measures .043 ppm. I'm guessing the tank was starved for phosphate, and has already sucked up half of what I added. I'm going to wait until tomorrow night (24 hours after dosing) to see how much more is consumed, and then dose again.
I also dosed enough sodium nitrate to bring nitrate up by 2 ppm, I'll measure it tomorrow.
*edit: 2/20, 9:45am: nitrate measures 3.5±1 ppm
I also dosed enough sodium nitrate to bring nitrate up by 2 ppm, I'll measure it tomorrow.
*edit: 2/20, 9:45am: nitrate measures 3.5±1 ppm
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PicassoDan
Active Member
So, 24 hours after dosing, phosphates are down to zero. The tank is definitely sucking it up. Did another dose, twice the amount this time.
PicassoDan
Active Member
Apparently I'm horrible at updates. I'll post full tank shots later, but I wanted to post a pic of a couple of beauties I scored locally. Rochester, NY is the home of Tom's Torch (Todd got it from him after all). (aka: Todd's Torch, TT)
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PicassoDan
Active Member
Thanks!
FTS:
On the very left side of this picture, you can see the ocelaris I found that has a fun puzzle piece pattern.
FTS:
On the very left side of this picture, you can see the ocelaris I found that has a fun puzzle piece pattern.
PicassoDan
Active Member
Yeah, I've tried researching if there are more like him, but it just looks like a variant of daVinci or semi-snowflake.
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PicassoDan
Active Member
Two things I'm currently not super-happy with:
1. Red Planaria: flatworms are unsightly and possibly irritating corals. I've tried a single dose of Salifert's Flatworm Exit twice, about two-months apart. Both times it wipes out lots of worms, but they slowly come back. I may try another round, with this time dosing two or three times at one-week intervals to get the stragglers. Will report back with results.
2. Coloration on SPS corals: I'd like to take it to the next level. I keep the big three parameters pretty close to these values:
Alk: 9±0.3 dKH
Ca: 425±25 ppm
Mg: 1300±100 ppm
I started checking nitrate and phosphate and dosing them to be in these ranges:
NO3: 1-3 ppm
PO4: 0.1-0.15 ppm
About 7 months ago, I had dinos, which seemed to wipe out the phosphate and nitrate and make the corals lose color. Dinos are visibly gone now, but maybe they have stayed around at a low level and are still affecting the corals, I'm not sure.
I started feeding more, added a couple fish, experimented with turning off the skimmer periodically... seem to be getting more algae growth now, but coral colors are still not superb.
Any recommendations out there?
Maybe it just needs more time.
1. Red Planaria: flatworms are unsightly and possibly irritating corals. I've tried a single dose of Salifert's Flatworm Exit twice, about two-months apart. Both times it wipes out lots of worms, but they slowly come back. I may try another round, with this time dosing two or three times at one-week intervals to get the stragglers. Will report back with results.
2. Coloration on SPS corals: I'd like to take it to the next level. I keep the big three parameters pretty close to these values:
Alk: 9±0.3 dKH
Ca: 425±25 ppm
Mg: 1300±100 ppm
I started checking nitrate and phosphate and dosing them to be in these ranges:
NO3: 1-3 ppm
PO4: 0.1-0.15 ppm
About 7 months ago, I had dinos, which seemed to wipe out the phosphate and nitrate and make the corals lose color. Dinos are visibly gone now, but maybe they have stayed around at a low level and are still affecting the corals, I'm not sure.
I started feeding more, added a couple fish, experimented with turning off the skimmer periodically... seem to be getting more algae growth now, but coral colors are still not superb.
Any recommendations out there?
Maybe it just needs more time.
PicassoDan
Active Member
It's been a while! Couple small updates: clowns are laying eggs on a regular basis in the back corner on the glass itself - very cool!
Going to be adding corals again as the tank has finally stabilized. I went through some weird algae phases that have burned themselves out.
I'm working on attacking the red planaria again - been siphoning them out manually over the last week, and will dose Flatworm Exit once they are at a low enough level.
Going to be adding corals again as the tank has finally stabilized. I went through some weird algae phases that have burned themselves out.
I'm working on attacking the red planaria again - been siphoning them out manually over the last week, and will dose Flatworm Exit once they are at a low enough level.
PicassoDan
Active Member
Flatworm Exit seems to have worked - I've done three doses so far. Corals and fish are unfazed. First two doses were three days apart, and then a week later. I'm watching for tiny flatworms, so fingers-crossed.
PicassoDan
Active Member
Wow, I'm terrible at updating this thread. Went through some issues in the last year, but the tank is looking pretty good these days. Winter is reef season, since the days are short and the weather is bad here in western NY.
As mentioned before, I beat the flat worm issue - the key was repeating the dosage a few days apart to make sure it killed newly hatched worms.
Current struggles are valonia (bubble algae) and the occasional aiptasia that I just can't seem to eradicate 100%. I've been zapping them with Aiptasia-X, but they pop up elsewhere healthy as ever. Maybe I just need to keep zapping every day.
I've also done some pretty sweet upgrades to the system:
1. My old monster recirculating reef octopus skimmer died, so I bought a new one. This was after being stubborn and trying to make the old one work. I bought a new reef oct. pump for it, adapted the PVC fittings, but it just didn't have the output required. The OTP-3000 pumps are pretty much non-existent,even on Ebay. Anyways, out with the old, in with the new - Reef Octopus Elite 200-INT 8"
As mentioned before, I beat the flat worm issue - the key was repeating the dosage a few days apart to make sure it killed newly hatched worms.
Current struggles are valonia (bubble algae) and the occasional aiptasia that I just can't seem to eradicate 100%. I've been zapping them with Aiptasia-X, but they pop up elsewhere healthy as ever. Maybe I just need to keep zapping every day.
I've also done some pretty sweet upgrades to the system:
1. My old monster recirculating reef octopus skimmer died, so I bought a new one. This was after being stubborn and trying to make the old one work. I bought a new reef oct. pump for it, adapted the PVC fittings, but it just didn't have the output required. The OTP-3000 pumps are pretty much non-existent,even on Ebay. Anyways, out with the old, in with the new - Reef Octopus Elite 200-INT 8"
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PicassoDan
Active Member
The skimmer is dead silent. I now only hear the return pump. It also makes some good skimmate. I really like the float switch feature which turns the skimmer off when the collection cup is full.
PicassoDan
Active Member
I also did something else...
Yup. I went LED. BRS was having a one-day 40% off sale on the G5 XR30 radions, so I took the plunge. After a week of using them, I gotta say - I'm impressed with the color, intensity, tune-ability, etc, etc. I even like the Mobius app. I haven't had any issues with connectivity, so maybe they fixed it recently? I'm running the AB+ template at ~30% and the LPS seem very happy.
Now I have some MH setups to get rid of. I'll add a couple more tank pictures tonight.
Yup. I went LED. BRS was having a one-day 40% off sale on the G5 XR30 radions, so I took the plunge. After a week of using them, I gotta say - I'm impressed with the color, intensity, tune-ability, etc, etc. I even like the Mobius app. I haven't had any issues with connectivity, so maybe they fixed it recently? I'm running the AB+ template at ~30% and the LPS seem very happy.
Now I have some MH setups to get rid of. I'll add a couple more tank pictures tonight.
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PicassoDan
Active Member
thanks!
I forgot to mention a third struggle: low-levels of dinos. They don't seem to be bothering anything, but they're still there. In the sandbed, on the glass, not so much on the rocks. I'll have to re-ID them, I think they were the type that likes the sandbed - amphidinium?
I forgot to mention a third struggle: low-levels of dinos. They don't seem to be bothering anything, but they're still there. In the sandbed, on the glass, not so much on the rocks. I'll have to re-ID them, I think they were the type that likes the sandbed - amphidinium?
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