HIGH END Tenuis Hoarder

[SBB Corals]

what do you keep PO4 and NO3 at?

po4 i keep at .29PPM that is the reading on the hanna checker h1774

no3 i keep at 15-25PPM

 

[SBB Corals]

Hi Shane, do you spot or broadcast feed your corals or dose any aminos or other supplements other than NO3 and PO4. I saw you mix Reef Chili in with your food. Anything other than that?

Only the reef chilli, also we feed phyto and ab +

 

[SBB Corals]

I tested again po4 in the 360 Gallon and it has risen now to .91 ppm see pics below.

Decided to get aggressive because I really want to start putting tenuis frags into this system already so I hooked up a GFO reactor and GFO I will test in 24 hours to see how much the po4 comes down. Once the po4 reads .39 or lower i think its safe for tenuis. I will sent in another triton ICP once i get the Po4 reading i want.. I hope it comes down within the next week LOL because now i want to speed things up

 

[LRT]

I tested again po4 in the 360 Gallon and it has risen now to .91 ppm see pics below.

Decided to get aggressive because I really want to start putting tenuis frags into this system already so I hooked up a GFO reactor and GFO I will test in 24 hours to see how much the po4 comes down. Once the po4 reads .39 or lower i think its safe for tenuis. I will sent in another triton ICP once i get the Po4 reading i want.. I hope it comes down within the next week LOL because now i want to speed things up

Awesome super interested to see how fast it comes down.

 

[ScottB]

That is a fair sized portion of media that will do some removing for sure. Note that your rock is acting as a store or buffer for PO4. That is why the WC hardly moves the needle.

It is going to take a lot of GFO depending on how much rock you have.

If you want to push PO4 down real quick, lanthanum chloride will bind it much faster. You just need to carefully manage the precipitate so the fish aren't bothered.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

That is a fair sized portion of media that will do some removing for sure. Note that your rock is acting as a store or buffer for PO4. That is why the WC hardly moves the needle.

It is going to take a lot of GFO depending on how much rock you have.

If you want to push PO4 down real quick, lanthanum chloride will bind it much faster. You just need to carefully manage the precipitate so the fish aren't bothered.

100% agree

 

[SBB Corals]

This is interesting ever since I put the gfo on this morning around 12 noon the alk, Calc and mag consumption has gone way up either that or the gfo is striping the water of these big 3. Check these pictures of my triton reading

 

[SBB Corals]

Since I saw all those alk Calc and mag dropped I was tempted to test again. So now it's been around 7 hours. The po4 went from .91 to .57 that was fast lol. I'll test again tomorrow afternoon... and put the 1st tenuis frag in.. the parameters for sure are bouncing around... this is what I would call unstable lol but I don't have any coral in the system so it's fun playing around..

 

[LRT]

That was fast! Wow. Probably going to be close to depleted overnight at that rate. Wonder what would happen if you unplugged the gfo if phosphates would shoot back up.

 

[SBB Corals]

That was fast! Wow. Probably going to be close to depleted overnight at that rate. Wonder what would happen if you unplugged the gfo if phosphates would shoot back up.

I'm going to try that I'm going to test tomorrow at about 4pm and then I'll unplug it and see if it shoots back up lol

 

[ryshark]

Since I saw all those alk Calc and mag dropped I was tempted to test again. So now it's been around 7 hours. The po4 went from .91 to .57 that was fast lol. I'll test again tomorrow afternoon... and put the 1st tenuis frag in.. the parameters for sure are bouncing around... this is what I would call unstable lol but I don't have any coral in the system so it's fun playing around..

Wow, already going to need to bust out the ULR checker again soon.

 

[SBB Corals]

Wow I just tested the 360 gallon system and the po4 is now .22-.26ppm.

The po4 went down fast it has been 24 hours and the po4 went down from .91 down to .22.. I unplugged the gfo reactor and will keep it off for now...I will test again in 24 hours to see where the po4 goes. I won't feed or dose anything into the tank so it's constant reading.

Also on a side note I tested the po4 with 2 different Hanna checkers and got a very consistent reading.

I checked it with the Hanna h1774 which showed a reading of .26ppm and I also checked it with the Hanna h1713 which showed a reading of.22ppm. That is super close imo and shows a consistent reading so I'm happy lol.. see pics below.

The parameters are swinging like crazy with my alk suddenly dropping a full point.. i think bringing the po4 down has allowed the tank to consume more alk ( huge win, ill take it).. I just dosed it back up to 9 and will continue to monitor it.. i will send in a triton to see what the other elements are at and post the results here...

***I do think the most important sign of coral growth and tank growth is alk consumption. My goal is to always get the alk consumption going up if it starts dropping i know something is wrong with the tank and try and figure out what is causing it to go down and then tweak stuff until it goes up again....its easy to monitor alk if you gave a triton because it measures it 4 times per day ;Bucktooth

my po4 is down to .22 so I will put the 1st tenuis frag in today. It's been a long time over 1 year cycling and getting the parameters in check... will post soon with updates- thank to everybody who is interested in reading this!

 

[LRT]

Wow I just tested the 360 gallon system and the po4 is now .22-.26ppm.

The po4 went down fast it has been 24 hours and the po4 went down from .91 down to .22.. I unplugged the gfo reactor and will keep it off for now...I will test again in 24 hours to see where the po4 goes. I won't feed or dose anything into the tank so it's constant reading.

Also on a side note I tested the po4 with 2 different Hanna checkers and got a very consistent reading.

I checked it with the Hanna h1774 which showed a reading of .26ppm and I also checked it with the Hanna h1713 which showed a reading of.22ppm. That is super close imo and shows a consistent reading so I'm happy lol.. see pics below.

The parameters are swinging like crazy with my alk suddenly dropping a full point.. i think bringing the po4 down has allowed the tank to consume more alk.... I just dosed it back up to 9 and will continue to monitor it.. i will send in a triton to see what the other elements are at and post the results here...

my po4 is down to .22 so I will put the 1st tenuis frag in today. It's been a long time over 1 year cycling and getting the parameters in check... will post soon with updates

Crazy man. I used the chemipure elite. Even after I took it out I think the residuals of whatever is in the elite continued to scrub po4 after I removed it. I'm back to dosing po4 after nearly bottoming it out.
Wouldn't be surprised either way yours ends up going. Or if it stays settled for that matter. A yr break in is a long break in for sure. I can see why your losing patience on getting some in there lol.

 

[panic]

I get a big time alk drop when I change out GFO. I have figured out that if I turn the flow way down to the GFO reactor after changing out media and slowly open it up over 2 weeks then alk remains stable. It has maybe 1000g per day going through it at the most.

 

[SBB Corals]

I get a big time alk drop when I change out GFO. I have figured out that if I turn the flow way down to the GFO reactor after changing out media and slowly open it up over 2 weeks then alk remains stable. It has maybe 1000g per day going through it at the most.

nice!!! what is your po4 before and after the change? i think maybe the sudden drop helps the alk consumption...

 

[panic]

nice!!! what is your po4 before and after the change? i think maybe the sudden drop helps the alk consumption...

Well I'm not sure. I was at .12-.15 before running GFO and I'm at .06-.08 while running it. 2-3 weeks is the sweet spot for changing out the media for me. Historically I notice some nuisance algae popping up around the glue on frags if the po4 gets to .1 but since that is pretty consistent for me, I look for the signs rather than do the test. Probably not the best practice, but I only check Po4 now once a month or if something weird starts to happen. Alk I check every day for sure. I'd prefer to not use GFO, but I like big ole fat fish and don't like adding chems. I want to try that HPD you use, that looks pretty slick.

 

[BigKid4788]

nice!!! what is your po4 before and after the change? i think maybe the sudden drop helps the alk consumption...

What are you thinking caused the sudden drop in Alk? I can see if the tank was loaded with corals but since it doesn’t have any I wasn’t sure.

 

[SBB Corals]

Well I'm not sure. I was at .12-.15 before running GFO and I'm at .06-.08 while running it. 2-3 weeks is the sweet spot for changing out the media for me. Historically I notice some nuisance algae popping up around the glue on frags if the po4 gets to .1 but since that is pretty consistent for me, I look for the signs rather than do the test. Probably not the best practice, but I only check Po4 now once a month or if something weird starts to happen. Alk I check every day for sure. I'd prefer to not use GFO, but I like big ole fat fish and don't like adding chems. I want to try that HPD you use, that looks pretty slick.

thanks for the writeup.. i think with using the hpd you can find a sweet spot so wont need GFO.. in our main 540 system we don't use gfo and the po4 is around .39ish on the hanna 1774. You will also be able to keep the fish very well fed

 

[SBB Corals]

What are you thinking caused the sudden drop in Alk? I can see if the tank was loaded with corals but since it doesn’t have any I wasn’t sure.

that is a great question. I wish i knew lol.. but if i where to guess...Maybe the coralline algae and other stuff like macrofauna absorb it that were depleted before because they couldn't intake it from the high po4.. or maybe the GFO actually absorbs the alk.. if it takes out po4 maybe it also takes out some alk...not sure .. but its not stable and i would not recommend this type of drop every time the gfo is changed out.. that drop can kill tenuis frags. Any 1 point drop is bad for the tenuis..even when i do water changes I have to add alk into my NSW to bring it up to the tank. The NSW is 7 alk and i bring it up to 9 which is what we keep the 540 at...

 

[SBB Corals]

Here is the selected 1st frag for the new system it is the SBB " Crunch Berries" this Video was taken in our 540 gallon system with radian g4 with the all blue setting. we will update everybody once it is securely placed into the new 360 system