HotRocks SPS Dominant 425XL. Yes, Another Tank...

Flippers4pups

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There will always be a million ways! That is for sure! I’m just dosing 2 part :)

Just me, but if I went back to 2 part, well it would drive me........

deluxe-mixed-nuts-roasted-and-no-salt.jpg


Seriously, yes there is so many different ways to do this hobby!
 
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HotRocks

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Just me, but if I went back to 2 part, well it would drive me........

deluxe-mixed-nuts-roasted-and-no-salt.jpg


Seriously, yes there is so many different ways to do this hobby!
You sir are living proof. A simple system. Some good ol black boxes and massive SPS colonies of beauty! :)
 
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HotRocks

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@Brew12
Do you think that nutrient levels play a large part in where your alkalinity should be kept?

My nitrate runs in the 2-5ppm range, and alk runs in the 8.5ppm range. I know every tank is different and finding the perfect balance is difficult. I’d venture to guess that it is all of the other factors that come into play as well. Lighting (how intense, par level, etc) and flow probably play a large part too if I had to guess. I have read things like the higher the par you have the higher you need your flow to be. Also that corals are much more tolerant of high par if nutrients are higher etc. The reason SPS is so difficult is because every tank is different and there is no concrete evidence out there that says to do A, B, C to produce X, Y, Z Outside of the basics.

I don’t have any real issues with my tank at the moment, just mentioning for the sake of discussion. I have some pieces that when I raised my alk some they seemed to be more colorful and have better PE and then others didn’t look as good as they did at the lower alkalinity level.
 
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HotRocks

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Yeah I don’t know what to think about my calcium now...
Hanna 385
Red Sea 440
Salifert 430
Trident 400
What to do what to do...

As far as alk goes my Hanna, Salifert, and Trident are all reading within .1dkh of each other. I didn’t test Red Sea alk since they are all so close.
Btw my midnight test result by the trident was 420ppm on calcium (which is much more in line with my salifert and Red Sea tests), I did add 30ml last night between the above results and the midnight test. Which should have only been a 5ppm increase. So maybe the trident needs a little more time to get dialed in :).
 

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@Brew12
Do you think that nutrient levels play a large part in where your alkalinity should be kept?

My nitrate runs in the 2-5ppm range, and alk runs in the 8.5ppm range. I know every tank is different and finding the perfect balance is difficult. I’d venture to guess that it is all of the other factors that come into play as well. Lighting (how intense, par level, etc) and flow probably play a large part too if I had to guess. I have read things like the higher the par you have the higher you need your flow to be. Also that corals are much more tolerant of high par if nutrients are higher etc. The reason SPS is so difficult is because every tank is different and there is no concrete evidence out there that says to do A, B, C to produce X, Y, Z Outside of the basics.

I don’t have any real issues with my tank at the moment, just mentioning for the sake of discussion. I have some pieces that when I raised my alk some they seemed to be more colorful and have better PE and then others didn’t look as good as they did at the lower alkalinity level.
I think higher nutrients make coral less sensitive to alk swings at the trade off of not having as nice of colors. I think lower pH also slows growth but makes coral less sensitive to alk and PAR issues. So many factors come into play. My tank seems to have hit its stride at an alk of 9.5 and calc of 425 with nitrate under 5ppm

I'm sure there is some connection between PAR and flow. I think flow is one of the hardest things to figure out in a reef tank. Not only does the initial aquascape impact flow but it changes as coral grows in. There should be no expectation that what works for flow in one tank will work in a different, nearly identical tank. I think people get caught up in the concept of random chaotic flow. I want as much velocity as possible to every SPS as possible. If you have a rock wall that is tightly packed you may need multiple powerheads working against each other to achieve this. In my more open rockscape, gyre flow works very well.
 

RichtheReefer21

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In all due respect to you guys, all that cross reference testing would drive me nuts! I honestly don't think you could ever know which test to believe.

Devil's advocate, @Brew12, how sure are you that the fauna test solution is accurate?

God, I'm starting to sound like Richard Ross! Lol!

Hope you guys don't take offense in what I just said.
Ya, what the phosphate!?!? Cut it out!
 

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@Brew12
Do you think that nutrient levels play a large part in where your alkalinity should be kept?

My nitrate runs in the 2-5ppm range, and alk runs in the 8.5ppm range. I know every tank is different and finding the perfect balance is difficult. I’d venture to guess that it is all of the other factors that come into play as well. Lighting (how intense, par level, etc) and flow probably play a large part too if I had to guess. I have read things like the higher the par you have the higher you need your flow to be. Also that corals are much more tolerant of high par if nutrients are higher etc. The reason SPS is so difficult is because every tank is different and there is no concrete evidence out there that says to do A, B, C to produce X, Y, Z Outside of the basics.

I don’t have any real issues with my tank at the moment, just mentioning for the sake of discussion. I have some pieces that when I raised my alk some they seemed to be more colorful and have better PE and then others didn’t look as good as they did at the lower alkalinity level.
All this is really interesting, but I also wonder if the difference in success at varying nutrient levels has to do with completeness or alternatively the lack of a complete ecosystem. Maybe tanks with very low nutrients have those nutrients locked up in biomass that corals can utilize, bacteria or plankton? Maybe higher nutrients can sort of fill this gap so to speak.
 
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HotRocks

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All this is really interesting, but I also wonder if the difference in success at varying nutrient levels has to do with completeness or alternatively the lack of a complete ecosystem. Maybe tanks with very low nutrients have those nutrients locked up in biomass that corals can utilize, bacteria or plankton? Maybe higher nutrients can sort of fill this gap so to speak.
It most definitely is interesting. Personally I think there are even more factors. Add par into the mix. For instance if you run high par (use 350 for example) and low nutrients I don’t think the corals will tolerate much of an alk spike at all. Now if you ran nitrate of 10-15ppm then I don’t know that a small alk swing upward would be much of a problem. Then you can further complicate it and add flow into the mix :).
 

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It most definitely is interesting. Personally I think there are even more factors. Add par into the mix. For instance if you run high par (use 350 for example) and low nutrients I don’t think the corals will tolerate much of an alk spike at all. Now if you ran nitrate of 10-15ppm then I don’t know that a small alk swing upward would be much of a problem. Then you can further complicate it and add flow into the mix :).
Yeah, it's hard to say. Even with some anecdotal evidence, I'd be much more comfortable with a lot of these theories if we had better explanations about the mechanisms that cause these differences we seem to observe.
 

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