Maroon Lagoon V2.0

[Jimbo662]

Me too! My wallet sure didn't though [emoji389]

Ha...the sacrifices we make!

 

[gig 'em]

Added a new CaRX to my tank. Made the choice to do that before leaving town for the week since my old one was giving me flow consistency problems. It was a risk, but paid off! Alk only changed 1 ppb all week. So I'm pretty happy about that.

Also, I finally got rid of my red slime algae using Vibrant. Thanks to @FarmerTy for suggesting that it could be spirulina and recommending I use some of his Vibrant. A couple weeks later and my sand bed has never looked better!

 

[gig 'em]

Got some sweet new corals from AquaSD today. I'm really excited about their potential!

Also snapped a shot of the tank bred long tentacle plate coral that is coming along nicely

 

[gig 'em]

Got my hands in the tank today to reposition some frags, pull some algae, and took a few shots while I had the pumps off.

Red planet, GE's Key Lime Breeze on the left, and Azure Acro up top

SSC and the ORA Blue Iris and it's upper left

My higher end coral grow out nursery including the confetti acro, RCA Baton Rogue, myagi tort, and Vivid's Fire Dragon

Mille corner

Orange tip green Mille frag

Red dragon and new A. gomezi

 

[snappa1953]

I'm curious about your maintenance schedule. You say you rarely do water changes? How often do you test parameters? And change GFO mix?

 

[gig 'em]

I'm curious about your maintenance schedule. You say you rarely do water changes? How often do you test parameters? And change GFO mix?

I only perform water changes when it seems like something is wrong in the tank or any parameter gets out or wack. I just tested today and my alk is 9, Ca is 420, NO3 is 8, K is 430, I2 is 0.09, and salinity is 1.026. I have a calcium reactor that replaces most minerals and I dose KNO3 every week. It has worked for me so well.

 

[gig 'em]

And to answer your question, I change my GFO maybe once every month or two? Probably a good reminder for me to change it out again soon [emoji39]

 

[snappa1953]

I only perform water changes when it seems like something is wrong in the tank or any parameter gets out or wack. I just tested today and my alk is 9, Ca is 420, NO3 is 8, K is 430, I2 is 0.09, and salinity is 1.026. I have a calcium reactor that replaces most minerals and I dose KNO3 every week. It has worked for me so well.

Why are you dosing KNO3 if your NO3 is 8ppm? Or do you dose to keep it there? Do you measure PO4? I have NO3 at 16-20ppm and try to reduce it. PO4 currently zero but usually 0.02 -0.03ppm.

Alk is 9, salinity 1.025, Ca 450 and Mg 1400.

 

[gig 'em]

Why are you dosing KNO3 if your NO3 is 8ppm? Or do you dose to keep it there? Do you measure PO4? I have NO3 at 16-20ppm and try to reduce it. PO4 currently zero but usually 0.02 -0.03ppm.

Alk is 9, salinity 1.025, Ca 450 and Mg 1400.

I should clarify that I recently reduced the water level of my skimmer so it's not running as wet. Doing that has recently raised my NO3 and I haven't dosed KNO3 in two weeks. I'm hoping running the skimmer on the dryer end will keep my NO3 in a favorable range without having to dose. I try to keep my NO3 between 2 - 20 ppm.

I do measure PO4, but it always comes out as 0.00 on my Hanna PO4 meter. I do run a small amount of biopellets and running my skimmer wet seems to help reduce NO3 too well. Try running your skimmer wet and dump it more frequently and see what happens. Do you have biopellets or dose carbon?

 

[dragon99]

Nice to see an Aggie in Austin showing 'em how to grow corals!

Very nice tank.
What's the coral to the bottom left of the hawkins?

 

[gig 'em]

Nice to see an Aggie in Austin showing 'em how to grow corals!

Very nice tank.
What's the coral to the bottom left of the hawkins?

[emoji106]

The corals under the Hawkins are a Chips Acro and an ORA Red Planet.

 

[revhtree]

Just beautiful!

 

[dragon99]

Love hairy acros, gonna have to find a frag of Chips maybe...

 

[Grey Guy]

That's amazing. Do you have grow out tanks?

 

[gig 'em]

That's amazing. Do you have grow out tanks?

Grow out? No, my display tank houses everything at the moment. I have two one made frag racks on the left side of the tank for my frags.

 

[gig 'em]

I think I'm running out of room...

 

[gig 'em]

Snapped a couple more shots tonight. Joe the Coral

GEs Key Lime Breeze looks amazing under actinics!

Vivids Confetti is coloring up amazingly!

 

[gig 'em]

Went back in the thread to figure out how much growth my red planet has had in the past year. Here it was one year ago as a frag

Here it is now

 

[FarmerTy]

Can I bring over my purple monster? Nice growth man!

 

[gig 'em]

Built myself a salt water mixing station over the weekend. No more individually mixing in 5 gallon buckets for this guy!!