Mateo’s Seapora 50 build
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19Mateo83
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She’s still rocking and rolling right along! All the planning and design has worked out to make for a rock solid system. It is very hands off, all I do these days is fill up my top off container, All for reef container, clean skimmer as needed, filter socks once a week, clean the glass when needed and feed the fish. I think I’ve only done one water change this whole year
. I have been meaning to do an update video for a while now. Here’s a fairly recent picture for your viewing pleasure. The space invader chalice did get a bit of a trim since this picture was taken and my last green chromis passed on. I’m about to fill his spot with a little one spot fox face.
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19Mateo83
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So I will admit, I’ve been a bit lazy about my tank this past year. Barely any testing and maybe 2 or 3 water changes the whole year. I noticed a little of STN starting on a couple things a few weeks ago so I broke out the Ol’ test kits. My alk had risen to 15+, maxing out a salifert test kit. My No3 was 60 and my Po4 was past .90 (blinking on my Hanna ULR tester). Calcium was also maxed at 500+ and mag still at 1400.
The first issue I figured out was my Alk. I bought another salifert kit and cross tested with my Hannah tester to make sure it wasn’t a testing error. I thought about it a little bit and checked my AFR containers, noticing a bit of sediment in the bottoms. Not thinking anything of it, I had been dumping the little bit leftover in my AFR container into the fresh one when I switched containers. I had gotten a batch of AFR that for some reason wouldn’t mix completely and left small amounts of sediment in the bottoms of my dosing containers. Those little bits of leftover sediment had been slowly raising the alk concentration in the fresh batch when I dumped in the leftovers from the previous batch. (This had gone on through a whole 800g can of AFR). I should have known better…. Now I know better. I did 2 or 3 15gallon water changes and throttled my dosing back to let the tank naturally come back to acceptable levels. Now I’m steady at 9.6-9.9…. Generally I shoot for the 8.5-9.0 range but I can live with it where it is.
The calcium is also falling with the water changes and naturally as it is consumed so nothing really to do there. Ideally I shoot for the 450 range. I will test again tomorrow.
I generally aim for the 1400 mark for magnesium for my euphillia so I will hold it there. I generally have to dose periodically to keep it there as the AFR has lower magnesium levels. No biggie.
The nitrates I contributed to several things. I was feeding spectrum pellets pretty heavily and not changing the mesh filter socks as quickly as I should have been which led to lots of sediment building up in my sump. (Probably spectrum pellet mush that made it through my 200 micron filter socks). My skimmer was also filthy which lead to a reduction in efficiency. The water changes helped but cleaning my skimmer spotless and setting it to a wetter skim helped the most. I also added added two small bags of Chemipure elite to my filter socks, one in each. I filled my carbon reactor with a coarser carbon that won’t clog (was using rox 0.8) and cleaned all the muck out of my sump. I’m now at 44 ppm and I can technically live with that…but ideally I want it in the 10-20ppm range so I will continue working it down.
I attribute the high Po4 to the same reasons, heavy feedings of spectrum pellets…. The water changes and Chemipure elite brought it back down and it is still slowly falling. After about a week I took one Chemipure bags and put it in a low flow part of my sump to slow its absorption rate but keep it still working but just a bit slower. I have since switched from spectrum pellets to PE mysis as a main stay food. I’m down to .44 and I can technically live with that also…. But ideally I’d like it in the .2-.3 range and will also continue to work it down slowly.
Also, in my laziness my bubble algae has gotten to semi plague proportions anywhere light hits and I am now picking it off the rocks and removing chunks of it pretty much every time I feed. It is a up hill battle but if I keep after it I think I’ll be able to get back in control of it. Probably going to have to get more emerald crabs and pithos crabs if I can find them available locally. I haven’t seen any of the 5 or so emeralds I had in months. I will also have to replace my tuxedo urchin as well. I think the high Alk took out the emeralds and tuxedo urchin.
Other than the crabs and urchin, the only coral that was lost was an Oregon tort. My JF snowcap Monti took a big hit. There’s still a few pieces of it left that should come back. My garf bonsai also took a little hit but not too bad. Some of its issue was it being shaded out by a birds nest that has since been demoted to the 5gal thunderdome. I’m crossing my fingers that my actions have and will continue to turn the tides on the issues I was having.
I also have a larger return pump on the way to help up my gph through the overflow to help get detritus out of the display. I plan to use the extra flow to help flush an area where detritus settles while also adding flow down low along the back wall behind my rock without having to add another powerhead and another power cord hanging out of my tank. I built my system with two over the back returns, one which is throttled back because it, along with my gyre, makes my overflow noisy. The plan is to take that one throttled return and add a piece of black pvc (with a siphon breaker hole just under the waterline) that will go almost to the bottom of the tank with a 90 degree elbow I can twist to where I need flow. Once I open the valve, it should in theory, get a current running low along the back wall and into that dead spot behind my rock work…. Kind of like a closed loop system does. That should knock out two birds with one stone.
Lessons learned
-don’t get lazy about testing! bi weekly at the absolute max!
-don’t rely on automation, you still have to put in the work!
-do a water changes when testing shows elevated nutrients!
-don’t get lazy about detritus!
-pull bubble algae as you find it, not once it’s there!
-keep your cleanup crew above where you think it’s good!
-never add remaining AFR mix to the next batch! Finish one batch to the last drop then switch out for a fresh batch. If it doesn’t mix right, order fresh can!
This concludes this evenings public service announcement
The first issue I figured out was my Alk. I bought another salifert kit and cross tested with my Hannah tester to make sure it wasn’t a testing error. I thought about it a little bit and checked my AFR containers, noticing a bit of sediment in the bottoms. Not thinking anything of it, I had been dumping the little bit leftover in my AFR container into the fresh one when I switched containers. I had gotten a batch of AFR that for some reason wouldn’t mix completely and left small amounts of sediment in the bottoms of my dosing containers. Those little bits of leftover sediment had been slowly raising the alk concentration in the fresh batch when I dumped in the leftovers from the previous batch. (This had gone on through a whole 800g can of AFR). I should have known better…. Now I know better. I did 2 or 3 15gallon water changes and throttled my dosing back to let the tank naturally come back to acceptable levels. Now I’m steady at 9.6-9.9…. Generally I shoot for the 8.5-9.0 range but I can live with it where it is.
The calcium is also falling with the water changes and naturally as it is consumed so nothing really to do there. Ideally I shoot for the 450 range. I will test again tomorrow.
I generally aim for the 1400 mark for magnesium for my euphillia so I will hold it there. I generally have to dose periodically to keep it there as the AFR has lower magnesium levels. No biggie.
The nitrates I contributed to several things. I was feeding spectrum pellets pretty heavily and not changing the mesh filter socks as quickly as I should have been which led to lots of sediment building up in my sump. (Probably spectrum pellet mush that made it through my 200 micron filter socks). My skimmer was also filthy which lead to a reduction in efficiency. The water changes helped but cleaning my skimmer spotless and setting it to a wetter skim helped the most. I also added added two small bags of Chemipure elite to my filter socks, one in each. I filled my carbon reactor with a coarser carbon that won’t clog (was using rox 0.8) and cleaned all the muck out of my sump. I’m now at 44 ppm and I can technically live with that…but ideally I want it in the 10-20ppm range so I will continue working it down.
I attribute the high Po4 to the same reasons, heavy feedings of spectrum pellets…. The water changes and Chemipure elite brought it back down and it is still slowly falling. After about a week I took one Chemipure bags and put it in a low flow part of my sump to slow its absorption rate but keep it still working but just a bit slower. I have since switched from spectrum pellets to PE mysis as a main stay food. I’m down to .44 and I can technically live with that also…. But ideally I’d like it in the .2-.3 range and will also continue to work it down slowly.
Also, in my laziness my bubble algae has gotten to semi plague proportions anywhere light hits and I am now picking it off the rocks and removing chunks of it pretty much every time I feed. It is a up hill battle but if I keep after it I think I’ll be able to get back in control of it. Probably going to have to get more emerald crabs and pithos crabs if I can find them available locally. I haven’t seen any of the 5 or so emeralds I had in months. I will also have to replace my tuxedo urchin as well. I think the high Alk took out the emeralds and tuxedo urchin.
Other than the crabs and urchin, the only coral that was lost was an Oregon tort. My JF snowcap Monti took a big hit. There’s still a few pieces of it left that should come back. My garf bonsai also took a little hit but not too bad. Some of its issue was it being shaded out by a birds nest that has since been demoted to the 5gal thunderdome. I’m crossing my fingers that my actions have and will continue to turn the tides on the issues I was having.
I also have a larger return pump on the way to help up my gph through the overflow to help get detritus out of the display. I plan to use the extra flow to help flush an area where detritus settles while also adding flow down low along the back wall behind my rock without having to add another powerhead and another power cord hanging out of my tank. I built my system with two over the back returns, one which is throttled back because it, along with my gyre, makes my overflow noisy. The plan is to take that one throttled return and add a piece of black pvc (with a siphon breaker hole just under the waterline) that will go almost to the bottom of the tank with a 90 degree elbow I can twist to where I need flow. Once I open the valve, it should in theory, get a current running low along the back wall and into that dead spot behind my rock work…. Kind of like a closed loop system does. That should knock out two birds with one stone.
Lessons learned
-don’t get lazy about testing! bi weekly at the absolute max!
-don’t rely on automation, you still have to put in the work!
-do a water changes when testing shows elevated nutrients!
-don’t get lazy about detritus!
-pull bubble algae as you find it, not once it’s there!
-keep your cleanup crew above where you think it’s good!
-never add remaining AFR mix to the next batch! Finish one batch to the last drop then switch out for a fresh batch. If it doesn’t mix right, order fresh can!
This concludes this evenings public service announcement
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Pico_Reefs
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I use 1/4in tubing with a cheap plastic bic pen cut at a 45 shoved in it (taken apart of course) for getting out bubble algae. It's highly effective, you won't be able to get it all with that but you will be able to get most of it. It's great for doing the suck and pinch method for hair algae too.
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Full tank shot from tonight
Neon green long tentacle toadstool
Ora long tentacle toadstool hiding behind the big boy
And a pectinia
Beautiful reef my friend!
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