Mattgsa 315 gallon build

mattgsa · Feb 8, 2022

So I have only added enough fluconazole to treat 200 gallons, and the algae are already starting to turn white. So I don't think I'm going to add any more, because right now I don't see the corals having any ill effects from the treatment.

mattgsa · Feb 9, 2022

I got back some ICP the only thing that was in need of correction is the Iodine. I don't normally dose Iodine because other than ICP I have no way of testing for it.

cmaxwell39 · Feb 9, 2022

How often are you sending in ICP tests? How are the corals looking?

You could try dosing lugols. It is a mixture of iodine and potassium iodide. But as you said, without a way to test it can be hard to dial in your dosing.

mattgsa · Feb 10, 2022

cmaxwell39 said:
How often are you sending in ICP tests? How are the corals looking?

You could try dosing lugols. It is a mixture of iodine and potassium iodide. But as you said, without a way to test it can be hard to dial in your dosing.

I try to send one every month, but that doesn't always happen. However, I was looking online and I saw where Red sea makes an Iodine test kit. I'm thinking of using that and trying and get the correct dos dialed in.

mattgsa · Feb 11, 2022

I think I need to take the Kalk off the ATO my alk is going over 10 DKH, but I'm not getting that much of a rise in PH. I'm worried I'm going to start having problems with the corals if I let it go too much further.

mattgsa · Feb 11, 2022

I got home this afternoon to discover one of my corals RTN'd overnight. I also discovered the tank has no phosphates in it because I took the calcium reactor offline which provided the PO4. So now I don't know what caused the coral to RTN. However, I do know why I'm getting cyano. I'm frustrated with myself I keep making these mistakes and overlooking things. However, I did discover one of the Urchins I ordered and thought were all dead is alive and well, I spotted him this afternoon.

cmaxwell39 · Feb 11, 2022

Sorry to hear about the coral loss. Keep your head up. Don't make changes too fast and just focus on stability. Everything will come together for you.

Glad to hear one of the urchins survived and hopefully it attacks the turf algae as well.

mattgsa · Feb 12, 2022

I have taken the marine pure block out of my sump. I can't seem to keep my nutrients up to save my life. I have been led to believe that the marine pure block can cause such problems. However, in the future, if I have a problem with nitrates going too high, I know how to bring them back down again. My skimmer has been off for days, and my nutrients still went to zero.

cmaxwell39 · Feb 12, 2022

I had not heard of marine pure blocks causing low nutrient issues. I am not running any but that is interesting.

ScottB · Feb 12, 2022

The old stories about using high mag to fight bryopsis no longer apply. The old Kent branded mag product is apparently not formulated the same way anymore and is not believed to be effective against bryopsis. Fluc is all we really have, and like any additive comes with some risk. Most do fine. A small minority get crushed on the SPS side. You just don't have any solid choices when treating bryopsis.

ScottB · Feb 12, 2022

When using Fluc, be sure that all the bryopsis is exposed to a very good light cycle. Any of it that has some shade will survive and take off again once you remove the fluc.

Manually remove as much of the stuff as you can so the roots cook.

mattgsa · Feb 12, 2022

ScottB said:
When using Fluc, be sure that all the bryopsis is exposed to a very good light cycle. Any of it that has some shade will survive and take off again once you remove the fluc.

Manually remove as much of the stuff as you can so the roots cook.

I didn't know that, I have removed as much of it as could. The spots that are left are dying. The funny thing is I think I have used half the recommended dose for my system. I think I stopped the treatment too soon before, and I don't intend on doing that again.

ScottB · Feb 12, 2022

mattgsa said:
I didn't know that, I have removed as much of it as could. The spots that are left are dying. The funny thing is I think I have used half the recommended dose for my system. I think I stopped the treatment too soon before, and I don't intend on doing that again.

Yeah the only reason to bail out early is major SPS death and a big Plan B. Be sure to exterminate bryopsis otherwise. Get it done and rebuild from there. Bryopsis is tough.

mattgsa · Feb 12, 2022

ScottB said:
Yeah the only reason to bail out early is major SPS death and a big Plan B. Be sure to exterminate bryopsis otherwise. Get it done and rebuild from there. Bryopsis is tough.

My only concern now is stopping too soon again. I really don't want to go through this again. I was holding back on the feeding of the fish since I have so many tangs. However, even in hunger they still would not touch the algae. So I'm going to go back to making them fat and happy. I think I feed them three times today, and my daughter also feed them.

mattgsa · Feb 21, 2022

Quick tank update. As far as I can tell all the Bryopsis is gone. The fluconazole seems to have killed it all, I have not seen any in probably a week or two. I'm thinking about starting the skimmer back up and possibly doing a small water change.
Right now I'm really battling low ph. I tried using Kalk, however, in order to get the tank to 8.1, my alk went almost all the way to 11. I got very nervous and took it offline. So I got a co2 scrubber from my skimmer (Granted the collection cup is off, I'm just using it for gas exchange, the ph is coming up to about 7.9. So yesterday I went up in the attic and up the timer on the AprilAir ventilation controller, basically maxed out the fresh air brought into the house. I'll show you what I'm seeing now. As you can see my PH still isn't that great. I have ordered a recirculation attachment for my skimmer from FishOHex, but I don't know when that will come in.

PS I just calibrated my PH prob.

cmaxwell39 · Feb 21, 2022

Glad you seem to be winning the battle against the devil algae. How are the corals holding up to the treatment??

mattgsa · Feb 24, 2022

cmaxwell39 said:
Glad you seem to be winning the battle against the devil algae. How are the corals holding up to the treatment??

The corals seem to be fine, I lost one. But all the others appear to be fine. They are growing really slow. I'm thinking it is due to the chronically low PH. I think PH is my next big battle, everything I have tried so far has not helped much. Kalk worked but man it shot up my Alk.

mattgsa · Mar 20, 2022

Sorry, it's been a while since I did an update. The tank is cruising along most of the corals are showing signs of growth. As you already know I have been battling low PH. So I ordered co2 recirculating attachment from FishOHex, and wow what a difference. (That's less then one day of collection).

Here are the results

mattgsa · Mar 21, 2022

I'm not sure why my JG yellow started STN'ing today. I cut off what I could and even did a frag of it, in an effort to save what I could.

mattgsa · Mar 23, 2022

mattgsa said:
I'm not sure why my JG yellow started STN'ing today. I cut off what I could and even did a frag of it, in an effort to save what I could.

Apparently, my trimming didn't do any good, so I dragged all the good pieces off the base and put them on separate plugs, hopefully, some of them will survive, I then threw away the base.