My 120gal reef... input welcome !

[penguin_free]

A little rundown of my main tank...

Tank: 120 gallon (48x24x24in)

- Lighting: 8 48” T5 HO (6 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI Coral Plus)

- 2 Hydor 600 circ pumps in tank (AC, running constantly)

- Dual Eshopps PF800 overflows


Sump: 40 breeder

- 300W Visitherm submersible heater on Aqua Logic Digital Temperature Controller

- Two return pumps – Rio 18HF’s

- BRS jumbo reactor, rox 0.8 & GFO

- Bubble Magus 8in DC skimmer

- Currently dosing 2 part alk / Ca and vinegar daily

NO3: 0 (API kit) – PO4: 0 (salifert kit) – Ca 380 (Red Sea kit) – kH 9dkh (API kit) - Temp 80F

Currently cutting back vinegar dose to let nitrate rise a little
Considering only running GFO off and on


Tank residents: various Softies & LPS, yellow tang, hippo tang, scopus tang, yellowfin tang, red coris wrasse, purple pseudochromis, mandarin goby, flame angel, coral beauty


Feeding: Nori sheets daily, marine flake, frozen brine, phyto weekly


Tank has been running since mid 2014



Ongoing issues:

- A little persistent GHA

- Algae formation in siphon tubes
- Lobo coral receeded somewhat, seems to have stabilized (it was after a fall though, and was damaged a little hitting rocks, that's where the recession occurred)
- Brown spots on goniopora, and a little less polyp extension lately

- Smaller goniopora receeding lately
- A couple xenia died off, other xenia less happy lately
- Cespitularia seems less happy lately
But I can’t really put my finger on anything in particular that’s changed lately…

Ambitions / Ideas:

- Reduce rockwork and aquascape better

- Place corals in a more appealing arrangement
- Try a few sps corals and see how they do
- Algae scrubber ?
- Rearrange sump to fit a refugium ?

 

[jsker]

What is your Mg?
I would suggest investing in a Red Sea pro nitrate test kit, and a aqua forest alk or elos alk test kit.

It looks like you are doing all thee right things to get your nutrients up.

 

[penguin_free]

I do need to get around to doing a Mg test, I haven't checked it in a while. I do a 20 gallon change every 2-3 weeks though, when I was checking it regularly it was consistently around 1370 using the Red Sea titration kit. I have a Hanna ULR P checker and their Ca checker coming this week (running low on my Ca test reagents and figured I'd try out a different kit). I think I do have a Red Sea NO3 kit around here somewhere too, somewhere lol

 

[penguin_free]

Oh wow ! Mg ran all the way down to 1040ppm !

 

[penguin_free]

Okay, second opinions with new test kits today:

Ca - 375 ppm
Mg (fresh Salifert kit) - 1140 ppm
kH (new Hanna Checker) - 9.4 dkH
NO3 (fresh Salifert kit) - 0
SPGR (new refractometer) - 1.026
pH has been steady all day in the 8.2-8.25 range (pinpoint tester with last year's Oakton probe and LabChem 4.0&7.0 solutions that are still current)

I picked up an 8oz can of Brightwell Magnesion-P, and mixed up 16 oz of DI water with the recommended 8 tsp of dry MgCl2 / MgSO4 reagent. Added that at noon, remeasured at 4:30, and still got 1140ppm. I mixed another 16 oz and dosed that at 4:30, have not re-checked yet. (by my math, a 16oz batch should bring Mg up by ~30ppm)

From what I've read, it seems pretty common to add a lot of Mg dosing before level begins to move. So not alarming. But is there an accepted limit at which I should give it a break for the day ? My thinking is to go no farther than about 48oz like this in a 24 hr period (theoretically should equate to about 90ppm dose). The livestock

Fresh salt mix : (I just used the last of the previous box of salt though; this is a brand new box I picked up over the weekend)
SPGR: 1.026
kH: 11.5 dkH
Ca: 375 ppm
Mg: 1350 ppm

 

[Whipples]

Just wanted to say nice torch colony!

Rule of thumb is to go slow, I think raising it by 10-20ppm each day would be smart but slow. Any big swings/changes might be more undesirable than a slow bump over time, however.

 

[penguin_free]

I love that torch. It was 4 heads when I got it a couple years ago; it's about quadroupled in size. That and the Elegance that's been alive in there for 3 years now... I can't be doing it *that* wrong, lol

 

[Whipples]

Torches just slowly disintegrate in my tank which makes me so sad as I think they are one of the coolest corals when they are in good flow. Great work not only keeping it alive, but thriving!

 

[penguin_free]

I wish I had space in there for one of the cooler color morphs of torches I've seen. But at $45, I couldn't pass that one up when I saw it.

 

[bellasdad0911]

I see plenty of leathers in there. Carbon carbon and more carbon and water changes.

 

[penguin_free]

Most definitely. I run 3 cups of rox0.8 in the reactor all the time.

 

[Mombo]

Not to derail anything but why carbon carbon carbon because of the leathers?

 

[Whipples]

Not to derail anything but why carbon carbon carbon because of the leathers?

Leather corals are known for "coral warfare' by releasing toxins into the water column to defend themselves against other species. Carbon helps pull those toxins out of the water and save other corals

 

[Mombo]

Ah thanks for that. Good to know as I have one small leather currently.

 

[shaggydoo]

I also ran into very low MG on my tank recently. I upped by about 100 per day, and didn't notice any detrimental effects. Beware of going too crazy with it. I got lax on my testing because it wasn't raising very fast at first, and next thing I knew I was at 1590 which is a bit higher than I was shooting for.

I recommend a refugium if you can manage in your sump. I had a mixed 120g like you a while back, and for some reason I couldn't keep algae alive after a year. I noticed a general decline in my tank when the algae stopped growing. I also had to do a lot more maintenance such as larger more frequent wc.

I noticed the back of your tank is clear. I personally like the look of a simple black or blue background to hide cords and such. On my 120g I just cut up some black/thick construction paper and taped to the back.

Overall looks really nice, and if you do rearrange the rockwork, maybe add a little variation in the height of the rock along the back for a less wall-like look. Good job!

 

[penguin_free]

I also ran into very low MG on my tank recently. I upped by about 100 per day, and didn't notice any detrimental effects. Beware of going too crazy with it. I got lax on my testing because it wasn't raising very fast at first, and next thing I knew I was at 1590 which is a bit higher than I was shooting for.

I recommend a refugium if you can manage in your sump. I had a mixed 120g like you a while back, and for some reason I couldn't keep algae alive after a year. I noticed a general decline in my tank when the algae stopped growing. I also had to do a lot more maintenance such as larger more frequent wc.

I noticed the back of your tank is clear. I personally like the look of a simple black or blue background to hide cords and such. On my 120g I just cut up some black/thick construction paper and taped to the back.

Overall looks really nice, and if you do rearrange the rockwork, maybe add a little variation in the height of the rock along the back for a less wall-like look. Good job!

Thanks ! I'm seriously considering making the middle of the sump into a refugium. Pretty close to pulling the trigger on some lighting to set it up with.

And I know what you mean about the clear back; I was considering just painting the glass black on the back before I set it all up, and just got going with everything else and forgot about it. Fortunately I haven't got all that much clutter going on back there, other than the overflows. But I still have an itch to slide some black posterboard on there or something. It wasn't as visible until I painted the wall behind it a light color.

As far as the Mg level, I've been expecting that kind of behavior. I'm guessing my previous batch of IO reef crystals were probably low in Mg and I never noticed till recently. As of today, it's risen to about 1170ppm, still a mile low of the 1350 range, and the 'book value' on my daily additions works out to about 90ppm rise. So if/when it reacts all of a sudden, it shouldn't shoot up to more than 1250 in one jump. Plus my water changes for the next few months should tend to bring it back up as well. It isn't due yet, but I'll probably change ~20 gallons over the weekend.

I'm thinking that Red Sea Ca test might have been getting old too.... it's within its 'use by' date, but I just checked the tank with a brand new Hanna checker that arrived today, and that read 455ppm. I find it a little suspicious that the Red Sea kit I was using read the same 375 so many times in a row, even on freshly mixed water...

I would really like to try out some of the reef cement (can't remember the name off the top of my head) to make the rockwork into more of a tunnel / bridge pattern, and pull about 1/3 of it out of there. Might be interesting fitting all the corals back in afterwards, but you know how that itch to change things up gets

 

[Whipples]

The hanna calcium checkers are not the best. Salifert makes one of the easiest and more accurate calcium tests, may be worth picking theirs up. I use Salifert for CA and MG and Hannah for Alk and phosphorus. A few threads have been posted showing salifert to be the closest to Triton results and Hanna right behind them, aside from calcium because its a bit clunky to use.

Are you thinking of the Aquaforest Stone Fix? its super strong but plan to use a little on some spare rocks to learn how to apply it, there is a bit of finesse to it!

 

[penguin_free]

I was thinking of marcro 400. But I'll definitely check out the Stone Fix too. Thanks

I'll probably take a sample down next time I make a run to Stingray Bay. Hanna did improve on the worst part of that kit when they started including a preset micropipette for the 2 drop sample of tank water, and the reviews have improved a lot. But it sure can't hurt to check it against something else too.

 

[Whipples]

With how accurate hobby grade kits are, it's a slightly more scientific approach to a ball-park figure

 

[penguin_free]

My big Skimz algea reactor arrived from BRS yesterday. Popped in $5 worth of chaeto from the lfs, and got it up and running.

I discontinued the gfo last week, and tapered off the vinegar dosing, hoping I don't starve the chaeto. Also added a couple tsp of iron suppliment just to make sure there's some in the system. Set to 12 hr light cycle and second to lowest pump flow setting... fingers crossed.

At this point I have the Mg up to a nice 1350ppm, so that slip up is corrected. And the PO4 has risen up to 0.018ppm and NO3 up to 5ppm as a result of cutting off the GFO and vinegar.

Now lets see how the Chaeto ball does at taking over.