My First Softy Tank... which has turned into a mixed reef

[New&no clue]

I use a bag of phosguard (I think it’s rated for 100g?) and just leave it in my media basket 24/7. I’ve had zero issues and my phosphates test pretty consistently in an optimum range. (.03 last time I checked) I also feed consistently and heavily, so I think possibly that balances out with what the phosguard is doing. I just wash it off under hot tap water every few days, (then a rinse in Aquafina water to make sure I’m not putting chlorine back in the tank!) it will last quite a long time for me.

how are your nitrates?

 

[thaistalyn]

I was in the same boat as you are now about a year ago. My tank was up for about 5 months and I was starting to get an explosion of coralline algae. I was just using Kalkwasser in my ATO to start. After some research, I swapped to a two-part (BRS two part products) and adjusted my dosing to achieve stable levels. I would check my levels each day and adjust based on consumption and using the BRS calculator.

Once my levels stabilized I actually swapped over to Tropic Marin All for Reef

If I was to do it all over again. Instead of buying the whole 2-part kit, I would have just used a DIY method (Randy Holmes Farley - old school methods) to raise my Alkalinity to where I wanted and swapped immediately to Tropic Marin's All for Reef. I love that stuff. - and so do the BRS guys - with results. See their recent Youtube video "ULM Wins and Losses"

 

[ScottB]

The Good, the Bad, and the...Maybe?
So yesterday, my husband who doesn’t want anything to do with the tank and thinks it’s silly text me to say my BTA had split. Now for a person who doesn’t want anything to do with it he sure spending a lot of time looking into it, and then I’m not sure how he produced the word “split” out of thin air. But anyway my BTA split. Now I’m not sure how to take this. I’ve read BTAs split for two reasons, one they are living in paradise and are happy so they reproduce. The second reason is they’re in a post apocalyptic war zone where the change of survival is small so they decide to split to double the odds of one making it out alive. So which one are you little buddy?

the good thing is the larger one moved to the front of the rock, so that’s exciting.

I’m still having a problem with dosing. My calcium is fine at 430. But my Alk and Mag are still dropping. Alk is at 7.2 and Mag is 1170. What I’m confused by is everyone says you’re suppose to dose calcium, magnesium, and Alk together so I bought Red Sea Foundation ABC+ with all three premixed in the correct portions to make it easier... but now if I use it to dose it will raise my calcium along with everything else. But if I buy individual things like Red Sea A, Red Sea B, and Red Sea C do you dose just wants needed or do you really need to dose all together?

Also on a side note phosphates are down to 0.6ppm, but my nitrates are going up, now 25.

I've been away from your thread for a while. Stopped getting notification for some reason. Anyway all sounds great there and the tank looks awesome too. Thanks for sharing your addiction with us addicts.

BTA: IME, if they split once, they can split/breed like rabbits, moving around the tank stinging things. I'd take one back to LFS for consignment sale.

Dosing: solve for Magnesium first. It is shocking how diluted most Mg solutions are. Look up a dosing calculator and get it to 1350 over the next day/two. Then solve for ALK (although 7.5 is fine). To me, the ideal level of ALK is determined by where you want to target keep your nutrient range. Higher nutrient can support higher ALK. I try to keep my ranges at/near what my coral vendors keep. Find out the parameters of your favorite LFS or online coral vendor and stay in their range. Makes coral acclimation about 100X safer IME.

Like on your aquarimate app. I keep solid records too. Keep having fun.

 

[Coach_M]

Looks way better than my first tank

 

[Magellan]

how are your nitrates?

What nitrates...lol I’ve been wondering if I should dose!

 

[New&no clue]

Once my levels stabilized I actually swapped over to Tropic Marin All for Reef

that’s a good idea. I love the ULM series. I’m starting up a ULM tank at my work.

 

[New&no clue]

BTA: IME, if they split once, they can split/breed like rabbits, moving around the tank stinging things. I'd take one back to LFS for consignment sale.

I’ve seen that in other tanks. I have another tank that I can bring one to. If they keep splitting I will probably post them in local reef boards.

 

[New&no clue]

What nitrates...lol I’ve been wondering if I should dose!

Didn’t I read on your thread that you feed multiple times a day? How do you keep them down?

 

[Mgex]

Getting ready to add some corals here this weekend. I am pretty excited about it. I've decided to do mostly softies with a couple LPS. @MJC softy tank is my inspiration. He was kind enough to share his list of corals he has in his tank. As my tank is smaller I wont be able to have them all but I've picked some of my favorites. I wanted to have a plan in place for placement so I drew up the following

1. Blue and Green Goniopora
2. Pulsing Xenias
3. Nephthea
4. Papaya clove polyps
5. Pulsing pink Sinularia
6. Yellow finger Coral
7. Yellow Fiji Coral(leather, umbrella)
8. Toadstools
9. Zoa garden
10. BTA

Also in the mix I would love a maxima clam, but that will be later. I am lucky enough that Aquacorals is an hour from my house. They specialize in soft corals and have almost everything on my list. I am getting some Ultra Green Zoas and Purple Pulsing Xenia from her. I also have a local guy who grows and does a lot of the expos around here. From him I am getting a Sunny D and Armor of God zoa. I thought I would start out with those as them seem to be the hardest to kill.

I like the stock list

 

[New&no clue]

I like the stock list

Thanks, I got a little side tracked with Euphyllia, and a burning desire to create a hammer garden. But recently I’ve tried to get back on track. I had a large list of softies I was going to buy from Aqua Locker... unfortunately that’s not going to happen, and I’ve had a hard time finding the ones I want elsewhere. The hunt is on though.

 

[New&no clue]

Last night I decided to test my fresh mixed salt water, just to see where I am starting at. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystal here are my starting levels
Salinity 1.025

Calcium 440
Alkalinity 8.4
Magnesium 1200
phosphate .02
Nitrates 0.0

First off calcium and alk seem fine, but magnesium seems low to be starting at. I'm wondering if I should, A) mix at a higher salinity B) switch to a different salt C) dose my fresh mix. Right now I'm leaning towards s new salt. I'm not a huge fan of IO, I have a hard time getting it to not precipitate in my mixing barrel, which is probably why levels are low.

In other sad new Friday one head on my torch was not looking great, bY Sunday it was really sad. I posted a picture here asking for advice and some thought maybe a dip would help. It seems to have pushed it over the edge. I'm not sure if I should pull it from the tank now or if it has any chance of making a comeback.

SUNDAY MORNING

AFTER DIP

MONDAY MORNING

 

[New&no clue]

This week was a very humbling week for me in the fish tank world, and a good reminder that no matter how on top of thing you think you are don't get cocky. Here is how I started the week feeling on top of the world thinking "I got this" to ending it thinking "thank my lucky stars everyone isn't dead"

SUNDAY
My poor torch took a bad turn and I was trying to read and watch whatever I could to help it out. In the process of reading I found an article about testing errors... and realized I have been testing Calcium and Magnesium wrong this entire time ;Facepalm. This is 1.0 not 0.9. I thought you read from the water line, not the plunger line.

So when I got home I tested my levels for those two again, the correct way.

MONDAY
I thought to myself...maybe I should read the instructions for all the test again, just to make sure I'm doing it right. I use Salifert test for Calcium, Magnesium, and Nitrates. For Calcium you put 2ml of water in the test tube, for Magnesium you put 2ml of water in your test tube, for Nitrates you put 2ml of water in your test tube... WAIT... WHAT.... nope for nitrates you only put 1ml of water. So I've been testing nitrates wrong as well. Let's move on to phosphates, I have to be doing this one right...right??? WRONG! After you get your water and add your reagents you gently shake for 2 mins... then you wait 3 mins to test? Well I missed that part.

TUESDAY
Feeling like a bad reef mommy at this point, but confident I've fixed the issue and smooth sailing moving forward. I'm on here during a "work break" and was reading someone else who was struggling with some corals. As I'm reading I see someone question whether their salinity is accurate and are they calibrating their refractomer? The OP says yes with RO water each time, to which the person replies you can't calibrate with RO water... you can't???? OMG really?!?! So on my way home I get some calibration solution from Walmart and calibrate my refractometer to 35ppt, shockingly it was off. So now I go test my tank will my freshly calibrated meter and it tells me I'm at 30ppt... 30!!! Seriously!!! What else could go wrong? just kidding don't answer that.

Okay, so now things are starting to click a little with my parameters being down, well of course they are if my salinity is down as well. My next step is to raise the salinity up, I was hoping to go up 1 a day, but spread out over the next weekish. So I was trying to find some sort of calculator that would tell me what to mix my fresh saltwater at and what amount would need to be changed to get there. I had a hard time finding anything by I did stumble on someone who had a simple equation on here for how to do it. Basically you take what you want your tank to be volume and salinity and that will equal what your water change is plus what your tank is currently at. So my tank is 91gallons total volume less rocks, sand, equipment, so probably closer to 81 and I want to change 7 gallons of water so

81(31)=74(30)+7x

Solving for x I would need my water to be mixed at 41/42ppt. Great so I test the water I have already mixed to see what I need to add and then add more salt to get it to 41. I let that sit over night and plan to do a water change the next day.

WEDNESDAY
I get home from work and test my new water, and it doesn't match... but I thought maybe that just because I tested last night before the salt had fully dissolved. I re-calibrate my refractometer, just in case, and see its off again. I test the water and it's good now. I test the water in my DT one more time and now thats showing 34PPT... now I'm confused, how could that go up that much without me doing anything, I check my ATO and that is fine, so I test my refractometer again with the calibration solution and its off AGAIN. So now I'm just stumped. I shouldn't have to calibrate it within 2 mins of the last time. I think I've reached the conclusion that my refractometer is just not good... I mean I have dropped it on the floor several times so that obviously doesn't help. So I decided to not do anything and buy a new refractometer, but I nice one this time, not something cheap on Amazon. Test my DT again and then go from there if I need to raise the salinity.

 

[Nanorock1970]

ugg yes, testing and measurements can get frustrating. Making sure your devices your measuring with are accurate, your test equipment clean, and following the directions that can sometimes be confusing. I get you here. Remember that your syringe measure is the plunger and without air in it for accurate measure. Wishing your tank parameters well and that once you turn the corner to good water quality that your torch will survive and thrive...back to chemistry class. On the edge of my seat for what comes next. Thank you for sharing your journey.

 

[Magellan]

Didn’t I read on your thread that you feed multiple times a day? How do you keep them down?

Lots of biomedia, water changes, and I think dosing live phyto helps as well.

 

[New&no clue]

and I think dosing live phyto helps as well.

Interesting, I'm looking for alternatives for nutrient exporting besides a refugium. I'd really prefer to not have one as I've heard good things... but also bad and if I can get the benefits of it without it than I'd prefer that.

 

[Magellan]

Interesting, I'm looking for alternatives for nutrient exporting besides a refugium. I'd really prefer to not have one as I've heard good things... but also bad and if I can get the benefits of it without it than I'd prefer that.

You sound like me! I am going to avoid refugiums if possible, even when I inevitably upgrade to a larger tank. What’s your filtration like right now? I’m running Purigen, Phosguard, biomedia (both Matrix and marine pure spheres) and carbon, with a filter sponge I clean pretty regularly.

 

[New&no clue]

What’s your filtration like right now?

I have BioBalls in my spot for the refugium, BioBlocks that fill the whole base of the skimmer chamber, skimmer, filter socks, bag of carbon, bag of phosguard. I have the room for a refugium but I'm concerned about the additional maintenance of it.

 

[Magellan]

I have BioBalls in my spot for the refugium, BioBlocks that fill the whole base of the skimmer chamber, skimmer, filter socks, bag of carbon, bag of phosguard. I have the room for a refugium but I'm concerned about the additional maintenance of it.

Interesting that your nutrients would be high! I know Matrix is supposed to be specifically for denitrifying bacteria but I would assume that your bio balls/bio blocks would do the same thing, and I know phosguard works GREAT for me. What do you feed?

 

[New&no clue]

and I know phosguard works GREAT for me. What do you feed?

I just started to use phosguard and I have already seen a significant drop. However, I just learned this, there is a yo-yo affect that happens. The rocks have absorbed the phosphates and now that the phosguard is sucking them out of the water the rocks are leaching them back in. Once the rocks release them all then the numbers should finally drop for good. But I went from .9 three weeks ago to .28 last night so I am seeing really good results. In the last week I've been as high as .45 and .28 was my lowest. I think this is one of those slow and steady wins the race situation.

I feed flakes and pellets in the morning and brine or mysis shrimp at night, I also put in a half sheet or Nori for my Tang and angel. Then a couple times a week I spot feed my corals reef roids and mysis/brine shrimp. I never rinsed my frozen food but I have started to do that, I also use to leave the nori in there until it was gone, now I pull it out at night... I think my urchin is kind of mad about this though.

 

[Magellan]

My urchin could care less about nori ;Hilarious

he just does his thing and I have given up trying to feed him. But I feed similarly - flakes and pellets and sometimes I substitute a cube of mysis that I’ll dissolve and then disseminate around the tank to make sure the corals get some too. Do you turn off your flow to feed the flakes/pellets?

you are exactly right about phosphates though, (from my understanding) they should keep coming down and level off.