My First Upgrade:72 Bowfront

[john.m.cole3]

The fish won't pose for the camera

 

[jsker]

looking like a reef tank

 

[john.m.cole3]

looking like a reef tank

Recognize the 2 frags on the magnetic shelf @jsker ???

 

[jsker]

Yes sir, the monti you already have is huge.

 

[john.m.cole3]

Yes sir, the monti you already have is huge.

But the one you gave me has much nicer colors (must be an LED thing). I will always prefer quality over quantity, esp in regards to food, beer, music, LIFE!!!

 

[john.m.cole3]

I drilled some holes in spare pieces of dry rock using a 3/8 masonry bit that will allow a frag plug to be placed in there so that I can have the coral overgrow the plug and onto the rock. This will serve multiple purposes.
1. More real estate for coral growth
2. The corals will be easier to move around and less stressed when doing so.
3. More rock in the tank = more places for bacteria to call their home

 

[john.m.cole3]

I think I burned my monti and birdsnest when doing some maintenance this weekend. I was using filter floss in my sump between baffles to catch loose debris. This triggered the ato to dump about a gallon of fully saturated kalk water in the tank before I realized it. Alk went from 9.6 to 10.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I was doing tank maintenance this weekend and as usual was dumping my skimmer cup. It has always been a light tea color, but very strong smelling. I chalked it up to being wayyy over sized for my tank. I decided to make some adjustments. I turned the air intake way down until the bubbles were much smaller in the neck, adjusted the gate accordingly so the bubble just reached the top of where you would attach your collection cup. This morning the skimmate is much frothier at the top. I'll see how this goes for the next week. Take it easy!

 

[john.m.cole3]

The skimmer did awesome this week. Much darker skimmate than before, so I made a thread on how to tune your skimmer http://reef2reef.com/threads/tips-for-dialing-in-your-skimmer.267078/

Yesterday I removed my sand bed. Boy was that lots of work. Luckily the frag plug holders I made of rubble worked great. I removed some tank water to a 10 gal and put as many corals in there as I could. I used a skweegy and my hand to move the sand to one sider and the rocks to the other side. after scooping from that side, I pushed the rocks over to the clean side to get the rerst of the sand. It took about 2 hours. I stir and siphon my sand regularly, but there was so much detritus that got released during all of this. I put some Prime in the water before starting in case ammonia became an issue. My nitrates were at 40 and creeping up was the reason for the rennovations.

 

[john.m.cole3]

after last weeks sand bed removal, my nitrates went below 25. Today I did another deep cleaning. I got the last handful of sand out using a 1" section of flex tubing. I used a razor blade to clean half of the back glass also. Cleaning the back glass made the tank cloudy as ever! I put some filter floss in the sump and loaded up my carbon reactor to clear things up for the next 4 days, then I'll remove it. All the corals are happy and so am I. Will do a thorough water test tom,orrow to see where everything stands. Hopefully I will be around 10 ppm of nitrates...

 

[john.m.cole3]

No sand, no worries

Nitrate 10
Phosphate .034
Alk 8.9
Calc 430
Mag 1500

 

[jsker]

Looking good

 

[john.m.cole3]

alright, I was confused about my nitrate reading. But I came across an app to help me read my results. I have some issues with telling colors apart. I can see color, but not always the correct color. A member suggested an app called Aquarium Note. It lets you take a picture of your test and color card and it interprets your results. Now I don't have to call my future wife over or saend a text to a friend regarding my color readings (esp on Saliferts nitrate kit)

 

[jsker]

alright, I was confused about my nitrate reading. But I came across an app to help me read my results. I have some issues with telling colors apart. I can see color, but not always the correct color. A member suggested an app called Aquarium Note. It lets you take a picture of your test and color card and it interprets your results. Now I don't have to call my future wife over or saend a text to a friend regarding my color readings (esp on Saliferts nitrate kit)

That is a pretty cool app. I am going to have to give that a try, thank you for sharing

 

[john.m.cole3]

so week check up. Increased alk up to 10.2 w/ manual AF component 2 and steady kalkwasser through the ATO. Nitrates have been around 35-40, so I bumped the alk up.

Bought a frag tank to be from a friend.

the tank has never looked better!

 

[john.m.cole3]

Still waiting on an overflow for the display refugium and I need lighting for the 46 gal fuge. The frag tank will be a long term work in progress. I just couldn't pass up the deal for this complete system eurobraced 40 breeder! I'll take a video of the tank and post back soon.

 

[john.m.cole3]

 

[jsker]

Looking good, I am going to pull the boi pellets for a week or so. I am starting to run too low nutrients

 

[john.m.cole3]

yeah I'm not scared of nutrients anymore. I decided to just let it go and find its own balance. with just top offs with kalk and a protein skimmer, I'm pretty happy and surprised my acro hasn't shriveled up to nothing

 

[jsker]

Agree. I pulled the filter socks three weeks ago just running with skimmer. I only drop the socks into if I am stirring up stuff that is to big for the skimmer.