TheyGaveItToMe
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I'm so excited to see those update picture.
*New 105/G build*
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Don’t get too excited. Lol. Got off to a bad start, but the tank is doing pretty well now. I had to strap up and go to war for 8 months but we prevailed!
Early on the PO4 took a dive (about 7 weeks in) which is completely the opposite of what normally happens with all my dry rock tanks in that time frame. I knew it was about to go south. They typically have moderate to high nutrients for the first 4-8 months and then drop off slowly with Nitrate being the more demanding Ion.
This rock literally started to outcompete the Acro’s only 8 weeks in. I’m talking severely outcompete them. Tissue was getting completely dry. TSP was not keeping up and I was late getting my GHL online to auto-dose. Despite dosing sh**t TSP to get the PO4 up, the rock kept binding hard and the corals could not uptake enough phosphate to stay healthy. I lost two Acro’s in .03 ppm. Then I switched to a superior more organic source of PO4 and trashed the TSP. The Acro’s almost instantly responded, and I was able to hit the tank hard and fast (within reason) to simi saturate the rock, and save the corals. Even now 10 months in the rock is still not finished binding. I heard that the guy I got the dry rock from (same quarry as Marco rocks in FL) pressure washes the rock. Who knows, he could have treated the rock with something. So that may be why it’s acting weird. Could be the Starboard in my tank, but I did a lot of research before I bought it and several guys before me used the same starboard, and as far as I know they never had any problems. The only other thing I can thing of is that I cured the rock for 1 yr and maybe that did something to it. IDK. I keep logs of all my tanks going back several tanks before this one and all of them acted the same way except for this one. Who knows, it’s reefing and sometimes weird things like this just happen. I’m just glad I’m pretty much on the other side of it. When I see the PO4 demand drop I’ll know that it’s going in the right direction. Still currently dosing .09 ppm daily. BTW, I had a Fluconazole overdose too. Was trying to nuke some Bryopsis that can in on 10 lbs of LR. I’ll paste my notes here so that if any of you guys are interested and want to read about it. Not really sure what’s going on with this tank, but it’s been a stubborn turd for sure.
I think once I get to the 18 month mark it’s gonna be rainbows and butterflies. HaHa!
Here’s a pic of the beginning numbers. Tank was started on 01/04/22. You can see it just took a dive. I should have know something was off by the huge bacterial bloom I had for the first month.
Fluconazole overdose details below:
STARTED Fluconazole- 1 pill (200mg) per 10/G
10/11/22 0105- Start date
10/13/22 Not much visual change at 48 hrs. Some snails have brown dying algae on their shells.
Same observation at 56 hrs. Not much visual changes like I observed in the last tank. Although I did have much more light in the last tank which definitely played a role.
72 hrs later (10/14/22) 0105
Not much change other than what’s noted above. The longer GHA has turned brown. The Bryopsis is becoming slightly white/grey on the tips. Rock work appears slightly cleaner. Skimmer remains off. Will likely turn it back on this morning. Will keep the Carbon out until treatment is completed. Overall, much slower process this time due to less intense light. Alkalinity slowly climbing. Nutrients are fairly stable. I did ramp down a lot initially, but I’ve had to increase PO4 to keep it in the target range. Nitrate has come down slowly and did not elevate surprisingly. Corals, inverts, fish, sponge, pods, LPS, Acro’s, etc…all doing well. I have noticed a slight decrease in PE on a few Acro’s, but others do not seem to be effected.
10/15/22 Major decrease in PE. Bryopsis is starting to become lighter and some has already melted away. Corals look unhappy. No color loss, but definitely very little PE now. GHA also turning brown in several places.
10/16/22 Still very little PE. Some corals are becoming slightly pale. Algae continues to die and turn brown. Bryopsis and the longer GHA melts away first. The turf is more stubborn, but is turning brown in a lot of area’s. Some is still green. Alkalinity seems to have leveled out now. Nutrients starting to elevate due to the algae dying more rapidly now. I’ve needed to bump my PO4 down. NO3 may be next.
10/17/22 Algae on back glass and overflow box is completely dead. All Bryopsis patches are melted. Most of the Turf algae on bottom of tank is turning brown and 1/2 is dead. Several corals have lost color and are fading significantly. PE is gone. Corals honestly looking pretty bad. Some almost look dry. I’m a little nervous at this point, but I want all the algae dead.
10/19/22 RR Firecracker and a few other Acro’s are looking really pale. No PE. The Firecracker is pretty much white, but alive. All the Acro’s except for a few have browned-out pretty bad. I’m assuming because all of the dying algae. I’ve stayed on top of nutrient testing and ALK. Will be making water change water and getting carbon ready today. If any corals STN/RTN I will terminate treatment immediately. Honestly, it’s not looking good in there, but I want to kill as much algae as possible and prevent Bryopsis from coming back. That was the primary goal as it spreads like wild fire. Dino’s continue to enjoy the instability and have formed mats near the front glass. Nothing on the rocks, snails, or Wavemaker cords. pH remains high, with no changes. Nutrients are starting to stabilize and I’ve bumped my PO4 dose down by .08 ppm. Nitrate dose remains the same. For some reason NO3 never really elevated much.
10/20/22 1445 STOPPED Fluconazole- (Started Carbon) due to how horrible the Acro’s look. Zero PE. Most look very pale, dry, and almost like they’re about to STN/RTN. Will do a water change tonight. I do not see any Bryopsis left. Hopefully 9 days was enough to kill it all- everywhere. I think this treatment was more effective than the last (3 yrs ago), because I did keep the skimmer completely off for a full 3 days initially. The only algae still alive in the tank after 9 days is the turf algae on bottom (but that is getting really thin), and a few very small patches up top. 2300- Performed 20% Water Change (Red Sea Blue Bucket) 1.026 - temp 78. Corals still look like crap with no PE. Hopefully they don’t die in the morning.
10/21/22 Performed 10% water change. Corals look like crap.
10/22/22 Performed 20% water change. Corals look like crap.
10/23/22 Corals looking slightly better. PE is starting to peak out on a few Acro’s. Tank seems to have stabilized. Will wait 3 days and continue to flush the system. Then send ICP 48 hrs after last water change, and start loading the elements again. CAL tested at 370. Mag tested at 1200. Dosed up. Shocked they were that low. Last ICP had CAL at 436, and MAG at 1383.
10/24/22 Sadly lost the CC Voodoo Magic (RTN) this early am. Other corals looking better, but not by much. Will probably loose 5-6 more corals judging by how bad some look. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.
10/29/22 So far only the Voodoo Magic checked out which I have a backup for. Tank is has recovered and several corals regaining color. Of course Dino’s blew up due to the water change’s (I assume iron in the salt), and the destabilizing event of the water change itself, but I had no choice. UV back on at night and lighting reduced to 10 hrs with less white. Still not very hopeful for 3-4 corals. Hopefully they will make it. We will see.
11/1/22 Corals continue to look better. More color and PE. Haven’t lost any others.
11/02/22 Corals coloring up and even the 4 that were the most effected are looking a little better and starting to color up slightly. Haven’t lost any others.
11/04/22 PE keeps increasing. Colors come continue to get better. Even the 4 most effected are continuing to color up. Corrections were made and the tank is back to healthy.
11/05/22 It appears that the tank and corals have fully recovered. Color is still coming back on the 4 bad ones, but I’m confident I won’t have any other losses. So I only lost the Voodoo Magic during this event.
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The 2022 nightmare is behind us now. We will press forward into 2023 and ramp up PAR again, get Iron and other elements back online, and go full throttle to catch up!
Added some Reef Brite 250w Metal Halide’s on Electronic Ballasts. 14K Hamilton’s. Pic is 25” off the water’s surface to acclimate the corals slowly.
Also Vermetid Free and vertically (all pest free), so intentionally creating a weak Biome in the beginning sucked, but it kept out all the bad guys. 1 year later I’m reaping the benefits of my labor. I expect 2023 to be a good year of growth with minimal headaches.
Added some Reef Brite 250w Metal Halide’s on Electronic Ballasts. 14K Hamilton’s. Pic is 25” off the water’s surface to acclimate the corals slowly.
Also Vermetid Free and vertically (all pest free), so intentionally creating a weak Biome in the beginning sucked, but it kept out all the bad guys. 1 year later I’m reaping the benefits of my labor. I expect 2023 to be a good year of growth with minimal headaches.
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Had one of the Hamilton bulbs burn out. But we’re back up and running.
Installed a skim overflow float. Nothing worse than flooding the tank with a full skimmer cup. Raises PO4 through the roof, and will kill corals depending on how high the spike was. Glad to get that taken care of.
Also had a Nero 3 quit in less than a year. Then a Nero 5 started to rust from the backside. I definitely don’t recommend buying these pump. Fortunately, AI has been good about replacing them (under warranty). The question is…how long do they warranty them for? After that, looks like I’ll be good new pumps very quickly.
The Dino’s slowed the growth for the first year, but I think we’re fixing to be doing much better in 2023. Things are picking up and the lights are back up to 100%. I’m able to dose Iron and all the juicy stuff again. The tank finally saturated so the stress of constantly checking the PO4 is gone. We’re getting much more stable now. On the way to mini colonies next. Hopefully no more setbacks in 2023.
Installed a skim overflow float. Nothing worse than flooding the tank with a full skimmer cup. Raises PO4 through the roof, and will kill corals depending on how high the spike was. Glad to get that taken care of.
Also had a Nero 3 quit in less than a year. Then a Nero 5 started to rust from the backside. I definitely don’t recommend buying these pump. Fortunately, AI has been good about replacing them (under warranty). The question is…how long do they warranty them for? After that, looks like I’ll be good new pumps very quickly.
The Dino’s slowed the growth for the first year, but I think we’re fixing to be doing much better in 2023. Things are picking up and the lights are back up to 100%. I’m able to dose Iron and all the juicy stuff again. The tank finally saturated so the stress of constantly checking the PO4 is gone. We’re getting much more stable now. On the way to mini colonies next. Hopefully no more setbacks in 2023.
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PAR map.
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A few progression shots. 17 months in. The Wait is almost over. The real fun is about to begin when I hit the 2 year mark.
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Couple frags in 0.374 ppm Phosphate. 
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Do not dose trace elements. Daylight!
Daylight! 
Gumbies R Us
Another Fish in the Sea
Love seeing all the recent coral pictures!
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December 2023
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Thx guys, still a work in progress…but we’re working our way to colonies from very tiny frags. I’ve already fragged 2K out of the tank because I was broke, but you can’t really tell at all.
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