Office Tranquility (75g)

[madweazl]

This guy started to STN/RTN (somewhere in between...) about a week and a half ago; it was also located in roughly the same area as an acro that RTN'd (may have started a couple months ago while I was out of town. I checked parameters to see if I could find anything and everything was right where it normally is with the exception of salinity which had dropped to roughly 33ppt (pretty much right on 1.025 for my refractometer). The Copps undata was showing signs of stress again which is what caught my eye first (I never seem to be able to keep that one happy for long so it's a constant struggle). I brought the salinity back up to 35ppt via salt water in the ATO over a few days and did my typical 10g water change last weekend. The acro has stabilized the past two days and has started to color back up a bit too (was browning out but has a lot of green back today).

Things that were different the last few weeks:

Light intensity (raised and lowered to accommodate various issues)
Salinity dropped slightly (35ppt to 33ppt) but quickly during a water change, skimmer, and reactor maintenance (not enough salt water was replaced to account for the lost displacement)
A couple water changes were conducted using Live Aquaria's salt but I'm out of that so back to Reef Crystals (the only other salt that has been used in this tank) for another week or two until that is all used up and then shifting to regular Instant Ocean.

I'm also wondering if there may be a trace element issue as I cant find anything in the standard test results (alk, Ca, Mg, PO4, NO3) that would indicate an issue. I submitted some results to Triton on the 5th but my results were:

SG - 1.025
dKH - 7.9
Ca - 450
Mg - 1365
PO4 - .058
NO3 - 2.5-5.0

We'll see how the Triton results look sometime next week when the results come in but the only thing I expect to be different is PO4 which will likely come back at 0 or very close based on previous Triton results as compared to what my Hanna ULR shows. I have a calculator that will provide some results in regard to salinity but I've never seen that off by more than .25ppt between my refractometer and Triton.

In regard to trace element depletion, I've decided to do weekly 10g water changes (roughly 10%); to that end, I changed 20g two weeks ago and 15g last week I believe. Tomorrow will be a typical 10g change which is what I normally do (though every two weeks vice weekly).

I have no clue what has caused the issue but things have at least stabilized at this point so I guess that is a win (for now). I'd hate to lose another coral and this little acro was pretty awesome.

 

[madweazl]

Results came in and they are what I expected.

My test results:

SG - 1.025
Ca - 450
Mg - 1365
PO4 - .058

Triton results:

SG - 1.02548 (Jim Welsh's calculator)
Ca - 464
Mg - 1364
PO4 .010

The Triton results do show deficiencies in a number of areas that are beneficial (I and Fe groups specifically). I suspect the macro algae is probably to blame for that but I still suspect the lighting and salinity issues previously mentioned to be the likely culprits. Perhaps the coral would have been more resilient if the other levels were in a range deemed more appropriate (though I'm not exactly sure what those levels "should" be outside of Triton's recommendations).

On a positive note, my wife sent a picture of the acro that was in trouble and it has recovered a bit since I left town. Hopefully it will be looking much better when I get back (crossing my fingers for this weekend).

 

[madweazl]

Wife called in a panic about an hour ago because there was a fault light on the controller (typically an ATO time out) and "the tank was blowing bubbles and the sump is filling up really fast." It's tough enough to walk somebody through some troubleshooting steps over the phone with something like this and when you add in the panic factor, look out. After calming her down a bit so she could rationally walk through some steps and send me some pictures of the sump, tank, overflow etc., it looks like the primary drain needed to be adjusted a bit (water level in the overflow box was pretty much empty so it was making the sucking noise).

Everything looks right in that regard now and best I can tell, everything is operating normally. The high water level float sensor stuck which caused the fault light on the controller so the ATO wasn't turning on which led to the lower water level in the return chamber causing the bubbles in the tank. How the water level in the overflow changed remains a mystery (she hadn't touched the valve). She did mention that a piece of plastic fell in the return chamber when she messed with the float, no clue what that was...

Hopefully everything hangs in there until I can get back home and investigate. Why does it always have to happen when I'm out of town?

 

[madweazl]

Made it home early and was able to check things over; everything appears to be just fine. The salinity was right on 35ppt so the ATO didn't dump too much water in after the issue was corrected (something I was worried about). For some reason the return pump is spitting a small amount of bubbles into the tank so I have a feeling there is some cavitation so I'll have to tear it down to investigate further.

The acro has healed up a bit more and is coloring back up nicely.

 

[madweazl]

Not a very good image but I just love this acro.

 

[anthonywesty]

Beautiful tank and thanks for share every detail of your tank. Detailed and specific!![emoji1303]

 

[madweazl]

A slow grower but I really dig this one too.

 

[madweazl]

This is my "problem child." It will brown out if you look at it funny (literally in days) and is just starting to color back up from the last bout. It browned in the original location I had it so I moved it to the middle of the tank around the same depth (roughly twice the intensity). At that location, half of it colored up (the right side as it's oriented in the picture below). Thinking I was close to figuring out what it wanted, I moved it up a few inches to provide some extra intensity and it browned in about three days. Hmm, too much? I said to heck with it and left it where it was until about a week ago when I needed to make some more changes; the monti cap was getting too much light where it was and had started to expel zoothanthellae and bleach a bit. I moved it where this coral was and added another rock to the tank where the monti was. The Reef Raft Wolverine was getting overrun by the cyphastrea so I moved it over to this new rock (it likes lots of light and this is one of the brightest areas of the tank) and I moved this lil fella down the rock a bit into slightly less light than the Wolverine.

The preliminary reaction is positive and while it isn't nearly as vivid as it can be, the blues and greens are starting to come back on the entire coral. Hopefully the trend continues!

 

[madweazl]

About a week shy of 18 months now.

 

[madweazl]

Last night around midnight, the secondary drain of the overflow started flushing. Yesterday I had increased the flow to about 600gph so I figured it just needed a small adjustment to the primary line but that didn't correct the issue. I opened the gate valve some more, and then more again, and finally it was all the way open but wasn't flowing much water. I had some long tubing brushes so I ran one of them down the drain a few times but that didn't help the flow rate and no obstruction came out. With no other choice, I started to disassemble the the primary line and once I got to the gate valve, I found my little clown wedged in there. I've had this lil guy (gal I imagine) for a little over a year and it had grown from about the size of a nickel to approximately three inches It has always slept at the very top right corner of the tank which made me nervous; at some point last night, it was spooked (or bored with tank life) and made a leap of faith. I have no idea how, but it managed to land in the external overflow of the tank (the internal has a cover) and was subsequently sucked into the primary drain. I guess the plus side is the beananimal did its job and prevented any flow issues and I was actually home to find fix the issue (even if it did leave me wide awake at 1am). I'll have to set up some type of screen behind the canopy to prevent this from happening again.

 

[madweazl]

Slowly but surely, the little smooth skin heals up.

On the other side of the tank, this one has started growing like a weed!

Alkalinity and calcium consumption has increased dramatically over the past few weeks. I made an adjustment to the dosing duration last weekend before going out of town and fully expected it to be a little to high but it dropped from 7.2 dKH to 6.4 (I was figuring it would be about 8.0).

 

[madweazl]

A YEAR IN REVIEW

Interesting time in the aquarium, it's really exciting yet really boring at the same time. There isn't much room for additional corals so I haven't purchased anything in quite a while; outside of a weekly 10 gallon water change and the typical cleaning/maintenance of the pumps, skimmer, and carbon reactor, I've just been in observation mode. I had to move a few things around a while back which stunted the growth on those frags but the others are doing exceptionally well. Watching them slowly spread out across the rock has been enjoyable but it was slow going and then without warning, they shoot up like weeds. The original branch(s) of the frag are dwarfed by new growth within two weeks after showing little to no vertical growth in as many months.

After a really rocky few months with the Copps rainbow undata, things are looking up. I've almost killed it two or three times now and I'm honestly not sure how I saved it the last time because it was losing tissue rapidly. Out of ideas to explain the difficulties being experienced, I started doing weekly water changes; it responded instantly and is finally growing. I've never had a coral this sensitive before and I really wish I could pinpoint the root cause of my issues with this one. On the plus side, it's really rewarding when this one is looking good (even if it leaves me scratching my head).

The cyphastrea is really becoming a big issue in the tank; it spreads incredibly quickly and has started to climb up one of the frags. I need to remove it before it takes over the entire tank but it's on a large rock that will leave a large void in the aquascape and may affect the integrity of the aquascape as well. I was hoping the acro would be able to defend itself enough to curb encroachment but that just isnt the case. I'll have to move the acro this weekend and get rid of the cyphastrea.

The monti cap has just about outgrown the tank and will also need to be re-homed. I was hoping to hang on to it long enough for transfer to the 150g but I'm not sure that is going to be realistic at this point (I do have a small frag in another area of the tank). It was clinging to life about a year ago so it's really nice to see it doing so well.

The "problem child" continues to color up and is actually spreading. I'm pretty sure this is the slowest grower of the bunch but that is likely due to its requirements never being completely satisfied; thankfully, I think that has been overcome now.

Lighting

I'm continually impressed with the Kessils; simply stated, they provide a beautiful to look at environment. I loved the look of metal halide tanks years ago because of the life like shimmer they produced; the Kessils provide that in a form factor that fits my smaller canopy. I really wish I had purchased three A360WEs for this tank but at the time, I was positive I'd be keeping a mixed reef and didn't think there was any need for the additional expense. It didn't take long for plans to change and two A360WEs wouldn't provide the requisite light for an SPS dominant tank. The manner in which I mounted the Kessils (through the canopy) precluded me from adding a third unit without making the canopy look like a block of Swiss cheese so I had to turn to T5s. I originally started with a Blue+ and a Coral+ but I hated the lavender hue the Coral+ cast on the tank. During the black Friday sales, I grabbed another Blue+ to replace the Coral+ and that got rid of the lavender hue but now the tank was extremely blue with the Kessils running at 60% color. I subsequently increased the color of the Kessils to 75% and am pleased with the "look" of the tank; the "problem child" will likely be the first to object to the lighting changes but all is well so far (knock on wood).

Flow

About a month ago, I dramatically increased the flow within the sump from roughly 3.5x per hour to 10x per hour. I havent noticed any changes that I can attribute to the additional flow and it significantly increased the amount of noise coming from the overflow. I will continue to monitor for any potential benefits but if none are observed, I'll probably slow it back down decrease the noise level.

Flow within the display was increased by roughly 50% with the swap to dual MP40s from the Jebao PP8s I was originally running. Turnover is approximately 35x per hour in the display now with one MP40 on the left side and the other on the right side of the display. This moves the sand around slightly from time to time but has otherwise been great. My only complaints with the WE series is the noise level and the level of maintenance they require over the Jebaos. I've had a massive influx of baby snails the last few months and they've wreaked havoc on the MPs because they're small enough to crawl into the pumps and bind them up (I literally have to tear one down for maintenance a few times a week because of these rotten little critters).

Consumption rates

Alkalinity and calcium consumption has increased by almost 100% in the last six weeks. I never would have expected the rate to jump by that large of a margin in such a short period of time. While the frags have certainly shown a large amount of growth relative to their size, I grossly underestimated dosing rates during the growth spurt. I've matched the depletion rate now but still need to increase it a bit more to get back to my target level of ~8.0 dKH. Between travel for work the past month and the increased growth, the tank has been running between 6.4-7.2 dKH for the past two or three weeks; everything looks quite good so I cant complain too much.

 

[madweazl]

Undata has been looking really good the past few weeks and really started to take off.

 

[madweazl]

When I purchased the toadstool (Sep 2016), it was just a little bit bigger than the baby on the right (guess there was some tissue left behind when I moved it months ago). They're one of my favorites but it's growing rapidly and will have to be rehomed soon.

 

[madweazl]

Sometimes the coolest aspects of reef-keeping are the ones that largely go unnoticed.

 

[madweazl]

Some new joins today.

Wild 11 blues with yellow tips that haven't colored up yet (2 Jan 2018)

Vivid's rainbow delight (2 Jan 2018)

Forest fire digitata (2 Jan 2018)

 

[madweazl]

This poor little RR Wolverine has had quite a ride the past six months. Not long after placing it in the tank, it was coloring up and doing really well but the cyphastrea that I thought was a good distance away, started growing at mach light and quickly began to infringe on this poor little acroporas frag plug. I moved and cleaned the frag plug of the cyphastrea but it didn't do much in the new location (even started to brown out again). I was out of space and long over due for some house work that included moving and getting rid of some larger corals to free up some space. After getting rid of some stuff, I dropped a new rock in the tank to create some much needed surface area for the transplants, including the Wolverine. It didn't take long to color back up and has started moving outward again. Color is extremely intense now - almost radioactive - and seems to get brighter every day and as an added bonus, it's in a great spot for viewing; it will be awesome to see it mature.

Similar to the RR Wolverine, this Cali tort had to be relocated but this time, it was due to inadequate lighting. It had colored up a bit in the initial location however, there was no encrusting happening and I thought it was taking too long so off it went. It colored up quite a bit more in the new location but it still wasnt growing (outward or upward). It looked healthy otherwise so I let it be and finally, after a couple of months, it has started to encrust fairly quickly and is branching. It still has some coloring up to do but the removal of a few other corals in this area has allowed to me to increase lighting intensity.

 

[madweazl]

I had made an AquaticLog account long ago but had never input any data; I keep a written journal for the tank and I finally started to transpose the data from all the measurements I've taken (going back about five months though I have the entire history in the journal). A while back I had a big growth spurt and the alkalinity dropped into the 6.x range though I thought I got it back on track pretty quickly. Looking at the plots, it wasnt nearly as quickly as I thought. More recently, I removed a large monti cap and consumption dropped a bit (everything probably slowed as I was pulling things out of the tank, adding rock, and generally disturbing stuff for a couple days). I've also made an effort to keep better track of my salinity though you wouldn't know it from the results as I only have a few data points (I've checked it much more frequently than I have written data for, gotta do a better job and actually capturing the data). While everything seems so obvious and I do have much of it written down, it was eye opening to see it plotted. Here I thought I was doing so well with keeping things really steady.

Point to all that rambling? There may be some value in the data if you're a bonehead like me and think you've been doing a better job than you actually have.

Alkalinity (not as stable as I had anticipated)

Calcium

Magnesium

Nitrates

Phosphates

I also stumbled across my Kil-A-Watt meter today when we were rummaging around in some of our stored "junk." With everything running normally with the exception of a dosing pump and the heaters, the tank only draws 327 watts (2.83 amps) with the lights at full power (70% intensity in my case). With the heaters on, it jumps up to 604 watts which for whatever reason, is closer to what I had imagined it was consuming.

 

[JBKReef]

Last night around midnight, the secondary drain of the overflow started flushing. Yesterday I had increased the flow to about 600gph so I figured it just needed a small adjustment to the primary line but that didn't correct the issue. I opened the gate valve some more, and then more again, and finally it was all the way open but wasn't flowing much water. I had some long tubing brushes so I ran one of them down the drain a few times but that didn't help the flow rate and no obstruction came out. With no other choice, I started to disassemble the the primary line and once I got to the gate valve, I found my little clown wedged in there. I've had this lil guy (gal I imagine) for a little over a year and it had grown from about the size of a nickel to approximately three inches It has always slept at the very top right corner of the tank which made me nervous; at some point last night, it was spooked (or bored with tank life) and made a leap of faith. I have no idea how, but it managed to land in the external overflow of the tank (the internal has a cover) and was subsequently sucked into the primary drain. I guess the plus side is the beananimal did its job and prevented any flow issues and I was actually home to find fix the issue (even if it did leave me wide awake at 1am). I'll have to set up some type of screen behind the canopy to prevent this from happening again.

Found your thread from the ReefTank 365 Rev started. Sorry to hear about your clown. Your tank is what I wish mine could become lol... gorgeous stuff.

 

[madweazl]

Found your thread from the ReefTank 365 Rev started. Sorry to hear about your clown. Your tank is what I wish mine could become lol... gorgeous stuff.

The really nice thing about the build threads is all the information and ideas you can pull from them for integration into your own setup.