PE decreasing a ton after 6 hours?

[Hemmdog]

As P rises, they go a greenish shade of the original color, then green, then a brownish shade of the original color (which gives people hope since it is not green) and then all brown. Go slow lowering it. Some of them might not change at all... but some will - the Pink Lem and PC Rainbow are good litmus corals for this.

You are starting to get colonies now. They are different than frags... they have more energy, grow faster and otherwise act differently. In some ways, they are harder especially with flow and shadowing, but you should be set there. In some ways, they are hardier and less likely to RTN. Sometimes they color differently as well.

Great info, thanks for sharing that.

 

[CoralWealth]

As P rises, they go a greenish shade of the original color, then green, then a brownish shade of the original color (which gives people hope since it is not green) and then all brown. Go slow lowering it. Some of them might not change at all... but some will - the Pink Lem and PC Rainbow are good litmus corals for this.

You are starting to get colonies now. They are different than frags... they have more energy, grow faster and otherwise act differently. In some ways, they are harder especially with flow and shadowing, but you should be set there. In some ways, they are hardier and less likely to RTN. Sometimes they color differently as well.

That is what I thought, thanks for reminding me of that. I am going slow, I only added a cup of GFO which is less then 1/3 of the recommended for my tank size and I will probably take it off once I start doing more water changes.

I am definitely set on flow and shadowing with the amount of flow I have (have more powerheads I could add too) and my ligts are 8x80w T5 with reefbrites on the front and back.

I just really dont like how the PE decreases after 5-6 hours of light when this has never happened in the 2 years before. It was either great PE at all times, especially after lights off or no PE. Now it is great PE after lights out, great PE for the first 5-6 hours and then poor PE for the last 2-3 hours of light.

 

[jda]

They will change again. When the colonies get really big, they sometimes are really hairy on the inside. They look like yours on the edges and on the outside. Again, this is because of gas exchange where the inside ones are more likely to have more stagnant water. Sometimes, they can look really cool like a SC Orange Passion with the sweet orange polyps and sometimes it can suck like with a WD where the greenish-brown polyps hides all of the colorful corallites and body.

 

[CoralWealth]

They will change again. When the colonies get really big, they sometimes are really hairy on the inside. They look like yours on the edges and on the outside. Again, this is because of gas exchange where the inside ones are more likely to have more stagnant water. Sometimes, they can look really cool like a SC Orange Passion with the sweet orange polyps and sometimes it can suck like with a WD where the greenish-brown polyps hides all of the colorful corallites and body.

Yeah I have noticed that from looking at pictures from people who have large colonies, some day I will have that haha.

When you say they will change again, you mean they will go back to having good PE all day correct? Once I have everything steady for 2+ months, I know they can take awhile to respond from an alk spike like I had when I went on vacation, plus with the low salinity of 1.021, along with potassium only 230-250 and P04 somewhere over 0.6 I guess. Sounds dang awful actually haha.

 

[jda]

No, I meant that the PE will change yet again as they grow. They might get back to some of their old form when you get all of that stuff fixed, but who knows... they might not. Colonies are different than frags.

That is going to take a lot of GFO... you might consider some slow doses of LC.

 

[jda]

BTW - I think that if you had LEDs over your tank, you would have had some STN, RTN or burn from all of these swings. Instead, your stuff is doing well still... not as well, but still healthy. I have no way to prove this, but you don't see as many salinity/po4/potassium/alk swing survival posts with LED lit tanks.

 

[CoralWealth]

No, I meant that the PE will change yet again as they grow. They might get back to some of their old form when you get all of that stuff fixed, but who knows... they might not. Colonies are different than frags.

That is going to take a lot of GFO... you might consider some slow doses of LC.

Yeah I am going to be changing GFO as necessary to bring it down and also doing water changes, I want to do it slowly though.

 

[CoralWealth]

BTW - I think that if you had LEDs over your tank, you would have had some STN, RTN or burn from all of these swings. Instead, your stuff is doing well still... not as well, but still healthy. I have no way to prove this, but you don't see as many salinity/po4/potassium/alk swing survival posts with LED lit tanks.

I thought about that actually, I think the T5 really did help me and I also did lower the total photo period at the beginning when I knew my corals were really stressed

 

[jda]

You probably know this, but the phosphate bind with GFO is reversible if the water level in the tank gets lower than it was. If you change water, change your GFO too, or else the old GFO will release P back into the water when you lower it with the water change.

 

[CoralWealth]

You probably know this, but the phosphate bind with GFO is reversible if the water level in the tank gets lower than it was. If you change water, change your GFO too, or else the old GFO will release P back into the water when you lower it with the water change.

I didnt know that. I have the GFO running even when I am doing the water change, it never stops running but you are saying I should still change the GFO every week at the same time I do the water change?

 

[jda]

GFO only binds to "equilibrium" with the water. If the water concentration gets higher, then the GFO will bind more... if it gets lower, then it will release some. Aragonite acts the same way. So does Aluminum Oxide. Yes, you will want to change the GFO every time that you otherwise lower the P in the water column.

You can probably change 1 cup every day or two even with very low flow through the reactor. It will get used up quickly with .6. The rocks/sand will then release more and you will be almost right back up to where you were. The key is not to use too much, drive the water column really low and then have it rebound in a few days once the aragonite releases. You want to use just a little and change it frequently so that the downward line is gradual and not spiking up and down all of the time.

Once you get down to .1 or .05, then cut back to 1/2 the amount just to make sure that you do not bottom out.

 

[CoralWealth]

GFO only binds to "equilibrium" with the water. If the water concentration gets higher, then the GFO will bind more... if it gets lower, then it will release some. Aragonite acts the same way. So does Aluminum Oxide. Yes, you will want to change the GFO every time that you otherwise lower the P in the water column.

You can probably change 1 cup every day or two even with very low flow through the reactor. It will get used up quickly with .6. The rocks/sand will then release more and you will be almost right back up to where you were. The key is not to use too much, drive the water column really low and then have it rebound in a few days once the aragonite releases. You want to use just a little and change it frequently so that the downward line is gradual and not spiking up and down all of the time.

Once you get down to .1 or .05, then cut back to 1/2 the amount just to make sure that you do not bottom out.

Awesome thank you! I never used GFO and never wanted to but obviously at this point I need to to get my P04 down and then hopefully everything can keep up without gfo but if I have to always run a little then it is what it is.

 

[jda]

The key to remember is that there is a bunch bound in the rocks and sand. It will release back to "equilibrium" in a day or two, so just make sure that you take a day or two to lower the number. This way, you will not have any bounce.

The GFO will be effective at 1.026, so get that salinity back up.

 

[CoralWealth]

The key to remember is that there is a bunch bound in the rocks and sand. It will release back to "equilibrium" in a day or two, so just make sure that you take a day or two to lower the number. This way, you will not have any bounce.

The GFO will be effective at 1.026, so get that salinity back up.

The salinity has been back at 1.026 for 2-3 weeks now. I will have to check my phosphate level everyday for the next week or so to see when I need to change the gfo. If the phosphate level doesn’t change in a day after I put new gfo in, I assume I need to change it again, etc, etc and if it keeps dropping the day after I add the new gfo, I don’t have to change it.

 

[Big E]

You can always measure the water coming out of the reactor to see when you need to change the GFO.

I always go slow in stages.........for example go from .50 to .30 to .15. I'll give it a rest for 24-36 hours and then hook it up again.

For a tank your size you can probably go from .6 to .3 in about 8 hours with a cup of GFO on slow flow. This is based on my personal experiences, so your changes may differ. I don't have no where near as much rock as most people or a sandbed.

I would focus more in getting that potassium up first.

Once your system nutrient levels are back in place and the potassium is back to normal. then I'd see if your polyp extension is back to what you consider normal. Either way with the polyp extension, I wouldn't be concerned unless the corals aren't growing.

 

[CoralWealth]

You can always measure the water coming out of the reactor to see when you need to change the GFO.

I always go slow in stages.........for example go from .50 to .30 to .15. I'll give it a rest for 24-36 hours and then hook it up again.

For a tank your size you can probably go from .6 to .3 in about 8 hours with a cup of GFO on slow flow. This is based on my personal experiences, so your changes may differ. I don't have no where near as much rock as most people or a sandbed.

I would focus more in getting that potassium up first.

Once your system nutrient levels are back in place and the potassium is back to normal. then I'd see if your polyp extension is back to what you consider normal. Either way with the polyp extension, I wouldn't be concerned unless the corals aren't growing.

Thank you! I will definitely take it slow, I did not think in my 250g of actual water the 1 cup of GFO would take down phosphate that much, I guess I was clearly wrong.

I am getting KCL from amazon delivered today, so I will be dosing that to get my potassium up to 400. Any recommendations from anyone on how much I can raise my potassium level in a day? I do not want to go too fast.

 

[TheHarold]

Thank you! I will definitely take it slow, I did not think in my 250g of actual water the 1 cup of GFO would take down phosphate that much, I guess I was clearly wrong.

That’s why I avoid chemical filtration. GFO and such are band-aids, which in the short term can help but in the long term lead to instability IMO.

 

[CoralWealth]

That’s why I avoid chemical filtration. GFO and such are band-aids, which in the short term can help but in the long term lead to instability IMO.

I was using purge so I had my skimmer off for around 6 weeks and I did not do water changes, which is why my phosphates are high. I know once I get them down to below .1 and really looking for around 0.05 that my fuge and skimmer (rated for around 1000g) will easily be able to handle it, I just need to get it down to that level first :)

 

[TheHarold]

I was using purge so I had my skimmer off for around 6 weeks and I did not do water changes, which is why my phosphates are high. I know once I get them down to below .1 and really looking for around 0.05 that my fuge and skimmer (rated for around 1000g) will easily be able to handle it, I just need to get it down to that level first :)

Awesome- sounds like you got it covered!

I love PE :)

 

[CoralWealth]

Awesome- sounds like you got it covered!

I love PE :)

Yup this is what I miss haha, my corals used to have PE like that after lights off too. They are still good but not near as good as it used to be or like yours.

Very nice!!