Rags2Riches - The Learning Curve. 125g

[Hemmdog]

All of them. SPS are at the top, he was holding a lot of my high end stuff. These are the SPS in his tank

Good lord!!!!

 

[Rakie]

Good lord!!!!

Phosphates. It's got what corals crave.

 

[najer]

I hate when things drop off my watched threads, caught up!

 

[RichtheReefer21]

All of them. SPS are at the top, he was holding a lot of my high end stuff. These are the SPS in his tank

;Wideyed

Po4 is corals friend eh? Do u think having po4 higher is why u have little spurts with algae breaking out?

 

[Rakie]

;Wideyed

Po4 is corals friend eh? Do u think having po4 higher is why u have little spurts with algae breaking out?

Nah. I never had any algae until I introduced bubble algae, and since I had nothing that eats bubble it took over.

Otherwise that friends tank has 4.0+ phosphates and he has zero algae.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Nah. I never had any algae until I introduced bubble algae, and since I had nothing that eats bubble it took over.

Otherwise that friends tank has 4.0+ phosphates and he has zero algae.

How is that possible without having nuisance algae popping up everywhere?

 

[RichtheReefer21]

@Raege

You are still gonna have to wait for zoa pics. Hehe.

To my surprise, po4 has come down tremendously..

 

[Rakie]

How is that possible without having nuisance algae popping up everywhere?

There's this old myth that po4 = algae. There's more to it than that, but nobody seems willing to look at the evidence. Many, many, many people have high po4 and no algae.

Is it more likely their tanks are black holes that defy science, or that we don't have the whole picture. [emoji16]

 

[Rakie]

Richard Ross -- Whats up with Phosphate

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Richard Ross -- Whats up with Phosphate

Wow, thanks so much for sharing that. So again the idea of "balance" comes out of the shadows. He mentioned that it appeared that if dKh levels are maintained at higher levels, it allowed the corals the calcify faster due to higher levels of carbonate and bicarbonate. (High nutrient levels)

I run around 8.8-9.2 dKh. Perhaps my nutrients are just fine and I just need to find that balance with the alkalinity without sacrificing Ca levels. Will have to be a slow change and perhaps going to Tropic Marine salt. I use Fritz Rpm Blue current.

The ATS dropped his no3 by 50%!!! That sealed the deal for me, because I considered one if I decide to go Predator for the dream build down the road.

The reference to "Tanked" was hilarious.

Thanks again.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

The Lobo had one of my diy rock pillars fall on the center of it during the upgrade drain and gain project. The skeleton protrusions were blunted and smoothed out all the recent growth the skeleton had managed. It's been recovering, grumpy, browned out and recalcifying I'm sure. You can see the differences between the outer "heads" and the inner lips along the lower section of the flesh. It's on it's way to recovering though. It's a gem when its healthy.

Its finally settling back in and starting to show signs of color:

RBTA snuggling in for the night at sunset ramp down. Every night an hour before dusk, it swells the bubble tips a bit, and you can see its entire rainbow spread of color as it recedes back for the night. Beautiful.

 

[Rakie]

Wow, thanks so much for sharing that. So again the idea of "balance" comes out of the shadows. He mentioned that it appeared that if dKh levels are maintained at higher levels, it allowed the corals the calcify faster due to higher levels of carbonate and bicarbonate. (High nutrient levels)

I run around 8.8-9.2 dKh. Perhaps my nutrients are just fine and I just need to find that balance with the alkalinity without sacrificing Ca levels. Will have to be a slow change and perhaps going to Tropic Marine salt. I use Fritz Rpm Blue current.

The ATS dropped his no3 by 50%!!! That sealed the deal for me, because I considered one if I decide to go Predator for the dream build down the road.

The reference to "Tanked" was hilarious.

Thanks again.

And Richard Ross is a marine biologist with years of experience, a phd in marine biology, and in his video you saw his nitrates would go above 100, and phosphates up to 5.0 at some point. He never had any problems, and is a 2 or 3x aquariast of the year. Flown all over the world to talk about what he knows.

_________

Carbonate and Bicarbonate are alkalinity, nutrients are separate (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate) -- But you get the idea! Dana Riddle also had a talk about this, I think he called it "supercharging photosynthesis", in which he found the perfect Alk / DKH was 9.0 as it gave the most photosynthesis and growth. BRS had their own experiment where they found 12 dkh to increase growth by over 60% (measured by coral weight) over 9 dkh.

I tried my Alk at 12, and I won't lie, my corals LOVED it. Growth and color was absurd. BUT, the moment something went wrong (my fault) that 12 alk became an instant liability to them. The only thing that didn't love it were a few mushrooms. Otherwise even my LPS didn't seem to mind at all.

There's a delicate balance of things, where several important factors intersect. Alkalinity, Lighting, Nutrients. You need to find your individual balance with these three elements. For some people it's easy, and for others it's not. One tank with a low alk and low light and high nutrients may brown out, same tank with higher lighting will color up.. But if light is too high for alk you'll get corals stressed out and burning. If alk is too high for nutrient level you'll get the same results. Etc etc etc.

These three things are the largest factor in reefing, to me, and some people can just find the balance by watching closely and connecting the dots, while others just keep struggling. I always refer to reefing as playing detective when it comes to finding out where your balance is, and what works for you, your system, and your type of reefing. You really do have to deconstruct things to give you that 'a ha' moment where it all clicks. And to do that, you must be vigilant to note all the little changes and their effects. This can be challenging, because I also tell people "Coral are like tree's, the rarely do anything quickly" -- So positive effects may take months to manifest, while negative effects are thankfully instant.

 

[Hemmdog]

And Richard Ross is a marine biologist with years of experience, a phd in marine biology, and in his video you saw his nitrates would go above 100, and phosphates up to 5.0 at some point. He never had any problems, and is a 2 or 3x aquariast of the year. Flown all over the world to talk about what he knows.

_________

Carbonate and Bicarbonate are alkalinity, nutrients are separate (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate) -- But you get the idea! Dana Riddle also had a talk about this, I think he called it "supercharging photosynthesis", in which he found the perfect Alk / DKH was 9.0 as it gave the most photosynthesis and growth. BRS had their own experiment where they found 12 dkh to increase growth by over 60% (measured by coral weight) over 9 dkh.

I tried my Alk at 12, and I won't lie, my corals LOVED it. Growth and color was absurd. BUT, the moment something went wrong (my fault) that 12 alk became an instant liability to them. The only thing that didn't love it were a few mushrooms. Otherwise even my LPS didn't seem to mind at all.

There's a delicate balance of things, where several important factors intersect. Alkalinity, Lighting, Nutrients. You need to find your individual balance with these three elements. For some people it's easy, and for others it's not. One tank with a low alk and low light and high nutrients may brown out, same tank with higher lighting will color up.. But if light is too high for alk you'll get corals stressed out and burning. If alk is too high for nutrient level you'll get the same results. Etc etc etc.

These three things are the largest factor in reefing, to me, and some people can just find the balance by watching closely and connecting the dots, while others just keep struggling. I always refer to reefing as playing detective when it comes to finding out where your balance is, and what works for you, your system, and your type of reefing. You really do have to deconstruct things to give you that 'a ha' moment where it all clicks. And to do that, you must be vigilant to note all the little changes and their effects. This can be challenging, because I also tell people "Coral are like tree's, the rarely do anything quickly" -- So positive effects may take months to manifest, while negative effects are thankfully instant.

Well said !

 

[RichtheReefer21]

And Richard Ross is a marine biologist with years of experience, a phd in marine biology, and in his video you saw his nitrates would go above 100, and phosphates up to 5.0 at some point. He never had any problems, and is a 2 or 3x aquariast of the year. Flown all over the world to talk about what he knows.

_________

Carbonate and Bicarbonate are alkalinity, nutrients are separate (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate) -- But you get the idea! Dana Riddle also had a talk about this, I think he called it "supercharging photosynthesis", in which he found the perfect Alk / DKH was 9.0 as it gave the most photosynthesis and growth. BRS had their own experiment where they found 12 dkh to increase growth by over 60% (measured by coral weight) over 9 dkh.

I tried my Alk at 12, and I won't lie, my corals LOVED it. Growth and color was absurd. BUT, the moment something went wrong (my fault) that 12 alk became an instant liability to them. The only thing that didn't love it were a few mushrooms. Otherwise even my LPS didn't seem to mind at all.

There's a delicate balance of things, where several important factors intersect. Alkalinity, Lighting, Nutrients. You need to find your individual balance with these three elements. For some people it's easy, and for others it's not. One tank with a low alk and low light and high nutrients may brown out, same tank with higher lighting will color up.. But if light is too high for alk you'll get corals stressed out and burning. If alk is too high for nutrient level you'll get the same results. Etc etc etc.

These three things are the largest factor in reefing, to me, and some people can just find the balance by watching closely and connecting the dots, while others just keep struggling. I always refer to reefing as playing detective when it comes to finding out where your balance is, and what works for you, your system, and your type of reefing. You really do have to deconstruct things to give you that 'a ha' moment where it all clicks. And to do that, you must be vigilant to note all the little changes and their effects. This can be challenging, because I also tell people "Coral are like tree's, the rarely do anything quickly" -- So positive effects may take months to manifest, while negative effects are thankfully instant.

Right. Best we can do is try to find the goldilocks zone for our particular specimens we keep. And what we are striving for. I also know of @Dana Riddle 's 9ish dKh zone and I may push mine to 10 and keep the po4 around where it's at now, .18 ish hannah ulr. (See pic above)

I have ZERO sps at the moment, and besides some cheap 10$ live sale pieces I dont have any plans for sps until I can get a b-line on the right balance for my system.

 

[Rakie]

Right. Best we can do is try to find the goldilocks zone for our particular specimens we keep. And what we are striving for. I also know of @Dana Riddle 's 9ish dKh zone and I may push mine to 10 and keep the po4 around where it's at now, .18 ish hannah ulr. (See pic above)

I have ZERO sps at the moment, and besides some cheap 10$ live sale pieces I dont have any plans for sps until I can get a b-line on the right balance for my system.

Well it always gets more complicated and confusing, because lots of people have great success with tanks that don't register nutrients -- typically these are huge and established tanks with large fish, so they test at 0 but have some nutrients floating about.

It all works. I just think for the average person, especially newer to the hobby, having nutrients is a good thing. It's a buffer really, you can make a lot more mistakes when there's nutrients in tank.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Well it always gets more complicated and confusing, because lots of people have great success with tanks that don't register nutrients -- typically these are huge and established tanks with large fish, so they test at 0 but have some nutrients floating about.

It all works. I just think for the average person, especially newer to the hobby, having nutrients is a good thing. It's a buffer really, you can make a lot more mistakes when there's nutrients in tank.

You can also lose all ur sticks in 3 days if something swings the wrong way running uln or close to it.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

@Rakie heres another shot of those acans we were talkin about..

 

[Rakie]

@Rakie heres another shot of those acans we were talkin about..

Yep, my club member saw it on FB too. He told me months ago they were pressuring the guy for a shot of them closed, but he won't take one. All blues + Feeding response is often different color wise. I was hoping it would stay true to it's colors you could see peeking out from under the 'tendrils', apparently that's a 'maybe'.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

○●○●○ Large Update DISCLAIMER ○●○●○


Welp, I've been up since 6am. Decided to let my better half sleep in and got up with Alianna to make her mickey mouse pancakes with pb&j on them. Buttered first. YOU MUST TRY THIS. You'll thank me later.

BlackBerry Jelly is best.

I have noticed my "green flaky slime nuissance algae cyano Blob stuff" I have been battling was stacking up on the left side. I decided 2 days ago that today was demo day.

There just isnt enough flow around the left front corner to the back as the current comes screaming across the sandbed.

Yes I know, 3rd rescape on this left side now. It just needs a couple inches to allow the flow to wrap around the back. Hopefully that will help the nutrients and leftovers from piling up on the rocks just below the gyre. And thus keep the tones in the tank more purple than green

So the left side has been rescaped, again. ;Yuck I'll post pics when the dust settles from D-day.

The gorg was quite happy with my carnage above though

This photo made me call my friend, who restores old furniture and does custom cabinet doors, for a living on his own... I may finally be able to get this fuge on display at night when the DT lights go down. Exciting.

I also did some planned QT upkeep this morning. I figure it's about 26 gallons, so I try to do bi-weekly 30-40% WC's. No skimmer or poly pad, just a 75g dual chamber Aqueon HOB filter packed full of matrix and a sponge at the bottom.

Cleaned it up and gave the filter a shake to knock some detritus loose, and vacuumed the bare bottom during the WC.

Took a stroll through Petco to price compare with my LFS on GFO and meds, foods, etc. And found a thing...
About 2"+ in the store. Had to have it now that Hawaii has joined the Ban Briggade as I call it. $13

Oh, also.. I MAAAAYYYY have replaced the 6 line wrasse...
This was $19.99... havent been able to truly I.D. it yet, its coloration is blended and bland due to stress I'm sure.

@Scurvy I will be contacting u for an i.d. once I get a decent picture of it. It won't hold still. Very chubby and eats 3 different foods so far and he wont take any doodoo from my Satanic Serial Killer Squam...

Firefish is well and recovered. Still gets chased by crazyA periodically. But its brief.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all those FAMILIES that serve. Or have served. Salute, and thanks you for your sacrifices, and those of your role models of past. #murica

 

[Scurvy]

Sweet, Cant wait to see a clear shot of the wrasse! Fuge looks great too!