Rags2Riches - The Learning Curve. 125g

[RichtheReefer21]

I think your fine with a Nitrate of 20, mine won’t budge from there and it’s been sitting there for ages (years). I would prefer around 10 but with the amount of fish I have it’s never going to be low.

I’ve always found phosphate to be the cause of issues and that’s why I keep it locked down <0.1 and try to keep it around 0.03. It prevents unwanted ‘things’ growing.

And if you want to start dosing just go shopping and get some more corals

And great pictures Rich!

Yea the no3 isnt too worrisome. I'll give the po4 another week and if I dont see a steady decline trending, I'll go get fresh gfo and carbon. Which by all rights I shouldve done already. The tank attention has declined from the new job. But it's no excuse.

Fragtoberfest is 2 weeks out. Might try to work some deals again. Cash flow is tight.

Loving the coral progression pics. They're all looking great! Especially for a relatively short time on some.

Thanks. I'm overall happy with where the system is at. Not going to get crazy over 1 thing being off a bit.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Movie night with my better half. She had a rough day, so I prepared appropriately in case of an emergency...

Cheers friends.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Tested.

No3 still solid at 20.
Ph 8.0
Sg 1.025

Po4 down to .30. Still declining on it's own without wc's. About .03 per week. Would like to get back down under .2 . May be grabbing some fresh carbon and phosguard this week. Seems that cutting the NewLife Spectrum pellets out has fixed the issue.

Dkh : 7.8

Theres the drop I've been waiting to see.

Ca also down to 420

Mg still over 1560 though.

So now, it's time for another learning curve. Would love some input and recommendations for dosing. Kalkwasser? 2part? Trace elements? Red sea? Ati? AF?

I have the seachem dry powders to dose manually. But that wont cover trace elements as time passes. Am I better off doing a water change to bring levels back up for now and monitor for a few more weeks before attempting dosing or should I just try to bring the levels back up manually in the interim?

Fire away friends!
Happy sunday all!

 

[najer]

I will send you the remains of a pot of phosguard, tried it once, it is very harsh / efficient, go careful with it.

 

[Fudsey]

You can drip kalk easily using a 1 gallon jug, some airline tubing and a airline shutoff valve. That's what I was doing before things went haywire with dosing. No need for a dosing pump this way. Just a slow 1 drip/sec or less is all I was doing. Helps keep pH, Ca and Alk up.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

I will send you the remains of a pot of phosguard, tried it once, it is very harsh / efficient, go careful with it.

It's what I have been using all along. Just havent changed it in a few months. Guess its time. I used about a handful in a bag under my primary drain in the sump. Built in low flow reactor in my mind.

You can drip kalk easily using a 1 gallon jug, some airline tubing and a airline shutoff valve. That's what I was doing before things went haywire with dosing. No need for a dosing pump this way. Just a slow 1 drip/sec or less is all I was doing. Helps keep pH, Ca and Alk up.

At what point will I know it's not enough anymore? What's the max amount I should be allowing in before I turn to dosing?

 

[Fudsey]

Both good questions and I was using about 1 gallon every 4 days and dosing so I can't say.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Both good questions and I was using about 1 gallon every 4 days and dosing so I can't say.

Ok. Thanks for the help. 1 gallon every 4 days seems like a lot, no?

Heres what I got from the seachem calculator for the reef builder powder i have for dosing dkh..

Should I split this into say, 2 doses? Half tonight and half tomorrow night? I need to do some research and I'm being lazy. Hehe.

 

[Fudsey]

You can dose up to 1 dkH at one time but that should be the at most dose.

Kalk doesn't raise your alk and ca as much as 2 part does. And 1 gallon of RODI with only a heaping teaspoon of kalk doesn't add much of the kalk at a time. I have had it last longer and not noticed a big difference in my numbers.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Good evenin' folks... got a lot to update as I didnt work today due to lack of it. Sadly... the positive is that I got my inner reef-geek juices flowing and I'm satisfied with a days work.

I'll break the update up a bit. First up, the geek update.

I manual dosed Reef Builder Dkh buffer according to Seachems' calculator, and tested today.. dKh was 7.8 yesterday, the goal was 8.4, and I landed at 8.5. I'll take it

Ca had also shown a drop of 30ppm and used to calculator again today, 8.5 Teaspoons to get to 450 according to Seachem. Will test tomorrow night to see if it worked as well.

I dont want to overthink it. Kalkwasser may be the answer. I just dont have anywhere to hook up the doser in a manner that I will be happy with. (Hidden from view) the 18g ATO resevoir takes up 1/3 of the available space below, and sits tight against the sump.

I am seriously debating taking down the power console cabinet and follow with a rebuild below in order to incorporate the doser, and containers to come.

Just not sure if it's worth the effort considering my system has an expiration date coming. I still have not set my foot down on when I am leaving for sure.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Update part 2.

The lepto and pavona were starting to growing out across the acrylic rack..

So out came the bone cutters, gel glue, and razor blade.. and then I had a recollection and some Halloween inspiration overtook me...
I decided to pull out the BoneYard Bucket (stole that from @Retro Reefer ) and glued the lepto to an old fungia plate I failed to keep last year during the curve. Thought it would be cool to see how to grows over the skeleton.

The pavona got an upgrade to a suite disk.

@Fudsey the trachy is not looking great. I fear slow bleaching.

I might be up near u Friday to check out a halloween farm thingy I've heard good stuff about. I might swallow my pride and let u care for it, maybe itll make a comeback in ur box since ur others do so well... I'd hate to see it die because I'm stubborn. ;Sorry

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Update part 3.

Joker blasto babies I can count 4 green mouths as of now.

JF Stargazers are doing great even though I lost a few single frags I made last session.

My favia is finally spreading down onto the plate I have had it on for 3 months.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

And of course I had to save the best for last...

Target feeding Dendro babies
30 mins @ 16x. Flow comes back on at :30.


That's all for tonight. Cheers all.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Awesome shots and video!

 

[Retro Reefer]

Update part 3.

Joker blasto babies I can count 4 green mouths as of now.

JF Stargazers are doing great even though I lost a few single frags I made last session.

My favia is finally spreading down onto the plate I have had it on for 3 months.

beautiful pictures, love the stargazers!

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Awesome shots and video!

beautiful pictures, love the stargazers!

Thanks guys. Wanna see the DIY tripod setup for timelapses?

I squeeze my phone between the heal and tongue of my newbies and it works perfect. ;Hilarious

 

[Crabby48]

Great pics. So many great pieces. Pavona and blasto for my top pic

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Great pics. So many great pieces. Pavona and blasto for my top pic

Thanks don. I'm loving the growth pattern the pavona is taking on. And the joker is nice, but me wants a black widow blasto. Will be checking in with Kyle from Back Woods Reef for it prior to fragtoberfest Saturday.

 

[Crabby48]

Thanks don. I'm loving the growth pattern the pavona is taking on. And the joker is nice, but me wants a black widow blasto. Will be checking in with Kyle from Back Woods Reef for it prior to fragtoberfest Saturday.

I like your taste!

pavona’s growth pattern is what caught my eye. Lighting and shadowing brings out the patterns Nicely in the picture

My trachy started to head south hoped to save it but wish I brought it back to LFS to be saved.props to you

 

[Raege]

Looking good Lewis