Roger's NUVO INT 75G

[rahger]

Holy Moly it's been a minute.

Updates since the last post:
1. I got the GHL running for the most part, I still have no idea how the PL works and I'm afraid to mess with it in case I mess up what I have running.
2. I have collected quite a bit of coral from various places: TSA, Cherry Corals, FOH (never again, do not order from there), the DD at LiveAquaria, and from a few friends.
3. I added some new fish as my original few did not make it sadly. Current fish list: potter's angelfish, yellow eye kole tang, 2x black ice clowns, juvenile melanarus wrasse.
4. ran interceptor through the tank to combat a red bug out break

Some thoughts about the 21 month process so far:
1. I don't like pure LED. I had my last tank on pure T5 and everything looked and grew so much better. Maybe it's the photographer in me, but I'm very close to selling the 2 xr30s and do a 2x XR15 + 4T5 hybrid.
2. redbugs suck. that's all on that one
3. My color on the SPS hasn't been ideal. Trying to figure out what the cause is. Parameters: 8.3-8.5alk, 420-440Ca, 1280Mg, 1.026SG, 0.07PO4, no idea what nitrate is. I dose a lot of KZ supplements and AB+, but color doesn't seem to be very good on most of the SPS.

 

[rahger]

Still chugging along.
alk dropped a bit. Got lazy with testing.

some sps are in a stall mode. I’ve had a paletta pink tip that’s been 1/2” for almost 18 months. :/

 

[rahger]

HELLO IT'S BEEN A YEAR.


My tank crashed in February 2022. I think it was a combination of bad TM Pro salt and climbing alk from dosing nitrates.
The reason I think it was the TM Pro is i did my normal WC and things looked a little stressed, did some testing realized alk was climbing trough the roof and tried to combat that with WCs. Within 24 hours everything died. Even the corraline.

BUT I'M BACK.

Nothing survived except the torches, a hammer, a frogspawn, and some zoas. So that was fun. I started to neglect the tank a lot and finally decided to basically reboot it. I ditched the rock, rebuilt an aquascape. Then once again lost interest and it was covered in hair algae. A few months later another spark happened and I got a good CUC and managed to get the algae under control. Tried a few corals which did okay, but I was always scared to add more.


Here's all the changes:
changed salts to Brightwell aquatics neo-marine, TM Pro really let me down. I'm convinced that's what caused the crash.
new aquascape, trialed a bonsai-esque but the fish kept fighting so I added more arches.

algae outbreak > beefed up CUC with urchins, turbos, etc.
hair algae went away
currently having a bubble algae outbreak. I ordered emeralds and upped my reactor size
I boxed up the GHL cause I had no faith in it
Ordered and apex with a trident
Ordered some LPS/softies from WWC
Ordered some Trial SPS from TSA
Upgraded my heaters to Helio

I’m excited to walk by my tank again. I would have friends over and would actively keep them away from the basement because I resented the tank that much. Coralline is popping off, LPS look super fluffy and alk/ca has been pretty stable since I stopped dosing phyto. Dosing phyto was causing my alk to climb, which I still cant figure out why.

Will take some good nikon pics today.

 

[rahger]

I'm bad at updating this thread.

Here's a run down:
1. alk problem that i posted about here never really got solved. A lot of potential answers, but nothing super concrete where i was like "I stopped/started doing this and my alk stopped being weird" I decided to just let it go and it finally stopped climbing at 8.8-9.2. I'm starting to think there is some sort of a balance between NP and the alk stability, but I don't know enough about it to have any concrete proof.
2. Things really started to recover. I stopped dosing the phyto and went back to the basics with just AAs and KZ (PE, CV, and AA LPS). Also started feeding a lot more.
3. I bought a house!
4. I moved the tank.

I have some cable management and stuff to do, so the tank is kinda gross looking right now, but here's the picture from right before the move:

 

[rahger]

Here it is as of yesterday. Still need to make the area look a little nicer

 

[rahger]

some macro pics for ya

 

[rahger]

September 4, 2023 Full Tank Shot

 

[rahger]

Color and growth is doing so good! Finally! This tank is back on track!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Your tank is looking great!

 

[rahger]

Your tank is looking great!

thank you, it's been a huge roller coaster, it's so nice to see it doing well but also kinda hard to just let it go without tinkering.

 

[rahger]

Little update: things are going good. Ordered 5 more corals from cultivated reef and dipped them. Kinda shocked how many critters bounced off the corals. Hopefully none of them were redbugs.

Question for you SPS nerds, most of my green, purple, and blue corals are doing really well but my red ones seem kind of drab. Here's paramaters:
Ca: 400
alk: 8.75
mg: 1340
no3: 12
po4: 0.05
SG: 1.026
temp: 78.0-78.3
pH: 8.1-8.38

flow is 2 mp40s 25% on reefcrest (really want to increase this but my LPS get thrashed)
lighting is 2 xr15 g4 pros running AB+ at 55%

 

[rahger]

some top downs of my faves.

 

[PizzaIan339]

Tank looks awesome what is the fish stocking? I’ll be following along!!!!

 

[rahger]

Tank looks awesome what is the fish stocking? I’ll be following along!!!!

thanks so much, it's been quite the learning experience so far.
The fish I have are:
2 frostbite clowns
1 melanarus wrasse
1 yellow eye kole tang
1 potter's angelfish
1 diamond goby

 

[rahger]

Quick pic I snapped tonight!

 

[PizzaIan339]

Quick pic I snapped tonight!

Awesome scape!

 

[rahger]

Awesome scape!

Thanks! It used to be a lot more bonsai-esque but the fish keep squabbling so I made more connections to the ground for arches and to break line of sight. I think it turned out good. Except there's some zipties I need to cover in epoxy so don't look too close

 

[rahger]

Question for the masses:

I have visible growth with encrustation, tips, new LPS heads, corraline but my calcium and alkalinity haven’t dropped in 2 months since I moved the tank. How is this possible??

I have a trident and I’ve confirmed levels with RS, Salifert, and ICP tests along the way just to make sure.

 

[rahger]

Need some alk help.

It won't drop. I see visible growth tips on most/all SPS, and corralline is growing on the back wall like crazy. The wierd thing is my alk will not drop. Calcium will drop about 10ppm every 2-3 days, but alk doesn't budge. I thought it was just testing error, but after seeing how much growth I'm getting I am really starting to doubt its testing error.

It's been between 8.6 and 8.9 since I august 15. wouldn't I see some sort of consumption?

 

[rahger]

Question for the masses:

I have visible growth with encrustation, tips, new LPS heads, corraline but my calcium and alkalinity haven’t dropped in 2 months since I moved the tank. How is this possible??

I have a trident and I’ve confirmed levels with RS, Salifert, and ICP tests along the way just to make sure.

Need some alk help.

It won't drop. I see visible growth tips on most/all SPS, and corralline is growing on the back wall like crazy. The wierd thing is my alk will not drop. Calcium will drop about 10ppm every 2-3 days, but alk doesn't budge. I thought it was just testing error, but after seeing how much growth I'm getting I am really starting to doubt its testing error.

It's been between 8.6 and 8.9 since I august 15. wouldn't I see some sort of consumption?

any advice?