Slow and steady 40b Build

lpsouth1978 · Mar 16, 2021

I decided I needed some more color in my reef, so started hunting the web for some amazing corals. I ended up finding them @ World Wide Corals. I placed an order for 6 frags that I am VERY excited about. They are scheduled to be delivered Friday. I can't wait!!

lpsouth1978 · Mar 19, 2021

The tank is doing well and everything seems happy!! I am currently waiting for my new corals to arrive from WWC. Could be here any minute.

While I wait, I thought I would work on testing and minor maintenance like cleaning the skimmer cup and changing the filter floss.

My concern right now is with the Alk. I tested it using a Hanna dkH checker and got a result of 5.8. This seems really low to me since I do weekly 20% water changes using HW Marinemix Reefer, the tank is still young and has no carraline yet, and only a few corals, so uptake should be quite low. I thought maybe it was an old/bad reagent so I opened a brand new reagent and tested again. This time It said 5.3. HUH??

Right now I am making fresh saltwater and will test that once it is fully mixed. If I get a low reading from that, then I will assume the checker is out of calibration. THe next step after that would be to take a water sample to the LFS to have them test it as well. If their test shows low also, then it would likely mean the salt has a very low Alk.

I hope I can get to the bottom of it quickly!!

lpsouth1978 · Mar 21, 2021

Things are going great. I am getting my Alk back to where it should be. It seems that my corals are simply consuming a lot more than I expected. My fresh saltwater tested @8dkH, so I have set up my doser to raise the tanks Alk to 8 over the course of a few days. Everything seems happy and open, so I will continue to slowly move things in the right direction.

I also added a number of new frags this weekend. Off course the ones I ordered from WWC. Frags purchased online are always somewhat disappointing to me because they are ALWAYS way smaller than I imagine. The colors are great, and I love the frags, was just hoping for a little larger. I also purchased a couple of small gorgonian frags this weekend. I have placed all of the frags on a frag rack for now, but will move them to more permanent locations once I know they are happy and have adapted to my system.

Here are a few pictures taken this evening. Some things are slightly closed up because the lights were almost out. I turned them up for the pictures.

lpsouth1978 · Apr 1, 2021

I'm hoping I can get some help from all of you. I am having trouble keeping my P04 down. It has been steadily climbing despite everything. The system was setup using dry rock that was previously used in my 200 and cycled for 2+ months in a brute, so I don't think the rocks are leaching it. I have barely any algae anywhere in the system, just enough that my Tomini stays happy and fat.

I feed pretty light, I would really like to be able to feed more. I will usually feed a small amount of LRS Fish Frenzy, Herbivore Frenzy, and/or Mysis 4-5 times a week. Approx = 1/2 cube of Mysis each feeding. I also feed a ~2" square if Nori 2-3x/week.

My skimmer runs 24/7. I use filter floss instead of socks and change it 2-3x/week. I also have a small bag of Chemipure Elite and a bag of Chemipure Blue in the filter floss tray.

Params -

Temp - 78.3 (Inkbird & Seneye)
SG - 1.026 (Digital & standard refractometers)
pH - 8.0 - (Seneye)
Alk - 7.4 (Hannah dkH)
Ca - 440 (Red Sea Pro)
Mag - 1350 (Aqua Forest)
P04 - 0.18 (Hannah ULR Phosphate)
N03 - 12-15 (Nyos)

Please let me know how you would suggest I get, and keep, my P04 down. I am hoping to stay away from a reactor because I don't really have space for one. Any help is appreciated.

lpsouth1978 · Apr 18, 2021

Looks like it has been a couple of weeks since my last update. The tank is doing amazing. I ended up adding a BRS dual canister GFO/Carbon reactor with BRS High Capacity GFO and ROX 0.8 Carbon. I only used half the GFO BRS recommends because my PO4 wasn't crazy high and I don't want to strip it completely. It has only been running for a few days but it seems to be a good amount. My params a few minutes ago were:

Temp = 77.5
pH = 8.38
Alk = 7.7
Cal = 430
P04 = 0.03
N03 = 10
Mag = didn't test

I also added 14 new corals from the AquaSD sale last weekend. I actually ordered 13, but they threw in a freebie, a 2 head duncan frag. All of the previous frags were moved to the rocks after 2 weeks on the frag rack. Some had started encrusting onto the frag rack after only 2 weeks in the tank. The new frags are now on the frag rack, where I plan for them to stay for a couple of weeks before moving them to the rocks as well.

Here are some pics. I apologize for the odd purple color, my lens filter made gave kind of a purple color to everything that is white. The corals are all pretty close to what I see though.