Tenurepro's Redsea Reefer 250

[tenurepro]

So my nitrates have dropped to zero (undetectable). This coincided with adding chaeto & upgrading fuge light, and moving siporax from low flow to high flow

Here is a video with some ideas about how I went from 5 to 0 ppm nitrates


Curious to hear your thoughts on the matter

 

[tenurepro]

So tank is now 11 month old. Will try to shoot an update video this weekend.
A bit of cyano persists, also, spotting a few more patches of GHA... decided that i needed a few more herbivores, so picked up a tuxedo urchin and a lawnmower blenny. Also contemplating putting my gfo reactor online. Haven't used it for a few months. Just want to stay on top of nutrient export to give my herbivores a chance to catch up with the GHA.

More positive news. Noticed some good growth and color on sps this past month, coinciding with the addition of a third xr15 to the tank. When I added the new light, I cut down max intensity to the original lights from 72 to 65, and started the new light - which was placed in the center, at 55% max; I didn't want to shock the corals. I've been brining the intensity of the middle light slowly to 65, to match the other two; this will be achieved tomorrow. Then I plan to bring all the lights up by a couple of % per week until I see the best colors.

But even with the reduction in intensity on the original lights, the addition of the third light seems to have helped. Check out these pics (iPhone; cropped but not edited)

Red planet last month, this month

RR pink Cadillac, month 10 vs 11

RR orange passion, month 10 vs 11; note new side branches

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tenurepro]

Ora blue voodoo (I think) month 10 vs 11.

Top view of the voodoo from this month; it's getting some very attractive accents in color from bright blue tips to the whitish base

Green slimmer, month 10 vs 11

This slimmer had lost all of its color during nitrate spike 4 month ago... we've come a long way; glad I didn't toss it

 

[tenurepro]

Pink milli month 10 vs 11

Shockaholic, month 10 vs 11

And my favorite; the surreal mystery tort

 

[tenurepro]

11 month update video

 

[tenurepro]

Upgraded my fuge light to this kessil h80. Chaeto Growth from the par38 was less than desirable; I think it may have been too strong in the shallow and small dyi fuge.

 

[Tahoe61]

Fantastic progression. Getting some nice coloration and growth to those acorpora.

 

[pelphrey]

Great build! Following along!

 

[tenurepro]

Fantastic progression. Getting some nice coloration and growth to those acorpora.

Thanks!

 

[tenurepro]

The nitrate dosing experiment!

Ok... this is going to sound a bit crazy but I am going to dose some nitrates to see if they improve sps color.

I've been developing a love/hate relationship with nitrates. First I tried to run the tank clean with undetectable no3 and po4 and the sps were very pale. Then I overfed and stoped water changes, no3 increased but I kept po4 in check with gfo; sps started coloring up when no3 was between 2 to 5 ppm.
Then tank got too dirty, no3 ~ 10 and my sps turned brown real quick. I implemented a new filtration and water change regime and no3 dropped to 2 - 5 ppm and sps looked as awesome as ever. then had a cyano issue which led to a chemiclean treatment, spike in po4, added chaeto/fuge, and now my nitrates are back to 0 ppm and some of my sps are looking pale.
The hardest hit corals appear to be the ones with a green base and red/pink tips.
For example
Red planet - April 18, 5 ppm nitrate

Red planet today - 0 ppm nitrate

Pink lemonade - April 18, 5 ppm nitrates

Same frag now at 0 ppm no3

SSC - April 18 5 ppm no3

SSC now, 0 ppm no3

Some frags look the same though like this pink milli over the same time period

Note that all frags are growing and showing good polyp extension... it's just the color that is leaving something to be desired

So, solutions to improve color - feed more! Well I tried. For the last 3 weeks, I've more the doubled on food. 2 cubes of shrimp instead of one, pellets twice a day vs once, acropower (10 ml) every other day vs once a week or two.. the extra food has resulted in phosphates going up a bit and more algae on the rocks, but no3 has remained undetectable over the same time period?

Why? I think that my tank's filtration is unbalanced; many things that export no3 (dsb, matrix, siporax, chaeto), few that remove po4. (Chaeto and tiny bit of gfo). So overfeeding leads to much higher phosphates relative to nitrates.

So after some debate and a bit of research on nitrate dosing, i've decided to give it a try. I'll start tonight and continue with it for a couple of weeks. Will take pictures and update the thread.

I'll be dosing potassium nitrate. I made a solution of 50 grams in 500 ml rodi. 1 ml of that solution should contain 31,000 mg of nitrates, which should increase no3 in my 220L tank by ~0.3 ppm. I'll start with that and up the dose gradually, aiming for a stable no3 of 2 ppm.

I'll go back to feeding the normal amount of food. Will keep lights, alk and everything else the same...

hope it works! I am optimistic, but I feel that I will blow up in my face (like all of my other attempts to improve things in the tank ah well, I am a curious cat!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Following to see how out continues!

 

[Pongo]

Following. Very curious to see how the corals respond to the dosing.

 

[tenurepro]

Will keep regular update. I did the a 1 ml dose of 0.1 g/ml KNO3 yesterday. It immediately raised my no3 from zero to 0.25 ppm (Redsea test kit), as expected based on concentration of solution and my tank's volume. This morning, the nitrates are back to zero; that's 0.25 ppm of no3 consumed in less than 12 hours. Will up the dose to 2 ml a day and test again tomorrow

 

[tenurepro]

KNO3 update
Nitrates are climbing, slow and steady
Dosed 1 ml of 0.1 g/ml KNO3 on day 1, 2 ml yesterday, and increased it to 3 ml today

Was also curious about potassium which can also influence sps colors. Perhaps my tank's was potassium deficient leading to pale sps? Picked up a salifert kit and found that my tank has potassium = 400 ppm, close to nsw. Will continue to monitor it as KNO3 dosing will increase both nitrate and potassium.

In terms of effects on tank; nothing obvious. I perhaps detect the slightest hint of brightness in the green Christmas monti and the pink lemonade, but that is probably wishful thinking. Will take some pics next week.

 

[tenurepro]

KNO3 - 1 wk dosing update
A bit early but had detectable nitrates for the past week. Started with 1 ml/day 0.1 g/ml KNO3 on day 1, then 2 ml on day 2, then 3 ml/day, but then cut it back to 2ml/day once I hit 1.5ppm NO3. Today levels dropped a bit to 0.75 ppm; I'll test again tomorrow before deciding to go to 3 ml/day.

Tank appearance. A bit more GHA on a few spots that already had GHA but is not what I call a bloom. About 2 days in, I noted that buildup of algae on glass was very slow. Glass was essentially clear for a good 3 days once nitrates hit 1 ppm. I am not sure what to make of this but I did note this pattern of exceptionally clear glass before. It's been a harbinger of change for me. It happened when I started vibrant before onset of cyano bloom; it happend after dosing chemiclean, before my nitrates went from 5 ppm to undetectable. My hypothesis is that I am somehow resetting the nutrient balance in the tank, which leads to shifts in the algae that is growing in the tank... stuff to think about

I can see some subtle improvements in sps color. Mind the crappy iPhone pic, with their random auto balance.
Here is red planet @ 0 ppm no3

And red planet at ~ 1 ppm no3

Pink lemonade also showed a slight improvement
0 ppm

~1 ppm

SSC @ 0 ppm

SSC @ 1 ppm

I think I will keep the tank around 1 ppm for another week, then see if I should push it higher


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pongo]

This is good stuff, thanks for the thorough documenting and pics.

 

[tenurepro]

2 vs 3 Radion Par comparison!!
I should have done this sooner. I was running the tank with 2 x radion xr15 gen 3 with the 120 wide angle lens. I picked up a third xr15 about 2 months ago and spaced the lights evenly across the tank. The old lights were running at 70% max intensity in the sps ab program. I dropped them to 65 and set the mid one to 45%. I slowly brought the middle light from 45 to 65 over a month, then brought all three lights to 67%. I was curious about par with three lights so I measured with the Seneye and did a comparison.

Wow. What a difference!

2 xr15 at 70%

3 xr15 at 67%

You will note 2 things
1) par increased everywhere in the tank
2) par is more even in the tank

The latter is very important I think. Almost all of the acros are in lower range of the sweet spot! And I am only at 67%. With the two lights, increasing the intensity would only exacerbate the spotlight effect.

I really think it's important to consider more than two point source leds for the reefer 250 if acros are your target

 

[tenurepro]

Yay! The reef is now one year old! Thanks to all of you for helping my journey, giving helpful advice, and listening to my ramblings about the tank!
[emoji485][emoji482][emoji485][emoji482][emoji481]
One year update

 

[tenurepro]

Things are going well. Growth is good and colors are decent.

I am continuing my potassium nitrate dosing, but still maintains the levels between 1 to 2 ppm. Two interesting observations. Potassium did increase after one week of dosing but has held stable at 420 ppm since. Thanks this suggest that my tank consumes about 14 mls worth of 0.1 g/l KNO3 per week.
Second observation, the bits of cyano on the sand are declining, but GHA is definitely increasing. While it is not taking over the tank, the few patches of GHA appear to be getting thicker. I got a few more snails and will likely get a few more next week to manage the situation. Hoping the chaeto in the fuge will start growing faster.
In an effort to keep the algae under control, I picked up a small kole tang. He is in the qt. He finished two rounds of prazi and is on the first week of copper. He'll go into the DT in two weeks if all works well.
I had wanted to pump nitrates to 5 ppm, but with the GHA on the verge of going out of control, I will wait for fuge/coc/tang to manage it before ramping up KNO3 dosing.

Bought a new frag - sunset millipora. Very nice colors.

Gave the sump a good cleanup; cleaned up vectra and bubble king mini 160. Oddly, the skimmer got considerably quieter - about 10 to 15 dbs! I must have had something not connected well!

One last thing - I am trying out the new seachem salt. I used to use instant ocean. No major complains with IO you really need to mix the buckets well and the sand is very fine and gets into the air when mixing. The seachem salt has large crystals which don't generate any dust and dissolve really well which is a plus

 

[tenurepro]

A little problem...
Was away on a little vacation; noted that my skimmer was filling up to fast on Sat so turned it off via apex.
Come home Monday to a bleached strawberry shortcake frag [emoji33]
Tested parameters and all looked good
Today woke up to this

All my black footed snails are spawning turning the water very cloudy.

I wonder if that is the cause of the frag RTNing and dying. Mass spawn -> high organic load, bacteria, low oxygen (turning off the skimmer didn't help) > frag dying

Any tips on how to deal with this would be great. I did a couple of little water changes, will plan to do a few more