BoomCorals
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The Journey - Reboot of the 120
- Thread starter pdiehm
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pdiehm
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Ok, I made a conscious effort to do as little to my tank as possible over the last 3 months.
At last update, my Purple/Green slimer was brown (yuck). and I was moving into the red sea care program, using the growth recipe. Before I get into that, my green slimer is starting to turn green again, and most everything looks to be doing good. There's some pieces not so good, but that's reefing isnt it?
My last test was at 8.8 dkh, 3 NO3, 0.01 PO4, 445 Calcium and 1400 magnesium, changing 12.5 (approx) gallons per week.
Now my thoughts on the Red Sea Reef Care Program. It didn't work for me. I took about 8 weeks or so to get my alkalinity from 8.5ish to 12.5ish. The corals just didn't like that high of Alk. My Sunset monti retracted, my rainbow stylophora retracted, and others just didn't look right. It could be that I just couldn't get the dosing amounts right, but, who knows...
Since I've went back to the 9.0 dkh/430-450 Calcium/1400 magnesium, my corals have responded much better. The stylophora is out at all hours except night, the sunset is out all the time, the slimer is turning green again, and my cliff's acro may or may not make it. that's a TBD. Red Sea recommends NO3 of 1ppm, and PO4 of 0.01. Even using NO3PO4-x, I can't get my NO3 down to under 3ppm (dosing 10ml per day).
I'm sure the program works. It didn't for me. I'm back to the BRS 2 part, Red Sea Colors, and Reef Energy A & B. Once the Coral Pro salt is done, i'll move back to good ole Instant Ocean (unless Fritz salts have become more consistent). I'm dosing 24ml of 2 part daily right now, and am starting to look at adding another group of 4-5 SPS frags into the tank.
One last thing, the light. My Photon 48 continues to the bain of my existance. I'm running their sps program where it's on for 6 hours at 80% blue, 36% white, 1 hour of 50% blue on each end, and 1 hour of 20% blue on each end for a 10 hour light cycle. If you ask me what light I'll have this time next year...I'll probably say T5, 6 x80W (3 blue+, 1 actinic, 1 purple plus and 1 coral plus). I'm just seeing zero coral growth with the photon 48. I wonder if @Reef Breeders has any advice.
That's all for right now
At last update, my Purple/Green slimer was brown (yuck). and I was moving into the red sea care program, using the growth recipe. Before I get into that, my green slimer is starting to turn green again, and most everything looks to be doing good. There's some pieces not so good, but that's reefing isnt it?
My last test was at 8.8 dkh, 3 NO3, 0.01 PO4, 445 Calcium and 1400 magnesium, changing 12.5 (approx) gallons per week.
Now my thoughts on the Red Sea Reef Care Program. It didn't work for me. I took about 8 weeks or so to get my alkalinity from 8.5ish to 12.5ish. The corals just didn't like that high of Alk. My Sunset monti retracted, my rainbow stylophora retracted, and others just didn't look right. It could be that I just couldn't get the dosing amounts right, but, who knows...
Since I've went back to the 9.0 dkh/430-450 Calcium/1400 magnesium, my corals have responded much better. The stylophora is out at all hours except night, the sunset is out all the time, the slimer is turning green again, and my cliff's acro may or may not make it. that's a TBD. Red Sea recommends NO3 of 1ppm, and PO4 of 0.01. Even using NO3PO4-x, I can't get my NO3 down to under 3ppm (dosing 10ml per day).
I'm sure the program works. It didn't for me. I'm back to the BRS 2 part, Red Sea Colors, and Reef Energy A & B. Once the Coral Pro salt is done, i'll move back to good ole Instant Ocean (unless Fritz salts have become more consistent). I'm dosing 24ml of 2 part daily right now, and am starting to look at adding another group of 4-5 SPS frags into the tank.
One last thing, the light. My Photon 48 continues to the bain of my existance. I'm running their sps program where it's on for 6 hours at 80% blue, 36% white, 1 hour of 50% blue on each end, and 1 hour of 20% blue on each end for a 10 hour light cycle. If you ask me what light I'll have this time next year...I'll probably say T5, 6 x80W (3 blue+, 1 actinic, 1 purple plus and 1 coral plus). I'm just seeing zero coral growth with the photon 48. I wonder if @Reef Breeders has any advice.
That's all for right now
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
Todays tests: 9.4 alk/440 calcium/1440 magnesium/2 NO3/0 PO4.
The slimer is turning more and more green every day. the slime on the rocks is disappearing more and more every day. lowered the light from 80/36 to 80/30. will take par readings right now.
The slimer is turning more and more green every day. the slime on the rocks is disappearing more and more every day. lowered the light from 80/36 to 80/30. will take par readings right now.
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
Par readings were too low. At 100/36 they are:
Green slimer in the 330 range
Cliffs in the 260-280
Nauti in the 200 range
Sunset Montipora in the 320 area
Rainbow stylophora in the 200-220 area.
Green slimer in the 330 range
Cliffs in the 260-280
Nauti in the 200 range
Sunset Montipora in the 320 area
Rainbow stylophora in the 200-220 area.
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
Tested today for first time in 2 weeks.
Things look good! Still trying to dial in my 2part but things are doing awesome...well for me.
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78.4
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: *8.6 (will retest at 9pm like I usually do)
Cal: 440
Mg: 1360
NO3: ~4ppm
PO4: 0
Ideally trying to run this at 8.0 alk, but has been 8.2-8.3 recently.
Seeing all kinds of coralline growing now. Good growth on my stylophora, the cliffs acro from @BoomCorals broke off the plug but has since encrusted the plug completely and seeing little spikes of growth upwards. Another piece that broke off is turning green and hoping that it encrusts the section that lost flesh over time. My encrusting nauti is looking really good, and the sunset montipora is on an encrusting mission. Things aren’t growing fast but they are growing. My purple/green slimer also from @BoomCorals is fully green though I don’t ever see the polyps out. It was brown about 2 months ago.
Been about 6 months since I put these in, and tank been up since July. Haven’t changed much but I have my LED’s to come on and off. No ramping and I stopped putting my hands in the tank unless I am blowing off the rocks. Nitrates are a little high (would like to run at 1-2) but am ok with them there.
First time I had sand, massive failure. No sand this time, one less variable to account for and working like a charm.
Things look good! Still trying to dial in my 2part but things are doing awesome...well for me.
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78.4
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: *8.6 (will retest at 9pm like I usually do)
Cal: 440
Mg: 1360
NO3: ~4ppm
PO4: 0
Ideally trying to run this at 8.0 alk, but has been 8.2-8.3 recently.
Seeing all kinds of coralline growing now. Good growth on my stylophora, the cliffs acro from @BoomCorals broke off the plug but has since encrusted the plug completely and seeing little spikes of growth upwards. Another piece that broke off is turning green and hoping that it encrusts the section that lost flesh over time. My encrusting nauti is looking really good, and the sunset montipora is on an encrusting mission. Things aren’t growing fast but they are growing. My purple/green slimer also from @BoomCorals is fully green though I don’t ever see the polyps out. It was brown about 2 months ago.
Been about 6 months since I put these in, and tank been up since July. Haven’t changed much but I have my LED’s to come on and off. No ramping and I stopped putting my hands in the tank unless I am blowing off the rocks. Nitrates are a little high (would like to run at 1-2) but am ok with them there.
First time I had sand, massive failure. No sand this time, one less variable to account for and working like a charm.
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How's it going @pdiehm? Hope all is well with your reef!
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
Everything is alive. I'm battling some slime algae on my rockwork, and was recommended to try Waste Away. With baseball coaching and work, there has not been much time to add new stuff. Things are growing, albeit slowly. My fish are mostly happy and fat, and are eating about every other day.
My slime algae is not dino's as my trochus snails are still very much alive and kicking. I will probably add about 5-6 more in the near future when I order some corals. There's really no where local anymore to buy cheap corals, and I hate to pay for shipping (I'm cheap like that).
As of the last round of tests, salinity was 1.025, alk was 8.5, Calcium was 440 and magnesium was 1400. My nitrates were 4-ish and PO4 was 0.01.
No clue how I'm getting that algae based on those parameters. I'm changing out filter socks every 3 days or so, though I'm seriously contemplating just removing them all together.
My slime algae is not dino's as my trochus snails are still very much alive and kicking. I will probably add about 5-6 more in the near future when I order some corals. There's really no where local anymore to buy cheap corals, and I hate to pay for shipping (I'm cheap like that).
As of the last round of tests, salinity was 1.025, alk was 8.5, Calcium was 440 and magnesium was 1400. My nitrates were 4-ish and PO4 was 0.01.
No clue how I'm getting that algae based on those parameters. I'm changing out filter socks every 3 days or so, though I'm seriously contemplating just removing them all together.
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
I haven't been updating much because things have been doing awesome.
That is until the last 10 days or so. After 9 months or so everything has suddenly turned for the worst. My Sunset monti is losing flesh like there's no tomorrow, my cliffs acro's are browning out, the nauti is showing spots of whiteness, slimer is back to brown, and my stylophora is not as extended.
Not sure why. I have been dealing with this brown slimy/peach fuzzish algae on my rocks, and was advised to try using Waste Away. The algae issue has not gotten any better in a month, and I'm changing my GFO out every 2 weeks. No change.
So, at this point, I'm not sure what is going on, my parameters are rock solid (pH 8.2-8.3, Alk 8.6, CA 440, Mg 1400, NO3 4-ish, PO4 0.02). Only thing I can think of is i have a false positive reading with NO3 and PO4.
I have 30gallons to make, and probably will do 30g changes (approx 25%) every week for a month or so.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If this batch of corals doesn't make it, I'll just do a FOWLR system. This was my final attempt at keeping corals.
That is until the last 10 days or so. After 9 months or so everything has suddenly turned for the worst. My Sunset monti is losing flesh like there's no tomorrow, my cliffs acro's are browning out, the nauti is showing spots of whiteness, slimer is back to brown, and my stylophora is not as extended.
Not sure why. I have been dealing with this brown slimy/peach fuzzish algae on my rocks, and was advised to try using Waste Away. The algae issue has not gotten any better in a month, and I'm changing my GFO out every 2 weeks. No change.
So, at this point, I'm not sure what is going on, my parameters are rock solid (pH 8.2-8.3, Alk 8.6, CA 440, Mg 1400, NO3 4-ish, PO4 0.02). Only thing I can think of is i have a false positive reading with NO3 and PO4.
I have 30gallons to make, and probably will do 30g changes (approx 25%) every week for a month or so.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If this batch of corals doesn't make it, I'll just do a FOWLR system. This was my final attempt at keeping corals.
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
have you checked your salinity? calibrate and test could be the issue.
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
also is bleaching occurring. i think I remember reading somewhere that if too much light acros will brown out due to the zozanthelle over producing and the color pigments of the corals can't keep up. or it was the other way around where if there is too little light the zozanthelle are overproducing and the pigments can't keep up. Or I am totally wrong lol
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pdiehm
Valuable Member
I will do that when I get home. I tested that last week at 1.026.
Bleaching is not happening. This is most definitely tissue loss, as you can see it flaking. I'm going to prep for a 50% water change this weekend. and in August/September do an ICP test.
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
make sure it is calibrated.
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
make sure to calibrate
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
run some carbon could be a contamination issue. seems like chemistry is goid. what is ur fish list?
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