The Upgrade Build... From 110 to 180

[Dj City]

I have a cover over my overflow but I will check it anyway.

I just removed the carbon, turned off the skimmer and dosed PraziPro. I don't know if this is needed but if it's flukes or some other external parasite as i'm beginning to suspect it may be, The PraziPro should help.

 

[Dj City]

On a good note,

My Timor Wrasse made an appearance.
Guess he just had a long night and decided to sleep in this morning.

 

[Dj City]

Ain't this something!

I use the Reefbot to test nitrate and phosphate.
Very reliable machine as long as you have reagent in it.
I use Tropic Marin n03 in the reefbot for nitrate and red sea for phosphate.

I had unknowingly run out of the "A" reagent for the tropic Marin.

I refilled it and WOW.
I have at least 20ppm nitrate! I think it's higher than 20ppm but the test taps out at 20ppm.

I was feeding super heavy and using a LOT of polyp booster and amino acids to get my levels up.

It worked!
Now I have to get my levels back down.

 

[Dj City]

Since adding the 1st dose of Prazipro, I have not seen the Yellow Flanked Wrasse do anything "weird". He has been swimming normally and eating with gusto.

I will be adding my 2nd dose of Prazipro on friday, 7 days after the 1st dose to kill off any eggs or whatever may have been missed with the 1st dose.

Of course the skimmer has been going crazy since I dosed and I expect that to be the case for about the next 2 or 3 weeks.
Reef looks like crap right now because of the med and the skimmer overflowing.

 

[Dj City]

ICP test results came in.

Looking pretty good overall but...

Bromine is high
Iodine is low
Nitrate is high (No surprise)

 

[Dj City]

ok...

My nitrates say they are back down to 5ppm.
That was pretty quick.
Phosphates are being tested now. I'm expecting 0.12ppm. I will adjust it if it's that high.
I'm happy enough with 5ppm nitrate. would be happier with 3ppm but 5ppm will do.

I will update once the phosphate test is complete.

 

[Dj City]

Ugggggh.

Internet issues. Phosphate test did not load because of a bad internet connection.

I will test again tomorrow.

 

[Dj City]

This morning I dosed the 2nd round of Prazipro. I should be able to put carbon in next Thursday to start removing the meds.
I purchased a 7 inch filter sock holder and a 5 micron filter sock. I also have two 1 micron filter socks on the way.
next week, I will put the carbon in a mesh bag and put that into the filter sock. This should REALLY get all the meds out and super polish the water.
I know I will be cleaning the filter sock daily but the sock is just a temporary thing. I will be going back to my Clarisea SK-5000 but I want to try to get ahead of the floating particles in the water that the goby kicks up. The 1 micron and 5 micron socks might be too aggressive but they should work. If they prove to be too small, I will try a 25 micron. If that's too small, I will try a 50 micron.
Once I have the reef CRYSTAL CLEAR, I will re-install the Clarisea SK-5000.

I tested nitrates and phosphates today and they are looking good.

Phosphate tested at 0.04ppm
Nitrate tested at 5ppm
Alk 8.44
Cal 469
Mag 1380

 

[Dj City]

The filter sock was not nearly as dirty as I expected it to be. I still rinsed it out this morning but honestly, I didn't HAVE to.

last night, I was looking at the corals I have on the back wall of the reef on the reef rock racks. I did not think they were getting enough light.
I pulled out my Seneye and took PAR measurements and sure enough, PAR was VERY low on the back wall.
I have 2 Viparspectra 165w LED lights that were not in use. I mounted them over the reef in the back. They are sitting on top of the canopy. Lights sit at 13.5 inches above the water surface.
Right now I have the blue (ch. 1) set to 85% and the white (ch. 2) set to 1%.
The blues come on at 10am and the whites come on at 10:30am. The whites turn off at 8pm and the blues turn off at 8:30pm.
This should give me what I need in the back of the reef.
I might readjust the on/off times depending on how the corals respond.

I don't like the way they are mounted but there is no other way for them to go.

I am now considering getting either 1 long LED bar or 2 short led bars that I can mount INSIDE the canopy that will fill that space with light.
I am looking for LED bars that can do what I want as far as spectrum and the ability to ramp up and down for sunrise and sunset.

 

[wrassie86]

2 short bars with wide spread would be a good choice. I have 6 vipars on mine par and spread is pretty good.

 

[Dj City]

My Neptune Trident is bugging out or something major is happening in my reef.

Over the past few days, my alk has been creeping up.
I woke up today to a alk of 9.7dkh. This is after I turned the dos off last night. Right now, it's reading 9.77!
My ca is creeping up too. It's at 472.

I'm cleaning the feed line, then I'm going to calibrate because this just can't be right.

 

[Dj City]

so...
I shut the Trident down and restarted it again. That was a real PITA because of the way my cabinet is.
As I was doing this, I checked the alk with my Reefbot and it returned a value of 10.1dkh. That's VERY high and it got this high with NO alk dosing. I turned the alk off yesterday but the alkalinity is still rising.

I'm going to post in the general forum and see if anyone has any guidance or insight as to what may be going on.

 

[Dj City]

I made a post in the general forum. I'm posting a link here to keep track of what I experienced.

Alkalinity is rising and I can't understand why

My Neptune Trident is bugging out our something major is happening in my reef. Over the past few days, my alk has been creeping up. I woke up today to a alk of 9.7dkh. This is after I turned the Neptune Dos off last night. Right now, it's reading 9.77! My ca is creeping up too. It's at 472...

www.reef2reef.com

I got my alk and cal back to normal levels.
I don't understand how my levels got so high.

I took the filter sock off and put the filter roller back on. Things started to get back to normal after that.
I can't see hope a filter sock can cause alkalinity and calcium to rise but...
It looks like that's what happened.

I will experiment in about a week or so by putting the filter sock on again and seeing what happens.

I can't front, the reef looked GREAT with the 5 micron filter sock.
I had to clean it everyday. Sometimes twice a day but...
The reef looked fantastic!

 

[Dj City]

Since I was discussing my filter roller, I will include where I get my rolls from.

preconfilter...
[email protected]

I want this here so I don't lose the email address.

 

[Dj City]

My reef is going through something.
I got my levels back to close to normal but now consumption is out of wack.
Alkalinity is being used way faster than calcium.
I went from Alkalinity shooting up to Alkalinity dropping off.
It's weird.

I took the filter roller out today and put the filter sock back in.
Today I used the 1 micron filter sock. I have two of them so I'm going to see what they do and how fast they clog up.
I can switch out filter sock everyday if I want to between the two 1 micron socks and the 5 micron sock.

I just want to see how clear I can get the reef to look.

 

[Dj City]

Update...

Well, there is nothing to really give an update about.

The reef is still moving right along.
I'm getting slow growth but getting visible growth nonetheless.

Fish are healthy.
Corals are healthy.
Parameters are in check (for the most part).

I think I'm good.

I have aptasia but not to a large degree.
I have not had luck in the past with peppermint shrimp so I'm not going that route.
I don't think I will be successful in keeping a copper band butterfly and don't want to risk introducing a new pest to the reef so I'm not going that route either.

When I get more aptasia, I will get some Nudibranchs to knock them out.

Update concluded.

 

[count krunk]

Don't sleep on aptasia too long

 

[Dj City]

Don't sleep on aptasia too long

I'm not sleeping on them now!
I've only got about 5 or 6 that I can see so I know I've got more I can't.

I don't feel like I have enough to get Nudibranchs yet though.

 

[TheWB]

I'm not sleeping on them now!
I've only got about 5 or 6 that I can see so I know I've got more I can't.

I don't feel like I have enough to get Nudibranchs yet though.

Make sure if you go with Berghia that you get bigger ones and feed them in the shipping cup first. I just got 4 of them but they were tiny and I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it. I should have strengthened them up by putting an aiptasia in with them in the shipping cup so they could eat before I turned them loose. I know 3 of the 4 went into the rock work, one came out of the dropper they send with them to get them out of the cup and floated away before I could grab it. I may be surprised at some point down the road and start seeing the aips start to disappear but I‘m not holding my breath.

 

[Dj City]

Update time...

I got a Blonde Naso Tang 4 days ago.
So far he's doing pretty good. I saw him eat in the lfs. I have yet to see him actively eat in my reef but I have seen him pick at the live rock. He still looks healthy and does not look to be losing a lot of weight. He's swimming normally so I'm hopeful.

I have decided to try a new lighting set up.
3 Kessil A360X"s.
My current lighting is good. Very very good if I'm being honest but I want to try something new.

I was looking at the new kessil A500x but they are EXPENSIVE and I was told by a rep at BRS that I would be better served with 3 A360X's rather than with 2 A500X"s.
I was told I will get better coverage and enough par but more importantly I will get more than enough PUR.
I also save over $400 getting 3 A360X's over 2 A500X's.
If I wind up needing more power, I can add a 4th A360X and still come out on top.

I will post more after I receive the lights and I will take pics of the Naso.

I will TRY to take pics of the reef under both my current light set up and the kessils for comparison if its possible.