The Upgrade Build... From 110 to 180

[revhtree]

Yup..
Besides those things, everything is peachy!
Lol

Oh so sorry to hear! Dinos are the devil!

 

[Dj City]

Oh so sorry to hear! Dinos are the devil!

Hey Revhtree,
Thanks for stopping by.

Life of a reef can be challenging from time to time.
I beat dinos once, I'm sure I can beat them again if needed.

 

[Dj City]

Update...

I finally received my Xpaqua pump and controller.
I was getting tired of adding fresh water 2 or 3 times a day.

I received the motor for my Clarisea Sk-5000 last week.
I was getting VERY tired of changing filter socks everyday! I only had 3 socks. One was a 5 micron and the other two were 1 micron.

Neptune has offered to send me a new Wav pump for half price. The pump was out of warranty so I'm not mad to pay 1/2 price.
The pump will be here in a few days.

I turned off ALL white lights. I was running strictly blue for the past week and today I just went ahead and shut the lights off. I have not blacked out the reef but it's only getting ambient light from the room.
I will be keeping the lights off for the next 5 days or so. I am adding 20ml of hydrogen Peroxide at night.
I will get a few different bottle bacteria to add to the reef during the day along with the Peroxide at night.
I will do this for about a week or two and see what the display looks like. If I don't see a vast improvement with the dinos (I think they are dinos) I will then do the Dr tims dino treatment again and hybrid that with elegance coral dino treatment.

I will update again as things progress.

 

[TheWB]

Update...

I finally received my Xpaqua pump and controller.
I was getting tired of adding fresh water 2 or 3 times a day.

I received the motor for my Clarisea Sk-5000 last week.
I was getting VERY tired of changing filter socks everyday! I only had 3 socks. One was a 5 micron and the other two were 1 micron.

Neptune has offered to send me a new Wav pump for half price. The pump was out of warranty so I'm not mad to pay 1/2 price.
The pump will be here in a few days.

I turned off ALL white lights. I was running strictly blue for the past week and today I just went ahead and shut the lights off. I have not blacked out the reef but it's only getting ambient light from the room.
I will be keeping the lights off for the next 5 days or so. I am adding 20ml of hydrogen Peroxide at night.
I will get a few different bottle bacteria to add to the reef during the day along with the Peroxide at night.
I will do this for about a week or two and see what the display looks like. If I don't see a vast improvement with the dinos (I think they are dinos) I will then do the Dr tims dino treatment again and hybrid that with elegance coral dino treatment.

I will update again as things progress.

It’s always a bummer when you can’t clear stuff out. I’m getting a new breakout of Bryopsis which I thought I’d eradicated. Not as bad as your recurring dinos but I understand the frustration. Good luck.

 

[Dj City]

So I have my reef running as it should again.

My ATO is working
My Filter Roller is working
All Wav pumps are working

I ordered vivid creations salinity probe stability kit in the hopes it can keep my Neptune salinity probe readings stable. That should be here on Tuesday.

I've had the lights off since Tuesday (4 days now) and all is still good.
Dinos or whatever they are have taken a hit and are not as visible as they were.
I know it's not gone but I'm about to hit them really hard!
Starting probably next week, I'm going to do a hybrid of Dr Tim's Dino treatment with Elegance Corals Dino treatment.
I've got my wooden airstone ready. I have Dr Tim's Refresh and Waste Away along with Dr Tim's Eco Balance. I have Microbacter7 on order and that should arrive on Tuesday. I just need to get some cheap vodka.

I've never vodka dosed before and from what I can tell, Elegance Corals dino treatment calls for a LOT of vodka dosing which is meant to supercharge the bacteria and pretty much create a bacteria bloom. I can't lie, I'm kinda scared to do that but I really want to kick whatever I have going on.

Anyone have any advice on this?

 

[Dj City]

Update...

I have not dosed vodka but dosed 20ml hydrogen Peroxide every night and dosed 20ml of bacteria every day.

I am still only running blue lights but the reef is looking pretty darn good right now.

Tomorrow I will turn the lights up a bit and slowly start to add some white and violet back to the mix.

So far, I'm encouraged.

 

[Janci]

Hoping for the best.
Why the change to Peroxide and not vodka?

 

[Dj City]

Hoping for the best.
Why the change to Peroxide and not vodka?

Thank you.

From my understanding, vodka dosing will feed dinos and I was really concerned about the bacteria bloom all that vodka will produce.

I decided to simply turn the lights off and dose bacteria during the day and hydrogen Peroxide at night.
The Peroxide helps to raise the orp and the bacteria should help eat through the dinos.

At least that's the theory.

 

[Dj City]

Update...

Lights have been on full intensity for over a week and for the most part the reef looks good.

I'm cleaning the glass more than I used to but it's not a problem (yet).

I'm thinking about continuing with the bacteria and hydrogen Peroxide dosing but I would like to automate it via doser.
I don't see how it could hurt and the benefits seem to be real.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[TheWB]

Update...

Lights have been on full intensity for over a week and for the most part the reef looks good.

I'm cleaning the glass more than I used to but it's not a problem (yet).

I'm thinking about continuing with the bacteria and hydrogen Peroxide dosing but I would like to automate it via doser.
I don't see how it could hurt and the benefits seem to be real.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Never had dinos, thank goodness, so no practical experience to draw on. I’d say if you have a plan that’s working then stick to that plan and closely monitor your tanks reaction to those maintenance doses going forward. If everything stays good then your good, if not then cut back or stop.

 

[Dj City]

I got a new dosing pump.
I got the jeabo wifi 3.4 dosing pump so I can dose Red Sea Trace Colors.
I wanted to try their coral color regiment to see if I can get the most color out of my corals.
I'm good with light. I'm good with food, I'm good with nutrients, I'm good with parameters so I think the only thing I might be missing is trace elements. I know my iodine runs low and the Red Sea Trace Colors should address that and any other trace elements I may be missing or low in.

I have another problem though...

The Monti is starting to overgrow other surrounding coal.
Any ideas how to address this?

 

[Dj City]

I have not taken pics in quite a while so..

 

[Dj City]

 

[Janci]

That is a ton of pictures. Beautiful.
About the monti, not much to do then to find a location it cannot overshadow others.
Or just let the coral war continue

 

[Dj City]

Some fish pics...

 

[Dj City]

I have not seen my Gobi today as of yet.
If he pops up, I will snap a quick pic or two of him.

 

[Dj City]

Here's my little Gobi..

 

[TheWB]

Everything looks great. As far as the monti goes the only thing you can do is frag of a nice chunk and send it to me . I know, not helpful.

 

[Dj City]

So...

Overall, the reef is doing pretty good. Not great but "good".

I want to move up to "GREAT"

My plan for that is to start dosing Red Sea Trace Colors via dose pump.
Dose amino acids via dose pump.
Possibly dose Bacteria and hydrogen Peroxide via dose pump (if I can). I may not be able to do this because the bacteria bottles say to shake well before using.
Who knows... I might just get two magnetic stirrers to keep them stirred up.

I also plan to get about 20 nudibranch to attack my aptasia problem.
I'm not expecting that to work overnight but in a few months time, hopefully I will have a handle on managing them.

 

[Dj City]

I'm also thinking of getting a C02 scrubber. See if I can boost my Ph to 8.3 or so.

I average about 7.93 with peaks at about 8.1
If I can get that to 8.3 or 8.4 that would be real good!