Time to dose Nitrates!

[twilliard]

Aww heck throw an icecap on those

 

[Pete polyp]

If you swap out the actinic for a coral plus or aquablue special you would pick up a bunch of par

 

[Diesel]

My conclusion is as @Pete polyp mentioned.
Reason is you went the easy way and were afraid for light spill or too much light.
Swap out the one actinic bulb and lower your lights to 8" or maybe 6" keep on testing your par.
When you get home you can do that first lower your lights and test if you get better results on par your good if not you can try a Blue + or the Giesemann AquaBlue Coral or the Actinic Blue (it's not a actinic bulb but stronger than a Blue+ from ATI.

 

[Chrisss]

My conclusion is as @Pete polyp mentioned.
Reason is you went the easy way and were afraid for light spill or too much light.
Swap out the one actinic bulb and lower your lights to 8" or maybe 6" keep on testing your par.
When you get home you can do that first lower your lights and test if you get better results on par your good if not you can try a Blue + or the Giesemann AquaBlue Coral or the Actinic Blue (it's not a actinic bulb but stronger than a Blue+ from ATI.

Yeah will do. I have been lower my lights every week. Since 3 weeks ago trying to not shock corals going a inch at a time. So will definetly try that. I think I have a blueplus and a aquablue special in my basement both 5-6 months old so I can also swap them out.

The reason I went with atinic over another blue plus or coral plus is because I've been reading that atinic is better for corals even if we can't see the light the corals can. So I decided to give it ago. The corals do pop a little more then they use too but I defiently can swap it out if it doesn't increase.

But I'm guessing the retrofit kit is good? Or should I maybe do that icecap thing?

 

[Chrisss]

Tested Nitrates this morning got 2ppm which is good . Did a water change last night and hopefully that supplements more Calc and Alk(Monday is my usual water change day). Going to test tomorrow along with lowering lights more. But going away for the day so I can't play with the tank today. Might also look in icecaps.

 

[tonkaoz]

Any pic updates . Is your stuff looking better ?

 

[Chrisss]

Any pic updates . Is your stuff looking better ?

Will do a pic update tomorrow if I have time or Thursday. Got back home a few hours ago. I lowered lights more. Tank looks a lot brighter corals seem to like it too. Birds nest is doing a lot better, coloring up and growing nicely. And my Monti seems to like it also. LPS are out a lot more now too.

Can even lower my lights even more. Going to wait a week before I do so though.
Just tested nitrates got a reading of 2ppm again so it seems stable. Will try to get picture updates going to try and take it with an actual camera.

 

[Chrisss]

Just got some pictures here ya go! Going to test Parameters as well.

The first 3 pictures all see improvement in coral coloration. The Monticap an improvement in growth. Never seen it grow before so this is pretty cool. As for the Birdsnest the tips arn't as white anymore and can't really tell if its growing. The 4th picture who knows whats going on haha. The bigger branching one is doing fine but the other 2 no growth. Probably since I've had them forever and seen nothing out of them. And the LPS side of the tank looks more out then ever.

Again sorry its so blue. I tried with an Iphone this time I think they came out better. Tell me what ya think. These are also unedited.

 

[Chrisss]

Probably not a lot of growth right now because I'm still in the process of lowering lights.

Tests -
Calcium is now at 410ppm
Alk still around 9.3DKH

Nitrate are holding around 2-3ppm still have not dosed anything. Guess now its a waiting game haha. Will try to get par readings soon.

 

[jaguars4263]

What are your phosphates at?

 

[Chrisss]

What are your phosphates at?

Got a phosphate reading of 0.08. So that's not bad I guess. Some notes are they I finally see coraline algae growing again.

Also thinking about swapping out the Atinitc bulb for Geismen bulb but I don't know which one yet.

 

[Chrisss]

My conclusion is as @Pete polyp mentioned.
Reason is you went the easy way and were afraid for light spill or too much light.
Swap out the one actinic bulb and lower your lights to 8" or maybe 6" keep on testing your par.
When you get home you can do that first lower your lights and test if you get better results on par your good if not you can try a Blue + or the Giesemann AquaBlue Coral or the Actinic Blue (it's not a actinic bulb but stronger than a Blue+ from ATI.

@Diesel What bulb would you recommend to swap out for? 2 Blue+ 1 Coral Plus+ What should the last bulb be if i go with Giesemann?

 

[Vividgraphx]

When i get mad i go look at how awesome my tank is.

lol I was about to comment something similar. He's got a whole lot of knowledge and negative comments, you'd think he had an awesome tank to show for it. smh. amateur.

 

[Chrisss]

Nitrates are still holding at 2ppm. Brought up the Aquablue special from the basement, corals seem to like it a lot more then the actinic. My suncap monti is encrusting finally and my Montipora is growing about a half inch a week. 2 SPS seemed to die though. Maybe they were always dead and this just killed them haha. Don't really care about those since I got them a year ago. My birdsnest is also coloring up more, no more white tips.

Only thing different is now I'm getting some kind of algae on my power heads and rocks. Its like a weird film algae. Like what gets on my Glass but now its growing on the rocks. Any tips?
BTW glass gets dirty in 5 days now instead of the 2 weeks with all the previous filtration on.
Not running GFO but I can always add some.

 

[Chrisss]

Here's a picture. I think some GFO will get rid of it, what ya think @twilliard / @Pete polyp

Or should I just keep GFO off @Russ265

 

[twilliard]

I would try the GFO

 

[Pete polyp]

Gfo or aluminum oxide would do the trick. It might take a while though

 

[Chrisss]

Ight I will try the GFO tomorrow. I'm just going to put half recommend dose because its not that bad. Also getting a shipment of corals Wednesday so I will post pictures or new corals under the new spectrum.

 

[jaguars4263]

Any changes in corals yet? Levels staying the same?

 

[Chrisss]

Any changes in corals yet? Levels staying the same?

Levels are good at Nitrate 2ppm corals look healthy. Started bleeching a little bit. I think its a lighting issue more then a nutrients right now. Goin to start feed more and planning on upgrading lights. Corals do look at lot better in color though. Bought some more SPS and they are all opened
Going to probably buy a ATI 6x54w and corals will grow. But as for dosing nitrates it does help colors!