Trevor's 240 Aquarium-SPS Dominant

[Trevor40]

Update.

I reduced my Kessil Fuge light down to 5 hours.

I added nitrates to get to around 3.5 ish. Color was between 2.5 and 5 on salifert test.

I am getting a lot of cyanobacteria and I hope it goes away soon. I might do a few day blackout period if it doesn't go away by the end of next week.

Corals seem to be responding from the nitrates and stability of the tank. I am not dosing any alk or calcium as it has not really changes in weeks which isn't a good sign but I figure all the tiny frags in about 200 gallons of water won't change much anyways.

 

[Trevor40]

I added some Red Slime remove to the tank as it was just everywhere and upsetting the corals. 48 hours later and there is still a little here and there but mostly gone.

I did a 14 gallon water chance and turned the skimmer on. I am surprised that the skimmer seems to be running normal today.

 

[Trevor40]

I moved my Ding Dang millepora high as it didn’t look happy where it was at.

You can see some of the slime red slime on the rocks from before the treatment.

 

[Trevor40]

I am not dosing at the moment as my parameters are too high and I would like to see them drop. I would like Alk closer to 8dkh.

Alk 9.4 dkh
Ca 450
Mg 1480
PO4 0(Hanna)
Nitrate 0(Salifert)

I am giving up on Dosing nitrates. I am going to feed my fish 2 cubes of Mysis, 1 rotation of Pellets on auto feeder and and 1 small chunk of Plankton/day. In the past on other tanks I have had amazing colors without dosing Nitrates. I guess I got sucked into the trends but I did not see positive results.

I reduced my refugium light to 1 hour/night until I get some PO4 showing up and then I will increase. I also added some GFO for only 1 day to reduce PO4 to take any PO4 that the Cyano was using.

 

[wowkingjames]

Looks good so far, will follow....

 

[Trevor40]

Thanks. I’m hoping over the course of a year things start looking awesome.

Picture is of the center structure.

 

[MoKan Reefer]

Looks awesome! Can't wait to see the system grow out and progress!

 

[Trevor40]

Looking a lot better since adding the slime remover.

 

[CoralWealth]

looks good!

How do the anthias do? I tried them before but it did not go well.

 

[Trevor40]

They do really well in this tank and I love the color and movement they add.

I had some in a 93 gallon cube and they slowly died over time which makes me think they need more room to do well. I also work from home now and am able to feed them 3 times/day which is usually mysis shrimp. I have read that because they move around a lot they need more frequent feedings.

The male can be a bully which is why I think having a large tank is important for the females to get away from him when they need more space.

I started with 5 females and in a few months one changes to a male.

 

[Trevor40]

 

[Trevor40]

Well, bad news, I have confirmed dinoflagellates. After the cyano dies the dinos came hard. Looking at pics I think I had a mix between Dino’s and cyano and by killing the cyano it gave free reign to the dinos.

 

[Trevor40]

 

[Ashish Patel]

IME the best thing is get a UV sterilizer since dinos are easily blasted into the water column, doing so without would probably just help them spread. Keep your nutrients in the tank and let other algaes thrive is the only solution. We strip good nutrients so fast nowadays and this just feed the dinos. I found reducing tank turnover, increasing turnover in the skimmer, and cutting back skimmer time made them disappear within 2 days.

 

[Trevor40]

IME the best thing is get a UV sterilizer since dinos are easily blasted into the water column, doing so without would probably just help them spread. Keep your nutrients in the tank and let other algaes thrive is the only solution. We strip good nutrients so fast nowadays and this just feed the dinos. I found reducing tank turnover, increasing turnover in the skimmer, and cutting back skimmer time made them disappear within 2 days.

What kind did you have? There are different kinds that require different solutions.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I added one just to clear up a bacteria bloom so didnt want to break the bank and planned on using it for few months only so I go the 36 watt jebao. I used to run aquaUV and aquastep back in the day and honestly they all work just as good. Good thing about the jebao is I can run alot of flow through it if needed and its small enough to fit over my ATO section of the sump

 

[Ashish Patel]

This is where it sits!

 

[pecan2phat]

+1 on the UV sterilizer.
I restarted a 180g with bleached dead rock & dry sand, dinos came in at about the 2 month mark. Used a 25w Aqua UV I had lying around and about a total of 2 weeks, dinos were gone.

 

[Trevor40]

I added some DrTim's Wate Away and did a 2-day blackout. I checked this morning and 99% of the dinos were gone. I turkey basted the rock and will keep it dark today just to make sure. Tomorrow I will run 4 hours of full lighting and then slowly go up from there as to not shock the corals. I am hoping the dinos never come back. I don't think I will turn on my refugium light for awhile until PO4 get higher than around 0.06 ish. Right now with the dinos I have been lucky to get 0.01 with the Hanna.

 

[Trevor40]

Here is a pic(as of 2 weeks ago) of the updates aquascape. I decided that 2 islands of different heights look better.

The water was a little cloudy. I’ll take some updated pictures when I turn the lights on tomorrow.