Trouble with my 240

[TexasTodd]

I don't see any information on PAR. You have a ton of high end equipment. I would get a PAR meter, or at least borrow one. Your light height is great but you might be running too low given the height. Most hobbiests don't run that high. The aquaculture that run 20-24" run their's at 100% and either AB+ or 100% all channels. But, without a meter I wouldn't change.

What fish do you have? 240g is a lot of water.

Since you're already a gear nut The best thing I've found for additional skimmer control is a 24/7 kalk drip for 90% of top off. Then a backup ATO set well below the optimal waterline as a safety backup. Mark the line with a Sharpie. I set mine so I have to add say 1 gallon a week to maintain the water level outside of what the constant drip does. If the skimmer goes crazy, the water line drops and skimming is reduced.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

I don't see any information on PAR. You have a ton of high end equipment. I would get a PAR meter, or at least borrow one. Your light height is great but you might be running too low given the height. Most hobbiests don't run that high. The aquaculture that run 20-24" run their's at 100% and either AB+ or 100% all channels. But, without a meter I wouldn't change.

What fish do you have? 240g is a lot of water.

Since you're already a gear nut The best thing I've found for additional skimmer control is a 24/7 kalk drip for 90% of top off. Then a backup ATO set well below the optimal waterline as a safety backup. Mark the line with a Sharpie. I set mine so I have to add say 1 gallon a week to maintain the water level outside of what the constant drip does. If the skimmer goes crazy, the water line drops and skimming is reduced.

I dose 90ML of Kalk over a 24 hour period. I know its not much, but I use it as a supplement to 2 part. I have the PAR meter for the apex. I haven't checked things since I added the 2 additional Radions. I recently had back surgery, but close to being able to comfortably bend into my display to get readings. I started out running the lights at higher intensities, but found the corals responded better with lower settings. Those radions pack a punch coupled with the T-5 lighting, has impressive coverage.

As for fish, several tangs, 3 dwarf angels, file fish, clowns, fox face, madarin, 2 Chormis. Not really a heavy bioload. I want to capture the Angels and add a few more tangs once I get back in gear with my back. I know the angels are questionable, and I have saw no evidence of them hurting anything. THe file fish keeps and zoas I try to keep mowed down. I have a few aiptasia in my sump, so I keep him around to police the display. In my old set up, I had issues with them, till I purchased the file fish. But he also made short work of my zoas.

 

[TexasTodd]

Let us know. Bad backs are not fun, hang in there.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday. I wanted to post some results since last Sunday when I started dosing Nitrates. Here are my current readings.

CA- 335. I upped the dose since then to get this reading
ALK- 9.52- I upped that as well. May dial it back just a tad. Using Red Sea test kits, so a hard number is not easy
Mag- 1360. I dont really follow this number much. I look at my Chaeto growth, and it tells me when to add
NO3- 0.50. I think this is starting to improve. I am dosing with the attempt to get to 2.0
PO4- 0.04. THis is the best its been since I cycled the tank
SG- 1.026. THis stays locked in always. I test with a Milwaukee MA887 Seawater refractometer. I really like this machine. https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-MA887-Refractometer-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B007Z4ITWU

No water changes this week. I shut the Auto water change system off to test my readings. I feed the corals this week with reef roids and some brightwell lps and sps food. Soaked it in Restor corall tissue supplement. THe next day I came home to a massive Cyno outbreak and well as my glass covered in heavy film. TO the point, I couldnt see in the glass. I feared I had over did something, but I cleaned the glass and left the Cyno on the sand bed. THe glass has stayed clean and water clarity is fine. It does seem to be receding some. I still maintained my dosing for nitrates. So far I am happy with the results. My coral look to be responding a tiny bit.

I still need to take the 4 fish I know could be munching on my coral. I have a bi color angel, coral beauty, Magnificent Foxface and my Aiptasia eating machine (filefish).
I would love to have a tang/wrasse dominated tank. Keep in mind, I hardly ever seem them munching on anything. So I m not saying they are a problem, I just know they can be a problem.
Anyway, thoughts are appreciated

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday. I wanted to post some results since last Sunday when I started dosing Nitrates. Here are my current readings.

CA- 335. I upped the dose since then to get this reading
ALK- 9.52- I upped that as well. May dial it back just a tad. Using Red Sea test kits, so a hard number is not easy
Mag- 1360. I dont really follow this number much. I look at my Chaeto growth, and it tells me when to add
NO3- 0.50. I think this is starting to improve. I am dosing with the attempt to get to 2.0
PO4- 0.04. THis is the best its been since I cycled the tank
SG- 1.026. THis stays locked in always. I test with a Milwaukee MA887 Seawater refractometer. I really like this machine. https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-MA887-Refractometer-Temperature-Compensation/dp/B007Z4ITWU

No water changes this week. I shut the Auto water change system off to test my readings. I feed the corals this week with reef roids and some brightwell lps and sps food. Soaked it in Restor corall tissue supplement. THe next day I came home to a massive Cyno outbreak and well as my glass covered in heavy film. TO the point, I couldnt see in the glass. I feared I had over did something, but I cleaned the glass and left the Cyno on the sand bed. THe glass has stayed clean and water clarity is fine. It does seem to be receding some. I still maintained my dosing for nitrates. So far I am happy with the results. My coral look to be responding a tiny bit.

I still need to take the 4 fish I know could be munching on my coral. I have a bi color angel, coral beauty, Magnificent Foxface and my Aiptasia eating machine (filefish).
I would love to have a tang/wrasse dominated tank. Keep in mind, I hardly ever seem them munching on anything. So I m not saying they are a problem, I just know they can be a problem.
Anyway, thoughts are appreciated

Sounds like you're finally getting your nitrates to budge in the right direction. Why on earth are you soaking the food in Brightwell restor?? Thats asking for cyano or other weird blooms of things driven by that product IMO.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Product was recommended by a popular coral vendor. I'll try just tank water next time. I thought it was the Lps sps food that sparked it.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Came home yesterday to my skimmer going nuts. I cant get it to calm down. Also, noticed what looks like bryopsis on my rocks. I keep seeing bubbles rising. Does t look to bad, but just one more issue to deal with

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Quick update on progress.
Readings as of today:
Calcium- 300
Alk- 8.4
NO3- 0
PO4- 0.16
SG- 1.024

I am still combating what looks like bryopsis. Sand bed is no where near white. Coarls look about the same. I catch glimpses of PE on a few of the SPS that never had any. BUt the past 2 days I have not saw any. I think its due to the 0 reading on the nitrates. I am currently dosing 250 ml of my mix solution and getting no readings at all. If what has been discussed on this thread is right, thats why my PO4 went up. I am still not doing any water changes. I am thinking of upping the kalk dose to up my PH some. I really dont want to do it with top off because of not being able to control the daily uptake.

I also have an outbreak of algae on my glass each time I feed the corals. I mix some brightwell dry goods with reef roids to feed. I think I will do reef roids only next time and see what happens. I also dropped the brightwell solution and stuck with tank water to mix this go around.



I have a small room adjacent to my tank that houses most of my equipment. I share this space with my wife. Its 6'x 10'. She is moving her stuff out, so an modification to the equipment room is coming up. I am so looking forward to this.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

OK, Here are this weeks results. I did not check Mag or Cal this week. I checked nitrates, phosphates, and Alk.

Alk was at 10.5. I cut back on the daily dose rate
Phosphates are between 0.04 and 0.08
Nitrates are a 1 PPM

I am still fighting these bubbles all over my rocks as well as some red slime on the sand. I checked my nitrates in the middle of the week, and they were a 6ppm. I took 3 days off from dosing nitrates. I started back today at half of the amount i was dosing. I also noticed one of the acros not looking so well. I did a 75 gallon water change and started my auto water change again. I tried to vacuum the slime out, but it just breaks up and settles back down. It looked to recede a bit after the water change. I am seeing some slight PE on some of the SPS that has new growth on them. (growth started when I added the Radions) Its not much, just a little. I have a little bit of turf algae as well. I noticed a small frag I had tucked in a harder to see area was covered in it. THe LPS I mentioned before has no change at all

I would really love to see my tank take off. I feel like I am almost there, just need to tweak it a bit more

any suggestions?

 

[TexasTodd]

I would cut the Reef Roids for a bit. I know folks love it, but I've seen diatoms or cyano pop up 1 day after using it too many times, at least in my system.

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Here is another update. I submitted to ATI for testing my water. Here re the results
Symbol Value Calculated reference value Difference Result Actions
Base elements
Salinity (NaCl) 31.26 PSU 35.00 PSU -3.74 PSU

Carbonate hardness 6.50 °dKH 7.50 °dKH -1.00 °dKH

Major elements
Chloride 17902 mg/l 17687 mg/l +215.8 mg/l

Sodium 9706 mg/l 9826 mg/l -119.9 mg/l

Magnesium 1287 mg/l 1175 mg/l +112.8 mg/l

Sulfur 838.7 mg/l 821.8 mg/l +16.91 mg/l

Calcium 388.9 mg/l 376.1 mg/l +12.80 mg/l

Potassium 371.7 mg/l 364.4 mg/l +7.28 mg/l

Bromine 60.46 mg/l 59.85 mg/l +0.61 mg/l

Strontium 6.66 mg/l 7.15 mg/l -0.48 mg/l

Boron 3.87 mg/l 3.93 mg/l -0.06 mg/l

Fluorid 1.17 mg/l 1.16 mg/l +0.01 mg/l

 

[Picard's Lionfish]

Minor elements
Lithium 191.3 µg/l 151.9 µg/l +39.48 µg/l

Silicon 102.5 µg/l 89.33 µg/l +13.22 µg/l

Iodine 18.56 µg/l 58.06 µg/l -39.50 µg/l

Barium 24.53 µg/l 8.93 µg/l +15.59 µg/l

Molybdenum 4.97 µg/l 10.72 µg/l -5.75 µg/l

Nickel u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Manganese u. 0.89 µg/l -0.89 µg/l

Arsenic u. 1.34 µg/l -1.34 µg/l

Beryllium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Chrome u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Cobalt u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Iron u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Copper u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Selenium u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Silver u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Vanadium u. 1.34 µg/l -1.34 µg/l

Zinc 1.40 µg/l 1.79 µg/l -0.38 µg/l

Tin u. 0.45 µg/l -0.45 µg/l

Nutrients
Nitrate 0.58 mg/l 2.00 mg/l -1.42 mg/l

Phosphorus 23.93 µg/l 7.15 µg/l +16.78 µg/l

Phosphate 0.07 mg/l 0.02 mg/l +0.06 mg/l

Pollutants
Aluminium 10.20 µg/l 0.09 µg/l +10.11 µg/l

Antimony u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Bismuth u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Lead u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Cadmium u. 0.18 µg/l -0.18 µg/l

Lanthanum u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l

Thallium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Titanium u. 0.09 µg/l -0.09 µg/l

Tungsten u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l

Mercury u. 0 µg/l +0 µg/l

Showing 1 to 43 of 43 entries

I was very surprised at the salinity reading. I need to calibrate my instrument today. As for the minor elements, any thoughts on touching them?