Wallets empty, wife's angry, and I'm in over my head!

MERKEY

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Collaged the before and after together for better viewing .

After/before
20191220_213330-COLLAGE.jpg
Is this correct that the left pic is after you have had it and the right pic is when you got it?
 
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SoggyNW

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A

awesome soggy, you are doing great! I love your idea of glue epoxy sandwich and also how you glue rumbles over the frags to hide them. Any chance of a close up pic so i can see how it actually works? I need to do some remounting on some of my loose frags soon. ;Happy Happy reefing!

Sorry I think you misunderstand. I used pieces of rubble instead of plugs. Not over it. I pulled chunks of rubble out of the sump and used a piece large enough to keep the frag stable in sand.

Is this correct that the left pic is after you have had it and the right pic is when you got it?

Yes it's correct. I tried to get it flipped but my photo app wouldn't let me so they are out of order.
 

MERKEY

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Sorry I think you misunderstand. I used pieces of rubble instead of plugs. Not over it. I pulled chunks of rubble out of the sump and used a piece large enough to keep the frag stable in sand.



Yes it's correct. I tried to get it flipped but my photo app wouldn't let me so they are out of order.
Ok I might be totally miss reading the pictures but I think that coral is really bleached since you got it, like almost dead.

I could be completely wrong so I hope someone better with SPS chimes in.

Unless that's what you were showing was the bad bleaching.
 

DEWreefing

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Collaged the before and after together for better viewing .

After/before
20191220_213330-COLLAGE.jpg
This coral should be in the top 1/3 of your tank not on the sand bed you probably only have 80 par down there. 200 to 350 par will bring back the color. What are your nitrates and phosphates at?
 

DEWreefing

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Ok I might be totally miss reading the pictures but I think that coral is really bleached since you got it, like almost dead.

I could be completely wrong so I hope someone better with SPS chimes in.

Unless that's what you were showing was the bad bleaching.
On 12/6 it was blue on 12/20 it bleached.
 
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SoggyNW

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Wow a lot of help with this I appreciate it. A couple things with the photo of that coral. First the older bluer photo was taken under blue light where the second has the whites cranked way up to help the camera. Second my phone tried to auto correct and makes it look a bit pailer than it is.

But I agree it has been looking somewhat bleached to me. But it is also growing noticably. Will a bleaching coral continue to grow?

The coral was moved up to a higher spot in the tank today with better light. Also I've been slowly upping the light. Other than that I've been putting my efforts into getting my parameters right and then holding them steady.

This is another photo from the same day under different lighting.

IMG_20191220_161831.jpg
 

Fla04gbf

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I was running 4 light tunnel 165w black boxes. But I have upgraded about 3 weeks ago to 4 AI hydra 64hd
Good choice for the upgrade. I have also upgraded to AI HD in my nano 25g ~2 months ago. You notice any significant differences in the coral growth? Happy reefing!
 

Fla04gbf

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Sorry I think you misunderstand. I used pieces of rubble instead of plugs. Not over it. I pulled chunks of rubble out of the sump and used a piece large enough to keep the frag stable in sand.



Yes it's correct. I tried to get it flipped but my photo app wouldn't let me so they are out of order.
Thanks for clarifying that. I should start digging into my sump for some rubbles... lol. But how did you do the glue and epoxy sandwich exactly? Happy reefing!
 

Brew12

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Finally got my Hanna dkh checker. It is consistently .7 dkh lower than my salifert kit ( tested 3 different times over 3 days). Does this match other people's results? Also I'm not sure I've been using my salifert test correctly. My experience is that the salifert test can take 3 drops to fully change colors. I've been getting my reading off what it takes to fully change the color, but if I take the first drop to cause a change it is much closer to what the Hanna is showing.

Been so busy with the holidays that I haven't been able to do more than maintain the tank. Today I finally had a few free hours and got all my frags mounted to their final locations on the rocks. I used the super glue epoxy sandwich method and it worked great. Also having glued the frags to rubble instead of plugs made it way easier to glue them down pointing in the direction I wanted. Plus no ugly plugs to look at.

IMG_20191228_140358.jpg
I am just now seeing this thread, but glad you got the Acro's off the sand bed. They tend to love high flow, and an acro in the sand will not get enough flow without blowing sand everywhere.

I like to have water passing my acros moving at least 6" per second and preferably closer to 10" per second. I keep an eye to see how this changes when I feed. You want the food to whip past those acro's.
 
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SoggyNW

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Thanks for clarifying that. I should start digging into my sump for some rubbles... lol. But how did you do the glue and epoxy sandwich exactly? Happy reefing!

I found this method mentioned several times in the forum so not mine. The epoxy putty takes some time to cure and grab. To make it stick better faster you put super glue between the putty and the plug and also between the putty and the rock you gluing to. Seems to have worked really well.
 
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SoggyNW

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I am just now seeing this thread, but glad you got the Acro's off the sand bed. They tend to love high flow, and an acro in the sand will not get enough flow without blowing sand everywhere.

I like to have water passing my acros moving at least 6" per second and preferably closer to 10" per second. I keep an eye to see how this changes when I feed. You want the food to whip past those acro's.

Yeah now that everyone is mounted on the rock work I feel like they're getting better flow but it's harder to manage with the wave makers I have. When everyone was down on the sandbed I was deflecting flow off the glass from a couple different directions and getting good water movement without blasting anyone.

My flow problem now is getting the power heads pointed correctly to get enough flow to everyone without power washing part of the tank. Also the pulse setting on Jebao pumps is way to rapid even on it's lowest frequency setting. I want something where I'm getting some serious back and forth action. Maybe a nice gyre pump is in my future.

Does anyone make a wave makers that slowly changes direction like an oscillating fan?
 
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SoggyNW

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I thought It would be fun to update this thread and also give a big THANK YOU to everyone for the awesome advice. Also I thought it would be good to give some details on what did and didn't work and what I'm currently doing.

I struggled with stability and keeping nutrients down for a long time with this tank. A big part of the problem was simply me trying to hard to micro manage the tank. To much testing and correcting of parameters. Also I was messing with additives like vibrant, which while useful is some ways was also adding to the complexity of what is effecting you chemistry.

The nutrient issue I'm not sure how it cleared up. Back in March I had to tear down the tank and move everything to a rubbermaid tub for 2 weeks. When that happened the sump, equipment, sand, and rocks all got a lot of maintenance and cleaning. Also all the water got changed twice. When it all came back together my nutrients never came back up to the previous levels.

Another factor that I feel is contributing to my current success is simply the tank maturing. I've gone through various stages of uglies and a few months ago the tank really seemed to hit it's stride. Coraline started growing, corals really got happy and most of the uglies faded away.

What is currently working is.

1. A weekly 10% water change
2. Kalk in the ATO
3. Running a carbon reactor.

That's it. It's pretty KISS and it is working.

And last but not least, pictures! nothing better than some good before and after pics.
IMG_20200821_194845.jpg
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IMG_20200821_115208.jpg
 

jeffrey750750

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Okay so from one black box owner to another dial the blues back to 50 percent and leave whites off for a week. Place the frags about 3/4 of the way up the rock. Make sure to check alk every 2 days you want that number to stay consistent. After a week of acclimating your frags to the light start bring up the blues little by little. Then turn the whites on the lowest setting for only 2 hours then a week later do 3 hours then 4 hours do not use more the 5 hours per day of whites blues should be on for 10-12 hours per day and white should be in the middle or that for only 5 hours.

20190112_191124.jpg IMG_20191015_231744.jpg
Thats one heck of a way to cool the tank down
 

Udest

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lol he might be mad at your wife but any way what variation is dick the digi ?

love that bright orange im thinking of trying out some sps for the first time when i get my 29 up and running getting tired of running my tiny 5 gal.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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    Votes: 64 36.8%
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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

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