- Joined
- Mar 4, 2018
- Messages
- 134
- Reaction score
- 110
Sorry - I totally disappeared things have been a bit slow going (I think in a good way).
I add water in the last chamber and remove it in the second to last.
The Good:
The Bad:
Can you guess what day I turned on my algae reactor?? Nitrate finally back
Phosphate now holding around 0.03
The To-Do:
Short video
I add water in the last chamber and remove it in the second to last.
The Good:
- I added some tester SPS (green slimer, bonsai, some sort of digi) in December from the LFS and they seem to be doing well. Green slimer has been encrusting, decent polyp extension. Added a neon stylo and a pretty great acan head from the LFS as well a few days ago.
- Bunch of the Zoas are continuing to grow rapidly
- Alk has been holding very stable - just testing every few weeks
- Somehow, my tank basically never went through the uglies. No hair algae, no bryopsis, nothing. It's been up for about 7 months at this point.
The Bad:
- The algae reactor was way too successful and crashed my nutrients, I finally de-tuned it to have the light turned on for only 1.5 hrs / night. I also almost crashed my tank (!!) when the nutrients tanked, I turned off both the light and pumpand left it off for a while to try to recover some nutrients. When I turned the pump back on a few days later it had this horrible rotting / rotten egg smell. Never turn off your pump to your algae reactor only the light!!
- Nutrients are in a much better place now.
- I have been having issues with fish mortality - the fish were stressed and got ich at some point, nearly all died. Have been adding them back slowly.
- Almost had my first coral mortality - the Red Hornet slimed off its plug, was able to rescue it - now on my frag rack and seems OK.
Can you guess what day I turned on my algae reactor?? Nitrate finally back
Phosphate now holding around 0.03
The To-Do:
- Still struggling with low pH / acidity in the 7.6-7.75 range. I guess I could re-calibrate the apex but it's always been low. It's on my desk in my office where my dog and I hang out all day. I finally caved and ordered a nano skimmer, and was going to drill a hole in my wall to feed it with outside air (shh don't tell the wife). I'm hopeful I'll need to dose kalk at some point to also help, but the alk has been too stable just with water changes.
- I haven't really dialed in my light yet - I have a Kessil A360x that's running around 40% all blue from 7am-11pm, and the tank gets a ton of natural light from the window particularly in the afternoon. I guess BRS doesn't do PAR meter rentals anymore? Anyway, I need to dial it in at some point.
Short video
February 27, 2023
youtube.com