- Joined
- Aug 4, 2026
- Messages
- 71
- Reaction score
- 63
- Location
- San Francisco
- What state or country do you live in
- California
I started with a 15 gallon tank 2 years ago, after 1 year I upgraded to a reefer 170. I filled the new tank with rock from my old hellow reef as well as 25lbs of marco live rock that was full of all kinds of critters i still havent identified. For those that dont know it is a 43 gal display with 9 gallon sump. Ive been through and upgraded this system to run as stable as possible at it size. My sandbed is about 3" to 4" of very fine oolite sand. This took months to settle.
Equipment
Light: radion g6xr30
Protein skimmer: royal exclusiv marin100
Rollermat : Reefmat.
Dosing: reefdose system with AFR
Tropic marin pro reef salt.
Stocking:
2 oscellaris clown
1 very nice randalls assessor that gets bullied to hell by the clowns.
1 pink streak wrasse
1 midas blenny
1 super psychedelic blue mandarin
1 strawberry fighting conch
3 esmerald crabs
3 nessarius.
1 pincushion urchin (8-12-26)
All kinds of other little critters i spot occasionally.
Many varieties of lps,sps, and soft corals, some sponges, and some nuisance algae.
Since feeding reef nutrition i have noticed corals and fish much more vibrant.
8-12-26 I deployed 5ml per day vinegar carbon dosing to further lower my nutrients. I was fairly stable at 8ppm nitrate and .05 -.08 phosphates but would like to cut that in half.
8-13-26 I do believe the carbon dosing to already be showing its increase on the effectiveness of the skimmer. Foam is stable throughout the day.
8-14-26 alk check shows slight decrease, increased AFR dose from 12ml to 14ml per day.With the ovious impact carbon dosing has had on skimmer efficiency, i have been feeding much more. Probably 50% more. Fish seem much less skittish and/or aggressive. I also turned up skimmers flow rate to accomadate the increased feedings
8-17-26 I have deployed aminos broadcast morning and evening 3ml per dose as i like the colors it produces when spot fed, so we will see. Im confident carbon dosing has given me some wiggle room to play based on the looks of tank and alk consumption.
8-19-26. Skimmer settled down and is functioning well. All things considering i believe carbon dosing is going great, i even target fed small amounts of reef roids twice this week. I have not done a water change for a week and saw a drop of 2ppm with increased feeding. increasing vinegar dosing from 10 ml to 15 ml per day to further lower nitrate through increased feeding, AFR will get another slight bump from 14ml to 15ml per day as we are currently about 7.9 alk and believe(hope) consumption will continue to increase, will play with feeding lower phosphate inducing foods, like reef roids with caution, as with the doses I did it would normally have an increase. I am ecstatic to reach levels sub .05 without using LC, with 2 small doses of reef roids. this is the first time ive seen that from this tank. I really enjoy feeding and dont mind a little waste if it is extracted efficiently before fouling water.
8-26-26Alk 8.5
Nitrate 5.5
Phosphate .05
Today will be the first water change ive done in almost 3 weeks. Im only going to do 5 gallons as I like where my numbers are. Will feed a little less reef roid this week. I really have been feeding like mad every day. I think im in a good spot. I had bumped afr to increase alk a little wich is now 8.5. I dialed it to 17ml per day and will follow up on it in a few days. I think venegar is about right at 15ml. I added a small pack of carbon because i think my leather may be the problem woth acros. Hopefully I can get these acros to do something, but I did get a pretty good pic of tank with pink streak wrasse on display! Theres a mandarin in there pretty good too! Its never that easy.
Equipment
Light: radion g6xr30
Protein skimmer: royal exclusiv marin100
Rollermat : Reefmat.
Dosing: reefdose system with AFR
Tropic marin pro reef salt.
Stocking:
2 oscellaris clown
1 very nice randalls assessor that gets bullied to hell by the clowns.
1 pink streak wrasse
1 midas blenny
1 super psychedelic blue mandarin
1 strawberry fighting conch
3 esmerald crabs
3 nessarius.
1 pincushion urchin (8-12-26)
All kinds of other little critters i spot occasionally.
Many varieties of lps,sps, and soft corals, some sponges, and some nuisance algae.
Since feeding reef nutrition i have noticed corals and fish much more vibrant.
8-12-26 I deployed 5ml per day vinegar carbon dosing to further lower my nutrients. I was fairly stable at 8ppm nitrate and .05 -.08 phosphates but would like to cut that in half.
8-13-26 I do believe the carbon dosing to already be showing its increase on the effectiveness of the skimmer. Foam is stable throughout the day.
8-14-26 alk check shows slight decrease, increased AFR dose from 12ml to 14ml per day.With the ovious impact carbon dosing has had on skimmer efficiency, i have been feeding much more. Probably 50% more. Fish seem much less skittish and/or aggressive. I also turned up skimmers flow rate to accomadate the increased feedings
8-17-26 I have deployed aminos broadcast morning and evening 3ml per dose as i like the colors it produces when spot fed, so we will see. Im confident carbon dosing has given me some wiggle room to play based on the looks of tank and alk consumption.
8-19-26. Skimmer settled down and is functioning well. All things considering i believe carbon dosing is going great, i even target fed small amounts of reef roids twice this week. I have not done a water change for a week and saw a drop of 2ppm with increased feeding. increasing vinegar dosing from 10 ml to 15 ml per day to further lower nitrate through increased feeding, AFR will get another slight bump from 14ml to 15ml per day as we are currently about 7.9 alk and believe(hope) consumption will continue to increase, will play with feeding lower phosphate inducing foods, like reef roids with caution, as with the doses I did it would normally have an increase. I am ecstatic to reach levels sub .05 without using LC, with 2 small doses of reef roids. this is the first time ive seen that from this tank. I really enjoy feeding and dont mind a little waste if it is extracted efficiently before fouling water.
8-26-26Alk 8.5
Nitrate 5.5
Phosphate .05
Today will be the first water change ive done in almost 3 weeks. Im only going to do 5 gallons as I like where my numbers are. Will feed a little less reef roid this week. I really have been feeding like mad every day. I think im in a good spot. I had bumped afr to increase alk a little wich is now 8.5. I dialed it to 17ml per day and will follow up on it in a few days. I think venegar is about right at 15ml. I added a small pack of carbon because i think my leather may be the problem woth acros. Hopefully I can get these acros to do something, but I did get a pretty good pic of tank with pink streak wrasse on display! Theres a mandarin in there pretty good too! Its never that easy.
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