When/why did your tank ‘take off’?

[peterhos]

Hi All

My tank is a year old now. Fish OK, Kenya tree frags growing slowly, Zoa’s hanging on in, no luck with LPS. Nitrates 15, phosphate 0.2. DKH steady at 9.5. Calcium 500, magnesium 1500, salinity 34.6. Slight improvements lately, but tell me, when and why did your tank suddenly start to flourish? Thanks for your replies.

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

My first flourish came when I dropped my salinityfrom .26/27 to .23 here I saw major improvements with the corals in the tank

 

[littlebeard]

I had a rough first 18 months first fighting cyno then dino's. After the dino battle was complete my tank has taken off.

I'm not entirely sure why the first 18 months was so tough... looking back at my build thread I couldn't even grow coraline now I can barely keep up with calcium/alk uptake.

My advice is test more, if you do need to change something change it slow. Stability is key

 

[peterhos]

My first flourish came when I dropped my salinityfrom .26/27 to .23 here I saw major improvements with the corals in the tank

Interesting. A faulty Hanna checker caused me to have salinity of 36.9 ppt. I am now around 34.6.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Hi All

My tank is a year old now. Fish OK, Kenya tree frags growing slowly, Zoa’s hanging on in, no luck with LPS. Nitrates 15, phosphate 0.2. DKH steady at 9.5. Calcium 500, magnesium 1500, salinity 34.6. Slight improvements lately, but tell me, when and why did your tank suddenly start to flourish? Thanks for your replies.

Mine is 13 months old now, and it started taking off after I added some live rock that looked like it came from TBS I got at my LFS.

Loaded with garbage and fauna, since adding it, about 2 weeks later I added my Duncan and kenya tree and they grew at absurd rates, a few months after my wife got me a frogspawn and a candycane, both have increased in mass by at least 700%, candycane went from 1 head to 24, and frogspawn went from 1 head to now 6 with 2 splitting as of last night. A montipora digita and yellow porites I added 3 weeks ago have been doing incredibly well, montipora has gone from pic 1 to pic 2 in that time. And the porites has encrusted and closed up all of its skeleton that was bare at the fish store.

I started with "live rock" that was pretty bare from the previous owner of the tank, and about 15% dry rock. I had dinos very early and was battleing them until I added the ocean rock.

I added my first corals after right the dinos ended.

The kenya tree really took off after I started dosing iodine and strontium, about 1/4 of my tank is fairly large kenya trees now, it's kind of a problem, but the corals it sprouts up near seem to keep it from growing.

I also feed heavily on aminos and particulate food, and have a ton of chaeto. Probably about 4lbs of it crammed in my fuge. And I don't do water changes, I carbon dose with TMs NP/bacto balance line. Lately my phosphate is .05 and nitrates 1ppm, I dose ammonia to keep nitrates up as the the aminos aren't doing it on their own, I also kind of overfeed my fish. Eveb though my phosphate is in the "bactobalance range" I have been exclussively using elimi NP. I think the carbon dosing keeps my bacteria population way up which is also coral food.

I think my success is 2 things, 1 adding more micro biome, and 2 heavy nutrient import with heavy export. I keep food available constantly. Also maybe 3, I use syrface agitation for all of my O2, and my skimmer is on a recirculating CO2 scrubber. My PH on the lowend is 8.1 and with the house closed up 8.16. 8 4 if the windows are open for a couple days.

Actually 1 more thing, I have hydros to monitor my temp and PH, I have had to emergency combat low PH a lot in the first 6 months by turning on the house fan with the windows open, if I let it drop and trusted my test kits, I don't think I wpuld have had the growth that I do. If I didn't monitor, my PH would be around 7.6. Also temps, if I didn't have a live feed of temp, I would have never known 79 degrees in the house is 84 in my tank when I used a glass lid. Now my temp is super stable, this probably helps too.

I meticulously watched my dkh calc mag before I built my dosing pumps, it took me about a week to dial it in and now I can go a month without testing, make changes to my dosing, and very luckily guess correctly how those numbers will change becayse I ha e a good idea of how much my tank is consuming. Again my dosing is a little luck based because primarily my adjustments are gut feeling.

Lastly, I dose traces, mostly because I don't really do water changes. I use TMs trace A and trace K in my 2 part, I use balling part c, and I still dose iodine and strontium independently of that, and lots of chaeto grow.

 

[kevgib67]

I would say about 6-8 months. I started with all live rock and had the usual algae outbreaks but nothing terrible. I managed to avoid dinos which I attribute to the live rock, excuse me while I find some wood to knock on.

 

[peterhos]

I would say about 6-8 months. I started with all live rock and had the usual algae outbreaks but nothing terrible. I managed to avoid dinos which I attribute to the live rock, excuse me while I find some wood to knock on.

Lovely tank. Some of my zoa heads are tiny. Would you suspect lack of feeding or too much or too little light?

 

[kevgib67]

My zoa very in size. Fruit loops stay small for me and here is a picture of zoas that are the largest. It might just be the type of zoa. If they are not getting enough light their stalks get real long as they are stretching for more light. Zoas seem to thrive with a little higher amounts of iodine.

 

[peterhos]

Thank you. I am dosing a little iodine after an ICP test but will keep an eye on the level. Do your zoas thrive at a particular level of iodine?

 

[kevgib67]

It is hard to keep at a specific level but I try to have it around 70-80 ug/l

 

[MrGisonni]

My mixed reef took off after a year and a half after starting with dry rock.

 

[rtparty]

Around the one year mark, when I went back to my homemade food (it’s super loaded with nutrients and aminos), and when I started carbon dosing.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Around the one year mark, when I went back to my homemade food (it’s super loaded with nutrients and aminos), and when I started carbon dosing.

I don't have good proof of it, but I really feel like carbon dosing is a huge deal for corals. TMs claims of it being a way to use the phosphates in your system as nutrition instead of just trying to pull it out makes sense to me.

I will never run a reef without it now, straight off the bat once I have established any corals I am jumping on the plus NP or bacto balance now.

 

[rtparty]

I don't have good proof of it, but I really feel like carbon dosing is a huge deal for corals. TMs claims of it being a way to use the phosphates in your system as nutrition instead of just trying to pull it out makes sense to me.

I will never run a reef without it now, straight off the bat once I have established any corals I am jumping on the plus NP or bacto balance now.

Abe at Coral Euphoria has a good video about it. He’s likely correct that our tanks become carbon limited especially once corals start growing

 

[srawnc]

The first year was rough. I battled diatoms for what seemed like a lifetime. It has recently "taken off," noticed I do fewer water changes and all levels are fairly stable for such a low-tech tank all most to the point I am scared to touch it.