Very cool tim. Im sure that makes tank maintenance a heck of alot easier

thanks E!

it does, though -- any kind of maintenance is so much easier now, especially because one of the "feet" that came with the light was kind of loose/wobbley, and the cords to the light fixture are almost already stretched as far as they will go. it was always a big hassle to remove the light to do even minor maintenance.

i thought about a "flip up" design for the light fixture, but i ultimately decided that this pivoting design was better because it lets me just flip up the mesh top instead (i'd have to totally remove it if the light was flipped up). also, right or wrong, it feels like there's less of a chance of splashing on the light when it is totally moved out of the way, and i don't have to worry about it falling down. the pivoting is a nice, stable, smooth movement.

overall, i'm very happy.

Hung mine the same way, makes it great for doing anything in or to the tank. With the feet I was worried about removing everytime i wanted to do something because it is so wide. Great jod.

ahhh.. i figured someone was going to come along and say that they had already come up with this, but it is decidedly more embarrassing here, being that i've read your thread before (though i didn't remember seeing this, i went back and read through it, and whaddaya know, there it is)! honest mistake!

edit: but in fairness to me, i did at least come up with the idea of placing the thinner conduit into the thicker conduit and using the rubber for smooth pivoting...? maybe? i hope, to save myself from at least a little bit of embarrassment.....?

The conduit pivot is a great idea, mine just pivot under the talon straps. I have even seen it done with a beam clamp(looks like a c with a bolt going through one end) to attach the vertical pipe, then they had several holes drilled in the pipe to adjust height by putting bolt on clamp through alternate holes. I belive it was on one of vic-skimr tanks. I wish I had bought the hanger kit for my light, the holes were odd sized and could not find a eye-bolt to fit, so i used picture hangers with factory screws, and wire rope that was WAY too heavy of a gauge for what i needed, making it a PITA for the light to be level both ways.

The new lighting rig looks great.

Let's see that new red planet.

well, the lighting rig is still working well. makes water changes a breeze. at least that's a positive.

my red planet; has gone from purple with a little green to pale/white with purple tips on the corallites within 2 weeks of adding it. i guess whatever is wrong with my tank still isn't fixed.

my frogspawn has wasted away to almost nothing (tissue has just receded over the course of about 4-5 months; i removed it from the tank yesterday and gave what was left to the LFS (Atlantis) to try and recuperate it (in any event, i was tired of it polluting/decomposing in my tank).

i've developed a minor amount of cyano in some spots right below my vortech (just not getting flow it needs, i guess). a little bit of hair algae, too, though the turbos are keeping it reasonably under control. definitely getting some hair algae on my glass.

my phosphates and nitrates (as they always have) measured at 0 on Elos test kits yesterday.

i've cut my feedings down pretty significantly, and i'm hardly feeding any PEMysis anymore, and i've cut out the cyclopeeze, roti-feast and AquaVitro Fuel entirely. feeding about 85% hikari small pellets right now. skimmer production is almost non-existent (i haven't had to empty the cup in 3 weeks, and at this rate, it'll still be several weeks before i have to).

getting some reasonable-ish growth out of my SPS (especially my green slimer, pink mille, purple digitata).

noticed during my last water change that my return pump is hardly providing any flow to the tank. it's running out of the return lines, but at closer to a "strong trickle" than a flow. i wonder if that's causing detritus collection in my sump due to the flow being too low.

i'm going to test for voltage in the tank next, i guess. i'm not really getting any RTN or anything, though, so i don't think that's going to be the problem.

anyone have anything to add?

I think i'm going to make a flow/rockwork change in the aquarium -- i don't know if this is an issue, but it certainly doesn't seem like it could hurt. I'm thinking:

1) remove LR rubble from first chamber of sump. i think the water is not flowing fast enough through there to keep detritus from getting trapped in there.

2) remove 2 of the 5 large pieces of LR from the display (middle rock on the left tier, bottom rock on the right tier. this is going to pull the coral further from the light, but it should allow for increased flow in the tank and hopefully less settling spots for detritus.

3) reposition the tunze 6025 so that it's on the same side of the tank as the mp10, creating more of a gyre flow. i think, because they are not synced together, the current positioning of the pumps to sort of send water "toward" each other may be effectively canceling each other out somewhat, and may be leading to detritus accumulation.


is there anything to worry about removing this much LR? should i remove it in stages, or is all at once probably ok?

man its been a while since I got to this thread, too long in fact. had a bit to catch up on. I think oyu can pull all the LR at once, its not a big deal.

love the av btw

ive always liked cadlights, looks good man!

Just picked up a 39 Pro. I'm going to be setting it up over the next few weeks. I'm really excited about this tank.

Great thread btw.

ya, i think it should be fine. i'm also thinking about vacuuming out the DSB. I'm just worried about removing so much of the biological filtration system all at once.



thanks!



it's a nice setup. they are shipping it with better equipment than when i first got it.

thanks, and good luck!



thanks!

I'll be interested to see if you have some stray voltage. I recently had my 40 exposed to low voltage when my osmolator cable was unplugged from the unit and fell in the sump. I found it two hours later and fixed it. I had no losses but my sps have gotten more pale in color. That was a few weeks ago and things are starting to slowly color up. It could be your color problems with your sps.

i am interested myself -- i don't remember if i said this already, but the guys at Atlantis had recently suggested I check this. Could definitely be the issue. I'm just waiting on my neighbor having a minute to come over with his testing equipment.

*note: i do have a stealth heater -- possible culprit?! maybe the reason my frogspawn slowly receded and died?

I also believe that, based on a Randy Holmes-Farley article, that I'm under-dosing my 2-part by what i'd initially estimate at 5-6ml/day (i'll have to do some more checking into this). i don't think this is necessarily related to my coloration issues, but it could be a contributing factor.

45 volts in the tank, per the multimeter this morning. coming from just about every piece of equipment. great?!

so, i spent about 6 hours on the tank on saturday. some details accomplishments:


First, a stray voltage breakdown (using Fluke multimeter, 120AC, black probe grounded to outlet, red probe in display tank):

1) 12 volts from my maxijet 1200 powering my media reactor. this pump is not even 6 months old.

2) about 3-4 volts each from: 100w visitherm stealth heater, vortech mp10 (did not expect that), tunze 1073.020 return pump, JBJ ATO (?!), tunze 6025. i think some of this may just be the result of backfeeding.

3) ~12v from one of my 3 daisy-chained power strips. i replaced the faulty power strip (but neglected to test for voltage afterward -- oops).

4) no voltage from my light fixture or my skimmer pump. go figure.

5) about 2v with nothing powered on.


Now, the rest of my accomplishments/feats of daring:

1) purchased/installed a titanium ground probe. suction-cupped the probe to the overflow box in the back of my display tank. i had mixed feelings about where to put it; obviously there is a continuous circuit of water between the display and sump while the return pump is operating, but that isn't the case when the return pump is off. my decision came down to the fact that i figured, in times when the return pump is not operating (and therefore there are 3 separate bodies of water to ground: the display, the overflow and the sump) i would have my hands in the display more often than i'd have them in the sump or the overflow, and most of the living organisms are in the display. after installing the probe, obviously my tank is reading 0 volts now. i believe i'll be replacing the maxijet, but i don't think there's much i can do about the other voltage.

2) switched my multi-outlet shockbuster portable gfci for a single-outlet portable gfci so that i could install the grounding probe could fit in the same wall outlet (the multi-outlet gfci covers up both outlets on the wall outlet). on a related note, does anyone want to buy a multi-outlet shockbuster portable gfci? at the same time, i switched the order of my power strips so that the strip with the "tight space-friendly" plug went in first. this makes life so much easier. after replacing and rearranging the power strips, i foolishly neglected to re-check the voltages without the grounding probe to see if that helped.

3) removed/disassembled the vortech, return pump and tunze 6025 and soaked them in ~10:1 solution of water:muriatic acid for 20 minutes. this was a lot of trouble, but after the soak/rinse in tap water/once-over with a toothbrush, they came out looking like new. from removal to reinstall, the process took at least an hour. i should've cleaned my skimmer pump at the same time, but i forgot about it. this became an issue later!

4) I modded my tunze 6025 by using a dremel to cut off the flow restricter on the front piece of plastic. this mod is supposed to give it 6045 flow. seemed to go fine, and the flow is definitely better. when reinstalling the tunze 6025, i repositioned it to be on the same side of the tank as the vortech, about 8" below it, and angled up. the goal is to create more of a gyre flow in the tank than previously existed. sadly, i ended up snapping one of the pins off the magnet that the 6025 mounts on, so i would characterize it's hold on the magnet as "tenuous, but ok." i did manage to knock it off one time, and it ended up facing down at the sand bed for a second and blowing sand all over the place. ugh/oops.

5) rinsed dual media reactor and replaced all media (gearing up for the next few items)

6) REMOVED live rock rubble from sump.

7) REMOVED DSB! lowered the water level so that it was below the baffles of the fuge chamber (to keep organics/hydrogen sulfide out of the water -- sulfur/gas smell was intense the further down i went, by the way), scooped out most of the sand by hand, and shop-vacced out the rest. i did notice that , sitting empty, the left and right chambers were leaking into the middle chamber very very slightly (probably about 1ml/minute). i had a small ball of chaeto and two decent-sized pieces of LR on top of the DSB that i put back in the fuge chamber. i'm not sure what i should be doing with those at this point, but i don't have anything else to put in there other than maybe a thin layer of sand. flow is so mediocre over it that it might not be worthwhile.

7) REMOVED 1 big piece of rock from left tier of the display tank. this was definitely the right thing to do. i also tried removing the bottom rock from the right tier of the display, but things really just weren't fitting together right and the top rock on the right tier couldn't really support itself, given where corals were growing on it, so i ended up leaving it in. i don't love what it looks like right now (.. a pile of rocks), but maybe i just need to get used to it. i'm almost nervous to move it because it's stable as it's sitting right now, and with so much else going on in the tank (biologically, aesthetically, electrically...), i'd rather not tempt fate more than i have to.

8) in the process of removing/replacing/redecorating rocks, i managed to do some damage. i fragged a small edge off my pink/orange cap (i couldn't even find anything that had broken off, but there is a spot that looks broken), and i also snapped off a ~1" branch from my red planet. i did save the red planet frag and mounted it right next to the existing colony. should be fine. i also purposefully fragged off a little piece of purple digitata that was getting too close to my ATL Pink Flamingo Acropora Selago. after all this, there was some SERIOUS sliming from just about every coral in the tank (even the caps were sliming). tried to keep them "slime free" with a turkey baster, off and on. they are mostly clear now, though the green slimer and blue stag are still at it a little bit. no tissue loss, though.

9) while i had stopped in at the LFS (Atlantis) to buy the ground probe, they gave me a big frag of browned-out blue tort for free -- i guess a customer had returned a big colony that their high-alk tank water was destroying, so they were fragging up the healthy pieces that were left to see if they could salvage it and asked me if i wanted one. Those guys are the best. so, i treated/mounted that frag. no tissue loss on it at all, yet, so i'm holding out hope!

10) after all that, water change.

11) when turning my skimmer back on after the water change, the impeller on the pump wasn't spinning. big trouble based on everything else that was going on! so, i ended up having to take it out of the tank, cleaning it by hand/toothbrush -- but, the impeller still was sticking. i found that i could "kick start" it by sticking my finger down in it and sort of rolling the impeller clockwise with my finger to start it. the problem was that it would start, but then if you turned it off, it still wouldn't start back up on its own (though you could still "kick start" it again). i finally ended up unscrewing the nozzle that plugs into the skimmer body and just messing around with it for a few minutes, and i guess that broke it free of whatever was keeping it from spinning (again, probably a deposit of some kind) because it started going on its own. then, it was able to start up on its own through multiple power-offs/power-ons. so, i guess it's fixed, though i'll be keeping an eye on it.

12) tried to do some parameter testing after all this. salinity was a bit higher than usual (1.027 instead of 1.025-6), but i'm not super worried about that. Alk was 7.0, Ca was 400, but i expected both of those to be a bit low based on my revised dosing schedule/calculating. i'm now dosing 15ml/day of both Ca/Alk. Interesting sidenote, my Elos Ca test kit reagent A started leaking out of the side of the dropper. got all over my hands and the bottle (it took the ink right off the bottle). no burns or anything, but i will absolutely be contacting Elos about this, because i doubt i'll be able to continue using it.

13) added a little bit of API Stress Coat to cut any ammonia that might have been freed from messing around with the rocks, removing filtration, blowing sand around, etc.

quite a night. as of this morning, the inhabitants all look fine based on visual inspection, other than the remaining sliming.

Wow thats a heck of an update Tim....I'm glad you were able to resolve most of the issues. I'm really curious if some of your water quality issues will be resolved with the removal of the DSB...

i'm curious about that as well! if the corals improve, i don't know whether i should be crediting the removal of the DSB or the ground probe. but, i figured i might as well just do it all at once, since i'm just about out of patience.

another note: wife has approved the purchase of a Neptune AquaController Apex Lite. so, i just need to figure out what i need to go with it. I was thinking of going ahead and getting the standard-grade pH probe, but what beyond that? Those of you with the Apex, what things do you like/dislike? keep in mind:

1) my vortech isn't wireless, so no wxm module
2) I have a JBJ ATO, but would consider selling it if it makes more sense to just control ATO functions via the controller
3) i'd like to connect to my wireless internet router rather than running an ethernet cable (i have an extra wireless router that's not being used -- could i use that as a wireless adapter maybe?)
4) What about an extra energybar8? wife hates cords/electrical mess. i certainly have more than 8 things to plug in that would be NICE to control, but that's an expensive upgrade. thoughts?

Ordered Apex Lite (+pH probe), to be shipped out today!

so, i was looking at the bubble-magus website at the NAC3+ skimmer -- they are using MY pictures to advertise their skimmer!



...



WHERE ARE MY ROYALTIES?!

bastards!

thats one heck of an update. sort of makes me want to check for stray voltage in my tanks now.

Hey tim id definitely email them about it and see how they respond....They should know better

Apex Lite arrived this afternoon.

after looking pretty bad yesterday, Jaws the bluespot jawfish didn't make it over night. scuff marks on his body look like he might've gotten the bluespot jawfish disease, but i don't know for sure. he went from seemingly fine/eating (though a little more timidly than usual) to gravely ill/unresponsive in less than 24 hours.

I'm sorry for your loss. Its always hard to lose an awesome fish. Will you try another one?

I'm definitely enjoying my Apex Lite -- still not running it wirelessly, but it's nice to have everything automated/controlled. My temperatures and pH have been very stable (temp of 77.5-79 and pH of 8.15-8.3), my dosing has been worry-free, maintenance has been less of a hassle, and cords are more organized. I love this thing.

I will say that I wish I had a second EB8 -- i have more things to control than i have controllable outlets. I'm kind of surprised that Neptune doesn't offer a package with 2 EB8s, frankly. I can't be the only person who has this issue.

Despite the stability that the apex has been providing, and despite the ground probe, and despite the change in flow pattern, removal of DSB/excess LR from sump, etc...... coral coloration still sucks (and i can't tell whether there's been any improvement at all). So frustrating. phosphates/nitrates still not detectable on API test kit (though I do have some cotton candy algae in the sump, a clear film algae over a lot of the rocks, and very sparse patches of hair algae here and there). Growth is mediocre.

even though i've increased dosing by about 50% over the last 2 months, my Alk is staying steady at 7.5dkh, my Ca at 400ppm. Mg was at 1500 as of 2 weeks ago. salinity is 1.025-1.026 on my refractometer.

as far as photo period goes, currently, actinics are on for 12 hours, halides are on for 8, fuge light is on for opposite 12 of halides.






after having given it a few weeks to think about, I still don't know whether I'll do another bluespot, at least in this tank. they're great fish, no question -- but, they're expensive, and i'm just not sure that i have the sandbed to support one. it could've been for a lot of reasons, but i noticed a decline in mine as soon as i started adding courser/sharper grain sand (which I had added so that it wouldn't get blown around by my powerheads).

corals are funny that way. I think this thread really needs some more pics up!

i agree. more pictures!

i imagine i'll post some this evening -- i've got to do a water change, and i've unfortunately noticed some slight tissue recession on one of my more sensitive SPS, so i'll probably want to document that.

this is so frustrating. i might be looking at a tank reboot if i don't notice significant improvement in the next 2-3 months. maybe my rocks are the problem.

just to document, figured out an issue with my Apex programming as related to dosing.

Currently dosing 20ml/day 2-part to try and raise my Alk up to ~9-10dkh. the dosing happens in consecutive minutes at night. however, the Apex is programmed to turn off dosing pumps if the pH goes above 8.35. the pH probe is located directly down-wind of the Alk dosing tube.

so, watching the dosing process, it looks like the Apex is cutting off my dosing pumps for approximately half of the dosing period because the Alk raises the pH (at least the local pH of the water to 8.35 pretty quickly.

Luckily, i've caught this. i'll need to spread out the dosing periods into more frequent and smaller increments to avoid this going forward.

Great looking tank Tim. Also nice to see an ACC supporter. I have a couple of questions for you.

I believe I may have some stray voltage in the tank and I'm not entirely sure simply sticking a meter in there is going to show me anything. Did you see any immediate improvements from the grounding probe? I understand why people use them but to me it seems a little funky. If there is a pump on the opposite side of the tank, whatever voltage it is exposing to the water would effectively drop to 0V to the grounding probe across the tank. This means there is constantly a relatively high current flowing through the water column of your display tank. This sounds like it would be absolutely terrible.

What concerns me isn't that you read 2V from the tank (with nothing on) to the ground socket in your wall, but that there appears to be different voltages when comparing the different equipment. Do you know if those readings were AC or DC readings? You mentioned it was a nice fluke 120VAC meter, but not how you measured.

So are you still running the probe? Did all your problems go away?

You promised pictures! Any updates on the recession from that one SPS piece?

Sorry for the rant I am just wondering!

thanks!



why not? it will show you if there is any stray voltage if you do it properly.



first of all, don't use a ground probe without a GFCI. that is the most important thing.

now, as far as immediate improvements? not really, but i think we're in the wrong hobby if we're looking for immediate results. also keep in mind that i did a lot of things all at once, including the installation of the ground probe (removal of DSB, removal of a lot of live rock, deep cleaning of equipment, etc.).

as far as what improvements i've noticed in my tank since installation of the ground probe that i can attribute directly to the ground probe? i don't know that i can name any.

but, a substantial part of my reasoning for installation of the ground probe was that it is, based on my understanding of the "probe vs. no probe" argument, giving your GFCI an opportunity to trip in at least one scenario where it would not otherwise trip. this might result in the tank shutting down due to the GFCI, but it won't electrocute me or cause a fire, so that's a pretty substantial plus in my mind.

here is what i said about this in another thread:



so, that's where i'm coming from there. i think the topic is certainly open for debate, though, and like i said -- i'm not an electrician, so maybe someone can offer further insight.




probes ground stray voltage. i think you are sort of making a choice between whether you want a single path of current from a voltage leak to a ground or whether you want stray voltage just everywhere in the tank. i think if the voltage is allowed to go everywhere in the tank, there is the potential for you to become the ground. that's the best argument i can think of FOR the use of a ground probe.

it's obviously not ideal to have current in the water, and the current would flow through any sealife that gets into the current... but i do not value the life of my fish as much or more than my own. the deal with the wife is that the safety of humans comes first, house comes second, and then we do the best we can for the fish after that.

again, i'm very interested in this concept, and would love to hear more opinions.




i don't understand what you mean when you say "different voltages when comparing the different equipment" -- can you explain?

this is how i tested: set the fluke to the 120AC setting, stuck the black probe grounded to outlet, stuck the red probe in display tank. that's it.



i am running the ground probe. all my problems have not gone away. but, they also haven't worsened (i did lose my jawfish; i have no discernible reason to think this is related, but i should at least mention it). and so, for the reasons mentioned above, i'll keep using it.




i know, i lied i guess. truthfully, i'm banking on wife getting me a new camera lens for christmas (nikon 35mm f/1.8), which i am anxious to try out.

as far as the recession on the SPS piece goes, nothing more to report on it. hasn't worsened at all in the last few weeks, and the rest of it looks fine. so does everything else.

Well the voltage isn't the issue. Stray voltage isn't what causes problems, it's potential differences across the tank that cause problems. You could go outside and hang from a 40kV power line and nothing would happen until you touched another line that wasn't also 40kV. The difference is where the issue arises. My point is that the tank is not connected to that grounded outlet until you add the probe so it seems like you're actually introducing a few problems with the probe for your livestock.



correct!



I forgot that you had done all of those other huge things at the same time so that's tough to pinpoint.




After reading through your reasoning though it sounds that you're obviously using it as a protection fault for your home and yourself when your hand is in the tank. In that case...I think I might want one now too It's certainly going to keep YOU safe in those situations.


Sounds like it's a reasonable deal. I believe that your grounding probe argument is rock solid and is the most sound reasoning for them I have heard, to date. I haven't really considered the inherent risk of these tanks but on second thought aquariums are a terrible terrible idea. High current lighting systems, power cords in water, sticking your hands in there every few days. Yikes!


Let's say you read 4VAC at your heater and 10VAC at the pump when they were both referenced to GROUND (house ground). That means that if you measured from the heater to the pump, you've got a 6VAC drop across the water column. This isn't a huge ordeal because AC voltage is a whole other ballgame than DC and it really isn't as much of a concern for me but it still means you have current constantly flowing between those two pieces of equipment. Now sticking both probes in the tank (IME) is going to show you all sorts of wild measurements that really aren't going to be an issue. I think sometimes we chase problems like that. The potential difference here is where the issue arises. The fact that you read 2VAC with NOTHING on in the tank simply shows that the water has a bit of a charge (it is in fact TDS: >>1000+ so there's tons and tons of ions etc.) This charge makes me think that there is a lot more going on and you could easily get different readings every single day if you did this as a regular part of maintenance.




I think the probe is a great idea now after reading a bit more on it for the purposes of personal safety ONLY. The more I think about it the more I think it's a POOR idea for the tank but a necessity for personal safety for both the human and his/her home.

Thanks for all the information.



Hopefully she gets that for you because you're going to LOVE it.

Shot this with it last week:


Thanks a lot for the thorough response. I really appreciate it.

Looking forward to updated pictures of the tank.

And now for some actual photographic updates....!


The new Hanna checker. 4 tests, 4 times reading 0.00. I don't know whether this makes me happy or sad.




some new shots with my new nikkor f/1.8 35mm -- love this lens. i feel like it's helping me learn, at least.

first


and then


and then


and then




and finally, FTS (my GSP was all retracted here - camera shy?)

one more... look at that sad Red Planet (the two pieces right above the clownfish)...

and here's kona the dog, just for good measure:

Thinking about starting dosing an amino acid supplement... Elos Omega Amino Acid? Pohl's Coral Vitalizer or Pohl's Xtra?

I feel like these sound expensive, but I'm worried I have no nutrients to support coral coloration/growth. my growth isn't horrible, but it's not good, either, despite what i would say has been fairly respectable stability in my parameters.

having said that, i'm up to dosing 21ml/day of 2-part to keep up with my Ca/Alk uptake, and that's just to keep my Alk at 8dkh. That really seems excessive, but I feel like the Elos tests don't lie? Unless of course they do?

amazing...

Bulk Reef Supply is now using my picture to advertise the NAC-3+...

where are my royalties?

Wow that sounds like alot Tim..it seems weird your tank could be using that much daily..maybe you should check out the Hanna alkalinty checker.

Ive been dosing pohls extra & vitalizer and can't say I've seen any discernible changes since dosing.

Great pics btw everything looks good.

Lol you shouldn't have taken such a good shot

posted this on the coral forum, but i figured i'd post here too......

i'm noticing some tissue loss on my ATL Ocean Blue Papillare (the pale blue frag in the right-middle of the tank, situated to the immediate left of the tall stick of green slimer). It's been in my tank for about 10 months. it's cemented in fairly direct light right under my halide. It paled out somewhat after I added it, but it proceeded to base out over a few months -- never really grown much beyond that, but it always had decent PE... until about 3-4 days ago, i noticed that it had no PE to speak of. today i noticed that some tissue has begun to slough off from some of the branches. the tissue loss is from the branch, not from the base. there is tissue loss going down toward the base, but the base is all intact.

one thing i should point is that, when the coral arrived at my house from AtlantisAquariums.net, it did have some tissue recession already, but that all grew back over the skeleton and it fully recovered fairly quickly, so i don't want to be too rash.

1) ugh.

2) what should i do? turn the lights off? decrease flow (the Tunze 6025 is still turned off at this time)? start going crazy with the bone cutters and try to save the base? there's really no way to frag off the pieces where tissue has receded without just chopping it down to the base.

one thing i should point out is that (i don't want to say randomly, because it wasn't random, but...) i added a total of about 5ml of potassium iodide (from a seachem iodine supplement) over a period of the last 4 days (so like 1.25ml/day). i wouldn't think that would be enough to cause something like this, but i figure i might as well disclose the fact.

another thought... so, i'm dosing 22ml/day Ca and Alk. This is maintaining my parameters at 8dkh for Alk and 400-410ppm for Ca.

I upped this dosing from about 16ml/day back in early December... which was upped from about 10ml/day from back in September/October (last time I was having trouble keeping Alk up).

I frankly tried to increase the Alk dosing from 16 to 22 to try and raise my Alk up closer to 10dkh, but I've never been able to get it higher than 8.5dkh at any point.

I can't imagine that it's precipitating out (i'm only dosing 3ml of Ca/Alk per hour, and I'm dosing them 30 minutes apart, alternating between Ca and Alk throughout the course of the night).

some pictures of the victim -- these are just some quick shots, so forgive the off colors and lack of crisp focus -- all of these are actinic-only:








a couple other interesting pictures... again, actinic-only.

green slimer's little curly sprout -- will that thicken up, or is this the equivalent of a coral skintag?


this is a free blue tort frag that i've been growing for a couple months -- it was browned out and dying when i got it, but it's recovering pretty nicely. still not much color to it, but we'll see.

Hey tim if it were me i would stop dosing altogether at least temporarily(for a tank your size and the amount of coral you have it just seems to me like your dosing way too much)I would try just using a higher quality salt like tropic marin pro and and stick to 5-7 gallon water changes weekly. A reefer from my club has a 30 breeder literally packed with sps(so much so they are growing on the glass) and all he does is weekly water changes. I just think you dosing and supplementing way too much...sometimes less is more.

i definitely see the amount i'm dosing as an issue, but i don't really know what to do about it. when i was only dosing 10ml/day of 2-part, i was having trouble keeping my Alk stable (it would slide all around from 6.5 to 7.5-8dkh). upping the dosing to 16ml/day, it was pretty stable (7.5-8dkh). now at 22ml/day, i've been testing consistently at 8dkh (and 410ppm for Ca).

the only reason i haven't been more concerned about this is that, according to RHF's 2-part article, when beginning 2-part dosing, he recommends starting at 0.3ml of 2-part per gallon for a low demand reef, 0.5ml/gal for a mixed reef, and 1ml/gal for a heavy demand SPS reef. based on my estimated water volume, i'm dosing about 0.55ml/gal.

the only other thing is, I've been using D-D H2Ocean+ salt for at least a year, but i buy it pre-mixed from the LFS. When I've tested it, the Ca/Alk test lower than what it's supposed to (even at a specific gravity of 1.025). Thinking that this may be causing instability and requiring more dosing, I just purchased my own bucket of the salt so I could mix it myself and see if that makes a difference. i am expecting this to help. also, i calculated that i'd save about $100 over the course of the year (i was paying $1.50/gal for the pre-mixed water), which more than pays for the bucket. i'm just imagining how much i'd save if i actually bit the bullet and bought my own RODI unit.

just an update on the coral, it looks the same this morning. no more tissue loss. it actually is showing some very limited polyp extension, which is an improvement over "none whatsoever."

If you have an auto top off try adding a teaspoon of kalk per gallon of top off water. Just add it to your bucket of water that your top off feeds from and it should help keep alk and pH steady. It will help increase calcium levels as well.

I don't deal with dosing because it's a never ending battle and you can throw off one thing while trying to dose for another. Try quitting the two part for a while and try the kalk. You may be surprised. You can do more harm chasing numbers, stability is key.

48 hours later, still no further tissue recession. seeing a tiny bit more PE than yesterday.

everything else still looking fine, and i'm actually even seeing some growth over the past week (i've increased feeding frequency to about half a PEmysis cube daily).

also, just put in another order with Bulk Reef Supply. Can't say it enough, very nice people over there. I got a great deal on a big set of upkeep stuff (a new radium and 2 ATI Blue+ T5s, test kits, 2-part, etc.) by joining up with the Group Buy going on with them.

ugh, found like 100 pyramid snails on my sandbed and on two out of three of my turbo snails' shells.

i didn't see any on the corals -- just on the sandbed and on the snails themselves -- but is it possible that these could be responsible for my papillare's tissue recession?! i don't have any clams, and these appear to be the snail-parasite variety (based on the fact that i found about 15 on each snail shell). anyone heard of them grazing on SPS?


also, my mccosker's flasher wrasse is bringing shame upon it's wrasse name. what kind of wrasse would allow this kind of infestation? i've been looking at adding another fish or two -- looks like a six line wrasse could be forthcoming.

b-mother-ry-f'ing-opsis. i am living in denial.

hey tim is it a bad outbreak or just a small one? I had one as well all over one particular rock but once i started dosing vodka it took care of all my nuisance algae...although i did get cyano as a parting gift.

Great photos!

My dog is named Kona too.

Crank up that Mg....kill the b word.

you were right about the nikkor 35mm f/1.8 -- love the lens. not a perfect macro lens obviously, but it's such a convenient utility lens.

i bought a Salifert Mg test -- should be arriving soon. I don't want to dose too much without keeping a close eye on it, because it's already at 1500 or so last time i checked.

good choice of dog name! what kind of dog?

the outbreak is mild at this point, and has been mild for a while. wasn't even sure it was bryopsis for a long time. but, i don't think there's anything else it could be.

re: vodka dosing, i'm thinking about it (have been for a while) -- more specifically, i've been thinking about vinegar, or biopellets.

re: cyano, i've read several places that using vinegar in addition to or entirely instead of vodka will help with cyano.

i was also thinking about adding microbacter7 in the alternative (or in addition).