TimDanger's CADlights 39g Pro

[timdanger]

it's interesting to me to see my pictures from yesterday on a different computer (i'm at work now). I thought they looked like pretty good shots last night on my computer. But, looking at them now, they look grainy and overexposed. This is after I went to the trouble of fixing the exposures in photoshop!

 

I wonder if it's because picasa (where they're uploaded) is just low resolution? i'll need to look into this.

[Kylebeano]

Dosing BRS 2-part recipe #1, 18ml/day for Ca/Alk parts, dosed with BRS dosing pumps controlled by Apex Lite.

I also run a BRS dual reactor with rox 0.8 carbon and SmartReef (TB Aquatics' brand) granular GFO. skimming 24/7 with Bubble-Magus NAC-3+.

Ca: 410

Alk: 8.5

Mg: haven't tested in a few months, but my last test showed 1400, and I continue to dose it proportionally to my the other components of my 2-part dosing (i.e., for every gallon of Ca/Alk solution, I dose ~20oz of Mg solution).

salinity: 35ppt, using spectrapure maxcap rodi and d-d h2ocean salt

pH: fluctuates between 8.2-8.35 per Apex monitoring

Temp: fluctuates between 78.5-79.5 per Apex monitoring

nitrates: 0 per Elos test kit, never been detectable since day 1.

phosphates: 0.00 per Hanna colorimeter. again, never been detectable since day 1.

Hmm. You seem to have a correct dosing, levels are fine, no swings. And your corals do show growth, like complete encrusting of plugs onto rock and such, just most of their color looks bland.

You may be onto something about just turning the BRS reactor off for a little, or putting it on a timer to run less. A little nutrients wont hurt your tank too much and may aid in helping the sps color up. Of course, at the same time, monitor your feedings more carefully, so not to overfeed. Good luck figuring it all out!

[timdanger]

added a yellow coris wrasse over the weekend. looked good, eating frozen food, nice pink coloration on his face and tailfin.

 

he's getting along pretty well with everyone so far, although the yellow tang was not terribly happy to meet him at first. they've since made peace with the situation.

 

haven't noticed him out at night (he and the mccoskers hang out in their respective wrasse-holes), so i have no idea whether he's actually working on my pyram problem. oh well. even if he isn't, he's a nice nutrient-supplying addition to the community.

[timdanger]

just as information, even after switching to my 250w halide fixture (bulb is ~14" above the water line), which is on for 8 hours a day, my $25 Air King fan from Bulk Reef Supply still keeps my tank below 80F degrees (temp bounces between 78-79.5F) all day long. Quiet, cheap -- overall, I'd have to say it was a great, great investment, and it saved me the cost/space of a chiller.

[steely185]

How about an update. Hope all is well.

[Rehype]

+1

[timdanger]

Well, I've been putting off this update in an attempt to let some experimentation let it run its course.

 

Things haven't turned out that well. So, I'm looking for help.

 

To be brief, I was having a second bout of STN at both tips and base with my ATL Ocean Blue Papillare acro (had some tissue recession earlier this year which resolved after some fragging). Tried to save it by fragging it way back, scratching into existing tissue with bone cutters (trying to draw a line between dead skeleton and living tissue), and then supergluing over dead parts. This was a complete disaster. STN turned to RTN, and it was totally gone by the next day.

 

Bummer.

 

At that same time, I was also getting some slight recession in a couple spots on my blue staghorn. And, a lot of my corals still don't seem to have adjusted to the 250w light i added over the summer, and were looking either pale (ATL Pink Flamingo Selago acro) or bleached (green slimer acro, purple digitata).

 

Having tried just about everything else, I took the GFO/carbon reactor offline for probably the last couple months. i wondered if i was running it too aggressively, and that my corals were starving as a result. I certainly am not getting good growth out of them. I've had several of these corals for YEARS now, with little more growth than just basing out in many of them (see: ATL Pink Flamingo Selago; ATL Ocean Blue Papillare, spumosa, green slimer); but then, some of them seem to grow fine (GSP grows like GSP; pink monti cap, tommyknockers, red planet, pink mille all have steady growth); and then my orange digitata used to grow fine, but then it just sort of stopped altogether).

 

Anyway, the result has been almost entirely negative.

 

The good: my bleached green slimer seems to have improved during the process. that's about it.

 

The bad:

 

1) massive outbreak of cotton candy algae in the lower third of the aquarium (none higher than that -- interesting), especially directly under my mp10 and over top of my large GSP colony. also, i'm growing some kind of sponge-like algae in my overflow (literally, although it looks like a ball of chaeto when you're looking at it, it has the feel of a soft sponge. you can tear it in half, squeeze it, etc.). other than growth on my glass, there isn't much algae otherwise.

 

2) significant paling (borderline bleached-looking), and then tissue recession, on the base of my ATL Pink Flamingo Selago acro. More on this below.

 

3) significant tissue recession on the unlit base of my pink mille. nearly the entire base on the unlit side has lost its tissue.

 

I thought that the tissue recession on the two corals had stabilized, as it seemed to have stopped progressing for about a week. But, on Tuesday, I saw that it had started again moving up the base of the Flamingo. In an effort to save it, I fragged off the paled-but-otherwise-unaffected stalk of the Flamingo and relocated it to the other side of the tank (at about the same height, if not a bit lower). The transfer wasn't perfect (a little excess superglue likely made its way up the stalk a bit), but overall it was ok. but, by last night, it was losing tissue, and by this morning, it was about 90% gone. funnily enough, the base that was left behind when it was fragged is still there (though it looks pretty unhealthy right now -- brown, no polyp extension).

 

I have all 0s for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate (API). Mg is up around 1650 (Salifert). Calcium at 390 and Alk at 8 last week (both Elos), again, maintained by dosing pumps. I haven't checked my phosphates in a few weeks now, but last time i measured, they were 0.03 (first time they've ever registered higher than 0.00) (Hanna green egg). i need to check that again, i guess.

 

my pH has been getting up into the 8.45-8.5 (highest my Apex has shown is a short peak at 8.52) range every day between 6pm and 8pm. Then it swings down to 8.25, and repeats. I feel like that isn't THAT bad Problem?

 

Alright, so, the conclusions of the experiment:

1) I clearly have excess nutrients in the tank, because i'm growing cotton candy algae like it's going out of style. and, who knows what other kinds of algae i don't end up seeing because my tang eats it first. So, I need to reboot the reactor with some fresh GFO/Carbon. I'm going to try and use less of it than I have been and see how that does.

 

2) I still don't know where my nutrients are coming from. It may be the rocks. It may be lack of flow, despite mp10 and modded tunze 6025, due to the amount of live rock. It may be sand under the rocks that isn't being efficiently cleaned because I have too many fish that are eating all the detrivores. In any event, it's coming from somewhere, and I'm not efficiently exporting it. I don't know how salvageable it really is at this point (without major, major changes involving coral relocation/removal of rocks/sandbed change-out/etc.).

 

3) i'm planning/budgeting for a bigger tank, in the 180-200gal range, in the next 12-16 months. i'll post on this soon. so, honestly, the new focus for this tank is starting to feel more like just holding things together long enough to get livestock transferred over. That could get tricky, but that's a problem for another post.

[Asureef]

Quick question Tim, how are you running the carbon/GFO and amount?

[timdanger]

Quick question Tim, how are you running the carbon/GFO and amount?

 

~7 tablespoons of rox 0.8 carbon and ~7 tablespoons of granular GFO, separated out in a Bulk Reef Supply dual media reactor. it was running 24/7, but it's been off for a while now.

[Rehype]

Im really sorry to hear that tim...My gut feeling is that in spite of the algae your tank is still nutrient deprived. It would help explain the pale coloration your surviving sps are experiencing. Secondly i think that 250watt might just be too much light for the struggling coral.

[timdanger]

Im really sorry to hear that tim...My gut feeling is that in spite of the algae your tank is still nutrient deprived. It would help explain the pale coloration your surviving sps are experiencing. Secondly i think that 250watt might just be too much light for the struggling coral.

 

could be -- i guess i just assumed that giving it nutrients (by feeding 6 fish regularly, not doing much in terms of water changes, turning off reactor) would improve something. That really just hasn't happened. I can be patient, but the issue is, I don't want to kill my corals with patience.

[Asureef]

~7 tablespoons of rox 0.8 carbon and ~7 tablespoons of granular GFO, separated out in a Bulk Reef Supply dual media reactor. it was running 24/7, but it's been off for a while now.

 

 

I was dealing with a similar problem just three weeks ago. I had a big STN event that was only affecting Acros and already ruled out the common problems that were associated with tissue lost. Anyways, after a few searching around I ran into a few similar threads having SPS issues. One thing I find they all have in common is the type of carbon they use, which is ROX. So, I went and pulled out my carbon and left the GFO reactor on. After 2 weeks, SPS that were losing tissue or cut were healing. But now, I am back to using carbon again, but a very small amount of it (half of 1/4 cup) .

[timdanger]

I was dealing with a similar problem just three weeks ago. I had a big STN event that was only affecting Acros and already ruled out the common problems that were associated with tissue lost. Anyways, after a few searching around I ran into a few similar threads having SPS issues. One thing I find they all have in common is the type of carbon they use, which is ROX. So, I went and pulled out my carbon and left the GFO reactor on. After 2 weeks, SPS that were losing tissue or cut were healing. But now, I am back to using carbon again, but a very small amount of it (half of 1/4 cup) .

 

interesting.

[timdanger]

Looking at some Randy Holmes-Farley articles, I think my pH fluctuations between 8.25 and 8.5 are acceptable, even if not ideal. Certainly not the cause of these issues.

[Asureef]

Looking at some Randy Holmes-Farley articles, I think my pH fluctuations between 8.25 and 8.5 are acceptable, even if not ideal. Certainly not the cause of these issues.

 

When was the last time you had it calibrated?

[timdanger]

Probably been about 13-14 months.

[Asureef]

Probably been about 13-14 months.

 

 

Might want to get it calibrated. I calibrate mines every 2 months. It's most likely off, but I don't think pH is the problem.

[timdanger]

Secondly i think that 250watt might just be too much light for the struggling coral.

 

interesting thought. I do have a galaxy select-a-watt ballast that i could turn down to 175w for a few days. the lumenmax elite reflector/6 month+ old reeflux 20k bulb are mounted 14" above the water line, run for a 7 hour photoperiod, and the two corals who were suffering most were about 8" below the surface.

 

of course, the Flamingo is already gone, and nothing else is showing any real signs of trouble right now (the pink mille has tissue recession on completely shaded parts, but not anywhere else).

 

Might want to get it calibrated. I calibrate mines every 2 months. It's most likely off, but I don't think pH is the problem.

 

well, it couldn't hurt! i've got the solution packets already, and i'm certainly due.

[Asureef]

Have you done any par readings? Since its been several months, any affecting corals would've adjusted by now. And, judging by the heathly appearance of your GSP, it may not be the lights. Most likely it's having to do something with your water. I would try to rule out instability in alk. Testing at least twice a week. Check for contaminants such as copper or any type of heavy metals, maybe run some poly filter to help eliminate the possibility. Check for known pests such as red bugs/flatworm.

[Rehype]

I dont think PH swings are your problem because i have similar swings with no adverse affects. I think under normal conditions the halide wouldnt be a problem but in a Low nutrient system they may have trouble acclimating to such an intense light. Ive had similar issues being i run an ULNS as well. Ive began feeding my tank more, keeping my alk at 7 and lowering the intensity of my LED's.