mystersyster Posted August 24, 2016 Author Share Posted August 24, 2016 Been on a Tool kick lately. Here one of my fave 5's Link to comment
mystersyster Posted September 9, 2016 Author Share Posted September 9, 2016 Finally picked up a good nitrate and phosphate test kit (red sea pro). Looks like I will be turning my GFO reactor on in the next few days. RESULTS!!! Nitrate: Big fat ZERO!! Phosphates: Big fat 0.25 I can see where some of my cyano and other algae is coming from. If I can strip the phosphates slowly to around .03 I'll be happy. Maybe I'll get a little more growth as well. Here are some pics. Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 So haven't been doing to many updates. Reef has been coming along slowly. Last time I tested phosphate was about a week ago. Phosphate: 0.025 Turns out it was not as high as I thought, mostly because I am a dummy and didn't read the test kit correctly. Anyway, why the eff am I still growing algae??? Oh well, its not that bad. Got a little bit of STN going on from the base up with my largest staghorn. Giving it a little time to heal, and performing a water change tomorrow for it. If it continues or speeds up I will be fragging it into three pieces. :/ Clams are growing, corals are growing slowly but surely. Getting on a weekly water change schedule now. Hopefully that will be able to provide a bit more stability. Lastly, I'm not happy with my light. It is great, and provides PLENTY of par, but there is no diffusion and the shadowing is going to negatively impact my corals long term... looking into the t5 route for now. Sunpower 6x39 watt. Lemme know what you think. Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 So haven't been doing to many updates. Reef has been coming along slowly. Last time I tested phosphate was about a week ago. Phosphate: 0.025 Turns out it was not as high as I thought, mostly because I am a dummy and didn't read the test kit correctly. Anyway, why the eff am I still growing algae??? Oh well, its not that bad. Got a little bit of STN going on from the base up with my largest staghorn. Giving it a little time to heal, and performing a water change tomorrow for it. If it continues or speeds up I will be fragging it into three pieces. :/ Clams are growing, corals are growing slowly but surely. Getting on a weekly water change schedule now. Hopefully that will be able to provide a bit more stability. Lastly, I'm not happy with my light. It is great, and provides PLENTY of par, but there is no diffusion and the shadowing is going to negatively impact my corals long term... looking into the t5 route for now. Sunpower 6x39 watt. Lemme know what you think. Love the grammas! They're such a striking fish. How's PJ doing? For the cyano, unless it's smothering coral, I wouldn't worry about it. That calcium spike probably unbalanced your bacteria and other microfauna that use up proteins and nutrients in the system. It should work itself out once alk/ca/mg come back in line. To kickstart it, you can dose bacteria to compete and add that fighting conch to stir up the sand. Curious about the paleness of some corals. That might be another clue to what's going on. Is that just the blue light washing them out in pics or are they lighter in real life? I wonder if dosing something like acropower and feeding more would help. Also wonder if the lights are putting out more power than the coral need for the nutrient levels? Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 Love the grammas! They're such a striking fish. How's PJ doing? For the cyano, unless it's smothering coral, I wouldn't worry about it. That calcium spike probably unbalanced your bacteria and other microfauna that use up proteins and nutrients in the system. It should work itself out once alk/ca/mg come back in line. To kickstart it, you can dose bacteria to compete and add that fighting conch to stir up the sand. Curious about the paleness of some corals. That might be another clue to what's going on. Is that just the blue light washing them out in pics or are they lighter in real life? I wonder if dosing something like acropower and feeding more would help. Also wonder if the lights are putting out more power than the coral need for the nutrient levels? Cyano has actually subsided a lot. It's on it's last leg. The algae I'm growing i gross, and bubbly/slimy brown. It's very strange. Corals are washed out. Acropower doesn't seem to work. Feeding doesnt either. Although I never got on a regimen because of cyano. Lights are 30 blues/12 whites. I think the lights are plenty (other than shadowing) however, I'm afraid I'll turn it down too much for the clams... sigh. PJ is doing well. He hasn't gone after food yet but I caught him cruising around at night, and he nudged a gramma from his napping cave lol. Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Bubbly brown algae - do you think dinoflagattes?? Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 Bubbly brown algae - do you think dinoflagattes?? Didn't even think of that. Might very well be. However, the interesting thing is that it doesn't grow on the sand whatsoever. Just the rocks, and glass. Gets sucked up pretty easily. I guess I'm lucky in that regard. It's not to bothersome to me as I've experienced massive hair algae outbreaks in the past (my more noobish days). So anyway, it's very weird for me. I tested my nutrient levels this morning and came up with a reason why some of my corals, particularly my birdnest look like shit. Phosphate: .01 Nitrate: 0... nothing. This is on a low range, so below .25. Not sure what my course of action is. I think I'll start feeding my corals with reef chili and acropower again and measure the nutrient levels in a few days. Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Didn't even think of that. Might very well be. However, the interesting thing is that it doesn't grow on the sand whatsoever. Just the rocks, and glass. Gets sucked up pretty easily. I guess I'm lucky in that regard. It's not to bothersome to me as I've experience massive hair algae outbreaks in the past (my more noobish days). So anyway, it's very weird for me. I tested my nutrient levels this morning and came up with a reason why some of my corals, particularly my birdnest look like shit. Phosphate: .01 Nitrate: 0... nothing. This is on a low range, so below .25. Not sure what my course of action is. I think I'll start feeding my corals with reef chili and acropower again and measure the nutrient levels in a few days. mIf they are dinos, they could be using up the nutrients maybe - clams do as well. That's a good idea bout the feeding. Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 Holy typos! Lol look at my title "dominate" instead of "dominant" ? Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Lol look at my title "dominate" instead of "dominant" I didn't even notice that. Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 26, 2016 Author Share Posted October 26, 2016 Quick update. Nothing has changed. Doubled my feeding (maybe even tripled). Feeding aminos every other day, and reef chili sporadically. Nitrates are 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't get them up!! Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Quick update. Nothing has changed. Doubled my feeding (maybe even tripled). Feeding aminos every other day, and reef chili sporadically. Nitrates are 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't get them up!! Noooooo! What test kit is it? If you want, I can test your nitrates and phosphates with my kits just in case the water is actually OK. Wanna know something crazy? My skimmer pump DIED. Won't turn on at all. It's been off for about a week now. There's algae all over the glass within hours and I have an intense outbreak of bubble algae and lettuce algae. sigh. BUT. get this. The acros and other SPS have never been so colorful. ever. I can't get over it. All this time I've been over skimming. Anyways, maybe TURN YOUR SKIMMER OFF. he he! Maybe you'll have my same luck. And Denny's just got in a bunch of sea hairs for when algae goes nuts. Link to comment
mystersyster Posted October 29, 2016 Author Share Posted October 29, 2016 Noooooo! What test kit is it? If you want, I can test your nitrates and phosphates with my kits just in case the water is actually OK. Wanna know something crazy? My skimmer pump DIED. Won't turn on at all. It's been off for about a week now. There's algae all over the glass within hours and I have an intense outbreak of bubble algae and lettuce algae. sigh. BUT. get this. The acros and other SPS have never been so colorful. ever. I can't get over it. All this time I've been over skimming. Anyways, maybe TURN YOUR SKIMMER OFF. he he! Maybe you'll have my same luck. And Denny's just got in a bunch of sea hairs for when algae goes nuts. Hey! I'm using the red sea nitrate and phosphate kit. I'm going to test my phosphate tomorrow and see where it's at. Sorry it died, but it sounds like a blessing in disguise. I was thinking about leaving my skimmer on but leaving the waste line open so whatever is skimmed goes right back in the water. You have given me more confidence to try this now. I'm moving across the street on Monday/Tuesday so I'll have to implement it then! The only good news is that my cyano is gone! Lmao. I'll probably grab one of those sea hairs after my tank gets settled into the new place. make sure you post pictures of those sps on your thread! Link to comment
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