Roger's SPS 75G - NEW FTS PG 36

[Jakesaw]

On 3/10/2022 at 10:34 AM, TheKleinReef said:

 

i dk man. After losing thousands of dollars in corals I have no desire to reboot this.

 

none of my reefing tragedies affected me like this, even my TOTM that crashed didn't sting this bad.

That's rough man.  I understand that - and unfortunately, it's a part of the hobby.  As a budget reefer,  I'm frustrated in my nano where I "may" lose two hammers.

 

 

[TheKleinReef]

56 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

Maybe you should stop thinking about alk as this problem is killing your passion for this hobby. You just need to not consider SPS corals. Your tank could still be enjoyable with only softy, LPS, zoa and shroom.

It was trending that way but now the lps are starting to suffer too. 

 

I don't want a softy tank that's for sure.

I'd rather ditch it tbh.

 

what's killing the hobby for me rn is i just can't find the solution. which means i can't prevent it from happening again.

[TheKleinReef]

46 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

how many wc have you done?

 

since the crash a handful of 20% with TM Pro which exacerbated problems. Starting in March I did 3x35g throughout march one week apart which is the biggest i can do without draining my ATO contained  (it's about~45%) with brightwell which seemed to halt the RTN and drop the alk to 7.3-7.5.

 

April I started going back to 2x20G per month. Tested alk last week it was 7.5 and this week 8.7. When it first started I thought it was bad test kits, ordered new ones, same results.

46 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

AFR is a biological process, so who knows how much precursor of alk is still floating around in your reef

this stuff went in the garbage in mid february. haven't dose anything to rule out if it was a KZ product causing issues. If AFR lingers this long in a tank.... then I'm very glad I ditched it.

 

Sent a water sample to triton which came back fine with the exception of iodine being low.

46 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Are you dosing anything else if you're not dosing cal/alk/mag?

nope, just foods

 

46 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Have you tested/checked pH lately?

its always 7.8-8.0 depending on time. calibrated the pH probe and brought a separate pH meter to confirm.

 

 

I dk I'm giving up I think. I expected the WCs and triton to at least have some positive impact but this is some next level frustration. nothing is working. I live in wyoming so I can't just ditch the livestock at a LFS and give up either. I'd have to ship everything.

 

[mitten_reef]

 

35 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

It was trending that way but now the lps are starting to suffer too. 

 

I don't want a softy tank that's for sure.

I'd rather ditch it tbh.

 

what's killing the hobby for me rn is i just can't find the solution. which means i can't prevent it from happening again.

if LPS suffers, have you been watching N & P levels?  they tend to not like nutrients too low...

 

Are you still running any chemical media reactor(s) for waste/nutrient removal?  If so, I'd take them all off line.

 

I'd do some more wc just to make sure that you dilute out as much of the "old suspect water" so that majority of water is the new salt mix.  Then, I'd go back to as basic as it gets, flow, heat, light, only filter floss or socks as filtration, and weekly wc to keep nutrients under control.    

 

you have some nice fish, I'd just run fowlr for a month or two, not worrying about the existing corals, treat them only as tank indicator for readiness if you will.  then when the corals stop deteriorating and coralline start to regrow, is when I'd start to re-introduce corals stony corals (cheap lps sps). 

 

I've lost more livestock in the past year than I'd like to admit, including some pricey pieces.  I've mostly let the tank coasted thru various phases in the past year.  

 

BUT if it is truly no longer enjoyable/interesting (even just for the sake of troubleshooting and solving issues), I'm not gonna tell you to hold on to it.  money and time better spent on something else.  

 

[TheKleinReef]

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

have you been watching N & P levels

 

tested 4/1 N is 10, P is .08

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

still running any chemical media reactor(s) for waste/nutrient removal?

 

nope. I ran carbon for a little bit in march, but took it offline when i would normally change it on the 15th.

6 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

 

I'd do some more wc just to make sure that you dilute out as much of the "old suspect water" so that majority of water is the new salt mix.

 

only reason I didn't do more initially was because it was a different brand of salt. I guess I can do some more bigger ones.  burning through salt is starting to really suck but i know it's necessary.

 

7 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

treat them only as tank indicator for readiness if you will.

 

Well I have no real indicator to tell me if the tank is ready for SPS aside from coralline,

Its interesting you mentioned this because coralline is reappearing on the back glass. it all flaked off the back wall and most of it came off the mp40s. It's currently starting to cover these again.

 

 

 

 

brightside. the sand is cleaner cause the goby and conch are doing work

[Reefkid88]

Its almost worth stopping sps collection,letting the tank equal back out and addressing one thing at a time. Almost sounds like a bad batch of salt or faulty testing equipment. 

[TheKleinReef]

10 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Its almost worth stopping sps collection,letting the tank equal back out and addressing one thing at a time. Almost sounds like a bad batch of salt or faulty testing equipment. 

I think it definitely was bad TM Pro salt from turkey but i sent a sample of the tank water in the middle of the die off and triton said all was clear. At this point, I don't have a definitive cause. A lot of could be this, could be that.

I initially thought bad testing equipment, bought new tests and they showed the same. Ca and Mg was the same on red sea as the triton results.

 

I'm just gonna do some huge water changes and just wait ig.

I don't care that i have to wait for things to stabilize, I care that I don't have the reason which means I can't prevent it.

[ninjamyst]

Best thing you can do now is to do nothing.  Carry on with normal routine and the tank will stabilize itself.  No need to chase number or what caused it.  This hobby is brutal in that not every problem has a cause that we can find.  Especially when it comes to SPS 

[TheKleinReef]

On 4/15/2022 at 4:49 PM, ninjamyst said:

Best thing you can do now is to do nothing.  Carry on with normal routine and the tank will stabilize itself.  No need to chase number or what caused it.  This hobby is brutal in that not every problem has a cause that we can find.  Especially when it comes to SPS 

sounds like a plan. 
wish I knew what was raising my alk without dosing though. Cause if I could figure it out I could market it and make money lol. 
 

As of today all sps are gone. Just some mushrooms, zoas, a few hammers and torches left. 
 

le sigh. 

[TheKleinReef]

All it took was my tank to crash for the trachy to look better. It receded quite a bit but it’s very floofy now. Maybe it’s on a turn around…. Or a bailout. Either is likely 

[A.m.P]

I'm pulling for the former

[TheKleinReef]

Heyyyyyyy

It's been almost 9 months.

 

Nothing survived except the torches, a hammer, a frogspawn, and some zoas. So that was fun. I started to neglect the tank a lot and finally decided to basically reboot it. I ditched the rock, rebuilt an aquascape. Then once again lost interest and it was covered in hair algae. A few months later another spark happened and I got a good CUC and managed to get the algae under control. Tried a few corals which did okay, but I was always scared to add more.

 

Currently the tank has a bit of a bubble algae problem, but most of it is turning white and fading away.

I ordered some new stuff which should be here this week. Idk what the goal for this tank it anymore. I'm also selling the GHL for an apex cause the GHL is too confusing and it hates my wifi. Despite many support tickets and changes, it's just not reliable enough for me. I'll take some pics when I'm motivated too but yeah that's the update.

 

Here's all the changes:

changed salts to Brightwell aquatics neo-marine, TM Pro really let me down. I'm convinced that's what caused the crash.

new aquascape, trialed a bonsai-esque but the fish kept fighting so I added more arches.

algae outbreak > beefed up CUC with urchins, turbos, etc.

algae went away

bubble algae outbreak > ordered emeralds and upped gfo:carbon ration to 1:1.5 compared to 1:2

just recieved from cultivated reef yesterday: small snowflake clown, 2 gorgonians

on order from WWC: emeralds, blue knuckle hermit, and 25 astreasa

on order from cherry corals: gold tip hammer, spongodes, anacropora, fungia plate, speckled BTA

on order from BRS: apex a3 with dos

 

some one buy my ghl pls.

[mitten_reef]

4 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

on order from BRS: apex a3 with dos

going BIG, REAL BIG!!!

[TheKleinReef]

9 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

going BIG, REAL BIG!!!

yeah i figured either dosing kalk or auto WC haven't decided yet.

This GHL is very nice but man its a b**** to keep connected and I have no idea why. Went through so much tech support too.

 

[debbeach13]

Wow this is going to be something to see. 

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Wow this is going to be something to see. 

Don’t get your hopes up hahaha

[TheKleinReef]

Thoughts on auto WC? I have a 35g mixing container. I’ve been doing 20g every 3 weeks but I’m going to go back to 15 every 2. The tank had less algae with that model. That would be swapping about 1G per day. 
 

other option is my normal wc method and then using the dos for kalk or ATI elements. Probably kalk to start. also not opposed to getting another dos I guess 

[TheKleinReef]

Like I said. She needs some work but the coralline algae is popping off 

 

I see the upside picture thing is still happening lol 

[TheKleinReef]

On 1/5/2023 at 10:17 AM, TheKleinReef said:

on order from WWC: emeralds, blue knuckle hermit, and 25 astreasa

on order from cherry corals: gold tip hammer, spongodes, anacropora, fungia plate, speckled BTA

 

Added all of this. All I can say is wow the frag sizes from WWC are insane. I expected 1-2" corals but the anacropora was easily 3.5" tall and the hammer had 5 heads!

 

The emeralds went to work right away. Excited to see them clean everything up for me!

 

Anemone didn't look very happy in the bag. He's in a make shifting holding cell with a bunch holes drilled in the side of a BRS plastic container. I didn't want my brand new nem walking/drifting around and end up in a power head while i have 4 hours of work.

[TheKleinReef]

I'm excited for this if it's true....

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/mxm-mobius-wireless-control-module-neptune-systems.html?queryID=9d9001f8df4ffbf312999ed64289e70b&objectID=14937&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products

 

 

 

[mcarroll]

On 1/7/2023 at 12:07 PM, TheKleinReef said:

Thoughts on auto WC? I have a 35g mixing container. I’ve been doing 20g every 3 weeks but I’m going to go back to 15 every 2. The tank had less algae with that model. That would be swapping about 1G per day. 
 

other option is my normal wc method and then using the dos for kalk or ATI elements. Probably kalk to start. also not opposed to getting another dos I guess 

I'm use-case first, then tools....vs looking at tools and finding use-cases for them.

 

Seems like if you needed auto-WC you wouldn't ask – you'd know because you needed it.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with asking....just saying how my approach would be.  Nothing wrong with automating water changes either, if it makes sense in your system....but I'm not sure that's very clear at the moment.

 

It may help to remember that algae and corals like the same basic conditions.  Your CUC (including you) is the difference between more and less algae.  Water changes can mostly be considered independent of this issue.

 

You really shouldn't have any big algae problems once a tank has matured and your methods have stabilized around that.  A little algae here and there that always comes and goes on its own is all I ever see, even with "really high" nitrates and phosphates.

 

Kalk is not a bad place to start, but consider doing kalk+vinegar.  Combining them (according to recipe) eliminates all of the potential "gotchas" associated with dosing kalkwasser straight.  I'm sure ATI elements would get the job done too. 👍

 

I would be doing manual dosing and manual water changes until I knew from experience what needed to be automated, and how.  👍   (I even did manual water changes for months before automating that.  LOL)

[mcarroll]

My old WC A Day thread might be interesting....it delves slightly into automation even though the focus is all-manual.

[TheKleinReef]

Bruh. Lol

[TheKleinReef]

Absolutely loving where the nem decided to settle in! 

😒

[mcarroll]

On 1/11/2023 at 9:04 PM, TheKleinReef said:

Bruh. Lol

Yeah. No.