William Posted May 9, 2019 Share Posted May 9, 2019 1 hour ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: The Avast pump pulls water from the ATO reservoir, through the kalk chamber, and doses it into the sump. The saturated kalk solution provides both calcium and alkalinity to the reef. The dosing pump is turned on and off by the APEX. I reprogrammed it last night to dose for one minute at 1, 6, and 9 am as well as noon and 2 pm. The APEX will keep the pump off if the pH goes above 8.2. I’ll keep a close eye on pH and alkalinity over the next week and adjust the dosing as needed. Tom I was more Interested in how you set up your kalk reactor, is it just a glass flask with a two hole stopper ? Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted May 10, 2019 Author Share Posted May 10, 2019 3 hours ago, William said: I was more Interested in how you set up your kalk reactor, is it just a glass flask with a two hole stopper ? Ah gotcha. It is an acrylic tube. I used weldon to attach a small piece acrylic square to the bottom. Yes, top is a rubber stopper (technically called a bung) with 2 holes. The holes are a little too big for rigid airline to be air tight, so I used sections of RO tubing instead. I have them cut so water coming it passes through the settled kalk powder. Tom Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 I disassembled the ATI fixture today. Amazing how easy it was to take apart... Putting it back together will surely be more of a challenge. Tom 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted July 18, 2019 Author Share Posted July 18, 2019 Long overdue update... 1. Still slowly modifying the ATI Power module to accept the NBR Duo. Using a Dremel I cut out the middle ridge of aluminum. I also placed an order from ATI North America and got a replacement power supply for the fans and some hanging kit parts. 2. I think I finally have the Kalk dosing mostly figured out. I got rid of the dedicated pump, tiny DIY reactor, and Kent Kalkwasser and went with all ATO water passing through a much larger DIY reactor with Ms. Wages Kalkwasser. Still some tweaking to be done but much better. Alkalinity stays around 10 (rather than as low a 6!) and Ca around 450 (formerly around 350). The pH is still a little low (average around 7.9) but I’m not too concerned with that. 3. With Ca and alkalinity staying higher the hair algae issue is slowly getting better and the my hardy SPS are starting to show new growth again! Next update won’t take so long, and it will include some actual tank shots! Thanks for looking! Tom Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 Pics from this evening... Tom 3 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 The tank is doing pretty good. I’m still not completely happy with the instability I’m getting with Kalkwasser dosing. So, I traded around half my green caulastrea and couple of extra frags for a Litermeter III with a slave pump. Now I need to decide; switch to two-part only or somehow combine two-part and Kalkwasser. My biggest constraint is space for all the pumps and reservoirs. What would you do? Tom 2 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 It’s been awhile. Tank is doing well. Still some hair algae but it is slowly getting better. FTS Favorite views The favia is doing a little asexual reproduction. It did this once before around 10 or 11 years ago. I’ve been manually dosing two part (the Litermeter 3 pumps too much) and corals are growing better. Here’s some new growth on the M. hirsuta (note the GHA). Thanks for looking! Tom 3 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 30 minutes ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: It’s been awhile. Tank is doing well. Still some hair algae but it is slowly getting better. FTS Favorite views The favia is doing a little asexual reproduction. It did this once before around 10 or 11 years ago. I’ve been manually dosing two part (the Litermeter 3 pumps too much) and corals are growing better. Here’s some new growth on the M. hirsuta (note the GHA). Thanks for looking! Tom Tom, that long tentacle plate is epic! I traded in your Duncan frag at the LFS, I hope you have more (otherwise, I'd feel very bad about trading that in right about now) What do you think is the root cause of all the algae? Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted November 8, 2019 Author Share Posted November 8, 2019 15 minutes ago, mitten_reef said: Tom, that long tentacle plate is epic! I traded in your Duncan frag at the LFS, I hope you have more (otherwise, I'd feel very bad about trading that in right about now) What do you think is the root cause of all the algae? Thanks the plate is my absolute favorite coral. Don’t feel bad about the duncan. I still have the mother colony... probably about 10 or so heads. Look through the arch in the FTS. The algae took hold during the kalkwasser debacle. The alk and pH got crazy low. I could probably clean it up more quickly but have a odd CUC philosophy. I refuse to add hermit crabs and I like to limit the number of snails. Though I’m contemplating placing an order for snails from reefcleaners. Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 Update on the favia... Happy acans FTS And my favorite coral (my hands for size reference) 3 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted December 17, 2019 Author Share Posted December 17, 2019 I also sold the Litermeter and picked up a pair of used Kamoer X1 dosing pumps. Initially I was planning to dose DIY 2 part, but after reading about Tropic Marin’s product “All for Reef” decided to give that a try. The bottle should arrive later this week! Tom 2 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 It has begun... dosing 6mL/ day spread out over 12 doses. Current parameters: ALK = 8.0 Ca = 390 Mg = 1380 1 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 21 minutes ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: It has begun... dosing 6mL/ day spread out over 12 doses. Current parameters: ALK = 8.0 Ca = 390 Mg = 1380 Very curious about this all-in-one solution. I think another guy I followed on here used it, I think Travis? But his large bottle ended up with funky growth 2/3 or 3/4 way thru. Hopefully at 6ml/day, you’ll get they that lil bottle quick enough for it to go “bad”. Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 9 hours ago, mitten_reef said: Very curious about this all-in-one solution. I think another guy I followed on here used it, I think Travis? But his large bottle ended up with funky growth 2/3 or 3/4 way thru. Hopefully at 6ml/day, you’ll get they that lil bottle quick enough for it to go “bad”. Yeah,I read through that thread too. Up until that point he seemed to be having a lot of success. At 6mL/day this should last me 166 days! I suspect the actual need for the tank will be a bit higher once I get it aligned with consumption. If this bottle goes bad (but I’m otherwise seeing good results) I’ll just buy the 500mL bottle instead of the 1000. I’ll do my best to report out results. Tom 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted December 23, 2019 Author Share Posted December 23, 2019 Just tested again... ALK = 8 Ca = 365 I’m quite happy with the alk number, but am not understanding the calcium reading. Historically alk consumption has always been greater than calcium. At this point I will let the All for Reef continue as is for a few more days and see where it goes. However, I may need to give calcium a bump to rebalance things. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 Next round of tests... ALK = 10 DKH Ca = 400 I decided to dose some CaCl in an attempt to boost Ca and pull ALK down a touch. I’ll post updated numbers in a bit. SPS growth has improved and LPS seem more puffy since starting the All for Reef. Though the green slimer frag skin is less green and more yellow... I’m blaming the low Ca. Tom Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 Need to test the water again today. But in the meantime an update on the bubbly brain coral... the tissue is starting to tear! 3 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 9 minutes ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: Need to test the water again today. But in the meantime an update on the bubbly brain coral... the tissue is starting to tear! I have sponges that melt and spread all the time but have never seen a coral do that! So weird. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 3 hours ago, WV Reefer said: I have sponges that melt and spread all the time but have never seen a coral do that! So weird. It’s not common but the same coral did it for me 11 or 12 years ago. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Tested again this evening... ALK = 10 DKH Ca = 450 I just reduced the daily amount to 6.0 mL/day (it was at 6.1). Hopefully this will bring both numbers down a tiny bit. Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 16, 2020 Author Share Posted January 16, 2020 Can anyone ID this SPS? Orange/tan skin and green polyps. Sorry for the crappy phone photo. Tom 1 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 5 hours ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: Can anyone ID this SPS? Orange/tan skin and green polyps. Sorry for the crappy phone photo. Tom first thought was acros, but polyps are a lot like monti - specifically, an unhappy sunset monti coloration. But not sure why sunset monti (mostly an encrusting monti) would branch out like that, unless it was "chasing" a vermetid snail tubes. That's a tough one, but polyps look very much monti to me. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 8 hours ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: Can anyone ID this SPS? Orange/tan skin and green polyps. Sorry for the crappy phone photo. Tom I'm with @mitten_reef, the Polyps look like a Montipora, I would have said a Hirsuta possibly? 🤷♂️ Lovely colouration regardless Quote Link to comment
Tom@HaslettMI Posted January 17, 2020 Author Share Posted January 17, 2020 11 hours ago, Ratvan said: I'm with @mitten_reef, the Polyps look like a Montipora, I would have said a Hirsuta possibly? 🤷♂️ Lovely colouration regardless Thanks for the help! There’s a bit more of a backstory, here it goes... I purchased this from a fellow reefer at the Lansing swap last year. I bought it as a green slimer and it was solid green up until recently. I believe the All For Reef dosing may be contributing to the color change. I’m not sure if it’s actually a green slimer... I’m not a SPS guy! I also have a sunset monti in the tank... its skin has gone tan too. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 9 hours ago, Tom@HaslettMI said: Thanks for the help! There’s a bit more of a backstory, here it goes... I purchased this from a fellow reefer at the Lansing swap last year. I bought it as a green slimer and it was solid green up until recently. I believe the All For Reef dosing may be contributing to the color change. I’m not sure if it’s actually a green slimer... I’m not a SPS guy! I also have a sunset monti in the tank... its skin has gone tan too. Not an SPS guy myself either (yet) working up to it. From what I have read, browning usually means it is absorbing phosphates, have you tested for Phosphates and Nitrates recently? Any recent algae issues? How is the brain coral coming along? Quote Link to comment
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