Newbies IM 25 AIO

[Llorgon]

Still struggling with high nitrates and phosphates. Although the phosphates have come down some.

 

Algae isn't much worse, but it isn't getting better either.

 

I did pickup some peroxide and put some on a few patches of the turf algae before my weekly water change. I will see how they are looking tomorrow.

 

Other than the algae and high nitrates and phosphates everything is running well. I am hoping the trochus snails I ordered come in this week and they can make a bit of a dent in the algae.

 

Looking for some lps coral suggestions for filling out the rockwork on the right. The top most part of it is 2.5 from the water line.

 

Tank Params are

Salinity: 1.026

Temp: 78

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 25

Phosphate: 0.074

Alkalinity: 9.8

Calcium: 475

Magnesium: 1350

[Llorgon]

Been awhile since I did a update. Still have high nutrients, but I have been slowly lowering them.

 

I did my first online coral order from fragbox. I ordered a trumpet coral, pink acan, favia and cyphastrea. All arrived in good condition except the trumpet. I think they will be sending a replacement. 

 

For the most part corals have been doing well. The Kenya tree is dropping branches like crazy. Been selling them as I can. My Duncan is showing some new heads starting. Unfortunately I lost the small surviving piece of forest fire digi. 

 

Fish are all doing well. I've started working on my 75g so I can get the yellow Tang out of the small tank. Ran into a issue though when I noticed the 75g stand was compromised. So yay building a new stand...

[10001110101]

On 12/23/2019 at 4:30 PM, Llorgon said:

I picked up a TDS meter yesterday. So I went around testing water sources. My tap water is 146 TDS and the water in my ato reservoir was 62ppm. I tested some ro/di water in my water storage container and it came out at 17ppm. I'm going to make some more water today and test it as it's coming out the ro/di unit and see what that reads.

 

I hope I don't have to change my filters already!

 

17PPM is too high for RO/DI and is going to fuel nuisance algae growth, there are some things like heavy metals (lead, etc) that are unacceptable even in the PPB range that doesn't show up on a TDS meter, which is why you need to maintain the filter media for your RO/DI unit.  I had an old RO/DI that I had used for several years, DI resin was totally shot and brown, sediment filter and carbon block were both shot, but still showed 0 TDS on my tds meter coming from 200+ TDS water, but I know that I'm not removing chloramines (which also don't show up on TDS meter) and I know that my DI resin is most likely leaching some nasty stuff possibly heavy metals back into the water.

 

Point is even 0PPM TDS isn't necessarily okay if your filter media, particularly DI resin, need to be changed.  If your RO/DI is coming out at 17PPM you need to change your media, not necessarily the RO membrane, but the sediment filter, carbon block, and DI resin need to be changed.  Change those and if you're still above 0ppm then you will need a new RO membrane.  Good news is you can get the full set of replacement filters for your RO/DI including DI resin for literally like 15 bucks from BRS.

[Llorgon]

On 2/18/2020 at 4:18 AM, 10001110101 said:

 

17PPM is too high for RO/DI and is going to fuel nuisance algae growth, there are some things like heavy metals (lead, etc) that are unacceptable even in the PPB range that doesn't show up on a TDS meter, which is why you need to maintain the filter media for your RO/DI unit.  I had an old RO/DI that I had used for several years, DI resin was totally shot and brown, sediment filter and carbon block were both shot, but still showed 0 TDS on my tds meter coming from 200+ TDS water, but I know that I'm not removing chloramines (which also don't show up on TDS meter) and I know that my DI resin is most likely leaching some nasty stuff possibly heavy metals back into the water.

 

Point is even 0PPM TDS isn't necessarily okay if your filter media, particularly DI resin, need to be changed.  If your RO/DI is coming out at 17PPM you need to change your media, not necessarily the RO membrane, but the sediment filter, carbon block, and DI resin need to be changed.  Change those and if you're still above 0ppm then you will need a new RO membrane.  Good news is you can get the full set of replacement filters for your RO/DI including DI resin for literally like 15 bucks from BRS.

I did figure out my RO/DI. Seems like I didn't have the membrane in all the way. It's at 0 now 🙂

 

It's been a busy few weeks, but I finally have time to update on the tank.

 

Fish are doing well. All eating like pigs!

 

Corals doing well as well. Duncan has new heads, frogspawn is getting bigger, the new acan I bought a few weeks ago has a new head. A cyphastrea I had in my 75 gallon which I thought died in the original move has come back. I see green and 3 red spots!

 

On the bad side. The algae has been getting worse. Due to high nutrients and a bit of neglect the last few weeks. This weekend I was able to do a bigger clean. I did a 10 gal water change, cleaned the sand, scrubbed rocks in the tank as best I could, removed rocks/old snail shells that were covered in algae and scrubbed them with peroxide to really kill the algae.

 

Over the last week I have been experimenting with vodka dosing in an attempt to lower nitrates and phosphates. I have yet to see a decrease, but I am hoping it comes soon!

[Llorgon]

I think I cut my dosage to the "maintenance level" for vodka dosing a bit to soon. When testing with salifert phosphate test kit since I ran out of reagent for my hanna it was reading 0 and my nitrate test read 0.

 

Testing last night after getting more reagent my phosphate is still at 0.046ppm and nitrate using the red sea test kit is at around 1.5ppm

 

Going to up my vodka dosing from 0.6ml/day to 0.7ml/day and see if phosphate starts to come down a bit more.

[A.m.P]

I would be careful with dropping your phosphate, a cursory-search around this forum will net quite a few cautionary tales beginning with low-nutrients and ending in months-long battles with dinoflagellates. You can always add more CuC and trim-down taller algae so they can eat the new sprouts before they crop up, it also looks as if the tank is getting natural-sunlight, which in newer systems can cause out-of-control algae issues until things balance out.

[Llorgon]

I open up the blinds when I take pictures so they come out better. Other than that they stay closed. I have some window tint I have been meaning to put on the window to keep more light out.

 

I've dealt with dinos on my 75 gallon. So I am very aware of what can happen with too low of nutrients. I am aiming to get phosphate down to around 0.01 range. I just keep getting the hair algae with it in the 0.046 range.

 

I do need to add more clean up crew. They are a bit hard to come by in my area and I haven't had much luck ordering online. There is a new shop opening up in town next month. I should be able to get more CUC then.

 

Trimming the algae is a good idea. I will try that. I have had some good luck with using a syringe to put boiling ro/di water on the algae. Kills the algae and can get really close to coral with no ill effects... so far. The algae goes white and the snails and hermits I have really seem to enjoy it. It's just been hard to keep up with lately.

[A.m.P]

Reefcleaners are a Nano-Reef favorite for cleanup crews, most of my pest-algae vanished after my P04 hit 0.2 while fighting dino's oddly-enough.

[Llorgon]

Unfortunately reef cleaners doesn't ship to Canada.

 

Interesting that your pest algae disappears after 0.2. Mine seems to come when above 0.1ppm

[Llorgon]

Tank is doing well minus hair algae. It's always hair algae! Someone help me get rid of the hair algae.

 

All the fish are doing well and always hungry.

Corals seem to be doing well. I had one coral that I thought was dead make a comeback which I am happy about. Seeing some new growth on my acans, Duncan, hammer and frogspawn. I sold my Kenya tree as it was dropping branches everywhere and taking over the tank. Now I have room for more corals!

 

I have got my nitrate and phosphate under control. They both read 0 on my last test. I don't think it's true 0 as algae is still growing. I would like to have a bit of nitrate and phosphate so I guess the vodka dosing is still a bit of a balancing act to find what's right for the tank.

[Llorgon]

Anyone have any tips on getting these corals going?

 

The first two I got in early Feb and I haven't been seeing any growth.

 

The acan I have had for a year now and it just won't grow. The other 2 acans I have are growing perfectly fine. But this guy always looks unhappy.

[A.m.P]

Maybe too much flow or light?

[Llorgon]

Maybe?

The cyphastrea coral is near another one that has been doing well and growing quickly. Maybe it just takes a month or two to settle in.

 

The favia I have moved around a bunch to find a good place for it.

 

The acan is near other happy acans so light and flow should be fine?

[A.m.P]

45 minutes ago, Llorgon said:

Maybe?

The cyphastrea coral is near another one that has been doing well and growing quickly. Maybe it just takes a month or two to settle in.

 

The favia I have moved around a bunch to find a good place for it.

 

The acan is near other happy acans so light and flow should be fine?

Not necessarily, there are many different species of "acan" coral and individuals within will have different preferences as well.
The acan looks fine to me, the favia might be getting too much flow, and I don't have much experience with cyphastrea.

[Llorgon]

On 3/26/2020 at 10:52 AM, Amphrites said:

Not necessarily, there are many different species of "acan" coral and individuals within will have different preferences as well.
The acan looks fine to me, the favia might be getting too much flow, and I don't have much experience with cyphastrea.

The acan just hasn't really grown. Which is weird since the others I have I have had for a shorter period of time and seen tons of growth.

 

Favia is doing better. I think I just needed to leave it alone for awhile.

 

Still unsure on the cyphastrea.

[Llorgon]

How's everyone enjoying their quarantine? Not a whole lot is different for me. I already worked from home. Except now I don't go to the gym after work. Or able to do anything on the weekends.... My wife wasn't taking the whole no gym thing well so she bought a Bowflex for the garage. I must say it's very different from dumbbells.

 

Anyways back to the tank. Things are pretty stable right now. I seem to have my nutrients under control. With dosing 0.55ml vodka a day nitrate is at 1.5ppm and phosphate at 0.009ppm. I wouldn't mind getting nitrates to be 5 ppm, but I will leave it as is for now since everything looks happy.

 

Unfortunately I'm still getting gha on the rocks. Winning in some spots and losing in others. I have been picking it out by hand and using a stiff brush on the rocks as well. But it's hard to get into all those little crevices.

 

Still trying to find some more cuc, but it's been difficult due to things shutting down. I can order from Ontario, but they are getting hit hard with the virus so I would rather not have things shipped across country.

 

Fish are all doing well. Never much to report with them.

 

Corals doing well. I moved my cyphastrea do a higher light and flow part of the tank, but it got knocked down by a snail and burned the favia a bit. Moved it back to a safer spot after that and the favia has recovered surprisingly quickly. I've also started feeding the corals with lps pellets every Friday.

 

I've moved my water changes to once ever other week. Doing weekly was raising my alk and Cal a bunch. All was at 10.2 and Cal at 500. After 2 weeks they are down to 9.6 and 480. So at least thing are growing!

 

What does everyone use for calcium testing? I have salifert test kit which I find to be kind of annoying. I also have Hanna calcium test kit which I can never get consistent results.

[Llorgon]

Been awhile since I updated on the tank. Tank is doing ok, going through a bit of a rough patch I think.

 

Fish are doing well and eating as always. The larger clown has started to host in the frogspawn which is cool to watch.

 

Corals are ok. My frogspawn has 2 heads that aren't looking great, but the rest of it is big and seems fine. My duncan coral has been closed up since Sunday afternoon about an hour after I did a 10 gal water change on the tank.

Acans are doing well including the one that was always a little deflated. It is now big and has feeding tentacles out!

The cyphastrea isn't doing great, but the one near it seems to be growing fine.

 

Still battling gha. I think I have got my nutrients under control using vodka dosing.

 

I tested my water last night, 2 days after my last water change.
 

Tank Params are

Salinity: 1.026

Temp: 78

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0.5

Phosphate: 0.018

Alkalinity: 9.5

Calcium: 435

Magnesium: 1470

I added some calcium last night and will test again today to see where calcium is at.

[Llorgon]

Anyone have any idea what is in picture 4? It's the underside of the frogspawn. It has a bunch of white almost stringy stuff on it.

[Llorgon]

The tank has seen better days. Since my large water change 2 weeks ago my duncan coral has been closed up. I tried feeding it and I got one head to take a LPS pellet, but didn't get it to open up. I have tried moving it and still no luck.

 

Also noticed that my two kenya trees have been really closed up the last few days so something is going on. The acans, favia, hammer and frogspawn are all doing well though.

 

I did my regular 5 gal water change yesterday and I'm hoping that will help the tank.

 

I tested the water and nothing out of the ordinary. Calibrated and rechecked salinity and it was still at 1.026. I've put in fresh carbon which hasn't helped either.

 

Any ideas on what could be going on?

[Llorgon]

Alright, been awhile since I posted an update. Work has kept me crazy busy!

 

Tank is doing alright? Not great, but not terrible.

 

For the most part the corals are doing well. I have 2 heads of my frogspawn that are looking very pale and not really opening up. The rest of them are big and happy though.

 

My one cyphastrea is dying. I'm not sure why. The other one in the same area as it has been growing. I have tried moving it around, but no luck with it so far.

 

Also been having troubles with my duncan. For the last month or so it hasn't been opening up. Just closed up one day and hasn't really been open since. I have tried to up my feeding of the corals more, but so far that hasn't helped.

 

Still fighting gha. If I keep up with my daily brushing of the rocks it seems to say in check somewhat, but I was away for the long weekend and I am still trying to catch up from that.

 

Still dosing vodka. Dosing 0.7ml/day. It's been working well to keep nutrients low although I think it needs to be lower since I still have lots of gha growing. I did pick up a bottle of waste away and did my test half dose last night. Hoping that can help things out.

 

I am low on CUC, which is probably at least part of the problem. Unfortunately there isn't anything available locally and nothing is shipping.

 

How does everyone manage nutrients? I feel I am really doing a poor job of it. I have filter socks that I change out weekly and do a 5 gallon water change every weekly and 10 gallon water change and sand vacuum every 2-3 weeks.

[Llorgon]

Thought I should revive this thread since the tank is still going. This tank is my longest running tank, no other tanks made it past 7 ish months. I have definitely noticed that as time goes on the tank gets more stable.
I still have a bit of an algae issue, but nothing like before. I was able to get some snails and did a dose of fluxRx and it worked wonders. I also removed the rock on the left and replaced it with some live rock from an established system.

The original large frogspawn I had in the tank on the left slowly died for unknown reasons. I added a new one and it has been doing well. I moved the skeleton to the back of the tank and I can see some new small heads on it so it must not be completely dead!

The piece of liverock I got from the established tank had a rock flower anemone and some zoa's on it. Both have been doing well. I have added a couple hammers and frogspawns that are growing nicely and I am hoping to start a small euphyllia garden in the top left. Hoping to find some nicer ones since I seem to now be able to keep them alive!

On the right side of the tank, I have those staxx rocks that I made a bit too high. I have an unknown red sps that is doing really well near the top of the tank. I am thinking of adding some more encrusting corals to the structure, but I'm not sure what kind. I've tried a few cyphastrea that never take. So any suggestions on what would work are welcome!

The favia that literally did nothing for almost a year has finally started growing and spreading which is nice to see. The jedi mind trick I have in the back corner has also exploded in growth. I keep hoping that it is going to spread up the back wall, but so far it's going on the sand instead.

In the front I have started a little acan garden. Really like these corals. They grow decently well and I seem to be able to keep them alive. Although one of them hasn't been doing well and is down to one head. Maybe one day I can get most of the bottom covered in acans then I don't have to vacuum the sand!

The one part of the tank that still struggles with algae is the back wall. I've wanted to get a coral that will cover it, but all my attempts have failed so far. I tried some montipora and none of them took. Maybe I just need some gsp and trim it to stay on the back wall...

Stocking is still the 2 clowns and the royal gramma. They are all doing well and eating like pigs.

Right now, my main issue is aiptasia. I have been injecting them with lemon juice, but more keep coming up.

[Llorgon]

Here's some pictures of the tank today.

[Llorgon]

Picked up a couple more acans, a toadstool and a jack o lantern lepto that I am hoping to grow out over the back wall. I've tried a few encrusting corals on the back wall without success. Hoping third time's the charm!

[Llorgon]

Tank is doing well. Still fighting aiptasia. I kill a few and more pop up. It's never ending...

I added a toadstool which is settling in nicely as well.

Also noticed the hitch hiker pocillopora seems to be colouring up and growing too!

Anyone have any idea on what this is? Almost looks like a little anemone of some sort.

Best pic I could get with my phone.

[A.m.P]

Looks like a ball nem.