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Coral Vue Hydros

Barebones 20H Reef Tank


Steemax

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RODI was straight forward to install. Followed AL's instructions and did the flushes. 

 

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Installed...

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TDS from straight tap...

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TDS before DI Resin....

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Complete RODI water...

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We're in business...

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Got me an AutoAqua Smart Temp Security sensor as a protection against my crappy 1.5 year old Aqeuon heater that is bound to fail. Also got a Salifert Nitrate test kit to make sure it's not my API kit that's giving false readings and sure enough this test kit shows 2ppm. Very low despite my efforts of getting the nitrates higher. 

 

Also the mushroom I had picked up is really taking off and stretching open like a pita bread over the surrounding rocks. My cleaner shrimp has taken a liking to them and just chills on top.

 

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IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut

A little late to the thread, but that's a GREAT deal for the toadstool! I saw a frag smaller than a quarter for $40 today. Happy I didn't buy it now 🙂 

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7 minutes ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

A little late to the thread, but that's a GREAT deal for the toadstool! I saw a frag smaller than a quarter for $40 today. Happy I didn't buy it now 🙂 

Tell me about it! I remember paying $50 for a frag the size of a quarter many many years ago. Sometimes Petco will have a steal and I'll jump on the occasion. 

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IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut
12 minutes ago, Steemax said:

Tell me about it! I remember paying $50 for a frag the size of a quarter many many years ago. Sometimes Petco will have a steal and I'll jump on the occasion. 

tbh, I think most of the stuff I've gotten from Petco has turned out to be the hardiest and has lived the longest

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Picked up a GSP frag yesterday, forgot to post that but thought it was kind of cool growing vertically i'm assuming on a dead SPS coral... here it is. Also trying to figure out how else I can increase my bioload for nitrates. If anyone has suggestions on livestock that is compatible with my tank size and tankmates i'm open to suggestions. 

 

I'm barley keeping my nitrates at 2ppm and that's with over feeding my fish plus broadcast/direct feeding reef roids and mysis to corals. 

 

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Bought a 14" turkey baster so I don't have to get my hands wet. Put it to the test. Really cool how the hammer coral excretes a web of slime to catch and reel in the reef roids.

 

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And all happy now.

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AZ camera app + white balance of 10000k will work better than all but very careful lightroom edits ^^
Also, dose seachem nitrates, it's like $6 and they have a calculator so you can get to whatever PPM you want, same for phosphates. Your skimmer wasn't the issue and I'd put it back online. My .02

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6 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

AZ camera app + white balance of 10000k will work better than all but very careful lightroom edits ^^
Also, dose seachem nitrates, it's like $6 and they have a calculator so you can get to whatever PPM you want, same for phosphates. Your skimmer wasn't the issue and I'd put it back online. My .02

I'll check out that app, thanks!.. I'm looking on Seachem's website but can't seem to find it https://www.seachem.com/saltwater.php

Unless the freshwater planted nitrates are the same thing? Dosing it would be much more effective, doubling up on feedings hasn't had any effect thus far on my nitrate levels. 

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2 minutes ago, Steemax said:

I'll check out that app, thanks!.. I'm looking on Seachem's website but can't seem to find it https://www.seachem.com/saltwater.php

Unless the freshwater planted nitrates are the same thing? Dosing it would be much more effective, doubling up on feedings hasn't had any effect thus far on my nitrate levels. 

Both are under freshwater, yeah my nutrients bottomed-out too, seems to happen somewhat often in nanos. N03 and P04 are necessary for photosynthesis - corals need em' too haha and without them nanos seem prone to dinos.

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2 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Both are under freshwater, yeah my nutrients bottomed-out too, seems to happen somewhat often in nanos. N03 and P04 are necessary for photosynthesis - corals need em' too haha and without them nanos seem prone to dinos.

It's this one correct? https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116062602-Flourish-Nitrogen-250ml/dp/B0002APIN2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=seachem+nitrogen&qid=1579666273&sr=8-3

 

Do you think it would be beneficial to just add 2ppm worth to my pre-mixed saltwater and add it through water changes or doesn't really matter as long as i'm dosing in small amounts to reach my ideal nitrate reading.

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1 minute ago, Steemax said:

It's this one correct? https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116062602-Flourish-Nitrogen-250ml/dp/B0002APIN2/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=seachem+nitrogen&qid=1579666273&sr=8-3

 

Do you think it would be beneficial to just add 2ppm worth to my pre-mixed saltwater and add it through water changes or doesn't really matter as long as i'm dosing in small amounts to reach my ideal nitrate reading.

Yes, and you might not even need to do it slowly, I ended up with large-cell amphi and just dosed to 15 ppm, brought phosphates to .2 as well.

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1 minute ago, Amphrites said:

Yes, and you might not even need to do it slowly, I ended up with large-cell amphi and just dosed to 15 ppm, brought phosphates to .2 as well.

Excellent! Yeah i'm seeing very tiny amounts of dino popping up on my rocks but not enough to take off, removing them with a turkey baster thus far and it takes them a couple days to re-appear. Better to get ahead of this before it becomes a nuisance. Thanks for the advice, going to order a bottle now. 

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2 minutes ago, Steemax said:

Excellent! Yeah i'm seeing very tiny amounts of dino popping up on my rocks but not enough to take off, removing them with a turkey baster thus far and it takes them a couple days to re-appear. Better to get ahead of this before it becomes a nuisance. Thanks for the advice, going to order a bottle now. 

For dinos, detectable phosphates are more important than nitrates.

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1 minute ago, Amphrites said:

For dinos, detectable phosphates are more important than nitrates.

Yeah a phosphate checker is next on my list of things I need to pickup, going to go with the Hanna Checker. Might as well order it along with the Seachem nitrate. 

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Just now, Steemax said:

Yeah a phosphate checker is next on my list of things I need to pickup, going to go with the Hanna Checker. Might as well order it along with the Seachem nitrate. 

I just use the seachem test myself, it's accurate enough to know if you're trace, over .05, over 0.1, over 0.2, etc. And it's cheap XD

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IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut
2 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

I just use the seachem test myself, it's accurate enough to know if you're trace, over .05, over 0.1, over 0.2, etc. And it's cheap XD

Sorry to chime in.. but is this just as efficient as the Hanna one? I'm seeing this one is like $40 less.....

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5 minutes ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

Sorry to chime in.. but is this just as efficient as the Hanna one? I'm seeing this one is like $40 less.....

It's not as accurate and only has 75 tests, don't recall how many you get with a hannah. I don't need more than a test a week or two and above .05 is all I need to know.
Depends on your usecase, if you're asking you've probably not got a high-tech ULNS and probably don't need a hightech ULNS P04 tester - but that's not my call.

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Well just ordered the Seachem kit on your recommendation... i like that price a LOT better than the Hanna checker. 

Also got the nitrate bottle. According to the site calculator i'll need 12.8ml or 2.6 caps to bring my nitrates from 2ppm to 5ppm... hoping that's correct and i wont end up nuking my tank. Maybe I'll do a test on a gallon of RODI water with 0 nitrates and go from there. 

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6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I much prefer the hanna phos and alk. No determining colours and with phos that's low, it's really hard to tell light blue vs lighter blue with the other kits

I actually have a decent time going from yellow-brown to dark-green, plus I don't personally have a need for precision with P04 lol.

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Alright so I got the Seachem Nitrogen in and the Phosphate tester. I'm a bit confused by the tester, am I supposed to divide my results by 10 to get phosphorus? based on the chart it's showing me between 1.0 and 1.5 which i doubt is correct. 

 

As for the Nitrogen, I did a test on a gallon freshly mixed saltwater to make sure their calculator is correct and sure enough it was spot on but according to the calc i'll need to dose 17ml to achieve 5ppm based on my current readings. A bit much imo to do at once, don't want to shock anything so started off my dosing 5ml in high flow area for now slowly. Will test nitrates and dose again tomorrow. 

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I mean, you could try a go with the calibration fluid to make sure you didn't get a bad batch, but what you read is what you've got - if it changes from brown to green at all you've got > .01 phosphates. Check your lighting to make sure it's neutral and make sure it doesn't sit long after you mix it; fill to the base of the bulb (where it starts to be a cone), one drop reagent one, two of two, mix and check in 5-10 seconds under 6500k daylights.

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