murphs_reef 92G - retired, thanks guys

[seabass]

21 minutes ago, Murphych said:

This TDS meter still isn't here

There's a good chance that your water will come back with a TDS between 0 and 2 TDS (some increase can come from the container or even the atmosphere.)  However, if it's much higher, then we may have found a potential cause or contributor.

 

It's still a good purchase even if it just confirms good source water.  You should use it every time you buy water.

[Murphs_Reef]

8 minutes ago, banasophia said:

glad you mentioned this about outcompeting... I like to use chemiclean then once I do my water change start dosing Microbacter 7 hoping the beneficial bacteria will outcompete the cyano and dino... but that just made me think I should try dosing the Microbacter 7 first without the chemiclean, so I just added to all my tanks which all have a little cyano right now 🤞🤞🤞

 

haha what’s that saying about watched pots... I wonder if it holds true for watched door steps 

Oh yeah @seabass makes me worry every time he tells me something new... 

[Murphs_Reef]

[seabass]

That's good!  It's never that easy fixing a problem, is it?

 

A couple of reasons that store water might change is exhausted DI resin (if due for maintenance) or contaminated water storage,  It's good piece of mind to know for sure you are purchasing good water.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah. I'm at a loss now though.. 

So steps taken so far: 

• Cleaner out the fuge material and put in a small tank in the shed to romp away.. I'll stack this with pods for harvest. 
• Pointed the powerheads behind the rock work to blow up any detritus that might have been back there... Very little though from what I seen.
• Swapped out my red Sea net sock 225 macron for 100 sock - this was more regular maintenance really to clean the net out than anything but who knows at this point. 
• Swapped out active carbon

[Murphs_Reef]

Ok so today nitrates are at 5ppm (up 2.5 from Tuesday) and phosphate still 0.00.. Skimming has been suspended for now until phosphate registers.

 

Got a decent picture of the cleaner wrasse cruising around.

 

Spent 15 minutes cleaning the sand and netting cyano. Looks great for now. I might pull small areas of sand and clean it through RO in patches cause it's got a lot of mess in it. 

[Murphs_Reef]

In a complete u turn from reducing phosphate due to initially being too high. I am now using Reef Zlements Z-PhosPlus to bring it back up to 0.03. bring it up 0.01 per day l, testing and the repeat until 0.03 

Once achieved stop and test over a couple days to see if it decreases or otherwise...

[seabass]

While I don't necessarily expect that dosing phosphate will get rid of cyano, I bet your corals will appreciate it.  It might also result in more uptake of nitrate (assuming that lack of phosphate might have become a limiting factor).

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah this is my thought as well. There could be a few problems to fix, phosphate is definitely one of them.. of course there is a chance if I provide more phosphate the cyano will get worse as well. We will see. 

 

I don't want to tie myself in knots with then dosing carbon and all sorts of stuff. But the phosphate I think I need to give a go. Will see what happens in a week . 

 

Tell you what though.. that vibrant can stay on the shelf, it's a good paper weight.

[seabass]

35 minutes ago, Murphych said:

there is a chance if I provide more phosphate the cyano will get worse as well.

IDK, maybe.  I still feel that cyano has more to do with organics (like detritus, and dissolved or partly dissolved organics) and/or a bacterial imbalance of some sort, and less to do with available inorganic nutrients.  But you might be right, the bloom will likely feed on the new nutrients too.

 

42 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Tell you what though.. that vibrant can stay on the shelf, it's a good paper weight.

Yeah, my algae is gone; but I lost a few corals (pods, mini brittle stars, etc), and now I'm fighting dinos.  Plus the zoas have practically taken over (as they seemed unphased by the whole Vibrant ordeal).  Was it worth it in the end?  The jury is still out; but it isn't the product I expected it to be.

[Murphs_Reef]

Off the bat PO4 is up, started dosing yesterday. 

CURRENT PARAMETERS

Friday 04/06

Temp: 25 °C

NO3 (Salifert): 5.0 ppm

PO4 (Hanna): 0.02 ppm 🔺

SG (TMC): 1.025 SG

Alk (Salifert): 9.3 dKH

Ca (Salifert): 460 ppm 🔺

Mag (Salifert): 1410 ppm 🔻

[Murphs_Reef]

Torch loving life. I've had to move more zoa's as this thing is extending further by the day 

 

[seabass]

Nice torch.  Too bad you can't attach some hula music to that GIF.

[Murphs_Reef]

Quick phosphate test today after 3 days with the Reef Zlements Z-PhosPlus. Ive over shot a bit as we are reading 0.08. So I will back off it now. 

Cyano hasn't been as a aggressive looking today but still very much present. 

I have turned the skimmer back on as well, skimming dry. 

 

[seabass]

14 minutes ago, Murphych said:

I have turned the skimmer back on as well

Good the dissolved organics (which protein skimmers remove) will contribute to cyano too.

[Murphs_Reef]

I gave it a deep clean and put it back in...pulling skimmate off the bat. 

[ECLS Reefer]

I kept getting either cyano or bad bad diatoms in my Evo whenever the phosphates dropped below 0.15 or so. I quit dosing NoPox and had it running media free for a good while, fed more to the tank- it eventually went away and now I know to keep the phosphates more generous. Without reading all the way back have you spoiled the fish with food buffets yet to get the nutrients up?

[Murphs_Reef]

2 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

I kept getting either cyano or bad bad diatoms in my Evo whenever the phosphates dropped below 0.15 or so. I quit dosing NoPox and had it running media free for a good while, fed more to the tank- it eventually went away and now I know to keep the phosphates more generous. Without reading all the way back have you spoiled the fish with food buffets yet to get the nutrients up?

Thanks. Not so much, I feed every 3 days 1 block TMC maysis and 1 block rotifers. I have noticed that the cyano isn't as bad today, I mean it's still there in good amounts but there are fair patches that are clear as well since phosphate was dosed.  👍🏼 Your right though a couple extra good feeding sessions might be a good thing. 

[ECLS Reefer]

39 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Thanks. Not so much, I feed every 3 days 1 block TMC maysis and 1 block rotifers. I have noticed that the cyano isn't as bad today, I mean it's still there in good amounts but there are fair patches that are clear as well since phosphate was dosed.  👍🏼 Your right though a couple extra good feeding sessions might be a good thing. 

I never hear a single complaint from the fish😂 Which might have something to do with why they’ve become such free loaders. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Wow ok so what did we say yesterday? 0.08 phosphate is now back to 0.00. so nutrients are being consumed quickly. 

 

The Duncan's polyps have burned / white tips and it looks a bit battered.. can only assume this is the up and downs if the phosphate the last 2 or 3 days maybe? But other corals are looking good. The toadstool in fact has much better polyp extension than ever if im not mistaken.

 

Oh and my acro has green areas coming back at the base.. the full thing had browned out last week

 

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Murphych said:

phosphate is now back to 0.00

Wow.  Yeah the uptake can be impressive.

 

I don't know if you've ever tried this, but if  you perform a second test immediately after the first, you'll likely get another result.  You can even test the same sample by using the second bottle (with just tank water) as sample 1, and the original bottle (tank water with the reagent) as sample 2.  But instead of pressing and holding (to activate the timer), just press to get an immediate reading.  You'll find that the result will jump around.  Think of the displayed result as a ballpark, somewhere "near" to the actual level.

 

3 hours ago, Murphych said:

Oh and my acro has green areas coming back at the base.. the full thing had browned out last week

Browning can be a sign of insufficient lighting where zooxanthellae (the symbiotic algae in coral tissue, which is brown) is increasing relied upon to provide more energy.  But also, (as is likely in your case) the increased phosphate levels support the zooxanthellae which results in faster growth, and often, the browning of coral tissue.

[Murphs_Reef]

24 minutes ago, seabass said:

don't know if you've ever tried this, but if  you perform a second test immediately after the first, you'll likely get another result.  You can even test the same sample by using the second bottle (with just tank water) as sample 1, and the original bottle (tank water with the reagent) as sample 2.  But instead of pressing and holding (to activate the timer), just press to get an immediate reading.  You'll find that the result will jump around.  Think of the displayed result as a ballpark, somewhere "near" to the actual level.

This is the method I was taught actually. 2 bottles, one with tank water only and the other with reagent and tank water,  I do this 3 times. First with the 3 minutes timer, the 2 tests with the immediate result. Then if they differ to take an average.. the only issue with that is.. unusually always get 0 each time, so by default the average is..... 0 😂

 

 

[seabass]

7 minutes ago, Murphych said:

This is the method I was taught actually. 2 bottles, one with tank water only and the other with reagent and tank water,

That's what I do too.  But I usually throw out the values farthest from the standard deviation.  I might take 2 readings or as many as 5 depending on how much the number is jumping.

 

I always imagine that these shifting results are due to a smudge on a vial, an air bubble in one of the samples, or particulate in a sample.  Then there's the accuracy of the Checker itself (which is ±0.02 ppm, that can potentially account for up to a 0.04 ppm swing).

 

Still, with all that, I find the Phosphate ULR Checker to be one of the best phosphate testers available to hobbyists.

[Murphs_Reef]

You know who doesn't care less about the current nutrient swings and cyano? Old jimmy green grass here... Took my eye of these 3 frags for a few weeks while I was messing with cyano... They aren't frags anymore.. and now off the glass, moving down the rock towards my zoa's. Will have to start training it away from them if I can... And have loads of frags to pass around soon enough.

 

Regardless of flow or light.. these things are going mad and soon to be my new weeds.. 

 

High flow area, going mad:

 

Low flow area, going mad:

 

Area of least flow and light, going mad:

[Murphs_Reef]

This zoa rock that was GHA covered 3 months ago is now Coralline covered.