murphs_reef 92G - retired, thanks guys

[seabass]

That's impressive.

 

Today I was looking at my tank and was trying to figure out how to control the growth on my zoanthids.  It's the weirdest thing, they seem to thrive after Vibrant (although now I'm dealing with dinos).

[Murphs_Reef]

14 hours ago, seabass said:

That's impressive.

 

Today I was looking at my tank and was trying to figure out how to control the growth on my zoanthids.  It's the weirdest thing, they seem to thrive after Vibrant (although now I'm dealing with dinos).

Yes absolutely. I'll take some pictures later but since vibrant'ing my hornets, green, man eaters and rastas they have all pushed up dozens of new polyps each. Yet my cyano is covering everything....

[Murphs_Reef]

That said.. my Duncan's has 3 new polyps as well as the GSP pushing out at a good rate... And I wonder why phosphate is low? Go figure..

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Ok so i am winning the cyano battle and it's not coming back at all like it was daily last week..

 

 To turn the tide on cyano 

Phosphate dosing

Though I'm not sure this played a big part I started phosphate dosing a week ago. I'm bringing it up to around 0.05ppm daily, this reads 0.00 just before I dose again the following day. So nutrients are being consumed at a rate...

As a result the overall appearance of the corals has improved massively, to the point I have had to move the torch as it is now extending so far, it is touching a few zoa colonies... It now has a space on it's own island. 

 

Manually removing cyano 

After observation daily, I noticed that the bits of cyano that didn't get sucked up into the overflow and settled on the sand would be the 'seed' of the following days growth. Growing outward and by the end of the day essentially covering the entire sandbed. 

 

Now knowing this, yesterday I tested deep cleaning a portion of sand by sucking a small bit out, akan to a rip clean but on a super small scale (ie limited to a very small area and no rock removed). I cleaned the sand and put it back.. this was the only area this morning with no cyano growth whatsoever.

 

 The "kinda" rip clean 

moving onto this morning, I started by:

• blowing off the cyano from the rock so there was nothing left at all.
• Left it an hour for the overflow to pull the bulk out and the rest to settle on the sand.
• Turn pumps off and change the filter sock
• Pull the whole section of sand in front of the rock, clean off the sand with tap untill the water run clear, rinse the sand in RO to evacuate the tap, as per a rip clean job and replace it back into the tank.

The result is

 

I'll come back tomorrow with a follow up on this, but if the smaller previous test was anything to go by, I expect to see far less cyano tomorrow..

[Murphs_Reef]

CURRENT PARAMETERS

Friday 11/06

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): 420 ppm 🔻

Mag (Salifert): 1410 ppm

 

FTS

 

[Murphs_Reef]

I'm a bit of a professional cyano remover these days.. 🤣🤣

Looks like it's improved after the "kinda" rip clean.. mind the sand was holding some amount of detritus, the water coming out of it was pretty grim as it was being rinsed

[Murphs_Reef]

[Murphs_Reef]

This guy's settled in quickly, always wanted a Gramma 

 

Same with the BTA, always wanted a red one but the price is crazy for them so settled with a green / yellow..pleased I did as it's a stunning specimen. Just hope it doesn't go hiding 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

Oh @seabass I just had a thought when cleaning the filter sock.. I have 2 x mantis bio blocks.. I bet that's well overkill and sucking phosphate up at a rate.. what do you think? 

[seabass]

It might be overkill, but I don't believe that nitrifying bacteria consume nitrate and phosphate.  However, the cyano will be using a lot of it.

[Murphs_Reef]

8 minutes ago, seabass said:

It might be overkill, but I don't believe that nitrifying bacteria consume nitrate and phosphate.  However, the cyano will be using a lot of it.

Ok worth a mention though. Btw.. no new cyano at all today. I think the sandbed hosted a lot of organics, a lot of which have now been removed... 

[seabass]

1 minute ago, Murphych said:

no new cyano at all today.

Awesome!  Glad you got that worked out.

 

As for phosphate consumption, pretty much anything photosynthetic will be consuming it.

[Murphs_Reef]

I have been in this hobby for 7 years.. I still know bugger all 🤣

[Murphs_Reef]

Still no new cyano. Rocks look pretty devoid of anything to be fair, there are a lot of bigger white patches where there is no algae of any kind in them, but I have noticed Coralline taking hold on pumps and the rear glass panel.

[Ratvan]

sounds like you may have turned a corner 

[Murphs_Reef]

Yep since going back to basics and cleaning all the miracle cures out of the sump and giving the sandbed a kicking.. things are looking sweet 👍🏼

[seabass]

Awesome.  Good to hear, and a great lesson to those following along.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah thanks for all your help, and all of those who have helped me get this tank running.. im sure there will be a lot more to do. But I can see some shoots of progress now for sure.. 

 

Just to add. Did N and P tests again tonight 

NO3 (Salifert): 5.0 ppm

PO4 (Hanna): 0.01 ppm

 

A little more tweaking needed in the phosphate dosing as it's still bottoming out by the following morning. Which means the tank is consuming 0.03 NO3 a day... 😱

[Pjanssen]

On 6/12/2021 at 5:55 PM, Murphych said:

I have been in this hobby for 7 years.. I still know bugger all 🤣

Pretty much how I feel! Especially since switching to a sump run system for the first time. 11 years in the hobby and I feel like a total newbie.

[Murphs_Reef]

1 minute ago, Pjanssen said:

Pretty much how I feel! Especially since switching to a sump run system for the first time. 11 years in the hobby and I feel like a total newbie.

We do like to give ourselves headaches Penny.. 

I do love the bigger set up though. So much more scope than the nano...

 

Visits to the fish store are a tad more expensive though 😱

[Murphs_Reef]

Sandbed is glowing now.. zero cyano.. how big has that torch on the right hand side got?? It's massive now... 

 

This is my fav tank picture... My sand... It looks like a sheet if paper 🤣

[Murphs_Reef]

A bit of a tidy up of page one of my journal. 

 

Removed: 

• Firefish Goby - M.I.A. for a month - dead 
• Blue neon Goby - sucked through the Nero 3 
• Red acan - chucked it out this morning as I didn't notice that when I was ripping my sand out I buried it.. didn't last the week under the sandbed 👎🏼

[DevilDuck]

That torch on the right side is totally awesome!

[Murphs_Reef]

3 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

That torch on the right side is totally awesome!

It's a monster, took out a whole zoa colony overnight so it's now on it's own rock, but I can see it getting to big for this area so might need to push it out further.. 

The tank is 90cm long so got plenty of space for now 

[Murphs_Reef]

Tonight's additions:

 

• Sand Sifting Sea Star
• Cauliflower, Orange (Sarcophyton) Coral 
• War Coral (Favites pentagona)