Kinda's Large Tank Adventure (LTA)

[Kindanewtothis]

Should I try to move all my hammers to the 10g as well?

[seabass]

5 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Should I try to move all my hammers to the 10g as well?

If the corals are doing better in the 10 gallon tank, then that might be worth a try.  However, your goal was to keep them in your 50 gallon tank, so you'll eventually need to figure out what's going on in your big tank.

 

Are the nutrient and alkalinity levels stable?  You mentioned that you were still trying to dial in your alkalinity dosing.  I realize that the torch was won; however, try to take a pause until all of your issues have been resolved.  Stability is key.

 

 

[Kindanewtothis]

2 minutes ago, seabass said:

If the corals are doing better in the 10 gallon tank, then that might be worth a try.  However, your goal was to keep them in your 50 gallon tank, so you'll eventually need to figure out what's going on in your big tank

Ya that would be only temporary.

 

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

You mentioned that you were still trying to dial in your alkalinity dosing

I think things started to go bad when I started dosing but I'm not sure. No dosing a lot since I lost most of my euphyllias heads. At the same time phosphate is high and always comes back to +/- 0.31. Was thinking about Nopox

[seabass]

I doubt that high phosphate is actually causing any trouble.  Instability might be.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Was thinking about Nopox

Personally, I wouldn't add carbon dosing to the mix.  I might tend to try to simplify things instead.

 

How's your refugium doing?

 

6 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

phosphate is high and always comes back to +/- 0.31

I wonder where all the input coming from?  Maybe the sand bed.

[Kindanewtothis]

33 minutes ago, seabass said:

How's your refugium doing?

Well I suppose, the green stuff is still green 😃

 

Tang is eating some caulerpa.

[Jakesaw]

1 hour ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Should I try to move all my hammers to the 10g as well?

 

Try moving them to my 10 gallon.  I'll keep good care of them. 

[Kindanewtothis]

2 hours ago, Jakesaw said:

 

Try moving them to my 10 gallon.  I'll keep good care of them. 

I would if I could

[Kindanewtothis]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

Maybe the sand bed.

The pistol shrimp moves it a lot could that be it?

[Kindanewtothis]

6 hours ago, seabass said:

If the corals are doing better in the 10 gallon tank, then that might be worth a try

Can't say if coral are doing better in the 10g, there is just the 2 torchs since 48 hours. What I now is that dKH is stable and that No3 and Po4 are really low in that tank.

 

There is more evaporation in that tank so specific gravity varies more than in the 50g.

[seabass]

5 hours ago, Kindanewtothis said:

The pistol shrimp moves it a lot could that be it?

Maybe in the short term.  But I would think that keeping the substrate moving is beneficial in the long run.

 

Phosphate comes in by food (possibly also by dosing phyto).  It can also leach from the rock and sand (possibly introduced when you were adding phosphate as a dino treatment).  It also shows up when organics are broken down.

 

It can sometimes be difficult to balance until your tank fully matures.  Yes, your tank hasn't hit its stride yet.  People often consider their tanks mature after just a few months, but it often takes much more time.  Mature reef tanks seem to have a considerable ability to uptake phosphate.

 

Those phosphate pads used to reduce phosphate very aggressively (maybe too quickly).  I'm surprised that they seem so ineffective now.  Although, they probably become saturated quite quickly, rendering them ineffective after just a short period of time.

 

You might consider another media, at least temporarily.  Maybe something like PhosGuard.  But you'd have to closely monitor levels during it's use.  If you decide to go that route, I'd use less than recommended and replace it often.  However, be sure not to reduce phosphate below 0.10 ppm when using a reducing media.

[Kindanewtothis]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

Maybe something like PhosGuard

In the canister?

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Kindanewtothis said:

In the canister?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  I'm not sure what kind of space you have to work with.  Although I assume that there is room for a small media bag with some PhosGuard in it.  Otherwise almost any cheap HOB filter would suffice.

[Kindanewtothis]

5 minutes ago, seabass said:

I'm not sure what kind of space you have to work with.  Although I assume that there is room for a small media bag with some PhosGuard in it. 

There is. I think I'll try that. 

 

I was told rocks also consumes alkalinity? Is that true?

[seabass]

2 hours ago, Kindanewtothis said:

I was told rocks also consumes alkalinity? Is that true?

No.  However, coralline algae which often grows on rock can.

[Kindanewtothis]

The hellfire torch frag that I won arrived all detached from the squeleton. It's now dead. The guy I won it from will send me another one when possible (not now)

[Kindanewtothis]

1 hour ago, Kindanewtothis said:

The hellfire torch frag that I won arrived all detached from the squeleton. It's now dead. The guy I won it from will send me another one when possible (not now)

At least I think this death is not my fault...

[Kindanewtothis]

4 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

At least I think this death is not my fault...

I'm mad at myself for the others, once things went well I went all in with the coral fever. I should have went slowly like every one said.

 

There is a reason why I choose the name "kinda new to this". I had a 90 gallons salt water tank 15-20 years ago. I know today I was doing all wrong at the time. I was using tap water, fed only brine, had old neons light I never changed. One power head and 2 canister filter. It was a fish only tank with 100 pounds of rocks and condy nems. I lost some fish at the time because I wasn't feeding the right stuff (lost a copperband). I had way too many fishs for 90 gallons ( 1 maroon clownfish, 1 achile tang, 1 copperband, 4 green chromis, 1 emperor angel, 1 clown triggerfish and one longnose hawkfish).

 

Internet wasn't the same at the time, information was less easy to access

 

All my advices came from a LFS (they initially set up the tank at my place with tap water)

 

I ended up selling the tank because I was moving.

 

So this time, I thought I was doing better... I'm sad.

[pal]

This hobby can be brutal, don’t give up!

[seabass]

14 hours ago, Kindanewtothis said:

So this time, I thought I was doing better... I'm sad.

I feel that you have learned a lot.  Maybe it's even time for a name change (although I'd be tempted to keep it as a reminder of where you came from).

 

I think that most of us have experienced the highs and lows of reef keeping.  It can be a humbling hobby.  However, it can also be quite rewarding.

 

Even the more experienced reefers still have things to learn.  I admit, there are times when, just like you, I doubt myself and wonder what I truly understand.  And that might be a good thing.

[DevilDuck]

I’ve been following this thread for over 100 pages! You’ve learned a lot and doing great. Even the most seasoned reef veterans will have many stories of total catastrophic failure. From what I’ve heard, They learn from it, get back up and continue. Stick with it, it will get better. 

[Kindanewtothis]

Ok that might be a stupid question, but step by step, how do you feed frozen food ? (from the freezer to the tank).

[DevilDuck]

I do it two ways:

 

Target feed:

1. Turn off return pump and powerheads

2. Defrost frozen food in a cup with tank water

3. Feed using a long dropper / pipettor pump

 

Broadcast feed:

1. Turn off return pump

2. Put frozen cups in a frozen food feeder cup, allow powerheads to circulate

The Octo Feeding Port – Octo Aquatics

 

[Kindanewtothis]

27 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

I do it two ways:

 

Target feed:

1. Turn off return pump and powerheads

2. Defrost frozen food in a cup with tank water

3. Feed using a long dropper / pipettor pump

 

Broadcast feed:

1. Turn off return pump

2. Put frozen cups in a frozen food feeder cup, allow powerheads to circulate

The Octo Feeding Port – Octo Aquatics

 

Oh thanks, it seems I'm doing it the right way. I read somewhere about rinsing the frozen food to reduce phosphate? 

[Jakesaw]

6 hours ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Oh thanks, it seems I'm doing it the right way. I read somewhere about rinsing the frozen food to reduce phosphate? 

Frozen foods are more nitrate producers - dry flake / pellet more phosphate. 

 

Generally Just break off a chunk of frozen and swirl around in cup of tank water.  Then pour into the tank slowly as my fish eat what I pour. 

come back til the fish are done eating.

sometimes spot feed if I have left over the defrosted food wster.

 

My fish are lazy eaters with tank circulation pumps.  I just leave em on and the fish attack the food as it blows by.  My corals get a little filter feed in the process as well. - it's a small 10 ga;l nano

[Kindanewtothis]

Dragon soul torch transfered in the 10g did not make it either...