Josh's Softy Reef(s)

[joshthebox]

11 minutes ago, ptora said:

Good luck, I've been dosing nitrates recently too. Will most likely throw it on a doser since I'm doing almost 20ml a day!

Wow, that's a ton! I just dosed 6ml to bump the nitrates up a bit, curious to see how fast my tank consumes it. Are you also dosing phosphates? 

[ptora]

18 minutes ago, joshthebox said:

Wow, that's a ton! I just dosed 6ml to bump the nitrates up a bit, curious to see how fast my tank consumes it. Are you also dosing phosphates? 

Not at the moment. My phosphates have been reading 0.03ppm the last time I tested but nitrates still remained at 2ppm and would ideally like it to be between 5-10ppm. Trying to find that 24 hour consumption will be my goal for the upcoming week for me once I dial nitrates down.

[joshthebox]

Started dosing nitrate and phosphate. I was able to increase my nitrate to detectable levels, but phosphate is still undetectable. Surprisingly, the PE on the Walt Disney was significantly reduced as soon as I started dosing nutrients. The polyps are now beginning to open up a bit more. Also, i've been seeing a small amount of dinoflagellates in the tank for a few weeks now. Hopefully it just goes away, the tank just needs to mature more. 

[joshthebox]

I love watching the clownfish dart in and out of the Palau Nepthea.

 

Reef Raft Canada Japanese Stereonepthya

 

[joshthebox]

Here's my sump. Super simple, a single drain going into a media cup that is empty (I don't use floss). Refugium section has a heater and some bio media. Passes through a baffle with a bubble trap, and into the return chamber 😁 I siphon out the bottom of the sump each time I water change. 

[joshthebox]

Dinos are in full swing, I'm just going to wait it out, although it's annoying as the strands cover my corals. I bet it'll disappear in a week or two. Still dosing nitrates and phosphates, nitrate sits around 1-2 and phos is still undetectable with a salifert test kit. I wonder how accurate the salifert phosphate test is... 

 

 

My clowns are definitely going to lay tonight, I can tell because the female is built like a golfball LOL 

[joshthebox]

The clams. If you look closely you can see a bounce rhodactis mushroom on the rockwork. I need to remove it somehow, or kill it with kalkwasser. It's like a fancy looking aiptasia lol 

[shrimp4fun]

love your pink & green nepthea! Could you post more pictures from side view?  what is the setting for two MP10? Thank you!

[joshthebox]

5 hours ago, shrimp4fun said:

love your pink & green nepthea! Could you post more pictures from side view?  what is the setting for two MP10? Thank you!

Thank you! Absolutely, when I have time to take photos I will definitely do that! I have the MP10s running reef crest at 50% of max power. They are anti-sync to each other. 

[shrimp4fun]

1 hour ago, joshthebox said:

Thank you! Absolutely, when I have time to take photos I will definitely do that! I have the MP10s running reef crest at 50% of max power. They are anti-sync to each other. 

Thank you!

[ptora]

On 11/30/2021 at 3:53 PM, joshthebox said:

Dinos are in full swing, I'm just going to wait it out, although it's annoying as the strands cover my corals. I bet it'll disappear in a week or two. Still dosing nitrates and phosphates, nitrate sits around 1-2 and phos is still undetectable with a salifert test kit. I wonder how accurate the salifert phosphate test is... 

 

 

My clowns are definitely going to lay tonight, I can tell because the female is built like a golfball LOL 

Hit me up if you're interested in borrowing my hanna phosphorus ULR test kit. 

[joshthebox]

2 hours ago, ptora said:

Hit me up if you're interested in borrowing my hanna phosphorus ULR test kit. 

I seriously appreciate that man, thank you so much for the offer! I think I might just bite the bullet and buy one, despite it being pretty costly. How do you like yours? If you're ever down to trade corals, just hit me up! 

[ptora]

4 hours ago, joshthebox said:

I seriously appreciate that man, thank you so much for the offer! I think I might just bite the bullet and buy one, despite it being pretty costly. How do you like yours? If you're ever down to trade corals, just hit me up! 

I like the checker, it's easy to use with just one reagent and gives you a number reading without the need to figure out which shade of blue it is like salifert. I know a lot of people like the phosphate ULR ones and you can get the 100 pack reagent for much better price than the 25 pack. Sounds good, I don't have anything high end but always down if anything peaks your interest.

[joshthebox]

21 minutes ago, ptora said:

I like the checker, it's easy to use with just one reagent and gives you a number reading without the need to figure out which shade of blue it is like salifert. I know a lot of people like the phosphate ULR ones and you can get the 100 pack reagent for much better price than the 25 pack. Sounds good, I don't have anything high end but always down if anything peaks your interest.

That sounds convenient! I'll have to grab one soon, as I think my phosphates are currently below 0.03ppm... If you want some milka stylo I could definitely send a chunky frag your way sometime next year 😄

[ptora]

3 hours ago, joshthebox said:

That sounds convenient! I'll have to grab one soon, as I think my phosphates are currently below 0.03ppm... If you want some milka stylo I could definitely send a chunky frag your way sometime next year 😄

You won't be disappointed. If you run out Brightwell's Neophos and Neonitro, get AAA Calcium Nitrate and Postassium Phosphate and mix your DIY solution for a fraction of the price. I'm cool with that, very kind of you!

[Jaren45]

Hanna's ULR phosphate, and the new HR nitrate checkers are awesome.. I never bought the old ones because they all had 3 or so crazy complicated steps. Now it's just 1 powder and is painless, I'm still using salifert for the main 3 but for nutrients the eggs are awesome.

[joshthebox]

Well I went to my LFS today and bought a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. While Salifert has been consistently reading 0, this is what the Hanna tells me... Well now I know to stop dosing phosphate LOL. I'll do a big water change this weekend, and the skimmer should also help pull it out. I wonder if this could be contributing to my dino issue... 

[A.m.P]

My bet would be, probably not.

[ptora]

Glad you figure out what the actual number should be. I think dinos is a tough one to crack, Abe/Coral Euphoria has done a video and mentioned tank instability and maturity to be the contributing factor of dinos in his opinion. 

[joshthebox]

49 minutes ago, ptora said:

Glad you figure out what the actual number should be. I think dinos is a tough one to crack, Abe/Coral Euphoria has done a video and mentioned tank instability and maturity to be the contributing factor of dinos in his opinion. 

Oh yeah, I completely agree. The tank was started with dry rock and is also bare bottom, practically a recipe for instability lol. I've dealt with them in the early stages of my previous tank and they went away on their own after a period of time. 

3 hours ago, A.m.P said:

My bet would be, probably not.

Agreed, i'm just being optimistic 😂

[joshthebox]

After a 5 gallon water change and not dosing phosphates for a couple of days.

 

I'm going to need to buy some reagents soon, I was looking for a 100pk but I can't find any 🤔 they only seem to come in 25pk.

[ptora]

7 hours ago, joshthebox said:

After a 5 gallon water change and not dosing phosphates for a couple of days.

 

I'm going to need to buy some reagents soon, I was looking for a 100pk but I can't find any 🤔 they only seem to come in 25pk.

Check Aquarium Depot, I recall they had 100 packs. Glad to see you're back on track!

[joshthebox]

3 hours ago, ptora said:

Check Aquarium Depot, I recall they had 100 packs. Glad to see you're back on track!

It appears that they only have the phosphate low range reagents in 100 packs. Hopefully they'll carry the ULR 100 test in the future, the Hanna checker is quite handy! 

[ptora]

On 12/10/2021 at 10:08 AM, joshthebox said:

It appears that they only have the phosphate low range reagents in 100 packs. Hopefully they'll carry the ULR 100 test in the future, the Hanna checker is quite handy! 

Ah poo, now thinking back hanna should really make 100 pack reagents for their phosphate and nitrate test kits...

[joshthebox]

Inappropriate reefer mentioned using a Lindt chocolate container as a coral viewer a while back, and with Christmas coming, I was gifted some chocolate so I thought I'd try it out. Works really well actually! Opens up so many possibilities for filming!