🇨🇦🌲The Boreal Forest 🌲🇨🇦

[Spencer7]

What's been your favorite dual MP10 settings?

[PJPS]

9 minutes ago, Spencer7 said:

What's been your favorite dual MP10 settings?

I do a mix, but I have 4 45m NTP sessions.  I’m happy to share my settings 🍻

[PJPS]

The goni, leather, and gsp (right corner) are flow gauges.  I make sure nothing gets unidirectional flow, the water is always pulsing.  It won’t let me upload the ecotech files, so I’ll stick them somewhere and link them.  I’ll put my lighting up, it’s currently down a bit as the new additions acclimate.  It’ll be 90% intensity before too long.

 

Lights https://drive.google.com/file/d/13iAhUNEYbbhdNoDwBXOY3wMdxG3fE807/view?usp=sharing

MP1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1byQ6VsVwMubGCPQfEEOn5htNQ-sU-Kn9/view?usp=sharing

MP2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bGUwEhje4DrjbmEbXUgkqgFlisSJ414V/view?usp=sharing

[PJPS]

I figure it’s important that I document stuff like this so here goes. Even with all those invert and all that coral, my gumbo appears to be outpacing my inverts ability to eat the algae only slightly mind you. But enough for me to change it now, so I’m scaling back and only feeding the light portion seven days a week. 
 

For reference, you can’t see any algae, but the haze on the glass is noticeably re-growing faster than it used to.  Keep an eye out for small markers, and course correct with a nudge not a shove.  The light gumbo would be considered heavy by almost any standard, but not as crazy as the heavy gumbo.  I fear bottoming out far more than nuisance algae.

[Prairie Reefer]

looking good! pretty hard to keep so many sps in a 20G tank

[PJPS]

A B&W hyacinthus

 

[less than bread]

I always get so excited when I see a tank, especially a smaller tank, that grows all 3 “groups” if you will of coral. SPS, LPS, and softy. Very impressive and beautiful set up

[PJPS]

FEEDING UPDATE

 

all light gumbo isn’t enough, so I’m doing a little freestyle oyster feast on top of the light gumbo.

 

NO3=20.7

PO4=0.12

 

I like then nitrates there, but I’d like the phosphate closer to 0.2.  I used to use reef roids for this, but oyster feast has a similar effect and the SPS will eat it.  my gorg an birdsnest are stupid fluffy.  I’m adding 4 drops to pull up the phosphate up.

 

I’m running 3 tbsp rowa phos and feeding against that.  0.3ml nopox with an eshopps skimmer for nitrates.  Floss changed daily.  0.5G water changes every ~4 days.  If I’m hiring all those snails, shrimp, and hermits, I’m going to feed them.

 

 

[PJPS]

Tonight’s star, a very fluffy birdsnest just before bed

[PJPS]

Dialled the flow back a bit, pulses never exceed 60% now.   An acro right close (4") to the pump peeled a bit right where the flow would be harshest.

[PJPS]

My avatar rtn’d last night.  Ditching the red sea supplements and reducing kalk.  It was a nearby (2”) leather that shed yesterday that likely murdered my avatar. But I want less pH action in my tank.  I’m Perfectly happy at 7.9, but cutting the doser, to avoid the alk spike as the pH drops is unnecessarily complicated, and likely unnecessarily caustic as I’m kind of reverse chasing pH.  I’ll bite the bullet and ditch all the annoyingly pH pushing supplements that are more trouble than necessary unless boosting pH.  I just thought they were cheaper 😅

 

I’ll be trying AFR (powder) dosing extra mag

[PJPS]

The leather has now taken out my grape soda. It was grumpy yesterday, today the grape soda stripped.  It was the next closest to the leather after my avatar (RIP).  Given that this thing does this weekly I don’t know whic of my recent problems are related.

 

That said, i’ve mostly switched over to AFR and only dose 225ml kalk overnight to keep the pH above 7.7. The lights are down and flipped are all blue.  Everything looks better, but I want to move everything away from that leather and get that leather into its own tank.
 

i’d like to thank @mcarroll for making me rethink my dosing.  While it wasn’t anything specific, the idea of having less pH fluctuation caused by dosing, seemed appealing.  While I understand his thinking, I’m chasing pH or a nutrient ratio! since almost everyone else does it, I’m doing neither. But while he was going over some reasons why people who chase pH have issues,  it did make me think “what I’m using for dosing is making this harder than it needs to be”.  I still contend pH (and subsequently alk) fluctuations in a nano are extreme and nearly immediate (trouble in hours).  The thinking behind switching to all for reef was that the alkalinity is generated from bacterial processes, not carbon dioxide.  The alk stability is easy peezy, even in a crazy climate that’s bouncing from 3C today, to -40 two days ago.  So ventilation has been weather driven.

 

I dose extra mag on top of the AFR but that’s it.  AFR or Carbo-Calcium (or anything calcium formate that comes along) will be my go to dosing in any nano.

 

Edit: @mcarroll beef recognizes beef 😉

[PJPS]

Some quick updates that I’ll fill out as time goes on.

 

Added 2 drops of Fauna’s min s with the amino feeding.

 

I’ve been unimpressed with Brightwell Coral Amino, so I’m switching back to acro power.  Setting up on a dosing head freed up from switching to AFR.

 

I’ve moved the pumps closer to the front. They were too close to two corals I’d rather keep the flesh on.

 

The tank is running all blues as stuff recovers.

 

otherwise, the tank looks good if not a bit dull 😊 angry.  Nothing huge just some cranky Coral.

[mitten_reef]

Glad to hear you're taking steps to evict the leather out of this tank.  There are two toadstools that I'd love to keep; the weeping-willow type and the true Fiji yellow.  But probably never will if the shed is this problematic.  I've kept fiji yellow before with not much issue with SPS, but it browned out.  I suspected it wasn't happy from not getting full spectrum lighting in my experience - that was a long time ago....can't remember what light(s) or how much light i was running, lol.    

[jservedio]

Nice tank!

 

On 2/7/2023 at 5:04 PM, PJPS said:

The leather has now taken out my grape soda. It was grumpy yesterday, today the grape soda stripped.  It was the next closest to the leather after my avatar (RIP).  Given that this thing does this weekly I don’t know whic of my recent problems are related.

I've had a weeping willow in my tank now for a really, really long time now (maybe since 2014ish?) and I haven't had it kill anything yet or cause any problems that'd make me evict it...or at least anything I'd blame on it. Any time it goes crazy shedding or dropping babies I always notice the acros losing a little color until I get GAC in, but haven't had anything die or recede from it. That said, it does make diagnosing other problems a bit harder. Maybe consider chopping it down before evicting it if you like it?

 

I try and keep it really small compared to other corals, like the size of a stretched RFA, by constantly cutting it down or by selling the mother when it drops off a baby, but I'm letting it get a little bit bigger with more volume and still haven't had problems, even with a big old confusa it's been directly touching for maybe a year now.

 

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Glad to hear you're taking steps to evict the leather out of this tank.  There are two toadstools that I'd love to keep; the weeping-willow type and the true Fiji yellow.  But probably never will if the shed is this problematic.  I've kept fiji yellow before with not much issue with SPS, but it browned out.  I suspected it wasn't happy from not getting full spectrum lighting in my experience - that was a long time ago....can't remember what light(s) or how much light i was running, lol.    

Want a weeping willow baby? Mine just dropped one a month or two ago and I'm not evicting the momma this time - about the size of penny.

[PJPS]

1 hour ago, jservedio said:

Nice tank!

 

I've had a weeping willow in my tank now for a really, really long time now (maybe since 2014ish?) and I haven't had it kill anything yet or cause any problems that'd make me evict it...or at least anything I'd blame on it. Any time it goes crazy shedding or dropping babies I always notice the acros losing a little color until I get GAC in, but haven't had anything die or recede from it. That said, it does make diagnosing other problems a bit harder. Maybe consider chopping it down before evicting it if you like it?

 

I try and keep it really small compared to other corals, like the size of a stretched RFA, by constantly cutting it down or by selling the mother when it drops off a baby, but I'm letting it get a little bit bigger with more volume and still haven't had problems, even with a big old confusa it's been directly touching for maybe a year now.

 

Want a weeping willow baby? Mine just dropped one a month or two ago and I'm not evicting the momma this time - about the size of penny.

Totally agree.  I love my leather to the point I bought it it's own happy home.  Lower flow etc.  That said, it seems to love the SPS environment.  Which in my case is higher nutrient, but the flow is busy and the lighting high.  I don't know if it's species (Japanese deepwater long polyp) or size or what.  It was perfectly fine until 2 weeks ago, now when it sheds, I just hope it kills something cheap.

 

I've now tried ROX and Reefspec carbon and neither seem to do much :(.  Sadly I'm in Canada and customs will have a fit if I accept your very kind offer 🙂

 

My own personal suspicion is that the closest acro "catches" the shed skin and is smothered by it for an hour or two until it breaks down in the flow.  At which point it and the skin of the acro make it to filtration.  <- 100% mind story.  I have no intention of actually sleuthing it at the moment.  If moving it out of the 20 and into the 12 doesn't stop the murder, I'll get my Sherlock hat out.

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, PJPS said:

Totally agree.  I love my leather to the point I bought it it's own happy home.  Lower flow etc.  That said, it seems to love the SPS environment.  Which in my case is higher nutrient, but the flow is busy and the lighting high.  I don't know if it's species (Japanese deepwater long polyp) or size or what.  It was perfectly fine until 2 weeks ago, now when it sheds, I just hope it kills something cheap.

 

I've now tried ROX and Reefspec carbon and neither seem to do much :(.  Sadly I'm in Canada and customs will have a fit if I accept your very kind offer 🙂

 

My own personal suspicion is that the closest acro "catches" the shed skin and is smothered by it for an hour or two until it breaks down in the flow.  At which point it and the skin of the acro make it to filtration.  <- 100% mind story.  I have no intention of actually sleuthing it at the moment.  If moving it out of the 20 and into the 12 doesn't stop the murder, I'll get my Sherlock hat out.

That makes sense, especially shedding constantly like yours does - I always kept mine opposite of my powerhead so any shedding would get blasted against the glass instead of on other corals (I always put the nastier LPS and anything that's iffy against the glass opposite of the powerhead to push that into the glass and off other corals). I'll see if that theory holds true now I've got a 2nd gyre, but they alternate every 10m, so nothing should get smothered for long. It is definitely a huge pain trying to keep everything getting along in a nano and I always contemplate just going all peaceful SPS. Mine seems to like the SPS tank as well, though with the crazy flow I never get the sweet PE people get from them in softy tanks.

 

I've been using ROX and it always seems to be super strong for a couple of weeks - like to the point if I can't run my skimmer because it'll overflow from too many organics I can pop a couple tbsp in and it'll be super dry skimmate in a day or two. You do feed way more than I do so I wonder if that's just gumming up the GAC quickly? I always had problems with it being too strong actually.

 

Hopefully it was just the leather and isn't a problem anymore!

[PJPS]

2 hours ago, jservedio said:

That makes sense, especially shedding constantly like yours does - I always kept mine opposite of my powerhead so any shedding would get blasted against the glass instead of on other corals (I always put the nastier LPS and anything that's iffy against the glass opposite of the powerhead to push that into the glass and off other corals). I'll see if that theory holds true now I've got a 2nd gyre, but they alternate every 10m, so nothing should get smothered for long. It is definitely a huge pain trying to keep everything getting along in a nano and I always contemplate just going all peaceful SPS. Mine seems to like the SPS tank as well, though with the crazy flow I never get the sweet PE people get from them in softy tanks.

 

I've been using ROX and it always seems to be super strong for a couple of weeks - like to the point if I can't run my skimmer because it'll overflow from too many organics I can pop a couple tbsp in and it'll be super dry skimmate in a day or two. You do feed way more than I do so I wonder if that's just gumming up the GAC quickly? I always had problems with it being too strong actually.

 

Hopefully it was just the leather and isn't a problem anymore!

Funny you mention that, I have minimal flow in it right now.  Trying to get through the weekend murder-free, and the PE on that thing is bonkers.  3" PE?  looks like a weeping willow.  I should kill the flow and see if it passes Jake's weeping willow test and the tentacles drape :).

 

Edit: they do not drape in no flow.

 

E2: I'm 99.9% sure it has everything to do with the veritable dump truck of food my tank gets lol. I grabbed some Coral Srint from Fauna Marin.  The Fauna min s and Coral Sprint are super concentrated, hopefully less powder = less changing mechanical filtration.  Now the only “bulk” is the LRS.

 

With the LRS being mainly for the fish and inverts, the amount can come down once the softies are out.  The SPS tank will be 95% liquid coral food.  The softie tank can eat all the benepets (least impressive probiotic powder), an the SPS some coral frenzy now and then.

 

When I figure out my new gumbos (SPS and softy) I’ll post them in their respective 🧵 

[PJPS]

One of the nicest SPS reef aquariums I’ve ever seen.

 

 

this isn’t to diminish other nice tanks that I haven’t mentioned I do not mean any disrespect to any other amazing SPS tanks I haven’t mentioned.  There are hundreds across the world. I am sure.

[banasophia]

Oh yeah…I love that guy’s tank and his posts!

[PJPS]

45 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh yeah…I love that guy’s tank and his posts!

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen his tank, but he toured some bonkers home reefs. This is by far the nicest one as far as SPS.  He’s done nicer architectural tanks.  The Europeans have a whole different style, as does Asia and the Middle East.  I’m unfamiliar with African and South American reefing styles, but I’m willing to bet there’s untapped knowledge there too.

[PJPS]

Nothing crazy about the tank, but this is 3 minutes of pretty decent (and uncomplicated) explanation of newer vs older scaping.

 

Personally I like a shallow sandbed, but keep a lot of nassarius, conchs, a goby/pistol, and hermits to keep it moving, and turkey baste the sand at least once a week just to try to keep it clean without too much biological disturbance.  That said, I’ll go easy on the sand bed basting as the sand develops it’s biological film in the new build.  But that’s kinda all I want, so at that point some easy weekly maintenance (like 1 minute) starts.

 

To be clear, I’m in a wheelchair, so my reefing is tailored to that.  If you can constantly restart your tank, you do you.  This is what works, repeatedly, for me. I’m not trying to undermine anyone else’s dearly held beliefs.

[PJPS]

OPTIMIZING REEF AQUARIUM pH LEVELS: A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

 

Maintaining proper pH levels in a reef aquarium is essential for the health and well-being of the inhabitants. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of pH in reef aquariums, the factors that affect pH levels, and various methods for maintaining proper pH levels.

 

pH, which stands for "potential of hydrogen," is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution. In reef aquariums, the pH level should ideally be between 8.2 and 8.4. This range is considered the optimal pH level for coral growth and the well-being of other reef inhabitants such as fish and invertebrates.

 

 

 

One of the most important factors that affect pH levels in reef aquariums is carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Corals and other reef inhabitants require a certain level of CO2 to survive and thrive. However, if the CO2 levels become too high, the pH level will drop, which can be harmful to the inhabitants. In addition, certain types of algae can also consume CO2 and lower the pH levels.

 

 

 

Another factor that affects pH levels is the presence of dissolved organic compounds (DOCs). DOCs are compounds that are dissolved in the water and can have an impact on pH levels. They can be introduced into the aquarium through various means such as overfeeding, uneaten food, and fish waste. DOCs can also be produced by corals and other inhabitants, which can affect the pH levels.

 

 

 

To maintain proper pH levels in a reef aquarium, it is important to regularly test the water for pH levels and other parameters such as alkalinity and calcium. If the pH level is too low, there are several methods that can be used to raise it. One of the most common methods is the use of kalkwasser. Kalkwasser, also known as lime water, is a solution of calcium hydroxide that can be added to the aquarium to raise the pH levels. It is important to use kalkwasser with caution, as it can also raise the calcium levels in the water and cause other imbalances if not used correctly.

 

 

 

Another method for raising pH levels is the use of soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate. This can be added to the aquarium to raise the pH levels, but it is important to use it in small amounts and monitor the pH levels closely to prevent overshooting the desired range.

 

 

 

CO2 scrubbing is another method that can be used to maintain proper pH levels in a reef aquarium. This process involves passing the aquarium water through a device that removes excess CO2 from the water, which can help to raise the pH levels. This method is often used in conjunction with other methods such as kalkwasser and soda ash to achieve the desired pH levels.

 

 

 

Another method that can be used to maintain proper pH levels in a reef aquarium is opening windows. This refers to the practice of opening the doors or windows of the room where the aquarium is located to allow fresh air to circulate and lower the CO2 levels in the air which can help to raise the pH levels in the aquarium.

 

 

 

Finally, using a refugium on a reverse photoperiod is another effective way to maintain proper pH levels in a reef aquarium. A refugium is a separate area of the aquarium where beneficial organisms such as macroalgae can grow, which can help to reduce the levels of DOCs in the water and lower the CO2 levels. By running the refugium on a reverse photoperiod, which means keeping the lights on in the refugium when the lights in the main tank are off, can further increase the effectiveness of this method.
 

-chat gpt on pH

[PJPS]

How much of that is solid advice?  It’s never touched reef tank, but can spout authoritative answers it barely ‘understands’.  Trust it?

[banasophia]

That is extremely disturbing 😲