29 gallon Reef Recked build

[Pyrosteve]

Pics look great with the lense. Have you tried making the pics smaller to they don't change to sideways? It could be the forum is turning them because they exceed the height size limitation. Just a guess.

 

[NY_Caveman]

When I have had coralline turn white (die) algae will immediately grow there. I find it is much more sensitive to Alkalinity than corals are.

 

[Reef Recked]

Pics look great with the lense. Have you tried making the pics smaller to they don't change to sideways? It could be the forum is turning them because they exceed the height size limitation. Just a guess.

Thank you! and i havent but i would bet that you are right cause now that i think of it this didnt start happening until i got a new phone lol. and it doesnt happen until i try to post them.

When I have had coralline turn white (die) algae will immediately grow there. I find it is much more sensitive to Alkalinity than corals are.

ya and my Alk is now my only parameter that im not too happy with, after no water change for a week my nitrate is at 2/3 which is maintaining if not a little lower than last water change, and PH is a little lower than i want at 8.1 so i plan on starting to dose Kalk but im worried because my calcium is at 470 which isnt that already a little high? if i start dosing Kalk to raise my Alkalinity and PH wont it raise my calcium levels way to high? in 1 week my tank used 1 DKH of Alk but my calcium stayed the same or actually went up a little around 460/470.

Im thinking of just starting with a low dose of alk like 1 tsp per 5 gallons RODI in my top off and seeing what happens.
I just picked up some more corals from WWC so want to get my ALK in a more acceptable range soon.

 

[Reef Recked]

Hey guys, some pics of the new corals, they all seem pretty happy so far after about 4 days in their new home. The Duncan is getting huge and the first zoa has about 4/5 new heads growing.

I started adding Kalk a day ago to my ATO and will test today to see the effect on the PH, Alk, Calcium etc. My worry is im not going to evaporate enough to elevate my ALk / PH levels where i want them so might have to make a Kalk Dripper but then my worry is ill dose to much calcium , so going to have to keep testing and checking to see whats going on with those parameters hopefully itll all even out or ill have to start looking into two part and where i would even have the room to put it.

The rock is still a little white at top, just raised my intensity another 2% last night so going to see if that ha any other effect, but hopefully as some of you have said its just my alk levels. I guess we will see. Im also still battling the hair algae hopefully once i raise my Alk levels that will help as well (ive heard it can help reduce it? not sure if thats true) Its actually growing really fast in my sump and my Chaeto i dont think is really growing much at all, i havent removed any at all since i put it in over a month ago, so guessing its getting outcompeted to the nutrients. if i cant get rid of it in the next month or so after i get my levels in check and keep trying to scrub it all off im probly going to try some reef flux.

Let me know what you guys think!
Cheers!

 

[Reef Recked]

Pics look great with the lense. Have you tried making the pics smaller to they don't change to sideways? It could be the forum is turning them because they exceed the height size limitation. Just a guess.

You were right Pyro! new phone just takes huge sized photos! resized them and wuolah upright pictures!
Thanks buddy

 

[Reef Recked]

More Problems! as usual :mad:;Blackeye

Came home from work yesterday to a few gallons of water on my floor and at first i thought it was either a crack or seal leak in the bottom of my display tank, and was mentally preparing to take down the whole tank and have a very busy 4th of July BUT then tracked it down to a slow leak coming from between my Modular Marine overflow box and the back of my tank, I had problems with the bulkhead seals that attach my overflow to the tank during testing so was pretty sure thats what it was. I was able to put about a 1/4 turn on the culprit and appeared to stop the leak but just to be safe i turned off my return lowered the water and put a bead of silicone on the outside of the gasket to the inside of the overflow box, going to give it 48 hours to dry and turn the pumps back on and pray that it works. If not going to have to remove the old box and gaskets and try new ones.

do you guys think my corals and fish will be ok for 48 hours if i move heater to display, an airstone and keep powerheads going?

Also does anyone knpw what type of algae this is growing all over my sump and my glass in the display i thought it was GHA but it actually appears way more brown now?

on a brighter note im finally getting my Skimmer dialed in and pulling darker skimmate!

 

[Pyrosteve]

Looks like you dodged a bullet with the leak. I hope it's the same with the algae. It might just be the heater chamber has a lot of air bubbles, but snotty algae with bubbles could be Dinos. If your phosphate and nitrates are zero for long periods you could be get a bloom.

 

[Reef Recked]

Looks like you dodged a bullet with the leak. I hope it's the same with the algae. It might just be the heater chamber has a lot of air bubbles, but snotty algae with bubbles could be Dinos. If your phosphate and nitrates are zero for long periods you could be get a bloom.

It does seem pretty snotty some of it actually looked kind of red but didnt really look like red slime algae (atleast what pictures i looked at).
But i took the opportunity and while my sealant was drying i pulled everything out of the sump (including all the rocks) and scrubbed/ cleaned out everything. which was exhausting but hopefully worth it in the long run!

 

[Reef Recked]

okay as mentioned above i was able to fix the leak atleast so far, which is good news considering my rainbow anemone and some zoas are coming in tomorrow! I tested all my water on sunday and my parameters were still pretty much the same, however after i got my Hanna Alk checker i found out that the reading ive been giving for ALK using the red sea test kit were all low by about 1 dkh (i waited until the third drop to start counting dkh but should have started immediately after the first drop).

But my parameters are.
ALk = 8.1 dkh
PH = 8.2
Calc = 470
Nitrate = 1
Salinity = 1.026
Temp = 77.2

Still dialing in my Kalk especially now that i actually know what my ALK is i want to get it to atleast 8.5/9 ideally hopefully i can do this without having to go to 2 part although i imagine eventually i will end up there anyway. Also just got a magnesium kit so going to do another series of tests tonight if i have time.

ANOTHER problem i found when trying to fix the leak is my Koralia nanos BOTH are humming but werent actually moving any water :mad_O
So going to try to figure that out but said screw it at this point and ordered the Gyre 1k, just set it up last night and man can this thing move some water, even pointing straight at 50% it creates a gyre without even being on gyre mode! Dialed it back to get everyone use to it for now but really liking it. Although the cable is just a little bit too short for how i have it run, im going to have to get creative or see if they sell some sort of cord extension.

 

[Pyrosteve]

It does seem pretty snotty some of it actually looked kind of red but didnt really look like red slime algae (atleast what pictures i looked at).
But i took the opportunity and while my sealant was drying i pulled everything out of the sump (including all the rocks) and scrubbed/ cleaned out everything. which was exhausting but hopefully worth it in the long run!

Good to hear!!

 

[Reef Recked]

Looks like i caught one of my hermit crabs eating my acropora? or at the least stressing it out trying to get to the algae around the plug? can anyone more knowledgable than me tell?

Atleast i noticed my duncan is starting to grow a couple more heads! and the Zoas new heads are coming in strong too.

Just got in my rainbow bubble tip anemone and another zoa & Paly so looking forward to getting them in the tank! im going to let my anemone try to find a spot and then finally get my corals setup on the rocks.

Parameters 7/9/19 - 8:00 Pm
ALk = 8.2 dkh
PH = 8.2
Calc = 480
Magnesium = 1370
Nitrate = 0.5
Salinity = 1.026
Temp = 77.9

Also does anyone have any idea what PH this looks like? ive been calling it 8.2 but im not sure.

 

[Reef Recked]

Ill Start with some good news for once! My rainbow BTA has survived his journey and looks awesome in the tank, of course he picked a spot behind my rock so might let him sit for a little longer and then try and move him, when i went to place him in the tank my powerhead pushed him out of my hand then somehow sucked him up and luckily i had put the mesh covers on my gyre but still was trying to pull him in and managed to cut off two little tips from him before i could grab him off!

My new nuclear implosion Palys are doing great but the helter skelter seemed to get knocked around alot and im not sure if they will make it.

After all of my sealing my leak came back in the same place after about two weeks of being dry, so i shut down the tank, lowered my water level, resealed, let dry two days and turned back on, Only for it to somehow leak worse than it did before!!! ;Rage but luckily i already ordered some new bulkheads so stole the gaskets off those, spent two hours cleaning off all the sealant i had just added and reinstalled everything yesterday. So far its not leaking but i dont trust anything anymore lol. It definitely seems to be my gaskets (pictured below) they seem really warped and honestly surprised they were holding as well asthey did. hopefully i shouldnt have anymore problems.

And My acro wasnt doing to great so tried to place him as i doubt my anemone would like this spot, but my glue wasnt gel enough (probly didnt mix enough previously) and would just immediately run or turn to skin in the water so going to have to get some more glue and hope none of my hermits knock it down.

 

[Reef Recked]

Finally Started programming the Reef-pi over the weekend, never used a raspberry pi before so of course i had some bugs in the program i still need to work out but am trying to figure those out on the the reef-pi thread so i can start building the components for it as well! One step at a time lol.