48x24x16 Lowboy Build

[BroccoliFarmer]

Weekly Readings. Things are looking good

Salinity: 1.024

API:
Phosphate: ~.25
Nitrate: ~5

Hanna:
Calcium: 530 (WOW..what a jump..wondering if i did it wrong before!?)
DKH: 11.3 - Getting back to a normal range

Salifert:
PH: 8.1

Dosing:
800 ML of Kalk per day
22 ML of my Nitrate and Phosphate solution per day.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I honestly feel like an idiot. I have taped my iphone to my tank for quite a number of hours of the last week playing the youtube video of the clownfish and the anemone hosting because people swear by it. Even my wife is laughing at me calling me a gullible idiot. WHY WONT THEY HOST. BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE. COME ON!!

 

[dvgyfresh]

I honestly feel like an idiot. I have taped my iphone to my tank for quite a number of hours of the last week playing the youtube video of the clownfish and the anemone hosting because people swear by it. Even my wife is laughing at me calling me a gullible idiot. WHY WONT THEY HOST. BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE. COME ON!!

Patience lol you got this

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Patience lol you got this

Seriously…they couldn’t be any closer without hosting!!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Ok. See a couple of minor patches of dinos. Have no clue as to what caused them this time but going to immediately go to a couple day blackout to prevent them from taking hold. No clue as to what caused them as the nitrates and phosphates have been ridiculously stable for months. *shrugs* See you on the other side.

hmmm...I wonder if it was me adding another light to the tank and the tank had a poor adjustment too it. I added my 75 Watt noopsyhe light on the same schedule without really doing an acclimation to the new lighting. Roughly increased my light energy going into my tank by 25% overnight. I have noticed an increase in my sand discoloration and these dinos. Thoughts?

 

[tbrown]

Ok. See a couple of minor patches of dinos. Have not clue as to what caused them this time but going to immediately go to a couple day blackout to prevent them from taking hold. No clue as to what caused them as the nitrates and phosphates have been ridiculously stable for months. *shrugs* See you on the other side.

hmmm...I wonder if it was me adding another light to the tank and the tank had a poor adjustment too it. I added my 75 Watt noopsyhe light on the same schedule without really doing an acclimation to the new lighting. Roughly increased my light energy going into my tank by 25% overnight. I have noticed an increase in my sand discoloration and these dinos. Thoughts?

My 140s both came in and my wife said I can't bring the new tank in the house... She says it's too big.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

My 140s both came in and my wife said I can't bring the new tank in the house... She says it's too big.

Hmm. Tank or 20 year marriage. Choose wisely!! (I’m sure the tank is gonna be awesome!!)

 

[tbrown]

Hmm. Tank or 20 year marriage. Choose wisely!! (I’m sure the tank is gonna be awesome!!)

She told me to set it up in the garage so I get to keep both! It's an ML24 like Bater tank so it's 30" wide and 60" long. She says the footprint is too big.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Black out period is over. Hoping my tank has gone back to normal. Looking forward to lights coming back on

also, finally added a recirculating CO2 scrubber to my protein skimmer. Was able to use a Rubbermaid 3.2 bowl and a Chinese soup container to add in a breather and a humidity chamber. Definitely a DIY hack job but can honestly say this is the first time a tank modification didn’t cost me 100 bucks. I bought the co2 scrubber a couple of months back from BRS (before I decided to boycott them and after the return window) for 30 bucks, media for 6, hardware for the tubing for 7 and the rubber maid for 2. Looking forward to seeing some positive growth on my corals who have been growing PAINFULLY slow.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Weekly Readings. Things are looking good

Salinity: 1.024

API:
Phosphate: ~.25
Nitrate: ~5

Hanna:
Calcium: 400 (I think I screwed up my last Calcium reading..this looks right)
DKH: 10.7 - Getting back to a normal range. Going to shoot for 11'ish

Salifert:
PH: 8.0

Dosing:
750 ML of Kalk per day
22 ML of my Nitrate and Phosphate solution per day.

Side note: Did a power head cleaning this weekend and now the flow is a bit much for my torches. Last time I did a powerhead maintenance, I lose some frogspawn heads cause the flow was too much.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I like it man, what’s the reasoning behind the high alk? I like mine to be around the same 9-11ish but I keep nitrate 20ppm and phosphate .3. I also just cleaned my gyre and wow it was really slowed down, had bubble algae all up in it lol

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I like it man, what’s the reasoning behind the high alk? I like mine to be around the same 9-11ish but I keep nitrate 20ppm and phosphate .3. I also just cleaned my gyre and wow it was really slowed down, had bubble algae all up in it lol

yeah..my gyre REALLY powered up once I removed the algae build up.

The reason I have such a high alk target is that is the alk of my salt mix (instant ocean). I dont want to play around with alk adjustments on a water change. It also helps with my PH levels as well.

I need to get my nitrates up but probably going to be a slow build up so that my tank can adjust.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Ok. I know most people would say ‘poor baby, you got free stuff’ but I am annoyed. My anemone split AGAIN! Not happy. Specially since my clown won’t host. Might be posting a local trade in south jersey.

 

[tbrown]

Ok. I know most people would say ‘poor baby, you got free stuff’ but I am annoyed. My anemone split AGAIN! Not happy. Specially since my clown won’t host. Might be posting a local trade in south jersey.

My buddy was having the same problem. He went from one to 13. He solved the problem though... Sold his tank.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

My buddy was having the same problem. He went from one to 13. He solved the problem though... Sold his tank.

Wife just told me that I have 'permission' to sell my nano..but if I sell my big reef tank she's gonna take revenge on my credit card. As such, I am stuck with these. GRRRR. I know..1st world problems.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I was able to remove the baby. Just hoping I didnt do any damage to the little buy. Tried the power head method. Had to be a little forceful.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Got myself a 6 piece BattleBox. Major thanks to @Battlecorals I’ve been waiting to get a BattleBox since I started about a year ago and I finally pulled the trigger!! Adam was cool enough to hold the box for a little while for me as I do a few parameters adjustments. What a really cool dude!!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Just a couple of tank updates.

After talking with a few people on why I have been less than successful with my sps, I am going to be slowly raising my salinity from 1.024 to 1.025 (maybe 1.026). I am also going to try and bring my alk down from 10 to 8.5ish. Just cutting back on my kalk dosing to accommodate.

Over Christmas, I got a great deal on a new Kamoer FX STP2 continuous duty pump. As such, I am taking my kalk dosing from 75'ish ML 12 times a day to doing a 1ml a minute drop at the same levels.

Now that I have freed up one of my Kamoer blue tooths, I am going to separate out my fertlizer mix so that I can dose the sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphates separately. My Phosphates have been around .35 and my nitrates around 10. Good level on nitrates, a bit high on the phosphates. This will give me more control over my levels. Want to get phosphates down below 0.2.

And the biggest news...I got a used Apex controller and an Apex Par meter. So yeah..I get to do graphing!!

Actually kind of glad I did this..I found two immediate issues that this helped my identify.
1. My salinity levels were actually dropping for some unexplained reason. Turns out that GHA was blocking my baffle filter causing my ato to pump a little too much into the tank. Starting to level out the salinity. Thanks APEX!!
2. I put on a reciculating CO2 scrubber a few weeks ago. Turns out I didnt need it. I was getting PH approaching 8.5 (WOW). Turns out I was reading my salifert PH test wrong all this time and my PH was actually considered outstanding (yeah..i know..brag a little more why dont you).

Anyways...Got two orders on backlog

ASD: coming 2/23
BattleCorals: Coming end of april. Thanks Adam for holding until I get my tweaks in place!!

Anyway..gonna stay away from R2R a little. Been spending too much time here. I will keep this going as my log and update periodically.

 

[tbrown]

Just a couple of tank updates.

After talking with a few people on why I have been less than successful with my sps, I am going to be slowly raising my salinity from 1.024 to 1.025 (maybe 1.026). I am also going to try and bring my alk down from 10 to 8.5ish. Just cutting back on my kalk dosing to accommodate.

Over Christmas, I got a great deal on a new Kamoer FX STP2 continuous duty pump. As such, I am taking my kalk dosing from 75'ish ML 12 times a day to doing a 1ml a minute drop at the same levels.

Now that I have freed up one of my Kamoer blue tooths, I am going to separate out my fertlizer mix so that I can dose the sodium nitrate and trisodium phosphates separately. My Phosphates have been around .35 and my nitrates around 10. Good level on nitrates, a bit high on the phosphates. This will give me more control over my levels. Want to get phosphates down below 0.2.

And the biggest news...I got a used Apex controller and an Apex Par meter. So yeah..I get to do graphing!!

Actually kind of glad I did this..I found two immediate issues that this helped my identify.
1. My salinity levels were actually dropping for some unexplained reason. Turns out that GHA was blocking my baffle filter causing my ato to pump a little too much into the tank. Starting to level out the salinity. Thanks APEX!!
2. I put on a reciculating CO2 scrubber a few weeks ago. Turns out I didnt need it. I was getting PH approaching 8.5 (WOW). Turns out I was reading my salifert PH test wrong all this time and my PH was actually considered outstanding (yeah..i know..brag a little more why dont you).

Anyways...Got two orders on backlog

ASD: coming 2/23
BattleCorals: Coming end of april. Thanks Adam for holding until I get my tweaks in place!!

Anyway..gonna stay away from R2R a little. Been spending too much time here. I will keep this going as my log and update periodically.

Thanks for hanging out with me so much!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Sad day today.

Got my battlebox and looks like I am going to lose one if not two of them. BOOOOOO. They made it to the trip but I am seeing some medium tissue necrosis hitting so feel like it is inevitable.

Also, lost a black storm clown fish. Little guy just poofin disappeared on me.

Gonna go cry.