55 gallon reef re-entry

docforestal · May 17, 2023

a few more corals in today from @Coral Euphoria - well packaged, came in quick and look great

docforestal · May 18, 2023

So I used some epoxy putty I got from (don’t remember) , worked better than the last stuff but my skimmer so far is foaming 10 cups full ,starting to slow down, turning skimmer off overnight didn’t help, so I have to ride it out. Slow way to do a water change but makes me not want to use this stuff again.
I only used this as I can’t find the superglue

docforestal · May 20, 2023

bit frustrated - hair algae continues to grow - up until today phosphates were down to 0.08 and nitrates to 8
chaeto reactor filled in 1 week and i took out 2 cups of solid chaeto
during maint. i picked clean a lot of air algae, scrubbed a lot off with toothbrush, scraped edges of aquarium
did a 5 gallon wc
phosphates now 0.35 and nitrates 15 - highest in a long time - guessing as i stirred up stuff a lot with cleaning
hair algae is winning
corals look ok other than the pavona i hit with turkey baster to clear of algae and i think i destroyed some polyps from the flow

have coralline starting to cover everything , dosing 2x week calcium as needed (need about every 2 weeks) and alk - need weekly - mg stays up)
salinity and ph remain stable - ph 8.1 in am to 8.3 in afternoon
down day feeling it wont get better - im hoping if i can get corals to grow, this will also help out compete hair algae -
i am also feeding the fish less and just what they need (or a little more - but much less than before)

Subsea · May 20, 2023

At 5 months set up, your tank is maturing well. You are correct with your corals will compete with GHA. However, you need more janitors in your clean up crew.

Why are you fishless? Algae Blennie & Tangs would serve you well at this time.

Clean Up Crew: Assorted Hermits, Blue Legs, Florida Ceriths, Chitons, Turbograzers, Sea Hares, Conchs, Emerald Crabs, Urchins and a few others. It is readily accepted by many herbivores, but because it grows quickly it may persist even in a tank with a fair amount of cleaners.

docforestal · May 21, 2023

I have a dozen hermits dozen cerith and a dozen other snails, although I suspect the hermits may be picking them off.I have two pencil urchins that seem to keep to the back.I had 3 emeralds but only one left. I have a bristletooth tang and a lawnmower blenny, along with file fish, solarensis wrasse, yellow citron and green clown blenny
I should get a update on CUC though

docforestal · May 21, 2023

Decided to go all out and took all rock out and scrubbed and rinsed in RO - used up a toothbrush in the process. New scape and stressed fish to boot . hope it helps by doing massive nutrient removal. - Looks nice so far.

docforestal · May 24, 2023

Likely no one following so might post separate, So I am seeing hair algae return, chaeto is growing like crazy, I have decided to turn down lights to blue and white only at 10% , remove frags and put in a rack up high in my 10 gallon with an extra light, hoping par is ok to keep them going, and this will be enough and last resort is fluconazole which I would rather avoid.
I have a robust CUC,and dropping nutrient levels but my issue was having lights on bright from the beginning and way over feeding
I have dialed in my feeding, and plan to set my pumps up today so I can put them in feeding mode, they will eat better without having to fill the tank (dumb , should have done this before)
I know if I use fluconazole it will kill and release phosphate, nitrates, but am going to read more about it

docforestal · May 26, 2023

thought i would post a little about one of my fish species:

docforestal · May 28, 2023

running the tank dim and keeping the frags in teh 10 gallon, hoping the hair algae stays away
Should i put the frags back, keep exporting nutrients and hope the coral and coralline takes over or leave lights down for weeks to try and fix the issue - with lights out my phosphates and nitrates have gone up significantly - i am guessing as dead hair algae releasing into the tank

docforestal · Jun 5, 2023

Making progress with the hair algae as the few coral frags are starting to sort of grow at the bases; chaeto reactor doing ok pulling out a couple cups of algae a week. With new salt hw marinemix - alk more stable now 8.6-9.2 with supplement, calcium 430-440, mg 1350; just supplement alk as needed which is now about 0.15 per day loss, so gonna start baby steps to dosing kalk to also help boost pH particularly at night - 7.9-8.3 is the range now.