7.4G Peninsula SPS Dominated Build

MONTANTK · Jan 25, 2021

Unfortunately, as quickly as things seemed to be going very well, they have declined. About a week ago I switched my pump out for the stock pump which offers about 33% less output. Still 100gph. I also missed a few days of feeding and nitrates climbed to about 16ppm and Po4 stayed at 0 which I thought was odd. My SPS began to pale and bleach and I can’t figure out why. I also noticed my flatworm population increasing but they appear to be harmless. My first step has been to blow the diatoms off the affected corals and feed a little more while stopping my dosage of acropower and dry phyto. Doing this in an attempt to raise Po4 and hopefully get my corals back to normal.

MONTANTK · Jan 26, 2021

So after a lot of thinking, I have attributed the recent issue to alk burn. It’s currently sitting around 9.3 but for the past couple of weeks I had noticed rapid growth in some corals but the flesh could not keep up. I had a spike it nitrates which caused them to jump to 16ppm which resulted in algae growing on the tips. I’m going to slowly lower my alk down to the low 8’s while also try and reduce my nitrate to <10 while attempting to raise Po4 to ~.02ppm

MONTANTK · Jan 28, 2021

Well I’m sad to say the tank has officially crashed. Going to pull out a few pieces tomorrow. All in I’ll probably lose 60-70% of my acros by the time this is over. The plan is to stabilize all of my parameters and begin dosing Po4. Once the parameters are stable I will begin adding again.

In the meantime I am also going to begin saving up some money for an upgrade. I feel that an increase in water volume will make things a little more manageable.

I’m very beat down by the losses but I fully understand why it happened and it is definitely a learning experience. Looking forward to stocking the tank in the future

MONTANTK · Feb 2, 2021

So as of today I started dosing phosphorus to my system. Po4 still shows at at 0.00 and No3 remains steady around 12-16. Lost just about all of my acros. Starting to see some improvement in one of my monti frags but my two surviving acros aren’t doing so great. Noticing some bubble algae popping up as well which is making me nervous.

For a few days I did contemplate switching to an LPS tank but my scape is just not setup well for it. I am going to continue dosing phosphorus and then late this week or sometime next week I will add a few test pieces. My hope is that they will begin to out compete the algae.

MONTANTK · Feb 17, 2021

Dinos have quickly taken over the tank. Seems to be stemming from poor surface agitation and water not circulating through the overflow properly. I plan to to make some changes to my powerhead placement as well as my lighting placement. Also contemplating changing up my aquascape.

I am currently building a new stand which I hope will be completed in the next couple of weeks. I made the stand a little bigger so I can accommodate up to an IM 14g peninsula should I chose to upgrade.

MONTANTK · Feb 22, 2021

Wow have things changed! So knock on wood it seems like I have gotten dinos under control although they don’t seem to be fully gone. Finally got Po4 up to .08ppm, however nitrates are up around 100ppm. Going to do a water change tonight to try and bring them down but overall the corals seem to be doing better.

Because of how powerful the Nero 3 is, and combined with the fact I wasn’t getting much surface movement, I decided to change my scape. I was able to create more room for zoas, some euphyllia, and maybe some acans. The back scape is going to be for SPS but I am still a couple of months away from adding any. I also moved the Nero 3 to the opposite side of the tank which I felt made a huge difference!

So what’s next? Well, I plan on screwing together my stand this weekend and putting the trim on. I’m going to try and maintain Po4 where it’s at while reducing nitrate to around 20ppm. My goal is to have the tank transferred onto the new stand by the end of March. I’m looking forward to being able to add some coral again!

MONTANTK · Mar 1, 2021

Knock on wood I may have eradicated my Dino issue. I raised the temperature to 84°, dosed peroxide twice, and did a 3 day black out all at the same time and so far I don’t see any evidence of Dinos. My zoas look the best they have in weeks. Fingers crossed they don’t come back

MONTANTK · Mar 18, 2021

After much consideration I have decided to break down this tank and begin a new build. Ultimately the dinos won this battle. My new tank will be a WB 25 Peninsula and I will be starting a new thread later today. I’ll be ordering the tank in the next week or so once my stand is almost finished

eag · Mar 20, 2021

Oh no

. Dinos are tough... I feel like the toughest part is how many different kinds there are, each with different properties and causes.

Good luck on your next build.

MONTANTK · Mar 20, 2021

eag said:
Oh no . Dinos are tough... I feel like the toughest part is how many different kinds there are, each with different properties and causes.

Good luck on your next build.

It was a blessing and a curse. I ordered a microscope but it required some sketchy Chinese software so I returned it. Happy I’m upgrading for numerous reasons. Last resort is trying some phyto which should arrive Monday but either way I’m still upgrading. This tank has really been a challenge for me which kind of threw me off guard since I’ve had 4-5 different nano tanks