Acer new 150 build

[acer]

Good to know. But you are not keeping any Acros are you? I am pretty sure Acros do not do great with that high of PO4. But I guess it's all about balance between Alk/Ca/Mg and Po4/no3 and trace elements.

 

[vlangel]

Good to know. But you are not keeping any Acros are you? I am pretty sure Acros do not do great with that high of PO4. But I guess it's all about balance between Alk/Ca/Mg and Po4/no3 and trace elements.

That is correct Ted and I am curious about that myself. I have a few encusting SPS but no acros. After I get my nitrates down closer to 20-30 ppm and PO4 to .5-1 ppm I want to get some green slimer and birdsnest from Kevin at Reef Gallery to see if they can take the higher nutrients. The slimer may actually thrive but be kind of brown instead of the vibrant green. While I have the ponies, this tank will not have access to a skimmer. Once I hook this tank up to the sump with the skimmer I will have more control to lower nitrates and phosphates.

 

[acer]

Should be interesting. Not real panicked about the po4 number itself - more the doubling in 24 hours after a water change.

 

[acer]

After trying a few grocery store "Nori" products that the fish never touched I picked up Julian Sprung's Sea Veges yesterday at Reef Gallery. Must be yummy as even my pickiest eater us munching on it.

 

[acer]

Well, I guess we will find out about Acros and PO4/NO3 levels as I am going to the LEAR swap in 2 days and my PO4 is at .2 and my Nitrates are at 2 according to testing his evening. ALK is 7.70.

 

[vlangel]

Well, I guess we will find out about Acros and PO4/NO3 levels as I am going to the LEAR swap in 2 days and my PO4 is at .2 and my Nitrates are at 2 according to testing his evening. ALK is 7.70.

Dave and I hope to see you at LEAR.

 

[acer]

great - please post on the LEAR thread.

 

[acer]

Test results today

ALK ( Salifert)= 8.0
Ca+ ( Hanna)= 434
No3 ( red Sea)= 2-4. This concerns me greatly.
PO4( Hanna ultra) = .19
Mg+= 1290

This is before my scheduled 20 gallon water change which was postponed for a week due to having now power Sunday thru Wednesday .

 

[acer]

Ok viral guru's , thus is a birdsnest frag I picked up at LEAR. Looked grwtg fir the first week. Now look.

 

[acer]

Took that coral pictured above into Reef Gallery ( local store) who looked at it coral under microscope. etc. = no bugs - just necrosis. They tested my Alk = 8.0 and my Po3= .27 . Not worried about the No3 being 2-4 as that seems acceptable. Watched the tank for an hour last night - no fish picking on coral , but nipping at rock = normal. Maybe the Birdsnest ( picture) was having issues with necrosis ( maybe stress from new system- frag in tank less than 2 weeks) and got some algae on it and that is what made the fish nip- "bite marks". Still unsure of why I am losing SPS/acro corals - unbalanced Po4 to ALk levels has been suggested = I have lower Alk ( 8.0) but high Po4. Did read that the Zoas/palys, etc. can give off toxins that hurt other types of corals. So hmmm...

 

[acer]

After testing at LFS Thursday ..I replaced my GFO, retested po4 Friday and it went down to .15. so maybe reducing too quickly. So, I stopped using the Gfo for a day as the phosphate was dropping too fast. Retested po4 at 8 pm last night , 24 hours with no Gfo, an hour after feeding and it was .176. So, I restarted Gfo last night at midnight ...
Tests today 3:30 PM

Po4= 45= .138
ALK= 130= 7.28
Ca+ = 400
No3 = 4-8

So, guess I will stop running GFO again for a 24 hour period. 15-20 gallon water change today as well. Pic is the best I could do to show some polyp extension on a sps. Yeah!!

 

[acer]

Well lost another LEAR frag - see Pic 1
But my rainbow bubble anemone split.

So good and bad news. Testing later today . Have not got any word on the ATI test I sent in a week ago.

 

[acer]

I continue to loose LEAR frags ... they are slowly bleaching white . I cant get NO3 or PO4 down slowly. They continue to be way above my old levels : in the past week my parameters are: No3= 4-8, and PO4 =.132-.153, ALk= 8.0-8.3 DKH , Ca+ 400-410. SO guess I will just start doing 10-15 gallon water changes every other day - run both Carbon and GFO switching it out once a week, and go back to filter socks. Dose calcium chloride and soda ash or Kalkwasser solution to got to my old parameters. I figure I have already lost all the LEAR frags anyhow -so going slowly is a mute point now. Hopefully returning to Low No3 (under 1) and low Po4 ( under .1) and medium/high ALK (8-10) with ca+= 450 - which is what I always had good luck with until this past fall. I just cant figure out what changed so my No3/Po4 got so high and wont come down. If this does not produce results than I am out of sps/acros all together and will have a Zoa/LPS/fish/clams/etc. tank with no SPS as the frustration is now past tolerance levels.

 

[acer]

Tonight I put back in the two 7 inch filter socks that I decided were too much of a pain to keep cleaning 6 months ago and changed the media reactor from a GFO only to a dual GFO/ROX Carbon unit. Sundays is my normal 15-20 gallon water change schedule. So, just for giggles I tested my new mixed water = Fritz pro at 76 degrees , specific gravity of 1.026. And guess what- with the Hanna ultra phosphate it tested at 20 = .063 PPM, ALK was 8.5. So how can new salt mixed water have a .063 PO4?? My RODI TDS meter reads 1. Is it possible I got a bad batch of Fritz pro salt mix and that has been my issue this whole time? or maybe my Salt mixing station isn't so "food grade" after all. Or maybe the TDS sensor is bad on the RODI unit. This hobby is going to turn me grey...

 

[acer]

Well - didnt want to post , but all SPS besides a few monti's passed months ago. I gave up and just enjoyed the tank for the summer as is. I did sell my beautiful Angel as he was eating my Zoa's at a rate of a polyp per hour - yikes! So, to top off the frustration, while cleaning this AM , I bummed my Radion G3 Xr30 into the tank- yep - its fried. So , now looking for new light for 1/2 of my 5 foot long 150 gallon display tank. I cannot afford a new Radion so I guess Reefbreeders V24 , SB 18 wifi, or maybe these new Reef2Reef sponsers = Noopsyche. Opinions wanted.

 

[erk]

Euroquatics is selling off all its stock. You can get the 150W A1P for $125. I bought two for a future build and they are very well built and nice light blend.

 

[acer]

Well no warranty from a company I have never heard of makes me a bit nervous. That is a heck of a cheap price though. I wish I was more of a DIY person that new anythign about how to fix LED's , then I would indeed buy this light - even if its for emergency use only.

 

[vlangel]

Ted, your tank is still quite beautiful even without many SPS. Although there is excitement in keeping SPS, if the frustration mounts because they don't want to thrive in our tank then there is no shame in moving into corals that do thrive. After all, the endgame is to enjoy the tank, right. Anyway that is how I see it. LOL, there are not many SPS in my tank either!

 

[acer]

Thank you Dawn, Thats kinda where I am at - I like the LPS, Anemone's, fish, and my Zoas just fine. It is just kind of embarrising that I cant seem to keep the SPS corals that I really like on my new "uber" system when I was successfully keeping SPS in the past in systems not half as "good".

 

[acer]

Here is my tank using my refugium light as a temporary replacement of the fried Radion. It's just a bit Red fir my tastes ... Lol. Have a friend lending me a SB basic until I get a replacement light.