ok update time. For starters I want to give a big shout out to
@Rakie . We've beeen talking a lot back and forth via PM and he's given me the kick in the bum I needed to actually do things like get my dosers setup to stabilize my tank...etc.
So where to start, ah yes, the kitchen. "ALL" that's left to do is finish getting the grout residue off the tiles, finish the trimwork and start bringing everything back in. We're waiting on granite countertops which take 2-4 weeks after cabinet install so backsplash will come after that, but here is where we're at so far.
So far the DOS is working pretty well as are the DDR containers. I will admit some frustrations as I've gotten like a million micro bubbles which developed after about 48 hours, but I don't have any real major air bubbles so maybe the ATI solutions do some gassing off after they are initially mixed? I have 2 corals which survived from my last Aqua SD shipment. Everything else sloughed off most of it's tissue in 1 day then the next day was bone white. These two were a little slower and since putting the dosers online they seem to have stabilized, so they may actually recover!
I did send out an ICP test last Friday, so should get those results sometime next week.
For this next part I blame
@GoVols . I had run ATO 1 time previously and it bottomed out my phosphates completely. I don't generally ever check nutrients, but after running this GFO combined with the Purigen I could tell my nutrients were off based on my nem and fuge reaction. I cut the water to the GFO reactor a few days ago and had to order in a new nitrate test kit.
I decided to try both the Nyos kit and got a new Red Sea kit. I will say the Nyos kit was much simpler to use, however for very low Nitrates it's not extremely useful. After testing with both, the Nyos showed my Nitrates at just below 1 ppm, and the Red Sea put them at ~1.5ppm. Hence I'm going to believe the Red Sea kit. Does anybody make a kit that graduates Nitrates in like half ppm graduations from 0-5ppm? I did order some Sodium Nitrate and will make some solution up when that arrives next week. I'd prefer these to be between 3-5ppm
After that was the one I was dreading, a phosphates test. For this I use the Hanna ULR checker and I was able to confirm my suspicions, 0ppb yes ppB. My phosphates have completely bottomed out. As a corrective measure I went ahead and added about a full teaspoon worth of reef chili for the time being. I have some Seachem Phosphorus which will be here Saturday and I plan to dose up to .1ppm to start.
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Now I was planning on waiting until after I got everything dosed up to try another 10 pack from AquaSD, but they ran a 30% off sale this week so 10 frags for $70, yeah... Got those in today. As usual I have no idea what anything is other than the birdsnest. Since I know they always send a freebie I asked for just a small piece of regular red monti cap. Of coarse it was the only thing that didn't ship well, but it was a freebie so I can't complain. Some of the frag sizes are really silly large. I have a couple that are 3/4" and 1" but I also have a handful that are 2"-3.5". Definitely a very generous shipment. Especially at $7 a frag.
Sorry for the bad pictures, nothing but the blues were on. Also of note I gave $5 for the stylo specifically, it wasn't a "cheap throw in" there are 10 others there plus 1 hanging on from last shipment and the 1 red monti cap.
