Hermie's 23 Gallon Nano Build

Hermie · Mar 5, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

~7 dKH (just under)

The Kalkwasser kicks on at 10PM, then again once more before 9AM for a third time, so I think the alkalinity is pretty well balanced right now. I want to raise it just a tad, maybe 0.5 dKH or 1dKH but I'll leave it alone for now and test again tomorrow in the afternoon. I'm mainly concerned about the alkalinity during the high light period which starts at 11AM.

Hermie · Mar 6, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

~7.0 dKH, just under

I dosed manually 10ml of b-ionic alkalinity after testing dKH.

I'm beginning to plan to start dosing either 2 part or all for reef in the next few weeks because I believe I'm maxed out on kalkwasser right now. The alkalinity just won't get above 7.5 consistently and I think I have enough corals growing now to justify the cost of a dosing pump+supplements.

Hermie · Mar 7, 2021

Just Tested (4PM)

Alkalinity:

just over 7 dKH

In response, I dosed 5mL b-ionic alkalinity and increased the kalk dosing schedule for 20 minutes at 4PM each day.

Current kalk schedule:

9 AM - 40 min
4 PM - 20 min
10 PM - 20 min
4 AM - 20 min

I'm not sure of the dosage rate but I know its very low, something around 10ml per minute. I need to test it just to be sure.

At this point I'm pushing the limits of evaporation. I need to start monitoring the sump level as well.

Hermie · Mar 21, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

just over 7 dKH

My salinity is low right now, around 33.5ppt/34ppt but my sump has excess water in it, so once that water evaporates I'm going to be adding a gallon of 35ppt water above the ATO line to the sump; that should give me around 150grams of salt added to the system which will, once the water level stabilizes again through evaporation, bring me back up closer to 35ppt.

I've almost completed the 15 gallon sump; so that's my next big install.
I also have some lighting changes I'm going to be making.
I've added a Tunze 6040 to the left side of the tank on pulse mode very low settings. It aims at the water surface to effect it's wavemaker ability.

I'm hoping to take some photos soon... Lots of changes recently.

Hermie · Mar 30, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

just over 7 dKH

Hermie · Apr 19, 2021

Just Tested

Magnesium (salifert):

1320ppm

First time testing Magnesium ever (in 2 years) and the levels are good, with water change of Reef Crystals it will go up some.

Hermie · May 14, 2021

Started carbon dosing (vinegar) today based on the ratio the guy with the 20,000 gallon tank uses.

Adding 25mL vinegar to 3 gallons of kalkwasser (fully saturated). The tank will get somewhere around 1mL per day in conjunction with the kalk dosing.

I'm trying to get lower nuisance algae. The rocks stay clean where there is no hair algae, but there are places where the snails cannot access inside the rocks which grow hair algae.

Started dosing carbo calcium a few days ago:

About 20mL per day, dosed twice per day.

Last I checked, a few days ago, the alkalinity was 7 dKH.

Hermie · May 15, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

7.5 dKH

Good news!

Hermie · May 19, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

Just under 8 dKH

Great

Hermie · May 19, 2021

Did an 8 gallon water change and rescaped some of the corals.

A few of the encrusters are now in their final places for the rockwork. I'll have to get some photos soon.

Hermie · May 20, 2021

Hermie · May 20, 2021

Hermie · May 20, 2021

Hermie · May 21, 2021

Note: doser doses kalk at 7.69mL per minute.

Hermie · May 23, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

just under 9 dKH

If I measure alk anywhere above 9 in the next few days I'll scale back either the kalkwasser or the carbo calcium.

Hermie · May 25, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

9.5 dKH

In response, I've lowered the kalkwasser and carbo-calcium dosing times by ~30 minutes and 3 minutes respectively. Both dose about 1ml per minute.
I'll continue monitoring alkalinity during the daytime period and adjust dosing to keep the alkalinity below 10 and aiming for 8 dKH.

Hermie · May 27, 2021

Just Tested

Alkalinity:

9.5 dKH

In response, I marginally lowered kalk and carbo calcium dosing again. 20 minutes less of dosing for kalk and 2 minutes less for carbo calcium.

Looking at Tuesday's alk reading, I'm happy that at least I didn't measure over 10 dKH.

I noticed today the oldest Monti Spongodes tissue having problems. Kind of peeling away/disintegrating, but not in an alarming fashion. It's happened before when I had a sps crash, so I'm thinking it could be the alk levels getting too high. It could also be the side effect carbon dosing where nutrient levels are getting too low and bacterial population is looking for another food source... but that's just a hypothesis.