Mattgsa 315 gallon build

GBRsouth · Dec 15, 2021

I'd do the maths on reducing the phosphate and just bring it down 0.01 per week. Now that you are controlling it there is no rush and will help avoid overshooting the mark for where you want it to stabilise.

mattgsa · Dec 15, 2021

GBRsouth said:
I'd do the maths on reducing the phosphate and just bring it down 0.01 per week. Now that you are controlling it there is no rush and will help avoid overshooting the mark for where you want it to stabilise.

I like your idea. I'm still working out the math. My last dose only brought the tank down .03. I think I'm fighting the Calcium reactor which is adding phosphates. I'm going to keep a closer eye on them.

mattgsa · Dec 15, 2021

My 7-year-old son now wants his own aquarium for Christmas. He started off wanting a Beta fish, but now he wants Nemo and Dory. I'm not ready to go that far for him yet. So we are going to get him a Beta tank and see how he does. He does spend a great deal of time staring at my tank and helping feed the fish.

Speaking of Christmas, the wife is after me to decorate the house. I think the blue is great for the holidays, I just don't think that she agrees.

ScottB · Dec 15, 2021

mattgsa said:
My 7-year-old son now wants his own aquarium for Christmas. He started off wanting a Beta fish, but now he wants Nemo and Dory. I'm not ready to go that far for him yet. So we are going to get him a Beta tank and see how he does. He does spend a great deal of time staring at my tank and helping feed the fish.

Speaking of Christmas, the wife is after me to decorate the house. I think the blue is great for the holidays, I just don't think that she agrees.

Clearly you are growing weed in there. (Or should be).

Hope that is legal in Bexar county!

mattgsa · Dec 16, 2021

ScottB said:
Clearly you are growing weed in there. (Or should be).

Hope that is legal in Bexar county!

So far no law enforcement has stopped by to check it out. But I'm looking forward to that day.

mattgsa · Dec 16, 2021

Got some new corals, the JG Yellow looks great, the CB Blue tort for some unknown reason turned mostly white overnight. Sorry, the iPhone just does not take good picks of corals, I'm not sure what the trick is. I have all the different filters and everything but still no luck.

GBRsouth · Dec 17, 2021

Increase the white to blue balance of your lights during photography and you will get better results. Cameras just aren't designed for such a high level of blue light.

mattgsa · Dec 20, 2021

Sorry, nothing new to report the tank is just humming along. The corals all look the same, I just wish they would start growing more. It seems like I will have nothing but frags for the rest of my life. Have I stated before that I'm an impatient person? LOL

Actually, I was watching YouTube today, and I watched Ryan and Randy go over Alk and PH, and they were stating that if your tank is around 7.8 that the coral would have a hard time growing. Well, my tank is constantly around 7.8 to 8.0, and the corals don't appear to be growing at all. Perhaps they have a point. I have never had good luck chasing PH, it tends to create more problems than it solves with me.

ScottB · Dec 21, 2021

mattgsa said:
Sorry, nothing new to report the tank is just humming along. The corals all look the same, I just wish they would start growing more. It seems like I will have nothing but frags for the rest of my life. Have I stated before that I'm an impatient person? LOL

Actually, I was watching YouTube today, and I watched Ryan and Randy go over Alk and PH, and they were stating that if your tank is around 7.8 that the coral would have a hard time growing. Well, my tank is constantly around 7.8 to 8.0, and the corals don't appear to be growing at all. Perhaps they have a point. I have never had good luck chasing PH, it tends to create more problems than it solves with me.

I am pretty happy with my APEX driven kalkwasser dosing setup. Super easy to maintain. Every couple weeks I just dump a cup of calcium hydroxide into the stirrer. 8.25 to 8.4 all the time. Had the added benefit of cutting my two-part dosing in half. I can go almost a week now without needing to refill my dosing jugs.

mattgsa · Dec 21, 2021

ScottB said:
I am pretty happy with my APEX driven kalkwasser dosing setup. Super easy to maintain. Every couple weeks I just dump a cup of calcium hydroxide into the stirrer. 8.25 to 8.4 all the time. Had the added benefit of cutting my two-part dosing in half. I can go almost a week now without needing to refill my dosing jugs.

That weird; when I was dosing Kalk, I upped and upped the dose to the point that it started to overflow the sump, and I still could not get it to keep up with the alk demand. I don't understand since there were almost no corals in the tank.

ScottB · Dec 21, 2021

mattgsa said:
That weird; when I was dosing Kalk, I upped and upped the dose to the point that it started to overflow the sump, and I still could not get it to keep up with the alk demand. I don't understand since there were almost no corals in the tank.

That is strange. I have a lot of evaporation, so 3.6 liters per day is nothing in a 300g system.

I dose ESV 2 part. Before I was dosing 240ml of each and now down to 120 or so.

mattgsa · Jan 5, 2022

Well, the corals are looking OK today, however, I tested po4 at it was at .53. I'm not sure how that happened so quickly. So I dosed some po4-e. I will test again tomorrow and test again. If I understand it corals don't really care about swings in po4, just as long as there are some in the tank for them to use.

mattgsa · Jan 7, 2022

Well, the tank is looking really good. The Coraline algae is growing out of control. I'm the po4 came down to .08. There were some green algae starting to grow on the glass on the bottom of the tank, and it is now gone. I just hope the tank continues to improve.

GBRsouth · Jan 7, 2022

Your tank is on it's way to maturity now Matt. Now just keep it stable and corals will take off.

mattgsa · Jan 7, 2022

GBRsouth said:
Your tank is on it's way to maturity now Matt. Now just keep it stable and corals will take off.

Thank you, I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of adding more corals to the tank, and expecting them to live. Today I increased the flow of the reactor to 11.3 ML's a minute from 8.1.

mattgsa · Jan 15, 2022

Well, we just got back from a week-long Disney cruise. We had a great time, and no one got sick. I signed up to go diving in Cozumel but I was the only diver that signed up, thus, the trip was canceled.
It was hard leaving the tank knowing that I would be out of reach or sight of the tank for a week. I left it under the care of my brother in law who knows nothing about keeping a reef tank. The good news is I came back to everything living and looking great. The corals even showed signs of growth.

ScottB · Jan 16, 2022

mattgsa said:
Well, we just got back from a week-long Disney cruise. We had a great time, and no one got sick. I signed up to go diving in Cozumel but I was the only diver that signed up, thus, the trip was canceled.
It was hard leaving the tank knowing that I would be out of reach or sight of the tank for a week. I left it under the care of my brother in law who knows nothing about keeping a reef tank. The good news is I came back to everything living and looking great. The corals even showed signs of growth.

I always have an element of dread when leaving. Fortunately, I have an awesome caretaker who accepts acro frags in trade for his oversight on the systems. That and APEX and it keeps me sane and almost relaxed.

cmaxwell39 · Jan 16, 2022

Glad you had a good time with the family Bummer that you didn't get to go diving.

Also really glad that there were no mishaps with the tank while you were gone. In a previous post you hinted at adding more corals. Any immediate plans in that direction?

mattgsa · Jan 16, 2022

ScottB said:
I always have an element of dread when leaving. Fortunately, I have an awesome caretaker who accepts acro frags in trade for his oversight on the systems. That and APEX and it keeps me sane and almost relaxed.

You and both, even worse I had no internet or phone for a week, I couldn't check on it even if I wanted to. I really need to find a tank sitter here in town.

cmaxwell39 said:
Glad you had a good time with the family Bummer that you didn't get to go diving.

Also really glad that there were no mishaps with the tank while you were gone. In a previous post you hinted at adding more corals. Any immediate plans in that direction?

Yes, I'm saving up to make another trip to see @FarmerTy. Due to other priorities, my budget for the tank has been dramatically reduced. So things are not moving nearly as fast as I would like them to. I'm hoping that will change in the future.

mattgsa · Jan 17, 2022

Look what I found again. I'm really glad they don't move very fast, but I'm worried about how many are still in the tank.

I'm also getting this funny hair algae that I don't know what to do with. I treated the tank with Fluconazole but the corals didn't seem to like it and I lot some. I'm not sure I want to go down that road again. I was thinking about getting a lawnmower blenny. sorry I know it's a bad picture. I still have not figured out how to take decent picture with this Iphone