Matt's Elos 120xl

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choss said:
Matt I love Flame Hawks but have never owned one. Please post a pic when you have time. I'm curious if they play nice with smaller shrimp. Please let me know. I'm starting a list of potential fish for my tank and this one is near the top.
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Some pics for ya mate, I stalked him for about an hour to get some decent shots. My female clown has been chasing him a lot. Perhaps because he's a similar size, shape and colour? But its calmed down now. In fact i think the Hawk enjoyed the chase! He's still small, about an inch and a half long and full of character thats for sure.
Choss if you need info on flame hawks @Wrangy is the flame hawk guru for sure!
I haven't kept shrimp for a while, I've had peppermint and cleaners over the years and they never seem to last more than a year so I stopped buying them.

Wrangy said:
Yaayyy flamehawk :D :D Glad to hear the nitrate issue is becoming less of an issue! I can't wait to see some new shots of a nice clean tank too haha
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Haha I knew you'd love it! Im definitely happy the nitrates are dropping. The tank does look nice and clean but it looks equally as empty!


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Janci said:
Matt, tell us... how many did you go back that LFS now to get those nice acros you are hiding from us?
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@Janci sorry for the late response, the handful of acros I’ve tried over the last 6 months have all met the same fate. They all slowly fade away and die a slow death, some over a 4-8 week period.
I’ve just sent a sample off to triton for a test and am hoping for something to show up that makes it obvious what’s wrong.
 
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Mattres said:
@Janci sorry for the late response, the handful of acros I’ve tried over the last 6 months have all met the same fate. They all slowly fade away and die a slow death, some over a 4-8 week period.
I’ve just sent a sample off to triton for a test and am hoping for something to show up that makes it obvious what’s wrong.
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Janci said:
Sorry to hear.
Some tanks needs more time to get ready than other.
I hope the fish is doing alright.
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It's such a beautiful tank. I'm with Janci, hopefully it just needed time. ICP results will be interesting.
 
choss said:
Matt I hope you figure out what is going on and get some sticks growing. Will be interesting to get the triton results. Keep the amazing fish pics coming in the meantime.
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Thanks choss, has been incredibly frustrating for sure. I think the tank has been wet for around 15 months now, according to the many journals Ive read that have similar problems it should be coming to an age where luck starts to change.


HolisticBear said:
It's such a beautiful tank. I'm with Janci, hopefully it just needed time. ICP results will be interesting.
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Thanks mate, i'll post up the results when they come through.
 
Great system! Hope things turn around for you soon. Great pics too! Following...
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
The Triton test came in this morning and for the most part everything appears well.
The most glaring minor issues seem to be low iodine, slightly high molybdenum and a slightly raised potassium.
The raised potassium I presume would be from the potassium phosphate I had been dosing.
Not sure where molybdenum would come from so will look into that, interestingly Triton says this can lead to cyano and I do have some small patches that have resurfaced.
I had always thought my phosphate was quite low but always had doubt as even after dosing large amounts of phosphate I couldn’t get a reading.
I had hair algae show up about 3 weeks ago that actually made me a little excited as i haven’t really seen any significant algae growth other than diatoms in the tank since start up.
The phosphate reading of 0.018 is very low considering I’ve added 1.5ppm of phosphate through dosing over the past couple months. Don’t know where it’s going! Haha.
The biggest issue the test highlights though is Antimony. I have 30ug/l and the set point is 0.
Apparently Antimony gets in through plastic, mostly PET so not sure where it’s entering my tank.
There’s a thread here on R2R where Randy mentions he doesn’t know how much would be too much in a reef aquarium. Triton states it can be very dangerous to the aquarium.
I think I’ll have to get another test after quite a few water changes to determine if it’s entering through the tank or a source outside of the tank.
Don’t hold back any thoughts and comments!

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And unlikely source, but I would check all magnets with elevated molybdenum. To be fair, I doubt you'd have a bad rusting magnet without also elevated nickle or another metal too.

Glad the tank is doing well!
 
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HolisticBear said:
And unlikely source, but I would check all magnets with elevated molybdenum. To be fair, I doubt you'd you have a bad rusting magnet without also elevated nickle or another metal too.

Glad the tank is doing well!
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Thanks, I think the only magnet in the tank is in the Tunze care cleaner that appears fine. I agree if it was a rusty magnet there would be other elevated metals. I'll have a scope over everything regardless. I think @Janci had a rusty impeller on his RD3? so I'll check there as well.
I'm itching to add more corals to the tank but still not 100% confident. I've been keeping a close eye on my ricordea as a canary of sorts. It hasn't looked healthy for a long time, it's kinda in a permanent half split shriveled position.
 
I never heard of Antimony in a reef tank before.
Strange element as it is used in wide variety of applications, but not really one that is related to reefing.
I like the ATI ICP test as it includes a test for the rodi water. It can also be a direct source for such an unwanted metals.

An a side note, Sb has a resident time of 5,700 years... so waiting it out is probably not an option.
 
Janci said:
I never heard of Antimony in a reef tank before.
Strange element as it is used in wide variety of applications, but not really one that is related to reefing.
I like the ATI ICP test as it includes a test for the rodi water. It can also be a direct source for such an unwanted metals.

An a side note, Sb has a resident time of 5,700 years... so waiting it out is probably not an option.
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Yea I’ve read it’s in plastics and fire retardants. Both of which shouldn’t be in my tank haha. However I do remember back maybe 2 months ago the bracket that holds the level sensor for my ATO had something hanging off it. The bracket is acrylic but I must have left the protective coating on when I installed it and it had come off and floating in the current.
I can never be 100% sure if that’s where it came from but it’s the only source I can pinpoint.
I recently found a retailer for the ATI ICP and will probably try that next time.

I’ve recently started carbon dosing vinegar and will start the Aquaforest NP pro and Pro bio S system soon. I’ve always thought the tank has lacked something as the corals always slowly fade, like they have no food.
I hope that this will provide a bacteria biomas and help feed the corals. I don’t plan on running ULNS so will adjust dosing once nitrates hit about 5
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
See comments…

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