Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Aminos help them break down something's burning forget what. Science stuff. All I know is dosing Aminos 10-15 minutes prior to feeding made my SPS and LPS have PE and feeding tentacles extended for feeding more than without. May have been the same response just they were ready for feeding when the food hit rather than, "Oh, there goes the food. Maybe I should try to catch it.". Dinner bell?

This reminds me that I need to get some aminos, at least once I add to my LPS collection (SPS eventually too).

 

[tbrown]

Maybe I'll pick up some more. I think I missed the $3 ones on amazon though.

It doesn't seem like those $3 AminOmegas are as good as the plain Aminos. I haven't noticed the same feeding response and it's a much thicker concoction so it probably has significantly less aminos.

 

[Mschmidt]

It doesn't seem like those $3 AminOmegas are as good as the plain Aminos. I haven't noticed the same feeding response and it's a much thicker concoction so it probably has significantly less aminos.

So I didn't miss much.

 

[Fishy888]

It doesn't seem like those $3 AminOmegas are as good as the plain Aminos. I haven't noticed the same feeding response and it's a much thicker concoction so it probably has significantly less aminos.

Good to know. I’ll avoid them like the plague.

 

[tbrown]

So I didn't miss much.

Good to know. I’ll avoid them like the plague.

They're still beneficial. I prefer the response from Brightwell CoralAmino though.

 

[Fishy888]

Still looking around for a box that isn't way too big or too small.

That’s cool. I appreciate you helping me out. Besides I need to look for good deals on DI resin and other media.

 

[Mschmidt]

They're still beneficial. I prefer the response from Brightwell CoralAmino though.

I'll pick some more up for the new tank. Do they throw your nutrients out of wack?

 

[tbrown]

I'll pick some more up for the new tank. Do they throw your nutrients out of wack?

Not that I noticed.

 

[Fishy888]

I took some pictures of coralline growth Tuesday and today. There is noticeable progress in just that little bit of time. Here’s Tuesday night.

Here’s today’s picture.

I also took a picture of a snail shell that’s going on six months old now. It too has a ton of new coralline growth.

You can really see the fresh white calcium carbonate margins. It’s got a nice purplish pink color. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

My new reagents don’t get here until the 23rd so I won’t be able to test each day. I'm going to test the water tonight though since I started my LaCl drip earlier today. It’s still ongoing but should be done in another hour or so. After tonight’s test I’ll have one more test until the new reagents get here. There might be a big snowstorm later this week. Hopefully they’ll be able to get to our mailbox assuming the storm really materializes.

Edit: I tested the water and got 15 ppb so 0.046 ppm phosphates. That was after I fed the tank a little frozen food and some pellets earlier today.

 

[Fishy888]

As I looked at my sand bed tonight I had a thought. Perhaps the water I got from Kroger was a main cause of my phosphates more than doubling a few days ago. The cyano on the sand bed is dying off and the last pockets of nuisance algae are dying off as well. It’s not dying overnight but as it dies it’ll release its nitrates and phosphates to the water column. It’s also dying out in the sump which is impressive (at least to me lol) considering the two grow lights on it. They’re much stronger than my T5s.

I got some distilled water today to use for dosing phosphate-e and topping off. I’m going to try dosing minute amounts of it on a constant basis. Of course I have to test daily and dial in the right amount, revising it as I get more coral and if I make other changes that could effect phosphate production and consumption.

It’s looking like near blizzard to blizzard conditions are expected here Thursday into early Friday morning although that still could change. I’ll be able to get more distilled water this week but if the system is as bad as it looks like I’ll have to get about 5 gallons because we’ll be snowed in. I have everything else I need though. We have an assisted living facility close by that’s on backup power and our apartment complex is likely on that system too since we have yet to lose power for more than 5 or 10 minutes even in bad ice storms.

 

[tbrown]

As I looked at my sand bed tonight I had a thought. Perhaps the water I got from Kroger was a main cause of my phosphates more than doubling a few days ago. The cyano on the sand bed is dying off and the last pockets of nuisance algae are dying off as well. It’s not dying overnight but as it dies it’ll release its nitrates and phosphates to the water column. It’s also dying out in the sump which is impressive (at least to me lol) considering the two grow lights on it. They’re much stronger than my T5s.

I got some distilled water today to use for dosing phosphate-e and topping off. I’m going to try dosing minute amounts of it on a constant basis. Of course I have to test daily and dial in the right amount, revising it as I get more coral and if I make other changes that could effect phosphate production and consumption.

It’s looking like near blizzard to blizzard conditions are expected here Thursday into early Friday morning although that still could change. I’ll be able to get more distilled water this week but if the system is as bad as it looks like I’ll have to get about 5 gallons because we’ll be snowed in. I have everything else I need though. We have an assisted living facility close by that’s on backup power and our apartment complex is likely on that system too since we have yet to lose power for more than 5 or 10 minutes even in bad ice storms.

I can't even get my phosphates to register yet... My algae is dying off, my alk is slowly creeping up, almost 10, and with no phosphates one of my Milles just started STN from the tips. Stupid tip burn. I added some Calcium and magnesium hoping to bring the Alk down some.

 

[Fishy888]

I can't even get my phosphates to register yet... My algae is dying off, my alk is slowly creeping up, almost 10, and with no phosphates one of my Milles just started STN from the tips. Stupid tip burn. I added some Calcium and magnesium hoping to bring the Alk down some.

I have that problem with nitrates. Can’t buy them in my system.

 

[Mschmidt]

So I know I post walls of text here. I realize I'm Mr. TLDR. The thing is I like to document as much as possible but sometimes I get caught up in minutiae.

I really need to figure out how to get more people following my build. I’m hoping that anyone following me could give me some constructive criticism and tips.

I’m also going to try to compress my ideas so there’s no crushing wall of text.

Thank you to everyone who follows my build. I appreciate it.

Hey look, I caught up!

 

[Fishy888]

Hey look, I caught up!

I need to catch up on your build thread as well as many others. I’m going to work on that today.

 

[Mschmidt]

I need to catch up on your build thread as well as many others. I’m going to work on that today.

I think I've read most of mine.

 

[tbrown]

I need to catch up on your build thread as well as many others. I’m going to work on that today.

Don't try to catch up on mine.... Long and not a lot of pictures.

 

[Fishy888]

I got my reagents today. They weren’t supposed to come until Thursday but I’m not complaining. I tested the water today. I got a reading of 7ppb phosphorus. This translates to 0.021 ppm phosphates. Even more cyano has died off since yesterday and I’ve been feeding the system like I usually do.

I’m surprised at the drop in phosphates. There’s been no dosing of LaCl since Friday. Even after that dose I was still at 13 ppb phosphorus. I’ll definitely be watching trends but

I need to clean the glass for the first time in a week. I’m still getting the green micro algae. I still have some diatoms from when I moved the tank but they’re fizzling out. My coralline is still doing well.

 

[Fishy888]

We’ll look at who’s still alive and kicking.

I’m going to let it clean up as much it can off the sides and I’ll eventually let it loose in the sump. It’s bare bottom so it’ll have something to grip and to browse on even if it keeps losing its grip on the sides.

 

[Fishy888]

Today’s phosphorus reading is 6 ppb so 0.018 ppm phosphates. I fed only frozen food yesterday and I even target fed my duncans. I fed pellets after the test tonight. I’ll have to see if that raises my phosphates any.

The snail has not fallen off the glass since I placed it there last night. I think it’s getting it’s strength back. I cleaned two panes off today but left two sides alone so it would have something to eat.

Speaking of algae I’m going to take a few comparison pictures of my coralline algae growth later on. My biggest hermit crab decided to try on the shell that has coralline on it as well as the rock in my comparison photos. After I straighten them out I’ll take the pictures. The lights are going down over Perseverance Reef so I’ll take pictures tomorrow of the coralline.

The snail just came around to the front glass so I just took this picture of it.

 

[Fishy888]

Last night I fed pellets to the denizens of the deep. My phosphorus was 6 ppb or 0.018 ppm phosphates. I just tested the water and got 46 ppb phosphorus which equals 0.141 phosphates. I knew the pellets would raise phosphates but wowsa! I only fed what they could consume in 30 seconds. I’m going to run some LaCl tonight to get the phosphates down. I won’t be feeding pellets as much so the phosphates don’t swing like this. The fact that I cleaned the glass might have contributed to the higher phosphates.

The snail has held on the glass for almost 48 hours now. It’s eating well. I think we’ve turned the corner on this one.

All the animals are doing well. My corals are growing slowly but they’re growing.