Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

It looks like I’m getting a polyp or two of orange oxides towards the weekend. Everything looks great currently. I’ll do another phosphorus test later today.

My Orange Oxides we're my favorite until they melted. I had such a hard time with Zoas in my first two tanks. This current tank seems to like them ok. I just bought a $3 frag today!

 

[tbrown]

Not Orange Oxides. Not sure what they are. Mixed frag.

 

[Fishy888]

I notice that cyano is coming back a bit today. In a few days the ultimate cyano killer will be on its way. Flow. Lots of it. 4500 GPH worth.

In the meantime I learned a lesson tonight. I Don’t let the reagent sit in the couvette without immediately shaking it or it’ll throw the test way off. I got 93 ppb phosphorus which is 0.279 ppm phosphates. I redid the test the way I normally do. This time I got 12 ppb phosphorus or 0.036 ppm phosphates. That makes more sense. I’m going to let my levels come up a bit so no dosing tonight. If all goes well I’ll be back to 0.070 ppm in two days.

Even though cyano came back a bit it’s not that bad. I get to order my Jebao scp-120 wireless. Then it should be gone.

 

[Fishy888]

Not Orange Oxides. Not sure what they are. Mixed frag.

They look good though.

 

[Fishy888]

Today my phosphorus test yielded 7 ppb or 0.021 ppm phosphates. I haven’t done a LaCl drip in two days in an effort to bring my phosphates into the 0.07 to 0.10 ppm range. My chaeto may be taking it up. Like I said earlier there’s a bit more cyano than there was when I stopped the phosphate-e. I don’t see any difference on the rocks algae wise. Tonight I will feed some pellets, maybe a bit more than usual.

I took some new pictures of the snail shell I’ve been using as a coralline barometer of sorts. Here’s a picture from a couple of hours ago.

This is the picture of the coralline I’ve been posting pictures of. I had to reposition the shell. Thanks hermits!

This coralline is from the cone on the opposite side of the shell. If the hermits leave it alone long enough I’ll be taking comparison pictures with the shell in its current position.

The little snail that could (and almost didn’t), I’m glad it’s alive. It had a lot of coralline when I got it but you can see all the new growth. Some of it is growing over other coralline.

I still want to devise a system where I use LaCl to keep me fairly close to the 0.07 to 0.1 range. I don’t want to chase numbers but I don’t want coral to stop growing. My idea is to deliver far less amounts of it than I was dosing it at and to drip the diluted amount slower than before so there aren’t any big swings. If things go like they are currently I might never have to dose again lol.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Real talk, I've never seen someone so stoked about a Coraline spot! In a few months you're going to be scraping the glass and four days later, focus your eyes and realize it's all coming back already and start cussing at it because your shoulder is still sore from the last round.

That may just be me tho.

Stoned thinking out loud. Have you considered instead of Actively needing to dose a po4 lowering agent, you may be able to remove that entire process (lowering maintenance and $ and adding stability) by simply relying on photoperiod of your fuge light or maybe a passive carbon gfo mix?

 

[tbrown]

Real talk, I've never seen someone so stoked about a Coraline spot! In a few months you're going to be scraping the glass and four days later, focus your eyes and realize it's all coming back already and start cussing at it because your shoulder is still sore from the last round.

That may just be me tho.

Two urchins and I see two spots on the back glass. It never would grow in my 75 but it was everywhere in the 5.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Two urchins and I see two spots on the back glass. It never would grow in my 75 but it was everywhere in the 5.

Whenever my alk usage gets silly compared to coral growth, I will scrape the glass in the frag tank and it takes like 20% usage away.

 

[Fishy888]

Real talk, I've never seen someone so stoked about a Coraline spot! In a few months you're going to be scraping the glass and four days later, focus your eyes and realize it's all coming back already and start cussing at it because your shoulder is still sore from the last round.

That may just be me tho.

Stoned thinking out loud. Have you considered instead of Actively needing to dose a po4 lowering agent, you may be able to remove that entire process (lowering maintenance and $ and adding stability) by simply relying on photoperiod of your fuge light or maybe a passive carbon gfo mix?

Lol yeah I’m pretty excited since this is the first time I have coralline growth to speak of. I get your point though. I tend to laser focus on things as you can see. I’ll work on that too.

I have considered GFO but it’s more expensive in the long run and I’ve read that it gets used up quickly. I do have chaeto though so perhaps that would help preserve the GFO.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Lol yeah I’m pretty excited since this is the first time I have coralline growth to speak of. I get your point though. I tend to laser focus on things as you can see. I’ll work on that too.

I have considered GFO but it’s more expensive in the long run and I’ve read that it gets used up quickly. I do have chaeto though so perhaps that would help preserve the GFO.

Bro if you want to post day by days of the spot, Do it. Don't let me stop you. I'm just going on record, this too will pass.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Lol yeah I’m pretty excited since this is the first time I have coralline growth to speak of. I get your point though. I tend to laser focus on things as you can see. I’ll work on that too.

I have considered GFO but it’s more expensive in the long run and I’ve read that it gets used up quickly. I do have chaeto though so perhaps that would help preserve the GFO.

Ideally, you wouldn't need either by dialing in the feeding and photoperiod on the fuge. Even more simple

 

[tbrown]

Bro if you want to post day by days of the spot, Do it. Don't let me stop you. I'm just going on record, this too will pass.

Better than my half hour by hour...

 

[Fishy888]

Ideally, you wouldn't need either by dialing in the feeding and photoperiod on the fuge. Even more simple

The chaeto is the only thing that I could see taking up phosphates currently. I have less phosphates today than yesterday. There’s more chaeto by far than the other algaes in the system. I’m going to try that approach. Even though it might seem otherwise lol I don’t enjoy dosing LaCl. I just want to see levels where they need to be. I know that phosphate demands will go up as more corals make their way into my system. A new one is coming soon in fact.

 

[tbrown]

Softies like dirty water - nitrates and phosphates. Your corals all use phosphates.

 

[Fishy888]

Softies like dirty water - nitrates and phosphates. Your corals all use phosphates.

This too is true. Hopefully they’re gearing up for a growth spurt. I hope my duncans are too.

 

[Fishy888]

Two quick things.

1. It’ll be a while but I decided that the next hanna checker I get will be for ALK. That is, of course, if there aren’t any test kits that are better than hanna.

2. I thank you all because you’re helping me more than you know. You’ve helped keep me from doing stupid things and you’re saying what I need to hear instead of just what I want to hear.

 

[tbrown]

My Salifert works just as well as my Hanna for Alk. Hanna is good for Phosphates and Nitrates for sure but Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity are definitely doable with Salifert or Red Sea unless you want very precise.

 

[Fishy888]

My Salifert works just as well as my Hanna for Alk. Hanna is good for Phosphates and Nitrates for sure but Calcium, Magnesium, and Alkalinity are definitely doable with Salifert or Red Sea unless you want very precise.

I’m glad to hear that. Salifert is almost half the price of Hanna on most test kits.

 

[Mschmidt]

Late to the party but...

Real talk, I've never seen someone so stoked about a Coraline spot! In a few months you're going to be scraping the glass and four days later, focus your eyes and realize it's all coming back already and start cussing at it because your shoulder is still sore from the last round.

That may just be me tho.

Stoned thinking out loud. Have you considered instead of Actively needing to dose a po4 lowering agent, you may be able to remove that entire process (lowering maintenance and $ and adding stability) by simply relying on photoperiod of your fuge light or maybe a passive carbon gfo mix?

Bro does like his coraline. I too got happy seeing it because I remember hearing time and again that it is a solid metric of a healthy tank. That said, it grows best in the 15 with n close to 40 and p close to or over .3. Since I got the massive leather rock levels have been fairly stable too.

Unlike Tim's experience, my urchin doesn't eat the coraline.

@Fishy888 I like my hanna alk tester, but I'm sure salifert is reliable too. I just never tried it. Per test kits, as long as i don't have to titrate, I'm happy.

 

[Fishy888]

Late to the party but...

Bro does like his coraline. I too got happy seeing it because I remember hearing time and again that it is a solid metric of a healthy tank. That said, it grows best in the 15 with n close to 40 and p close to or over .3. Since I got the massive leather rock levels have been fairly stable too.

Unlike Tim's experience, my urchin doesn't eat the coraline.

@Fishy888 I like my hanna alk tester, but I'm sure salifert is reliable too. I just never tried it. Per test kits, as long as i don't have to titrate, I'm happy.

This is exactly why I’m excited about my coralline too lol. It’s always been drilled into me that when the rocks go purple it’s stable and healthy enough for SPS and anemones. Plus who doesn’t like purple rocks lol.