Pete polyp's 29 mixed reef

Pete polyp · May 9, 2014

I just tested the water and everything is low... Ca under 400, mag 1250, potassium 370, alk 8.3 (lower than what I prefer) I'm going to get everything back up to where it should be, and growth/colors will probably get back to what they should be.

I forgot to show everyone what I picked up last week

Ora Easter egg

Ora green planet looking rough

I also noticed my bicolor blenny nipping my acro today. He hasn't been doing that since I got rid of the red bugs. I hope they haven't returned... I looked at the acros with my dslr zoomed in and I couldn't see anything.

Pete polyp · May 11, 2014

So I was sitting on my bucket staring into the tank and a few of the tips of the new plana are starting to turn purple. It has only been in my possession for 3 days. I think it will turn out to be pretty nice

Paranoidobseshun · May 11, 2014

My bicolor blenny also nipped my sps. Not as reef safe as we think.

Pete polyp · May 11, 2014

Paranoidobseshun said:
My bicolor blenny also nipped my sps. Not as reef safe as we think.

Yeah.... He's about killed one....

Paranoidobseshun · May 11, 2014

Mine stressed and killed quite a few

Pete polyp · May 11, 2014

Good news is that I have set a 40 up for my sps. So hopefully soon it will be ready to move them into that. Its been wet for about 75 days. It is probably ready, but I have had many obstacles with it and it has delayed the move.

Pete polyp · May 12, 2014

The tank is doing pretty good. This morning when the lights came on I noticed the green planet was knocked over into another acro. It beat the other acro up pretty bad, which is sad because it was becoming my favorite.

I really hope it recovers well... I noticed the red planet and red dragon starting too crust the glue on the plugs, which is exciting. Nothing like being able to watch a coral grow quickly. The red dragon must really like its placement because it has colored up pretty good. It had lots of color when it came in, but has become very nice in the 5 days I have had it.

Reds have always done well in this tank for some reason.

booth2010 · May 12, 2014

Pete polyp said:
I appreciate the kind words, I really do. I just don't see my little glass box as anything to be inspired by.

It has definitely inspired me! I have a 29 gal setup now, it has been up for about 3 months. After seeing this it kinda makes me want to remove my sump (and skimmer) buy whatever HOB filter you have and see how it goes. Right now im battling cyano and its killing me. Might look into getting some more porous rock too. Ive got a Jebao WP10 (on else mode) and a Hydor Koralia 425 as powerheads so my circulation is good.

Pete polyp · May 12, 2014

booth2010 said:
It has definitely inspired me! I have a 29 gal setup now, it has been up for about 3 months. After seeing this it kinda makes me want to remove my sump (and skimmer) buy whatever HOB filter you have and see how it goes. Right now im battling cyano and its killing me. Might look into getting some more porous rock too. Ive got a Jebao WP10 (on else mode) and a Hydor Koralia 425 as powerheads so my circulation is good.

The hob really doesn't have much to do with it. Its just somewhere I can put the carbon. The 4" sandbed and tukani rock has much more to do with it. I have a wp25 in there with a seio superflow 620 for flow. The Cyano will come and go. I had a good outbreak about 3-4 months after setting up, then a little hair algae after that. I used phosphate sponge to help get rid of the gha. my corals started to lose a little color so I kept checking my nitrate with red sea kit and it kept showing .08 ppm so I kept using it. Within a week all the sps started to rtn, one after another. Soon only 3 out of about 15 survived. It was a sad few days watching my corals die one by one. I didn't know at the time that it was caused by over stripping the phosphate because the test kept reading .08ppm. For some reason I decided to test distilled water and guess what, it was .08ppm as well! From that day forward I never have used a phosphate kit. I just take notice to any algae growth in the tank, any gha, how often I have to wipe the glass.

Eienna · May 13, 2014

Yeah...apparently...corals need it a bit dirtier than we were led to believe unless they're constantly fed....

Pete polyp · May 13, 2014

Eienna said:
Yeah...apparently...corals need it a bit dirtier than we were led to believe unless they're constantly fed....

Yep. I came to that conclusion when I nuked my acros. It got me to thinking about zooaxanthelle and the symbiotic relationship with the corals. How do you grow algae? With nutrients! So why would zooax be any different? I know its supplemented by the waste of the corals, but it is in fact an algae.

Pete polyp · May 17, 2014

Well today I went to the lfs, and that takes all day. When I came home I checked my kalk jug and it was almost empty. I thought to myself "didn't I just put that jug on the tank yesterday?". I'm getting old so maybe my memory is fading and I forgot yesterday all together. I went and mixed a new jug of kalk, and I could have sworn I put a jug on it yesterday. That's when I look at the apex.... Ph: 8.71. Yep I put a new jug on it yesterday alright. Just happened to dump 1 gallon of kalk instead of 1/3. I'm sure this will be pretty ugly in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll get lucky and nothing too bad will happen. Maybe only all of the acro rtn tomorrow or something. Then again, nothing really died the couple months my Ph was 7.4-7.8 (high and low the first day I had the apex). Guess we'll see what happens.

booth2010 · May 17, 2014

Wow that sucks. Fingers crossed all goes well

Pete polyp · May 17, 2014

I just now checked ca and alk.... 420 and 9.... Looking like the only thing it affected was Ph.

Eienna · May 18, 2014

Hoping for the best. :/

Pete polyp · May 18, 2014

A little update on this acro. Its really starting to color up, polyp extension is great! Kinda makes me glad I had to add it to my live aquaria order to get the free shipping lol.