Please help my mediocre reef tank

[DHill6]

Good to hear

 

[jurgenph]

It's 12 inches above the water. I rented the PAR meter

As an aside - I'd prefer to move the light higher than reduce intensity of the light for the added benefit of making the light more uniform.

To each their own of course.

I like to mount the lights so there is no spillover into the room. The light needs to go into the tank, not around it.
Everything else is wasted.

Please post those par numbers when you have them.


J.

 

[firedancer414]

TDS meter came in - RODI from the LFS measured undetectable. More scary was my tap measured at 33 ppm and the filtered water from the fridge at 30 ppm. Just removing 10% ? lol

 

[jurgenph]

TDS meter came in - RODI from the LFS measured undetectable. More scary was my tap measured at 33 ppm and the filtered water from the fridge at 30 ppm. Just removing 10% ? lol

33 ppm tap is magical! I wish I had that.

Depending on time of year, mine is anywhere in between 380 and 600


J.

 

[jurgenph]

so ordered a diffuser for the light (unrelated to the issues I'm facing) https://3dreefing.com/products/26-diffuser which should reduce PAR by an additional 10-15%.

Oh!

Thanks for that link. Just ordered two of those!


J.

 

[firedancer414]

Oh!

Thanks for that link. Just ordered two of those!


J.

Looks awesome right? It’s got to be super new it definitely didn’t exist about a year ago.

 

[firedancer414]

I forgot to add the gorgorian and mimosa clam. I’m not baking this tank with light, the sps and clam are fine, BB with coralline. The light was running higher, it’s 9 inches off tank with a diffuser. Once I turned it down the corals looked better. Was at 54% max, now 40 % max. Flow was also turned down from 65% to 45% max. I changed things one at a time not all at once. It’s hard with the 170, overflow inside but it’s workable. Just keep at it, you’ll find the pattern that works for you.

Thanks for the feedback - interesting data point !

 

[DHill6]

33 ppm tap is magical! I wish I had that.

Depending on time of year, mine is anywhere in between 380 and 600


J.

Me too...mine is over 400

 

[Victoria M]

TDS meter came in - RODI from the LFS measured undetectable. More scary was my tap measured at 33 ppm and the filtered water from the fridge at 30 ppm. Just removing 10% ? lol

TDS of 33 is nothing. In NWOH it is over 100.

 

[firedancer414]

Omg can you light your water on fire ??

 

[Tastee]

I agree TDS of 33 is very good tap water. My tap water generally measures around 76 and here in Sydney Australia we have a very good town supply so 33 is impressive.

 

[RoyinSpain]

Agree with comments on lighting. Aldo, your midas blenny looks starved and if no3/po4 are at/near zero, the corals will be too. Increasing feeding will solve these problems. Problems with ciano/algae are much more difficult to control/avoid if nutrients are utra low. I would try to get no3 and po4 up to meaurable levels where you can control the equilibrium between them.

 

[firedancer414]

Agree with comments on lighting. Aldo, your midas blenny looks starved and if no3/po4 are at/near zero, the corals will be too. Increasing feeding will solve these problems. Problems with ciano/algae are much more difficult to control/avoid if nutrients are utra low. I would try to get no3 and po4 up to meaurable levels where you can control the equilibrium between them.

Yes - I noticed that too. Now feeding twice a day (morning before work + evening). Finally got my first non-zero phosphate reading (0.02) last night, but still 0 nitrate.

Re-watched the BRS nitrate/phosphate video and am targeting

Nitrate [0.5 - 3 ppm]
Phosphate [0.03 - 0.07 ppm]

 

[firedancer414]

Altered my GHL doser to dose 4 times a day instead of once - thanks for the suggestion earlier.

 

[firedancer414]

ICP test came back. Ca measured 451 (against my Red Sea test of 380 on the same night), Mg 1319 (against my Red Sea test of 1140 that night). Am I doing my Red Sea tests wrong they always come back about 10% off like this, ugh.

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

It always comes back 0 Iodine, I need to start dosing Lugols weekly I think.

Any thoughts on whether I should be correcting Potassium?

 

[Esage]

First off, congratulate yourself on setting up a nice system!

My 2c is that you did what I did... watched the BRS vids, heard all about the importance of light and flow, and followed their directions. Thing is, they're talking about SPS/acropora tanks. We're growing mostly lps and softies. MP10's are pretty stout. Running them at 90% in a smaller tank is pretty aggressive. Jekyl noted your robust lighting schedule.

Go easy on em bro!

I agree. I would start by slowing down those two MP10s. What size is the tank? I'm only running one MP10 on a 30x20x16 softie/lps tank at 50% and its a lot of flow. My return is 478gph

 

[BeejReef]

ICP test came back. Ca measured 451 (against my Red Sea test of 380 on the same night), Mg 1319 (against my Red Sea test of 1140 that night). Am I doing my Red Sea tests wrong they always come back about 10% off like this, ugh.

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

It always comes back 0 Iodine, I need to start dosing Lugols weekly I think.

Any thoughts on whether I should be correcting Potassium?

The red sea tests, IMHO, seem to be very repeatable and consistent. It's just that the actual end point can be subjective.
For both calcium and magnesium, I wait for the color change to hold for 15-20 seconds. Usually another drop or two is required after the initial transition. I use RS alkalinity as a backup for my Hannah. RS (in my case) reads .4-.5 dkh higher, consistently.

It's almost like reef thermometers. You can be sure none of them are spot on. Sometimes you have to discount one reading against another. U can either retrain your eye to "see" the transition about where the ICP test is telling you it should be, or just stay consistent and adjust your observations by an appropriate factor.

Another thing to watch for w the RS titrations is how much reagent you're actually sucking in to the syringe. The titration tips make it tricky sometimes. Older syringes do as well. If I open the syringe too quickly, air seems to seep in past the plunger (or if the reagent is low) from between the tip and the syringe. It reduces the total amount of reagent. The apparent fluid level on a full syringe (for me) is just above .8. If I see less than that, I draw in the reagent again, slower.

 

[firedancer414]

The red sea tests, IMHO, seem to be very repeatable and consistent. It's just that the actual end point can be subjective.
For both calcium and magnesium, I wait for the color change to hold for 15-20 seconds. Usually another drop or two is required after the initial transition. I use RS alkalinity as a backup for my Hannah. RS (in my case) reads .4-.5 dkh higher, consistently.

It's almost like reef thermometers. You can be sure none of them are spot on. Sometimes you have to discount one reading against another. U can either retrain your eye to "see" the transition about where the ICP test is telling you it should be, or just stay consistent and adjust your observations by an appropriate factor.

Another thing to watch for w the RS titrations is how much reagent you're actually sucking in to the syringe. The titration tips make it tricky sometimes. Older syringes do as well. If I open the syringe too quickly, air seems to seep in past the plunger (or if the reagent is low) from between the tip and the syringe. It reduces the total amount of reagent. The apparent fluid level on a full syringe (for me) is just above .8. If I see less than that, I draw in the reagent again, slower.

This is definitely how I’m messing up the Red Sea kits - will try them again tonight. Thank you !

 

[firedancer414]

Bellweather orange acan on the road to recovery - last Wednesday (left) vs today (right), 5 days after changes (Tuesday). Beginning to re-emerge from skeleton.

 

[wiltongates]

Following along excitedly to see you turn this around! Your setup is very similar to the one I've been planning for myself, and I definitely would have run the lights the same way. Thanks for suffering so people like me don't have to.