Alright I have WAY to much free time. Being that I am a full time student and everything is now online I have nothing to do (not really). With that said I want to talk about my tank and the problems of the "first year syndrome".
Ya ever hear someone say something, for example like "the first year of a bare bottom is always the hardest" and you think to your self "how hard could it be" well they are definitely not kidding. Wow is this a tough road and I am still in it. I have pretty much been battling brown algae (dinos) and cyano. I believe it all steamed from my mentality of I need to have metric media, I need a skimmer, I need a refugium, I need very few fish, I need minimal rock. Essentially I needed to adopt the K.I.S.S. method when it comes to reefing and if ever in the future I will always start VERY simple and add what I need, not what I "think" I need.
The tank itself has started to hit a stride, now I can't determine exactly what is underlying factor in saying yes this what did it but rather a combination of multiple things to get me to where I am now.
I stopped testing nitrate and phosphate everyday. I tested phosphate more than I did alkalinity. I was bottoming out my nutrients left and right. I could not keep phosphates present in my system. What I did to amend my problem, get more fish. Having only three in my red sea reefer 170 proved to be my underlying problem. I needed more fish poop. So I bought a ton of fish only to discover that my bully sixtine was killing them all off, so I captured him and banished him to the sump where he will living out the rest of his days, I feed very heavily and have no fear he will be able to get food. I also started feeding A TON more. I feed a mixture of New life spectrum and reef roids in a AFS in the sump to ensure no food gets directly plummeted down the overflow and it looks way cleaner. I feed three times with the AFS, 9am 12 pm and 3pm This ensures that they are eating a ton and now the pellets if any don't get eaten release a little phosphate which has proven successful. I also feed a meaty mixture of miss, brine and frozen shrimp every night.
These are the two fish that have survived thanks to no more bully sixtine wrasse.
For chemistry, I currently dose 14 ML of alkalinity a day and 10 ML of calcium. I do not dose mag and it usually hovers between 1370-1400 which is perfect. I have recently done and ICP and all parameters came back perfectly, so no need to dose trace elements. I have also been doing Zeovit for about two ish months now and it has proved to be very beneficial.
I currently dose these zeovit products:
1 drop ZeoBak - everyday
1 drop sponge power - everyday
1 drop coral vitalizer - everyday
1 drop amino acid - everyday
1 ml of flatworm stop - everyday
1 ml of coral booster - M,W,F
1 ml of B-Balance - M,W,F
Non ZEOVIT:
I also dose acro power, 1 ml - M,W,F
Oyster feast - 1 ml Everyday
For filtration K.I.S.S. is what I have adopted because all I have is a skimmer, filter sock and live rock in the sump.
Another big piece I have added to help boost my tank and biological filtration is real aussie live rock. I believe there is nothing more beneficial and more diversity than true rock from the ocean, with the I had purchased a pound of rubble aussie rock and admit to my sump, which hopefully will help my tank establish more easily.
Tank overall is doing very well, I have no complaints I am trying to stay very consistent and not change anything which is proving to show very beneficial based on how my corals are doing!
