Roast my reefer

[Marquarium]

Definitely reef roid it up. I stopped using them because my nitrates got out of whack. I just loved the reactions the corals would give but over did it for sure lol

 

[MnFish1]

Hi friends, I'm looking for any and all constructive feedback on my system as it stands.

My main concerns that I need your advice on:

• Bubbletip anemone (bottom mid-left) sometimes looks semi-happy, sometimes deflated, changing between the two states multiple times a day. 100 PAR and decent amount of indirect flow. refer to PAR map and video for flow
• Hammer coral (mid right of tank) doesn't open all the way 85 PAR, moderate flow
• GSP (bottom left of tank) doesn't often open all the way
• Some dinos
• know I need to get Phosphate and Nitrate up. Advice for sustainable safe way to do so? I feed a pretty decent sized pinch of flake food 3x a day, hikari marine pellets 1x a day, hikari frozen brine 2-3x a week
• How do you think my flow and lighting is for this mixed reef? check out PAR map and flow video please

Parameters:

• Temp: 78
• Phosphate: 0ppm (Hannah checker) I know I need to get this up. Advice for sustainable safe way to do so?
• Nitrate:1ppm (redsea liquid test kit)I know I need to get this up. Advice for sustainable safe way to do so?
• Magnesium: 1500ppm (redsea liquid titration kit)
• Sg: 1.025 (optical refractometer)

Lighting:

• Kessil ap9x
• ophek OR3 blue bar
• 11:30-22:30, 30 minute ramp up and down
• PAR map below, tested with Apogee meter

Flow:

• 2x MP40, 30% reef crest during day 15% lagoon at night with 2x short nutrient export bursts a day
• 2x jebao SCP70 in long pulse master/slave mode
• Reef Octopus Varios 4 running at 50%-60% (500-600 GPH at pump, ~5 feet head pressure

Filtration:

• Reefmat 500
• Reef Octopus 150 classic skimmer
• Icecap small algae turf scrubber
• activated carbon

Looks nice. Assuming you're using the low phosphate test? I'm not sure I would do anything at this point about that. I think the PAR levels are low for the anemone and the hammer. I had my GSP (You can see a picture in my tank build thread) - as an isolated bridge between 2 coral 'towers' - and that was at about 300 Par. Now - the conventional wisdom is that they 'need' xxx PAR - but IMHO - many corals do better at higher than the 'minimum' par. Also what is your light schedule (i.e.) - how long is your light at the PAR levels posted - do you have a really long ramp up-ramp down time>

BTW - if you do want to somewhat increase PO4 - you can feed more.

 

[TX_REEF]

Yes it is the Hannah ULR phosphate tester.

Ok so I’ve been feeding way more the past 4 days, and even fed reef roids twice (my corals all loved it!) and my phosphate is still reading zero. I also tested the phosphate in my frag system which is skimmerless (only filtration is floss, carbon and refugium) and that system is 0.22 phosphate, so I definitely feel like my display has a phosphate deficiency. Corals are all quite happy, with the exception of some closed Xenia in some parts of the colony, a less than fully extended hammer, and a BTA that spends a strange amount of time semi-deflated.

My skimmer cup did fill more quickly than usual after the increased feeding, so I am going to try shutting the skimmer off and see how that goes.

 

[TX_REEF]

Alright, update. 3 days skimmerless, phosphate is up to 0.03, nitrate is still 1-2ppm. Kh 8.2. Corals look less happy than when the skimmer was running. Anemone still looks rather sad a lot of the time. Am I doing something wrong?