Starting with a 40 Breeder Build

[Philly Reefer]

Photo

Water Parameters:
Salinity: 34.9 (Apex) Weekly Average
Temp 77.2 F (Apex) Weekly Average
pH: 8.19 (Apex) Weekly Average
Alkalinity: 8.8dKh (Hanna)
PO4: 0.02ppm (Hanna)
NO3: 0.5 ppm (Salifert)

Somehow I am still fighting with low nitrate. My next steps is turning off skimmer every night.

Couple changes I made:

• Increase MP10s by 2%
• Increase my light to follow BRS recommendation. 100% from 70%. 30 days acclimation.
• Lower tank temp to 77F
• Got an Aquamaxx FR-S for carbon. (I think i used too much carbon.
  

 

[FreakPrism]

Nice update and tanks. Question for you. Does the AutoAqua Smart Stir work with the Hanna checker vials? They vials seem smaller diameter wise than the stirrer. Do you also remove the magnetic stirrer before placing the vial in your hanna checker?

 

[Philly Reefer]

Nice update and tanks. Question for you. Does the AutoAqua Smart Stir work with the Hanna checker vials? They vials seem smaller diameter wise than the stirrer. Do you also remove the magnetic stirrer before placing the vial in your hanna checker?

Ty.
I used it with the hanna vial and yes I left the stirrer inside the hanna for the 3 mins.
I cleaned it with rodi water after that

 

[FreakPrism]

Ty.
I used it with the hanna vial and yes I left the stirrer inside the hanna for the 3 mins.
I cleaned it with rodi water after that

Cool thanks!

 

[Philly Reefer]

Water Parameters:
Salinity: 34.85 (Apex) Weekly Average
Temp 77.13 F (Apex) Weekly Average
pH: 8.17 (Apex) Weekly Average
Alkalinity: 7.8dKh (Hanna)
PO4: 0.09ppm (Hanna)
NO3: 2.72 ppm (Hanna)
Calcium: 410 (RedSea)
Magnesium: 1260 (Aquaforest)

I totally forgot my build thread anniversary. I started this 6/6/20. I will give a 1 year summary on the day I introduce my clown fishes.

Well... my life has been so hectic lately and my tank kinda got neglected. Couple things that happened since last update (not in chronological order):

• Added a Royal Gramma on 6/4. He was hiding his 1st day then the next 2 days, he was aggressive toward the wrasse and blenny. fortunately after that they get along just fine.
  
• Unfortunately I lost my Indo dragon soul to brown jelly and my attempt to frag it didn't work... totally died. . So far, I don't see the brown jelly on my other torches or hammer. (knock on wood)
• I replaced my ATO container with 10g aqueon tank. I seem to like it better cause now I don't need to shine a flashlight into the container to know how much water left. But I still have an optical sensor anyway.
  
• Adding BRS magnesium slowly to get magnesium back up to 1400. dosing 100ml daily.
• I am doing couple big water changes the last 2 weeks to get my aluminium levels down. So far I have been doing 10g water change every 3 days. so far I have done 3 times. ( this might be why my dragon soul got brown jelly and died.. not sure but its gone now..)
  My plan is to submit another icp test after I think it should significantly lower the aluminium levels.
• Just ordered Tropic marin balling method to add to BRS 2 parts for trace elements.
• I changed dosing schedule around. Before, soda ash was being dosed at night. to prevent ph swing. But it doesnt seem to work so I swap it around with calcium dosing. So now dosing soda ash is from 11am to 8pm and calcium is 12am to 7am.
  (I do need to calibrate my pump to make sure it's correct...lol)
  so far I don't see a big difference on the ph. it does drop slightly faster during the night. but it also rise a bit after on the day when soda ash kicked in.
• Another change that I did was the skimmer. I turned it off 12hours daily now. but unfortunately it hasn't help me with the low nitrate issue. for phosphate, I just feed reef roid(1/4 dose) everytime it goes down below 0.02.
• I also just change carbon from Aquaforest to BRS rox just couple days ago.. so far not impressed with it. On the 2nd day, I can smell the water when I go into the room. It was suggested that I turned the flow down for the Aquamaxx FR-S. So I just did. Let's see how it will be in couple days

 

[Philly Reefer]

Weekly update:

Water Parameters:
Salinity: 35.13 (Apex) Weekly Average
Temp 77.34 F (Apex) Weekly Average
pH: 8.14 (Apex) Weekly Average
Alkalinity: 7.7dKh (Hanna)
PO4: 0.06ppm (Hanna)
NO3: 1.32ppm (Hanna)
Calcium: 410ppm (RedSea)
Magnesium: 1500ppm (Aquaforest)

(10gallon water change earlier, waiting couple hours before I test the water)

(Update) I think my alk kept swinging lower because of the multiple water changes I've been doing for the past couple weeks. I need to slowly get it back up to 8.5dKh.

I am not sure about the magnesium. I didn't think I dose as much. I think I need a new magnesium test. I also took samples for ICP. Hopefully it can match my tests.

Big changes today.
I rearranged my sump. (Forgot to take before pic)

Swapped chambers around. Now its refugium then skimmer chambers.

I also swapped filter socks with filter cups. I don't use filter floss for now. I can always either put socks back or just get floss.

I put marine balls on it because the cups are not fit perfectly on the hole. Kinda a bit too small. Kinda miffed about it. I think I am going to put rubber around the top.

I want to see if I can get the nitrate and phosphate up.

I have turned down my refugium lights down to 6 hours nightly and even took off my skimmer 12hours daily.

So I will have to test nitrate and phosphate for the next couple days.

So hopefully without the filter socks, I can turn on my skimmer all the time. I think my skimmer helps with the ph cause I have the airline getting outside air.

I also increase the sump water level a bit and lower my return pump power(from 65 to 55).

I also noticed that since the refugium light is pointing the socks chamber. The light spill to the back of the tanks is dimmer. So thats good. The possible issue is algae on the return and socks chamber. Coralline would be fine.. different kind would be ....

 

[Philly Reefer]

Updating off days cause of giveaway.

I bought some stuffs from marine depot Liquidation sale.
Acclimation box
Pod hotel
Frozen food ring feeder ( too big)
Algae scrapper stick
Couple stickers

My phosphate is climbing which I like it. Its up to 0.07 now. But of course i dont want it go over 0.1. nitrate still low though.
If this no socks experiment doesn't increase nitrate, hopefully it will still.
I do see more debris on the tank. So I might go back with socks still.

 

[Philly Reefer]

And... Going back to socks for now.. PO4 kept climbing higher and the water not clear is bugging me worse...

 

[Philly Reefer]

What a joy.... Found vermetid snails and a small patch of bubble algae at the same time..

I glued over the vermetid snail. I'll sucked out the bubble algae tomorrow during water change

 

[Philly Reefer]

Water Parameters:
Salinity: 34.74 (Apex) Weekly Average
Temp 77.38 F (Apex) Weekly Average
pH: 8.23 (Apex) Weekly Average
Alkalinity: 8.5dKh (Hanna)
PO4: 0.22ppm (Hanna)
NO3: 5ppm (Salifert)

Well... Now I am fighting to get phosphate down. But not worried about it. Now I can turned on both my skimmer and refugium light full blast all night long.
Let's see how that will go in a week.

I also found some "algae" on my mixing bucket.
Most likely I am going to have to dry it off, wipe it with rodi and mix new one