Trevor's 240 Aquarium-SPS Dominant

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[Trevor40]

Looking good!

Thanks Rev. It’s hard to get good pictures but I’ll work on it. I need to get a camera top down viewer.

I am have done a couple water changes, added 2 C of GFO, and added Chaeto and can’t seem to get the PO4 below 2.5.

My Alk is up near 11.5, Ca is near 500. I would like to see them come down but even turning off the CA reactor they are keep going up. I added 1/4 tsp of Kalk to my 10 gallon ATO to keep the pH up on the tank. I wouldn’t think it would increase the Alk much on a 240 gallon tank.

 

[Canuck007]

Tank looks great. I was hoping to do pretty much the exact same thing. So did your LFS get the stand and canopy custom made from R&J? I see online that they only sell 72x24 stand but your tank is 72x30. Also what is the height of your stand? Thanks!

 

[Trevor40]

Tank looks great. I was hoping to do pretty much the exact same thing. So did your LFS get the stand and canopy custom made from R&J? I see online that they only sell 72x24 stand but your tank is 72x30. Also what is the height of your stand? Thanks!

Thank you! Yes, I had to have the LFS custom order it. The stand is around 37" high which I think is perfect because when standing next to the tank you are looking down at the corals and seeing more coloration. Alos, there is plenty of room in the stand for tall skimmers or to hang a refugium light.

 

[Trevor40]

In a few weeks it has changed colors a bit. The top picture is now and the bottom is from only 2 weeks ago. This thing glows! my PO4 is still above 2.5 despite adding 5 cups of GFO and doing two 40 gallon water changes. Nitrates are around 5-10ppm. I am getting cyano all over.

 

[Trevor40]

I added Bridewell Aquatics Phosphate-E last night, 60 ml brought my PO4 down to from above 2.5 to 0.77 today. I will test again tomorrow morning and possibly dose 15 ml. I don't want to stress out the acros with too fast of a drop. I think the drop needs to be slower as it gets closer to .1.

I would like it to be around .1 for awhile since my Alk is around 11dkh. As it gets lowered I will also lower my PO4. That will be over a long period, maybe several months.

 

[Trevor40]

I added another 20 ml last night and this morning it is .66. I then added another 30ml and will test tonight.

 

[Trevor40]

The tank PO4 is fluctuating still. I added another 30ml his morning since it is .3 today.

 

[Trevor40]

I am getting a lot of cyano bacteria covering all the rocks. I am hoping that getting the PO4 down it will get weaker and blow away.

 

[CoralWealth]

how big is your skimmer? In a couple of months when your rock is more mature, I am sure you will have no problem with P04.

How is the PE on your SPS? Also how many turbo snails do you have and other snails?

 

[Trevor40]

how big is your skimmer? In a couple of months when your rock is more mature, I am sure you will have no problem with P04.

How is the PE on your SPS? Also how many turbo snails do you have and other snails?

I have high PO4 because I dosed them a month ago to battle a Dino outbreak with the idea that other algae will out-compete the dinos which did work. I overdosed them and have been trying to lower them ever since. Most the acros colored up nicely form the increase but now are starting to brown from being high for too long. Now that I have this liquid PO4 remover it is finally coming down, I just don't want them to drop too fast. I did lose my Aqua SD rainbow millepora from the drop. Everything else seems okay.

I have a couple turbos and maybe 20-30 other snails that go to work on the green algae. I don't have a problem with green algae, only cyano now.

The polyp extension on SPS is not great.

 

[CoralWealth]

I have high PO4 because I dosed them a month ago to battle a Dino outbreak with the idea that other algae will out-compete the dinos which did work. I overdosed them and have been trying to lower them ever since. Most the acros colored up nicely form the increase but now are starting to brown from being high for too long. Now that I have this liquid PO4 remover it is finally coming down, I just don't want them to drop too fast. I did lose my Aqua SD rainbow millepora from the drop. Everything else seems okay.

I have a couple turbos and maybe 20-30 other snails that go to work on the green algae. I don't have a problem with green algae, only cyano now.

The polyp extension on SPS is not great.

Oh okay, sorry I missed that part.

I would definitely be really slow with the liquid P04. I honestly probably wouldnt add any unless it goes above 0.3. Your skimmer and everything else will take care of it, especially since you had to dose it before to get a reading. Whats your nitrates? If theyre low, you can add some nitrates and thatll lower your P04 naturally.

 

[OffTopic]

The tank is looking great, I like the updated aquascape it seems to add better depth to tank. Looks great, glad to be following along!

 

[Trevor40]

Oh okay, sorry I missed that part.

I would definitely be really slow with the liquid P04. I honestly probably wouldnt add any unless it goes above 0.3. Your skimmer and everything else will take care of it, especially since you had to dose it before to get a reading. Whats your nitrates? If theyre low, you can add some nitrates and thatll lower your P04 naturally.

I have been dosing KNO3(Stump Remover) and they stay around 2.5-5 ppm. The chaeto in the sump is growing well with the Kessil H380. The PO4 were higher than my test kit reads for more than a month so I bet there are some bound in the rocks. I will test PO4 again tomorrow morning and see how it looks and if it is below .2 then I will stop dosing PO4 reducer and see if I can lower them naturally. I get impatient as I see all the cyano.

A good sign is my Alk dropped from 11.3(Sep 10th) to 10.9 today which tells me the corals are starting to use it up.

 

[Trevor40]

The tank is looking great, I like the updated aquascape it seems to add better depth to tank. Looks great, glad to be following along!

Thank you for following along!

I really do love it too. Much more pleasing to look at. It's great to see the individual corals but for me I love the tank as a whole to look great. I don't like the crowded look where your eye is all over the place. I am hoping that I get get through this ugly phase of my tank and start seeing things tank off and fill in. There is a lot of potential here.

Here was my last tank. Over the years I let it get a little too full on the sand bed and I am hoping I can keep this one clean. I am a true coral hoarder and can't say no to frags.

 

[Trevor40]

 

[Trevor40]

A few from today. I need to work on my skills with the DSLR.

 

[Trevor40]

No name Millepora

 

[Trevor40]

Miyagi Tort. I noticed that when the PO4 was above 2.5 it causes a few acros to get bumpy flesh. You can see that here.

I think the flesh was wanting to grow but the skeleton was limited with the high levels.

 

[Trevor40]

I have had Pink Lemonade in the past and for some reason this one doesn't like to extend its polyps. It did burned from a swing awhile back and the flow side was damaged.

I hope that as nutrients come down this colors up a lot better. It's on the brown side but I wanted to post for my own record keeping.