Turtle's 14g SPS Nano Build.

[SashimiTurtle]

Tested water again tonight.

Ca 460ppm
Alk 7.0dKH
Mg 1640ppm (never dosed that the whole tinge the tank has been up, thank you black bucket...)
NO3 0.75ppm
PO4 0.02ppm

That's a 1.25ppm drop in NO3 and a 0.02ppm drop in PO4 in 24 hours. Dosing 2ml ref energy A&B along with 4ml KNO3.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Today's numbers.

SG 1.026
Ca 450ppm
Alk 7.8dKH
Mg 1540
NO3 12ppm
PO4 0ppm

I haven't dosed KNO3 in a few days. Seems like it took a bit for it to show up in the tank.

My monti cap looks like poop.

Still need to get PO4 up. I ghost fed some crushed up PE Mysis pellets, as they have some phosphates in them. Duncan coral is starting to get a little more color, as is my birds nest.

Acropora still look fine... which stumps me. This green one has even put down a good base since I glued it.

 

[jx.reef]

Be very careful with dosing only nitrate (especially to such high levels) with undetectable phosphates. I actually crashed my sps tank doing the same thing. There are some posts and articles about the redfield ratio you should take a look at. Following along with your thread since it's similar to my build

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Be very careful with dosing only nitrate (especially to such high levels) with undetectable phosphates. I actually crashed my sps tank doing the same thing. There are some posts and articles about the redfield ratio you should take a look at. Following along with your thread since it's similar to my build

I'll look into the Redfield ratio. 16:1, right? I wasn't aiming for 12ppm NO3, more like 2-5... it just kind of exploded. For a few days it would bump up to 2 after I dosed then go back down to .5 in 24 hours. I haven't dosed any in a few days because I didn't want to overdose, and well, yea... 12ppm on the red sea pro test today. I'll do a water change tomorrow.
I'm still looking into how to get phosphates up, since dosing the nitrates up my green acro has gone full on techno rave florescent... It's like a glow stick, brightest thing in the tank. Growing well too.
6/19-7/12

 

[jx.reef]

Yep 16:1. I only ever dose nitrates to add about 1 ppm now after that debacle. If I see low nitrates now, I just feed a bunch of oyster feast and reef roids. I figure it'll add both nitrates and phosphates instead of just 1 or the other.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I'm going to do a WC tomorrow to knock down the nitrates some. I've got blue bucket salt now so I can do large(relative) water changes. Thinking 5 gallons. I should be adding some inverts soon and feeding them will help with my nutrient issue. I might just not be able to keep monti cap yet... everything else seems to either be unaffected or improving since dosing nitrates.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Oh, found a hitchhiker who has managed to stay unnoticed for the entire time... pretty sure it's a feather duster.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tested everything this morning.
Sg 1.025
Ca 440ppm
Alk 8.0dKH
Mg 1360ppm
NO3 2ppm
PO4 0ppm

Big water change helped bring the nitrates back down, my phosphates are still undetectable and I've even been ghost feeding the tank a small pinch of PE Mysis pellets along with the Red Sea energy.

Monti cap has been moved to the sand in partial shade. It looks like I'll lose it.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Took some readings with a LUX app on my phone. At 10% intinsity I'm getting 25000 at the surface, 100% I'm getting 130000. I know it's probably not the most accurate, and I want a Seneye, but it's not in the budget right now. Where about should I be aiming? What's a rough correction factor? The acros are midway in the tank and it's 13" tall. @saltyfilmfolks

 

[brett_schn]

Took some readings with a LUX app on my phone. At 10% intinsity I'm getting 25000 at the surface, 100% I'm getting 130000. I know it's probably not the most accurate, and I want a Seneye, but it's not in the budget right now. Where about should I be aiming? What's a rough correction factor? The acros are midway in the tank and it's 13" tall. @saltyfilmfolks

I have to try that

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I have to try that

Like I said I'm not sure if it's even accurate. I'm just trying to get a ballpark peak intinsity. I ordered a spectral controller for my A160, and I want to ramp it up to a peak PAR level for a few hours then ramp it back down.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hi Robin. No, that would be an error. 108,000 is full sun basicly. The $15 meters on Amazon are much less fiddly look or the 100,000+ or 200,000 max modeles.

We've been talkin Lux lately here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lux-meters-to-check-led.314285/

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Bored at work again, time for a build thread update! Well I'll start off what the heck the monti, it's still hanging in there, but no longer in the nano. I moved it to my 75g which has much higher nutrients. It's bleached bad, but still is showing blue polyps so hopefully it'll hang in there.
I ordered some new critters, but I have been working overtime on my week off and I wasn't home to put them in the tank, so my fiancee took care of it. She's really supportive and always gets excited for new critters, well the cute ones. And as long as I don't spend too much money....
First critter is a squat lobster. The fiancee she's he looks like an ugly spider... It's black with yellow stripes(go Steelers) and it's shell is about the size of my pinky nail.

The other critter I got is a pom pom crab. That's the cute one she said. Unfortunately, it has taken to a really good hiding spot and I haven't seen it yet. The fiancee said it didn't want to let go of the net, and when she went to pull it out, it boxed her finger with one of its anemones. Hopefully I'll get to see it when I get home tonight.

I've noticed one more feather duster in the back of the tank, underneath a piece of rock. A few other unidentified tube worms that haven't shown the feather tops like the other two, but I haven't really seen them out all the way either. One lone asterina starfish that I think hitchhiked in with the inverts yesterday... she doesn't really know to look for things like that, but I'm not worried about one little starfish. And I thought I saw a small bristleworm this morning with the flashlight, but it was gone when I got the camera phone out.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

New toy today! I got the Kessil spectral controller in from BRS today. I also got a new 4 stage RO only filter. I had one in the house when I moved in, but it was really old and the membrane housing had a leak. So, all new unit and I have the BRS 2 stage DI filter, so 6 stages in total for 90tds tap water. Hahaha, overkill but it works really well.

I set up the controller under the stand on the back panel. It has a magnetic mount that attaches with two screws, a USB power cord and an auxiliary control cord. I programmed in a lighting schedule that starts at 1100 and ends at 2300. Color starts at 0%(all blue) and 10% intinsity and peakes out at 50% color and 50% intinsity from 1500-1700, then fades back to 0% color and 10% intinsity by 2300. I set up the coral acclamation feature, I have it set to 10% of the max intinsity of my program and to gradually increase over 14 days. I'm thinking my next toy will be a Seneye with the PAR meter.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, good news and bad news.
Good news first, I finally saw my pom pom crab. He doesn't habe any pom poms tho... At least I can stop picking on my fiancee for eating him.

Bad news, one of our almost daily thunderstorms tripped the surge protector powering the tank the other night. Tank went several hours without any power, and having only about 12 gallons of water it had cooled off to my 72° inside air temp. Lost one small acro that was already looking brown to RTN. Forest fire Digi RTNed. My green birdsnest has a little bit of tissue loss near the base and my green acro has some tissue loss on the tips. Hopefully they heal up and don't get worse.

The purple nurple acro is doing fine, other than losing any purple it had and turning green, but that was pre power loss. Duncan and both stylos unaffected. Colors are off in the pictures because I'm using my flashlight.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I'm sorry for your losses. These things happen , it's what makes guys like you and me who are running sps nano tanks special. We enjoy the challenge of running very precise parameters, and unfortunately they are very easy to throw off balance. How you deal with every case of tissue necrosis, every crash and every power outage will make you more prepared to deal with these things in the future.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I'm sorry for your losses. These things happen , it's what makes guys like you and me who are running sps nano tanks special. We enjoy the challenge of running very precise parameters, and unfortunately they are very easy to throw off balance. How you deal with every case of tissue necrosis, every crash and every power outage will make you more prepared to deal with these things in the future.

Exactly, I wanted to start with an SPS dominated nano tank, so when I eventually set up my 120g SPS tank it'll be like easy street. Learn how to control the hurricane and the thunderstorm won't seem so bad.

 

[brett_schn]

What ato are u using. My jbj ato failed within 2 weeks of me running it. Now my nice stand and wood floors might be ruined.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

What ato are u using. My jbj ato failed within 2 weeks of me running it. Now my nice stand and wood floors might be ruined.

Currently manually topping off water. This tank only uses a gallon a week. Top off arou d 8oz twice a day and its good. On my 75g I'm using the Tunze 3155, optical sensor and a mechanical backup that sits out of the water. If the optical fails in the on position, the mechanical will sound an alarm and shut the pump off.

 

[brett_schn]

Currently manually topping off water. This tank only uses a gallon a week. Top off arou d 8oz twice a day and its good. On my 75g I'm using the Tunze 3155, optical sensor and a mechanical backup that sits out of the water. If the optical fails in the on position, the mechanical will sound an alarm and shut the pump off.

If and when u do get an ato which one do u think u will get?