What's going on with my 14g BC?

[Oldsalt01]

My phosphates are all over the place!!!! Per my Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker my readings are bouncing like crazy. 10/17: 0.098ppm, 10/21: 0.147ppm, 10/24: 0.101ppm, 10/26: 0.33! My nitrates were running 0, so I upped my feedings to daily (1/4 cube of frozen loaded brine shrimp, or mix of mysis and loaded BS) for about 2 weeks, but went back to every other day last week. My zoas have been doing either nothing, or some seem to be doing a slow fade. None really seem to be extending their tentacles, but most are open. My Morning Glory zoas were going great guns, but now seem to be slowing fading away. I noticed last night my green Acans are much smaller than they were. 2 months ago they were throwing off new heads like crazy, but then started looking pinched and have definitely gotten smaller. The Rainbow Acans don't look real hearty either, and they had also been forming new heads. My Florida Rics don't seem to be thriving either. The onliest things doing well are my Devil's Hand, and my RPE's which look tremendous and are spreading nicely. Things started going to hell in August when I noticed the Acans were not appearing happy, and at the time I attributed it to not changing out my carbon often enough and the DH upsetting the rest of the tank with toxins. I do a 2.5-5 gallon water change weekly with water from my LFS and tested it today: Nitrates 0, Phosphates 0, so it isn't that, and change out my carbon every 2 weeks. Salinity is consistent at 1.26. Trying to run a small 'fuge in chamber 2 of my BC 14g on a reverse light cycle, but the cheato doesn't seem to be responding, although it's not dying off, just minimal if any growth. I do have a fair amount of turf algae and a moderate, but not excessive, amount of GHA. It's making me a little crazy, because the tank was looking fantastic in July, then took a dramatic change and everything started looking crummy. Even my Disco 'shroom's faded for a while, but seem to be rebounding now. I am absolutely fastidious about testing with the Hanna exactly the same way ever test, just to be consistent. I added a small amount of Phosguard last week, hoping to drop my Po4, but instead it just started bouncing. I have a few hermits, 2 Nassarius, 3 Astrea's, a Porceline Crab, an Ocellaris, a TSB, and a yellow Clown Goby, so I don't feel my bio-load is too heavy. I just don't get it. About ready to give up on corals all together. FOWLR's are soooo much easier.

 

[sailplanes2]

I have a 14g BC (old style with florescents, now in storage) and it was always running on the hot side - 82+ degrees. Even if I propped the lid open a few inches.

Are you running it with the top on or open / what kind of lighting? How are your temps?

Peace

 

[Oldsalt01]

Nope. Had the same “heat engine” situation with the hood on. So I pulled it off, went to an eggcrate cover, and have been running a non-hd Hydra 26 with a controller for almost 2 years. My temps are consistently 78-79. I upgraded the return pump to an MJ900 but addition of even the tiniest cross flow pump puts my temps up to the low 80’s. Wish i could afford an MP10, but the bank sez NO!

 

[brandon429]

Howdy

Time to rip clean
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-official-sand-rinse-thread-aka-one-against-many.230281/page-16

See my last post with the 30 minute tank drain and then next day’s coral vitality. Rip cleaning allows you to kill algae, re open the pore structure on the rocks, make the system cloudless (right now every substrate would heavy cloud if disturbed in the tank) and it makes your tank open for strong feeding

Your tank is likely aging too fast in favor of plants vs coral, and test kits aren't the final say

We can -see- components of aging in the reef vs test for them... taking on waste and waste compounds prevents ideal feeding without causing more algae

There’s not enough whole particle export. Water changes only remove their final metabolites.
In those pages above, tank regeneration. Time for surgery man if you want to, we can make another custom job for page seventeen


Aging a nano reef without deep cleaning is a bell curve

But aging one knowing how to clean it to the core means decades and the reef never invades, never fails, never does anything but grow too much coral, its linear consistent and unfailing and has no biological lifespan limit. You’ve reached your hands off maximum. The sole thing to focus on is cloud, once you are cloudless it will start to reverse issues and corals will perk up, algae itself emits chemicals that irritate and take back ground from corals. It plugs up porosity on live rock that allows rock to express waste and support the greater system. In those pages above, which tank failed to perk up?

We took no nutrient measure there and never will. We save tanks by surgery and deep access on that thread

 

[brandon429]

Cloud sourcing:

If we reached in and grabbed a rock, and lifted it center column and swished it side to side really fast, a large visible cloud comes off. This is the stuff that requires GFo to offset, its your po4 and nitrate stores not in coral flesh where they add mass, but on substrates for invader colonization.


Same for the sand, clouding there could kill the tank it'll be so dense in some reefs.

*****I recall your tank from recent chats** the sand bed is cleaner than most on cross section pic for sure, but it still can't pass a drop test.

Clearing the system of this waste mass means your nitrate and phosphate then become measures of how much you feed vs how much you've stored, I really would like to take your reef apart kind Sir into tiny little increments all laid out on the table for surgical clearing and rinsing in saltwater/evacuation if that doesn't sound too weird or extreme.

Your reef will love it and be soooo hungry for spot feed after.

 

[Bdog4u2]

I agree. I break my tank into sections and when I do water changes I remove rock in that section and do a quick dip and swoosh in the water I just removed. You will be surprised how much crud is in the rocks especially if you have a lot of critters in the rock since they can leave waste behind

 

[brandon429]

Hey if poss pls video that next time so we can link more examples we like to show various reefs undergoing the cleaning, and not being recycled etc

 

[brandon429]

In this video I neglected my reef on purpose until it got cyano.

Then I rip changed it back all on tape. It's my opinion that no harsher or seemingly meaner water change can be found on this board. Nobody takes thirty minutes to refill a reef on purpose... corals seemingly dried like beef jerky. One of them is sixteen years old, it's like dude, again?

The point of the biology isn't to be mean to my reef. All reefs are this tough, sustain no invasion tolerate zero noncompliance, you are blessed with an accessible reef. By all means refill your reef faster than I did but remember that type of buffer zone for safety exists

A normal rip clean isn't harmful or even near the verge of tank stability. I blasted mine with 35% peroxide and air drained it for half an hour, sixteen steps ahead and next time it's getting drained fifty mins
I'll know the max eventually because my blueberry pie sps got tiny white edges on this last drain, it's first air time drain for that frag. That stress zone is now overgrown already but that type of weakest link detail is how I set max air time.


The Lps can go hours, maybe half a day or as Fiji does the whole darn day but that's too much nature for me to try yet HA

Invasions are for large reefs

Air time doesn't kill rocks, sponges, pods, brittle stars, says Fiji and the reefbowl. make use of that accessibility. Fear of air time is nineties reefing

 

[brandon429]

12 hrs later

 

[Katrina71]

@brandon429 you can rip clean mine if you are ever in my neck of the woods. That video is impressive!

 

[Bdog4u2]

In this video I neglected my reef on purpose until it got cyano.

Then I rip changed it back all on tape. It's my opinion that no harsher or seemingly meaner water change can be found on this board. Nobody takes thirty minutes to refill a reef on purpose... corals seemingly dried like beef jerky. One of them is sixteen years old, it's like dude, again?

The point of the biology isn't to be mean to my reef. All reefs are this tough, sustain no invasion tolerate zero noncompliance, you are blessed with an accessible reef

Invasions are for large reefs

Air time doesn't kill rocks, sponges, pods, brittle stars, says Fiji and the reefbowl. make use of that accessibility

Mother nature might keep water stable in natural reefs but also delivers some nasty conditions like hurricanes or baking sps and anemones in the sun at low tides

 

[brandon429]

Agreed

And don't think I didn't start reefing with a tight grip on that waste

I read not to disturb a reefs sandbed, early Berlin methodology didn't clean the bed, we just ran the system as long as it would run before eutrophic takeover. Max, about a 4 year bell curve any tank.

occasional deep cleaning seems to be the bare minimum required to cause ultra long life span conditions for most nano tank keepers since we lack the volume dilution the large tankers enjoy. I'm glad you would trust me with your reef Kat! It would be like a mobile dental cleaner for aquarium visit, all tidy and sparkly after.

Its official, we need a dedicated channel for video'd tank restores using skip cycle biology. Videos of tanks being fixed

The BC14 in question now has accessibility decided. You can use that access any way you see fit, but fully exported systems aren't unstable they're hungry for high quality target fed frozen reef foods, this whole approach is cpr for nano reefs especially misbehaving ones. Don't tinker with the water, tinker with the entire system at once, cloudless, no invasion rasped off every rock with a knife and peroxide, a real tune up. If you simply leave no waste upon refill, your tank is better than it was before. If after consulting that sand rinse thread some detritus is still left in the tank as it's refilled, and a cloud results, then bad things happen and we have sole control over that outcome. At least it's not a lukewarm approach.


Run your lights nearly all blue like mine not too much white for six mos and do occasional fifty percent water changes from now on. after six months, slowly edge your whites back in, see if corals agree.

My whites come on at picture time, you don't want heavy whites on this problem BC tank for sure, blue it up on normally days. Blue is mass building low invasion where LED's go on nanos