90 gallon reef
- Thread starter Pat02026
- Start date
OP
OP
Pat02026
Non-member
Thanks Shane! I can't wait to load up with more corals, I've been working hard on cleaning it up and getting the levels to a steady point through the doser (I was manually dosing up until just a few weeks ago and kinda let things decline over the summer)
I have 6 new bulbs coming in this week, the bulbs in the ati are spent and I blame the fuzz on the rocks on them. There's a nice rainbow bta in there, but it's been hanging out way in the back and I can't really get a good shot with my phone.
I have 6 new bulbs coming in this week, the bulbs in the ati are spent and I blame the fuzz on the rocks on them. There's a nice rainbow bta in there, but it's been hanging out way in the back and I can't really get a good shot with my phone.
OP
OP
Pat02026
Non-member
Got my BRS order in today, and 2 of the 6 new ati bulbs are DOA a blue plus and a coral plus. Hopefully they will exchange them for me, without to much hassle. Next on the to do list is to clean the powerheads. They are covered in algae from the old bulbs, being up so close to the light they took the brunt of the algae growth.
OP
OP
Pat02026
Non-member
BRS hooked me up with a couple replacement bulbs hassle free, big thanks to those guys. I've been doing double water changes weekly to try and battle some of this algae. The cheato I added a few weeks back has doubled and been trimmed back to half size twice! I'm happy to see it's sucking up nutrients, which apparently they have been building up. The coral pro salt change has also contributed to a visible difference in the corals as well.
OP
OP
Pat02026
Non-member
Update time. So I've been working hard trying to get this tank to a balance where everything is happy and working harmoniously. I am less than thrilled at this point with growth in the system. Over the past few months I've added quite a bit of coral and though I have not lost anything, there hasn't been much in the way of growth at least not what I have experienced in my last system. I have some suspicions as to what's going on, and I've been trying to work things to find some positive results.
-recently decreased my lighting schedule (9 hrs blues 4.5 hours whites)
-raised the fixture from 5" above tank to 8" above tank
-replaced a blue plus with an actinic and a coral plus with an actinic
-bulb combo is:blue plus:actinic:actinic:coral plus:blue plus:coral plus; in order from back to front
Removed jeabo wp40 and wp25 and added a pair of mp40's @50% in lagoon random mode
Also switched skimmers a few months back; went from the PM bullet to a bubble magus BM180 come skimmer that's rated for over 150 gallons. I am not impressed with the output of the attman pump. Quite frankly it sucks. I need to crank the water level way up to get constant skim mate, and while it's dark and nasty I feel this skimmer could be so much more effective. So I will be changing the pump out to a bubble blaster 5000. Hopefully I can fit that monster inside the skimmer like the current configuration. I will mount it externally if I have to.
Next is the refugium, which is lit by a led spotlight (generic 5k all white Home Depot special) and I harvest a gallon freezer bag of cheato each week. This is the thin cheato, not the thick coarse stuff.
I have a 1200 pod pack coming to load the tank and fuge this week to boost the population and diversity.
I have been dosing ca and alk via dosing pump, using Randy's recipie. Around early November I made a fairly substantial adjustment to MG and alk to bring them up.
Mg was previously at 1100 and now that's up to 1400 where it has been since 11/9.
Ca has not fluctuated much beyond 390-410 since 10/16
Alk has been all over the map, which I feel is more than likely the culprit of the less than enthusiastic corals. Here's a couple points as a timeline vs. Swing (none of these are drastic, however over the course of 1 week between tests)
10/16 7.0 dkh
10/25 7.7 dkh
11/9 6.5 dkh
11/19 6.2 dkh
11/30 6.7 dkh
12/21 7.0 dkh
12/28 8.7 dkh
1/4 9.5 dkh
I increased alk dosing mid December to try and bring it up, and it shot up pretty quick, higher than I want this week. Growth seems to have stopped all together so I finally decided to try out the new Hanna alk checker I've had for a month and compare with my previous Red Sea pro test result. I will be checking levels again tomorrow, but as of tonight according to Hanna checker, I am at 10.0 dkh. I decreased my alk channel on the doser by a few ml/day to add a balanced amount with CA. (It had been adding 3 additional doses per day of alk to bring up the level)
I have been maintaining two water changes a week, 5 gallons each using Red Sea coral pro mixed to 1.026, and my tank SG is also at 1.026 steadily.
I stocked up on 5 and 1 micron sediment filters for the RODI. I will be changing them every hundred or so gallons, they turn rust brown very quickly. This is one major difference from this tank to the last one (which grew coral like crazy) is the water in this house is filthy. In Dedham I could go a year without even considering changing RODI filters. Now I can see the sediments turning brown in merely 30 gallons of produced water. I wonder if there is an over abundance of Iron in my tank, which would also explain the fueling of the rapid cheato growth as well.
I dose a small amount of Red Sea reef energy (vitamins and amino acids) (10ml per week spread out through 2-3 additions)
If anybody has any input, suggestions, ideas or recommendations please by all means let's hear it! I think I threw out there as much necessary info as I could to help come up with some points to address to help get this tank on track.
-recently decreased my lighting schedule (9 hrs blues 4.5 hours whites)
-raised the fixture from 5" above tank to 8" above tank
-replaced a blue plus with an actinic and a coral plus with an actinic
-bulb combo is:blue plus:actinic:actinic:coral plus:blue plus:coral plus; in order from back to front
Removed jeabo wp40 and wp25 and added a pair of mp40's @50% in lagoon random mode
Also switched skimmers a few months back; went from the PM bullet to a bubble magus BM180 come skimmer that's rated for over 150 gallons. I am not impressed with the output of the attman pump. Quite frankly it sucks. I need to crank the water level way up to get constant skim mate, and while it's dark and nasty I feel this skimmer could be so much more effective. So I will be changing the pump out to a bubble blaster 5000. Hopefully I can fit that monster inside the skimmer like the current configuration. I will mount it externally if I have to.
Next is the refugium, which is lit by a led spotlight (generic 5k all white Home Depot special) and I harvest a gallon freezer bag of cheato each week. This is the thin cheato, not the thick coarse stuff.
I have a 1200 pod pack coming to load the tank and fuge this week to boost the population and diversity.
I have been dosing ca and alk via dosing pump, using Randy's recipie. Around early November I made a fairly substantial adjustment to MG and alk to bring them up.
Mg was previously at 1100 and now that's up to 1400 where it has been since 11/9.
Ca has not fluctuated much beyond 390-410 since 10/16
Alk has been all over the map, which I feel is more than likely the culprit of the less than enthusiastic corals. Here's a couple points as a timeline vs. Swing (none of these are drastic, however over the course of 1 week between tests)
10/16 7.0 dkh
10/25 7.7 dkh
11/9 6.5 dkh
11/19 6.2 dkh
11/30 6.7 dkh
12/21 7.0 dkh
12/28 8.7 dkh
1/4 9.5 dkh
I increased alk dosing mid December to try and bring it up, and it shot up pretty quick, higher than I want this week. Growth seems to have stopped all together so I finally decided to try out the new Hanna alk checker I've had for a month and compare with my previous Red Sea pro test result. I will be checking levels again tomorrow, but as of tonight according to Hanna checker, I am at 10.0 dkh. I decreased my alk channel on the doser by a few ml/day to add a balanced amount with CA. (It had been adding 3 additional doses per day of alk to bring up the level)
I have been maintaining two water changes a week, 5 gallons each using Red Sea coral pro mixed to 1.026, and my tank SG is also at 1.026 steadily.
I stocked up on 5 and 1 micron sediment filters for the RODI. I will be changing them every hundred or so gallons, they turn rust brown very quickly. This is one major difference from this tank to the last one (which grew coral like crazy) is the water in this house is filthy. In Dedham I could go a year without even considering changing RODI filters. Now I can see the sediments turning brown in merely 30 gallons of produced water. I wonder if there is an over abundance of Iron in my tank, which would also explain the fueling of the rapid cheato growth as well.
I dose a small amount of Red Sea reef energy (vitamins and amino acids) (10ml per week spread out through 2-3 additions)
If anybody has any input, suggestions, ideas or recommendations please by all means let's hear it! I think I threw out there as much necessary info as I could to help come up with some points to address to help get this tank on track.
OP
OP
Pat02026
Non-member
Update time. Purchased a SRO3000 skimmer, rated for 300 gallons lol. I think I've got plenty of skimming power at this point. Also made some much needed design changes to the sump. So far it's working out great, now I just need to spend a day reconfiguring the wiring and control portion of the combination of new water change station in the basement, and top off resivior supply from the basement. Future improvements also will include daily small volume auto water changes via masterflex peristaltic pump, as well as getting the calcium reactor up and running.
CoralJunkie
John
Looks great. I love that orange fungia
