Event Mini Macna 2021

Mixed Reefer

Well-Known Member
Moderator
BRS Member
Mini Macna is at the end of the month. Its being held this year on February 27, 2021. It’s being held as a online webinar event. The theme this year is “Overcoming Challenges in Reefkeeping”.
Boston Reefers is going to give ten lucky paid members an opportunity to attend mini Macna 2021 webinar event. To get in on this opportunity please reply to this post by telling a challenge that you overcame in Reefkeeping. Also Like, comment and follow

Our IG

Our FB

Our YT



Capture.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'll start. Mine is pretty lame, but it was a big deal. The problem was massive precipitation that eventually led to my powerheads and return pump getting completely calcified. The solution, it turned out was simple, and probably known to most people on the site. I was using kalkwasser along with 2-part to keep Ph up. However I was using Soda Ash as my dkh supplement and it turns out there is no need for kalkwasser in this case as the Soda Ash raises Ph. I also was using the black red sea salt simply because I was told to when I started. I had noticed that it left a hellish amount of residue in my mixing station, but had kept with it. So I also switched to ordinary Instant Ocean salt which leaves virtually no residue in mixing station. Dong, as often, diagnosed issue for me. Now tank is thriving and I'm paying half as much for salt!
 
I'll start. Mine is pretty lame, but it was a big deal. The problem was massive precipitation that eventually led to my powerheads and return pump getting completely calcified. The solution, it turned out was simple, and probably known to most people on the site. I was using kalkwasser along with 2-part to keep Ph up. However I was using Soda Ash as my dkh supplement and it turns out there is no need for kalkwasser in this case as the Soda Ash raises Ph. I also was using the black red sea salt simply because I was told to when I started. I had noticed that it left a hellish amount of residue in my mixing station, but had kept with it. So I also switched to ordinary Instant Ocean salt which leaves virtually no residue in mixing station. Dong, as often, diagnosed issue for me. Now tank is thriving and I'm paying half as much for salt!
Terry thanks for starting the thread. Glad to hear your tank is doing well and your saving a little $$.
Good luck!
Doug
 
I had smaller tanks with softies and a few lps for 3-4 years and did not have much issue maintaining levels with just doing water changes. When I started keeping more demanding corals and upgrading tanks, water changes were not enough and I started dosing. The issue for me was too much information. I started doing icp tests and playing mad scientist buying all these elements like iodine, potassium, boron, strontium and trace elements. I thought this is what I needed to do in order to get my corals thriving. The opposite happened, corals were dying and algae was taking over.

I did a reset and followed the old but true advise, Keep it simple. I started using just a 2 part that had some of those elements in it and just followed directions based on testing my alkalinity. I stopped dosing all other additives and slowly my tank got stabilized. Has been on an upward trend in the past year now!
 
I had smaller tanks with softies and a few lps for 3-4 years and did not have much issue maintaining levels with just doing water changes. When I started keeping more demanding corals and upgrading tanks, water changes were not enough and I started dosing. The issue for me was too much information. I started doing icp tests and playing mad scientist buying all these elements like iodine, potassium, boron, strontium and trace elements. I thought this is what I needed to do in order to get my corals thriving. The opposite happened, corals were dying and algae was taking over.

I did a reset and followed the old but true advise, Keep it simple. I started using just a 2 part that had some of those elements in it and just followed directions based on testing my alkalinity. I stopped dosing all other additives and slowly my tank got stabilized. Has been on an upward trend in the past year now!
Thanks for sharing. You always here to keep it simple. Sometimes just going back to the necessities can resolve some issues in this hobby!
 
Of all the members here, only 2 want to participate in this. Nice fun opportunity here, wish I wasn't excluded from it.
 
So here is mine it's actully from back in the day when I was still learning. So I started a tank with tap water and ran it like that for 6 months had the entire tank and rocks covered in 3" long hair algea. So the importance of a good rodi became relevant. And phosphate removers. 6 hour manual cleaning with big water changes 3 weeks in a row got it under control won't make that mistake again.
 
I like the idea! I had an SPS tank crash middle to late last year after fighting some algae issues in an established but still new tank. I lost a lot of higher end acros and my tank went into a complete tailspin for while a no matter what I did. Reefing is gambling so I don’t care about the money so much but it was very difficult to watch the animals slowly melt away. I was never able to pin point a cause through ICP testing or other measures but I equate the issue to a newer, bare bottom tank with Marco live rock and potentially stripping the tank too clean of nutrients over time. I was dosing phosphates and nitrates to keep ideal ranges at the beginning and ended up running a short vibrant treatment while fighting some algae and I believe this could have been part of the problem.

To help bring things back, I added a lot of bacteria / pods back in the tank, mostly Brightwell Microbacter 7, fed very heavily and cleaned things less. I did a large 30-40% water change and stopped my 10% weekly auto water changes for a month. I started dosing half doses of KZ Flatworm Stop and KZ Coral Booster as well. My goal was to run a “dirty” tank until I could consistently keep nitrates and and phosphates higher and the tank came around. Corals that fought through the crash started recovering / encrusting and coralline is now growing by the sheet. I believe after going through this that bare bottom, dry rock tanks just need a lot more fish early, need a full ugly stage and bottom line just need more time to develop. I won’t hold the lights off as long on my next go around either most likely. 1 month no lights and fire it up. Onward and upward! Acros are growing great now with very nice poly extension and coloration. Happy reefing!
 
I like the idea! I had an SPS tank crash middle to late last year after fighting some algae issues in an established but still new tank. I lost a lot of higher end acros and my tank went into a complete tailspin for while a no matter what I did. Reefing is gambling so I don’t care about the money so much but it was very difficult to watch the animals slowly melt away. I was never able to pin point a cause through ICP testing or other measures but I equate the issue to a newer, bare bottom tank with Marco live rock and potentially stripping the tank too clean of nutrients over time. I was dosing phosphates and nitrates to keep ideal ranges at the beginning and ended up running a short vibrant treatment while fighting some algae and I believe this could have been part of the problem.

To help bring things back, I added a lot of bacteria / pods back in the tank, mostly Brightwell Microbacter 7, fed very heavily and cleaned things less. I did a large 30-40% water change and stopped my 10% weekly auto water changes for a month. I started dosing half doses of KZ Flatworm Stop and KZ Coral Booster as well. My goal was to run a “dirty” tank until I could consistently keep nitrates and and phosphates higher and the tank came around. Corals that fought through the crash started recovering / encrusting and coralline is now growing by the sheet. I believe after going through this that bare bottom, dry rock tanks just need a lot more fish early, need a full ugly stage and bottom line just need more time to develop. I won’t hold the lights off as long on my next go around either most likely. 1 month no lights and fire it up. Onward and upward! Acros are growing great now with very nice poly extension and coloration. Happy reefing!
hurdbird thanks for joining in! I agree with your more time needed with Marco rock. I’ve used it to and after using had similar thoughts. I waited on lights also. Next time I would of just put them on a lot sooner. Anyway good luck
 
Hey Reefers! Mini MACNA is coming fast. Don’t forget to like follow and get your personal challenges in so we can pick the lucky Reefers. Happy Reefing everyone!
 
Hey everyone Only 4 reply’s! We have at least 6 more available codes to attend MACNA.Tell us your overcoming story!
 
Alright Reefers want to wrap this contest up so get your comments in by 9pm. Saturday night February 20th 2021for an opportunity for Mini MACNA. Thanks for all that took part and shared!
 
Hey, awhile back I struggled heavily with green hair algae. I realized that one of the contributing factors is that my tank gets some direct sunlight for a few hours a day. I added curtains to block out that light. It went away and I thought I solved the problem, but unfortunately it has returned with a vengeance this past month. I am still working on it. (If anyone has good tips, please feel free to message me!)
 
Last edited:
I was having problems keeping my corals happy - my nitrates and phosphates were at zero, despite the fish all being well-fed. I was filtering with filter floss at that point and had a skimmer running. I eventually started dosing nitrates and phosphates to keep their levels in the recommended range. A few months into this routine, a toxic algae outbreak occurred that killed many of my corals. I stopped nitrate and phosphate dosing at that point. In order to get rid of the algae, I reduced my light cycle, and started dosing vinegar to reduce the nutrients. This led to an algae decline, but then a bout with dinos. To In an attempt to address the dino issue, I removed the filter floss, leaving my system as a vinegar dosing + skimming only. This was 5 months ago. The Dinos completely disappeared in a few weeks, even thought the vinegar dosing kept the nitrates and phosphates pretty close to zero. This seems to be a stable situation at this point, and the corals have very good polyp extension and color. As with everything in this hobby, it is often impossible to discern what actually causes problems in the first place, and what exactly the critical changes are that fix the problems. But, I am thinking from this experience that removing filtration can be a better approach than nitrate and phosphate dosing for keeping corals well-fed.
 
Upcoming Events

April 21, 2024
Paul B
Club Meeting

Back
Top