Reef Journal V2 - Now with more water

[RMc]

test your parameters then you will know. if you don't test then why bother to dose. what is it that you are trying to chase that made you dosing vinegar?
If you are using RODI and both of your NO3 and PO4 are good then no need to dose vinegar. Dosing too much vinegar could make corals looking pale.
Hair algae is tough to conquer. I dont think anyone knows the exact solution to rid of hair algae to be honest with you

Thanks, I'm not measuring n/p and really am not too sure how accurate n/p checkers are since so much is bound up and not floating about in the water. I do want to continue to dose carbon as it seems to make my skimming significantly more efficient, and skimming is my primary nutrient export method.

I'll drop the vinegar dosing to 20ml a day over the next week or so and monitor skimmate production.

Once everything is stable, ID like to be able to feed at least 1 cube of frozen daily (unrinsed) without a steady rise in nutrients.

 

[RMc]

After a bit more research it seems that the maintenance dose for many reefers is ”.4 to .7 ml / g”. Since I have about 40g I'll keep up the 30ml daily for now.

 

[RMc]

Tank getting some natural rays

 

[RMc]

Hermit on a stroll

 

[RMc]

Yellow clown goby chilling in his bush

 

[RMc]

Bonnie is a rude clownfish. Bonnie bites my hand when I clean up her messy tank.
Nobody likes a rude clownfish Bonnie.

 

[RMc]

Journal Update:

I'm continuing to dose vinegar at 30ml daily, I have added 6TBSP of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and 1TBSP of white sugar to the 1 liter of vinegar.

I've held steady at 1 cube of food a day + Small amount of dry + 3ml Acro power + occasional reef chili (every 3 days or so). This has definitely caused a slight increase in hair and bubble algae.

As another experiment I have begun dosing 5ml of H202 via dosing pump. The 5ml is currently broken out in to 5 doses of 1ml each while lights are on. I have used it in the past for localized spot treatments, but have never tried "microdosing" the tank. There may be no noticeable effect; however, I am curious to see whether it will inhibit the algae growth enough to allow for the same amount of feeding without additional growth. I expect that if this does work there will temporarily be a higher level of N/P in the water column until the bacteria catches up.

I've also changed salt mixes. Previously I was using IO Reef Crystals, but I'm getting tired of this brand and wanted something new so I switched to Red Sea Coral Pro. This DKH is still very high at 12, if I notice tip recession on the acropora I will decrease the alkilinity pre-water change using HCL.

Completed a major water change where I blew detritus out of every nook and crannie. Quite a bit had built up despite this being a bare bottom system with high flow.
I still have pale coral, but they seem to be happy and growing quickly.

 

[RMc]

Update: The 5ml of peroxide was a bit much (coral looked pissed) so I lowered it to 3ml and then finally 1ml over the course of a week. Almost all of the green hair algae died off. Unfortunately, the die off spurred bacterial growth like crazy and I ended up with some cloudy water. I pulled back my vsc dosing to 5ml a day from 30ml.

Additionally, I finally bought a red sea pro n/p test kit. Both nitrates and phosphates are bottomed out at 0/0. Not a surprise with the bacterial bloom.

I want to share the bad and the ugly in this thread as well as the good. (No pics though).

 

[RMc]

Fresh Acro frag from Dong

 

[RMc]

Journal update:

Coral is still pale, but colors seem to be coming back a bit. I've cut down on carbon dosing (to 5ml vinegar + 1/16 tsp vit-c a day)

Feeding 1 cube of frozen + 1/8 tsp of Reef chili + 3.5ml of Acro power + 1/8 tsp of spirulina daily

Noted that my alk was 11 or so, and I've read that NSW levels are preferable for ULNS. Used HCL to slowly lower alk to 7.5. By adding 2.25ml of 35% HCL to a fresh 5 gallon of Red Sea Pro salty water I get ~410 calcium, 7.5 Alkilinity.

Overall tank parameters are 7.5 ALK, 430 CA, 1320 Mag, 1.025 salty, 79 degrees F, 0 Nitrates, 0 Phosphates.

I'm going to focus on holding these parameters steady while slowly raising nitrates to 0.2 and phosphates to 0.02.

Here's hoping I see some color soon!

 

[RMc]

Hi all, holding steady with parameters at ALK ~8, CA 430, MG 1320, Salinity 1.025. Despite heavy feeding my nitrates and phosphates are still 0.0 and 0.0. I almost thought there must be something wrong with my kit after so much feeding and no rise. To increase my nitrates I've decided to begin dosing KNO3. Last night I added 0.3cc (1:500,000) of my tank volume and tested nitrates 1 hour later. The test kit picked up 1.75 PPM which was close enough to my predicted target for me to trust the kit. The next morning (12 hours later) I tested again and noted that nitrates were 0.75 PPM. Therefore at a concentration of ~2ppm my tank consumes 1ppm nitrate per 12 hours during lights off. I am sure that if I continue to dose my bacterial population will grow to consume more, but that is the current consumption rate.

To maintain a minimum nitrate value of 1ppm I will be automating my KNO3 doses. I will do this by adding 5cc of Kno3 to 300ml of ro water. I'll also add 1 drop of lugols to prevent bacterial growth. I plan on dosing 10ml daily with my dose pump, giving me 0.5cc of kno3 each day for 30 days. I'll be dosing 5ml after lights off in 1 dose and 5ml just before lights on in another dose. I'll be taking this dosing approach as I believe coral's main photosynthetic period occurs just after lights on and they will be better able to compete with algae for the nitrate at this point.

Wish me luck!

Some update pics as well - this is the photo sub after all.

"Icicle Acropora?"
Full Size: http://i.imgur.com/UQnigz7.jpg

Ora blue birdsnest - coloring back up after bleaching a while back. I've noticed that the birdsnest and montipora suffered the most in a low nutrient low feed environment.
Full Size: http://i.imgur.com/SJ6I8Iz.jpg

 

[RMc]

Under an actinic sun

 

[RMc]

 

[RMc]

Armor of God Zoanthids, always a crowd pleaser.

Tank is doing well though there is a bit of algae. Went away on vacation for a week and alk dropped to 5.8, i've been working to slowly bring it back up. Not sure what caused the drop.

 

[steevareno]

Post #92... Wow!!!

 

[RMc]

High Res: https://gfycat.com/EnchantingUncomfortableCatfish

 

[RMc]

Update - Alk has recovered since I went on vacation two weeks ago. Tank has a small hair algae issue at the moment. Will be building a DIY turf algae reactor soon with a venturi skimmer pump and a media reactor.

This leptoseris was really irritating a Montipora Spongodes - to the point of decent tissue recession - so I've moved it off on its own now.

These colorful zoas are multiplying like crazy under medium high LED light and medium, intermittent flow. They've encrusted the underside of the rock as well but seem to have better color in higher light.

Brain coral just being its good ole bulletproof self

Blue ORA fully regained its color - I've just moved it to a higher light position in hopes of encoraging so

Some lesser shown zoas in my tank

King midas Zoas - started as 8 a few months back

 

[RMc]

Had a small temperature incident a few days back - and some nutrient swings. I'm not sure what exactly did it but the hammer coral has bleached rather severely. Oddly enough it is the only coral affected.

Growth - slow but steady. WB is off a bit.

Hornets still trucking

Yup... bonnie is still bonnie

And our favorite neurotic - Keibler

He's showing some signs of stress - though he should be acclimated. I have a suspicion that he's picked on by emerald crabs at night.

 

[RMc]

Journal Update:

Haven't been paying too much attention lately as we've been working hard to automate our balcony planters. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=580355 one obsession at a time.

I've taken the KNO3 drip offline (was adding a few PPM daily). Instead I've added an amino acid / kelp / fulvic acid dripper. Over the course of a month this will add 1 tablespoon of broad spectrum L-Amino Acids (dried pure form), 1 tbsp of liquid kelp concentrate, and 1/4 tsp of fulvic acid. This is pretty experimental...Not sure exactly why I'm doing it. But it should be safe enough and may increase growth of all life in the tank (both good and bad).

The solution will be dosed 3 times throughout the day. Once in the morning, once just as the lights come on, and once 1 hour after lights out - 3ml dose per, 9ml / day ~ 250ml / month

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Nice shots as usual. Keep up the updates, it's nice to be able to follow along as it progresses.