Tank Journal Archive
yeah the pink is crazy haven't seen many around its slowly coming out more day by day... so will see :) been target feeding both with reef roids so hopefully that'll help in its recovery as it's had a little bit of die off in the lfs sitting on display...
their nearly all eaten amoungst a copper band and 9 pep's in the dp they've taken their time lets just say.. but once few more are eaten up hopefully I can catch at least 5 - 7 of the pep's to sell them off.. got two stromb snails looking for a home though their too big for my tank now and tend to knock around the corals at the bottom on their journey to find food :D
Waters been looking good for the past two weeks finally woo hoo.. just waiting for growth and colouration...
1.025 - Salinity
25.1c - Temp
8.1 - PH
8.5 - Alkalinity (dosing to keep up with the calcium depletion)
400 - Calcium (dosing quite a bit more often lately due to sps frags in the tank)
0 - Nitrate (API dodgy.... prob low low for it to detect)
0.02 - Phosphate (running rowa phos)
1270 - Magnesium (dosing via liquid / in calcium powder)
unknown - iodine (dosing 1 drop per week though)
Hopefully next pay I'll be able to order a 3 channel dosing pump for the tank, and currently weighing up if the need for carbon dosing is needed... or running too low nutrient with the mixture of stock I have in the tank could be taking a backwards step ?
:D
1.025 - Salinity
25.1c - Temp
8.1 - PH
8.5 - Alkalinity (dosing to keep up with the calcium depletion)
400 - Calcium (dosing quite a bit more often lately due to sps frags in the tank)
0 - Nitrate (API dodgy.... prob low low for it to detect)
0.02 - Phosphate (running rowa phos)
1270 - Magnesium (dosing via liquid / in calcium powder)
unknown - iodine (dosing 1 drop per week though)
Hopefully next pay I'll be able to order a 3 channel dosing pump for the tank, and currently weighing up if the need for carbon dosing is needed... or running too low nutrient with the mixture of stock I have in the tank could be taking a backwards step ?
:D
So brought a low range nitrate tester today.. red sea's kit was actually quite easy to use and they have a nice way to determine the colour quite like the design...
along with that brought new 24w blue/white tubes for the sump light until I build a new led unit to hang high in the sump...
and also brought a small bottle of no pox to see how it goes.. so below is what i'v figured so far..
Nitrates testing at 0.50ppm on the LR kit
Phosphate is 0.03ppm on the Hanna
So by starting to carbon dose I'm hoping to get the nitrate around 0.25 and stable allowing increased feeding and hopefully coloration, I'll be starting at the recommended dose of 2ml per day (1ml for 100L, roughly estimate 200L for my tank + sump + displacement) and test twice a week to see what the levels are doing, I'm hoping by getting them stable and phos also down it'll be less expensive then running rowaphos and can scrap the idea of running it in a reactor and allow more room for a larger/better skimmer upgrade and dosing pumps.
If all goes well hopefully at the end of the week when I pickup my dosing pump I'll run the No POX through one channel and calcium and alk through the others and ATO to keep salinity stable which in turn should hopefully allow for the tank to move over to sps slowly once I investigate what coral foods / trace elements to dose in return for the low nutrients.
Will keep you all posted with feedback and result's, shall be taking it slow a bit worried from all the horror story's I've heard of people carbon dosing.
along with that brought new 24w blue/white tubes for the sump light until I build a new led unit to hang high in the sump...
and also brought a small bottle of no pox to see how it goes.. so below is what i'v figured so far..
Nitrates testing at 0.50ppm on the LR kit
Phosphate is 0.03ppm on the Hanna
So by starting to carbon dose I'm hoping to get the nitrate around 0.25 and stable allowing increased feeding and hopefully coloration, I'll be starting at the recommended dose of 2ml per day (1ml for 100L, roughly estimate 200L for my tank + sump + displacement) and test twice a week to see what the levels are doing, I'm hoping by getting them stable and phos also down it'll be less expensive then running rowaphos and can scrap the idea of running it in a reactor and allow more room for a larger/better skimmer upgrade and dosing pumps.
If all goes well hopefully at the end of the week when I pickup my dosing pump I'll run the No POX through one channel and calcium and alk through the others and ATO to keep salinity stable which in turn should hopefully allow for the tank to move over to sps slowly once I investigate what coral foods / trace elements to dose in return for the low nutrients.
Will keep you all posted with feedback and result's, shall be taking it slow a bit worried from all the horror story's I've heard of people carbon dosing.
btw... woo hoo the few brown nearly dead peices I picked up off ernie at reeflections are starting to bounce back, when I got them in the previous pictures you can see how light brown and fading they where.. with the water being spot on for the past 3 weeks they've started to slowly colour up and I can see the tips of the light browns going green and the stag coming back blue all over, hard to get a proper picture but theres alot more colour coming up then the camera can pick up but here's some photo's...
:D I'm stoked first pieces I've been able to keep alive longer then two weeks... must be doing something right.
So now I've got a few questions maybe someone can answer in here otherwise I might start a thread.. but from what I belive i've read and put together what I'm creating is an ULNS and so then I'm needing to dose back into the system trace elements and nutrients that corals need but in a controlled mater to keep prestine water condition's and allow for fast growth and colouration... However I'm only feeding reef riods atm and feeding mysis, pellets and brine on the odd occasions.
So for nutrients for my corals fish poop + any left over fish food + reef roids... and also dosing trace elements like iodine + mag in liquid form but what else do I need to be doing to help the system ?
Along with that, due to keeping an ULNS and carbon dosing creating non existant nitrate levels when am I really needing to water change, what's defined as the reason to need too ? I usually based it off when my nitrates started to creep but but as they are now being exported do water changes get quite lengthy trying to chase stable water chemistry ? Having such low nitrate level's does this allow for slight overstocking of fish also ?
Finally is it wise to continue running my rowaphos whilst carbon dosing or really no need ? (it's just I was thinking of taking it offline once the bacteria level's have picked up and able to deal with the PO4 level's them selves, along with the fact I only just recently added fresh rowa not so long ago..
Many thanks to anyone that help's with the questions.
So now I've got a few questions maybe someone can answer in here otherwise I might start a thread.. but from what I belive i've read and put together what I'm creating is an ULNS and so then I'm needing to dose back into the system trace elements and nutrients that corals need but in a controlled mater to keep prestine water condition's and allow for fast growth and colouration... However I'm only feeding reef riods atm and feeding mysis, pellets and brine on the odd occasions.
So for nutrients for my corals fish poop + any left over fish food + reef roids... and also dosing trace elements like iodine + mag in liquid form but what else do I need to be doing to help the system ?
Along with that, due to keeping an ULNS and carbon dosing creating non existant nitrate levels when am I really needing to water change, what's defined as the reason to need too ? I usually based it off when my nitrates started to creep but but as they are now being exported do water changes get quite lengthy trying to chase stable water chemistry ? Having such low nitrate level's does this allow for slight overstocking of fish also ?
Finally is it wise to continue running my rowaphos whilst carbon dosing or really no need ? (it's just I was thinking of taking it offline once the bacteria level's have picked up and able to deal with the PO4 level's them selves, along with the fact I only just recently added fresh rowa not so long ago..
Many thanks to anyone that help's with the questions.
little update....
nothing has died off as feared from starting carbon dosing... haven't really seen anything bad happening to the tank yet.. dosing 4ml's still until I see the nitrates drop below 4ppm I did miss use the test kit and thought I had lower nitrates then I thought being 0.25 but since thinking they where lower was a good thing as my dosages for the carbon started off smaller then needed.. (was doing 2ml but once I worked out i had incorrectly read the readings of the tester and they where really 4ppm I upped the dosage accordingly)
things I have noticed though....
1. coralline algea going nuts on the back wall
2. water crystal clear
3. skimmer going nuts, wet skimming like crazy, some settlement is even quite black ? possibly the nitrates binding to the carbon ?
have noticed a bit more algae outbreak on the top of the sand very little but this may be due to removing the two stromb snails down to the sump and not to do will keep monitoring it though...
might get some pic's over the week if i'm free and may throw up a few corals / frags for sale to free up some space for some more rare items :D
nothing has died off as feared from starting carbon dosing... haven't really seen anything bad happening to the tank yet.. dosing 4ml's still until I see the nitrates drop below 4ppm I did miss use the test kit and thought I had lower nitrates then I thought being 0.25 but since thinking they where lower was a good thing as my dosages for the carbon started off smaller then needed.. (was doing 2ml but once I worked out i had incorrectly read the readings of the tester and they where really 4ppm I upped the dosage accordingly)
things I have noticed though....
1. coralline algea going nuts on the back wall
2. water crystal clear
3. skimmer going nuts, wet skimming like crazy, some settlement is even quite black ? possibly the nitrates binding to the carbon ?
have noticed a bit more algae outbreak on the top of the sand very little but this may be due to removing the two stromb snails down to the sump and not to do will keep monitoring it though...
might get some pic's over the week if i'm free and may throw up a few corals / frags for sale to free up some space for some more rare items :D
yeah its a chalice... impossible to find colours like that though.. got a feeling it's been pretty aquacultured out like that :D
Thanks for such kind word's ! Have you got a tj up I could have a look through by any chance ! and welcome to Reefuge !
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