Tank Journal Archive

[slin1977]

Did my first water change last night , only a little one, 5 liters
Reason being I did not want to shock the frags with a temperature drop. All too often in the past my toss it in and see attitude came back to bite me. I cleaned the glass for the first time too. No coralline algea to scrape off.
This stage last time the tank was set up I was growing masses of coralline. I think I cheated last time by scraping a few rocks of coralline into the tank.

With regards to colour tweaking I am now reducing Bac from two drops twice a day to two drops three times a week.
Sponge power will remain the same at two drops twice a day.
Start will stay the same at 0.2ml twice a day.

Fundamentally it's the Bac that's changing dosage.
However I am thinking about using a bit of Coral Snow as it is intended for nutrient delivery and a biological facilitator.
There are no symptoms of overdose with the snow.

Let's see what this brings out.

 

[slin1977]

 

[BlueBolts]

Thanks for the update....great to see the progress.

 

[Ninja]

Very nice!

 

[slin1977]

Well the colours took a bad turn in my haste to hurry them on.
I cheated and added some K balance and B balance and some PIF. In doing so overdosed them Naughty naughty very naughty!!!!!

As a reward lost all the colour and they went brown.
Three days on the colour have returned.
This tank is really ULN state the frags are really pale.
Decided that the lighting was way , way, way too strong so I am only running the two coral plus tubes for now and started priming the coral with Amino Acid . Given the tank two drops after this week lesson.

Report on frags.... Montis are little bit sensitive to the KH swings. A couple have lost tissue. The rest of the Acro are fine but a bit pale and bleached from the Powermodule .

Dallas is brown with little PE the other Dallas is pale with little PE.

Millie's doing fine... One has encrusted onto pipework structure.

Let's keep feeding with Tropic Marin zooton and phyton and see how we go.

Ever so slight dusting of cyno on the gravel.

Phos 0.00 salifert
KH 8.6 to 9 and stable :rolleyes

 

[BlueBolts]

Thanks for sharing and the heads up.....I'm on a similar regime, so really appreciate it. :-)

 

[slin1977]

Thanks for sharing and the heads up.....I'm on a similar regime, so really appreciate it. :)

Maybe get some Amino Acids if you haven't already.
Going ultra low nutrient in the water is where it's at but can be tricky on the zooxanthellea count.

 

[BlueBolts]

Maybe get some Amino Acids if you haven't already.
Going ultra low nutrient in the water is where it's at but can be tricky on the zooxanthellea count.

Using the reef energy A&B, and the rest if the Redsea additives, reef foundation, colours etc...

 

[slin1977]

Using the reef energy A&B, and the rest if the Redsea additives, reef foundation, colours etc...

What observations can you share mate?

I once saw a friend turn his plain orange ric into a highlighter pink ric by overdosing some Zeo additive ... Not good for the ric but goes to show what can happen.

 

[slin1977]

So glad I posted those frag pics for reference in the second post. I can see quite significant changes from the overdosing.
I should have time today to test the potassium levels in the Tropic Marin salt and the tank.

 

[ReeferRob]

Nothing good EVER happens fast in a reef tank.

 

[slin1977]

Dropping the tank alk slowly now that the alk swings are under control.
Added two drops of Brightwells Iron to the tank , instructions say about a cap full. We won't be doing that now would we.

Reason I added the iron is the Dallas is looking a bit purple.
Let's see what happens there.

The Aminos are helping a lot bleaching damage is being repaired.
I am certain that the acro frags have grown since they have been in the tank .
The tri colour milli has encrusted the structure and looking really well ATM.

Montis still a bit blah.
Zoas looking pale .

 

[slin1977]

Two drops of iron has the tank glass and structure covered in algea.
Quite disappointing as I had the same result about six months ago when I got excited reading the blurb on the Brightwells Iron bottle.
No apparent changes in colours but growth starting to accelerate.

Time for water change this weekend as well as zeolite and carbon change.

 

[slin1977]

Zeo change done.
Forgot to put in new carbon. Just realised then.
Old carbon out.
Two drops bac done.
Skimmer cleaned
Sand sifted throuout.
Glass cleaned after algea biofilm overtaken tank.
CoPods a multiplying everywhere.
Nitrate 0.02
KH 7.7
Phos 0.00
Water change 5 liters .

No jinks- all frags still alive and thriving.
Only one monti frag suffered 50 percent necrosis since day one in this tank.

Really surprised myself with the way things have gone so well in such a young tank.

Colour and growth starting on Dallas.

 

[slin1977]

Zeovit holding the tank in a grip of ULN.
Got to start pumping the coral with more food. They are looking pale.
Zoas are looking hungry.
Let's see if colour can come from feeding.

 

[slin1977]

Loving this read ATM- lots of good nuggets
And snippets ;)
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253547&page=2

 

[slin1977]

Great updating this thread. It's like my little journal and I am making the most of it.
Feeding coral daily with tropic Marin coral powders. Doing a good job of keeping the feeding up. Superman monti showing blue as predicted from feeding. Happy with this appearance in colour.
Tested Potassium and found levels to be low at less than 200 should be about 390 .
KH steady at 7.7 and been like that for a while.
Noticing growth and a touch more colour.
Not quite as good as the sample photos though. Backed off on the Start and Bac and sponge for a couple of days and added Coral snow instead.
Tank looking crystal clear.
Added a bit of K balance and 4 drops PIF today after testing K.

 

[slin1977]

Went away for a few days , came back to find alk up at 8.6 due to partially blocked delivery tube. Calcium reactor pumping it into the tank at around 12.2 Need to get this reactor flow number down to say 8.5 as a target for now. Test tomorrow .
Overhauled the skimmer today,cleaned out the sump and pump on the chiller.
Did a 10 litre water change.

Going away again so the tank better look after itself and shape up in the KH department .