The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

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That blue polyp monti is nice! Now that your trates are acceptable I'm sure you'll start gettin growth shortly. Little frags take a bit to really take off as well. Oh and most important, don't stare at your tank everyday! You'll notice a lot of growth when you don't watch your tank religiously haha


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bribo12 said:
That blue polyp monti is nice! Now that your trates are acceptable I'm sure you'll start gettin growth shortly. Little frags take a bit to really take off as well. Oh and most important, don't stare at your tank everyday! You'll notice a lot of growth when you don't watch your tank religiously haha


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Click to expand...
Lol agreed!
 
Just did a water change after a delay of 1 week. I am being very picky as to my husbandry on the reef display. On my last water change I had about 15 gallons of salt water left. I stored them in the garage for about 30 days. I thought that perhaps I can just use that water on the next change. Ultimately when I mixed this water in with the new water needless to say it never became clear. That was a sign that perhaps the old salt water and had become possibly unusable with a bacteria bloom.

Well out that water went and new was made but it took a little longer with my schedule but got it done!

I test every three days so that I can make any changes to any additives I might be adding to tank. Typical over kill at the moment but need to stay a little OCD on it, lol!

I noticed that the CA fluctuated around 400 to 420
The Alk was up to 9
The mag was done at 1200 and would not climb even after water change.
The one factor I have yet to add to the equation is the PH. My probes need to be replaced and have not had the time to really cyber shop for one. So that shall be a purchase that I plan on making next week.

Knowing that there is a direct relationship with Mag and PH, I started dosing Mag to keep it around 1400. Once the Mag is set in place and kept at the 1300-1400 mark I should see the Alk and CA and PH be maintained at more acceptable levels for a young healthy growing reef tank.

In the meantime a stop at the LFS's was my fix. My pics are via iPhone 5 so they are what they are till the purchase round the holidays of a Nikon D-something!

A couple of these pieces are small colonies. I don't usually go for colonies because I rather see the growth patterns due to my tank conditions but these were truly priced right!!

Not known at LFS so help if you know what it is!!!!



Acro unknown as well so if you guys know let me know!



Close up of above for id purposes



A tabling acro purple tips with white polyps.
 
So sorry guys for no updates.
I have lately been running a little behind but will have plently to talk about and show off! LOL!

Things are going really well in my tank. I have started to see some real growth and have been able to slowly continue to make purchases to fill up the real estate in the tank. I had reached water parameters that remained very constant for the last 6 months and have watched my nitrates and phosphates drop to 0.00.
Stripping the water to this point while also having a bare bottom tank I have noticed some corals drop in color. Specifically the sps's.
I implemented additional feedings and started to dose Brightwells Koral color every 3 days.
So far I have noticed less color loss but not a huge increase in color. I need to make these changes slowly so that I can figure out what will work.

Currently I am running my mh's for only a total of 3hrs. Why? Well due to hair algae growth I wanted to limit as much of the source for that pain in the rear!!

In March I plan to increase photoperiod to see if this will also help in increasing the color. Continue to monitor for small increases in nitrates and phosphates.

Here are some of the latest additions to the tank!











 
I had a busy schedule with work but was bummed because I would not be able to attend any of the frag swaps and shows that were happening.

However I did decide I had one thing on my side and that was the internet. A couple of LFS's had these massive one day sales and yep I took advantage and sat up late planning my list.

Went from need to have, to gotta have to, ok lets be realistic and get pieces that mean something to me. So I strictly went on color and where ultimately it would be placed in my reef so that I can maximize color and comparability as these guys grow.

Since It was my birthday I went all out!!! Needless to say I think I did really well........20+ pieces plus some freebees!!!

I did patiently acclimated them and then dipped them in Coral RX. Across for 5 mins and zoe's and chalices for 8 mins. Very clean pieces so hopefully they will stay that way!

This will take several post so that I can get the names in for id later on when I can't lol remember what they are!!

Friday the 13th Unpacking day!
http://youtu.be/H0RjVqpSpxM


Acclimation
http://youtu.be/bK_KJEXxY94



Purple pink stylo





Purple Rollovers




Neon Craze Acro - directly behind it??? a freebee looks like a millie and tip is showing a pink/purple hue. too soon to tell




Valentine's Tenuis acro





Top view of the acro's






Top view of the chalices and zoe's
 
Have you tested your phosphates? Since you were talking about dulled colors, this is something I've battled as well and believe the cause is from the phosphate levels in my tank, as I use store bought distilled water as my ro/di is down for the count for way over a year at this point.
 
Sniperhank said:
Have you tested your phosphates? Since you were talking about dulled colors, this is something I've battled as well and believe the cause is from the phosphate levels in my tank, as I use store bought distilled water as my ro/di is down for the count for way over a year at this point.
Click to expand...

sniperhank - I keep very low phosphates. I use bio pellets and dose Nopox. My phosphates are not at 0 but around 0.002 to 0.004.

I have also looked the possibility that 0 nitrates also cause dullness in colors in acros and chalices. I have turned my skimmer off for 48 hrs at a time and also have bumped up feeding in order to keep the fish pooping.

So far the fading has stopped. Next month I will increase the photo period from 3 to 5 hours.

Will keep the thread updated.
 
Oh yea, I've been on that site they have some really stunning stuff, and a huge variety.


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Well with all the new stuff I have realized that I need to add another piece of technology to the tank.
I decided to go with a doser. After plenty of research and going back and forth I decided on a Kamoer unit.
What sold me on this unit is reliability and the auto dose feature plus the fact that if the power goes out its internal battery will save my programs.
It is a 3 head doser. I will dose Ca, Alk, and Mag.



The unit has arrived and have it setup. Not 100% though because the manufacturer recommends installing the unit where no moisture or salt creep can get to its components. Due to this the extra tubing it comes with is not enough. I had just enough o at least get it going for pump #1.Since ALK is the least forgiving I started dosing.

Since my last WC my ALK tested at 7.0. I wanted to get it up to at least 8-9 dkh
Due to tubing MIA lol have not been able to use pump 2 nor 3. The pic shows extra tubing I had but its too large and will cause a huge mess. I know because I tried it already lol!



I have been running the ALK now for about 4 days.
I have it set on AUTO
Dosing 5ml of ALK from 7pm-12 midnight
7 days a week
Thats 30ml a day for the last 3 days
I tested on day 4 and noticed no change in ALK still tested at 7.0

I just upped the dose to 10ml so it will add up to 60ml a day.
Will test and see where it is in 3 days.
I can see and most likely will know that its gonna be more than 60 ml a day. Why? Well the caps seem to inhale it and I can see the growth happening and the coralline algae is starting to form on my front glass.

Some may ask why am I dosing so little. With ALK I am careful not to up it too quickly because some acro's and monti's will let you know asap that the alk swing is annoying them. So we don't want that.

Will update Sunday nite.
 
Tank up date..........
Things are going somewhat well. On one hand I am getting growth some of the acro's and monti's are a little pale in color.
Testing has shown constantly that my phosphates and nitrates have been at ultimate lows. Mind you that this may not be a problem to some in some tanks but for mine it clearly is.
I decided to stop dosing the NoPox. Within a couple of weeks the phosphates started to rise. I keep a close watch and not let those go up above 0.04. In the nitrates dept I turn the skimmer off for several days and test and see if nitrates come up. They do but not significantly. I feed the tank heavier and keep the fish nice and plump. This option seems to show the best for them and the colors.
The one thing I keep running is the pellets. These guys do an excellent job of lowering nitrates to 0 but phosphates seem to be a direct story.

The additional hardware of the Kamoer has been interesting. While it came w about 6 feet of tubing it was not enough to get all 3 pumps going. After researching, posts and emails I found the rt size tubing; 3mm x 5mm from USA plastics. Now its all finally running! I also took the doser and placed it inside the cabinet on a Kamoer stand I ordered from Satlysupply.

​​​​


Here it is dosing ALK at a designated time:




Some research indicates that dosing into a highly circulated area is best in order to reduce precipitation.




Here are a few pics of some new additions to the tank.

Pink Aussie tabling acro



Purple aussie acro
 
Nice corals, i love that purple acro!


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