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Patrick's 81G - the last dance

psidriven said:
Looks good. How stable is it? Think you can drill frag plug size holes without it breaking?
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Stable as can be, despite its cantilever design. I'm sure it can be drilled, the thing is solid and dense. That also is on of its downsides, as it doesn't have much porosity when compared to the rest of the rock I have. Great fit for the look, not so much for the surface area.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
do you have concern that at some point your coral growth will be large enough break the original support structure?
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I think the main scape will be able to handle whatever I throw at it, that one is super solid. The smaller one is yet to be tested, but i doubt I'd be placing that much on it to have it be of concern.

I may be setting myself up for alot of pruning to avoid corals from growing into one another, but that would be a nice problem to have.
 
finalphaze987 said:
I think the main scape will be able to handle whatever I throw at it, that one is super solid. The smaller one is yet to be tested, but i doubt I'd be placing that much on it to have it be of concern.

I may be setting myself up for alot of pruning to avoid corals from growing into one another, but that would be a nice problem to have.
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Trimming….
You can only do that when you’re successful!
@derek_SR get ready for frags!
 
In attempts to free up some space in the tank, I sold a large aussie branch and the largest Indo piece i used when setting the tank up..I figured the beneficial bacteria i wanted to seed the main scape had to have spread in the course of 7 months..besides, despite selling the two big pieces, I still got plenty left in the back..what could go wrong?

Well, a crap load..i was appreciating the clear sandbed and watching the fish swim in the open areas 1 week after pulling the rocks out, then noticed I was getting early stages of cyano in the sand and small pop ups in the rock work..

Before selling the rocks, nutrients found a happy medium based on what i was feeding..NO3 ~10 / PO4 ~0.03-0.07

Numbers would hold pretty solid for a couple weeks until the next 30% water change then, after the sale, they just didnt..

I fail to remember that I just got this tank wet in January and it may take a little longer to rebound from the lost surface area.

It's been clean since then..Just gotta keep a close eye on PO4 from bottoming out, but still got some cyano stragglers here and there.

Flow has helped in kicking up off the crap that it thrives off..but I gotta say, maintenance on Gyres really sucks. I love the flow it brings, but having to do a citric acid soak every month can be quite tiring.with things stable again
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With things seeming to stabilize again, I decided it was time to kick things up and aquire some of the select pieces ive been eyeing for a long time now. I hit up @coralexotic and he had the perfect pieces available. Vivids insanity, HW, JF Jolt, OG Avenger, MC Prom queen ,etc.i was feeling brave...and its time to step things up.
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Tin has got some awesome stuff..i spent the better part of my day slowly getting these guys in their spots and pretty happy with the look that's taking shape. He was a great guy to deal with and there's no worry about corals not making it through shipping..being local, its all WYSIWYG ..
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I had a chance to stop by my parents house and found myself speaking to my dad about the hobby and how things are now.

When I was a kid, he tried endless times in keeping a copperband to no avail. "They'd last a month, at best. If you're lucky" ..I was pretty proud to show him this:
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He somehow dug this up...me with my first SW tank. I was around 13 at the time..crushed coral with colored rocks..live rock and plastic plants..just a HOB, crap load of carbon, and a 5 gallon weekly water change.. my, how things have changed.

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Well..I knew it had to happen one day..I lost my first piece. One of the quickest RTN I've experienced...and it had to be with princess peach. Bummed..I really liked this piece.

I usually carry the baby in front of the tank and rock back and fourth to calm him down and get him sleepy..(also makes a good excuse to see how things are going with the tank daily)

I recall looking right at it and thinking damn that's a slow grower..little did I know..put the baby down, took a shower, came out and peeked at the tank and BAM..a stark white piece
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Alk, salinity, PH all with in normal ranges. PE is prevalent in all other frags and things seem normal for the time being. Last WC was a 30% this past Saturday and lighting has remained the same since setting up the tank..this one really got me wondering. Luckily I've kept an ICP on hand specifically for this day..let's see.
 
ICP results came in from ATI today. It was my first time using ATI's kit, mostly because I liked how they included a vial to test RO water, NO3, and KH.

Glad to see my RO water is spot on, but the results of the test caught me off guard.

A week and a half prior I had submitted a triton ICP, which i had been using regularly to dose some of their products. It came back with expected results:
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-low zinc
-low flouride
-low vanadium
-PO4 levels >1.4

The ATI ICP came back with similar results except for my phosphate levels
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I had always wondered how the Hannah checker and salient could be so off and took the triton results as the accurate reading...after all, its an ICP test done by a lab that performs these regularly right? Believing so, I had it ingrained that although the levels I set on the trident NP and checkers read low and trended it as such. Main export for PO4 had been the algae reactor and a small amount of GFO and it seems I've been running it way too low.

Originally shooting for 0.06-1.0, its been kept way lower. Glad I cross referenced it against another test before I lost more coral. Sucks there was a casualty, but im chucking this one up as an expensive lesson. Elevated NO3, low PO4...even a small temp swing or a change in water clarity from changing out the carbon could have decimated things.

Rather than dosing or doing anything knee jerk, I took the GFO off line and upped the feeding slightly.

ICP wise, I have to say, I like ATI and their layout and may be switching over.
 
FinalPhaze987 said:
ICP results came in from ATI today. It was my first time using ATI's kit, mostly because I liked how they included a vial to test RO water, NO3, and KH.

Glad to see my RO water is spot on, but the results of the test caught me off guard.

A week and a half prior I had submitted a triton ICP, which i had been using regularly to dose some of their products. It came back with expected results:
View attachment 72824
-low zinc
-low flouride
-low vanadium
-PO4 levels >1.4

The ATI ICP came back with similar results except for my phosphate levels
View attachment 72825
I had always wondered how the Hannah checker and salient could be so off and took the triton results as the accurate reading...after all, its an ICP test done by a lab that performs these regularly right? Believing so, I had it ingrained that although the levels I set on the trident NP and checkers read low and trended it as such. Main export for PO4 had been the algae reactor and a small amount of GFO and it seems I've been running it way too low.

Originally shooting for 0.06-1.0, its been kept way lower. Glad I cross referenced it against another test before I lost more coral. Sucks there was a casualty, but im chucking this one up as an expensive lesson. Elevated NO3, low PO4...even a small temp swing or a change in water clarity from changing out the carbon could have decimated things.

Rather than dosing or doing anything knee jerk, I took the GFO off line and upped the feeding slightly.

ICP wise, I have to say, I like ATI and their layout and may be switching over.
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My Triton results also tend to read high PO4, although I know that these values change in transit so I haven't really put much stock in nutrient results from ICP, and just trust the Hannah. That's interesting though. I sent an ATI+Triton test off at the same time once also, and recall similar results although I don't remember paying attention to PO4 then. Maybe I can dig it up and compare.

How long did the ATI test take to return results from the time you shipped it?
 
derek_SR said:
My Triton results also tend to read high PO4, although I know that these values change in transit so I haven't really put much stock in nutrient results from ICP, and just trust the Hannah. That's interesting though. I sent an ATI+Triton test off at the same time once also, and recall similar results although I don't remember paying attention to PO4 then. Maybe I can dig it up and compare.

How long did the ATI test take to return results from the time you shipped it?
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Yea..lesson learned for me. I sent off the ATI one the day after my RTN incident, so 8/27. Results came back 9/3, sooner than I anticipated.

I want to trust my Hannah but it can be inconsistent at times depending on the age of the reagents. All with in date, but will throw me different #s depending on the batch. My Hannah numbers still reads higher than the ATI ICP. I figured its safest to go with the lowest of the readings to avoid bottoming out, so i calibrated the Trident NP as such.
 
FedEx came today bearing gifts. The items picked up from POTO's live sale did not disappoint..I planned on picking up only two: Kingdom Hearts & Bali Shortcake, then got a little carried away..
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Don't know if its obvious I was targeting primarily warmer colors, but they'll mix in with the rest just fine.

While waiting, I was hoping the frags came in close to what was pictured during the event. After looking them over after dipping, I was pretty excited when I realized that they were all WYSIWYG..the pictures were all accurate representations and not taken under all blues, nothing fresh cut and all encrusting or starting to encrust, and best of all..no visible pest after dipping and all in good health with good PE.
 
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You should stay away from reefnbid.com. It's a terrible site which I believe is run by POTO and they post way too many frags every week. I've been conned into bidding on overly nice POTO frags for low prices that makes me feel like i'm stealing from the vendor. Stay away
 
CaseyP said:
You should stay away from reefnbid.com. It's a terrible site which I believe is run by POTO and they post way too many frags every week. I've been conned into bidding on overly nice POTO frags for low prices that makes me feel like i'm stealing from the vendor. Stay away
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I already fell victim. Even paid more for a frag that was already on sale because I wanted to outbid a sniper bidder out of spite..lol..POTOs second day of sales were on reefnbid.
iani said:
Show your wife your purchases. I bet the habit calms down quick.
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I'll be single too! Lol

She's already wondering why I'm bringing cup of noodles for lunch now
 
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