65 gallon tank

[MichaelB]

Mine has a gate valve on it. I just turned it a little in the morning and would check it out at night. Kept doing that until I got it to where I wanted it. Took a few days. Any adjustment will take a good while to show, so don’t just move the knob and expect to see the change immediately.

Lol thanks for Pointing that out, i was expecting to be good for a week.

 

[MichaelB]

So calibrated my hanna check it was definitely off, i must have screwed up at some point with big fingers and calibrated it instead of checking the salinity. All my tanks were at 0.21-0.22, took water out and got them back to .025.

I was about to test other parameters but checked the salinity first so I'll wait until tomorrow to check everything else out when things level out.

 

[Darkxerox]

For the future just top off with salt water so you don't change things too quickly when you read low on salinity.

 

[MichaelB]

For the future just top off with salt water so you don't change things too quickly when you read low on salinity.

Yea i pissed off the softies and lps with my impatience.

You mean salt water in ato?

 

[MarcosD]

Yea i pissed off the softies and lps with my impatience.

You mean salt water in ato?

Yes saltwater in ATO until you get your targeted salinity. That sudden increase in salinity you did is a huge jump

 

[MichaelB]

Tested today,

10/13/24

Alk 6.8
P04 hanna ULR 0.01
Calc hanna 555
Magnesium salifert 1395

After getting salinity back to 0.25 yesterday for the first time since putting them in hammers are puffy not to the point of my main tank but they are looking alot better just over night.

1.) My top concern is the p04 i even used the ULR one which i haven't been able to use in almost a year. It's showing 0.01 barely above 0. I immediately added reef roids on top of feeding much heavier than I have before. Really feeling like i'm at major risk of bottoming out.

2.) Not a concern but i plan to do adjustment esv dose to raise alk slightly to 7.5-8.

*** I had stopped adding the roids last week when i began feeding heavier so I will go back to a brodcast feeding of the roids every other day l, I'd rather be slightly elevated with p04 than risking getting dinos.

 

[Reefer Madness]

Tested today,

10/13/24

Alk 6.8
P04 hanna ULR 0.01
Calc hanna 555
Magnesium salifert 1395

After getting salinity back to 0.25 yesterday for the first time since putting them in hammers are puffy not to the point of my main tank but they are looking alot better just over night.

1.) My top concern is the p04 i even used the ULR one which i haven't been able to use in almost a year. It's showing 0.01 barely above 0. I immediately added reef roids on top of feeding much heavier than I have before. Really feeling like i'm at major risk of bottoming out.

2.) Not a concern but i plan to do adjustment esv dose to raise alk slightly to 7.5-8.

*** I had stopped adding the roids last week when i began feeding heavier so I will go back to a brodcast feeding of the roids every other day l, I'd rather be slightly elevated with p04 than risking getting dinos.

Do you have a nitrate tester? I was curious if those numbers were flipped.

 

[MichaelB]

Do you have a nitrate tester? I was curious if those numbers were flipped.

I don't have one.

 

[Invictus]

Tested today,

10/13/24

Alk 6.8
P04 hanna ULR 0.01
Calc hanna 555
Magnesium salifert 1395

After getting salinity back to 0.25 yesterday for the first time since putting them in hammers are puffy not to the point of my main tank but they are looking alot better just over night.

1.) My top concern is the p04 i even used the ULR one which i haven't been able to use in almost a year. It's showing 0.01 barely above 0. I immediately added reef roids on top of feeding much heavier than I have before. Really feeling like i'm at major risk of bottoming out.

2.) Not a concern but i plan to do adjustment esv dose to raise alk slightly to 7.5-8.

*** I had stopped adding the roids last week when i began feeding heavier so I will go back to a brodcast feeding of the roids every other day l, I'd rather be slightly elevated with p04 than risking getting dinos.

Feeding reef roids every other day is a lot. I would suggest 2x per week and reevaluate in a few weeks.

 

[PjFish]

Sounds like you’re definitely skimming too wet. You can adjust it using this

Whats the water depth where the skimmer is sitting? Recommended depth is 9.5 to 11 inches but my sweet spot was around 6 to 7 inches using egg crate stand worked alot better! Don’t have one of those skimmers anymore but think you definitely need to add air adjustment valve.. I don’t understand skimmers without any air intake adjustment!!. You can dial them in so easily with one! Anyhow needed a larger skimmer temporarily on an project tank and found an older reef Octo in the garage without air adjustment so grabbed a simple push connect valve and squeezed it on!! Easy fix.. You can add it below the muffler also no difference..

 

[MichaelB]

Whats the water depth where the skimmer is sitting? Recommended depth is 9.5 to 11 inches but my sweet spot was around 6 to 7 inches using egg crate stand worked alot better! Don’t have one of those skimmers anymore but think you definitely need to add air adjustment valve.. I don’t understand skimmers without any air intake adjustment!!. You can dial them in so easily with one! Anyhow needed a larger skimmer temporarily on an project tank and found an older reef Octo in the garage without air adjustment so grabbed a simple push connect valve and squeezed it on!! Easy fix.. You can add it below the muffler also no difference..
View attachment 61617

I'll measure it later today, but i'm estimating it’s around 7inches or so. 15 gallon sump, and waters barely over half way to prevent overflow when power is off.

 

[MichaelB]

So, special thanks to @archibaldsharper for gifting me a ton of dry rock, several legimate peice of actual reef rock the extremely light weight extra pourose stuff you don't see for sale any more. He also a gave me several massive chunks of marco rock That I plan to pass along to someone with a bigger tank.

We had a long conversation about rock types and how wierd man made ones never seem to evolve and mature in the tank.

So I 've decided to replace the bulk rock of the rock structures in this tank with the good stuff with the hopes of having it ready for the future tank upgrade.

Structure one - dry fit not fused together yet

Structure 2- dry fit not fused together yet

Current full tank shot

Two structures I'm planning to swap out.
(Maybe that 3rd one on the right as well, but that would be for much further in the future if I decide to.)

A few of the shelf peices of marco that I made add to different points of the completed structures for easier mounting of corals (if used this would be after structures are fused together. ).

 

[Wanderlust21]

If you’ve still got some of the Marcorock I’d love to be able to use it for my new 200g tank. Please let me know if you have any still available!

 

[MichaelB]

If you’ve still got some of the Marcorock I’d love to be able to use it for my new 200g tank. Please let me know if you have any still available!

I passed it on to another member already. I will be moving on from 2 of these structures on the left side of this picture in the next week or two it’s not marco rock. It's man made stuff. Art reef rock I think it’s called. If that might be of intrest.

 

[MichaelB]

So I just got this kit in the mail today. I'm thinking the nitrate is high in this tank. Pictures below are the color chart and test results.

Test kit

Image #1

Image #2

A product I got from last frag swap.

1.) What Nitrate reading do you get from this test?
2.) Do you have any feed back on the product in the last picture? (Good, bad, or don't use it)
3.) Are there anything you would recommend me using to lower nitrates.

* Nothing here is intended to imply I'm going to take any rash actions. I only seek to identify what options I should consider based on thefeedback here to get the hammers happy.

**Since I had this tank going hammers haven't looked ad good as they do in my main tank. The other parameters can be found higher on this thread. I suspect high nitrates may be the issue with them.

***Please help with comments, feed back. Or additional questions you may have?

 

[Srt4eric]

There are plenty of tanks with nitrates way higher and look amazing.

You just added a bunch of new rock. Id just let it ride for now

 

[Alexander1312]

I would always test Nitrates in combination with Phosphate and decide next steps based on the combined results.

Water changes are an effective way to reduce nitrate (and phosphate) - and reduced feeding.

Carbon dosing for combined nitrate and phosphate reductions is my preference as the other methods have side effects - except zeolithe.

For carbon dosing I would use ElimiNP from Tropic marin as this can be dialed in best.

Edit: Nitrates above 20 mg/l require treatment from my perspective. My target is below 10 mg/l.

 

[derek_SR]

Why do you think nitrates are your problem?

 

[MichaelB]

There are plenty of tanks with nitrates way higher and look amazing.

You just added a bunch of new rock. Id just let it ride for now

I didn't add the new rock yet, I still only have that non porous art reef rock in the tank currently. I will be swaping 60% of it in the next week or 2 though. I'm still working to cement them together in a configuration I like.

So I hope swaping rocks and giving new rock time to mature the tank will start improving.

Things don't currently seem to be getting better nor or they getting worse. Things seem kinda stuck in place if that makes any sense. The Main reason I suspect that current rock is pretty useless beyond looks.

I added my first ever rock urchin, 1 more turbo snail, and 5 more hermits today.

I had 1 pithos, 1 emerald, 3 trochus, 2 turbos, and 4 hermits in the tank before.

 

[MichaelB]

Why do you think nitrates are your problem?

P04 was almost non detectable last few times I tested this tank.

I'm honestly not saying nitrates are this issue, more a guess on my part hence bringing it up here. Hammers aren't extending. I just suspect nitrates because other things are in range.

Big difference is my main tank has much higher phosphate than this tank. Along with lower nitrates than this tank.

I been feeding alot more as recommended. Still low phosphates in this tank.

1.) I've moved the hammers to various places in the tank no effect.
2.) I added a hygger mini wave maker 2600 one to oppsite side of the tank from 1 mp40 (set at %25 max flow), and the vortex return pump.
3.) I haven't messed with the lighting out puts at all beyond ensuring the par numbers matched the numbers where the hammers were in my main tank. (I don't run any whites at all in this tank as the lights are able to match par from other tank without using them)

*To estimate things hammers won't extend past 1-2 centimeters since they were in this tank. In the other tank they extended 2/3 inches.

However the RBTA Nems seem much happier in this tank than my main tank so that's a little weird to me.