Reef nutrition

Brian's Fluval 13.5

Calgoby

Calgoby

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Figured I better (finally) post a tank journal for my nano tank which has been running since February 2020. Brief tank history below, and I'll try to post more current state details soon.

The setup (today):
  • Fluval 13.5 AIO tank
  • Turf scrubber and rubble bed in 1st compartment
  • Tunze Nano ATO
  • Aqamai KPS powerhead
  • Spectra Aquaknight "black box" led
Early last year I decided to make the dive into saltwater after having always kept freshwater tanks since childhood. My initial stocking back in early 2020 was a silver sailfin molly that I had acclimated from freshwater -> brackish -> saltwater, some eagle eye zoas, GSP, and some local macroalgae (ulva, chaeto, and some others). I've since lost the molly (no known explanation), and the macroalgae have been munched away by various herbivores.
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July 2020 - lots of GHA! (this pic wasn't the worst of it) I also tried some pocillopora and red monti cap. Both did not grow, and the monti soon died.
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Look how pale that pocillopora got!!
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Early 2021? At some point I made an accidental frag of the pocillopora. The mother colony STN'ed away, and the frag died back to less than 10 pale, wimpy polyps (wasn't even sure if they were alive). Around this time the GHA also faded away, but I was keeping the tank too clean and things continued to not grow (except those brown gorgonians somehow). There's also a frogspawn (bailed out and sitting in some plastic mesh), lithophyllon (tissue receded to just the mouth), and caulastrea (tissue receded to just the mouth). It seems LPS didn't do so hot in this tank. Somehow coralline algae started growing, so that was a good sign. This photo was around the turning point of when I started figuring things out and things stopped dying (or maybe the tank figured itself out, don't really know what happened...)
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More details to follow, but here's what it looks like now, with decent growth everywhere. A lot of the new-ish additions are from H2OPlayar and IOnceWasLegend (thanks so much!)
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That pocillopora came back from its 10 sad polyps, and I managed to get the miyagi tort from IOnceWasLegend to encrust and color up (woohoo!)

-Brian
 
Looking great! Curious about the turf scrubber. I have never used one or heard of one in a small tank. Would love to hear or see more about it.
 
@MolaMola here's a top view. It's really just a piece of plastic canvas (the arts & crafts kind, roughed up a bit using a hole saw bit) wedged in below the overflow, and a ~10W LED tube for lighting. I usually clean the LED tube whenever I harvest algae from the sheet. The scrubber used to grow thick mats of turf when I had higher nutrients, but it's been slow and thin ever since coral growth started picking up. Now I rarely harvest and just use it as a nutrient level indicator. A nice side effect is that it makes a good home for lots of pods and other fun biodiversity.
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Probably not optimal that the ATO float is right next to the light and growing algae, but at least it's located where I can check it regularly.
 
Very nice tank! Thinking of doing a similar setup with my fluvial. Currently using it as an extra tank to grow pods.

I wonder if you will have to dose at some point once the corals pick up?
 
Thanks @vissen319! The tank currently uses about 0.5 dKH per day, which I've been replenishing via fairly dilute kalk in the ATO. I may eventually switch to a separate dosing pump for saturated kalk (or 2 part) when the alk demand picks up
 
Another coral growth update
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Pocillopora bailouts have been popping up. Kinda fun to spot
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I pulled out 20 or so asterinid stars the other day. Didn't realize there were so many throughout the live rock until I started hunting for them... Once I started spotting them all I couldn't un-see them. So many...
 
vissen319 said:
Very nice! do you dose your tank? i have one running as quarantine tank. I should set it up as a mixed reef.
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Only dosing kalk regularly, but I use 2-part for manual alk adjustments. My tank also tends to run low on phosphate (and excess nitrate), so I sporadically dose potassium phosphate when I notice slowing algae growth and corals turning pale/pastel.

@kiran @vissen319 join the Fluval club! I look forward to checking out your tank threads.
 
Last night I did a 10% water change... and turns out my saltwater mixing bucket was still plain DI water when I refilled the tank. Ended up adding ~5% tank volume in DI and returning 5% of the old saltwater that I hadn't dumped yet. SG dropped by <0.002

My plan is to let salinity slowly rise back through evaporation (topping off saltwater). Also watching alk in case demand changes due to the stress. So far corals seem unfazed
 
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