EnderTurtle's 40 gallon breeder LPS

[Enderturtle]

That's crazy. When was the last time you tested before you noticed the drop? Could this have been a trend over a week or two or was this a sudden overnight kind of thing? You said you had been behind on water changes so I think I already know the answer.

I was just kidding about the Kessils by the way.

It was a trend, last time I tested was about three weeks ago and my alk was like 6.2 or something.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Chasing numbers can make you crazy!
That's why I stopped.
If you trust your salt mix and you do regular and substantial water changes, you should be good.
The remedy for most problems is a nice water change

 

[Enderturtle]

I agree and I do not prefer to chase numbers, but I also don't prefer doing big ass water changes regularly

Plan is to do water changes to bring my alkalinity and calcium up to proper numbers, figure out my dosing requirements and dose. I'll do smaller water changes.


3/5/2016
After the 36% water change salifert alkalinity test kit says my alkalinity increased to 7.3 dkH.

I allowed 48 hours for the new water to fully mix with my old water before testing.

 

[Flagg37]

That's a little more reasonable. Still a good ways away from ideal though.

 

[Coral reefer]

That's a little more reasonable. Still a good ways away from ideal though.

Depends on who you ask. If you kept alk at 7.3 always I bet you'd do just fine with most stuff. "Ideal" can mean lots of different things. Some people go all the way to like 14...

 

[Flagg37]

It is true, there's no hard and fast rule of what value it should be kept at. Michael, what do you shoot for as being an ideal alkalinity level for your tank?

 

[Enderturtle]

Ideally I want to keep it at 9dkh with calcium at 450

Although ive heard of people having acropora dominated tanks that keep their alkalinity at 7dkh.

 

[Enderturtle]

Treehouse of Horror Zoas

Blue Glitter Discosoma Mushroom

Forest Fire Rhodactis Mushroom

CRC Jade Dragon Rhodactis

 

[650-IS350]

Corals are looking nice Michael

 

[Enderturtle]

Uh oh enderturtle got a hold of some primo nice shelf rocks. About to start improving not re-doing but IMPROVING the aqua scape! Redoing aqua scapes = bad! I can never rebuild things the way I want it. And I promised myself I wouldnt re-do the aqua scape entirely.

This rock came from a system thats super old. Lots of sponges, feather dusters, bugs have lived and died in this rock.

Since Im not interested in a nitrate phosphate bloom, im going to cure it in rodi water with a heater and powerhead. This will allow the nutrients to break up and leach into the water and not my tank.

Let it cure for 2-3 days will test the ammonia levels. (No bacteria = only ammonia). If nothing shows up then Ill start adding some to my tank.

Eye candy

 

[Flagg37]

So you don't cure with acid or bleach?

 

[Enderturtle]

I would do that if I saw a lot of organics on this rock, but it's mostly white rock.

If the ammonia levels skyrocket and don't stop, then I'll use bleach but I'm predicting it will not be that bad

The original rock that I started my tank with was covered with pest algaes, gorilla crabs, etc. it took well over 2 weeks to cure that rock.

4/9/2016

Ammonia levels in 5 gallon bucket with dead rock and RO water.

Calling it around 2.0ppm which is not that much considering I've been curing this in 85 degree water with a power head for the past 2 weeks.

Going to do a water change for my tank and change out the freshwater with old tank saltwater to allow for:

1. More ammonia and phosphates to leach out.
2. Begin cycling this rock to allow for beneficial bacteria growth. (My tank water has bacteria)
   • Some people like to add a piece of cycled rock and I'm sure t has more bacteria than just water but I'm not in a hurry to get this cycled. Mainly concerned about nutrient export.

 

[Enderturtle]

Some coral pictures (All taken with Canon T2i, 15mm-55mm Kit Lens + Extension Tube + EnderTurtle's Patented Lens Tube)

Pink Stylosnellia (mispelling)

Pipe Organs from Neptune Aquatics

Chiton cleaning my rocks.

Rainbow cyphastrea

Chunky chalice frag from Aquatic Collections

Mr. Red's Ugly Prostrata from the Zero Inverse Order

Indo Gold Torch Hitchhiker (i'm expecting this to dull out in color intensity as it gets bigger)

Maricultured tricolor acro colony from California Reef Co

Seasons Greeting Montipora from California Reef Co.

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea from Neptune Aquatics

 

[BillT]

WOW! Looking good!

 

[Enderturtle]

Hahaha yeah doing ok. I'm just not showing you the dying corals I have

 

[Nav]

Colors are amazing! Are colors better under Radions?

 

[Enderturtle]

The radions are still in their boxes lol im waiting for a reef link and figuring how to mount them

 

[Enderturtle]

OK. So some minor changes.

I will no longer try to keep my acropora happy. Changing tank conditions to make acros happy, result in my zoas/ricordeas suffering/dying.

• I've lost 50% of my ricordea garden. They either shrink and melt or bleach out.
• Kessil 360 WE light intensities peak at 15% and 70% intensity for my acros.
• Now I will change it back to 10% color and 40% intensity. This was the sweet spot for my ricordeas/zoas.
• I am also dosing 10ml Alk and 10ml Calcium daily. Need to test to see if this has to increase.

Some new additions to the tank.

Tropic Thunder Montipora finally coloring up! It is suppose to be neon pink with green polyps!

CRC Blue Angel Zoa. The spot in the middle is SUPER fluorescent blue , even under blue lights.

Alien Acne Zoa

Some random rainbow zoas. Lineaged back to a colony growing in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

No namers, I think they're cool.

I NEED MORE ZOAS I will be hunting for zoas during this Saturday's Local Fish Store Tour Event

 

[Vhuang168]

A mixed reef is hard to keep everyone happy. I believe a 40b is too short to have different enough light levels for softies n sps. That's why I have a softie tank where my zoas n mushrooms mostly are.


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[Vhuang168]

A mixed reef is hard to keep everyone happy. I believe a 40b is too short to have different enough light levels for softies n sps. That's why I have a softie tank where my zoas n mushrooms mostly are.


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