Reef nutrition

kinetic Reefer 170

Today's morning natural light with the bubble tips:

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Those two large clowns are pretty much the same size so it's not love that you're seeing there. They're trying to get at each other to duke it out to see which one remains the alpha.
 
Ibn said:
Those two large clowns are pretty much the same size so it's not love that you're seeing there. They're trying to get at each other to duke it out to see which one remains the alpha.
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The large ones are actually bonded and one is larger than the other. They’re totally fine. It’s the two small ones I have left from the group. :(
 
Day 4 of isolation, the mocha still will NOT leave the side of the fancy white extreme. He went from open mouthed aggression to just doing dances the last 2 days. I don't know if they were bonding or the mocha just has uncontrollable rage. So what to do? I didn't know if they liked each other or hated each other, so I just put the mocha in the box too to see what would happen.

For the first 10 minutes, they stuck together like they were paired up. Dancing for one another, the mocha following the fancy wherever he went closely (though the box is pretty small). That was a good sign. Almost like they paired up. Then I came back a bit later, and they were absolutely fighting. Chasing, open mouth head butting, probably trying to bite each other as well. I don't know if it was because of the small box, or they just hate each others guts. Not sure why it started off totally fine and then got into a brawl.

Anyway, I decided to keep the mocha in the isolation box and let the fancy white out. Poor guy was in jail for 4 days. But I think he might have actually liked it. Let's see how the mocha does in there. If he hates it, I'll swap them again and then decide what to do next...

Video of them kind of being OK with each other. I did not take time to video the full on fight. I quickly broke that one up:

 
Well, they officially hate/love each other. They squish around like a pair, and then for 10 minutes straight they attack, bite, tear at each other. The bonded pair comes out of their anemone to break them up. And then they cuddle up like lovebirds. Then again, absolute battle rage until the bonded pair come out again to regulate.

Amazing that the bonded pair come out to stop the fighting. I wonder what that's all about.

So I guess I need to get rid of one more clown. I'm leaning on keeping the fancy white extreme, since I already have two mocha gladiators (which I'm also looking to possibly rehome).
 
So the mocha is in jail now, but the fancy white is now sticking with him 24/7. Visitation hours are a bit long, but I guess that's OK. They're still fighting through the walls of the breeder box, but at least they can't rip at each other.

I still see the bonded pair go over and regulate every so often when they get really feisty.

Anyone want a mocha ocellaris?
 
Also equipment update:
Just took out my Green Killing Machine UV and replaced it with a nice AquaUV 8watt unit inline with my reactor/chiller. So it's now all running on the VarioS-2 pump, so no extra pump needed.

Added a IceCap gyre battery for my Maxspect XF-130 (with 200 advanced controller). I cut the power and it still worked well. A little peace of mind! It's going to be one more button to push for feeding though, since cutting power to the pump with my Apex will just turn the battery on, but I can put the whole thing in feed mode with the controller.
 
Measured my Alk/Ca/Mg for the first time.

Alk 5.6 dkH
Ca 470
Mg 1600

Other items:
Nitrates: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Phosphate: 0.06ppm

Alk seems low. I used to keep it around 8 dkH (that was years ago). I just added my first SPS, so going to bring that up to 8.

I'm using AquaForest Component 2+ for Alk. For every 27 gallons of water, 50mL of component 2+ adds 1.3dKH of Alk. Assuming my tank is about 43 gallons, raising it 2.4dkH (to get it to 8) will require 146mL. I hope my math is right.

I'm going to just drizzle a little into the sump every 15 minutes until I've added 146mL. Do you think that's too aggressive? I'll test after I've added 73mL.
 
You would probably be better off changing your alk slowly, like by just increasing your daily 2-part doses slowly and letting it rise over several days. That also gives you time to test a few times to make sure things are moving the way you expect.
 
JVU said:
You would probably be better off changing your alk slowly, like by just increasing your daily 2-part doses slowly and letting it rise over several days. That also gives you time to test a few times to make sure things are moving the way you expect.
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Thanks John. What would you consider slow? Like 0.5 dkH a day? I'm only going to dose kH for now, since the Ca looks ok. But should I be dosing both for any reason?
 
Yes, a goal of 0.5 alk rise per day is pretty reasonable. Tanks full of established SPS go slower for sure. While you are doing this you probably will want to measure once a day to see how it is going, at a certain point you may not need to keep increasing the daily dose to have the alk rise each day, for example.

I see from your testing that your alk is quite low whereas your Ca is fine/high. It would make sense to increase your alk only, but all of the advice out there I’ve read from smart people like Randy Holmes-Farley says to use both parts of 2-part in equal doses, or close to equal. Important to remember that the total amount of Ca in the tank is orders of magnitude higher than the total amount of alk in the tank, whereas they are used up in equal parts by coral/hard algae/etc. So when you add enough of both parts to raise your alk several points you will see neglible change to the Ca level, but will be replacing what you are using up in the tank. With this in mind, the standard recommendation is to add both equally.
 
JVU said:
Yes, a goal of 0.5 alk rise per day is pretty reasonable. Tanks full of established SPS go slower for sure. While you are doing this you probably will want to measure once a day to see how it is going, at a certain point you may not need to keep increasing the daily dose to have the alk rise each day, for example.

I see from your testing that your alk is quite low whereas your Ca is fine/high. It would make sense to increase your alk only, but all of the advice out there I’ve read from smart people like Randy Holmes-Farley says to use both parts of 2-part in equal doses, or close to equal. Important to remember that the total amount of Ca in the tank is orders of magnitude higher than the total amount of alk in the tank, whereas they are used up in equal parts by coral/hard algae/etc. So when you add enough of both parts to raise your alk several points you will see neglible change to the Ca level, but will be replacing what you are using up in the tank. With this in mind, the standard recommendation is to add both equally.
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From my experience, higher amounts of Ca won't actually hurt much (within reason) right? Alk could definitely hurt. I'll dose both in equal amounts and test daily!

Thanks!
 
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JVU said:
Yes, a goal of 0.5 alk rise per day is pretty reasonable. Tanks full of established SPS go slower for sure. While you are doing this you probably will want to measure once a day to see how it is going, at a certain point you may not need to keep increasing the daily dose to have the alk rise each day, for example.

I see from your testing that your alk is quite low whereas your Ca is fine/high. It would make sense to increase your alk only, but all of the advice out there I’ve read from smart people like Randy Holmes-Farley says to use both parts of 2-part in equal doses, or close to equal. Important to remember that the total amount of Ca in the tank is orders of magnitude higher than the total amount of alk in the tank, whereas they are used up in equal parts by coral/hard algae/etc. So when you add enough of both parts to raise your alk several points you will see neglible change to the Ca level, but will be replacing what you are using up in the tank. With this in mind, the standard recommendation is to add both equally.
Click to expand...

Dosing in equal quantities is based on the theory that the uptake of Ca and Alk Is equal. The ratio of concentration of 2-part manufacturers is made to that under normal instances, when 10 ml of alk is used, 10 ml of calcium should be used.

However, If you have an imbalance, there is absolutely no reason that you can't just dose alk to get things back in line. Then resume equal dosing amounts once Ca and Alk are where you want them.

0.5 dkh a day is fine even with SPS. Some even say up to a 1.0 dkh dose is fine in a day. I've done 1.0 increase in a day without of problem and have acros in my tank. Note, this wasn't done with a single dose, it was done throughout the day to increase 1 dkh.
 
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