Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)
- Thread starter WCKDVPR
- Start date
Been running scuzy's mitras lighting project (thanks scuzy) for 2 days now at 60% of his power level - planning to ramp up at some point.
And now I am a reefer (it had been too easy thus far) - I am sitting here almost literally watching diatoms spread across the tank like someone spilled hot chocolate on a clean white tile floor. Their reproduction rate must be insane. Anticipating they get taken over by the next tank invader.
Corals are all doing great. Water parameters look good, except calcium is really high (580). Slowly bringing up the alkalinity and getting the dosing dialed in. Switching from RPM Prime to Coral Sea Pro Salt as, at least for me, the Coral Sea Pro just mixed at 10.5 dKH and the RPM Prime has been mixing at 6.5 dKH. Tank is only using up Alkalinity so far, so starting with something higher is a plus. I have just been adding sodium bicarbonate to the Prime to bring up the Alkalinity level (my calcium is high, so avoiding anything like kalk, etc). I have about 15-20 lbs of RPM Prime left if anyone wants it for free.
Should be receiving my Stenner dual head pump next week and then I'll be doing a decent sized water change and after that will set it up for automatic water exchange as previously discussed.
The tank is so fun to watch.
And now I am a reefer (it had been too easy thus far) - I am sitting here almost literally watching diatoms spread across the tank like someone spilled hot chocolate on a clean white tile floor. Their reproduction rate must be insane. Anticipating they get taken over by the next tank invader.
Corals are all doing great. Water parameters look good, except calcium is really high (580). Slowly bringing up the alkalinity and getting the dosing dialed in. Switching from RPM Prime to Coral Sea Pro Salt as, at least for me, the Coral Sea Pro just mixed at 10.5 dKH and the RPM Prime has been mixing at 6.5 dKH. Tank is only using up Alkalinity so far, so starting with something higher is a plus. I have just been adding sodium bicarbonate to the Prime to bring up the Alkalinity level (my calcium is high, so avoiding anything like kalk, etc). I have about 15-20 lbs of RPM Prime left if anyone wants it for free.
Should be receiving my Stenner dual head pump next week and then I'll be doing a decent sized water change and after that will set it up for automatic water exchange as previously discussed.
The tank is so fun to watch.
Running into a problem. One tip of my german blue is unraveling in long thin strings of brown (the polyp color) and showing more skeleton. Also, the red monti is more pink around the edges today than previous. All water parameters are good except Ca is still high at 560. Only change has been a switch to a different lighting a few days ago. Mid level in the tank. Up high tricolor is showing lots of polyps and at same level, the bird of paradise is doing great. Thoughts? Hard to see strings in the picture, look real close on the left side of the circled branch. Thanks!!!
Coral reefer
Past President
If you weren't sure polyps were bailing out then I would say that's a growth tip. Since the lighting is the change I think you have the right idea to back it off a little. Slowly increasing light is the way to go for sure.
It's interesting, because the polyps on the tricolor which is at the top of the tank, are really out (much more than previous days). I dialed the lighting back to the intensity is was pre-scuzy's profile at a lower output, but left his spectrum. We'll see.
Sure looks like polyps coming apart, but the threads are very long, approximately 1 cm compared to the polyps themselves, which are maybe 1 mm.
Sure looks like polyps coming apart, but the threads are very long, approximately 1 cm compared to the polyps themselves, which are maybe 1 mm.
daddio
Guest
The tri-color is a tort and grows different than the montis. We have a bunch of montis and the light edge/tips are new growth. Are you sure the strings are coming off the digi and that they were not in the water column and just landed there? It could have also suffered an injury in transit/fragging. I would not stress over it.
Cheers! Mark
Cheers! Mark
I think it's too soon for growth tips. Would bet it's rtn (rapid tissue necrosis). When it happens it can look like the lining over the white skeleton is just peeling off, like peeling off a layer of sunburnt skin. But time will tell. I don't think there is anything to be done.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
xcaret
Guest
I just received the Stenner today. Install took less than 30 minutes as I already had the lines run from the garage to the tank. I ran the drain line down the drain for our washer (same place as the RODI waste). Used two Mur-Lok bulkhead fittings to hold the lines in the sump. Outflow from the tank is located right where the refugium dumps into the skimmer section, inflow from my saltwater reservoir in the garage dumps right at the intake for the return pump. I just ran it for 30 minutes and couldn't tell any difference in water height in the sump. Seems all good. Nice to have that set up and get rid of having to do water changes.
As for the pump itself. It does make a fair amount of noise (way more than a masterflex). I have it in the garage and with normal household noise, can't hear it inside. You can definitely hear it when in the garage. Anyone considering one of these is welcome to stop by and listen/see the set up.
Update
Corals - seem to be doing better. Still lots of strings off the german blue in a number of places, but it is definitely growing. Red monti is still pink. In fact, all montis don't seem to be doing much of anything. Mushroom is getting bigger. Bird of paradise is very fluffy. Forest fire seems to be growing a bit (some upward pointing nubs appeared). The tricolor is definitely growing, over the last 2 weeks a new row of polyps and coloration has shown up on the tall stalk. Rhodactis is bigger.
Stenner - I've now run a few 5 gallon exchange cycles and it is off by a lot on the amount of water removed vs. returned. It probably adds close to a gallon more than it removes (or removes a gallon less) - my sump level goes up almost 1/2" with a 5 gallon exchange. I need to sort that out. I have probably 50 feet of line from the tank to the Stenner and then another 10 to the pickup and 25 to the waste. Don't think there are any kinks in the lines. I may need to just pull the pump and test it with very short equal length lines for flow from each head and see where the problem is. Withholding judgement until I find out if it is a plumbing or pump issue. Right now it just keeps the ATO from turning on for a while after a water exchange, but my concern is over time increasing the salt concentration of the tank as I am effectively adding saltwater to make up for evaporation.
Added a Neptune DOS so I can try and stabilize my Alkalinity and Calcium. My Alkalinity has always been constantly dropping, but over the last week, the Ca has started to drop as well. Hope to get that dialed in and stable while also raising my alkalinity up a bit (generally been 7.5-8.0 with my manual dosing). pH is still on the low side (been tracking 7.80-7.87 over the last week). I'll be raising the Alkalinity, which should have a positive effect on increasing pH, but I may desire a touch more. We'll see. I am currently not running the CO2 scrubber, as that seems like a really expensive way to bump the pH about 0.2 points ($1/day for scrubber material).
Corals - seem to be doing better. Still lots of strings off the german blue in a number of places, but it is definitely growing. Red monti is still pink. In fact, all montis don't seem to be doing much of anything. Mushroom is getting bigger. Bird of paradise is very fluffy. Forest fire seems to be growing a bit (some upward pointing nubs appeared). The tricolor is definitely growing, over the last 2 weeks a new row of polyps and coloration has shown up on the tall stalk. Rhodactis is bigger.
Stenner - I've now run a few 5 gallon exchange cycles and it is off by a lot on the amount of water removed vs. returned. It probably adds close to a gallon more than it removes (or removes a gallon less) - my sump level goes up almost 1/2" with a 5 gallon exchange. I need to sort that out. I have probably 50 feet of line from the tank to the Stenner and then another 10 to the pickup and 25 to the waste. Don't think there are any kinks in the lines. I may need to just pull the pump and test it with very short equal length lines for flow from each head and see where the problem is. Withholding judgement until I find out if it is a plumbing or pump issue. Right now it just keeps the ATO from turning on for a while after a water exchange, but my concern is over time increasing the salt concentration of the tank as I am effectively adding saltwater to make up for evaporation.
Added a Neptune DOS so I can try and stabilize my Alkalinity and Calcium. My Alkalinity has always been constantly dropping, but over the last week, the Ca has started to drop as well. Hope to get that dialed in and stable while also raising my alkalinity up a bit (generally been 7.5-8.0 with my manual dosing). pH is still on the low side (been tracking 7.80-7.87 over the last week). I'll be raising the Alkalinity, which should have a positive effect on increasing pH, but I may desire a touch more. We'll see. I am currently not running the CO2 scrubber, as that seems like a really expensive way to bump the pH about 0.2 points ($1/day for scrubber material).
DEATH BY SNU SNU
Guest
this is a real treat!! keep up the good work!
