High Tide Aquatics

New to me Reefer 250

I hope so.

I honestly have no clue if lunar is actually beneficial in my case. But I know the coral spawning lab at the cal academy uses them.

I think it has 2 potential benefits.

1.My clowns are laying eggs every 10 days
2.And I think it helps not have fish jump out at night.

Luckily with the AI’s I can set the intensity of lunar to not be so bright.
 
Cool time lapse video.

I have asterinas, as do most people I think. They are annoying but not a plague. In small numbers they are fine, but when they get too numerous they go after small zoas and can clear out coralline.

I just manually thin them out whenever I see them. Occasionally I’ll go after them more aggressively on the rocks, with a siphon hose stuck in a filter sock in my sump. I hold a pick with the hose and just pry them off and the hose sucks them down to be collected.
 
There’s still hope to manually remove them if you catch each one the second you spot it. Asterinas do eat micro zoas and turns out some encrusting sponges.
 
Spent a nice morning with the tank. It’s great when you test and everything is in line. No adjustments needed.

I think the algae scrubber is really kicking in because my phosphates are finally back down to .01 even with my GFO due for a change. I decided I would hold off on changing GFO and test mid week to see if it’s still holding strong.

Also did a slow 1 gallon water change out of my skimmer. I do this when I have the time as I feel it really pulls a bunch of gunk out of the tank. Video below

Up to 87ml’s of each part of bionic 2 part to keep stable

Current Parameters
Salinity 1.026
Alk 7.7
Cal 475
Mag 1385
Nitrate between 5 and 10 (salifert)
Phosphate.01

I plan to stop dosing Red Sea trace and reef energy in favor of bionic trace and either brightwell aminos, or acropower. I’m just waiting a few more weeks to run out.

Only changing trace elements because they are expensive and probably unnecessary and overkill when using bionic 2 part already.
And the reef energy just sucks to have to mix daily and dose.

 
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Rostato said:
Spent a nice morning with the tank. It’s great when you test and everything is in line. No adjustments needed.

I think the algae scrubber is really kicking in because my phosphates are finally back down to .01 even with my GFO due for a change. I decided I would hold off on changing GFO and test mid week to see if it’s still holding strong.

Also did a slow 1 gallon water change out of my skimmer. I do this when I have the time as I feel it really pulls a bunch of gunk out of the tank. Video below

Up to 87ml’s of each part of bionic 2 part to keep stable

Current Parameters
Salinity 1.026
Alk 7.7
Cal 475
Mag 1385
Nitrate between 5 and 10 (salifert)
Phosphate.01

I plan to stop dosing Red Sea trace and reef energy in favor of bionic trace and either brightwell aminos, or acropower. I’m just waiting a few more weeks to run out.

Only changing trace elements because they are expensive and probably unnecessary and overkill when using bionic 2 part already.
And the reef energy just sucks to have to mix daily and dose.

Click to expand...
Skimmer water change is an interesting approach.
 
Not something I would recommend all the time. And I only do about a gallon that way when I have about 30-50 minutes to babysit the tank.
 
Rostato said:
Not something I would recommend all the time. And I only do about a gallon that way when I have about 30-50 minutes to babysit the tank.
Click to expand...

I’d only trust myself if that was on a solenoid with a timer (or apex) or a float valve. I guarantee that would overflow on me if I tried that. ;)
 
If nitrate is that high (5-10ppm) I would let phosphate come up to 0.08ppm and then do a big water change or just wait until your nitrate is below 5ppm again to let phosphate drift back down. With a fully stocked tank I just think you need a little more margin. Your tank looks great though so whatever you’re doing seem to be working!
 
Chromis said:
If nitrate is that high (5-10ppm) I would let phosphate come up to 0.08ppm and then do a big water change or just wait until your nitrate is below 5ppm again to let phosphate drift back down. With a fully stocked tank I just think you need a little more margin. Your tank looks great though so whatever you’re doing seem to be working!
Click to expand...


I don’t chase nitrate at all. Where ever it settles is where I’m happy. It’s been at 10ppm for about a year.


That whole theory about nitrate and phosphate needing to be at certain “ratio’s” is a load of B.S.

I just want my phosphate at .01


I also forgot to mention that I am only doing monthly water changes now. Today’s was just because I had time. The goal is to get to 2 months without water changes eventually, but it will take time for me to make sure the corals are ok with it.
 
Flagg37 said:
You mean you all don’t have your skimmer cup plumbed to a drain? :)


I would agree, I’d be shooting for .03 but like @Chromis said, whatever you’re doing seems to be working.
Click to expand...


I shoot for .01 because I feed so much that I’ll probably never hit zero. If anything it will creep up on me. It usually varies between .01 and .08
 
That is some weird algae on your scrubber. Looks almost like lettuce algae.
Usually it is hair algae. Oh well, as long as it works.

Just be careful, mine eventually pulled ALL the nitrates out, starving the corals.
 
Yeah it’s a mix of lettuce and hair. That lettuce algae loves to try and grow in my tank. I’m just happy I have a yellow tang eating it all day.
 
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