Mossjer's 65 gal build/help me thread

Just got back from a trip down to Port Aransas for a few days. My oldest daughter did a great job of feeding the fish and making sure everything was in order.  My extended ATO worked well. Everything looks good other than a good layer of diatoms on the sand bed. I tried to keep it simple for her while I was gone so she was feeding a full cube of frozen nightly. That's probably what caused the bloom. Changed out the filter sock that was in there for way to long and did a small water change. Should get things back on track. 
 
The diatoms in the tank have cleared up again. Cleaned the skimmer last night after skipping a week. Man that was nasty. I will try not to take that long again.Strange thing happened though. I had been running a cheap CF light on my fuge that I've had forever. I got a deal on a fancy fluval led nano light and swapped them out. My chaeto did not like this at all. It has been growing like wild for weeks now but after the switch the bush shrunk. Guess the new fancy light was the wrong spectrum for macro algae. I think it was a little to white for it's liking. But it was so much cleaner looking than my crappy cf. I swapped them back out last night and will see what happens.
 
Interesting, let us know if it starts coming back. I replaced my light too and seems like mine is disappearing also. Not sure if it is lighting or not enough nutrients to keep it going...What are your phosphates and nitrAtes looking like right now?
 
Yeah, that's a good question. I was out of town last week and haven't had a chance to test. I was planning on doing that tonight. I don't see any die off just the ball shrank considerably and the only thing I have changed is that light. I was planning on cutting some out when I got back last week and there wasn't enough there to cut back anymore. LOL I would think my nitrates should be a little high right now considering my daughter was heavy feeding while I was out.
 
Just finished up my water test. Nitrates .25-.50, Po4 0.2-0.4 so in the ballpark. CA anf Mg high but not outrageous and Alk normal.Still getting used to the Red Sea kits but I don't see anything too far out of line. Salinity is still a little low. I will probably do some top off with salt water for the next couple of days to bring that back up.
 
On a different note, I had to go get RO from the LFS tonight, because I still haven't ordered my RO system,  and was offered a green toadstool coral about 5" across at a very reasonable price. this is a piece I have been wanting. And so does My wife.  Am I nuts for turning it down because I would like to grow my own from a smaller piece? I don't know about everyone else but I take a certain pride in growing something from a speck to something beautiful.
 
I bought this 4 stage system.  The price is right and so is the customer support.  I added a second DI filter to it for $24.  Look it over.http://www.fountainheadwatersystems.com/aquariums.html 
 
Wow, they do have some good pricing. I was already planning on getting it local but now you have me thinking.
 
After a week or so from switching my fuge light back to the old POS I had, the chaeto ball is back to a good size. Very interesting. Guess I'll use the fancy light for my quarantine tank.
 
Huh..interesting. My Cheato dwindled away, not sure if it was lighting or nutrients. I am going to switch to an algae scrubber to see if that works better.Do you know how many watts your old light is and what your new one was?
 
I'm using a 800 lumen 500K LED floodlight I picked up at Lowes.   I don't have anything to compare it to, but my Cheato is growing and the light was fairly cheap.
 
I honestly have no idea what the old one is. I had just put it in there till I got something better that was out of the way. The new one I'll have to look at the box tonight.
 
Just went and looked at Fluvals website. Looks like the new one is 6.5 watts but it is an led. The light is 9000k, seems like I remember reading that macro likes something more in the 5000k spectrum. So maybe that was the issue.
 
I use the <h1 id="title" class="a-size-large a-spacing-none" style="padding: 0px;font-weight: 400;color: #111111;font-family: Arial, sans-serif;font-size: 21px !important;line-height: 1.3 !important;margin: 0px 0px 0px !important 0px">Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights</h1>on my refugium and it grows like crazy!  Currently growing Chaeto and now have tons of dragon's breathe that I grew from a single frag from last years bus tour.
 
Been a while since an update. Nothing exciting to post. I've wanted to add some fish and corals but I am holding off for a while to let the tank mature some. Everything is going great. Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.
 
I'm still alive, been real busy getting my son graduated from high school. Tank is running well other than some type of black matted stuff growing on one if the rocks. I'll try to get a picture tonight and see if anyone has any suggestions.
 
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