Randy's Reef Tank

Looking at the sps bleaching from bottom. I had that issue when my alk cal and mag would be out of sync. At first my alk was dropping too low to fast, then got it under control then cal started dropping to fast. Finally after about 3 months of one swinging down then the other, everything is growing good and fast. I think part of my issue was it being a new tank and coraline was building up on sandless bottom as well as all the fake rocks.


Sent from pay phone in the airport.
 
Thanks for the insights. I haven't seen any bad swings yet - at least in my noob opinion. My alk was at 8 and cal at 380 a few days ago. I dosed two part to bring it up over 3 days. I test about every 10 days.

I have been dosing more of the calcium to keep things in check. Nothing had been out of the range though. Except, my mag was low a while back.

Things have very slowly been getting to were its at now. I also haven't done many water changes... But nitrate and phosphate have always tested 0.
 
What should I do with a frag that's dying like this? Cut white part off or leave alone?

The white/dead part has gone up the length of a polyp (maybe 1mm) on the birds-nest since my last photo.
 
@Dude wrote:
What should I do with a frag that's dying like this? Cut white part off or leave alone? The white/dead part has gone up the length of a polyp (maybe 1mm) on the birds-nest since my last photo. said:
I would cut off the dead part and re-glue.
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After dosing the trace and coral energy on Friday everything perked up. Most importantly my lobo and acan are looking much better and are showing more color. My brain is not as blue as it once was and I'm thinking of placing it higher in the tank vs increasing light for everything. It may be getting about 100-140 par right now.

I'm starting to think the frogspawn could be splitting. Other people have shared photos with similar experiences. Here is a close up of it - I'll try and snap another shot in several days to document whatever is going on.


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Just got the Red Sea coral colors test kit and did all the tests. Everything was sub par so I dosed accordingly. Potassium was so low it couldn't be measured. I'll be rechecking this in a few days to see where things go.

The tank and my experience is still pretty new and hiccups along the way are expected. Most all the corals are doing great still.

I moved the frogspawn to the center sandbed to give it more light. It seams to be doing ok and looks a little better now.
Also, started the phosban reactor back up with GAC/GFO after seeing nitrates come up. I may try running this 12 hours a day to see if I can keep nitrates 0-5 vs always at 0.

Our latest star addition is a rbta which the clowns have taken too... With the help of a breeders net for 48hrs.
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And here is a FTS
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@Mike R wrote:
Nice looking setup! said:
Thanks Mike.

....

I decided to turn the flow down as low as possible (with a tumble) on the GFO instead of running at night. I read that turning it off can cause the water inside it to get funky...
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Everything looks great Randy. I see you've been dealing with some minor issues, but hopefully those are behind you now.
 
Marc, I hope so. I'd like to get to a stop-fiddling-with-coral-placement point soon. I'm hoping to start some analysis on my dosing notes to understand the demand and dosing needs.
 
Another minor issue. Diatoms coming and going. Here one day, gone the next. My conch can't seem to keep up without taking every other day off.

Not sure if I need more COC critters or if this is a temporary response to an increase in trace elements and nutrients from the Red Sea color and energy programs. (Dosing 1-2 times a week max btw)

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Installed brs two part dosers yesterday.
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2 new-to-me 1.1ml brs dosers hooked up to a digital hydra farm timer. Used two 500ml water bottles for reservoirs which should need refills every month or so.

I found that one doser was 20% faster. I took them apart and found that they have different motors and gearboxes. Looked like one was at least a year older than the other. Anyway, I ended up diluting one of the containers to allow for a single timer.

Diatoms still come and go... I have since added a few extra hermits and small sand sifting starfish.
 
Found a ton of pineapple sponges in my overflow area today.
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They go all the way down the overflow tube. About 2 per square inch on the inside.

I'm planning to let them be. They aren't any any other part of the tank and from what I have read its normal to have them in a new tank.

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@Dude wrote:
Found a ton of pineapple sponges in my overflow area today. [img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/13/8u5adujy.jpg[/img] alt=""> They go all the way down the overflow tube. About 2 per square inch on the inside. I'm planning to let them be. They aren't any any other part of the tank and from what I have read its normal to have them in a new tank. [img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/09/13/dy4u5yqa.jpg[/img] alt=""> said:
Yes, pineapple sponges are a sign of a healthy new tank. I'd let them be and not worry about them too much. They will fade with time. I had thousands of them when my tank was around 8 months old, but they didn't last all that long.
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Thanks mike.

Here's a photo of the watchman goby. He out every morning perched on this zoa frag that fell down off a rock...
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