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BBMarlin's 76G - Skimmerless SPS Reef


BBMarlin

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/12/2019 at 1:16 PM, BBMarlin said:

. . . I ended up having to dose potassium nitrate to bring my nitrate up to ~5-12PPM. This was only needed one time and it’s been fine since. Before dosing the KNO3, nitrate was undetectable. . .

 

Be sure to stay on top of your alkalinity and carbonates (DIC, dissolved inorganic carbon) if you're keeping your nitrogen high to force brighter colors.   Just like having a PO4 deficiency can have a negative impact on corals with increased nitrogen levels having a DIC deficiency can be detrimental as well.   And if corals experience a drop in available DIC thier decreased feeding will make more nutrients available for nuisance algae and the associated increase of sugars which promote coral pathogens runs the risk of creating the feed back loop favoring nuisance algae Rohwer talks about.

Decreased growth of Stylophora pistillata with nutrient-driven elevated zooxanthellae density is largely explained by DIC limitation

Imbalanced coral growth between organic tissue and carbonate skeleton caused by nutrient enrichment

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  • 6 months later...

Update!

Total Crash!

Well unfortunately my tank crashed earlier this summer.  All acros were lost.  I’m not exactly sure what happened, once things started to go downhill; things spiraled out of control very quickly (Alk swings that I tried but could not control).  This is the third time I’ve had my tank crash in the 10 years I’ve been keeping SPS corals.  Part of the problem I believe is my success in growing large coral in a smallish tank.  The margin of error that I have in my two-part dosing is small given the demand of the larger coral and relatively small volume of water.  The LPS corals I have are fine notwithstanding my prized rainbow wellsophyllia.   The wellso probably succumbed to the wild ride of Alk swings with the extreme change in demand in my 76 gallons. 

Time for a change:

Stopped by RCA today and ordered a Planet Aquariums Crystaline Premium Reef w/external overflow (125 gallons)!  I’m looking forward to an increase in water volume and more stability in the years ahead!  Tank should be here in 2-4 weeks and keep an eye out for my new build thread, still going go skimmerless and looking forward to implementing a calcium reactor.  Never had a calc reactor before so I’m going to need advice on equipment and setup.

See you soon in another thread once I get my new tank!

This is my ICP water test from my tank in June during the crash, let me know if you spot something, Aluminum?:

image.png

 

 

Edited by BBMarlin
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Sorry to hear about the crash. Always a fear...and I'm getting ready to start trying SPS again.

A little advise on the tank. I've got the PA Crystaline 130 with the external overflow. They use the Tideline overflow. It's extremely difficult to keep it quite. The rear box is lower than the inner box so it's hard to get the water level in the outer box high enough to stop the waterfall noise. I had to raise my emergency drains so the water in the outer box was about 1/4" from the top. I finally ditched it after about a year and got an Exotic Marine overflow. It's dead silent. I just had another reefer come over to check it out. He's about to order a PA tank too. He's currently using the Reef Synergy Ghost overflow which is the same basic design as the Tideline and the noise in it is his main complaint.

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1 hour ago, Jimbo662 said:

A little advise on the tank. I've got the PA Crystaline 130 with the external overflow. They use the Tideline overflow. It's extremely difficult to keep it quite. The rear box is lower than the inner box so it's hard to get the water level in the outer box high enough to stop the waterfall noise. I had to raise my emergency drains so the water in the outer box was about 1/4" from the top. I finally ditched it after about a year and got an Exotic Marine overflow. It's dead silent. I just had another reefer come over to check it out. He's about to order a PA tank too. He's currently using the Reef Synergy Ghost overflow which is the same basic design as the Tideline and the noise in it is his main complaint.

Thanks Jimbo.

I'm considering changing my order (if I can) to the internal overflow after reading more about the noise of the Tideline.  I sure don't want to have a noisy tank!

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