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Water quality

Christyef

By Christyef
in Reef Keeping

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Christyef Elite Reefer

Christyef

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180306/5f749062d6f3b86f68c8f37d0fe1e12e.jpg[/img
Ty was gracious enough to also test my water. His results are a little different that’s mine. The phosphates are crazy high in the 55, and after talking and weeding out things, we concluded it may be the accumulation of Eel poop from my 3’ zebra eel and a crummy skimmer! [emoji23]. I seriously need to move into my bigger tank. I’m going to begin running a small amount of GFO to try to slowly bring it down in the 55. I also learned that bc it’s been like that for so long, the current live rock will leach PO for some time. The 35 I’ll leave alone bc it seems to be doing ok on its own. I’m also going to change my RO filters bc it’s time.


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Christyef Elite Reefer

Christyef

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Ps. The alk is higher bc I began dosing aquavitro. I chose something simple (and inexpensive) to try since I really have no clue what I’m doing. [emoji6]


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Sascha D. Elite Reefer

Sascha D.

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Some fish are very hard on the bioload; eels, puffers, triggers, sharks and groupers in particular. It's pretty rare to see any eel besides Snowflake and Ribbon in a small aquarium with corals. A larger skimmer may help some, but you'll probably have to choose between FOWLR and reef. I've wanted a Tessalata Eels for several years, but I'm not willing to make the sacrifice. 

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FarmerTy Elite Reefer

FarmerTy

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[/img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180306/5f749062d6f3b86f68c8f37d0fe1e12e.jpg[/img
Ty was gracious enough to also test my water. His results are a little different that’s mine. The phosphates are crazy high in the 55, and after talking and weeding out things, we concluded it may be the accumulation of Eel poop from my 3’ zebra eel and a crummy skimmer! [emoji23]. I seriously need to move into my bigger tank. I’m going to begin running a small amount of GFO to try to slowly bring it down in the 55. I also learned that bc it’s been like that for so long, the current live rock will leach PO for some time. The 35 I’ll leave alone bc it seems to be doing ok on its own. I’m also going to change my RO filters bc it’s time.


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I should note that the PO4 level was ABOVE 0.6 ppm of phosphates, it was above the detection limit of my Hanna meter! It was the bluest water I've ever seen when running a phosphate test!
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Gig 'em @ NDstructible Elite Reefer

Gig 'em @ NDstructible

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34 minutes ago, FarmerTy said:


 

 


I should note that the PO4 level was ABOVE 0.6 ppm of phosphates, it was above the detection limit of my Hanna meter! It was the bluest water I've ever seen when running a phosphate test!

That sounds familiar @Jnaylor :P Seems like frog spawn can survive in some very nutrient rich water, whereas some other corals like Acropora don't fare too well. When I was diving in Thailand I was shocked at the cloudiness of water where a lot of LPS were living, so it's not surprising to me that they thrive in more nutrient rich environments. What I'm trying to say is just because your frogspawn is surviving, doesn't mean your tank is in perfect condition to host all stony corals.  I'm not accusing you of assuming that, but I feel like it can be a misconception in the hobby.

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Christyef Elite Reefer

Christyef

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That sounds familiar [mention=3375]Jnaylor[/mention] [emoji14] Seems like frog spawn can survive in some very nutrient rich water, whereas some other corals like Acropora don't fare too well. When I was diving in Thailand I was shocked at the cloudiness of water where a lot of LPS were living, so it's not surprising to me that they thrive in more nutrient rich environments. What I'm trying to say is just because your frogspawn is surviving, doesn't mean your tank is in perfect condition to host all stony corals.  I'm not accusing you of assuming that, but I feel like it can be a misconception in the hobby.

Oh no I know my tank is less than perfect. Lol. Hence why I’m seeking help. Mentioning my thriving frogspawn was to reiterate my confusion why some things are doing good, and some terrible. In all honesty, I don’t want a tank full of acros and sticks. While pretty and unique in their own way, I like the movement and different textures of lps and softies. EXCLUDING Xenia! [emoji23][emoji23]. But I do like the encrusting leptos and cyphastrea. Finding that happy balance will be ideal


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FarmerTy Elite Reefer

FarmerTy

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Oh no I know my tank is less than perfect. Lol. Hence why I’m seeking help. Mentioning my thriving frogspawn was to reiterate my confusion why some things are doing good, and some terrible. In all honesty, I don’t want a tank full of acros and sticks. While pretty and unique in their own way, I like the movement and different textures of lps and softies. EXCLUDING Xenia! [emoji23][emoji23]. But I do like the encrusting leptos and cyphastrea. Finding that happy balance will be ideal


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I can't believe I let you in my house! No love for the acros? [emoji33]
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Christyef Elite Reefer

Christyef

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I totally respect the acros and all other sticks. Haha. I just don’t see them in my future bc I can’t even control my Eel poop! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]. But I’d like to have more of a mixed Reef bc I like the movement..... but a stick here and there would be ok. [emoji6]


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FarmerTy Elite Reefer

FarmerTy

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Should have worded that different. I respect the acros AND those that can successfully keep them! [emoji8]


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Haha, we're just being goofs. Don't ever take us seriously. I could always use more movement in my tank. [emoji16]
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Timfish Elite Reefer

Timfish

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Christy, I forgot to put this in my above posts but you should know the notion phosphate needs to be kept at zero is based on faulty assumptions.  Research conducted over the last 8 years at Southampton University has show phosphate deficiency seriously impairs the coral/zooxanthellae symbiosis and makes corals very susceptable to bleaching.   Lowering your phosphate level would be a good thing but I don't think it's the main problem you are having with corals.  Like Richard Ross pointed out there's a lot of other things going on we can't test for or don't know about yet.  As pointed out Issac and Jolt knowing you magnesium level would be helpful.  And I wouldn't worry about getting a bigger skimmer,  the two oldest coral growers, Steve Tyree and Tropicorium, stopped using skimmers in the 90's (Tropicorium also breeds and raises epaulette sharks in their coral tanks).

23 hours ago, FarmerTy said:


 

 


I should note that the PO4 level was ABOVE 0.6 ppm of phosphates, it was above the detection limit of my Hanna meter! It was the bluest water I've ever seen when running a phosphate test!

So the PO4 reading in Christy's first post is probably closer to what's in her tank.   I think this goes to Richard's concern about the potential inacuracies in testing and interpreting those tests.  Like I said it's good to lower PO4 to average levels found on reefs but to keep things in perspective upwelling will expose reefs to PO4 levels exceeding 2.0 ppm.  And to help put nitrogen in perspective on a healthy reef sharks will be 50% to 80% of the total fish biomass, that's a lot of nitrogen.
 

The above discussion about frogspawn I think demonstrates very well the problem with using colloquial terms to determine the husbandry requirements of an animal.  Since even with a very small genus with just a few species like Anacropora or Euphylia we find animals living in very different environments. 

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Christyef Elite Reefer

Christyef

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I’m going to add a reactor and tiny bit of gfo to try and slowly bring it down. Then focus my time and energy on working on my upgrade. If I do have a problem with my LR leaching Po4 back into my system, greater Water volume could help with that. Plus, it’s just time to upgrade and have one big tank instead of 2 small ones


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FarmerTy Elite Reefer

FarmerTy

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For some reason these didn’t post yesterday, but these are the readings from Ty’s tests: a653cd5db5b7a7350381ea5bb5c8f0df.jpg


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That's terrible penmanship! In my defense, I'm a leftie. [emoji16]

Remember to get that dry rock seeded and cycled now. Just toss a pump in there and pour in that Dr. Tim's bacteria I gave you and let it be while you get that larger tank ready.

I'm looking forward to the future build thread for the large tank and Eli the eel will get to stretch out a bit too. I think that was his name.
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