jolt

PO4 is probable being absorbed to a degree by your new rocks. Is there any way to remove half of the chemipure/purigen as an intermediate step? The Mg is a little low, I would not let it go any lower than that, perhaps dose it up by 10 per week for a month? NO3 should be fine but try not to let it get higher The population of worms should regulate itself based on your feeding habits In general, I prefer to make small changes towards goals spread over time rather than big changes, or too many kinds of changes all at once

I should have said there are a number of ways people remove them, but what's important is getting it out of there as soon as possible while its just the one (which hopefully it is). From looking sat the rock picture, your tank must be pretty new, so maybe you could even remove that rock and take care of it.

Looks like an aiptasia anemone to me. I hate them! They will multiply like crazy and sting everything

What about a Royal Gramma?

Ah, the seat looked maroon to me, so that is what I was thinking ... 😫

Nice. My guess is the theme is "Bobcat colors"!

I agree, start a build thread. First thing to discuss there is how you are maintaining Alk. There is a relationship between Ca, Mg, and Kh that you might want to understand. When you raised the magnesium it allowed the Ca and Alk to rise. Now you need to stop adding Alk for a while until the corals begin reducing it. That could take quite a while since your corals are small and not settled in. I like this video: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/calcium-alkalinity-trace-elements-maintaining/

Sounds like a good plan!

Well, I don't know about the carbon doser, but for my setup it does not do 1 bubble per second all the time. It is ph controlled. So when the Ph in the chamber reaches my high setpoint the solenoid opens and the bubbles will start running at one per second. This will cause the Ph in the chamber to start dropping. When the Ph reaches my low setpoint the solenoid will close and the bubbles will stop. At one bubble per second it takes maybe 5 minutes to reach the low setpoint. I think Ty strives to set his up such that the solenoid just stays open, which would be done by a lower bubble rate I presume. He has said that this prolongs the life of his solenoid I believe. It's a personal call as to how you set things up and like I said you will get varying opinions. I control mine by setting the effluent rate and bubble rate constant and then I adjust the high/low Ph setpoints as needed to achieve the Alk I want.

I agree they look pretty good. I would say calcium could come up a bit and alk could come down a bit. Raising the Mg should help the calcium raise as well, you need the higher magnesium to achieve the higher calcium. I think the lower NO3 may be contributing a little to the cyano, because cyano can survive better in lower nitrate situations than other competitors. I try to keep mine closer to 5ppm. I see no reason why you should not continue to add coral with those parameters, as long as it is hardy coral. Then let the competition for those nutrients begin!

I can't speak much to the carbon doser, I use a two stage regulator. For what it's worth, I keep the low side of the regulator around 40 PSI, and of course the high side is whatever is coming out of the bottle, which could be close to 1000 psi. I keep the bubble count about 1 per second (ish). I like to keep the effluent rate between 70-90 ml/sec. You will get a wide variety of opinions on setup though.

Looking great!

I like how your thoughts are coming together, it truly is a project and the more you think and plan, and the more you try to understand what is really happening in your tank the better your results will be. Pods won't overrun your tank, they will reproduce and sustain a population level that matches available food resources (of course minus being picked off by fish.) I would recommend to start with the tisbe or tigriopus, or even better a mix of the two. You can also find those at Aquadome, and probably RCA although they are too far north for me so I never check them out. Make sure to add them at lights out and with pumps off for a little while so they can settle in and your fish don't just eat them all immediately! As far as rock goes, I started with dry rock and so I cannot recommend any live rock from personal experience. You don't need that much so you may be better off just buying from one of the stores in town. I've not checked out their rock, but it could be good so long as it does not have pests like aiptasia. Another mail order place I know people use is Tampa Bay. You could maybe search the web for reviews of their rock: https://tbsaltwater.com/

I agree with Timfish on adding corals as soon as possible, but to clarify I was saying to simply make sure your water parameters are ready for coral before adding them. It would not take long to measure and adjust a few things

I think lots of people use the API test kits like you do. I use Hanna checkers for Alk and Phosphorous. I use salifert for nitrate and magnesium, and red sea for calcium. It really depends on how serious you are about keeping difficult coral. There are many testkit options. If you are keeping hardy coral then less accurate (less expensive) test kits will do. When I dose nitrates I use Seachem Flourish Nitrogen, and when I dose phosphate I use Brightwell NeoPhos. For Alk and Ca and Mag I use the BRS two part solutions. I would recommend using the toothbrush on the rock with the rock in place. Rig up a little siphon hose (not too large diameter, but big enough to suck out what you scrub off). I found between 1/4" and 1/2" works fine. I would personally put a bit more live rock in there. Pods are just tiny crustaceans that feed off algae and detritus. They are part of a healthy ecosystem.

Hi Kenta - I am referring this to @mFrame

To me it looks like a lot of new tanks do, going through an ugly phase as it matures. If it was my tank the first thing I would do is get an idea of where my Alk, Calcium, Nitrate, and Phosphate are, I call those the Big 4. I would also want to know where my Magnesium was at and would test it from time to time. Then I would strive to keep the Big 4 stable by regular testing (at least weekly, but I personally test more often than that) and by dosing whatever is needed or removing excesses by changing up feeding habits or by other means (depends on which element we are attacking as to what technique to use) I would also manually remove hair algae and other nuisance algae, and I would use a turkey baster to blow off the rocks regularly. Then I would try to get as much biodiversity in there as possible, as many things to compete for the nutrients, especially at the micro level. I would probably buy some pods and add them, PodYourReef is a good source. I would try to find some micro brittle stars from a local reefer. I would keep up with regular water changes. And once the levels of the big 4 were looking pretty good and also stable I would try to slowly introduce hardy corals to compete with the algae for the nutrients in the water. Around this time I would borrow or rent a PAR meter and see where my lights are at to make sure its all good for corals. This process could take a year or more and takes patience and consistency.

+1 on the pic please. You could ask the local fish store to test the phosphate for you once. I use the Hanna phosphorous meter, but I think people also use the API phosphate kit or the red sea or the salifert.

Well that is definitely not a low nitrate problem. Your tank is still pretty new, so it could be just a case of new tank uglies, you might be too low on cleanup crew, or you might not have enough water movement. I would really like to see a phosphate number though. Just ideas for you to think about

I have an indo one. PM me if interested. -jim

What is your nitrate reading? In my experience, one reason we can get cyano is because when nitrates are low that can allow cyano to outcompete other things. It is my understanding that cyano can fix nitrogen like some plants can, and so when other species are nitrate-limited, cyano can gain an advantage. On the other hand if nutrients are high across the board (nitrate and phosphate) then everybody gets to party including the cyano. It can also be simply lights running too high intensity. So tell us a little more ...

I have no idea on what happens with phosphate that high

Eddius if you want to swing by and do a test with my hanna low range I am around today and tomorrow

Very nice!

I would say there is a good chance the fuge is overkill at this stage of your tank lifecycle. It looks like you have hardly any bioload from the pictures, so in that case there is not much in the way of excess nutrients to be consumed by the fuge?