Bpb Posted September 19, 2016 Author Share Posted September 19, 2016 Nah these guys make the drive up every couple weeks with a cooler. Bring a few dozen acro frags, come back with one or two or just store credit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiddyORION Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 (edited) This truly is the strangest case of bad SPS luck that I've seen. The fact that you have great luck with literally every type of coral (including SPS) other than Acropora really makes me think that its something specifically targeting the genus, as others said here. Have you done that Triton test yet? I'm really curious to see what the result is. I really do think you'll find despite all the heartache that the resolve to this issue is just in reach, considering throughout this tank's timeline you have eliminated every other variable that could be affecting the corals. Also do you run carbon on the tank? If it's any consolation, your tank is still pretty awesome looking. Edited September 30, 2016 by GiddyORION Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted October 1, 2016 Author Share Posted October 1, 2016 Thanks bud. No carbon or triton test yet. I have done 80 gallons of water change in the last couple weeks. Everything else is still looking pretty solid. I'm just making sure to stay up with feedings and regular maintenance, letting what I have grow in. It's kind of flying auto pilot right now. On the downside. My router went down so I had to get a new one and now I cannot get my wireless bridge to connect to it, so I've been without apex fusion for a week now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted October 2, 2016 Share Posted October 2, 2016 I feel your pain! That was me a year ago when I had my 50 gallon running. Corals would be doing fine, and then I would come home from a trip and 1/4 of them were RTNing or already dead. Tearing down my tank, baking my rock and starting new, and upgrading to a 120 gallon was the best thing I did. Now my only coral deaths come from weaker wild colonies or frags from wild colonies. I wouldn't be afraid to tackle an upgrade and hold off on acros until you can restart fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 3, 2016 Author Share Posted December 3, 2016 Been a couple months since updating. Not much too overly exciting. This morning I changed my bulb combo to the following Front: Blue+ Coral+ True actinic Blue+ True actinic Blue+ Coral+ Blue+ Rear I removed the 6500k and the purple+. I loved the look for acros and other sps but I'm trying to collect more lps lately and I feel this will offer me a bit better coloration, perhaps a touch less par, and less reds. I only operate 6 out of 8 bulbs during peak photoperiod. I basically just use channel 1 for a 2 hour dawn and 2 hour dusk, and then channel 2 for the 8 hour peak photoperiod. I also replaced my heater proactively. My previous heater was 5 years old. Still working faithfully but I figured best not to tempt fate. In the process I noticed my bubbletip had split. The clones are right next to each other so I never noticed. I'll likely pick up a few gorgs today. Nothing much changed. What I currently have is doing pretty well. No updated pics yet. Side note. My router went out so I replaced it, and my apex firmware is out of date. It hasn't connected to the web in a couple months now. Besides updating the firmware I'm not sure how to get it to connect again. I seem to remember kind of stumbling on it with my last router lol. I hate calling tech support Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bpb Posted December 4, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 4, 2016 New bulb combo is SUPER blue. Just a hair whiter and a bit brighter than my dawn dusk. Which is fine because Zoas and lps just look better under this color. Adjusted the gas for the first time in a couple months on the calcium reactor as well. Alk falling a bit. Means things are growing! Can't complain there. What else. Picked up 5 gorgs today. A couple are iffy. I'll keep my fingers crossed though. They were dirt cheap. Been a while so here some pics of a few lps and some of my LOLtrash sps Old bulb combo fts New bulb combo fts Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollis_95 Posted December 16, 2016 Share Posted December 16, 2016 Hi ! I live in the college station area and I wanted to get rid of my curlcue aneome. I would really like to trade him for something else but if nothing will go with my tank I will just give him away for free! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 16, 2016 Author Share Posted December 16, 2016 Good to hear from another college station local! I've kind of fallen off the map on meeting other local hobbyists. Made very good friends with several though. I'll pass on the anemone though. Not real big on nems. I have the one just to keep my clown fish from misbehaving but one is plenty lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollis_95 Posted December 17, 2016 Share Posted December 17, 2016 Good to hear from another college station local! I've kind of fallen off the map on meeting other local hobbyists. Made very good friends with several though. I'll pass on the anemone though. Not real big on nems. I have the one just to keep my clown fish from misbehaving but one is plenty lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Haha ok thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted December 17, 2016 Author Share Posted December 17, 2016 Good to hear from another college station local! I've kind of fallen off the map on meeting other local hobbyists. Made very good friends with several though. I'll pass on the anemone though. Not real big on nems. I have the one just to keep my clown fish from misbehaving but one is plenty lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Haha ok thanks! Do you have a tank thread somewhere on here? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 Yikes! Nitrate up to 32 ppm. PO4 up at a rip roaring 0.43 ppm. Yikes indeed. I haven't run any kind of reactors in two years. I may need to hop online and order a reactor and actually use all this gfo I'm hording. Not exactly going for an ULNS, but PO4 this high cannot be good Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Yikes! Nitrate up to 32 ppm. PO4 up at a rip roaring 0.43 ppm. Yikes indeed. I haven't run any kind of reactors in two years. I may need to hop online and order a reactor and actually use all this gfo I'm hording. Not exactly going for an ULNS, but PO4 this high cannot be good Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Holy moly! Call the nutrient police! [emoji61] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 Ha ha. Children are destroying my reef tank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Ha ha. Children are destroying my reef tank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I'll go ahead and copy your post and save it for this summer for when I'm saying the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 Lol we will be saying it together. Number 3 for me is due in 2 weeks lol. Somehow I think you'll be able to keep up with your husbandry Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 I literally have to stick an iPad in my 2 year olds hands to get her to stop trying to splash in the dirty water as I siphon it oit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Congrats sir! I think it's time for you to go with a no water change tank... The type that doesn't have 32 ppm of nitrates and 0.43 ppm of phosphates! [emoji6] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 Man oh man that is so tempting. I don't think my calcium reactor is cooking quite enough media for that to work. If I go more than 1 month without a water change things start looking bad. Get stn on the pocillopora and birdsnests. Acans and lobos start shrinking up. They perk up and improve almost instantly with a water change Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 Woohoo. For the first time in a long time, maybe 2 years or more, I'm running a gfo reactor again. Phosphates staying up in the 0.4+ppm range and not coming down with water changes or careful feeding. I am starting slow. 5 tablespoons of HC GFO for my 83 gallons total water volume. Hopefully I don't make anything madSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 My sump is an absolute messSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diesel3443 Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Time to bust out the wet dry vac!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 You'll be surprised to hear I don't actually own one. I should though. I have a small amount of detritus down there but not much. My intra sump flow is actually pretty turbulent. My return pump is way over sized so I have about 500 gph pointed directly down at the bottom and it keeps any detritus from settlingSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+olaggie01 Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Woohoo. For the first time in a long time, maybe 2 years or more, I'm running a gfo reactor again. Phosphates staying up in the 0.4+ppm range and not coming down with water changes or careful feeding. I am starting slow. 5 tablespoons of HC GFO for my 83 gallons total water volume. Hopefully I don't make anything madSent from my iPhone using TapatalkAnother option may be Lanthaum Chloride (pretty sure I misspelled that). Either option would work but LaCl will be a little more cost efficient.What drove up the PO4 and NO3?Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 Totally missed this reply. I think it was just months and months of heavily over feeding everything. It's coming down though. PO4 was 0.22 ppm and nitrate was 16 ppm the other day. Trying not to take it too fastSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 I should elaborate on that. I may have addressed it at some point in the build, I may not have. So in the first year of this tank I ran GFO intermittantly here and there, fed sparingly, and kept an enormous amount of chaeto and grape caulerpa in the fuge, as well as having a healthy amount of red turf in the display. After months of reading zero on PO4 and NO3, I decided to just remove one aspect of the tank and tossed all the macro algae. Around that time my urchins absolutely decimated all of the red turf in the display. I really took the KISS approach and stripped the system down to big skimmer, calcium reactor, lots of flow, and thats it. Over time as feedings became heavier and heavier, with the complete lack of any conventional PO4 and NO3 control methods present (besides occasional water changes, which we all know is a horrible method for controlling nutrients) my nutrients began to climb steadily. I'd see NO3 come in at 10-20 occasionally, and PO4 creep up to 0.1 and I'd do a couple big water changes and back off feedings, but those are only temporary fixes. My tank is probably overstocked by most standards. I think as the last year has gone on, the PO4 present in food and fish waste has just accumulated in the water column to the point its bonding to the rock and sand, and leeching back out constantly, keeping heavily elevated levels in the water column, but zero algae to speak of (neither nuisance nor ornamental) to remove it. NO3 is easier to maintain. Reduced feedings will show dramatic and immediate effects in that parameter for me. Cut back and double rinse frozen foods, and suddenly in one weeks time NO3 is half what it was previously, without a water change to help. PO4 not so. Its a bit more persistent, so I decided to employ a GFO reactor again to lower it and keep it appropriate. Due to my heavy stock, I cant not feed, so I dont think the KISS method is really doable for me long term without nutrients spiraling out of control. Am I seeing problems with coral? Eh...on and off. I can't definitively say its a PO4 related issue but I know conventional wisdom says my levels are way too high so its an easy thing to address. As far as Nitrate goes. I'll continue to monitor it. If i really feel like I'm struggling with it much longer I may try the probidio bacteria vials. I really dont want to mess with a biopellet reactor again as that just adds yet another bit of complexity I don't care to fiddle with again. That's my somewhat educated analysis of my tank's current state and how it got there 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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