April 2016 Featured Reef - Volcano1 [Todd] 420 g Mixed Reef

[Volcano1]

amazing tank, really awesome to see mature reefs like that!! Did you start off the reef as small frags and grow all of that since the tank crash in 2014 or start with mini colonies? not to trudge up bad memories but what caused the big crash? always helpful to learn from those experiences so we can all become better at coral and fish husbandry!

I started with mainly mini to colony sized wild pieces. , but there were a few frag sizes,I was too impatient to use frags.
Best I could ever tell, I was carbon dosing at the time. I was slowly ramping up my volume. I was about 12+ weeks in and stuff went south quickly. I had been working on an outdoor project during the time with long hours. I must of not kept on top of changing chemistry. I remember doing the usual spot checks, and things seemed in range. Only parameter I found off a little was ph was lower than normal. I lost most everything in several days. The carbon dosing was the only thing I changed, that I know off during that time. It still should have been way under the max most people were dosing.
The vast majority of bad things I had happen ,were alk , ph related. Either bad salt mix, reagents, etc.
I have a couple livestock pieces that indicate when somethings off. I do my usual testing, but re check if those pieces start being unhappy.
Since switching to the cheato reactor, I've been having issues growing cheato in it. I know I have plenty of nutrients now, since I took the bio pellet reactor off line.
Other than some minor nuisance algae, most things still seem happy.

 

[Rcunning8]

I started with mainly mini to colony sized wild pieces. , but there were a few frag sizes,I was too impatient to use frags.
Best I could ever tell, I was carbon dosing at the time. I was slowly ramping up my volume. I was about 12+ weeks in and stuff went south quickly. I had been working on an outdoor project during the time with long hours. I must of not kept on top of changing chemistry. I remember doing the usual spot checks, and things seemed in range. Only parameter I found off a little was ph was lower than normal. I lost most everything in several days. The carbon dosing was the only thing I changed, that I know off during that time. It still should have been way under the max most people were dosing.
The vast majority of bad things I had happen ,were alk , ph related. Either bad salt mix, reagents, etc.
I have a couple livestock pieces that indicate when somethings off. I do my usual testing, but re check if those pieces start being unhappy.
Since switching to the cheato reactor, I've been having issues growing cheato in it. I know I have plenty of nutrients now, since I took the bio pellet reactor off line.
Other than some minor nuisance algae, most things still seem happy.

Thank you so much for the info! I hope things stay good for you! I carbon dose as well with redsea nopox, but this is a additive I have always used in this hobby. I have found when I dose too much I start seeing white slime build up on my pumps, rocks and or basically any surface and that when I know to cut back but I never get there, i used to, but not anymore. I have also noticed that when I used to dose too much that my ph would drop on my apex as is expected since the solution is acidic. Thanks again for the info and keep up the dedication and awesome tank!!!