Bryman's 90G Reef

madjoe said:
Have u tryed stir some of the sand i do my whole sand bed once a week with a turkey baster keeps it nice and clean and all that poop gets in water column . Now if u dont i wouldnt do all at once start with small section tehn another section next week . Since ive always done it im able to do whole tank in one sitting 12yr old sand looks better then day i bought it and i believe its feeding my corals during the poop sand storm
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Madjoe, that's a good idea. I've never done this, besides what my wrasse sleeps in on the left side of the tank. I did release a lot of detritus when I removed a lot of my cheato, and I think I will shake it out once a week from now on. If I can't bring nitrates up with what I'm doing now your suggestion will be my next step.
 
Addessed the 0 Nitrate Issue

So as some of you know, because of my over-zealousness with vodka dosing, I forced my tank into a dangerous ULNS situation where my SPS started paling, STN'ing and generally looking like crap. Well even after feeding a crapload for the last few weeks, my nitrate still read as absolutely 0. So about a week and a half ago I just turned off the skimmer and pulled out 2/3rds of my cheato to see what would happen. A week later, still no nitrate, although I am sure my PO4 was building from all the feedings.

I did some more research, and found that people were actually dosing Nitrate, which seems like sacrilege for an long-time reefer. The evidence of improved health in corals was undeniable, so I decided to try. To my surprise, a lot of people are using Spectracide Sump Remover (http://www.spectracide.com/Products-and-Solutions/All-Products/Spectracide-Stump-Remover.aspx), as it is nearly pure Potassium Nitrate. When added to the tank, it does little to potassium levels but raises Nitrate without raising Phospate (like overfeeding). I used 3 tbsp in 1 gallon of RO water to make my solution, and found that it raised my No3 from 0 to 1 ppm with about 100ml. I dosed another 200ml the next day because the test registered 0 again. The day after (yesterday), I tested and it showed 1 ppm, so I think I was able to kickstart a base level in the tank. I am going to dose whenever I don't have at least a hint of color on the Salifert NO3 test.

Things are already looking better, especially the mushrooms, LPS, and some SPS. They are really puffed out. Now I think I know why I could never keep an acan and all my chalices looked like crap. Now I understand you have to have at least some detectable level of NO3 in the system for things to be happy.....but not too much.

I don't intend to dose this long-term but will leave my skimmer off until I have a steady, low level of NO3 (5ppm or under). I think I didn't have this problem before when I was successful early in the colored stick game because I had a crappy Octopus skimmer that always overflowed. The Aquamaxx EM200 is just too good to run all the time on my system. That's my hypothesis for now. Oh, and no more Vodka without testing NO3 regulary!
 
Have you measured your P04? I'm curious because my tank seems to keep falling out of balance...meaning no measurable nitrates and the P04 starts climbing as I try to feed my way out.

I'm unclear on how the N03 gets processed/exported without (or faster than) the P04 with it...

Currently my Aquamaxx has to be run wet to get anything out, but my P04 is up and algae is now growing...while chalices and acans show stress :(
 
ultimatemj said:
Have you measured your P04? I'm curious because my tank seems to keep falling out of balance...meaning no measurable nitrates and the P04 starts climbing as I try to feed my way out.

I'm unclear on how the N03 gets processed/exported without (or faster than) the P04 with it...

Currently my Aquamaxx has to be run wet to get anything out, but my P04 is up and algae is now growing...while chalices and acans show stress :(
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Have not measured PO4 but will tonight. Just measured NO3 and undetectable again :(
 
PO4 was .06 on the Hannaford checker. Thought it would have been higher considering how much I was feeding.

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So last night I had 0 nitrates again, and I dosed another 100ml of my KNO3 solution. This morning it was at 0.5 ppm, but I am guessing if I test again at night it will be 0 once again. Last night I also made the decision to turn the skimmer back on, because I think some of the dying SPS were starting to cause a chain reaction of death due to releasing organics/toxins into the water. I also put about 4 tbsp of carbon in a bag in the sump to pull out any toxins. Of course I know these steps won't help in increasing my nutrients, but I was worried the junk the dying corals were releasing would kill everything as I've seen before. So, I will leave the skimmer on, which is pulling a ton of crap, and a little carbon for the time being. I also set up the KNO3 on my Doser 2 to dose 50ml / day spread across 5 intervals, so there will be at least a low level of nitrate in the tank at all times. My goal is barely detectable nitrates all the time. I hope this is the right approach because this is driving me nuts. :a43::a43::a43:
 
It's doing pretty well. I find dosing 60 ml / day KNO3 keeps my nitrates at 0.2 ppm, or barely registering on the test. However, colors and growth are much better. Things are back in balance, Alk at 7.5, Ca 420, Mg 1340. Cheato is growing well. Only thing I would have done differently is not dosed so much KNO3 right away; 300ml in 24 hours pissed off some of the more sensitive SPS. Dosing 10 ml 6x per day now and everything is looking good except the encrusting montis that were starving before.

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My thread is boring, no pics for several pages. I went to Beyond the Reef tonight in Schaumburg to exchange some incorrect plumbing parts for my upcoming frag tank, and low and behold they just got a big ORA shipment in. They had all kinds of stuff, including rare like purple plasma and blue iris. Most was not even priced yet. Too bad my cash flow is low at the moment, but I did pick up what I believe to be my original super pink birdsnest, the ORA Hyacinth. I also picked up a Frogskin acro because I always wanted one of those. Pic in blue+/purple+ T5s as it was dusk:
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And I am finally getting some color back in my stuff now that there is detectable NO3. Shades of Fall on the left went from brown to this in about 2 weeks.
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However, the jury is still out on whether the jedi mind trick and tyree true undata montis will recover. I think the dying tissue is releasing some bad stuff in the water as my WWC yellow tips went from encrusting to dead in a day. :(

I've been testing my water every day like a good boy, but kind of nervous to go to Hong Kong for a week coming up.
 
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Quick update - tank is well on the way now to looking decent. My encrusting montis sprouted a ton of new polyps and are recovering well. Acros are growing and coloring up. When I came back from Hong Kong everything looked great except a little red slime and a bubble algae outbreak. I attribute this to the KNO3 dosing even though it was reading only 0.2 NO3 consistently. I lowered the dose of KNO3 to 25 from 60 ml/day, and the algae / slime is getting better and SPS still look good. I'm thinking my target for NO3 is barely detectable color on the Salifert test, as that is what I have now (<0.2 ppm). I am hoping this will be a balance between what the corals need and too much fuel for algae. My refugium is chock full of cheato and should take care of the PO4 now too. Time to keep things stable and see what happens.

Anyone see any small twin bar rabbitfish at LFS? Thinking of adding one for the bubble algae and for more nitrate without dosing KNO3.
 
Always an adventure to go to the other side of the planet and come back to who knows what the reef is doing when you get back :beer:
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Happy to hear the tank is better, but LOL at

Time to keep things stable and see what happens.
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Anyone see any small twin bar rabbitfish at LFS? Thinking of adding one for the bubble algae and for more nitrate without dosing KNO3.
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Update - 11/21/15:

Red slime is almost gone after reducing KNO3 dosing. Things are starting to look really good. I didn't get a rabbitfish to get rid of the bubble algae, but added a few more emerald crabs. I also scrubbed off the worst of it today. It's getting a lot better. NO3 tests show barely any color (<0.2), but this seems to be the sweet spot for me. SPS colors keep improving and I can even keep chalices and LPS happy now. Here's a FTS:
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Not the best shot, but my Icefire echinata has really nice green/blues, and polyps always out:
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My purple rim cap that was almost dead 2 months ago is growing over the dead parts and coloring up nicely. I also added a yellow polyp orange cap behind it from Aqua Pros a few weeks back:
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Got a rainbow acan lord last weekend at Aqua Pros and it's doing well. Also the chalice next to it has never looked better. And let me know if anyone wants some of the purple stylo colonies growing on my sandbed!
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Palmers Milli from TD in the center, with some other assorted Millis and stuff from Madjoe and Mike D:
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And last but probably my favorite, my Pink Lemonade is really starting to color up andtake off:
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I am really happy things are turning around in my tank. Dosing nitrate is the key for me. I think my big blue squamosa combined with my good skimmer and full fuge are too efficient in pulling it out. I will continue to dose 24 ml of my 3 Tbsp / 1g solution daily as it seems to be the perfect amount to be barely detectable in my Salifert tests.

One more note - I turned down my maximum on the XF130 gyres to 80%, as 90% seemed to be too much for some of the SPS. Now things are happier.
 
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Good to here things are turning around for you! The tank is looking nice, that pink lemonade is awesome! That is one piece I've got up towards the top of my wish list

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Following...
Great info. I have same situation going on.

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