Blue Z Reef

It’s going to be guessing without testing parameters. What is your nitrate/phosphate at now? Is there ammonia or something else in the tank? How old is the 40B? Has the hair algae issue been going on for a month? Six months? Year? What are we talking about here and how have you attempted to remedy it?

Or if you feel like burning money, you can buy the DDR! Probably wouldn’t go that route again but they do look nice lol usually you can just dose Mag on a weekly basis and be just fine. Or you can use one that is pre-mixed in (I use Seachem Reef Fusion for my 2 part, which has Cal/Mag together).

Definitely have to agree with @pdxmonkeyboy, hitting 0 is way more of a pain/issue than being elevated. It all depends on what you keep in the tank. If you are trying to dial in colors or something in a wall to wall SPS tank, the number is likely going to matter more than most with a mixed reef or soft dominated tank. More or less the key is you are getting a reading and it isn’t in the .1+ range. Even if it gets above .1, most simple carbon dosing solutions bring it down quickly (another issue to not overdo and bring it to 0 quickly/accidentally).

Assuming you did the hold down button so it does the countdown? Sometimes I like to fill one vile with just tank water and one with test solution. I’ll often check it 2-3x just to see if there is variation and if the variation stabilizes or not. I do observe this issue occasionally but the test normally seems to stabilize after I check it a few times with the same solution. The only positive thing is you are in safe ranges with those numbers.

Ok, you get bored one night and wrangle him you let me know lol

😭

You don’t by chance have that yellow coris wrasse I spy in there?

Cheapest solution is to add another black box like you have. I have a 300w Viparspectra if you want to go that route, currently just keeping my wife’s deck plants alive under the house 😂. PM me if interested.

Interesting test...take a light diffuser from a t5 shop/ceiling light and put it over the lights and see if the madness stops?

Good God man! Are you like a secret wholesaler or something LOL! I gotta get to Oregon City one of these days

Mine worked for about a year and did what you are seeing. Tried to recal like 5x and wouldn’t work. Pulled it out, not gonna pay $120 for little value add. I’m at 210 gal and for salinity to drift far enough to cause issues something catastrophic would have to happen (that would be noticed before a probe would likely alert me). I have Milwaukee and a pinpoint meters to check until Apex finally comes out with a reasonable solution.

So it looks like you have the following: Toadstool small torch? octospawn Colt/Kenya tree GSP Green mushrooms And the bad on RHS of the tank: Clove polyps aptaisa If I were you I would remove the rock on the right and kill it (put in fresh water for a while or acid bath it). Clove polyps will take over your tank and fill in every free spot as they spread. main issue you will run into is cycling, or lack there of in your case. The rock being live will help but the tank will still cycle and you risk the corals dying during the cycle. Most you have are hearty and will likely pull through. I would invest in test kits sooner then later. ideally for cycling parameters you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Quick observation here...why do you have so many lights?!? A 55gal tank can easily be lit with 2-3 kessil. 4 would give great coverage (but remember, a single light is meant to cover a 24” square). But adding a whole extra black box led and having them butted up next to each other is kind of crazy and overkill! If I were you I would lose the black box and mount your kessil lights evenly spread apart and much higher off the water. Frogspawn/torches don’t have high light demand and with the current setup I could see them being over lit and not opening up as much and losing the deep colors. I’m not an expert, but I do have like 100 frogspawn heads in my tank...🤣

@TheClark or @SuncrestReef Can one of you guys close this thread, no more for sale for a while. Thanks

For now I am going to close this. Will have more in the future but have developed a bit of a waiting list. Anyone still interested in some small RBTA can PM me, otherwise BWs are sold out for a while. Thanks!

Also a side note since you are chasing the best Acro growth/color, have you looked into Reef Moonshiners program? They have a FB page, really knowledgeable group and they grow out arguably the best looking SPS I’ve seen.

With DOS AWC, you can theoretically change up to 31 gals a day. I think most found that doing 1% a day was effective. I only do 2 gals/day with mine. I suppose I look at it as a gradual rebalance toward a target. With all the “bad” metals and other elements, at least you will be slowly correcting daily towards the 0 target. If something is building, you can identify and modify from there. In my past experience with doing no water changes as many try to do, something would get slowly out of whack and AWC was an easy way to avoid it. Just my thoughts.

You don’t do AWC? Makes life easier haha I have read that GFO removes metals. How high was the Al level you mentioned? I have one marinepure block...I have been dragging my feet doing an ICP, better get one ordered up.

Depends on your current homes water pressure. Generally if you want higher output they are needed. Most membranes to run at advertised GPD need ~60psi So yeah, they will run at 40psi but won’t output their advertised GPD

For membranes, one of the best is the spectrapure 99% rejection: https://www.marinedepot.com/spectrapure-spectraselect-plus-99-rejection-ro-membrane-90gpd?utm_source=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=mdcsegooglebase2&utm_content=SP40030&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6Or_BRC_ARIsAPzuer9gM2py7CRTwFrb7Xnw9sDznYgdUiujXvn6dXdf850GHVZltG7ThswaAlBFEALw_wcB The extra 1% than typical may seem pointless but in many cases, that means the difference in 1TDS vs 2TDS going into your DI resin, Which, lets it last 2x as long theoretically. Most membranes cost within $10-20 anyway so might as well get the best. As said before, from a unit standpoint, assuming you have one with swappable filters (not RO-buddy), they are all basically the same plastic housing/filter holder. I would just shoot for one with 3 pre filters and at least 1 DI post cartridge. @obrien.david.j The “Silica Buster” cartridge by spectrapure is what your after for silicates. It is a DI cartridge. https://www.marinedepot.com/spectrapure-silicabuster-di-cartridge-color-indicating-superdi-di-sb-ci-10hc

I had some hair algae when I first cycled my tank. Got a large 2 bar rabbitfish and it DECIMATED all of it. Like 1 week flat. He was fat AF lol! Tangs didn’t really seem as interested and definitely didn’t eat it as fast as he did. Ive seen small ones at cuttlefish in the past (about 2”), but just know they will for sure outgrow a 70 gal, same as most tangs as well. My Kole tang is definitely an “algae picker” but didn’t do near the work the rabbitfish did. here’s the algae blaster 5000 going to work on some nori

Looks great! I love some nicely grown out colonies 👍

SeattleCorals out of Bellevue has lots of orange euphyllia on their website. Nothing that bright/vibrant though...

So...you know people buy corals so you don’t have to kill them 😂 Might be worth a free or cheap selling post on the grape monti at least lol

Definitely number 3 🥷 never bought a kit but always used some combo of bone cutters and razor blades (and brute force). dollar tree super glue FTW 😂