obrien.david.j

Sorry to hear your SPS are unhappy.    I have my ups and downs, and can be frustrating.   I'm also not a guru on understanding the conditions and zero'ing in on issues/improvement paths.   Maybe @Lexinverts or @CuttleFishandCoral or @goldenbasketreef will chime in.

I don't see any problems with your Alk (~8.5), NO3/PO4/Ca/Mg.  I too wonder how high pH can get before it's a problem, but I don't see people running >= 8.5 often - so I'd treat it as possible/likely antagonist.

When I hit mysteries i try to address possible stressors.    Activated Carbon is always on my list of <use fresh carbon in case there's something weird in my water>.   At the same time, possibly backing off lighting duration for a few weeks.  What additives are you doing?   Any Aminos - Every time I try these it's like playing with fire.  (so I currently don't add, but have plenty of other coral feeding sources)     I know this input feels generic.

Key question, are SPS the only things unhappy - is everything else looking fine?   Your description doesn't sounds like it, but I cant tell.  Losing color, burnt tips, recession at the base.    I'm starting to think Bacterial when my SPS get unhappy alone.    (thread attached below)    

Attaching my Alk and pH trends, so you can compare.  BTW, my Calcium Reactor is controlled against a Alk target of 9.0.  (Alk measured every 6hrs, via Trident)   I get the biggest daily swings after I refill my Kalk reactor with CaOH - which is applied during daily ATO cycle between Midnight-7am.

My RTN/STN thread

Last time I needed a new power brick, I just ordered a generic brick from Amazon.   Used my cheap Amazon Calipers to measure the barrel/plug size, and Bingo.

Quick update, Needed to replace Ca Reactor Media.

Apparently I have enough corals to chew up most of the main chamber media in ~7 months..   Don't be confused, there is still thin crunchy media in the chamber.  But when I pulled it out, it practically crumbled in my fingers and not much left to put back.   

Replaced with "new" ReBorn.    Got to admit, I really like ReBorn-Original (tm) a lot better than what you can currently get.  It's now smaller pieces.

11 minutes ago, BeardUp said:

Wait really? I got a notification on June 9th of 2023. I am running on a apex classic though. I am pretty sure I could recrate it too. 

Was it a Text Message notification?

I suspect you blocked your cell phone before Nov'22.

DATE: 11/15/2022
TO: Apex Fusion Users
FROM: Neptune Systems on behalf of the service Apex Fusion
SUBJECT:  Notification of change of service – SMS (text) Notifications
EFFECTIVE: 11/20/2022

Unfortunately, due to factors outside our control, Apex Fusion will be no longer have the ability to send SMS/text notifications on 11/20/2022.

https://www.neptunesystems.com/sms/

I'm low on Millies.  I'd love to help, but I don't think I'm a source.

Late documentation of Harvest #37 (July 20th)

- Easy Summary, no change to procedures, same good results, including 100% Poseidon Reef Fertilizer.   Longer than normal time between harvests.  Turned out fine.

-Tigri pods and started an extra 5 gallon grow container continues to grow well.  Needs to be fed every other or every 3rd day.

Post a picture, showing each of the sides/bottom.   I may have a use.   Need to see the holes/and non-hole areas.

26 minutes ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

Surprised no one has scooped this up. Unlimited live food with minimal input. Sounds like an awesome deal.  

Okay, I'll risk a basic question...   Do we feed white worms to saltwater fish?    Or are these Freshwater food?

Agreed - Best wishes to you, your family, and the new life on the east coast!   

1 hour ago, Jeff.Tichenor said:

I was considering moving to Fritz RPM and couldn't find anyone posting ICP analysis from a fresh batch - so I did one.

I mixed up a 5 gallon batch to ~35ppt at 72 degrees F. using 0 TDS RO water with DI resins changed about 150 gallons ago.

Here are the results.

It looks like Salt.   Plain vanilla salt, with expectations you are generally adding the extra trace elements to your liking.

- Biggies are acceptable, but slight low for me.  Ca@353 and Mg@1314, but we maintain these on a daily basis anyway.

- Majors (my term) are there, but won't replenish anything depleted.  Sr @ 9.7, Iodine @ 64, Mn @ 128 and Mo @ 21, Ba @ 22 (my tank is a Barium magnet, having a hard time keeping it up - so I watch this one)  

- Minors (my term) need your choice of what to maintain at, or need an ICP-MS to judge better.   But I think they need Some maintenance.  This salt will not replace them.   Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, V, Se.   It is nice to see SOME Rubidium, but about 10x lower than recommended (by moonshiners).  And useful Vanadium.

I'm a big adder of Iron, Manganese, Iodine.  Plus others maintained Daily and Weekly.

Nice job doing an ICP on fresh salt, to know what you're getting into.

10 hours ago, Ian Atkins said:

Update for June/July, I moved out the leather to my other tank, and added some SPS, a small bubble coral.

 

And the last bit of tech I added was an AI blade grow 21 inch, got it on that BRS appreciation day thing, and no I didn't win my points back lol 😆 did anyone else try? And did anyone win? I'll still have the prime 16 HD running only UV and violet channels, thinking I'll add one blade glow and I can remove the prime. I would like to check the par numbers but so far no bad affect from adding it. 

Nice update.  I've enjoyed your whole build thread and process.  It's looking good.

I placed a BRS order during the most recent give away day.  Like 1 in 10 orders were supposed to be free.  I didn't win either.

looking good!

If you want to know what a specific coral is, here's the decoder ring;

How do you keep track of what's in your tank, and where it may have come from?   Over the years, I've taken to shooting pictures and making power points at the time of purchase.  And then doing snapshots of the tank and labeling things once/twice a year.  Usually Once.  

I glued up a bunch of corals in June, and thought you'd like to see the system.  Tank is a 250 gallon (~68"x36" - 25" tall)  Viewable on front, and right/end side.

June 26, 2023 Inventory Tracking

28 minutes ago, DaveZ said:

Love this. We need to have a meet up and acro frag swap one of these days. 

Reach out any time.   Just come for a visit, check it out.

10 minutes ago, CuttleFishandCoral said:

My friend, ur tank is looking amazing. Keep up the amazing work!

Thank you.  Appreciate your advice, consolations... And sourcing good stuff.

My lighting is setup to start each day ramping intensity with blues, then normal color balance, ending the day ramping down in blues again.

Here is how this morning greeted me.   I'm enjoying

Congrats and well done.  I resealed a tank years ago, and got ~10 years out of it before I gave it away when upgradng.

@Eatfrenchfries - Okay, No Culture Attempts!  

BTW - I can attest, Amphipods make Berghia ineffective.   In all my old Aptasia infestations, I just used Berghia.  In my last round (long thread posted on this site), I bought a BUNCH of berghia and they just DIDN'T WORK.   So I went back to the original literature and found a reference to killing all your amphipods (and shrimp) in your system, before using them.      

Of course, I'd subscribed to "pod of the month club" from https://floridapets.com/, and had been adding a bags of pods for months.     (And thus, I had to figure out how to get peppermint shrimp to clean my aptasia.)

Quick update, since the original March photos.

They've grown.  Pink Boobies Chalice and Jack-o-Lantern Leptoseris seem to be duking it out, without an obvious winner.

(Special note, I've got a frag rack of corals in the foreground of the group photo.  They're not on the rocks.)

1 hour ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

*also got some ostracods that might help. If you can't force the migration of dinos/diatoms at night then these guys like to do that for you. 

@Eatfrenchfries How difficult would these be for me to propagate to a volume enough to dose my tank gravel?   Do these grow out the same basic way as other pods, large container - constantly feed green water?

1 hour ago, DaveZ said:

... Diatoms on the sand, I just don’t know. It comes and goes all the time. I’ve never been a great at keeping a pristine sand bed. So there’s always room for everyone to learn and grow. 👍

Have you put put this sand layer of diatoms through a microscope yet?   In my Dino-Journey, I beat the non-sand dinos in record time.  It's a different species that lives in the sand, and comes and goes.  I'm still working on them.  

On 6/28/2023 at 8:22 PM, Jeff.Tichenor said:

I recently came across this concise article that helps explain how corals use different lighting spectrum to feed the different Chlorophylls. It's a little nerdy and that's probably why I like it  

http://www.blueharbor.co.jp/en/Coral-Color-Management.html

Okay, went through the article.  Like the tech/nerdy side... And then I'm trying to extract a take-away for what I'm doing.

I'm running my Radion XR30 Gen4 Pro's at basically 100% on the blue spectrum, 24% on the rest.   I think from the article, I need to bump the Red (~665nm) range up a little, and there was a hint of "need more green" in it as well.    My corals are all growing well, but will admit color isn't differentiated as much as it could be.

The article also gave me a first hint of why a Gen5/6 could be better than a Gen4.   Basically, a the addition of the 395nm/lowest wavelength LED.   

Thanks for sharing!

On 6/29/2023 at 10:47 AM, Eatfrenchfries said:

Big fan of Koji Wada and the pink nepthea. Frags coming soon haha. 

I needed a quick google search to familiarize myself.   Looks like it's semi-aggressive, wants low flow rates, and Higher Light Intensity...   "... We keep this coral under Eco Tech Radion XR30wPRO LED lights with an intensity of approximately 200 par..."   Is 200 considered Higher Intensity?    

Nice looking coral overall.  Love to see it some day.

This is a *very* generous offer!   Anyone looking to get started in reefing, this is a serious setup with some quality equipment included.