Spschampion

Might go get a rabbit fish, wanted one anyways. Hate to not QC him, though

Hi had a question for the group. I have had a single yellow eye Kole tang in my 120 display tank for about six months. He has been the only tang in there and has been a model citizen. Yesterday, I added a yellow tang and a hippo tang to the display tank. I fully expected there to be some chasing, nipping and maybe some tail swipe action. However, this guy has been taking it to another level! He backs the yellow tang into a corner and just proceeds to beat the snot out of him! The yellow tang is a little smaller then the Kole tang but not much. The hippo tang found some rocks to hide in and seems to have avoided the beatings thus far. But man, the yellow is taking a beating. I thought Kole tangs were considered to be one of the less aggressive species of tang? Going to try the mirror trick tonite. Any other suggestions? I have too many delicate corals to move rocks around. That was the other suggestion I read about .

PM’d

Wow, that trident system is pretty cool! Love that graph. I think I will have to increase dosings during photo period, instead of distributing it evenly throughout the whole day.

Yeah, might just hold out and save to go Apex. I hate loosing livestock and it gets pricey fast. I need to go the bulletproof route. I noticed today some burnt tips on my acropora. Checked alkalinity and from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. I have a half a DKH drop. I increased the dosing frequency and quantity. Alkalinity stays pretty constant during the night. I’m assuming this is due to the fact that there isn’t any photosynthesis happening at night?

Sounds cool! I’ve never built a control system from scratch!

Thanx, the reef pi system looks cool! I love DIY. Might be fun to give it a try

Hi, in an effort to maintain the highest water quality possible, I would like to add a control system to my SPS dominant system. However, I am suffering from sticker shock from the APEX system cost. Is there another more budget friendly system that is reliable?I do HVAC controls for a living. So, I am not a big fan of web based controls. Second question, I recently increased the flow in my aquarium considerably. I’m running two ice cap gyres 3k each in random mode on each side of the tank. My tank is a five foot long 100 gallon system. I also increased the the return pump size to flow about 1600 gallons per hour. I’ve noticed that over the last few weeks many of my acropora have lightened in color considerably with less polyp extension. Nutrients, alkalinity and light are all the same as they’ve been for quite sometime. I have positioned the gyres and return lines to not directly hit any coral with flow. Any ideas why that might be? Thanx for the help! Pete

I used Vibrant to eradicate the bubble algae in my tank. It did work. However, I had a major Dino bloom afterwards. Personally, I’d much rather fight algae then dinoflagellates! I have a emerald crab that eats it. Also heard that magnificent rabbit fish will eat it. Although, I have not personally experienced this.

Share the pods!!! BTW phytopheast is awesome!

I’ll have to stop by and check your new store out, Reefbox!

I saw a really cool. Very red Christmas wrasse today. Might have to go that direction, instead

Thanx for the suggestions! I was thinking of trueing a pair of melanurus wrasse! Seem pretty cool and are supposed to be pretty easy going. I guess we will see! Thanx again

Hi, looking to add a pair of utility wrasse to my tank. Any recommendations? Just have blue/green Chromis in there now. 100 gallon 5’ long tank size thanx

I don’t trust the Hannah phosphate checker either. It requires that you get 100% of the reagent powder out of the pouch. I think this is hard to impossible. However, I have a hard time distinguishing the different shades of red with the salifert nitrate rest. I don’t seem to have nearly the issues with the blue from the phosphate test, so that’s what I have been doing.

Thanx for the help!

Hi, I was doing my weekly water testing last night and noticed that my nitrates are high. Somewhere, between 25 and 50 ppm. It’s been somewhere around 25 ppm for about a month. I have read that high nitrates will cause acropora to “brown out”. Yet, I have approximately 25 different acropora frags and I don’t see any browning. In fact, since the nutrient levels have been higher the color and growth seem better? I’m starting to wonder if higher levels of nitrate are such a bad thing? P.S. I keep phosphate levels low, definitely see unhappy coral and algae growth when they creep up! Anyone else see the same thing?

I’d be interested if It didn’t work out with reefbox

Seahorse in Portland has some. I just picked up a few, yesterday

Burningball, at first I did just run the UV light. While I did almost immediately see a difference. It was slow. Everything I read at the time said a slow flow was the most effective for killing Dino’s. So that’s what I did. I did some more research on phytoplankton and started adding a little bit everyday. The rate the Dino’s died back increased a lot. But I have wondered if I’m a way this is a waste. I’d imagine the UV kills a good percentage of the phytoplankton added. Also added some copepods. I read that this can help increase biodiversity as well. Might try increasing the UV flow and see how it goes. Thanx for the advice, everyone

Hi, I guess I just mostly want to vent to some of those who may understand. About three months ago I had a major Dino bloom after running Vibrant to eradicate some minor turf algae. Vibrant definitely did kill the turf algae but then the Dino’s started taking over. I did a three day blackout and increased nutrient levels. This was very effective but only helped short term. About a month later the Dino were back. Round two, I tried using Dino x accord to manufacturers recommendations. Didn’t do [language filter]! I also dialed back the light cycle to 4-6 hours a day. Round three, I’ve been running a 35 watt jebao UV light with really slow flow and dosing Live Phyto plankton. This seems to have helped a lot! Killed it way back! But not completely eradicated it. I’ve kept my nutrient level higher then I would normally and haven’t done any water changes in months. I lost a lot of my SPS frags going rounds with this [language filter]. I still feel like this is the monster under the bed just waiting for the right conditions to come out. I don’t really want to start over and it seems kind of pointless since dinos are a natural occurring thing that’s in most aquariums. Just need to out compete it?

I ca TIG up some aluminum for you, if you need

I have used herbtana. I had some clowns get what I thought was ich at the time. Later identification led me to believe it was brooklynella. Herbtana did nothing for this problem, but it’s not supposed too. I noticed that it smelt a lot like pinesol. When I would add it it my zoas and toadstools would close up. They opened back up a few hours later. Also, my skimmer would go nuts, if left on. I’m not the most experienced person on this forum by a long shot, but I think the most tried and true method for curing disease is a Q.C. Tank. Most of the the most effective medications are not reed safe. Just my opinion, Pete

Sounds fun!

I was using Acropower. I noticed that the LPS seemed more extended and “fuller”. Same with zoanthids. Also noticed that my algae growth increased considerably. Also had a recent dyno bloom. I can’t say that the dyno bloom was due to the amino acids, but I do think that it contributed. I have since discontinued the use of acropower. I’ve been feeding reef foods, mysis and R.O.E. This has been enough to keep my nitrates and phosphates at acceptable levels. Everything seems to be doing fine. I read that many fish foods contain amino acids and the uneaten foods break down and provide the tank with an ample supply. Maybe just really low nutrient tanks need amino acid supplementation? Just my 2 cents, Pete