My minimalistic 180g SPS tank

[Pife]

What do you have for flow in the tank? How are you supplying your tank with your calcium and alkalinity needs?

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by tripdad

Hello Cody, unfortunately that last statement fits a lot of us. Hang in there, your tank is young yet and it will get better as you go. I'm liking that little "yellow" coral too, best of luck with it.

lets hope i can keep it alive at this pace

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Pife

What do you have for flow in the tank? How are you supplying your tank with your calcium and alkalinity needs?

Flow I have a gyre 150 and a jabeo pp15 on the right side and 2 jabeo pp15s on the left side, around 100X turnover.

For supplying calcium and alk I use the 2 part BRS, but I have barely had to even dose because the corals arnt growing. I am at 18ml a day (3ml 6 times a day)

Before I moved and redid the rock, I was dosing close to 200ml a day of both.

[kevlow]

Good morning. I am interested in hearing your opinion on the different flow pumps you have in your tank and used in the past. How is the Gyre and the Jabeos? Is one better then the other? Have you tried the Vortechs?

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by kevlow

Good morning. I am interested in hearing your opinion on the different flow pumps you have in your tank and used in the past. How is the Gyre and the Jabeos? Is one better then the other? Have you tried the Vortechs?

Good morning,

I honestly really like both. I started with 2 gyre 150s in my old setup but I need more flow for some dead spots so I bought some jabeo pp15s since they are very cheap compared to everything else while giving the same flow or even more. I think if I were to have to start from the beginning, I would only go with Jabeo for the price difference. I cannot say long term though as I only have had them for a little over a year now but they are holding up very well. I did have one break but I contacted the seller and they sent me a whole new pump right away. I have never tried the vortechs and I would be scared to try them now with all the posts I have seen with some of them rusting and ruining their tank or making it take a big hit. They are a good company and if they got that fixed permanently (maybe they did) I would buy them most likely, especially since EcoTech headquarters is down the street from me haha. I do however really like th egyre for the wide flow, I was thinking about trying Jabeo's version of the gyre (crossflow). You cant go wrong either way.

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

Good morning,

I honestly really like both. I started with 2 gyre 150s in my old setup but I need more flow for some dead spots so I bought some jabeo pp15s since they are very cheap compared to everything else while giving the same flow or even more. I think if I were to have to start from the beginning, I would only go with Jabeo for the price difference. I cannot say long term though as I only have had them for a little over a year now but they are holding up very well. I did have one break but I contacted the seller and they sent me a whole new pump right away. I have never tried the vortechs and I would be scared to try them now with all the posts I have seen with some of them rusting and ruining their tank or making it take a big hit. They are a good company and if they got that fixed permanently (maybe they did) I would buy them most likely, especially since EcoTech headquarters is down the street from me haha. I do however really like th egyre for the wide flow, I was thinking about trying Jabeo's version of the gyre (crossflow). You cant go wrong either way.

Thank you. I will start hitting google now and looking these up.

[codydemmel4]

well i just bought a new pump for my skimmer, hoping that will get here by friday. I am planning on doing a water change tonight, suction up the sump since I took the skimmer out.

I get the triton test today and I am debating if I should do it before I do the water change or after. I think I am going to do it before to see if there is any metals/toxins in the water. I also want to see how close my ULR is to what the triton reports P04 at

[codydemmel4]

everything is very stable.

Just sent in my triton test on wed to hopefully see if there are any heavy metals still. I also ordered another canister for my RO/DI to make sure I am taking everything out even though TDS reads 0. I read that my county uses chlorine and sometimes chloramines so I got a carbon block for that too to make sure I am getting all that out before it hits my tank which I think may be the reason for the slow decline on the majority of my corals

I ordered a chlorine test strip to check my tap, waste water and final product to see if there is anything.

[markalot]

Hi Cody,

unfortunately I had a few unexplained bouts of tip recession as well when my tank was recovering. Something is a little out of balance but probably not measurable. I don't like 7.5 to 8 for stability, maybe try and lock it down tighter? It might not help, sometimes it just happens.

Anyway, really looking forward to seeing the tank grow up. That yellow one is neat but if it's the brightest coral in the tank I'm betting on a slightly bleached slimer.

For bulbs, yes I would start to change. Blues first and maybe raise the fixture a tad? For me it's all guesswork so I can't really help except to suggest that at 11 months it's time for a change.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by markalot

Hi Cody,

unfortunately I had a few unexplained bouts of tip recession as well when my tank was recovering. Something is a little out of balance but probably not measurable. I don't like 7.5 to 8 for stability, maybe try and lock it down tighter? It might not help, sometimes it just happens.

Anyway, really looking forward to seeing the tank grow up. That yellow one is neat but if it's the brightest coral in the tank I'm betting on a slightly bleached slimer.

For bulbs, yes I would start to change. Blues first and maybe raise the fixture a tad? For me it's all guesswork so I can't really help except to suggest that at 11 months it's time for a change.

Thanks Mark. Yeah I am trying hard to keep it at 7.7 but since everything is still recovering it seems theyre taking in the alk at different levels everyday. The yellow one is definitely a mille, I got it from battlecorals it is the SunnyX and Adam said he has seen it stay really yellow when at the highest part in the tank so that is where I am keeping it haha.

I am changing the bulbs so hopefully I can keep everything stable and get some growth going. Everything is starting to look better with PE at both night and day.

[codydemmel4]

SO as you can see here, there are still some pieces that stn randomly, the greenish one is from the tips and it looks like something is eating it but I have no fish that would since I got rid of my angelfish. Very strange and I know its not alk burn, because my alk is stable at 7.7 and I got this after I had my alk swing

[codydemmel4]

so those were the bad and then I have these that are doing good, showing good PE.




















Sorry for the horrible Iphone pictures, I will have to have my friend who is very good at photography come over as long as everything continues to go good.

I also want to get something to take top down pictures and so I can view from the top.

[codydemmel4]

had a chance to look at the tank this morning when the light wasnt directly shining in the room yet. They had great PE which is giving me a lot of confidence. I also have kept the alk pretty stable at 7.7, once it tested 7.5 but besides that everytime 7.7 on the salifert test for a week. Going to keep testing it every single day probably for another month or two. Calcium is 450, phosphate was 0.05 which I like and nitrate I have a hard time determining what it is on the red sea nitrate pro, but it is too dark for the low range and too light for the high range so I think between 4-8 which I also like.

Right now I am only 2 part dosing, using fws everyday and coral booster every other day. I took acropower offline and just keep feeding a ton. I also am using 2 drops of AF vitality everynight.

I bought some frags a month ago but asked my friend to hold onto them till I thought my system was very stable and showing improvements all the time. I think the time has come where I am going to move them over tomorrow. They're mostly all unnamed milles so I am excited to see how they grow and change colors.

[Pife]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

had a chance to look at the tank this morning when the light wasnt directly shining in the room yet. They had great PE which is giving me a lot of confidence. I also have kept the alk pretty stable at 7.7, once it tested 7.5 but besides that everytime 7.7 on the salifert test for a week. Going to keep testing it every single day probably for another month or two. Calcium is 450, phosphate was 0.05 which I like and nitrate I have a hard time determining what it is on the red sea nitrate pro, but it is too dark for the low range and too light for the high range so I think between 4-8 which I also like.

Right now I am only 2 part dosing, using fws everyday and coral booster every other day. I took acropower offline and just keep feeding a ton. I also am using 2 drops of AF vitality everynight.

I bought some frags a month ago but asked my friend to hold onto them till I thought my system was very stable and showing improvements all the time. I think the time has come where I am going to move them over tomorrow. They're mostly all unnamed milles so I am excited to see how they grow and change colors.

I'm happy to see that is going well. I think testing everyday is a bit over kill especially when you are seeing predictable readings. I'd go at least every 3 days so you don't make any decisions based on a small trend.


Make sure you really inspect those acros because you don't want to be dipping your entire tank.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Pife

I'm happy to see that is going well. I think testing everyday is a bit over kill especially when you are seeing predictable readings. I'd go at least every 3 days so you don't make any decisions based on a small trend.


Make sure you really inspect those acros because you don't want to be dipping your entire tank.

Thanks!

True but since doing an alk test takes less then a minute, I think it is well worth it to do. Especially since my tank is in my living room, I can just do a quick test inbetween commercials.

Definitely going to be inspecting the corals with a magnify glass and going to be dipping to make sure.

[codydemmel4]

triton test showed high heavy metals, but not sure where they are coming from. Going to try to find a good copper test and tets multiple things to figure it out.

Corals again looked great yesterday with lights on and this morning when lights were out with great PE.

I am not going to change anything besides do a little more water changing and get my new canisters for the ro/di going. I got them yesterday but realized I do not have the fittings for them. ughhh

[markalot]

Af Vitality is just vitamins, I like it. AF Energy and AF MicroE both contain copper so make sure you aren't dosing either of those. Seems more and more supplements contain copper these days. MicroE is in an amount typical for trace elements but AF Energy is an unknown amount.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by markalot

Af Vitality is just vitamins, I like it. AF Energy and AF MicroE both contain copper so make sure you aren't dosing either of those. Seems more and more supplements contain copper these days. MicroE is in an amount typical for trace elements but AF Energy is an unknown amount.

Yup I just use AF Vitality (2 drops a night), but I do use Flatworm Stop and Coral Booster. Have you heard either of these use copper? I know multiple people who dose both and have insane PE, growth and no copper so that is why I continue to dose them even though I know now I do not have flatworms but I am thinking of possibly stopping even though my corals have looked great just because of the high copper level that showed up on my triton levels at 6 ug/l

[markalot]

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

Yup I just use AF Vitality (2 drops a night), but I do use Flatworm Stop and Coral Booster. Have you heard either of these use copper? I know multiple people who dose both and have insane PE, growth and no copper so that is why I continue to dose them even though I know now I do not have flatworms but I am thinking of possibly stopping even though my corals have looked great just because of the high copper level that showed up on my triton levels at 6 ug/l

Not that I know of. I liked Flatworm stop, just too darn expensive. I'll have to look into Coral Booster. I recently started Vitality + Phols Extra special just because I had a bottle of it. My colors are approaching insane at the moment. I figure it won't last but enjoying it while I can.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by markalot

Not that I know of. I liked Flatworm stop, just too darn expensive. I'll have to look into Coral Booster. I recently started Vitality + Phols Extra special just because I had a bottle of it. My colors are approaching insane at the moment. I figure it won't last but enjoying it while I can.

Let me know if you find anything out. I am only dosing 4ml of Flatworm stop now a night so it will last me 1/3 of the year which isnt bad and coral booster is only every other day so that will last 2/3 of a year. I will probably up the dosing if everything keeps going positive in the next month, time will tell.

Your tank is looking great, so I wouldn't change much if I was you!!

[codydemmel4]

well i stopped dosing the fws and coral booster due to thinking that may be putting the copper into my tank. my corals have not looked as good since I stopped when everything else has been the exact same. (I stopped on the 18th) I am going to start dosing them again tonight along with doing at least one 20g water change a week to see if I can get this copper and other unwanted metals out of my tank. I am going to do this for a month and then sent another test to triton. If my unwanted levels are still high, then I know I am missing something in the tank somehow. I also am going to dose full strength dose of fws and coral booster into a half gallon or 1 gallon of my tank water and see if copper shows up there or if it shows up before i dose that. that should help me decide if theyre doing something in those levels or not.

[reefmutt]

Hey Cody, have you tried cuprisorb by Seachem? I think it's a resin specifically designed to bind copper. Much better than poly filter..

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Hey Cody, have you tried cuprisorb by Seachem? I think it's a resin specifically designed to bind copper. Much better than poly filter..

Hey Matt,

I am picking some up tonight. I am also stopping all the dosing besides 2 part. I am going back to the very basics, doing 10% water changes a week, skimmer, fuge, good light, feed a ton and 2 part. I am hoping this will get everything moving in the right direction. Just wish I could see if my water changes and cuprisorb were making any improvement in the heavy metals without sending in a $50 test.

[maxxII]

What are you using for water movement and is there any rust or corrosion on the drive shafts?

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by maxxII

What are you using for water movement and is there any rust or corrosion on the drive shafts?

3 jabeo pp15s and a gyre 150. no I checked them all and found no rust or corrosion. I wish it was something that simple.


Just did my first 30gallon water change and I may try to do another one on Monday.