My Very Shallow Reef Tank Re Do

[reefmutt]

You're in a good position. Keep feeding. I think that's the best situation, when nutrients are low and you can feed a lot. You just have to keep an eye on them..
I don't think the bacteria dosing by itself will really affect nitrates.
Interesting what you said about cleaning the matrix and the n dropping.
I had a similar situation. I started shaking my baskets of matrix to remove all sorts of detritus and after a week, nitrates started to drop. I had to reduce, by more than half, by np pro.. Now they are stable at a lower level and I am feeding more.
Also, maybe the increase in growth has helped reduce nutrients. Corals can suck up a bunch when they are growing.
And might I remind you, your last photos were 3 weeks ago.

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

You're in a good position. Keep feeding. I think that's the best situation, when nutrients are low and you can feed a lot. You just have to keep an eye on them..
I don't think the bacteria dosing by itself will really affect nitrates.
Interesting what you said about cleaning the matrix and the n dropping.
I had a similar situation. I started shaking my baskets of matrix to remove all sorts of detritus and after a week, nitrates started to drop. I had to reduce, by more than half, by np pro.. Now they are stable at a lower level and I am feeding more.
Also, maybe the increase in growth has helped reduce nutrients. Corals can suck up a bunch when they are growing.
And might I remind you, your last photos were 3 weeks ago.

Thank you Sir. I will continue on with the dosing and increase the feeding. I am long past my comfort level on the feeding side of things so I am into new territory now.
I am now shaking and stirring the matrix basket a couple times a week. Nitrates and Phos are staying bottomed out.

Will post some pics soon. I wanted to see some significant change to post after using the Comp123. Instead, there was a little slow down in growth initially. Now some stuff is taking off and the tank seems to be finding it's new balance. If I can get the nutrients up a little it should bump the color and PE. Then I just need to get the wife's Ipad for a quick photo session.

[reefmutt]

I forget, are you dosing any other carbon sources?

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

I forget, are you dosing any other carbon sources?

No, just NP Pro.

[kevlow]

I will try to post a couple of descent photos. Unfortunately we are somehow locked out of the Ipad, so I will resort to the cheap cell phone camera.

I have been approximately a month on AF Comp123 and have started to see some accelerated growth on a few pieces and some activity on some long dormant corals. I hope this next month brings some big changes in improved growth.

Here are a couple of pics of some increased growth corals.

This Green Smooth Skin is taking off very quickly now.


Orange/Fire Digi is branching on all arms. I need to get a side pic of this as well.


The Red Planet has gone into Beast Mode.


And one of the four new inhabitants in the tank since last photos.
Groucho.

[kevlow]

I have a Blue and a Green plating chalices that are apparently snorting or main lining the Comp123. They were growers already but they may be the main cause for my 65/70 gallon system consuming 180ml a day.They are now huge and growing fast.

The Blue was fragged back and moved out of the light. It's color is not as good with the reduced light but it recovered fron the cutting, healed, regrew and stated new plates.


The Green has started two spiral sections since the last photos and is out of control. This will definitely get cut back soon. It is 12" across in all directions.

[kevlow]

The sump is doing well. One half of it now has a light and has some frags and lps.

[plyle02]

Dude,
Kevin no wonder you are burning through 180ml per day of Component system, this is your sump, for real....lol.... That looks like a display

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by plyle02

Dude,
Kevin no wonder you are burning through 180ml per day of Component system, this is your sump, for real....lol.... That looks like a display

This was my attempt to keep everyone in the house happy. My wife and sons really like those pieces which I wanted to get rid of to make room for acros. I figured they are good rocks with lots of life for bacteria and filtration so I moved them down below. I put a cheap led black box on it and the corals are loving it. My two college age sons think that lighting is better then my expensive stuff on the display. lol.

[plyle02]

What the heck is in the back right corner of the sump? That is one big coral

[kevlow]

Originally Posted by plyle02

What the heck is in the back right corner of the sump? That is one big coral

It was a rock. And then I placed a small piece of Green Star Polyp. Now it is just a big ball of GSP. It got on the glass bottom before. I pealed a huge sheet of it off and gave it away.

[kevlow]

I am having a difficult time with this cell phone camera. I brought up the brightness and the sharpness because this just takes dark blurred pics.

This is a piece of Perry's Planet. Kindof a backside top down shot instead of front or side. Very difficult because the Leds reflect right at the camera. This is my favorite piece in the tank. The top has strawberry skin with cherry colored polyps. The base has some light lime skin. Reasonable PE.. I am diggin this and can't wait to see it mature. Again, I apologize for the pic.

[kevlow]

Top down of a 1 1/2 inch high Orange Milli frag. Sat for three months or so slowly encrusting. Did not do much. Now it has turn a fiery orange with rose tints. The top has split into four new branches just protruding. Pretty happy with the way this is beginning to change after sitting for so long. The second pic is a side shot showing its PE.

You can see the pink lip on top of the new growth.


Last photo is a green I don't know what. The store thought it was "Appleberry" They said acro but I think branching monti.It is not pretty but was fragged several times and has taken off growing under the AF Comp123.

[kevlow]

I have had some self induced problems and I did not have access to a good camera so it has been a while since I last posted. I dropped one radion into the water while working on the hanging bracket. So I am down on light which slowed growth. This lowered my consumption alk so I had to adjust my dosing. It also lowered consumption of available food so my nitrates went up. Colors are actually pretty good. I am guessing nitrates at about 20 on the Salifert test. I would rather be 5-10 but my only negative is some bubble algae.

I am waiting for another light to come but I have decided to abandon the Radions on the display. Going another LED direction.

A couple of raw unedited pics to try the new cell phone camera out.

Blue Stag


Blue Tort but the change in lighting and cell phone make the tips more bright purple rather then dark blue/lavender


Green Dragon starting to branch out nicely



I believe that this is a Chips. It is longer then it looks because it is growing away from the camera angle. White skin, mauve polyps, purple tips.

[kevlow]

Center tank shot



Perry's Planet growing up top and branching from the bottom. A little lime green at the base but mostly strawberry skin and cherry polyps.

[kevlow]

My new lights arrived and I am very satisfied. While waiting for my new 32 inch SB Reef Light to arrive, I hung the 16 inch basic model that I had been using over my sump. After one week I was seeing improvement in colors and a little new growth on some previously stuck pieces. The new light is up and has far better coverage and possible better spectrum then my pair of Radions. The SPS has certainly responded well There are 121 three watt emitters spread 32" length and 9" wide.

The photos are a little better quality then with the old lights and are much easier on the eye.









We will see as time goes by if the change in lighting is as good as it first appears. After one week on the smaller SB Reef Light I have already saw improvement.

[kevlow]

Just got the par reading on the new light, an SB ReefLight 32".I am very happy with the first week of running the light and with the results on the par meter.

Basically getting 420-450 par through most of my light zone. 580 dead center at the top of my Red Planet. The far left and right sides of the center line are 380. Outside the light zone on the very edges of the tank, it is still getting 180-200 par. The light is 17 inches off the surface. Blue/Purple channel set on 100% and White/Red on 60%.

Contrast this to my previous twin Radion 30s Gen 3 with two additional Par 38 bulbs for additional help. My par was 320 at the highest but most of the coverage was at 200-250 par. I had to have the units mounted high [16"], with wide angle lens to get the coverage needed. The power was at 100% blues and 90% white, greens and reds. Overall power was set at 100%.

The corals have responded very well so far. I think they have been needing the additional light all this time. Colors have been good but growth on many pieces has been slow. We will see in the coming weeks.

This has created a new issue for me. I had been regularly dosing 200ml of AF Comp123 daily before my lighting problem and fix. I dose 100ml at 4am and 100ml at 5pm. Yesterday at 6pm my alk was 7.3 right where I like it to top out at. Today at 4am I checked before I dosed and It had dropped all the way down to 6.1. A serious drop. I think consumption is way up with the new lighting. I will test again this afternoon before dosing again. I added 100ml this morning.

[kevlow]

Unknow Aussie acro trying to color up.

[kevlow]

Appleberry up close. Not an acro but still a nice polyp pic.



A good show of contrasting colors. Blue Stag in the center.



Chips, I think.. Hard to photo getting the light right and to show a good angle in the tank.

[kevlow]

Well it is time to raise the dosing. This am was back down to 6.1 dkh. Dosed 100ml at 6:30am. At 3:30pm it was already back down to 6.4dkh. Nitrates at holding right around 5. Phosphates .03

[kevlow]

Green Dragon looking well and liking the new light.


The green smooth skin is responding well but off to the side in about 200 par.

[kevlow]

I moved my slow growing Lokani to a higher light spot, upfront in the tank.It has been there about two weeks and is visibly doing better. It isnow sitting in about 350 par as opposed to before in about 200. I was confused because I had always been taught that this was a deep water piece.
I then saw Mark's Lakoni was in 400 par. It is probably the most beautiful, complete looking Lokani that I have seen on RC. Obviously this explains the improvement I am seeing. I can probably increase it even more in the future.
Thanks for posting, Mark. It is a big help.

[kevlow]

Green Dragon enjoying a growth spurt. Easily over 400 par.

[kevlow]

7 dkh
1-2 nitrate
.08 phos


Dosing Daily:
AF Comp 1,2,3 200ml
NP Pro 2.5 ml
Pro Bio S 3 drops

Feeding:
Mysis 1 cube
Larry's Reef food frozen
Spirulina flakes several pinches
New Life Spectrum pellets 1 pinch
Coral Smoothie 1 quick squirt
Reef Roids 1 very small pinch

I might added some Neo Nitro to try to raise the Nitrate a little. Maybe that will help drop my Phos. I would like it around .03-.05 and Nitrate around 5.

Unless someone has a better method. I would like to lower P while raising N just a little. I am currently reading other threads to see what others are doing. I am open to suggestions, though I do try to keep things simple.

[kevlow]

I believe that this is a Cousin It frag in front. It was sold as a light blue millie to me. It since has gotten very furry with dark long hairs, reddish colors and a blue edge.
Behind is an Orange Millie. Has some bright red tint to new growth