90G Build following BRS ULM Method
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The last 2 weeks have gone into a lot of understanding water chemistry . I did an icp analysis of my water , most parameters were normal except magnesium and potassium . I took stock of the entire water chemistry and I must say that the following articles are a must read .
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry
and very interestingly these from Dana Riddle
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2016/9/aafeature
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2017/2/aafeature
If you are new to this hobby like me - its important you know pH and alkalinity are not the same - they are related . You can increase or decrease alkalinity without changing the ph much
Test kits - color charts are unreliable at best - where possible use a hanna checker
I was also dealing with an issue of my chaeto slowing down - that is now fixed - a thread here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chaeto-slowdown-with-normal-water-parameters.394203/#post-4758308
Lastly - I have learnt to use the health of my corals as an index rather than worry too much about my water parameters
you may like to see this video as well of Richard Ross who manages a large 212000 Gallon aquarium
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry
and very interestingly these from Dana Riddle
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2016/9/aafeature
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2017/2/aafeature
If you are new to this hobby like me - its important you know pH and alkalinity are not the same - they are related . You can increase or decrease alkalinity without changing the ph much
Test kits - color charts are unreliable at best - where possible use a hanna checker
I was also dealing with an issue of my chaeto slowing down - that is now fixed - a thread here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chaeto-slowdown-with-normal-water-parameters.394203/#post-4758308
Lastly - I have learnt to use the health of my corals as an index rather than worry too much about my water parameters
you may like to see this video as well of Richard Ross who manages a large 212000 Gallon aquarium
Been busy understanding water chemistry . Extremely interesting to measure and dose the right chemicals and watch the target meadmeasurem . My Zoas and Duncan have been making babies . The brids nest was a V shaped twig and has a lot of shoots
Its a month since I updated , made a rookie mistake of introducing a Koran Angel . She was nibbling at many of my corals . I initially thought it may be pecking on some algae till I realised he was actually eating and chipped away the side of my favia in 2 places. Fixed a trap and caught him and gave him to my LFS.
Been struggling with phospate , decided to put a reactor with rowa phos , now for some phosphate stability . Anyone here using rowa phos ? Your experience?
A good read about Phosphates http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
and Rowa Phos https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/6/review
A good read about Phosphates http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
and Rowa Phos https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/6/review
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How do you like Seneye Controller? I am about to get a controller and not made my mind up yet at which one I am getting.I completed the ATO and RO install . Gone are the days of hauling gallon jugs . Disaster struck me , i forgot to shut off the ro unit and I dont have a float valve in the tank . This obviously caused an overflow flooding my basement , but its unfinished and just concrete so i was lucky . However my ATO continued to push fresh water into the refugium , may be close to 3 gallons . The pipe level was a little low it created a siphoning effect . The mistake I made was looking at the top line of my refugium tank and the top of my fresh water tank , but the pipe was a good two inches down in my refugium .I now need to figure a way to fit a float half way down a glass aquarium tank . I dont want to hold 40 gallons (my tank size) , Id rather have 10 to 15 on hold and keep making fresh ro water more often than allow it to stagnate for a long time .
Any suggestion on how to install a float half way down the tank ? I would love to see your suggestions .
The Chaeto is picking up speed and Seneye is giving me comfort on my parameters . Im learning a lot of the chemistry thats happening during ghost feeding , when the refugium is running , when its off - its quite a science class im enjoying . Im thrilled to see some of the rocks in the refugium go from white to some colors , the pink especially is intriguing me and I am not jumping to any conclusion. Just keep an eye to see if its what its supposed to be
I leave out of town for 2 weeks - this will really put things to test . I have me neighbor trained on the system and he has a login to seneye .
I absolutely love it , i use it with a combination of kasa wifi switch and i im able to automate a few things without getting into too much of a controller. I believe for a beginner its a great start and peace of mind
I have now spent a good 2 weeks fighting phospate. Have learnt so much that i now feel anyone starting new with this hobby should not depend just on a refugium and skimmer for nutrition export. I was of the belief I could survive with Phoscorrex . No , was a bad idea . So with the Rowaphos in place , i saw huge disproportionate Kh drops . This is really not due to Rowaphos. What really was happening was the Algae thriving on the corals were suddenly deprived of the phosphate nutrition . When this stopped the corals were moving towards absorbing ca n kh . This took a good week to settle . My phospate was swinging still . Turned out that the reactor had a manufacturing defect . The flow dial marked H to L was indeed working in the opposite way . With that settled I was able to dial it at a more precise setting . During this I realised every day I was adding phosphate through food , even though i prune half gallon of chaeto every 10 days there was more phospate to neutralize. Having zero phosphate is also bad. The moment i got this under control, many of my corals started showing white tips of growth . Generally there are sone corals more resilient to high phospate than others . Using these resilient ones as a bench mark was plain wrong . A lot learnt , but seriously if you want to understand this better There are a few articles by Dr @Randy Holmes-Farley that are in depth and most simplified to a large extent . I would urge you to read these.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php#17
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php#17
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm
I have spent the last few months fighting tin and zinc at high levels . I was perplexed with my corals bleaching . All my measureable parameters like ph,dkh,ca,nitrate, phosphate were absolutely fine. I sent my sample to ATIAquastrik . 2 weeks of wait apart from a poor po box system they use , finally the results showed up with high tin and zinc. I recd results a day before a one month travel. All i could do was do a 20 percent water change and drop a bag of cuprisorb . My wife religiously took measurements and dosed based on our conversation and kept the aquarium afloat . Here is a comparison of the same zoa garden from my earlier post
The fight over tin is over. I returned back after 3 weeks and started to poke around to find my sources of Tin. Unfortunately and away from my eyesight was a clamp around my submerged pump that was rusting and leaching. When I bought it I ws under the impression it was stainless steel, clearly it was not. I put 2 zip ties as replacement. Made 4 20 percent water changes over 2 weeks to rid myself off the tin . I lost quite a few sps , they died from RTN. Some were more resilient and lost color and became more brown some even developed coraline on them. Here are 2 in particular
Hemmdog
10K Club member
Yea Hollywood has literally the longest sweepers I’ve ever seen. Mine go 10 inchesLittle did I know that a beautiful Hollywood Stunner has tentacles. Sitting close by was a Birdnest that got wiped out by the sting
