How do people get such vibrant tanks?

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

flashsmith said:
UV will do wonders for water clarity. Scrape your glass every other day as well. But UV will give you the clarity.

We do have the mean green uv machines in both tanks. Definitely noticed a difference when we weren't running them, even if they don't do a whole lot.

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
I haven't checked them lately. The nano is the tank that's doing so well, so I've just continued to do what I do on it. Everything in it is out competing the 125

Well ok then what are the parameters on the big tank

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Well ok then what are the parameters on the big tank

I posted them just a few posts up

Lavey29 · Feb 28, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
I posted them just a few posts up

Sorry just saw that yes PH is low and phosphate way high. The problem with phosphate that high is you inhibit calcium carbonate from occurring which is what makes your corals grow. You need better export and bring the nutrients levels down or bring alk up if running a high nutrients tank.

homer1475 · Feb 28, 2023

The ones you posted were from a month ago!

If you got time to be on R2R asking what to do, you got time to give us a recent battery of tests. We really can't help you with month old test results.

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Sorry just saw that yes PH is low and phosphate way high. The problem with phosphate that high is you inhibit calcium carbonate from occurring which is what makes your corals grow. You need better export and bring the nutrients levels down or bring alk up if running a high nutrients tank.

I think I screwed myself up with these butterflies and trying to get them to eat, and now I think I'm overfeeding trying to keep them happy.

I think if I stopped feeding so much for them, I could get things back down. I think that's the main difference in the 20 and the 125. The 20 gets fed lightly once a day, sometimes twice.

I'm feeding a small thing of nori for the tang, maybe a few pellets and flakes once a day, and then frozen mysis and brine 3 to 4x per day. The fish are happy, but I think I really need to cut back.

The butterflies should still be okay with one or two frozen at most per day I'd think

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

homer1475 said:
The ones you posted were from a month ago!

If you got time to be on R2R asking what to do, you got time to give us a recent battery of tests. We really can't help you with month old test results.

I'll get back on top of testing. I have a Hanna checker for a few things, but they're kind of a pain to use, but give better results than the api. I also noticed one or two things of our api are out of date, so I'll be getting a new test kit ordered and get back to regular testing and post results.

gbroadbridge · Feb 28, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
These were my last measurements on the 125 using api a month ago. I know, bad upkeep on testingn, but work and a toddler take most of our time

I hear you.

Kids take a lot of time. When mine were born 20 years ago I stuggled to keep up with the aquariums, and eventually shut them down to concentrate on the kids.

Only got the tanks back up in 2015 when the kids were old enough to help out or at least appreciate them.

Not suggesting you need to do the same, but you honestly cant expect to have a showpiece tank without spending a lot of time on it.

You can coast along, which is what you're doing and enjoy the kids. Don't stress about the tank,
Kids grow up too fast.

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
I hear you.

Kids take a lot of time. When mine were born 20 years ago I stuggled to keep up with the aquariums, and eventually shut them down to concentrate on the kids.

Only got the tanks back up in 2015 when the kids were old enough to help out or at least appreciate them.

Not suggesting you need to do the same, but you honestly cant expect to have a showpiece tank without spending a lot of time on it.

You can coast along, which is what you're doing and enjoy the kids. Don't stress about the tank,
Kids grow up too fast.

Good advice. Fish are doing well, so if corals aren't just crazy growing, we're good with that.

Our daughter was a miracle child for us (didn't expect to be able to have any), so she's 100% our main focus

Sidsreef · Feb 28, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
Maybe I'm not checking things as often as I should, not dosing, and mostly only relying on weekly water changes and cleaning of 3 hob filters, but I am just in awe of people's tanks that have started way later than we have, and their corals are huge, growing, and full of color.

We started this reefing journey in 2020, and we've only had a few corals still with us from then. Mostly zoasb, a Duncan colony, and a jedi mindtrick Monti. We've lost countless amounts of corals. Some are still with us, but aren't growing. It feels like the colors are mostly just, dull to stay the least as well.

Is the secret in dosing? Our 20 gallon tank is setup the same way as our 125, but our corals there are spreading and growing like crazy.

I think partly, the 125 having more fish, as well as more food demanding fish like butterflies, causes me to feed more and deal with phosphate and nitrate. The 20g gets fed a little once a day, only having a royal dotty back and 2 clowns in it.

We have good lights on both tanks (Current USA R24s), Seachem Tidal filters (rinsed out weekly), and do around 25% water changes weekly with Reef crystals salt.

Yet still, I just feel extremely under achieved. When just the blue lights are on, the tanks look amazing, but just not much growth in our 125. Any pointers? Am I just needing more time, or maybe measure and dose things I may be lacking? Tanks below.

If your having issues with growth and constant death. You need to ICP test your RODI water. ( recommend not getting it from a fish store) and you also need to ICP test your tanks. Another thing that you have to consider is that people DUMPPPPP LOADS of money into there reef tank. So having the best equipment makes that possible.

Tamberav · Feb 28, 2023

I have a 14 month old. My solution was I sold off most of the LPS and SPS and kept softies. I do not test that tank much anymore, once and awhile for curisity. I also turned off the dosers.

The softies grow fine with a water change now and again, the remaining LPS hardly grow... likely because there is no dosing anymore.

The soft corals also won't care much about your high PO4 or NO3.

I wouldn't shut down a tank since soft corals don't need much. I did not test or do a water change for a year after my child was born and they were totally fine. I did get uptick of growth when I started to do some water changes again, likely because of the trace elements being added.

Anywho, you could test and dose and chase numbers or you can not. Just keep what corals will work in whichever situation you decide.

Aparker2005 · Feb 28, 2023

We had really good growth from our torches, hammers, and frogspawn, and then unfortunately lost all but 3 of them.

Our last torch is growing slowly, but our hammer and frogspawn now are just kinda living. Before they were huge, and this was all before the high feeding of the butterflies, hence me thinking that's the entire issue.

Lothar · Feb 28, 2023

Did you use any chemicals to treat fish while it was a freshwater tank?

Tamberav · Feb 28, 2023

Aparker2005 said:
We had really good growth from our torches, hammers, and frogspawn, and then unfortunately lost all but 3 of them.

Our last torch is growing slowly, but our hammer and frogspawn now are just kinda living. Before they were huge, and this was all before the high feeding of the butterflies, hence me thinking that's the entire issue.

if alk is low (which we can't know until you test, pls use hannah), I find euphyllia do not enjoy low alk at all. I agree that high po4 could be bothering them as well. Torches are more finicky about it.

Quite frankly it could be more then one thing. Test and then decide what you want to keep/do (fish vs coral, more filtration, less hands on and have easy corals?, etc).