Perseverance Reef

[Mschmidt]

90 gal correct ?
use one side carbon other side polyfil...
hint, cheap pillow at walmart ,same thing 3-5$ cut a slit it cover pull it out,save bag to store pillow dry...

One pillow has lasted me over a year in both fresh and salt. Speaking of which, I should change it out.

Yep. I'm such a bad influence!

Especially on myself.

I usually give the right advice, but like most dummies, I refuse to follow said advice....

Take that influencing to tick tock and be huge!

I’m not as worried about nitrates since they’re so quickly consumed in my system. I want crystal clear water. Having gelbstoff in the water column sharply decreases the effectiveness of our lighting and just looks ugly. Running carbon also helps get rid of chemicals from warring corals.

Pillow guts will polish it pretty well. I've read or heard that 24-7 carbon can lead to some negative effects in fish (some tangs I think). But that was anecdotal.

 

[Fishy888]

Phosphates are currently at 0.039 ppm as of this afternoon. It’s up a bit but not as bad as the day I cleaned out the sump. I’m going to start a dose of LaCl but for about 1/4 of what I was dosing.

Things are looking good today overall. The fish are looking great today. Speaking of which I’ve been feeding pellets for the last day or so. We’ve been up to our lateral lines in gifts to wrap so it makes things simpler. The corals all look good. They have that look about them that says, “I’m loving life”. My hermits are fat and happy. I have a bunch of asterinas and micro brittle stars that also seem happy.

 

[Fishy888]

I fed the tank some frozen food tonight and started the LaCl drip. Since I fed pellets to the reef twice today I decided to use 1/4 of a tsp instead of 1/8. If all goes as I expect I should be able to dose 1/8 of a tsp or less each day. I had been dosing 1/2 of a tsp as needed which dropped PO4 by 0.08 ppm. Tonight’s dose should bring PO4 down by 0.04 ppm. It won’t be a sudden drop which is good.

Next I want to get something that can accurately deliver 1/32 of a tsp like a dropper or a pipette. 1/32 of a tsp would bring phosphates down by 0.01 ppm. I don’t want to chase numbers. I want to be able to keep phosphates within a reasonable range, say between 0.01 to 0.03 ppm. If that’s too much of a range please let me know how tight I should be aiming for. After all I want to keep SPS.

 

[fishguy242]

JMO, flirting w disaster that low , IME sps dominated tank .07 -.10 would be as low as i would want to be...

 

[Fishy888]

This is the coralline growth as of tonight. It’s on my nearly one year old Mexican turbo snail shell. Below is a picture of the same shell and coralline patch from Tuesday.

 

[Fishy888]

JMO, flirting w disaster that low , IME sps dominated tank .07 -.10 would be as low as i would want to be...

Good to know. I just want to keep from browning out stony corals or worse yet killing them. I also want clams and most likely a bubble tip anemone. As long as the 0.07 to 0.10 ppm works for them then I’m all about it. Thank you for letting me know that.

 

[fishguy242]

was never into keeping clams or nems , that could be a different story ?
for sps i like around 20 trates ,0.10 po4 , cal 460-480 ,alk 8-9 salinity 1.024...

 

[Fishy888]

was never into keeping clams or nems , that could be a different story ?
for sps i like around 20 trates ,0.10 po4 , cal 460-480 ,alk 8-9 salinity 1.024...

I remember reading that phosphates of 0.025 ppm can be enough to stunt coral growth. I’m pretty sure it was in the Salifert PO4 kit. That said I imagine I’ll need more phosphates once I get my purple rocks. I’ll definitely need more when my system is stable enough for SPS.

 

[Mschmidt]

What I'm seeing too is Po around .07-.1 is what the target should be. also, stability is key.

I have .25-.3 and although I wouldn't recommend that range, my birdsnest and, poci, and freak hair, lepto, and one other easier sps I forget the name of are keeping their color and growing. not quickly but I can see a change over time. I wouldn't really want to keep acro in this range.

 

[Mschmidt]

pavona. It's a pavona, this one to be most specific.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I remember reading that phosphates of 0.025 ppm can be enough to stunt coral growth. I’m pretty sure it was in the Salifert PO4 kit. That said I imagine I’ll need more phosphates once I get my purple rocks. I’ll definitely need more when my system is stable enough for SPS.

Bro honestly, you need to Stop chasing a number. You are already super low.. lower than ANY SPS farm keeps their phos, and you're still adding LC to drop it more.

Stability is Way more important than the number. Stability is what should be chased.

If I saw lower than .04, I'd sump a shot of skimmate back In.

 

[Fishy888]

Edit: double post. Oopsie.

 

[Fishy888]

@Lost in the Sauce I’m going to keep it in the 0.07 to 0.10 range. I wasn’t trying to chase numbers as much as I wanted to keep them in a safe range. I really don’t want to flirt with dinos or dead coral. I do want stability though. I’ll let the phosphates come up and keep them at 0.07 to 0.10. Thank you guys for pointing that out to me. I imagine it’ll be easier to maintain that range than the one I was trying to maintain. Thank you again!

 

[Fishy888]

Merry Christmas everyone from Perseverance Reef! Hopefully you all got lots of reef related goodies!

 

[Fishy888]

Here are some pictures of one of the biggest fans of Perseverance Reef enjoying his Christmas present.

We got him a year ago. His name is Jake. He’s 13 now. He also hopes everyone here has an awesome Christmas.

 

[Mschmidt]

Here are some pictures of one of the biggest fans of Perseverance Reef enjoying his Christmas present.

We got him a year ago. His name is Jake. He’s 13 now. He also hopes everyone here has an awesome Christmas.

Such a happy day for him!

 

[Fishy888]

I just finished testing for phosphorus and got 16 ppb. That translates to 0.48 ppm phosphates. I’m not doing a drip until they get over 0.10 ppm.

I didn’t word things right before but the dose I did was to try to maintain a range more than to chase a number. Then again I suppose in a way I am chasing numbers because I was trying to keep phosphates so low. I want all of you to know I’m grateful for the good advice and constructive criticism. I will follow your advice for certain.

 

[tbrown]

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[Mschmidt]

Merry Christmas!

 

[Fishy888]

It looks like I’m getting a polyp or two of orange oxides towards the weekend. Everything looks great currently. I’ll do another phosphorus test later today.