Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

So my test kit came today. It seems my ALK is 13.1 dKH. That’ll be coming down since I have plenty of phosphates as my nuclear green rainbow cyano will attest to. I still have another four or five days to go of dosing LaCl which will help bring ALK

LaCl doesn’t just bind to phosphate. It binds to ALK too. I’ve only been dosing enough to drop phosphates 0.04 ppm a day. I might start dosing enough to drop phosphates by 0.06 ppm a day for a couple of days then go back to the lower dose.

I don’t want to go higher than that because although I’m still feeding heavily I want there to be just enough algae and detritus for the pods, starfish, micro dusters, spirorbids, and the hair worms which are making a comeback. Of course the corals, coralline, and even the nem all need phosphates. They just don’t need crazy high phosphates.

I suspect I still have along the line of 0.25 ppm locked away in the nuclear green cyano. I want to get to 0.1 ppm for now. Once I have enough coral 0.25 ppm won’t be bad since mainly zooxanthelle will be taking it up. Right now, even though my corals are growing nicely for the most part, it’s mainly cyano and bryopsis taking up phosphates. My coralline, while significantly more than when I set up my cube, is still quite the minority compared to the nuisance algae in the system.

Tonight I noticed the damsels trying to bully the wrasse briefly. The wrasse turned and bullied them back. It wasn’t a violent encounter or anything and for the most part the damsels are still letting the wrasse do his thing. He’s been eating nicely too. I know he’s picking off pods and he eats both the pellets and smaller particles of frozen food. Since the wrasse has been in the reef I see all of my fish being more active, swimming in every area of the tank and not sticking so close to the rocks (damsels) and the corner overflow (clowns).

 

[tbrown]

Wowza! My alk got to 12 once. I brought it down over the course of a week of water changes. What salt are you using and did you retest to verify the results weren't a fluke?

 

[crusso1993]

Wowza! My alk got to 12 once. I brought it down over the course of a week of water changes. What salt are you using and did you retest to verify the results weren't a fluke?

Hey mister… don’t be throwing that “f” word around. Could be bad mojo!

 

[Fishy888]

Wowza! My alk got to 12 once. I brought it down over the course of a week of water changes. What salt are you using and did you retest to verify the results weren't a fluke?

Not yet but I’ll do another tomorrow probably just to be sure. Assuming it’s legitimate (remember I dosed some ALK a couple of weeks ago fearing that I might have had too little due to dosing phosphate-e for so long) I’ll get it down. I’m due for another water change soon anyway. I use reef crystals usually but if regular IO is all PetSmart has I go with that.

 

[crusso1993]

I’ll get it down.

 

[fishguy242]

did you take water in for test ?
would be good to know all params at one time ,to help advise gettin to a good stability...

 

[Fishy888]

did you take water in for test ?
would be good to know all params at one time ,to help advise gettin to a good stability...

My LFS only does ammonia, nitrate, salinity, and PH. I can test for phosphate and ALK. Next month I’m getting CAL and MAG kits.

 

[fishguy242]

My LFS only does ammonia, nitrate, salinity, and PH. I can test for phosphate and ALK. Next month I’m getting CAL and MAG kits.

Pick up a cheap API Cal test asap, get a good one next month...
Think Amazon 12$ ...

 

[tbrown]

What are you using for Alk? Salifert or Red Sea? Or did you grab a Hanna?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Not yet but I’ll do another tomorrow probably just to be sure. Assuming it’s legitimate (remember I dosed some ALK a couple of weeks ago fearing that I might have had too little due to dosing phosphate-e for so long) I’ll get it down. I’m due for another water change soon anyway. I use reef crystals usually but if regular IO is all PetSmart has I go with that.

13 is Really high.

That number would warrant a retest for me after rereading the instructions to make sure I was doing it right.

 

[Fishy888]

13 is Really high.

That number would warrant a retest for me after rereading the instructions to make sure I was doing it right.

I agree especially since it’s my first time using Salifert ALK.

 

[Fishy888]

What are you using for Alk? Salifert or Red Sea? Or did you grab a Hanna?

No I decided to go with Salifert this go round.

 

[tbrown]

No I decided to go with Salifert this go round.

Perfect! Salifert for Alk is easy and accurate. It never hurts to double check when you get weird or questionable reads.

 

[Fishy888]

Well I just ran the test again, now that I’m not rushing (a friend of ours was coming over and I didn’t know it until after I started the test). That and never having run that test before (not that it’s hard but when you’re rushing… haste makes waste and all…) combined to give a proper reading.

Still on the high end, but 11.6 dKH is the correct reading. Tomorrow I’m going to run a phosphorus test.

At some point this week I’ll be doing a water change since the system’s due for one. I want to get ALK down to 9 or 10 dKH gradually so I won’t get it down all in one go but over time it’ll come back down.

I manually removed more cyano from the sump and the DT. There were also strands of chaeto that grew over a foot long and were attached to the wave maker. It was pretty cool finding six adult amphipods in the cyano I took out. It was barely a handful of cyano too. Of course I returned them to the sump.

 

[Fishy888]

13 is Really high.

That number would warrant a retest for me after rereading the instructions to make sure I was doing it right.

I did the retest and got a much more believable 11.6 dKH.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I did the retest and got a much more believable 11.6 dKH.

Slow decline now, as you are planning down to your target.

 

[Fishy888]

Slow decline now, as you are planning down to your target.

I agree totally. That’s the plan.

 

[Fishy888]

As was planned I ripped a bunch of cyano and algae out of the DT. Unfortunately I can’t get to all of the nuisance algae in the back without taking the rockwork apart.

I’m seriously considering redoing the rockwork. I want to partially shade the GSP and mushroom rock. More importantly I want to get the last of the lyngbya off the rocks in back. I also have to figure out what I want to do with my xenia. It’s taking over and while it’s beautiful I have corals that will need space eventually.

If I do cut back the xenia I’ll mount some and maybe give the frags away or keep them in the sump.

My question is will redoing the rockwork affect stability to the point of setting me back several months or will it be ok?

 

[Fishy888]

After two days of not dosing any LaCl I dosed enough to drop phosphates by 0.08 ppm. Everything looks good including the rainbow BTA. I’m going to likely do one more full dose then watch how the system responds. I don’t want to lose any flora and fauna. Well I don’t want to lose anything but the cyano and GHA that’s starting.

I topped off the system tonight. In the process of doing that I also fished out a decent amount of cyano from the sump. Well, more like netting it out because it was floating.

I have a bin that I bought last summer from Dollar Tree. It has has decent sized holes in it so water can circulate easily through the bin and the chaeto I keep in it. All I have to do is push the bin down a bit; and any cyano that grew inside the bin on the chaeto just floats. Once the cyano is floating I just net it out and my chaeto is good and clean.

The growth of the green cyano has slowed tremendously now. Even though I’ve been reducing phosphates significantly I’m still feeding heavily.

All the new spirorbids and starfishes that have spread since nearly all dying off due to dangerously low nutrients are still going strong. It’s also meant the spread of goofy vermetid snails. I’ve removed them base and all from my wave maker but when I do the rock rearranging I’ll have some pliers ready.

I still need to mount my duncans on a rock. The frag plug they’re on is decidedly top heavy. I’ll do that once I redo the rockwork.

 

[Fishy888]

I just finished rearranging the rock for the moment. Over the next few days I’ll be watching things but the mushroom/GSP rock is now more shaded. I also scrubbed the rocks that were the worst off.

This was how the rock scape looked before.

Here’s how it looks now.

In the process of scrubbing the rocks I discovered this guy…

He’s still alive! I knew it was a possibility but I wasn’t expecting to find him alive. I’m glad he is though.

Of course the mushrooms and GSP are closed tighter than a jug right now. After all that rock had to be pulled out and scrubbed. They’ll open back up soon though. Oh and one more pic. Because wrasse.