Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

I'm over in Springfield and have been to the new shop. If SPS is your thing he's got a decent medium sized frag tank with a number of frags in it. He hasn't updated the site since he's still busy getting set up in the shop. Might be worth the drive though! If you like torches he runs "Torch Tuesdays" where they're 20% off I believe, pretty nice deal. Euphyllia is definitely the focus, at least to start, as the largest frag tank is filled with euphyllia of various type and some random frags of other stuff. Otherwise everything else there looks healthy and clean!

Here's the Green/Purple Splatter hammer I picked up from them:

Good folks, definitely worth checking out!

I’m definitely going to check them out still. It’ll be a couple of weeks but I’ll definitely check them out. Thank for you for letting me know.

 

[Fishy888]

Going to try to be delicate with this response but you have been around us ( #Cronies ) long enough to know that we only want to help. I think you need to focus on your stability and keep accurate tabs on the big 5. You need to get some consistency and only change one thing at a time over a long period of time. I've been reading your thread for a while and I've seen you change many things. You should also get a par reading of your tank, more light is not always better when a tank is new, and sometimes even when it is mature.

Focus on your Alk, Ca, Mg, No3, and Po4. Use a quality salt and you will never have to worry about things like potassium. Your tank needs more time. You may have used pieces and parts of existing reefs to put it together like live rock, but your methods have been shaky and you have had speed bumps all along the way. Your tank is trying to mature and stabilize. By continually changing things and adding new coral you are not allowing it to do so and i fear you will continue to waste money.

Start with quality test kits. you will lose more money in coral, spend more money on additives you don't need, and waste way more time than any of us have if you don't.
Then test daily for a period of time, get consistent results with changing as little as possible.
Then test weekly. All 5 tests. as your tank gets more stable you will know which ones you need to test more or less often.
Understand that adding livestock and changing feeding frequencies or types of food could change your parameters and understand the relationship in those, like more pellet foods equals (tyically) higher Po4.

Be able to read your tank and react accordingly. I can tell you exactly how my tank is and what may be off by looking at each type of coral. By the amount of algae on the glass, by where my snails are located in the tank even. I can taste the water and tell you what the salt level is.

You are not being patient enough. I don't want to see you get frustrated and leave the hobby. I don't want to see you spend more money than you have to. I don't honestly want to see you have more coral losses. I would be happy to tell you about my routine if you have questions, how i got my tank where it is and how I maintain it. I don't even do water changes anymore. I know you have seen my current reef, it has only been up since April. and the components that i moved from my prior tank are just now at the 1 year mark. You can build a beautiful tank relatively quickly. but it takes consistency and discipline.

Stepping off the soap box now. Hope I didn't offend, but after your last pics someone has to step up and be a true reefing friend and advocate for you.

I agree 100%. It’s going to be at least until the new year before I buy any more coral. I agree with the stability part. I overthink things unfortunately, something I really wish I’d stop already, but it’s easier said than done. I intend to do exactly what you’ve said, and what money I spend will be on quality test kits and things I need for the system to keep things as steady as possible while also allowing my parameters to slowly but steadily improve.

I’m not offended because this thread’s here for people to show me better ways of doing things, and to see with fresh eyes what I’m not seeing. The cronies, of which I I fully intend on being one of eventually because seriously you’re all amazing people with a ton of knowledge and experience between all of you, you all mean a lot to me. I mean it. I appreciate you giving me the good advice you’ve given. I intend to follow it. Thank you.

 

[Fishy888]

You know you can call anytime, have a skimmer if you need one ,etc ...

I might just take you up on that. Thank you.

 

[tbrown]

I agree 100%. It’s going to be at least until the new year before I buy any more coral. I agree with the stability part. I overthink things unfortunately, something I really wish I’d stop already, but it’s easier said than done. I intend to do exactly what you’ve said, and what money I spend will be on quality test kits and things I need for the system to keep things as steady as possible while also allowing my parameters to slowly but steadily improve.

I’m not offended because this thread’s here for people to show me better ways of doing things, and to see with fresh eyes what I’m not seeing. The cronies, of which I I fully intend on being one of eventually because seriously you’re all amazing people with a ton of knowledge and experience between all of you, you all mean a lot to me. I mean it. I appreciate you giving me the good advice you’ve given. I intend to follow it. Thank you.

Having the test kits will definitely help. Also, with the amount of corals in your tank regular water changes should more than keep up with the potassium needs - it would still be something I'd be curious about.

As @F i s h y mentioned, stability is the number 1 goal. My phosphates are almost perfect but my nitrates are high. Everything in my tank is mostly happy so I leave it be.

 

[Fishy888]

Having the test kits will definitely help. Also, with the amount of corals in your tank regular water changes should more than keep up with the potassium needs - it would still be something I'd be curious about.

As @F i s h y mentioned, stability is the number 1 goal. My phosphates are almost perfect but my nitrates are high. Everything in my tank is mostly happy so I leave it be.

Yeah I agree. I decided against the stump remover. I need to do a water change soon.

 

[Fishy888]

I also forgot to mention that I hope anyone that reads this thread, especially for anyone new to the hobby, learns from both my successes and my failures. Especially my failures. I don’t want anyone to do any of the not so smart things I’ve done. But I also want people to learn from my successes, which to this point haven’t been tons, but that changes now!

 

[F i s h y]

I also forgot to mention that I hope anyone that reads this thread, especially for anyone new to the hobby, learns from both my successes and my failures. Especially my failures. I don’t want anyone to do any of the not so smart things I’ve done. But I also want people to learn from my successes, which to this point haven’t been tons, but that changes now!

Agree! And we are all always available whether in a thread via pm or on the phone.

 

[Fishy888]

Agree! And we are all always available whether in a thread via pm or on the phone.

I might just take you up on that as well.

 

[shadow_k]

I also forgot to mention that I hope anyone that reads this thread, especially for anyone new to the hobby, learns from both my successes and my failures. Especially my failures. I don’t want anyone to do any of the not so smart things I’ve done. But I also want people to learn from my successes, which to this point haven’t been tons, but that changes now!

Trust me been there done that buddy , I did exactly what you did freaking out about Dino’s and cyano , and high nitrates and no nitrates @fishguy242 and a few others helped me take control of my tank and now it’s getting to the stable stage…. And let me tell you it’s 100% worth seeing what you worked so hard to accomplish grow. Love this hobby and love the support that comes with it

 

[Fishy888]

Over the next several months I’ll be getting several elements of my reef tank up and running like my sump for one. I’m also going to get a kit for replacing my sediment filter, my carbon block, and my DI resin which is about halfway consumed.

I’m going to finish messing with the aquascape. The massive rocks I was given are going to replace the big concrete slab. These are real limestone so I’d rather have them. I’ll take a picture of the biggest of the three pieces. One of them is 20 years old.

Once that’s finished, I’m going to be laser focused on stability. I do have more fish and the like to add, but done slowly they shouldn’t destabilize things that much.

 

[Fishy888]

Trust me been there done that buddy , I did exactly what you did freaking out about Dino’s and cyano , and high nitrates and no nitrates @fishguy242 and a few others helped me take control of my tank and now it’s getting to the stable stage…. And let me tell you it’s 100% worth seeing what you worked so hard to accomplish grow. Love this hobby and love the support that comes with it

I couldn’t agree more. As bad as things might seem I’ve been through much, much worse, as many here have also been. I really mean it though. All of you who follow this thread, and the #Cronies in general, know this. You mean the world to me. I hope I’ll be able to help you all out like you help me. Thank you all again.

 

[Fishy888]

Some good things are happening despite the negatives. My zoas are thriving. They’ve grown 50% larger than when I got them. All the soft corals are doing well. My purple digi is slowly growing once again as well.

Like I said though I’ll be following all your advice #Cro#Cronies that’ll lead me to where I need to be.

Here’s a couple of images of the large rock I was talking about. Tomorrow should be the day I get to add it to the tank but the rock still has a faint turpentine smell so it. I’ll make up some water and let it have one more soak and scrub then hopefully it’ll be good to go. It probably weighs about 40 lbs.

 

[Scratch08]

My turn to chime, quick and simple, don’t use potassium nitrate to increase your NO3 ( saw a post earlier where you mentioned it), you need to raise no3, you want to use straight up sodium nitrate, like this…
Duda Energy 5sn 5 lb. Sodium...
And while you’re ordering it, go ahead and order one of these…
PARACITY Manual Coffee Bean...
I’d have to dig back through about 6 months of text messages with Eagle Steve to get the full explanation, but in short, too much potassium can stunt the growth of your corals, and using potassium nitrate can cause a build up of excess potassium over time.

The coffee grinder is so you can grind the sodium nitrate up into a finer powder to help it dissolve faster. As for how to mix…

27 grams sodium nitrate mixed with 500ml of RODI water will give you a solution that will increase NO3 by approximately 1.04ppm with a dose of 1ml per 10 gallons of tank water…so for me, at 120 gallons, 12ml of solution will increase my NO3 by 1.04ppm

But just like anything start off slow and test after dosing just to verify your dosing amounts. When I fist changed over to this method, I tested before dosing and then waited about 2hours after dosing and retested to make sure I was getting close to the increase I expected. I also started out dosing enough to increase by 1ppm.


And go slow

 

[tbrown]

And then get some of these since you're getting a grinder:


And one of these to roast them:


Another good hobby to help slow you down when you get the itch to start messing with stuff?

 

[tbrown]

You don't have to get the pink one.

 

[Fishy888]

My turn to chime, quick and simple, don’t use potassium nitrate to increase your NO3 ( saw a post earlier where you mentioned it), you need to raise no3, you want to use straight up sodium nitrate, like this…
Duda Energy 5sn 5 lb. Sodium...
And while you’re ordering it, go ahead and order one of these…
PARACITY Manual Coffee Bean...
I’d have to dig back through about 6 months of text messages with Eagle Steve to get the full explanation, but in short, too much potassium can stunt the growth of your corals, and using potassium nitrate can cause a build up of excess potassium over time.

The coffee grinder is so you can grind the sodium nitrate up into a finer powder to help it dissolve faster. As for how to mix…

27 grams sodium nitrate mixed with 500ml of RODI water will give you a solution that will increase NO3 by approximately 1.04ppm with a dose of 1ml per 10 gallons of tank water…so for me, at 120 gallons, 12ml of solution will increase my NO3 by 1.04ppm

But just like anything start off slow and test after dosing just to verify your dosing amounts. When I fist changed over to this method, I tested before dosing and then waited about 2hours after dosing and retested to make sure I was getting close to the increase I expected. I also started out dosing enough to increase by 1ppm.


And go slow

I appreciate it. I’ll definitely go this route.

 

[Fishy888]

I agree with @F i s h y....i tried to go quickly with the 55g frag and unfortunately had losses and some losses hit harder then others.....fishy was there with me lost and frank as well as all the others here i can call fam bam.... All of them telling me to slow down and focus or even just sound advice like fishy has given. Since then i have been able to go from testing daily to 3 days to weekly to bi weekly now to only when something looks off....i know my routine and know when things need changed replaced and tweaked...i also know if and when i need to do a water change which is no longer weekly. I still hit up fishy Frank and lost all the time with questions and sometimes it might be a duh answer but still rather safe then sorry.....even when the 200 goes up for me its gonna be a min. Of 3 mos b4 coral goes in and only going to start with tester pieces i have a lot of or dont mind killing off just in case its not ready.....patience is the name of the game and consistency.....now i am not expert level taste the salt and tell you ppt like fishy but i am slowly getting there....use your resources here we all care about you and want to see you successful. And to get there is to be consistent and create stability first. Then the rest comes easier after you establish your routine...
Keep on reefin on buddy....you got this slow and steady....

Once you are stable i would love to give you some things through the r2r express.

I meant to respond to this earlier. Hopefully I won’t seem like a pest or ask too many stupid questions but be sure I’ll be asking questions. I’d rather be a fool for 5 minutes than a fool for a lifetime. You’re all an inspiration and I look forward to having an awesome reef and to getting to know you all better, and hopefully you’ll get to know me better. Kinda like, well, #Cronies.

 

[fishguy242]

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[tbrown]

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I missed out .. There was a kid about a mile and half from me getting out of the saltwater business - he had opened a small frag business in his basement. Anyway, he had 4 Hanna checkers plus extra reagents for all 4 and was asking $50... Phosphorus ULR, Alk, Magnesium, and Calcium. The only one I have is the Alk (and a ULR Phosphate but still). I was 5 minutes late responding.

 

[Fishy888]

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Not bad. Thank you for letting me know.about this.