The "She Said Yes!" 120 Gallon Build

[dangles]

Ugh.

I can't seem to get my phosphate to come up!

In May and June my PO4 was higher than I wanted (as high as 0.3). July and August were in-range. But for the last month my PO4 has bottomed out completely. My NO3 hasn't been as bad, but I've dosed some NeoNitro to keep it reasonable.

I had been feeding 4 times per day with my Plank. Then I increased to 5 times to try to bring the PO4 back up. I've cut my refugium light down from 24 hours to 12 hours. Still zero PO4!

The only filtration I have is the fleece roller and the refugium. No skimmer. For food I feed a mixture of pellets and Avast's Reef Jerky (which has a bunch of powdered food in it).

I would think my PO4 would be much higher than it is. What else could be tanking my PO4?

I don't have a huge coral load by a long shot but my pH has been in the 8.15-8.35 range. Could corals be consuming that much? I wouldn't think so in my case. My alkalinity demand has been steadily increasing over the last month and a half or so since I increased some of my lights. But I'm still not cooking things. I think my highest PAR area is only 230 or so. My kalk stirrer is up to almost 2.5L per night to keep my alkalinity in the mid-8s.

I wouldn't worry about it so much if I didn't have a few SPS and a torch that aren't doing so hot.

Thoughts?

 

[fishguy242]

Cut the fuge down to 8 hrs, stop roller in place 24-48 hrs? let tank get a little "dirty"

 

[dangles]

Cut the fuge down to 8 hrs, stop roller in place 24-48 hrs? let tank get a little "dirty"

Yeah that will be my next step. I’m doing a 24 hour pause on the fuge for now and will recheck when I get back from my short trip.

 

[Fishy Guy]

Tank is looking great!

I am excited to see the pricing on the jabeo/jecod versions of the vortechs @telegraham has been teasing on his instagram the last week!

Link?

 

[dangles]

Smol picture dump. Will add narrative when I have more time!

 

[dangles]

Smol picture dump. Will add narrative when I have more time!

I guess there isn’t all that much to update really. I swapped out the stock lead-acid battery in one of my Ecotech battery backups with a lithium-iron-phosphate battery. It’s SO MUCH LIGHTER and will have a much much longer service life now. No more worrying about it losing 80% of it it’s capacity after a couple of years like they’re known for


Also still having “zero phosphate” issues. I took the fleece roller offline overnight a couple of times. I would do it longer and during the day but it gets really noisy. I also backed the fuge down to 8 hours without any meaningful impact on the phosphate.

Yesterday I remembered the roller has a small “partial” bypass hole that’s normally plugged with a plastic bolt. I removed that to see if leaving it out around the clock will make a difference. Not as much will flow through as if I shut the roller off completely obviously but I can’t do that for very long anyway. Hopefully this bypass hole open 24/7 will make some difference. If it doesn’t, I will be moving on to phosphate bolus dosing until I can figure out a more “hands off” solution.

 

[dangles]

Any ideas what might cause a hammer to be “puffy”?

I’ll start a new thread about that for an even broader pool of opinions I think.

 

[Fishy Guy]

Any ideas what might cause a hammer to be “puffy”?

I’ll start a new thread about that for an even broader pool of opinions I think.

What did you find out? I thought it was a good sign. I have a hammer that does that.

 

[dangles]

What did you find out? I thought it was a good sign. I have a hammer that does that.

No idea. Nobody has replied yet

 

[fishguy242]

Normally a good sign ,they tend to do that at times, any worries just come back...
night time closed pic would help us see if ant problems, tissue on skeleton /etc.

 

[dangles]

Not an update but I’m starting to see some algae pop up in little nooks and crannies. It’s not widespread. My nutrients are decently low still, and it’s only effecting my high-light areas. None of my cuc seems to give a crap about it. That being said, I probably need a cuc refresh. What should I focus on to get at those patches?

 

[Fishy Guy]

Looks like GHA. I’ve not had luck with any snails or inverts that would make a dent with that. Curious to see what advice you get that’s not a tang ha.

 

[dangles]

Looks like GHA. I’ve not had luck with any snails or inverts that would make a dent with that. Curious to see what advice you get that’s not a tang ha.

I was really hoping my Yellow would gobble it up but no luck so far. Maybe I need more tangs!

 

[fishguy242]

Dolabella sea hare ?

 

[dangles]

Dolabella sea hare ?

My lfs has sea hares sometimes. I’m not sure if they’re Dolabellas though. I’ll have to find out.

 

[skey44]

I had perfect luck with turbo snails. They are lawn mowers in my tank. Did you ever change your filtration when your phosphates were 0? What are your phosphate/nitrate numbers now?
Also reefroids a good phosphate additive that also feeds coral if you ever have 0 phosphates again. Seeing the algae you probably don’t need it now.

 

[dangles]

I had perfect luck with turbo snails. They are lawn mowers in my tank. Did you ever change your filtration when your phosphates were 0? What are your phosphate/nitrate numbers now?
Also reefroids a good phosphate additive that also feeds coral if you ever have 0 phosphates again. Seeing the algae you probably don’t need it now.

I only have 2 turbos. I need more!

I have a filter roller and refugium for filtration. My last parameter check was N- 3.2, P-0.02. Next check is tomorrow *crossed fingers*