Any feedback on the tank?
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Every other day or so, I test three things:
ALK with Salifert
NO3 with NYOS
PO4 with Hanna ULR
If my APEX salinity is moving I will calibrate and test with refractometer (VeeGee). The most difficult is the Hanna. The cuvettes have to be impeccably clean. I wear nitrile gloves when handling them.
The other numbers really just don't tend to move much if any. Maybe every few months I will run a wider set of tests, as I do seem to consume more K and Iodine than I replace with WCs. I will also send off an ICP if things seem "off".
I hope Neptune or any other company comes up with something to test PO4, NO3, and maybe K & iodine. I mean an automatic test just like the trident that you can check through the Apex.
Any feedback on the tank?
TY for the FTS. Made me go all the way back to page one looking for a start date. For whatever reason, that rock does not look two years old. 2 year old rock should look aged and mature like me. Pink and brown. Old. Perhaps under a certain filter I would look younger but this looks so young. Did you have a restart along the way? I am clearly missing something.
Hi Skep
Hopefully you will soon solve this issue. Currently going trough something similar, although I'm half convinced that in my case the tank is limited by one of the trace elements. I will try dosing it and then report back if there are improvements.
Regarding your phosphate consumption, take a look at this thread:
Phosphate Absorption Rates in Aragonite
I was chatting with @mcarroll the other day about phosphate binding to aragonite. I have seen many instances where phosphate bound live rock and sand requires massive amounts of media and water changes to remove all of the phosphate. Two instances: 1). Local purchased 120lbs of Pukani live...www.reef2reef.com
While your rocks have been in the tank for what I would assume to be more than long enough for all of them to be fully established, by our description it does not seem to be the case. Around page for 3 and 4 of the thread there are some interesting numbers.
Cheers
What’s the update!
That's great news! Keep taking pics to help monitor growth.Small update sorta. The QT tank tested @ ~6dKH ALK yesterday. The frags in there have been looking much happier the past week or two. The drop in ALK prompted me to look back at some old photos of the frags in there thinking that should indicate growth. Its always hard to tell in such a short period as a month but there is indeed some growth on some of the frags. The spongode tips appear to have made some new bumps and stuff. But needless to say I am now trying to figure out how to best dose PO4 and ALK along with the random NO3 and CAL when needed. At the moment, I am adding Sodium Bicarbonate and Trisodium Phosphate dosing liquids to my ATO reservior and continuing to test to "calibrate" how much to add each fill up. Obviously this is far from ideal so I have gone ahead and ordered a Jebao 3.4 dosing pump online. I understand its a far cry from the Apex DOS or a GHL but it will have to do for the QT. Once that gets in, I'll be able to dial in a real dosing regiment. All this, the little QT is kinda turning into a "second tank"... But all in the name of experiments and experience with it all. I'm just glad I am able to keep something alive somewhere. I know its possible now and not some crazy issue like bad water from the tap, etc.
update?