The Rebirth/Rebuild of my 180g sps thread

**ACRONUTS** · 02-16-2015, 12:40 AM

I had a busy schedule with work but was bummed because I would not be able to attend any of the frag swaps and shows that were happening.

However I did decide I had one thing on my side and that was the internet. A couple of LFS's had these massive one day sales and yep I took advantage and sat up late planning my list.

Went from need to have, to gotta have to, ok lets be realistic and get pieces that mean something to me. So I strictly went on color and where ultimately it would be placed in my reef so that I can maximize color and comparability as these guys grow.

Since It was my birthday I went all out!!! Needless to say I think I did really well........20+ pieces plus some freebees!!!

I did patiently acclimated them and then dipped them in Coral RX. Across for 5 mins and zoe's and chalices for 8 mins. Very clean pieces so hopefully they will stay that way!

This will take several post so that I can get the names in for id later on when I can't lol remember what they are!!

Friday the 13th Unpacking day!
http://youtu.be/H0RjVqpSpxM

Acclimation
http://youtu.be/bK_KJEXxY94

Purple pink stylo

Purple Rollovers

Neon Craze Acro - directly behind it??? a freebee looks like a millie and tip is showing a pink/purple hue. too soon to tell

Valentine's Tenuis acro

Top view of the acro's

Top view of the chalices and zoe's

**philip_r5** · 02-16-2015, 07:33 PM

Nice pick up, and documentation. Can't wait to see them in the tank.

**ACRONUTS** · 02-18-2015, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by philip_r5

Nice pick up, and documentation. Can't wait to see them in the tank.

thx philip_r5!

I can't wait to see them grow as well. It's what makes me love this reef keeping hobby. Well besides the buying lol!

**Chip** · 02-18-2015, 10:18 PM

Thanks for keeping us updated! Yes, you have the buying thing down. Nice frags!!

**ACRONUTS** · 02-20-2015, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Chip

Thanks for keeping us updated! Yes, you have the buying thing down. Nice frags!!

Thx Chip!

**CoralolisEffect** · 02-21-2015, 07:50 AM

Cool. The video is like Christmas morning. Lol.
Nice pieces.

**ACRONUTS** · 02-21-2015, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by CoralolisEffect

Cool. The video is like Christmas morning. Lol.
Nice pieces.

Oh yes it felt like it lol!!!!

**ACRONUTS** · 02-27-2015, 11:07 AM

Well with all the new stuff I have realized that I need to add another piece of technology to the tank.
I decided to go with a doser. After plenty of research and going back and forth I decided on a Kamoer unit.
What sold me on this unit is reliability and the auto dose feature plus the fact that if the power goes out its internal battery will save my programs.
It is a 3 head doser. I will dose Ca, Alk, and Mag.

The unit has arrived and have it setup. Not 100% though because the manufacturer recommends installing the unit where no moisture or salt creep can get to its components. Due to this the extra tubing it comes with is not enough. I had just enough o at least get it going for pump #1.Since ALK is the least forgiving I started dosing.

Since my last WC my ALK tested at 7.0. I wanted to get it up to at least 8-9 dkh
Due to tubing MIA lol have not been able to use pump 2 nor 3. The pic shows extra tubing I had but its too large and will cause a huge mess. I know because I tried it already lol!

I have been running the ALK now for about 4 days.
I have it set on AUTO
Dosing 5ml of ALK from 7pm-12 midnight
7 days a week
Thats 30ml a day for the last 3 days
I tested on day 4 and noticed no change in ALK still tested at 7.0

I just upped the dose to 10ml so it will add up to 60ml a day.
Will test and see where it is in 3 days.
I can see and most likely will know that its gonna be more than 60 ml a day. Why? Well the caps seem to inhale it and I can see the growth happening and the coralline algae is starting to form on my front glass.

Some may ask why am I dosing so little. With ALK I am careful not to up it too quickly because some acro's and monti's will let you know asap that the alk swing is annoying them. So we don't want that.

Will update Sunday nite.

**Jim28fl** · 02-27-2015, 10:05 PM

Sorry this is a lot of info but here i go. super condensed version is make small increases week to week not day to day and eventually you add more but more doesnt show up the following week as it used to which is contrary to what you think should happen. which means the product is likely not being uptaken, but actually is flashing out of the water before the corals can get it. Dose it a little over many times a day in a high high high flow area is best for sure when you start talking 100+ ml a day in a 100 gallon system for example. Once you find a your self cleaning a pump up that locks up every 3 months your getting close to your limit i think. the minute to minute available lvl are getting too high for your system to handle. which varies with temperature, kind of pumps you using etc. Mag pump seem to be magnets In my case. the 9.5 on the skimmer locks up every 3 months at the lvls I'm trying to run ATM. And there farthest from he input location of the DOSER literally the end of the line before the water hits last chamber and doser drip lines goes in and gets run thru the whole system by the main pump.

...I run a BM 7 head unit and i keep going all over the map with it IMO. I have gone from 40ML/day of 2 part, to 250/250/10 of three part and back n forth little by little.. three big things i learned so far and still learning. **I didn't know my tanks consumption before i added this doser, only that saturated talk wasn't doing it.

1. IF your gonna dose MG separately on a doser, make sure its not already in your calcium product part. Best thing is pure ALK pure CA and pure MG if you test a lot probably. other wise use 2 part with the CA/MG/STR/BORON part 2, all in one balanced systems. other wise you will over load the MG. Unless your test says something is getting funky in the MG department i think 2 part is easiest. and Mg can be adjusted manually. a three head unit can be used to run 2 separated times of ALk into the system and one CA. "lessen the roller coaster by putting in ALK in 48 times a day." Put the Mg in when you test the water if its low or is showing to be an issue.

2. If you put more than about 5 ml of ALK at a time out of a tube you get localized flash precip, unless you got like major major flow and volume in the area like the display area. a sump compartment doesnt seem to do it. I tried straight into the main pump input even and was getting just wasted product as it precipitated out on the tube walls OTW to the tank, before it fully stirred. Never a cloudy water scenario. just the more i added nothing happened and pumps started locking up and scale showed up on the sump walls n stuff. Numbers never or barely went up even when i like doubled the amount i was using from 125 to 250 ml/day briefly. Thus indicating something was amuck.

3. I also found a point where i theoretically should have been fine, but i hit a ceiling and the CA n ALk crashed over night when there should have been plenty of room for increase. I believe its related to my CO2 lvl in my tank. For example i can't get over 10.0DKH at 460ca 1400mg or i crash to 6.5DKH at 370ca1400mg over night or maybe 24 hrs. its happened twice first i though i just had a huge growth spurt..lol. So i'm now targeting 9.0 at 450 1400mg as a ceiling and a goal to maintain week to week. Other systems i can achieve +10.0 dk if i want, but not in this system for some reason. Maybe the CO2 in the house holds my ph under the 8.5 ceiling on the probe but it really is getting to that point of too high just C02 is holding it down visually on the probe. i don't fully understand. if i filter out C02 the tank goes into the 8.4 range fast. for example with c02 scrubber material on the skimmer intake. But when media exhausts, the tank also crashes ALK wise as a result. Thus i stopped using it.

My Ph never shows more than a .10 swing or 8.00 to 8.10 swing for example day to day. i know my house/Co2 holds it down as well.
I also dose 1% ish of my system volume "MY TOP OFF" in saturated KALK each day over the whole day.
The numbers say i should be able to get 10-12DKH and 500 or so but i crash before i ever get there ALK wise. CA seems to be ok. I even tested for both types of ALK with the sea chem kit and its balanced correctly.

At 100 gallons of system volume and pretty highly stocked and i would say high water flow in the filtration department i now am at 120ML of alk and 95ML Ca and 2 ml or MG per day and adjusting every three days a little. Haven't lost any corals, stressed a few pieces a bit. but i quit aiming so high for the high growth. Its too risky ATM with my setup. and it doesnt seem to like high levels. things are growing great awesome colors.. there is a lot of variables of course. so hope this helps a bit. If i don't dose anything but Kalk growth stops and i settle at 6.8 DKH and 360 ish i think. with the KALK i put in. with out that it would be less I'm sure. Kalk doesnt keep it up at all as i had hoped. too much consumption.

I split my ALK into two heads Ca only one Mg the fourth. And its put in every 15 min instead of once ever thirty so its like 60ml then 15 min then 60 ml then 30 min 24/per day, for my Bm unit, each time per head per round of dose from the unit. If that makes sense VS 125 Ml out of one head over 24/per day. CA goes in 95 Ml over 24 times a day. MG 2mL over 2 times per day. this will likely go up as i was suing a CA product that had MG added in it to adjust lvl and the MG was being added in advertently which means the Mg head has to stay LOW till it falls down to about 1300 again. only time will tell where MG/ day needs to really be. i test often and with several kits R.S., SALIFERT, SEA CHEM, HANNA and so forth and am confident in my test numbers. Mg stays solid CA and ALK tank when ALk get over 10 even when MG is satisfactory.

Any one who has input i welcome it.. I'm still not sure why its happening exactly. so i quit chasing it. And i will leave them settle lower. I use BRS bulk materials for my make up "SODA ASH" for ALK part to be exact.

**ACRONUTS** · 02-27-2015, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by Jim28fl

Sorry this is a lot of info but here i go. super condensed version is make small increases week to week not day to day and eventually you add more but more doesnt show up the following week as it used to which is contrary to what you think should happen. which means the product is likely not being uptaken, but actually is flashing out of the water before the corals can get it. Dose it a little over many times a day in a high high high flow area is best for sure when you start talking 100+ ml a day in a 100 gallon system for example. Once you find a your self cleaning a pump up that locks up every 3 months your getting close to your limit i think. the minute to minute available lvl are getting too high for your system to handle. which varies with temperature, kind of pumps you using etc. Mag pump seem to be magnets In my case. the 9.5 on the skimmer locks up every 3 months at the lvls I'm trying to run ATM. And there farthest from he input location of the DOSER literally the end of the line before the water hits last chamber and doser drip lines goes in and gets run thru the whole system by the main pump.

...I run a BM 7 head unit and i keep going all over the map with it IMO. I have gone from 40ML/day of 2 part, to 250/250/10 of three part and back n forth little by little.. three big things i learned so far and still learning. **I didn't know my tanks consumption before i added this doser, only that saturated talk wasn't doing it.

1. IF your gonna dose MG separately on a doser, make sure its not already in your calcium product part. Best thing is pure ALK pure CA and pure MG if you test a lot probably. other wise use 2 part with the CA/MG/STR/BORON part 2, all in one balanced systems. other wise you will over load the MG. Unless your test says something is getting funky in the MG department i think 2 part is easiest. and Mg can be adjusted manually. a three head unit can be used to run 2 separated times of ALk into the system and one CA. "lessen the roller coaster by putting in ALK in 48 times a day." Put the Mg in when you test the water if its low or is showing to be an issue.

2. If you put more than about 5 ml of ALK at a time out of a tube you get localized flash precip, unless you got like major major flow and volume in the area like the display area. a sump compartment doesnt seem to do it. I tried straight into the main pump input even and was getting just wasted product as it precipitated out on the tube walls OTW to the tank, before it fully stirred. Never a cloudy water scenario. just the more i added nothing happened and pumps started locking up and scale showed up on the sump walls n stuff. Numbers never or barely went up even when i like doubled the amount i was using from 125 to 250 ml/day briefly. Thus indicating something was amuck.

3. I also found a point where i theoretically should have been fine, but i hit a ceiling and the CA n ALk crashed over night when there should have been plenty of room for increase. I believe its related to my CO2 lvl in my tank. For example i can't get over 10.0DKH at 460ca 1400mg or i crash to 6.5DKH at 370ca1400mg over night or maybe 24 hrs. its happened twice first i though i just had a huge growth spurt..lol. So i'm now targeting 9.0 at 450 1400mg as a ceiling and a goal to maintain week to week. Other systems i can achieve +10.0 dk if i want, but not in this system for some reason. Maybe the CO2 in the house holds my ph under the 8.5 ceiling on the probe but it really is getting to that point of too high just C02 is holding it down visually on the probe. i don't fully understand. if i filter out C02 the tank goes into the 8.4 range fast. for example with c02 scrubber material on the skimmer intake. But when media exhausts, the tank also crashes ALK wise as a result. Thus i stopped using it.

My Ph never shows more than a .10 swing or 8.00 to 8.10 swing for example day to day. i know my house/Co2 holds it down as well.
I also dose 1% ish of my system volume "MY TOP OFF" in saturated KALK each day over the whole day.
The numbers say i should be able to get 10-12DKH and 500 or so but i crash before i ever get there ALK wise. CA seems to be ok. I even tested for both types of ALK with the sea chem kit and its balanced correctly.

At 100 gallons of system volume and pretty highly stocked and i would say high water flow in the filtration department i now am at 120ML of alk and 95ML Ca and 2 ml or MG per day and adjusting every three days a little. Haven't lost any corals, stressed a few pieces a bit. but i quit aiming so high for the high growth. Its too risky ATM with my setup. and it doesnt seem to like high levels. things are growing great awesome colors.. there is a lot of variables of course. so hope this helps a bit. If i don't dose anything but Kalk growth stops and i settle at 6.8 DKH and 360 ish i think. with the KALK i put in. with out that it would be less I'm sure. Kalk doesnt keep it up at all as i had hoped. too much consumption.

I split my ALK into two heads Ca only one Mg the fourth. And its put in every 15 min instead of once ever thirty so its like 60ml then 15 min then 60 ml then 30 min 24/per day, for my Bm unit, each time per head per round of dose from the unit. If that makes sense VS 125 Ml out of one head over 24/per day. CA goes in 95 Ml over 24 times a day. MG 2mL over 2 times per day. this will likely go up as i was suing a CA product that had MG added in it to adjust lvl and the MG was being added in advertently which means the Mg head has to stay LOW till it falls down to about 1300 again. only time will tell where MG/ day needs to really be. i test often and with several kits R.S., SALIFERT, SEA CHEM, HANNA and so forth and am confident in my test numbers. Mg stays solid CA and ALK tank when ALk get over 10 even when MG is satisfactory.

Any one who has input i welcome it.. I'm still not sure why its happening exactly. so i quit chasing it. And i will leave them settle lower. I use BRS bulk materials for my make up "SODA ASH" for ALK part to be exact.

Wow Jim You certainly have bought up some good points. To be honest I read your comments twice bc at first I thought oh boy this is way over my head lol. Mag is one of those I agree that don't necessarily need to be dosed but on occasion. While I consider my tank in its early infant stage its still important for me to think ahead. IMO when the frags are at their youngest they are going to need as much help in growing. Some of course grow faster than others. Not sure when I will be up to 100+ per day but I can imagine that time will come.
Jim for me it is at this point easier to dose over 5 hours and then test every 3 days. I assume that I will need to be doing this for awhile till I reach saturated levels but the testing and adjusting allows me to stay on top of the system requirements at this point.

On #1 I will check to see if Mag is already being added. I am currently using ESV 2 part. First time using it so can't say without looking at it whether it does or does not.
On #2 I need to reconsider the place where the tubes will dump into. Currently like most its goes in the sump area where the return pump compartment is.
On #3 what happened to your corals with the crash? I do need to address my PH probes and get an extra PH test kit as a back up. At this point I can honestly say I really have no idea what my PH is!

Jim thank you for taking the time to share your experience with me and if you don't mind I will keep posting here and feel free to continue sharing!!!

**Jim28fl** · 03-01-2015, 07:52 PM

-ESV does have MAG and other things in the second part as well supposedly balanced amounts are in it, assuming your balanced to begin with.
-Where it goesin the system is most related to how much goes in each time. and if it has adequate dilution before it can flash the calcium out.. other options is to dilute it 50% first in the dose reservoir and add more frequently. among other things, like i did, i split it on two heads 15 min apart so i can shoot half as much each time and my System doesn't even resister the ph change but maybe /.01 tops on the probe after about ten minutes. When a person dumps 20 Ml of ALK into the display and see bubbles of White all over the tank. thats local precipitating CA. and massively increasing the PH in those small areas. leading to a small amount of precip as useless calcium carbonate. and sometimes clouding the water. which is counter productive. same can happen more often but on a a smaller scale every time the product hits the water is the concentration is to high for the water it hits to reduce fast enough. Thus putting it into a pump or a high flow area slowly is best option every time. Losers are pretty slow but if your sending 20Ml overtime that may still over do the waters ability locally to dilute it. which i was seeing to some degree.

-The result after the crash seems to be Frags seem to bleach a bit, or recess polyps a bit mostly the monti's my green monti tells me when its color looks off that the ALK is off. But very minimal no cloudy water or anything. I'm not totally crashing the tank. I'm just loosing my buffer of CA n ALK i have built up "i believe" down to natural levels again.
I still play with how much i need to dose everyday. i wish i was confident in how much my system uses each day. and i really feel the CO2 in the house limits the amount the water column can hold on any given day more so than the posted balanced levels that salt water can hold. high C02 naturally breaks up your Alkalinity lvl and ca lvl's i believe. which is partially why Ph drops. creating a stutter effect crashing it down. Driving out CO2 is a good thing if you can do it consistently for sure, to maintain an elevated lvl of CA n ALK.

I'm still not 100% certain whats going on in my tank, but i have decided ill let it lower down till i see little or no growth and very slowly over months add a few Ml a week and take a much slower approach VS test every few days and adjust dose and rebalance to the lvls to what I "heard" grow coral better "which is the trap i feel into." Like Ph, who cares what CA n ALK are, as long as there balanced above minimum safe lvls in sea water, and the tank is looking good.. chasing a 440CA/ 11.2 DKH may not work for your system vs a 410ca/ 7.0 DKH. Even if its a balanced number some folks can maintain. and both are good goals.
For reference, As of today at11 am, I'm 9.9DKH and 430CA and i again reduced my amount a small bit for the next three days. And my PH was way down with the house all closed up now at 7.96 today. which i though i was starting another crash when the ph went down. which it the first sign to me to test. That or the green monti cap who looks correct BTW today and better than last week. were talking minimal loss of color in spots is what I'm looking at.. not really bleaching just inconsistent color on the surface is what I'm seeing and the small polyps are less visible.

**ACRONUTS** · 03-12-2015, 12:10 AM

Tank up date..........
Things are going somewhat well. On one hand I am getting growth some of the acro's and monti's are a little pale in color.
Testing has shown constantly that my phosphates and nitrates have been at ultimate lows. Mind you that this may not be a problem to some in some tanks but for mine it clearly is.
I decided to stop dosing the NoPox. Within a couple of weeks the phosphates started to rise. I keep a close watch and not let those go up above 0.04. In the nitrates dept I turn the skimmer off for several days and test and see if nitrates come up. They do but not significantly. I feed the tank heavier and keep the fish nice and plump. This option seems to show the best for them and the colors.
The one thing I keep running is the pellets. These guys do an excellent job of lowering nitrates to 0 but phosphates seem to be a direct story.

The additional hardware of the Kamoer has been interesting. While it came w about 6 feet of tubing it was not enough to get all 3 pumps going. After researching, posts and emails I found the rt size tubing; 3mm x 5mm from USA plastics. Now its all finally running! I also took the doser and placed it inside the cabinet on a Kamoer stand I ordered from Satlysupply.

Here it is dosing ALK at a designated time:

Some research indicates that dosing into a highly circulated area is best in order to reduce precipitation.

Here are a few pics of some new additions to the tank.

Pink Aussie tabling acro

Purple aussie acro

**ACRONUTS** · 03-12-2015, 12:43 AM

Aussie lobo

Shades of Fall acro

Some tank shots

**ACRONUTS** · 03-25-2015, 11:18 AM

Update on my 180 gallon:

Purchased a probe to replace an aging one which kept telling me my PH was 11.46!
Once calibrated I am now looking at a PH of 7.96. Low to where it needs to be but at least I know I can slowly add a little kalk to boost it up into the normal range of 8.1 to 8.3.
Since I live in Florida I keep my home sealed because I want cool comfort not heat and humidity ! But there is a draw back! The amount of CO2 in my home while safe for us humans is a likely cause of my low PH.
I will run a test and open windows in the next couple of days as we experience a cool front lol! Then will see if I still have a low PH. Will let you all know.

As for the doser it is working like a charm!! I however made a dose time change on dosing ALK. Since I saw that the PH was low I decided to dose ALK in the am hours and CA in the evening hours.
The theory from what I have read is that ALK does raise ALK and PH. Will see if this makes a difference as well.

I was on Facebook and became friends with a fellow south Florida reef enthusiast. Michael sold me a frag pack and if I local picked up he would throw in a few extras to make my drive a little more palatable, lol!

His tank is amazing and he has been reefing for awhile now. I will post a FTS once I get his permission. He runs T5's and LED supplement and is doing ZEOVIT. His growth and colors are awesome!

Here are what I believe are tried and true sps that have stood the test of time and a few pieces I have never had!

Suhorsonoi

Ant Insignis

ORA's Joe the coral

ORA's Miami Orchid

ORA's Cali Tort