Reef nutrition

IOWL's 20g IM Nuvo Fusion 20

7/3/2020

The bad news: I'm an idiot. I was doing a water change, lost my attention for a split second, and ended up catching a bunch of my dragon soul torch's tentacles in the siphon and tearing them off.

The good news: coral is pretty hardy and - minus the shortened tentacles - it seems like it's going to make a full recovery.

The better news: dinos still haven't come back after over a week of my full lighting schedule (same one I was using prior to my outbreak), so I think I'm in the clear!

And speaking of better news, a thank you to @Corallus for offering up his yellowtail damsel when we were trying to figure out what to add to the tank—along with a couple additional frags and an RBTA. Everything's settling in nicely so far, and I'm reasonably sure the damsel and our clownfish are friends now.

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And an extra big thanks to him for my first SPS frag (though I've had many offers from others on here), a blue acro:

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Funnily enough, I had the opposite problem that I had pre- and during-dinos: climbing phosphates. I encouraged my phosphates to climb to ~0.05 when I had dinos, but (I'm assuming) the remaining detritus kept releasing phosphates during that time and they eventually climbed to 0.14 ppm. I turkey basted the rocks, vacuumed the sand, did a partial water change, and added some GFO, and - a few days later - phosphates are at 0.07 ppm and falling. Trying to get it down to ~0.03 ppm to encourage the acro to re-color after the stress of transport, and if anyone has any other tips for coloration outside of 'stability', I'm all ears.

Final note of interest: after my 3-day blackout, I noticed that alkalinity usage had dropped considerably. Prior to the blackout my system was going through it at about 0.5 to 0.7 dkh/day; after adding the acro and testing daily to adjust for the new usage, it held steady at ~0.2 to 0.4 dkh/day. My guess was that this is due to the blackout causing some type of metabolic slowdown of coral growth, and the days afterwards were the corals re-adjusting and 'ramping up' growth again.

This prediction held true when the usage spiked over the course of a few days, and now seems to be at ~0.9 dkh/day. Here's hoping that lowered phosphates + stable alkalinity will lead to recolored and happy growth for my first stick.
 
7/27/20

Dinos still appear to be gone, which I will never take for granted again. Picked up a frag of @ofzakaria 's Shawn Bennett BC Yellow Tort, which is now sitting front/top and center in the tank:

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I'd also say keeping my first SPS has been a success.

Day one in the tank:

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Last night (7/26):
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Full shot including base:


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What skimmer do you use with your IM 25g?
Ur first post said EShopps Nano Skimme. Curiouse why did not you go with their ghost skimmer that is made for this AIO system?
 
That's some bad ass photo skills.
Wow!
Thanks!

What skimmer do you use with your IM 25g?
Ur first post said EShopps Nano Skimme. Curiouse why did not you go with their ghost skimmer that is made for this AIO system?

I went with the Eshopps skimmer because this was my first tank, and it was included in the tank bundle I purchased. It's performed well enough that I haven't had any desire to swap it out.
 
Picture update, 8/19/20:

Nothing much new to report. I've been trying to let everything settle in and stabilize...which will be undone when I move the tank to the new living space later this month, haha. Some pictures:

My acan finally budded a few heads off, and I'm excited to see how quickly they've grown!

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Torch recovered from its haircut, and seems to be doing well:

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The euphyllia are planning a takeover:

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And, because I love comparison shots, a before and after:

Before and After.jpg
 
In the past four years, I have been one of the primary parties in seven moves: Michigan to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Central Philadelphia, Central Philadelphia to New Jersey, New Jersey to San Jose (myself), Nevada to Sacramento (helping my stepmom, where I was the only one aside from her), and New Jersey to San Jose (my wife), and San Jose to San Jose.

I hate moving. I hated this move especially because I was terrified of moving my six-month-old tank so soon after it had completely settled down. Fortunately, everything went well, in no small part thanks to @hyacinth 's more-than-generous offer to help with the move and 'babysitting' my favia and torch corals).

The slightly rearranged tank after getting everything back in:

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A few days later:
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And a picture today, after ensuring the tank had stabilized and putting the favia and torch back in:

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Focused shot of the torch, because it seems to be loving its new positioning:

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