High Tide Aquatics

EnderTurtle's 40 gallon breeder LPS

That's crazy. When was the last time you tested before you noticed the drop? Could this have been a trend over a week or two or was this a sudden overnight kind of thing? You said you had been behind on water changes so I think I already know the answer.

I was just kidding about the Kessils by the way.


It was a trend, last time I tested was about three weeks ago and my alk was like 6.2 or something.
 
Chasing numbers can make you crazy!
That's why I stopped.
If you trust your salt mix and you do regular and substantial water changes, you should be good.
The remedy for most problems is a nice water change
 
I agree and I do not prefer to chase numbers, but I also don't prefer doing big ass water changes regularly :p

Plan is to do water changes to bring my alkalinity and calcium up to proper numbers, figure out my dosing requirements and dose. I'll do smaller water changes.


3/5/2016
After the 36% water change salifert alkalinity test kit says my alkalinity increased to 7.3 dkH.

I allowed 48 hours for the new water to fully mix with my old water before testing.
 
It is true, there's no hard and fast rule of what value it should be kept at. Michael, what do you shoot for as being an ideal alkalinity level for your tank?
 
Ideally I want to keep it at 9dkh with calcium at 450

Although ive heard of people having acropora dominated tanks that keep their alkalinity at 7dkh.
 
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Treehouse of Horror Zoas

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Blue Glitter Discosoma Mushroom

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Forest Fire Rhodactis Mushroom

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CRC Jade Dragon Rhodactis
 
Uh oh enderturtle got a hold of some primo nice shelf rocks. About to start improving not re-doing but IMPROVING the aqua scape! Redoing aqua scapes = bad! I can never rebuild things the way I want it. And I promised myself I wouldnt re-do the aqua scape entirely.

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This rock came from a system thats super old. Lots of sponges, feather dusters, bugs have lived and died in this rock.

Since Im not interested in a nitrate phosphate bloom, im going to cure it in rodi water with a heater and powerhead. This will allow the nutrients to break up and leach into the water and not my tank. :)

Let it cure for 2-3 days will test the ammonia levels. (No bacteria = only ammonia). If nothing shows up then Ill start adding some to my tank.
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Eye candy
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I would do that if I saw a lot of organics on this rock, but it's mostly white rock.

If the ammonia levels skyrocket and don't stop, then I'll use bleach but I'm predicting it will not be that bad

The original rock that I started my tank with was covered with pest algaes, gorilla crabs, etc. it took well over 2 weeks to cure that rock.

4/9/2016

Ammonia levels in 5 gallon bucket with dead rock and RO water.

Calling it around 2.0ppm which is not that much considering I've been curing this in 85 degree water with a power head for the past 2 weeks.

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Going to do a water change for my tank and change out the freshwater with old tank saltwater to allow for:
  1. More ammonia and phosphates to leach out.
  2. Begin cycling this rock to allow for beneficial bacteria growth. (My tank water has bacteria)
    • Some people like to add a piece of cycled rock and I'm sure t has more bacteria than just water but I'm not in a hurry to get this cycled. Mainly concerned about nutrient export.
 
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Some coral pictures :p (All taken with Canon T2i, 15mm-55mm Kit Lens + Extension Tube + EnderTurtle's Patented Lens Tube)

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Pink Stylosnellia (mispelling)

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Pipe Organs from Neptune Aquatics

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Chiton cleaning my rocks.

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Rainbow cyphastrea

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Chunky chalice frag from Aquatic Collections

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Mr. Red's Ugly Prostrata from the Zero Inverse Order

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Indo Gold Torch Hitchhiker (i'm expecting this to dull out in color intensity as it gets bigger)

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Maricultured tricolor acro colony from California Reef Co

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Seasons Greeting Montipora from California Reef Co.



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Meteor Shower Cyphastrea from Neptune Aquatics
 
OK. So some minor changes.

I will no longer try to keep my acropora happy. Changing tank conditions to make acros happy, result in my zoas/ricordeas suffering/dying.
  • I've lost 50% of my ricordea garden. They either shrink and melt or bleach out.
  • Kessil 360 WE light intensities peak at 15% and 70% intensity for my acros.
  • Now I will change it back to 10% color and 40% intensity. This was the sweet spot for my ricordeas/zoas.
  • I am also dosing 10ml Alk and 10ml Calcium daily. Need to test to see if this has to increase.

Some new additions to the tank.

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Tropic Thunder Montipora finally coloring up! It is suppose to be neon pink with green polyps!

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CRC Blue Angel Zoa. The spot in the middle is SUPER fluorescent blue , even under blue lights.

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Alien Acne Zoa

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Some random rainbow zoas. Lineaged back to a colony growing in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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No namers, I think they're cool.

I NEED MORE ZOAS :p I will be hunting for zoas during this Saturday's Local Fish Store Tour Event :D :D :D
 
A mixed reef is hard to keep everyone happy. I believe a 40b is too short to have different enough light levels for softies n sps. That's why I have a softie tank where my zoas n mushrooms mostly are.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
A mixed reef is hard to keep everyone happy. I believe a 40b is too short to have different enough light levels for softies n sps. That's why I have a softie tank where my zoas n mushrooms mostly are.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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