BlindSwordsman's K.I.S.S. 90 Gallon Mixed Reef (1 Viewer)

[spsick]

I just have kind of yellow water

 

[reef junkie]

Thanks for the offer. I'm not planning on doing a drastic change on the current system but maybe I should think of a different strategy. I probably can run some experiments on a separate system . This will likely take some time. Question though: As far as I know, activated carbon removes some contaminants, keeps the water clear and helps with issues like chemical warfare in the tank. So for the people who focus in SPS, if you don't run activated carbon, then what do you do?

Nothing on my tank. I run a fuge, skimmer, and live rock. Weekly water changes and dose what ever is needed for alk,po4,no3.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

And I'm guessing you limit the feeding as much as possible? You wouldn't do anything crazy like I do, where I just dump crazy stuff into the tank. If you feed anything at all, you will probably only spot feed it? Beside the fish, which I think you even drain out some of the stuff before put into your tank?

 

[BlindSwordsman]

I just have kind of yellow water

I think I now know why when I bought some SPS from some guy with some good growing SPS tank in the past, and the water got onto my hands and dripped some in the car, I could smell it in the car. And I washed my hands many times with soap and I couldn't get rid of the smell!!!!

 

[reef junkie]

Sps definitely has a unique smell to them. Lol

 

[Varig]

It’s my understanding that some people use ozone to eliminate the yellow without running carbon. It’s another thing, but it is an option.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

It’s my understanding that some people use ozone to eliminate the yellow without running carbon. It’s another thing, but it is an option.

OK, now I remember this 'ozone' subject of yours .

I'm still thinking about how to balance this. I have a system that I can test out some theories but I also don't really want to focus mainly on SPS, so it seems to be hard to balance this out. Maybe I'm stuck with keeping easy SPS .

 

[Livestuff]

@spsick

The Alkalinity for the main tank was going from 6.8 dKH to 6.7 on the next day, to about 6.3 on the next. The frag tank's alkalinity was lower. It was around 6.5 dKH -> 6.3 -> 6.0.

This is OK dkh? I would think above 7 would help, but I figured stability is better then chasing?

 

[spsick]

@spsick

This is OK dkh? I would think above 7 would help, but I figured stability is better than chasing?

I’d say the frag tank is too low but the 6.8 on display is fine if it’s stable and his nutrients are low.

The ocean is around 6.8 and usually recommendations of 8dkh are to promote higher pH and give some insulation for dKH dipping too low.

In a mature stable tank with low nutrients low alkalinity is acceptable.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

@spsick

This is OK dkh? I would think above 7 would help, but I figured stability is better then chasing?

I saw that Ben already chimed in so I didn't say anything, but I would say whatever these levels are in my tanks, I've been doing this for years and my stuff is generally 'okay'. I would say it's not optimum, but I can get by. The growth might be slow. Again, I wouldn't say they are the best levels to be at. For alkalinity and some other things, I would say a bit higher might be better (and this comes from someone who does not pay attention to the 'numbers', it's just my 'gut instinct' again .)

 

[Livestuff]

I saw that Ben already chimed in so I didn't say anything, but I would say whatever these levels are in my tanks, I've been doing this for years and my stuff is generally 'okay'. I would say it's not optimum, but I can get by. The growth might be slow. Again, I wouldn't say they are the best levels to be at. For alkalinity and some other things, I would say a bit higher might be better (and this comes from someone who does not pay attention to the 'numbers', it's just my 'gut instinct' again .)

Your gut feelings have been working fine. The ? was more for my info and I wouldn't change what and how your doing things. Unless you want to.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

Your gut feelings have been working fine. The ? was more for my info and I wouldn't change what and how your doing things. Unless you want to.

Thanks! I would be really misleading if I just say it's only my 'gut feelings' ... I should say that normally, it's based on my gut feelings, and what I would call 'my non-scientific conclusions from my observations without the data/numbers to back them up' ... You can call those my 'guesses' if you'd like. Normally, they are based on (my) common sense . For example, if I find my hammers growing but their skeletons are fragile, I could think 'there is a lack of calcium for them to build their skeletons'. But other than that, I try not to turn my 'fish tanks' into a 'chemistry' project or want to get things too technical, or too complicated. Some people might enjoy the 'complicated' side of the hobby (e.g. chemistry, technology, etc.) I myself just want a 'pretty fish tank'. Life is complicated enough. I don't want to add more 'complicated' stuff into my life .

 

[Shawnman]

It's about 2 months since my last update. So, here it is below, another full tank shot. While some people would describe their tanks as 'doing AWESOME!'. For me, it goes like it goes as usual. There is nothing I can say 'awesome' about it . I said somewhere along the line that I would stop adding new stuff. But then, I got a new torch, a few red goni frags, and 3 Derasa clams from Petco. (Long story: I went to Petco for some dog food. Saw a healthy clam, so I bought it. Came back a few weeks later, and saw they had an even bigger clam for the same price that I'd paid for my smaller one. Hated myself for 'overpaying' for my smaller one, so I bought the big darn clam. Next day, I thought it was having issue. So, came back to the store again, bought another one for 'back up' in case if it would die. Well, noone died. And now I have 3 clams! )

... I also wanted to add some mollies into the tank, but then my tuskfish wanted to have them for meal. So, I had to scratch that plan, for now.

.. Another thing, one of the big Forest Fire digi monti cololy that I've grown from small frag, starts to have issue (the one on the right). It's not RTN, and not specifically STN from the bottom either. It kind of dies in random spots among the branches and mostly below. I thought it could be due to lack of light, lack of flow, or some sort of chemical warfare in the tank. I thought about fragging it to save some but by looking at it, that probably is not a good idea so I just leave it as it is and hope for the best. Who knows if the condition irks me enough and I just take the whole thing out and replace it with something else! ... I have added a second wavemaker to add more flow. Then of course, I lost a hammer head. The same old vicious cycle of 'try to fix this and then break that'.

Other than those, the tank is doing .. 'OK' . No progressing algae growth. The sand is not pristine white by itself like my old tank used to be. I still have to clean it once a week but I notice more critters in it so hopefully, this situation will be resolved soon.

View attachment 60630

Petco has clams.

 

[Shawnman]

Petco has clams.

Which Petco, I wasn't aware that they had any reef livestock.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

Which Petco, I wasn't aware that they had any reef livestock.

I haven't gone shopping for a while but there are a few Petco stores with some 'reef livestock' like corals and sometimes, clams. The one in Minnetonka by 394 used to have the most stuff. The one in Roseville has mostly fish, I think. The one that I got the clams from is in Woodbury. It usually has some fish, a few regular corals like kenya tree, xenia and such. I would say you'd have better luck with the one in Minnetonka.

 

[asifiqbal2]

I forget the name of the gentleman that used to run the saltwater section years ago. When he left it went downhill… I haven’t been there for years (Minnetonka)

 

[BlindSwordsman]

I forget the name of the gentleman that used to run the saltwater section years ago. When he left it went downhill… I haven’t been there for years (Minnetonka)

Jason W. .. I used to work near there so I stopped by often, but not anymore. It did go down hill quite a bit after Jason left. Some people that still worked there did have their own reef tanks. But I think they did not have the same amount of budget allowed to order stuff anymore? And there might be some issues with the supply from the vendor as well?

 

[BlindSwordsman]

So, I figured out that my nitrate and phosphate are very low. I think they have been low for years, so I go: Whatever! I don't care to raise them up. I don't see the point in doing so. It probably means I can freely dump more stuff in to feed my tanks whenever I want .

My alkalinity was also on the lower end. I believe with All For Reef says something like it might benefit my tank adding that in, and as long as I don't have to care about balancing alkalinity and calcium as things in my tanks seem to show on the lower ends, I thought I could add some AFR in. So, with the dosers I just bought, I mixed a bit of AFR and have been adding that into my tank. I only add about 1/3 of the recommended dosage every day, thinking it might not do much good but it doesn't hurt anything either. So far, alkalinity has been staying around 6.6 - 6.8. I don't think I care to chase the number and make that 'perfect'. I think if I try to raise it higher then I will have to keep on trying, adding more work in to keep it at a higher level. It will be less work and more stable for my tanks to keep it at a lower level (as things are usually on the lower ends) so I think that is where I will probably keep it .

That is the boring stuff about 'dosing'. No pictures of the tank this time as I don't really see there's anything new to take picture of. Things are just .. fine and dandy for now . And there is nothing new .

 

[BlindSwordsman]

While I'm still sitting here having coffee and cake, and hanging around on here: I said I didn't have anything new. So I really haven't gotten anything new but I had been saying 'Uhhh! I see empty spots!' .. So, yes, I had seen some empty spots because instead of using zoas and palys as filler, I had left the left island with only SPS and LPS so I wouldn't have to keep on rescuing stuff from being overgrown by zoas like my right island. Well! So much for that! I couldn't stand it so I eventually added some zoas to the left island as well to fill up some spots. So, may the strong win! Here are some pictures. I think people can't really see anything different from what I had already posted before anyway. So, in any case, same old same old .

Right side:



Left side:

 

[BlindSwordsman]

Long story short, @Varig's found out I've let my salinity dropped low. It was about 1.022. I usually have it around 1.026. So, I dumped more salt in to raise it up to about 1.025 - 1.026 again .

And as I've been dumping some AFR in (only about 1/3 of the recommended dosage), today my alkalinity is about 7.6 - 7.8 . A bit higher than I planned for. Things are okay but I'm now thinking if I should keep the same AFR dosage or reduce it . I wonder if alkalinity level has been raised a lot more than I expected because of the additional salt that I just dumped in .. Probably!?!!

.. And I can't believe I start posting about this boring number stuff!