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Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

Was able to snag a magnificent fox face today. Kole tang was not a happy camper. Sort of wish I would have put the fox face in acclimation box. But I got that for the wrasses coming and did not even think to do it for the fox face. Currently lights are off and will see if maybe they can adjust if not might be catching a kole tang and rehoming.
Try and get pictures tomorrow.
 
Couple fun Etsy deliveries today, probably a good thing I don’t own a printer. I’d have my cabinet filled up with all sorts of fun things. Lol
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Got an order in for a custom RO reservoir. Hopefully won’t take too long to get. The smell is not good in the existing one. 🤢.
 
I put Po4 and chaeto gro both on dosing schedules this morning. I noticed after I stopped dosing chaeto gro my zoas started to fade away. As for Po4 I keep bottoming out. Ive been trying to keep things stable with more food but its goes up and down But always ends up hitting zero in the end. SPS dont see to mind, but my LPS show they are not happy pretty quickly. This also might be why zoas are fading away. Not sure.

Po4:
Mixed up 1 gram of monopotassium phosphate to 1000ml of RO. Starting dose at 3ml per day (1ml per dose, 3 doses per day).
Im hoping this will keep me .03 range. Will monitor for the week and test often to see what happens.

Chaeto gro:
Dosing 14.4ml per day(8 doses per day, 1.8ml per dose).


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Dam you setup looks clean. I wish my problem was PO4 bottoming out!!!
 
few updates,
For the most part tank seems to be chugging along. My hammers seems to not be very happy at the moment and im assuming its because of all the ups and downs with po4 and no3. Some of my zoas seem to be disappearing as well but honestly Im not to hurt about that.

ive been trying to be less ocd with testing. Going back to once a week and mostly monitoring. Im excited to test tomorrow and see how my po4 doser performed since adding it on last week. The doses are mall but if it keeps me above zero and only fluctuates with the food im adding at certain times that would be best case scenario.

The fox face has been putting the hurt on the bubble algae. Has a small chalice and favia that just dont seem to want to grow and we’re mostly covered in bubble algae. Well in the short time the fox face has been in those pieces have been picked clean. Also the kole tang and fox face have become friends it seems and they both spend the day following the melaranus around watching and following behind piking at the rocks as they go LOL

Added 10 bumble bee snails and 10 trocus last week. Bumble bees to help me lower the numbers of vermetid snails. They quickly jumped on the undersides of my hammer corals where quite a few seems to make home and are hard for me to reach.

Thinking I might grab another urchin (making that 3 in the tank) to add to the sump to help with algae build up in the frag area where I have moved the jaw breakers to since they dont seem happy or want to stay put in the display. I tried a few different spots and they just kept moving around or letting go and floating. Im also loosing some of my radio active mushrooms and this is maybe why the jaw breakers were not happy. Something is happening in the tank to softies but sps are growing. Might be to clean, might be to much flow, just not sure, but all in all im not to mad. SPS and chalices are were my heart it right now and as long as those continue To grow Ill take what ever seems to be the happy state for the rest.

Lighting has been my focus lately. The ai primes as nice as they are give a lot of shadowing during times the t5’s are off. Im torn between 2 sky’s or 3 xr15. Or adding more primes. More par i dont think is needed but a blanket or more spread of light would be nice.
 
Super excited after 1 week of dosing Po4 my results are .08. With what and how I’m feeding and the dose amount. I‘m happy to not see zero finally. Im cutting my dose from 3ml per day to 1.5 per day in hopes this will cut my numbers in half. I’d like to see a .02-.04 range. Or just under .05. No real reason or experience to why that range but seems that maybe Ill have less algae growth if I can get into that range. No3 was 11.9. This has been trending a .35 loss per day over the last 3 weeks. I like the range that its has been but Im going to mix up some potassium nitrates and get that to start dosing. See if I can add that .35 back in daily and keep it at a steady number.

I tried to cut out my kalk dose in the middle of the day and add it earlier and later in the day. in the end I just went back to how It was dosing originally. I was just getting much lower ph in the day, lower than i wanted to be, so putting everything back to just an every hour on the hour dose keeping my ph at 8.1-8.34. Averaging 8.21 per day.
 
Glad to hear the po4 dosing is working for you. In my experience, it’s best to give a bit of a buffer from 0, just in case. I think .08-.1 is totally fine and my tank is usually above that even with no ill effects. I just like to make sure I never bottom out.

I’ve even forgot to check Po4 a few times and caught it at .29 before 🙃 nothing seemed to care and I just let it naturally drop back to normal
 
Had to get another one. They just look so nice. Now i wish i had a nice way to hang and display them. Things will get moved around once i get the RO reservoir. But this is home for now. I’m considering another and pulling out the trigger system container. But it’s nice having 3000ml for All for reef. Saves on mixing it so often.

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Are those Liters? I saw some at the grocery store but they were plastic I thought Voss bottles were glass.
 
I’d be happy to draw you up a little 3d printed mount if you wanted. Would need to lean on one of the fine club folks to print it for you. But let me know, would just need some dimensions (diameter and height).
 
Varig said:
I’d be happy to draw you up a little 3d printed mount if you wanted. Would need to lean on one of the fine club folks to print it for you. But let me know, would just need some dimensions (diameter and height).
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Appreciate that. I don’t have a great place to hang it at the moment. But maybe once I get the reservoir in.
 
When you’re up at 3 am……..

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That lovely pee cup is my weekly dose of AB+. Gonna give this a try and see how it works. My daily dose of 10ml will flush the RO lines completely so hopefully I wont have to flush the lines that often.
 
It sure is nice to be able to see in real time when I need to add more kalk powder to the stirrer. I have it set to remind me every two weeks to fill but apex showing the results makes it even easier. IMG_2295.jpeg
 
Not too much to update. Think im getting my new RO reservoir this weekend. I think the water coming out of my existing is causing my mushrooms, hammers and zoas to not be happy? Or it’s one of the two things I think it could be now. Ive been testing weekly and everything seems to be good and consistent. Ive turned down the flow a little as well thinking maybe this has somethin to do with it. But nothing seems to be the answer. I bagged up a ICP test this morning and will drop at the post office today so in a few weeks see what comes back with that. Nothing else seems effected so maybe its an animal causing the issues.

I lost a shrimp last week. Just woke up and saw it stuck to an mp10. Pretty sure it was the one Ive had for 3 years or so. So im thinking it was just age. Didn't see any info saying they made it much longer than that in home aquariums. Not planning to get another. Still have one and prob just keep at that for now.

Still keeping my eyes out for a few wrasses but not in any real hurry. Can tell summer is near. Stating to get that time to neglect the tank feel LOL. Last few test ive done on the tank have all been very consistent so thinking of going to monthly testing. Still eyeing up the walls and trim in the house to see if I can get lines ran downstairs for ato water changes. And if I can get that done before summer the tank would be pretty much hands off. And that just feels weird for as much hands on ive been for a few years now. Be great to see the growth difference with a hands off approach if I go that route.
 
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