FarmerTy

Sascha, do yourself a favor and take Vietspride offer for whatever he's selling. He's got the one of nicest SPS tanks in town!

Your preference then.

Mine stretch and they are getting hit by 300-500 par. I would say normally if they stretch, they desire more light but their are exceptions to the rule. Flow is another factor and lately, I witnessed one stretching like crazy when I removed the clowns from the system and then go back to normal once the clowns were reintroduced.

No problem. Conversion is multiply ppm by 0.056 to get dKh. Most actually prefer to dose alk at night so that it offsets the pH drop you get at night. Then you can dose the Ca any other time. If you followed the BRS instructions correctly to make the solutions, it's as simple as measure and pour the needed volume. I'd actually dose on the lower side initially to make sure there wasn't any error in creating the gallon solutions. It's much better to underdose the first round then overdose and nuke your tank.

C4!!!

I feel like the lion from the Wizard of Oz! [emoji2] He has a small tank way in the back that has small SPS frags for $20 sometimes. I found that Northern Lights Nasuta there.

Maybe your home, like many homes, has higher CO2 levels than ambient air. When you shut off your skimmer while on vacation, it suppressed the amount of CO2 being pushed through your system via the skimmer and slowed the growth rates of the algae. Just a wild theory.

M6S1K3, That's great that you were able to determine the actual dosing rate of your pumps. Before you start dosing of any kind, I just wanted to double-check you on your desired levels. I see 440 ppm Calcium and 190 ppm (10.6 dKh) for your desired values on the BRS calculator. I don't see an issue with 440 ppm Ca but 10.6 dKh seems a little high. While there are proponents of higher alkalinity possibly increasing growth rates in corals, I haven't read any research that is definitive on that. I personally run 8.0 dKh, which I see is your current level on the calculator. My 2 cents, I'd stick with that alk level. But to get back to dosing, if 440 ppm of Ca and 10.6 dKh of alk is where you want to be, I'd personally just hand dose it up to that level. The reason being, as for dosing, the ideal scenario is to bring you levels up to where you want it, and then use the dosers to keep them there. It's the same method with dosing with a calcium reactor... for instance, I bring my calcium to 420 ppm and my alk to 8.0 dKh, using 2-part solution. Then, once the levels are where I want them, I use the calcium reactor to keep them there. For 2-part dosing, the same idea. Bring your levels up to 440 ppm of Ca and 10.6 dKh of alk and then once they are at that concentration, use your 2-part dosing to keep them there. For calcium, you can just add the 435 ml of the Ca mix in a high flow area of the tank... slowly. Allow it time to distribute and don't pour it too fast. I tend to just pour a little at a time while I'm messing with other items in the tank or feeding the fish. This is right at the max of 50 ppm they recommend to increase the tank so it shouldn't be a problem. For dosing of your alk, since you're at 8.0 dKh right now, I'd dose half the recommended amount today and half tomorrow... 68 ml each day... since the max recommended increase per day is 1.5 dKh. Alk you really need to pour VERY slowly and in a very high flow area of the tank... preferably in front of a powerhead and try not to blast it into corals if possible. I usually take my time throughout the day to pour in the alk... just a little here, a little there. You'll see your pH jump up fast too but if you're only dosing 68 ml/day, it won't be a huge issue. The next step is to actually determine your consumption. After hand dosing to attain target levels, I usually like to give it an hour or two and test my levels. Once your Ca is reading 440 ppm and your alk reading 10.6 dKh, retest exactly 24 hrs later if possible. The difference in concentrations from Day 1 to Day 2 is the consumption rate of your tank. That's how much is uptaken by your corals/clams/corraline/etc on a daily basis. I typically like to do two days of testing to confirm consumption... letting it go to a 3rd day and see if the same amount was consumed from Day 1 - Day 2 and Day 2 - Day 3. That'll confirm your consumption rate. Once you have your consumption rate... let's just say 10 ppm of Calcium/day and 0.5 dKh/day, you use your dosers to put exactly that amount back. I don't know your tank size so I'm just going to use 100 gallons as an example. For 100 gallon tank, you need to dose 102.3 ml/day of Ca and 35.7 ml of alk/day. You then divide those values by the actual dosing rate of your pumps. 102.3 ml divided by 1.4 ml/min gives you 73 mins/day you'd need to run the pump to maintain your calcium. 35.7 ml divided by 1.3 ml/min gives you 27.5 mins/day you'd need to run the pump to maintain your alk. I would have at least a minimum of 30 mins apart for dosing Ca or alk but I used to dose them about an hour apart just to be safe. Someone please check my math... it's been a long day of work. Hope that helps... please feel free to ask for any clarification.

That's awesome man! Glad the SPS are starting to play nicer now!

Do I spy a hawkins echinata? Looks good man!

In time... almost everyone of my systems had to do a bit of maturing before I could keep SPS... even when all the parameters lined up.

Looks like the Korallin C1502. Great price... the tank is worth that alone.

I remember Dan throwing his name in the hat for hosting. Something about a laser light show as the entertainment for the meeting. [emoji4]

Looks like a Sherman... I booted mine... it looked like an "anemone tank" with that monster in it.

You didn't know one of the benefits of the mentor program is first dibs? [emoji12]

I see nothing! Use Tapatalk Gig'em!

You know me... drives me nuts when he splits honestly. I don't feed it to not encourage the splitting but I bet the reintroduction of the clowns a couple weeks back probably prompted it to split. Now I have to chase that clone around the tank and remove it and my anemone will only be half the size. Middle-class probs... am I right? That's a pretty large anemone for your tank size! I had one of those Sherman RBTAs and that's the exact reason why I got rid of it... it grew to the size of a basketball... 14" across when expanded. No thanks!

I see some nice spots in that aquascape for some sps colonies! That's funny, I thought the clam I had was the only huge clam that walked. He'd do the same thing... started moving to the front glass and I'd have to move him back monthly.

Just tracking the color change... I swear he's getting more yellow. Probably doesn't hurt that he eats like a pig... and I just keep feeding him. Oh no, I've seen this before... the anemone probably heard C4 was happening and took care of business and fragged itself. I've shoved a rock by it in hopes of one of the clones is wanting to make my life easy and attach to the rock so I can just relocate it to the sump easily.

Sorry, pending pickup

+1 on the bam bams

You got me. Like Bluemoon mentioned, look into lymphocystis... my guess is some type of bacterial infection... perhaps from a wound. You could treat with some antibiotic medication like Furan 2 and see if it helps. You would have to remove him and treat him outside of the display tank.

Maybe, but that's where all his tasty snacks are right now.

The prettier the zoas, the prettier his adult coloration will be. [emoji4] Consider this a free bump!

My emperor says that zoa rock looks tasty.