FarmerTy

That should work. Just text when you're headed to my place. I might be down south for my listing.

There are a couple of free frags at your mentor's place. [emoji4] Come on by in about a week when I get the all clear and you're welcome to some screaming green birdsnest to test with. Part of the undisclosed perks of being in the program. Haha. Cruise control is an enviable position!

My 2 cents: I think we're all thinking the same thing for the most part. There's a great number of wonderful individuals on this club. I've met a ton of people and all of them have been awesome! I generally end up talking to and texting my reef friends more than my little circle of friends that are not reefers. As regards to the meetings, I just think we need the charge to be taken to really organize and plan them in advance, so that people know what is the topic and who is hosting in plenty of time to make plans to attend. I think we lose some of that momentum when meetings are announced only a few weeks in advance and it not always being mentioned what the topic is. I know we're all busy and have our own lives to attend to... I feel like I drop the ball myself with the mentor program when I get busy, but I think a proactive and early approach to planning meetings is the disconnect. We have people willing to host most times and like Sascha and dhulbert mentioned, we have a wealth of knowledge in the club that a short presentation over a specific topic would be beneficial for all parties. I think I still enjoy having monthly meetings and we seem like we have the interest in it still. Perhaps just a retooling of the organization of the meeting, earlier notice, topic announced, who's presenting... perhaps that will help get them going again. I know the one I hosted last year, I had self-promoted it months in advance (big surprise on the self promotion I'm sure [emoji12] ) and had the topic laid out ahead of time (tips on keeping sps), had speakers lined up, and even catered in some Vietnamese food as snacks. I think we ended up with 30 plus people there. We don't need to go that far with catering food in but since the club has been so good to me personally and professionally, I wanted to give back and that was a way I could. I'll aim to host one in the Fall again so keep your ears perked around that time! Topic: alternative coral dips... I could do a CARX primer too if we have interest. [emoji106]

I sent him away with enough lights to light up a basketball court. Not really but he's packing some par. [emoji4]

Both the stylo and purple digi both have white tips as growth tips, unlike most acros that don't. If they are staying alive and trying to encrust, I'd make no further changes to placement or tank parameters and just let them adjust to your system. I've had frags just sit there for 2-3 months just staying alive and then out of nowhere, boom, they start growing like crazy. Glad your system is ich free for the most part and the Dr. G's helped out. Let's see what that alk number really is when you get in the reagent today. Remind me, you're running biopellets, correct?

Madsalt mentioned trying some chloroquine phosphate treated food to help supress some of the ich. He mentioned it won't eradicate it from the system but will assist in keeping it at bay for a bit until your fish recover. I've used it before and I must say, be very careful how you feed it. Make sure the flow is off and pull out any bit that they don't eat before turning the pumps back on. I had some stray food hit an orange fungia plate and it slowly died over the next 2 weeks. CP kills off coral symbionts and the coral basically starves slowly to death. I have some still if you would like to try it. I have the regular Dr G's medicated food for ich and his reef caviar version (encapsulated eggs). Bear in mind CP has a very bitter taste to most fish so the finicky ones won't eat it. The caviar is probably better received because the CP is encapsulated in the egg so they taste egg first before CP.

Butterflies are such sensitive fish! I had an ich outbreak during my first year of the new tank and everything survived but the copperband I had. Sorry for the loss. I'm glad all the other fish are recovering just fine. Are you still using muriatic acid to lower your alk in the new saltwater? I'm just still surprised your alk is sitting at 12 dKh. I guess you did stop doing large water changes due to the fish getting ich. I'm just still concerned with the higher alk level, especially for a carbon dosed tank like yours. Maybe we can research more into adding the muriatic acid directly in your tank and forgo'ing the water change. That would be something I'd do in my tank but I won't ask someone in the mentor program to ever do that.

If it's STNing from the tips, that's usually more indicative of alk burn because your alk is still on the high side... especially since you're running biopellets. You want to be in the 7-8 dKh range for that. I'd honestly hold out on picking up any SPS frags for the time being until that alk gets lower. If you need some tester frags, I can give you a couple. To try to save your tricolor, try supergluing the parts that are STNing to stop it and then continue to lower your alk. It's going to be pretty tough to keep it alive though... your goal is to lower the alk but if you lower too fast, it'll kill it. If you move the alk down slowly, you risk the SPS slowly STN'ing away as well.

Sweet! I'm going to have Jake start shipping me frags now! Just ship it ground!

I like your thorough assessment. I think it has a lot of validity. But you obviously haven't watched enough movies, else you'd know that you only need one person to jump on the live grenade. Did you see anyone else jump on the grenade in Captain America? Nope, just the creepy scrawny version of Captain America... who must have been related to skinny arms Rob Lowe. Kidding aside. I think you give my system a little more credit than it deserves for being a well established reef system. It only hit it's first birthday this past January and most of the first year was mired in the salinity debacle and super high nitrates. Throw a little marine velvet in there and the removal of the fish bioload and the resultant cyano bloom/algal bloom and I'll be the first to admit it's not in rock steady mode just yet. Luckily, all parameters are in line and most everything is happy and growing. The colors aren't quite there yet but I know that it is just a function of time. Once the fish are reintroduced to the tank, I'll have another major swing in stability and will have to wait for everything to normalize again. Once my fish are added back in and the system goes back to normal, I'll count from there one year and if no other cycles or swings happen, then I'll consider it stable. I think, just like a skimmer, the UV will be most useful while starting up a tank and before it reaches stability. Afterwards, though there is less of a need for it, it will switch to the role of passive emergency role instead of active duty. What I mean by that is I'll still have it running full time, just like my skimmer, but by then, the stability of the tank will probably render it slightly less useful and it will be useful if I have some type of emergency spike of bacteria or parasites. Same thing as my skimmer for the most part... though not a perfect comparison, it is highly useful when I first start up the tank but by the time my system is stable, I'm sure it's pulling out less waste because I will have developed all the micro fauna and pods/clean up crew to handle most of the wastes naturally. The skimmer will go to default passive mode as well and really be there to remove some wastes but really it's going to be useful for emergency type scenarios only if/when they pop up.

Man, what I wouldn't give to be in your shoes right now. Things are all going in the right direction and then new toys to play with! Your tank is going to look ridiculous! Oh, and welcome to the world of Fusion sir! We've been waiting around for you! [emoji6]

I appreciate you jumping on the grenade for the Internet community Victoly! I like the input Gig'em. It makes sense when you put it that way. Of course I'm behind it! Who else is dumb enough to experiment on thousands of dollars of livestock!

You'll most likely have a lot of built up detritus in the sand. Also, disturbing it during a move will also release a lot of nutrients into your system as well as possible hydrogen sulfide. You can try to rinse it to save money but usually the pros and cons of reusing, at least for me, lean on the more cons than pros and I just buy new sand. I did this for a 125-gallon so you imagine the amount of sand I replaced it with but I think it was definitely worth it.

That's awesome! My kind of experiment there! Keep us posted! I'll give you the scoop on my next experiment and let you steal the thunder on that one? Eye for an eye? [emoji12]

Thanks for the input Wardlaw! I'm curious, what was the reasoning behind running it when aeration rates were low? Aw Tim! Sorry, I didn't mean to take your thunder! Maybe we can work collaboratively on the UV research and help clarify (pun-intended!) it's usefulness. Is the veterinarian running a full-scale experiment with the intent on running several variables of plumbing setups to test for the effectiveness of UV in each setup? Is this like a lab-scale type of an experiment or will he/she be just aiming to implement these plumbing setups on to an existing water system and monitoring the levels found in the system? Are they studying this for freshwater or saltwater? I'm very interested in the results. For your observation of it being most effective when the plumbed separately with the pump at the bottom of the display, what exactly were you seeing in that configuration versus others that you observed it being more effective? I don't have direct experience with UV so any information is much appreciated. That is the same configuration the manufacturer recommends which makes sense, but if it is just a slight increase in effectiveness, then I'd rather just plumb directly into my return line instead. The unit is oversized anyways for my system so hopefully that'll account for the less efficient method of plumbing while allowing me to not have to throw a pump in the display and have tubing/plumbing running up and out the back, which would be unsightly for me.

Nevermind, I would agree then... I didn't know he was on the hungry side than the curious side.

Just an FYI for when you are calibrating, but wait until the last minute to open your pH 10.0 solution for calibration as exposure to air will cause the pH levels to slowly decrease in the calibration fluid. Obviously, don't reuse the packets and make sure to rinse your probe in RO/DI water in between the fluids when calibrating and shake off the excess liquid as well. I should clarify, you can use the packets to calibrate both probes but don't reuse after that. This will make more sense when you're actually doing it.

If you have the full version Apex, you should have another pH probe port you can utilize, as long as you aren't running ORP on that port already. If you have an Apex Jr, you will have to get the PM1 module to add a 2nd pH probe port. If the CARX came with a pH controller, if you wanted to save money, you could use that to control the CARX by plugging the solenoid to it and having it monitor and control the CARX pH levels and then just use your Apex to monitor your tank ph levels. While it's ideal to have the whole system controlled together, this is an alternative with less risk. You can just set a pH limit for how low it is allowed to get in your tank with the Apex and have it shut off the feed pump to the reactor when PH level is too depressed. You won't be shutting the solenoid off via the Apex if it malfunctions but you could at least kill the supply water to the reactor rendering it inert to your system.

Ph probe, unless he stored it in some type of water or kept it moist, it's trash otherwise. If so, I'd buy a lab-grade probe since this will be keeping your CaRX in line and accuracy is everything as minimal changes to pH will have more drastic changes in effluent concentration. pH calibration fluid depends on the unit you will be using. Will you be using the Apex to control the CARX or will you be using a separate controller, like a milwaukee pH controller? Apex only requires you to use 7.0 and 10.0 pH solutions to calibrate. For the Milwaukee controller, I believe they use 4.0 and 7.0 calibration solutions. Wherever you order your probe from, pick up some extra of the pH calibration solution (I'd order 4 packets of each pH solution) as you will want to calibrate your probes at least 2x a year as they will drift with time. Any solenoid will work and you will usually put them in line immediately proceeding the regulator to shut off/on the gas supply. This is your main form of control and the solenoid will either be plugged in directly to a separate pH controller or one of your ports on your Apex if you're using your Apex to control. Then you program the controller to turn on/off based on your pH settings you want to employ. Currently, mine is set for a high of 6.55 and a low of 6.45 to give you an idea. Most media will begin to melt around 6.7-6.8 and the correct pH will depend on your specific tank and flowrate of the reactor.

I'm a glass half empty kind of guy. I like to look at it as your CO2 levels dipped. [emoji12]

I would imagine it would overgrow the dead portion or if it only killed the upper layer, that it may regrow. The bigger problem is if it continues to nip at the coral, then it really wouldn't matter as it will probably eventually kill the monti in a tank that size... mainly because it can focus on it and keep nipping away at it instead of spreading it out to other corals.

I'm not really sure to be honest. I don't see much literature suggesting that but I could see its potential benefits. Basically, you could remove the "deactivated" bacteria, dinos, and plankton before it dies and rots in the tank. I'll look into it a bit more and report back. Was this just an idea you had or did you run across the idea somewhere? I could see it playing out very similar to using biopellets, however biopellets are producing live bacteria while UV is deactivating bacteria. I know we route the biopellet reactor effluent to the skimmer to help remove all the bacteria created and export their uptake of nitrate, phosphate, and carbon from the system. This will also help the system not get overwhelmed with bacteria. I'm just curious the benefits of routing the UV effluent to the skimmer. I wonder if it really matters but I'll research a bit and see.

There's nothing more beautiful then when someone in the mentor program buys a CaRX! Sorry, I'm getting choked up just talking about it... [emoji22] Good find!

That's always a good sign when corals that aren't doing to well in another tank is thriving in your own. You're doing something right!

Radiums are the gold standard for metal halide bulbs. You can't go wrong with them.