FarmerTy

Can't beat plusrite bulbs for price. The 20k bulbs are closer to 14k but still give a nice color.

Nice additions! The last coral is a tubinaria, a pagoda cup.

I'd send him a personal message. It'll notify him that someone is reaching out to him versus just posting in the thread. Sometimes that gets a better response from sellers.

I'm adding a UV sterilizer to my system and have documented in the thread below: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/33773-uv-sterilizer-experiment/

Hi ARC, I've decided to document my usage of the UV sterilizer I got my hands on. It's an Aqua UV 57 watt sterilizer with a built-in quartz sleeve wiper. The wiper helps keep algal/bacterial growth off the quartz sleeve so that the UV can better penetrate and treat the water. Aqua UV has one of the better reputations in the industry for building great UV units that will last, won't leak, and are well-designed to do the job they were intended... unlike those cheapy $50-$100 units that don't last or are not effective. I'll insert a stock picture in a bit of the unit for those visually-minded people like myself. So I talked to an AquaUV sterlizer rep today and discussed my tank setup and asked them the preferred flow rate for reducing pathogens and parasites, particularly ich and marine velvet. They were unfamiliar with marine velvet (I told the rep it was okay, I'm VERY familiar with marine velvet by now) but told me that to kill protozoans the size of ich, that the suggested flowrate would be around 1000-1200 gph to be most effective. That's good to know as I was afraid I would have to pull out the reeflo hammerhead pump and rework my chiller and return line plumbing to get that monster back under the stand so I could run 2100 gph that it stated on the chart. Thankfully, I can just keep running my Sicce Syncra 12 and just tap into the main return line to get roughly that 1000-1200 gph instead. It may be a tad slower but that should be fine... that'll just help contact time. Naturally I don't want it too slow or I can overheat the unit and cause parts to fail. I went ahead and ordered a new UV bulb and since this model had the wiper built in to clean the quartz tube, I went ahead and ordered a replacement rubber wiper and sealed nut as well to replace the ones on the used unit I bought. Better safe than sorry since it's used. I might aim to plumb it sometime this weekend, just got to take a good look at my setup and see how I can incorporate it the easiest without having to redo too much of the plumbing. I'll report back my results with running UV. I look at it as very similar to the reasons why I run a skimmer. I know that the skimmer doesn't remove all the dissolved organic carbon (DOC), bacteria, and proteins that pass through my system, but it removes a large percentage of them. I know that the skimmer is indiscriminate and may remove some good bacteria or perhaps skim out some good trace elements, but it also removes a lot of the stuff I don't want in my system as well. Overall, I think it's advantages outweigh the negatives. For UV, I see it the same. I know it won't kill every ich protozoa in its tomonts and theronts stages (free swimming stages of ich), but it will remove a large percentage of them. I know it's an indiscriminate killer and will kill the good plankton in the water as well as the bad pathogens and bacteria. Overall, I think the advantages outweigh the negatives. I will have a reduced ability for plague-like populations of ich protozoa in my tank and sadly, I may lose some good plankton in the process. It'll keep my film algae under control and possibly bacterial and dinoflagellate based populations as well. That may help ease issues such as cyanobacteria or dinos (dinoflagellates) from overtaking my tank. Heck, marine velvet is actually a dinoflagellate and if it can reduce any potential population booms, I won't turn away from that benefit either. Anyways, as always, I'll document my experiment as best as I can. Wish me luck!

I'll see if I can dig up some pictures and document the different conditions the echinata was in and how it looked during that timeframe.

Believe it or not, besides in my 125-gallon for 3 years and looking really good from the stability, my echinata looked it's best in my system when my salinity was 1.031 and my nitrates were 60 ppm. My phosphates were still pretty low, around 0.03 ppm but while all my other sps were dying, my echinata and even my setosa were beamingly beautiful. When I corrected the salinity and lowered my nitrates, my echinata started STNing and my other corals started looking happier. My setosa lost a little color but was just as happy as the rest while my echinata slowly died. Now that it has been stable, it's growing again and looking better but not as good as when I was in the old tank and not as good as when it was in 60 ppm of nitrates and 1.031 salinity. Go figure!

If only you could read the questions I asked when I first started. You'd feel like a genius! [emoji5] That's a good sign for your tank that corals are growing out of nowhere. [emoji106]

Alveopora or gonipora in the first picture (my guess is alveopora) and clove polyps in the 2nd picture.

I have a T5 6-bulb fixture (48" but only has 2 actinics and I believe the rest are 6,500k and 10k. I'd say a slightly yellower look than you might want but it's yours to borrow if you want. I also have an old 250-watt reflector with a ballast you can borrow as well. It's a plusrite 20k bulb (new) and usually burns around 14k. There is no clip to it so you'll have to figure out some way to hang it. I live near the Domain. Just PM me if you would like to try either.

I have a 57 watt that I'm hoping to get online soon!

I'm guessing it's just risidual cyano remover in the tank. My skimmer was inconsistent for a couple of weeks until most of the product was removed. Water changes helped as well as me running it totally wet and letting the skimmer overflow multiple times while I emptied out the cup each time. Sorry for the losses of SPS. They usually don't deal well with change. I take that back, they don't deal well with major alk changes... temp, sometimes nutrients, ph, Ca, and Mg changes they are a little more tolerant of.

When I first read custom closet, I thought you finally gave in and was going to convert your coat closet into a hidden tank equipment room! I got really excited for a moment!

What's the wattage on this unit? Aqua UV is one of the most respected brands in the industry as far as UV goes.

My biggest "ah ha" moment was about 2 minutes ago when I realized this is me. In which role? Adviser or advisee? [emoji23]

So it's still producing bubbles but it won't create that head of foam? When I used cyano remover in the past, my skimmer was wonky for a long time after. Just give it some time I say to produce the foam head... as long as it's still producing a decent amount of bubbles still.

If you're talking just your sps frags, they don't really reach for light with their polyps. That's mainly a zoa and lps thing. Give it time. I've had frags ticked off for weeks with great water quality before looking happy again.

That looks pretty good to me too. I forgot to say that I only mentioned the options to lower pH if you thought it was an issue and those are reasonable alternatives to correct. I don't consider what you have as a pH issue.

Sounds Ike you have a good grasp on your pH trends. Just a thought, either try dispersing the alk dosing during the naturally lower times of the day (as you have mostly done already), aerate your water better for more balanced CO2 levels in your tank, or if you are using sodium carbonate as you alk supplement, try switching to sodium bicarbonate instead, which has a more a more depressive effect on pH.

Just another quick thought, but I fear your alk maybe reading higher with the API test. This is obviously based on no real evidence but a higher pH tank reading and if the alk supplementation is not the direct cause of it (pH higher only when dosing), then I worry about your actually alk level being higher than advertised. Normally, if enough Ca is present, then it would just start precipitating out of solution if the alk gets too high and that in itself reduces pH levels. Just throwing out my only concern about a higher pH reading. Not that the pH in itself is a danger, but that it may be indicative of another issue. When was the last time the pH probe was calibrated? I'd recommend at least 1x/6 months.

If it were my tank, I'd leave the fish alone in the tank and let them get over the ich. Healthy fish should have no problem doing that. If there is still fighting amongst the new additions, I'd remove any fish that are causing the extra stress. This is just my personal opinion so do what you feel is in the best interest of the fish based on what you see. For your pH, 8.55 is a little higher than what you want to be at but not a terrible issue. I'm assuming this is happening during the dosing of your alk? Any chance you can spread the alk dosing out more to overcome this? I still consider it a non-issue unless the pH goes above that. Just a thought with the sps, I'm sure your observations are telling you the right thing to move them up a bit. Just throwing another theory out... but SPS aren't too fond of having to deal with sedimentation all the time... perhaps your sand sifting goby is causing them to expend extra energy on the sandbed removing additional particulates versus off the sandbed and in the liverock? Again, if you need to borrow a reagent bottle, I have an extra you can grab until yours gets here and just replace mine.

I have them spray everywhere but the room the tank is in as well. I also made sure to turn off my HVAC for a couple of hours and turned off my skimmer for the day to avoid any potential mode of transfer through the air.

That's a bit of a shame about the fish health. I'd imagine the addition of the flame wrasses may have played some part in that... whether by being a source or causing enough stress in the tank with the other fishes and causing a mini-outbreak. I'm not a fan of any medication in the tank. I think severely infected fish need to be removed and treated and then placed back in the tank. I don't know much about kick-ich so I can't say much about that. How were the corals doing in the sand before you moved them up? Where they getting happier in the tank? Whenever you are done and bring back the fish trap, bring some of your tank water with you and I can double-check your results for you.

Undatas are stunning. I'm surprised you haven't sold them all. Here's what mine looks like! Picture bump for you James!

When you realize that if the zombie apocalypse comes, the only thing you have is 40 lbs of CARX media instead of 40 lbs of beans or rice!