FarmerTy

I believe he moved out of the country already. Sent via Tapatalk

Well 1 thing we all have in common, moderately robust populations of macros in our systems. Time to start pruning fellas! I don't need a trained monkey to connect the dots for me. Sent via Tapatalk

Reburn, you be the guinea pig this time and pull your refugium and see what happens to your nutrients. I'll watch, observe, and take notes! Bpb, remind me what nutrient removal processes you employ again? Sent via Tapatalk

Hmm, no refugium I'm guessing either. Any sign of algae in the tank? Sent via Tapatalk

Do you not even get a rise in PO4 after you dose? Mine at least registers an hour after I dose but then is gone in 24hrs. Again, take it with a grain of salt with the +/- 0.04 read error on the phosphorus hanna meter. Sent via Tapatalk

Isn't that the truth! My last tank took me less time to dial in than this one for sure! Once it is dialed in though, I'm ready to hit that cruise control button and enjoy the view! Sent via Tapatalk

Looking forward to your par readings! Sent via Tapatalk

All my SPS are looking better even after just 2 days of dosing and increasing both nitrates and phosphates. The STN on some corals has stopped and even some, like the small red planet frag, has already started to encrust. I'll keep dosing phosphates until I can hope to maintain it naturally by reducing my macro algae in the tank. I've reduced my biopellets more than I want to from this point as I fear the nitrates will come roaring back if I do anymore. Sent via Tapatalk

Oddly enough, I was expecting to report that my phosphate stayed at 0.03 ppm over the 24 hrs after dosing but it did not. We're dealing with such small concentrations here that even read error of about +/- 0.04 ppm for the hanna meter kind of makes it all a moot point but I am starting to feel like the combination of biopellets, large ball of chaeto in the sump, and my red turf algae on the live rock sucks up my phosphates quicker than feeding and dosing PO4 can actually put in. Luckily my NO3 did stay at 4ppm. I'm going to trim some chaeto back and order some limpets/large chitons from reefcleaners.com to keep the turf algae maintained and see how that affects my PO4 levels. Sent via Tapatalk

I'll probably setup a small tank with some frags to get rid of. Sent via Tapatalk

I got a 5-gallon nano that is looking more tempting each day as a softie tank. GSP and xenia... here i come! Sent via Tapatalk

Well surprise, surprise... add a little more nutrients to the tank and all of a sudden everything is looking a little happier again! I'm aiming for the nutrient level to hold where it is right now but we'll see how it looks tomorrow. I removed even more biopellets, got a better nitrate test, and added potassium phosphate to the system. My latest numbers are 0.03 ppm phosphate and 4 ppm nitrates. Lets hope it stays that same concentration by tomorrow evening. If so, I think I will have finally fine-tuned my tank nutrient levels. In other news, my new maxima clam made himself at home in the zoa garden. My new chocolate tang is making himself right at home in his new tank. I added 20 saltwater glass shrimp to my sump to help keep it clean down there. Check out the sweet photoshop job I did on the light reflection! Sent via Tapatalk

Looking great! Good mix of corals in there! Sent via Tapatalk

Sam's tank is awesome and has been my saving grace in sanity during my upgrade debacle! Thanks for letting me stare at pretty SPS until mine come back to me! About time on the build thread Sam!

I'm a big fan of cheap, running plusrites for almost 4 years now. Sent via Tapatalk

Woohoo! I'm stoked for you to finally be reunited with one of your favorite fish. He's going to look awesome in the new tank. Sent via Tapatalk

Sad to hear Manny. I would think that the clown died first and just happened to be snatched up by the duncan. I'd imagine any healthy fish can get away from a duncan but I've heard of weirder things so maybe so. Sent via Tapatalk

Ease up on your frag making sir! Sent via Tapatalk

NoTYrious B.I.G! I don't want to be a big tank reefer no more! I'm not a reefer, I just frag a lot. Sent via Tapatalk

I wish they would invent a sarcasm button already! Sent via Tapatalk

Fascinating! Sometimes I feel like I'm on an episode of RSI (Reef Scene Investigation). I dosed the potassium nitrate and my target 5ppm ended up being 15 ppm. No cause for concern there though a little higher than I wanted. Interestingly though, the number hasn't budged even with my biopellets still online. That makes me conclude that now my system is once again phosphate limited due to the bacteria feeding off the carbon of the biopellets needing both nitrates and phosphates to reproduce. I gave them all the nitrates (15 ppm) and carbon (biopellets) they could want but they ran out of phosphate. My next experiment may be adding some phosphates to the system and watching it drive down the nitrate concentration. Again, I need to pick up a higher resolution nitrate kit so I can track the progress better. The aim as always is to maintain both my phosphates and my nitrates via biopellets only and keep a concentration of 5ppm nitrates and 0.03 phosphates. Let's see if I can achieve that... if so, my maintenance routine will exclude GFO which means the only thing I'll need to do to my system for maintenance is wipe down the glass weekly, add media to my biopellet reactor and CARX every 6 months, and dose aminos 2x a week. No more water changes and no more monthly GFO changes. Sent via Tapatalk

50 ppm nitrates - 234 gal water change (90% volume) = 5 ppm nitrates. <---- repeat everytime my nitrates climb up to 50 ppm which was probably about every 2 weeks with my bioload and feeding pattern 234 gal water change = 8 brute trash cans of saltwater 8 brute trash cans of saltwater = 1 and 1/3 salt buckets = poor Ty = broken back = salty mouth taste from siphoning tube = dead salty grass in backyard Alternatively: Keep tweaking my biopellet/gfo use to match my tank and continue use of CaRX and amino acid dosing = no water changes for 3 years (at least that's what happened with my old tank). This was only an imagined scenario. No backs were broken in real life and the only salty taste in my mouth was from the vermicelli bowl I ate yesterday. I know I am just being goofy but realistically, water changes to suppress lower concentrations of nitrates work on a smaller scale tank but once you get to a bigger tank and higher nitrate concentrations, the logistics get overwhelming to do, not to mention expensive. Since nitrate removal is directly proportional to the percentage of water removed (i.e. 90% volume removed, 90% decrease of nitrate concentration), and my nitrates would hit 50 ppm in 2 weeks time, I would in no doubt officially be a slave to my tank, and that doesn't seem enjoyable to me or my back. Sent via Tapatalk

Can't take biopellets offline, my nitrates will shoot up to 50 ppm. GFO has been offline for about 2 weeks now with no increase in phosphates. I like that problem. Water changes? Really Robb? You're barking up the wrong tree. Might as well tell James to do a water change too! Lol! Sent via Tapatalk

To my surprise, my nitrates are still 15ppm. I had previously removed a ton of biopellets and I'm probably running 1/3 of the recommended amount. I also dialed back the flow on the biopellets as well. Maybe at the current level, it maintains the nitrates where it is at. If so, I may ramp it up a bit to lower the nitrates to 5-10 ppm and then keep that maintenance range by slowing the biopellets back down. That would be ideal because it would give me control of my nitrate levels in my tank and that would appeal to my control freak nature. Now if only my phosphates would play nice. I have one last theory to why some of my acros are still STN'ing. My main guess is lack of nutrients hence the phosphate and nitrate addition tests. But one thread I ran across mentioned the precipitation of iron from GFO that had been released into the system and embedded in the substrate. I had my GFO reactor clog up and blast a bunch in my sump. I never cleaned it up. I wonder if I am getting a spike in iron levels and some sps aren't taking too it well? Anybody have an iron test sitting around? I guess I should get to pulling that stuff out. Sent via Tapatalk

I've stopped dosing the phosphate. It would just keep dropping to 0 after raising it to 0.02 ppm. I'm sure the nitrates will do the same but I hope it sticks around in the system longer. If so, it may be more viable to dose it. Sent via Tapatalk