FarmerTy

Mine and yours? Just kidding! That's a lot of snails! I have 4 in my 215... granted they are giant! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I think you can buy enough snails with that money to fill up all your fellow ARC buddies tanks! I call first in line! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I like how we base out of town directions to fellow reefers using a local fish store as a point of reference. If you still want to drop it off to me Bpb, I'm 15 mins North of Fish Gallery, 7 minutes north of Aquatek, 2 mins NE of Fish Gallery, 4 mins north of Austin Aqua Farms, 10 mins south of Niko's Reef, and 15 mins east of RCA, and 25 mins north of the Dome!

Pay heed to victoly's advice... he's paid his dues to the water sampling gods! I don't worship them anymore but at one time, I paid my dues as well. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Part of me wishes I should have done this in the first place... just ship them all off to a nice tank somewhere else and get them all back once everything is stabilized in the new tank. Ideally, getting all parameters in line would be the best situation before moving everything over but its during the corrections and over corrections, that the coral pay for it and you end up losing stuff. With so many parameters that could fluctuate, it's quite more difficult than I would have anticipated myself. On the bright side, it made me involuntarily narrow down some of my SPS and make room for some exquisite pieces to join my new tank. Naturally all my LPS and zoas made it just fine. I wonder sometimes why I put myself through all of this trouble just for colored sticks... but then again, I look at the colored sticks in my old tank video and online and then I remember why. I'll make sure my wife doesn't take a swig of Bpb's special tank brew water.

I would get 2nd opinions on everything if possible, so the 2nd battery of tests would be most beneficial to you. That way you can at least confirm your results before making any drastic changes. I will be all over the place saturday but if you drop off some water at the front door, I can test when I get home from everything that day. I like using the phosporus Hanna meter, reads down to the ppb if you don't mind converting your results each time as it gives you phosporus, not phosphate. It's a simple multiplication to convert. Personally, I'd replace the DI resin, as I remember vaguely reading somewhere that some things can make it past the DI resin and not show up on your TDS. I could be totally wrong but as a paranoid SPS person, I would replace it personally. In general I'm suspicious of the CaCl additions to the water to lower the alk... as I understand you are trying to precipitate the alk out of solution to lower it. For some reason, I feel like this process may have some unintended repercussions... but I'm no chemist.

Hey Bpb, Sorry I haven't gotten to get on here until now. Been a very busy day! Sorry for the trouble you are having with the upgrade. If I may add some insight and observation from my own experience in upgrading with a sensitive SPS population, and also the more recent experiment of adding phosphate to my phosphate-limited system to help drive down excess nitrates, hopefully some of it may help with your situation. 1) I'm sure your SPS may have looked more pastel/pale if you are truly reading a PO4 of 0. I forget if you have the phosporus meter or the phosphate meter. I would highly recommend getting a 2nd opinion the next time you get into town to confirm your readings. Judging by your observation of the pastel colors, I would probably guess that it was truly reading correctly. 2) I would leave the biopellets as they are, as long as you haven't changed them or added more in the recent couple of weeks. If you have added more, than possibly reducing it back to the level you had before would be a good idea. But I wouldn't recommend taking them offline, as I went down the same path trying to chase the reason for my SPS STN'ing and took my biopellets completely offline, which only added to the downfall of a lot of my SPS when my nitrates shot sky high! It sounds like we both feed our tanks a lot and taking the biopellets offline will have your nitrates shooting up in no time! 3) I would take your GFO offline and monitor your PO4 levels to see if you eventually see the concentrations increasing. I would at least test once every other day, maybe even once a day. 4) The fresh bag of carbon is a good idea. An interesting theory, but perhaps you didn't rinse the carbon well enough and carbon dust got all over everything when you replaced it a couple of weeks ago? 5) I would stop the new water transfusions. Something is not adding up correctly and as I understand, the only thing you are doing different are these water transfusions. My best guess is some parameter in your new water is not truly what it seems. Either some reading is off and you are adding a lot higher/lower salinity or a lot higher/lower alk. 6) My 2nd guess is to check your RO/DI system. Make sure your prefilters aren't old, that your RO membrane is not past its prime, and the TDS is reading 0 on your effluent from the DI. I would also question if the DI is exhausted and maybe needs to be replaced. Prefilters are recommended to be changed at least every 6-12 months and your RO membrane every 3-5 years. DI depends on the city water but I replace mine about 1/year. I don't do water changes though so it may last longer since I'm only making topoff water. 7) Last guess, but you did just build out your canopy to hold your MHs. I would check the graphs for temperature and possibly pH and see if anything looks funny? Maybe the new canopy is causing things to overheat a bit in the system? I would imagine you have checks/balances programmed into your Apex to warn you but just in case? Also, maybe some VOCs from the paint/lacquer you used to seal the stand/canopy? Hope some of the ideas help bud. Again, I would just discontinue the water transfusions for now and kill the GFO and leave everything else alone. Then double-check your salinity (refractometer... maybe have someone else like Manny or Dustin double check for you) and look into your RO/DI system. I had a similar experience when I was doing my transfusions of new/old tank water and looking back now, hindsight is 20/20, but all I was doing was adding 1.032 salinity water to my 1.026 system and causing all my SPS to already get ticked, even prior to the move. Then I threw them in a brand new cycled tank with a salinity of 1.032... then corrected the problem but took my biopellets offline chasing the problem, and double-whammied them with super high nitrates (>50ppm), then decided to run an experiment with adding PO4 to my system and actually lowering my NO3, but it lowered it so quickly that my PO4 went from 0.1 ppm to 0.03 ppm and my NO3 went from >50ppm to <5ppm in two days! Let's just say it's rebuilding time with my SPS. I'd hate for the same thing to happen to you so hopefully my experiences with the upgrade can give you some insight and possible avenues to go down for a resolution. Sorry if I droned on and on but this is what you get from me at this hour of the night.

Never had any problems either. When my colonies would melt or an sps start stn'ing, they are there to clean up the decaying matter. Otherwise, they left everything alone. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Thanks for beating me to the punch, my geo-nerd friend. I was just about to chime in!

You know what they say, you snooze, no zoos! I'll hit you up when another frag appears.

Sorry JCAB, someone PM'ed me for them about an hour before you. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I had 4 polyps break loose from my mother colony. First $15 gets it. Frag will be unmounted. Sorry for the cruddy picture. They aren't open all the way because the current blows them around and there are 4, one is hidden from view.

Bump, got one left. Also have a few smaller pieces for $10 and one for $5 if anyone is interested in one.

Man, it makes my $10 one I found at Fish Gallery not look as nice now! Thanks Sherita! Man, those are awesome!

Welcome to the club, both you and your son!

I don't know the zoa ID but just wanted to point out that the green algae on the right side of it almost looks like bryopsis to me. Might want to take a closer inspection of that just in case it is. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I got one Jmvanness. Pm'ed. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

You can move in with me bud if you bring that tank with you! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I want to see that powerhead in action! Maybe I can sneak two of them on the back glass of my tank!

Wow!

Skim wet and just let it subside since you don't have any livestock in there yet. Your skimmer should be pulling out some dark, nasty stuff now.

It is looking good in there! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Got one more left, who's the last taker?

Thanks Mitch! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I'll take them bud. Maybe bring them sunday? Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk