Orion

? it’s just alk, calcium, and occasionally mag when the tank needs it. I swear!

it literally all started growing like weeds around November. Some of this needs to be trimmed back!!

Okay then!

Photo updates! Fish are all healthy, and corals are growing nicely.

Well it happened again. ich. I QT all my fish prior to going into the display, but not the corals (they just get dipped). I noticed 3 weeks ago the anthias acting strange. Hiding and not eating.. eventually dying. Then about a week ago I saw spots all over the tang, and various fish scratching/flashing. So all fish are in QT tanks being treated while the display remains fallow for 76 days for a second time in this tank’s history. So frustrating.

FTS from tonight. Corals and fish growing nicely, parameters are finally stable.

I didn’t see this reply until now.. Yes.. dosing is spread out... so far alk and calcium are doing fine on a lower dose two weeks after removing those sand tablets. Keeping the sand in the tank... I don’t think the wrasse would be happy if I removed it all

Over that past two months I had been having difficulty maintaining calcium and alkalinity. I was dosing almost 200ml of both each day and could not figure out why I was having to dose so much. I think I figured it out, and it was not a low magnesium issue (mag is 1400+ verified by two different test kits). Keep in mind this is a small system.. with maybe 7-10 frags of SPS/LPS. I noticed last week my sand clumping together. I stopped dosing for 24hrs, and left the lights off during this time. Alkalinity dropped fast - over 2dkh in the first 12 hours from 8.68dkh to 6.5dkh. Alk stabilized over the last 12 hours and hung around 6-6.5dkh. I then pulled out several “tiles” of clumped sand over the weekend. I was unable to break them apart. My guess is alkalinity and calcium were precipitating and forming these clumps of sand. I performed a major water change afterwards to balance out the levels, and began dosing again.. but only 40ml each of calcium and alkalinity. This would equate to a 1dkh drop per day. So far the corals look good, and levels are stable. Alkalinity is still on the low side, but I’ll work on that over time.

Set my Avast auto feeder up yesterday, and I have to say this is the best auto feeder I have ever owned. Food actually stays suspended in the water column for fish to eat it vs. floating on top. The only suggestion I have for @ctenophore is to mention somewhere in the instructions that the water pump can be dialed up or down as needed. I was getting a lot of micro bubbles in the tank until I found out that I could turn the pump down.

Thank you all for your responses.. I’ll continue to do more research and maybe perhaps snag one on Black Friday.

It looks like while I was on a 6 year break from the hobby a neat piece of equipment was created.. the filter roller. I am interested in installing one of these and wanted to know everyones opinion on them. likes... dislikes etc.. changing out filter socks isn’t fun!

It does work, but like wildcrazyjoker said it can bottom out your nutrients.

Welcome back.. I just got my feet wet again myself getting back into the hobby after being out for 5 years. The Bulkreefsupply videos are probably the most informative that I have found. Good luck!

Blue Ribbon Koi has frozen food.

Got my hands on the club par meter this weekend and took some par readings. I was surprised at how much PAR and even coverage the T5s were providing Aquatic life t5 fixture w/3 blue plus and 1 actinic 2 radion xr15 G5’s set at 60% intensity ab+ schedule