YHSublime

I was just regaling somebody about 8 or 9 years ago Monkiboy and myself carried a eurobraced 180 into my condo, just the two of us. I also drilled it in my courtyard. Young, wild, and cavalier. My only feedback is about the cross brace, but you've already addressed that. It's looking really good man, you should be proud of yourself!

It's all looking very nice. Almost inspires me to clean my tank up a bit!

Sticks look happy! Keep it up, and keep us updated!

Looking good! When you run out of room for coral, you're doing something right!

Looks great!

Beautiful!

Nope, raw! I'm sure the ingredients have changed quite a bit over the past almost decade. In other news, I rebooted and cleaned the tank/ato to see what might be happening. I found a thin dried layer of salt on the bottom of the container I'd been using. I forgot when you hear hoofbeats think horses, not unicorns. While I consider myself seasoned in this hobby, it was most likely me that did it. Couple of things could have happened: 1. I used it for saltwater storage while moving rocks, cleaning tanks, something, and didn't rinse it out. 2. I topped off with some saltwater. I can hold about 25 gallons, and I fill it up to the top. One of the 5 buckets could have been NSW instead of RO. (could have been 1 & 2 combined, tbh.) 3. Somebody else topped off with saltwater (more likely it was me, nobody really messes with my tanks) outside of very specific instructions. 4. The proximity of a 3'x2' open freshwater container directly next to an open sump allowed salt creep to get in. (least likely) Anyways, hopefully this situation is nipped. Everything but the acro's seem pretty unphased. I'm still losing acros, hopefully the reboot on the ato and a big water change will turn some of it around. The fish are all fat, so I guess it's not all doom and gloom.

Thoughts on what is? I'm befuddled. I appreciate it, thanks for the recommendation. I'm on the road for the next 2 weeks, making trouble shooting and testing difficult. I'm filling up a 30 gallon with fresh RO before I leave which is temporarily setup by the tank. I've not only tested for salinity to make sure my RO hasn't been mixed, but I've gone as far as to try a glass personally to ensure! That reminds me of Larry of LRS, who used to eat his food at trade shows to show how natural it was.

Thanks, Eric. What's the solution you think? Calcium reactor? A doser hooked up for RO?

First thing I checked, it is. yup, it seems to creep up over about a 14 day window, I have recalibrated. I’ll have to wait 2 weeks to be around consistently, but then, yes! i thought that as well, but I’m mixing up saltwater 48 hours in advance, sometimes weeks in advance. I always check salinity before using NSW.

The SPS hates it. I've lost 65% of my acros. Dumbfounded.

Question: Why does my salinity keep rising? My ATO is hooked up and working fine. I'm skimming super dry. I keep it at 1.025-1.026, and it keeps climbing to 1.030

You probably have folks closer, but I've got rocks for you if you need.

You're very kind. I cleaned the glass off yesterday and despite the holes left behind, the LPS is filling everything in very nicely still. Almost makes me want to ditch the SPS

I was, yes. Until I lost some of this SPS, now I've toned it back a bit. I was probably dosing 160ml daily of ESV. I'm down to about 100ml per day now and steady at 9dKH.

Thanks, sometimes it be that way. Or so I hear. I'm a little befuddled how my salinity creeped up so high like that, as my goal is to not let that happen again. The biggest loss is the Cali Tort. While it is not a 'high end' piece, it's the longest standing piece of SPS I've had and grown from a tiny frag. It had survived two tank crashes, and numerous alkalinity bombs and hikes. I still have tips I trimmed off as it was STN'ing, and they appear to be doing OK, so I'll grow it back.

Looks great, love the huge BW!

a gentleman and a scholar. Some of its doing alright. haha, it’s very true

What's wild is that the most resilient corals I have were the ones that reacted negatively. I think I've lost a Bill Murray colony, which I'm not thrilled about, but we will see. The clams, zoas, and LPS all seem unphased. The fish unphased. The Birdsnest didn't even bat an eye. The bright side here is that I've had this Apex for close to a year sitting on my couch, I'm already feeling a little more "organized" as I zip tie cables, and mount power packs to the wall, etc. Also, the frag tank is filled with zoas and is popping off. Honestly, my work schedule isn't slowing down any, so I need to do what I can while I'm around, and other then that let it recoop.

Well, figured I'd update the bad with the good. Here's how things are going: I've been traveling so much lately it's very rare that I'm home, let alone around the tank. At the start of this year, I lost my CSB. I don't know what happened to it, came home from a work trip and there was literally not even a trace. Most recently, I started losing my big colony of Cali Tort, and a few other corals STNing around. I was able to save a few pieces of it, but the Jedi Mind Trick was creeping up the side, and it was stinging all the other SPS under the bottom without me noticing. But that didn't explain the SPS that was being effected that was on the other side of the tank. My alkalinity was a little bit high, but consistent. So I checked my salinity. 1.031 I don't know how it creeped up that far, but I added about 7 gallons (slowly) of top off water to get back to normal. While I was trouble shooting, I thought maybe my doser was acting up, so I took both my bubble magus dosers apart, replaced heads, tubes, greased the rollers, and made some additional dosing containers. I decided because I've had it sitting around, and I was home for a bit, I should probably set up my Apex. It's still very messy, but now it's messy on the wall instead of the floor (almost.) You'll notice there is a DOS attached, and I'll probably set that up by the weekend. I was working off a Wifi powerbar, but everytime I lost power, or there was a flicker, it could never connect back right, huge pain in my neck.

Yeah, what DaJMasta said. Do you have any other equipment for the 20g? Is it an all in one (AIO?) do you have lights, wavemakers? A sump? Do you have an RO/DI at home, or are you buying your water? Do you have an Automatic Top Off (ATO?) Do you have any rock yet? Sand? Cycle is the starting point, but lets make sure you have the tools and equipment to get through a cycle.

well played

Looks like a good spot for it!

I was thinking about hooking up my DOS today, just cleaned up the old bubble magus dosers as well.

Its looking great.