lanman December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 All of your corals, some of which have been almost 'dormant' for the last several months, are sprouting brightly-colored new 'tips': bob
stratos21ss December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 Congrats Bob..looking good! I am curious if you have found that your Vortechs get gunked up pretty fast? I have two of them and they need cleaning about every five days to keep the bio-gunk off them. I started doing this regularly back when my initial nitrates were high and have kept it a habit since. I have a hunch because of the way they are built that they might be very efficient nitrate factories if left unclean.
Coral Hind December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 Congrates! Do you know exactly what you did to cause the growth spurt?
lanman December 27, 2008 Author December 27, 2008 Congrates! Do you know exactly what you did to cause the growth spurt? Frequent water changes... which is partly or completely responsible for a slight reduction in nitrates. I also started running phosphate remover, and changing my carbon more frequently. Along the way, I have built a small remote deep sand bed, and added more sand to my refugium (6" instead of 4"). But I really think the more frequent (20-30 gallons twice a week instead of once a week) water changes is the main reason. bob
reefhunter December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 you do 40-60 gallons a week water changes on your 220? interesting...
lanman December 27, 2008 Author December 27, 2008 you do 40-60 gallons a week water changes on your 220? interesting... Find my thread about problems caused by my high nitrates, and you will see why. I will gladly cut that in half, if I can keep my nitrates down. To save money, if for no other reason. It's not that far out of line, though - it's a 240-gallon tank with a Calfo overflow; which probably displaces about 10 gallons. I have a 90-gallon sump, which is about half full, and a 20-gallon refugium which is pretty full. So the total system is close to 300 gallons of water. 40 gallons would be just a little more than 10% a week. And I'm very pleased that everything seems so happy in there now. Only a few months ago, I was considering giving it up for a few smaller tanks, that I can actually take better 'hands-on' care of. There is a lot of that tank that I can't reach (3' front-back). I am, in fact, scheduling kids and in-laws to come over and help raise the canopy, so that I can try to fit a rock in the back that I want there. It will require me laying out in the water, with mask and snorkel! bob
jamesbuf December 27, 2008 December 27, 2008 How high were your phosphates before you started using phosphate remover?? I had a very large explosion in growth when I first started used GFO.
zygote2k December 28, 2008 December 28, 2008 Find my thread about problems caused by my high nitrates, and you will see why. I will gladly cut that in half, if I can keep my nitrates down. To save money, if for no other reason. It's not that far out of line, though - it's a 240-gallon tank with a Calfo overflow; which probably displaces about 10 gallons. I have a 90-gallon sump, which is about half full, and a 20-gallon refugium which is pretty full. So the total system is close to 300 gallons of water. 40 gallons would be just a little more than 10% a week. And I'm very pleased that everything seems so happy in there now. Only a few months ago, I was considering giving it up for a few smaller tanks, that I can actually take better 'hands-on' care of. There is a lot of that tank that I can't reach (3' front-back). I am, in fact, scheduling kids and in-laws to come over and help raise the canopy, so that I can try to fit a rock in the back that I want there. It will require me laying out in the water, with mask and snorkel! bob maybe you could use some extra tall help...
www.fishnreef.com December 28, 2008 December 28, 2008 maybe you could use some extra tall help... Keep in mind that everyone wants an excuse to take a dip in their fishtanks! Justin, now Bob...who's next! Bob...don't forget to turn off the metal halides! Nadir
lanman December 28, 2008 Author December 28, 2008 Keep in mind that everyone wants an excuse to take a dip in their fishtanks! Justin, now Bob...who's next!Bob...don't forget to turn off the metal halides! Nadir Fortunately, I have all T5's over that tank And yes - if I had someone about 6'4" tall willing to get up to his armpits in my tank, that would probably do the trick! bob
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