nbgen12 January 14, 2013 Author Share January 14, 2013 Im having some serious problems with the idea of hanging up my cleats lol. I changed out out everything on the RODI so that should be ruled out too. Looks like its time to set up the QT tank to hold my fish and restart the DT from scratch. Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt January 14, 2013 Share January 14, 2013 If tony gonzales and ray lewis can still play football in the playoffs, you can't hang up your cleats yet. Stay in Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 March 18, 2013 Author Share March 18, 2013 (edited) I need to get this thing back going, to have a spot where I can see things progress. Basically since the end of October, I did nothing with the tank other than feed the fish and fill my top off container. My dosing containers ran dry after about a month, but I just had 0 time to deal with the tank because of school. About 3 weeks ago I decided it was time to start trying to get things cleaned up. When I tested the water, my alk was at 6 DKH, calcium was at 280, phosphates were at .25. Everything else was acceptable. Needless to say, almost every piece of coral was totally bleached or shriveled up. Also during this time, I ditched my aqua c remora pro skimmer, and am now running skimmerless. I bought a Grey Seas skimmer, but I have yet to build my 40g breeder sump, which will be big enough to fit everything I want. I wish I had taken pictures before I started doing my maintenance regiment, to fully document how bad the coral looked. I've started doing 5-10g water changes every 3-4 days, siphoning built up detritus from the sand bed and fuge. I basically said whatever makes it through this stage makes it, and what doesn't is simply out of luck. Got the dosing equipment back hooked up, set up a reactor where I am currently using phosguard until it runs out, then I will switch to GFO. I took some pictures yesterday which I will post sometime soon to track the progress. I got my alk up to 9 which is where I'd like to keep it if not a little lower around 8-8.5, calcium is at 360 and slowly climbing, and phosphates are at .12 and slowly dropping as I keep up with things. Almost every piece of coral I had in the tank through the tough times are showing signs of life. My birdsnest which was about 95% white is beginning to show a few polyps in places and I can see it slowly rejuvenating. My frogspawns and torch corals were nearly totally shriveled and gone. They are all making very nice improvements week by week. Just taking things slowwwww and steady with the water changes, but making them frequent, small, and consistent. All the fish are healthy. I added a pair of oscellaris clownfish, 1 melanarus wrasse, 1 coris wrasse (I haven't seen him since adding him a week ago and I'm not sure if he is alive or what), and a rainfords goby which is difficult to get to eat. I will post the pictures I took a couple days ago to give an idea of what things look like now. Even though most stuff still looks completely terrible, they are light years better than they were about a month ago. I've done a ton of reading on the relationship between Alkalinity, calcium, nitrates, phosphates, and photo periods over the last couple months through several extremely informative threads on reef central. I seriously believe this is going to be a turning point with my tank, and hopefully some people can learn from my thread. If things go smoothly with the coral, I may not even build the 40g sump and stay skimmerless as long as I plan to do frequent water changes. I will not be adding a single piece of coral to my tank until everything I have has completely rebounded, which will probably end up taking several months. I'll post some pictures in the coming days to begin tracking the progress. Edited March 18, 2013 by nbgen12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEVE March 18, 2013 Share March 18, 2013 Good Job Neil ! Keep up with the maintance of your tank, That will help tremendously! If I can do anything to help out, let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainRon March 18, 2013 Share March 18, 2013 It was good talking to you the other day Neil. You're on the right path to getting things back to where you want them. Stick with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 March 19, 2013 Author Share March 19, 2013 (edited) Thanks Steve and Ron, I think I'll be equally pumped to keep track of both of your DD tanks..... Here is some pictures from my phone if they actually post correctly. A hurting pocci which was laying in the sand for months...looks a tiny bit better. A birdsnest which was almost 100% white 2 weeks ago. The brownish tint is spreading and polyps are slowly becoming visible. This brain was totally bleached excepting a few tiny spots within crevasses. Another hurting brain coral. This one will probably take the longest to rebound. These frogspawn and torch were not really open at all a month ago. This one is a true warrior and is now thriving. Did some new aquascaping while moving things around periodically to siphon the sandbed. Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 One of the two clowns with the new melanarus in front of it which is tough to see. That wrasse is a total pig for a small guy. I will get pics of the other corals in a few days. Slow and steady in this race....going to be quite some time to get full color back in these coral Edited March 19, 2013 by nbgen12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt March 19, 2013 Share March 19, 2013 Good stuff Neil, you'll work things back over time. No rush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 March 19, 2013 Author Share March 19, 2013 Good stuff Neil, you'll work things back over time. No rush Things will improve as soon as i can get the phosphate under control. It tested at .18 last night on my hannah checker but i was a little overkill on several feedings plus I got some stuff in from IPSF a few days ago. Phosphates are a headache if allowed to get out of control. Ill just have to keep re-juicing my phosguard reactor every few days until it gets down below .1 consistently. Phosguard is exhausted so quick in a tank with high phosphate, its unreal. Can't wait to run out and switch to GFO..... Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 19, 2013 Share March 19, 2013 Very cool to see everything bouncing back. Keep with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 March 25, 2013 Author Share March 25, 2013 (edited) Some more coral pictures... This thing was all white and im glad to see a little life creeping back in. Here is what that same piece looked like just before things hit the fan. Cant wait to get it back... I got a couple wrasses from Coral Hind today and they are doing great and get along with the others. Orangeback Fairy Wrasse Exquisite Fairy Wrasse just under my powerhead Here are the pieces doing extremely well at this point..the torch was shriveled with not much hope but on the rebound. The other 2 pieces are starting to thrive. Tomorrow is cleaning my water mixing brute, all powerheads and pumps in a diluted vinegar mix. Water changes are going to be about 10 gallons every 4 days for a while. Nice to see progress. Also, i think my rainford goby is eating the tiny pellets off the sand and picking some off the rocks. Every time i put them in there, i notice his stomach plumps up a little after ive left him alone for a few hours. Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Edited March 25, 2013 by nbgen12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimlin March 25, 2013 Share March 25, 2013 glad to see everything getting healthy again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nbgen12 June 12, 2013 Author Share June 12, 2013 Ill have to post an update soon(meaning pics)....after a long 3 month battle, nitrates and phosphates are undetectable. Still going skimmerless. For 2-2.5 months I couldnt get the PO4 level to drop below .2. Over the last 3 weeks it dropped like a bomb keeping up the same regiment. Wasn't very good for the torches and frogspawn, but my birdsnest which was nearly 100% dead has all the green polyps back and i can see weekly improvement. There were some parts that changed to live rock color, and those parts are not back and i dont expect they will be. Now I am trying to stabilize everything (alk, po4, ca) and cut back my photo period. I was running all 6 bulbs for 6 hours and the 2 blue plus for 10 hrs. Im noticing a little bleaching on my monti frag and I'm pretty sure its because of too much light and undetectable nutrient levels. Going to cut back to 7 hours on the 2 bulbs and 5 hours going full blast and see how things respond over the next month. Pumped. Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime December 27, 2013 Share December 27, 2013 So, it's been almost 6 months, how's it doing now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimlin February 10, 2014 Share February 10, 2014 any updates? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami February 10, 2014 Share February 10, 2014 So, it's been almost 6 months, how's it doing now?He may have gotten out? http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?/topic/60941-Live-rock-for-sale-$2/lb Sent from my LG G-Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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