The BM-150pro review slot is still open

best drop me a pm to discuss

Week 7 review
 

Today i did a 32G Water change so that I could totally clean out my sump. There was still some carbon dust stuck to things and a small amount of detritous in the corners etc. I wanted to make sure there were no sources of Nitrates coming from the sump.
Parameters this week: Cal-440 Alk-11 Mag-1260 Nit-5 Phos-0
I dosed 1 ampoule of Strontium this week.
Observations this week: Not much change, Algae is still non existant, coral colours are changing slowly, some Blue tips are starting to show on some. Yellow acro is now green. Blue Milli is a fugly white/brown, and 1 acro seems to have perhaps suffered a case of pollyp bailout on the tips of the branches. Hard to describe but the tips have seemed to quit growing upwards and are now getting thicker as the tissue on the stem seems as if it wants to grow up and over the tips and envelop it. Very wierd.
And for those that are interested in a comparison so far of the ASM Vs. ER skimmers. The ASM is way easyer to clean out and way more stable to changes in water level. When i shut my return pump off the sump fills up about 2 " above normal and the ER floods its cup but the ASM doesnt change at all. I will keep fiddleing with both in an effort to fine tune the skimmate but the ER seems to be very fussy on how wet you can run it without overflowing it and it is too dry for my liking. The ASM currently pulls out about 2X the amount but it is wetter and lighter.
I may step up my dosing/WC schedule now to every 5 days in an effort to get the Nitrates right down. It would appear that the sand and/or rock may be a bit of a sink. Michael, feel free to chime in here on how you think the best course of action to continue on here would be.

Don't forget to mention again that you have heavily modified your ASM skimmer and the ER is stock. :wink:

The ASM has a mesh mod and the intake mod that I designed. The ER has a mesh mod and the gate valve mod.

ERs work best in about 8 inches of water I think. Maybe give it a boost. It worked awesomely for me and I wish it would work on my current tank. I still think your ASM sucks balls :razz:

LOL well at least the pump stays put :razz: YOUR ER pump has fallen out twice this week already :sad:
Not to worry. i'm still finding its "happy spot" then were off to the races.
Right now it is sitting in 11" of water, Think I should raise it up some? I have had to close the gate valve off 3/4 of the way to get the bubble column about 1/2 way up the neck.

Week 8 update
 

So I have upped my dosing and WC schedule to 5 days from 7 in an attempt to hammer the Nitrates lower.
Tests were Cal-430 Alk-10 Mag-1260 Phos-0 Nitrate-still 5 :sad:
The tank looks great, no algae what so ever. If it weren't for little spots of corraline growing all over the front glass then i would probably only need to clean it every 2 weeks. :biggrin: Some of my non Acro corals look fabulous but the Acro/etc group still have no polyps but some of the colours are now definately starting to improve, Perhaps we've finally turned the corner?
Does anyone know the consequences of testing Nitrates and phosphates at different times of the day? I am wondering if doing my tests mid-afternoon after my WC and 1 or 2 fish feedings would affect the numbers? Perhaps all tests should be performed first thing in the morning or something. ?

I definitely try to do all my testing either right before my WC or a few hours afterwards to let the water mix and circulate. I don't do any testing after feeding, even though its a small amount of food in a large volume I still like to get a more "standardized" measurement without the food possibly influencing it.

Week 9 review
 

Another 10% WC and a dose or stronti this week.
Here is the tests for the week and I did them first thing this morning so that they wouldnt be affected by the morning feeding.
Nitrate:4 Phos:0 Ca:425 Alk:11 Mag:1240
No new observations this week although I think some colour is coming back to the Blue Milli but its not Blue. Some of the other Acros that have been struggling appeared to have sufered some form of pollyp bailout and then a regrowth of tissue over the corralite opening. I am not exactly sure what is happening here but the corals look along way from dead or anything and i guess time will tell.

ALK is way too high!

aim for 7-8