Update

Well things looking remarkably well nitrates are below 10 now and probably below 5, both of the colonies that were really struggling are now coming back with a vengeance and seeing new growth tips on stuff that was really slowing down in growth ill post some before and after next week

Guess i learned my lesson to not get complacent and check all parameters not just big 3 and P04 cause hiding under the hood was the real problem,

Still increasing vinegar as not seeing any side effects and then getting a doser going and will just put in on a channel

So what was the issue again ?

At this point now I would stop increasing and let the bacteria mass do their thing your going to have to start dropping the dose anyways as the amount needed to lower isn't the amount needed to maintain so if things are looking amazing well then proceed with caution as going to low also has its downside :) glad to hear things are on the mend :)

Well nitrates are below 5 now some of the before and after is crazy took a few pics with the phone quick

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pswn8onacd.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psm8rvsf2t.jpg

Color on this is nuts now http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pshsvmg6ox.jpg


This was almost dead
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pso5h6ljfp.jpg

now fully encrusted and starting to spiral out
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psdowg6rov.jpg

Almost a full 1" growth on the tips from both these
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psfypmveds.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9jy2eqz9.jpg

Up to just over 100ml per day still needing to run GFO but p04 is still pretty low pretty happy with the results for around a month between pictures

Wow that's only a month? Nice!

Yea I'm so jacked

Good stuff buddy well done :)

Time for more frags now I told myself till I get my **** together no more corals now as a treat...

Also ordering some more fish next week got the QT all fired up

Well pulled be trigger and ordered the jabao doser and I'm thinking I'm going to get some acrylic and make some dosing containers for ( calcium/alk/foz down/vinegar) got a few questions

Anyone have experience with working with acrylic any tips

Was gonna make a bracket to mount the doser , where should I have to doser compared to containers ( I have read some stuff about siphon if doser is above ) or should I just mount it above

Thanks alot( also I'll post some pics of the new fish all threw the qt process and now in the tank )

Any ideas or should I buy the bullet and buy the premade acrylic containers

Hey craig they have bubble magus dosing containers at homes alive, dont htink they are too too much. also do you have red monti cap, i have some and would love to traid for some of your green

I have the jebao doser, it is above my dosing containers, and they drip into my sump above my dosing containers, I have had to install airline check valves where it drips out to prevent it siphoning back into container on a few of the lines. But overal the doser is solid and well well worth the money (even though it is dirt cheap)

Ah ok that's a good idea for the check lines and yea I'm ordering dosing container as we speak now lol text me we can figure out the month trade I got a green frag resdy

Here is some can't sleep 1:45 am picture dump tank is looking epic finally got all my water phosphates and nitrates down to were they were,

honestly I just forgot to account for all the new fish and extra feeding and got busy and looking back now realized that I never changed my wc or dosing or gfo change but I added more fish and fed a lot more ... Anyhow things looking good for polyp extension back on all sps during the day again so things are looking up

Pics

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psdhcg1raw.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psaaj1biry.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psflgh6jqb.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psk403jcmn.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1ggsbmrk.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psolfh7oy1.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps505ff4nj.jpg

Copperband and my wrasse tag teamed the scallop and had a 39.99 snack after 3 days totally forgot the copper would eat it ...

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psah4chpxt.jpg

Most pics are right before the lights turn off hench the blue haze

Update and advise time,

Heyya well we are back from our 30 day holiday with my wife backpacking and diving through Indonesia (Dive Video and pictures to follow some pic stuff!)

Left our tank with a friend who lived in our house and took care of the dog and looked after the tank (filling the ATO and feeding frozen and nori) , also had my reefer brother stop by once a week to double check ( empty skimmer, filter socks..) as the friend isn't a reefer at all ..

Well despite what all COULD have gone wrong I'm pretty thankful that what I'm reporting is more annoyances than chaos


1) One of my bubble tips decided to move and sit on the monti in the middle of the tank and stung it to death ( bro found it end of last week said it was to late to try to move it ..o well nothing to be done there

2) Lost my copper band butterfly, 4 days into the trip ? (didn't tell us till we retuned :cry: good house keeper i guess making us not worry ) not sure why maybe didn't feed as often or as much as me, really weird, That Hit home my favourite fish and i QT him a week long than all the other in that batch to double triple check he was eating good and he was so healthy and ate like a pig no idea why

3) During the last week got a patch of cyano over the right side of the rock structure which it totally random, covered 4 of my sps frags and by the time i got home they where all dead , That sucks had some cool ones there kinda mad about that

Anyway Nothing broke, overflowed, got stuck on, jumped out, or plugged.
Doser ran out of vinegar/foz down in the last week and got unplugged not refilled too hard to explain that over crappy indonesian wifi lol

Did a 35 gallon WC within first couple days back

Tank doesn't look to bad actually some of the sps doesn't look as extended but colors are good LPS looks great, Bubble tips thriving (stupid stingers)

Today tested the Water today ....Barf.. here goes

P04 -74 hanna - 0.21 bad was 0.05 prior to leaving
Nitrates - Red like 50ppm probably closer to 60 gross
Alk- 7.5 dkH
Calcium- 400ppm
Mag- 900 really low
Salinity 1.026 perfect still
Temp 81


So my plan of attack now that the cyano is spreading ( probably loving all the nutrients and lack of carbon dosing as it suddenly stopped )

Plan was to use chemi-clean for the cyano go threw that process than run carbon and do a 50% water change I'm making 75ish gallons of water going to start heating it tomorrow

From there I can slowly start to dose the vinegar again and work on correcting the mag and P04

What you guys think?

Also wondering about dosing vodka and vinegar ? Any advantage to doing both or one or the other ?


Thanks ill post some pictures ( and I'm working on the dive video as we speak )

Cheers

That's usually my plan of attack for cyano :-)

Yup!

Ok sweet, yea wanted to double check cause I've never had it since I started carbon dosing, only had it once at the beginning of the tank like 4 months in, didn't know if that changed anything

Chemiclean in 15 caps @ 5pm skimmer on overflow mode carbon out , got 75g of water ready for WC in 48 hours

got some before pics

Crossing fingers ...

Alright got around to do some before and after pictures post Cyano Chemi-clean tank starting to look good again, slowly working back getting parameters back in line, lowing p04 and nitrate slow and rising mag first then getting Alk and calcium back ( which weren't as out of wack as the others )

Been busy trying to edit go pro dive footage

Pre Chemi

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psbvv1caxq.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pslc8hrvm4.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pscktvj5yi.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6kunpv0m.jpg

Dead Monti ( thanks moving bubble tip)

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3oxb7ih8.jpg

Post Chemi-clean and 45% Water change/GAC and starting starting carbon dosing and for down again


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psvkp56ibp.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psuu5pjixb.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psjnhpp3dd.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pszaw7jbww.jpg
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psxztiwk3a.jpg



And on a totally unrelated note ( didn't want to post this incase it didn't work out but before my trip i dropped my tune scraper on my orange plate and split into 3 pieces figured it was a goner and after the trip it seems to be doing awesome still and puffy and eating and maybe ii can grow 3 plates from this all 3 pieces have mouths it looks like so maybe i got super lucky )
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psp35oqi84.jpg

Well i think i found the culprit of the holiday nutrient issues found an empty container of flakes that was over half full in the stand, now either the tank sitter fed this whole amount over the 30 day holiday ( god i hope not) or it accidentally dumped in ( and was to embarrassed to say ) it kind of explains all the issues and how only after 30 days seemed the tank now has nutrient issues Nitrate and P04 that was never a problem before leaving

So still working on getting stuff to pre holiday condition ,(funny last year took a 28 day trip and after 1 WC tank was sparkling like new )

So 2 days ago did a 70gallon water change , poor fish hardly had any water to swim in, and I'm planning on doing another 40 ish one tomorrow that should bring everything into manageable levels

Im still dosing vinegar I think 125ml per day and also doing Foz Down too


Is there a benefit to dosing vodka over vinegar ? Or just keep the course ? Does my dose of 125ml for around 150g water seem ok ? low ? high? Should i just keep upping it ?:cry:

For down and the WC are working good for the P04 its just the nitrates I'm worried about and I'm sure thats why the sps doesn't look as good ( ill get some Water tests done today see where I'm at post 50% WC

Thanks

Water tests today

Phos- 0.09
Nitrate- 25ppm

Both those have came down a lot so things in the right direction i guess

Cal- 320ppm
alk-9.8
mag 1280ppm

So just going to do the 40g water change and dose some calcium and mag to get those back to where i need them

Hoping things will start to look better and some of the sps comes back to life

Ugh still battling higher Nitrates than i would like they are around 25 ish maybe 20 i dont know how other do it? The tank does look a lot better then a month ago but I'm not sure what else i can keep doing ?

How many ML can i keep increasing my vinegar up too its like at 130ml / day, Skimmer is working great the p04 is now lowwering at 0.05 which is fine for me but the nitrates is still hovering around 20-25 range ? Any other ideas?

Would adding vodka help ? or swapping to that instead of vinegar? should i increase vinegar faster?

Thanks

Adding vodka to you? Yes
Adding vodka to tank? Maybe

yea I'm just not sure how people ever get there nitrates to zero , like i dont feed a ton just over a cube worth of home made mixed frozen that was rinsed , and some nori, skimmer works good i do min 20% WC every 2 weeks (lately been doing big ones)


Naso tang
kole tang
2 clowns
2 cleaner wrasses
yellow Wrasse
christmas wrasse
goby
flame angel
mandarin

in a 125g

Hi Craig,

The original carbon method was adding Vodka, Sugar and Vinegar mixture. All 3 are carbon sources and feed slightly different types of bacteria. When overdosed one causes snotty type strings from rocks etc, another causes hazy type films and another clouds the water.

I presently use Vodka/white vinegar mix with Foz Down. Don't add the Foz Down to the Vodka/Vinegar mix. The Vodka is stronger than the vinegar so less is needed. There is no problem combining Vodka and Vinegar at the same time. The way I maintain my acro grow out system is by using Vodka/Vinegar to control Nitrate and Foz Down to control Phosphate.

You don't want to have zero Phosphate and zero Nitrate in your system. The symbiotic algae that the corals use for a large portion of their energy, needs some Phosphate and some Nitrate. As long as the Phosphate is < 0.03 and Nitrate is < 7 I do not worry about it.

What is the concentration of Vinegar your using? ie % Acetic Acid. Sounds like your using a lot for that bio load. Are you measuring it with a syringe or going by a dosing pump?

If you decide to add Vodka to the vinegar don't add more than 2ml Vodka/day to start with. With the Vodka Vinegar method you are growing bacteria so you need to build it slowly over a several month period. You can safely increase the dosage by 25% per week until you see the nitrate begin to drop. Then keep it at that level until nitrate is down to where you want it, then reduce dosage until nitrate stays steady.

Looking at your water tests from the 2nd I would say that hardy acros like millipora etc would not have a problem with the Phosphate and Nitrate levels. They would have lots of problems from the Calcium at 320. It needs to be around 430. The key to a successful reef tank is stability in all parameters and maintenance.

Thanks for using Foz Down!!

Cheers,
Tim

yea the calcium is now stable at 425 ish level and I'm dosing both foz down and the vinegar from a dosing pump , P04 has came down nicely just i feel the nitrates are still higher

Well update time, tank is looking million times better now that i got all those big WC done and got my parameters back in order finally seeing growth tips on all the sps again and the lps looking super healthy


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pscynzjeim.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6hm2uzlt.jpg


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pspqpkxxup.jpg

[url=http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/youngmedic1/media/IMG_7903_zps6hm2uzlt.jpg.html]http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6hm2uzlt.jpg[/URL[url=http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/youngmedic1/media/IMG_7904_zpsngvhbufw.jpg.html]http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psngvhbufw.jpg[/URL[url=http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/youngmedic1/media/IMG_7907_zpsoo4y8z4t.jpg.html]http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psoo4y8z4t.jpg[/URLhttp://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pswt60bedg.jpg

Happy to see things are doing so well for you with your tank.

Thanks coming along good almost ready for more frags

Update time .. well I got my new lights all installed some hitches with the new app that controls them but I'm really liking them my coral colours have never looked better mostly cause the old lights were starting to get some burnt out leds and the speed wasn't as good as these .

Working on the final touches of my water change system super hyped about that will make WC a breeze and ill do them more often this summer was bad at one point didn't do one for 2 months ... Few of my sps still recovering from our trip last November others have never looked better , Im thinking of doing a big aquascape change on the right side of my tank not sure yet

And I broke down an bought a Apex to replace my Reef keeper got it all programmed up but I'm going to wait to mount it and put it in till we come back from holidays ( heading to Nicaragua for 24 days woo)


Heres the awaited photo dump

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psujqm5shi.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psuwrtou3i.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps57itgjra.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psvtwl9xey.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psuq5dj63e.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psivjhuhh2.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pso7csoomk.jpg


Cant forget the clowns still spawning every month

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psacxf7jnn.jpg

Hey guys got back form holidays ( tank never does good for 28 days away but anyway) I'm thinking of redoing my aquascape on the entire right side while i was away i got a mushroom invasion and its taking over some of my sps and some of my other sps is really shading my sand,

soo Question

If i took the rock out and scraped ( wire brush) the red mushrooms off would that be enough? or should i swap it for rock thats in my sump?

If i add more dead live rock for the new aquascape on the right side should i cook it and acid wash it and stuff or cause i have established tank i should be ok? ( dont want to get algae problems cause my tank is pretty good atm)

Anyone ever torn down one side of their tank and rebuilt it? have any ideas/tips

Did a pre aquascape 45% WC gonna do the scape this week if i can

Hey guys we are moving to a new house and renting out our old house here come July so planning the big move / new tank wondering some advice on getting a new tank or just moving this one , how much of a hassle and stress is the corals and everything if I move the tank or is it worth buying a new tank and getting it up and running before I move everything and sell the one I have

Also how much ball park would a new tank 120-125g be from concepts so I could start saving 1500? 2000$ 1000$

Hey guys looking from some advise from the "vets" that have moved a reef

In a month going to be moving the 125 into a new house originally I was going to buy a new tank and do it that way but after measuring and everything I was basically gonna buy the same sized tank so figured i would make this one work and put the money i allotted into new equipment

We are renting out this house we are in so no real rush but I'm still stressing lol
Im gonna get an intern 75 to house everything

SO? What worked well ? What didn't ? Im currently cooking about 100 pounds of dead rock after acid/bleach washing I don't want bring over any of the red mushrooms that grew insanely

Any help or advise would be awesome , did you have the fish and coral all in one tank?


Edit Heres a recent pic too what goods a post without a pic right?

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psisrdpitz.jpg