Great looking macros again. You've got some crazy PE going on in that tank and the colors of those SPS are pretty unreal.

What do you normally do to get your white balance adjusted properly? I find when taking photos of the tank I can never consistently get my white balance adjusted to show the true colors of the corals.

Thanks again. I am quite lucky so far that the corals are now growing and colouring up. I would have to say that this set up is now 1 yr old and it has had a few set backs too. I am currently having a war against cyano and I may want to add more flow in the back and I am thinking that the biopellets may be the culprit to the cyano as I added biopellets over gfo six months ago... May consider adding gfo back now if I cannot beat e cyano with Zeozym and coral snow.

As for the white balance, I am just shooting with AWB with my Canon 5D mark iii. It seems to work fine (new processor?) however, with my prev Canon I usually set it to 10000K.

Wow Wayne, those are soo SWEET!!!! Not to mention the snazzy photo skills! Cheers Ronnie

I love your photo's wish i could do this kind of quality.

What is your light set up again?

Thanks. I just take lots and practice does make it better. At the time when I took the last bunch of photos on Friday the Radions were running at 20k., prob the better time for pics.

wow, just caught up with your latest photos and.. wow.. You've got quite the nice collection there and all doing fabulous! So now that you've pretty much got her dialed in, what's your husbandry like these days? That is, water change amount and schedule, dosing, additives, etc.

Thanks again. I'm just fortunate that most things are going well. Right now I am fighting a war against cyano. I've tried chemi clean and I think that it made it worst so I am now trying other methods like using Zeozym, coral snow and i am adding MB7 and vinegar with it. I think it may be the biopellets as I did not have had it this bad before.

I've learned a lot from people I've met along the ways and applied their methods to mine.

Water change: 20% every three weeks... I would like to do 20% every two weeks if time permits. I see vast improvements when I went from four to three.

Dosing: DIY Alk, CA and MG right now... Planning to go with CA reactor soon... Probably in a yr.. Just want to use up what supply I have left still before switching.

Carbon:changed every two weeks and I top up the biopellets when it gets low in the reactor. I am thinking of adding back GFO if I can't fight off the cyano

Skimmer: clean the skimmer cup once a week and the whole skimmer twice a yr..

ATO:but not currently using it as I am able to top off daily right now ( why I don't use it as it gives me a reason to spend some time with the tank). I do plan to use it if I do get go away for a few days, holiday etc... Having the salinity levels being consistent helps...

Feeding: feed frozen food every two or three days and if feed nori and dry pellets daily ( but lightly, of course).

Other Dosing:
add Zeozym twice a week ( I am adding daily right now) starting dec 5th
Coral Snow nightly
Vinegar daily
MB7 weekly
Biomate weekly

I am planning to make some changes soon particularly on the rockscaping... Now that I have a better idea of how each of the SPS are growing I can redo the Tank. Thank goodness I have kept my 90 gallon in the garage. I won't be keeping all the corals so I am planning to have a second/ frag tank in the garage soon. Planning on this now... Devating to getting a new 4 ft long tank but shallower... 18 inches instead of 24? Considering changing the main lights and use the current lights for the garage tank...

Any advice and recommendations?

It looks and sounds like you've got everything under control :-) My advice would be don't change a thing LOL. I have a feeling that wasn't the advice you were hoping for though :lol:

Thanks again. I guess that if it ain't broken dont fix it. :lol:

That's the idea, but you and I both know that in this hobby that's a hard rule for us with OCD to follow :lol:

LOL...you figured me out... Now Brad is gonna bug me even more.... I think I have close to 80 corals frags in the tank... Prob more now... Reason more to plan the second tank... Since I am going with a less rock approach, I can save the remaking live rocks for the second tank... So just need a new tank ( unless I keep my 90 but I am thinking of using the 90.

So here is my Christmas wish list...

- two mitras or two radion (pro)
- vertex alpha 200 skimmer ( or BK)

I have extra power heads, return pumps, phosban reactors and heaters so I won't need to spend on these... :biggrin:

Hey, Ronnie, thanks! I'm sure your tank looks even sweeter! Have you started your build yet?

What are you suggesting? That I call you a frag whore? 'cause that's not something I would call you. Many others might, but not me. Nope.

As for new tank, I still can't figure out why you have an empty 12 foot wall in your room..just sayin' :)

And don't forget, I have another "frag" here for you. Ok, it's a colony, but Rich calls it a frag lol

Learned that I do not have cyano ( thanks, Brad!) instead have red turf algae. :sad: I went nuts on water changes, chemi clean and Zeozym and more water changes the last 4-6 weeks... :frusty:

So, went the the LFS and picked up five mexican turbo snails and eyeing on a rabbit fish to work on the red turf.

After another 20% water change today I checked the PO4 level with the Hanna...
.23... Almost fainted... Did another test again and the same result... :frusty:
Then it hit me... I forgot to divide by 1000. Need to convert from ppb to ppm.
:faint2:

After another 20% water change today I checked the PO4 level with the Hanna...
.23... Almost fainted... Did another test again and the same result... :frusty:
Then it hit me... I forgot to divide by 1000. Need to convert from ppb to ppm.
:faint2:[/quote]

So I checked the Hanna po4 checker and it is just the low range checker so it is already measuring at ppm.. My po4 is at .23... :fear:

This is after the water change... Will do another check tomorrow... All fish and corals are look fine... Fish are eating... Corals have lots of pe...I wonder if it could be the Zeozym...? Checked my RO water TDS meter reads .000...
Will have to get another test kit to be certain...

Hopefully you can get that down to 0 and the red stuff might just go away on it's own. While snails might remove the algae from the rock, it comes right back out into the water, causing algae to grow on the rock, repeat.

The ZEOzym does combat slime types of algaes. It should be eliminating what's feeding that red turf algae that your fighting.

Are you using the low-range Phosphorous checker that reports in ppb? If so then to convert to phosphate first multiply by 3.066 then divide by 1000. (Nice and intuitive, no?)

But if it says ppm on the unit then you probably have the phosphate checker.

Took me a little while to realize they are two different checkers giving two different sets of results but at least you can convert the reading from one to the other with the handy dandy maths...


...

Sorry if I missed this info but are you running GFO? I ask because I notice you mention the zeovit products (Zeozym etc.) and FWIW, I was running zeovit on my tank with absolutely no testable reductions in PO4 over a period of well over a year. I started using gfo and that is the only thing that made a difference in my phosphate readings (and overall tank health)...

I checked and the "ppm" is on the checker... Must be my old age...missed it entirely and googled it for more details thinking I had to do calculus to figure it out.

I am only using the following zeovit products... Coral snow, Zeozym and Biomate... I wonder if it is a coincidence... The phosphate had only shot up recently when I started to use Zeozym... It is suppose to help break down protein as well as helping to increase build up of bacteria. I had recently used chemi clean thinking that I had cyano and probably reduced the good bacteria in the tank... so I started to use Zeozym, MB7 and Biomate together. I did another test with the Hanna today and it dropped to .21... Making morevRO water right now so I can do another water change tonight... All the fish are well, the tangs are picking at the algae off the rocks and all the corals are seemed to be content...
Ca is at 460; mg:1300 (working to bring this up to (1400); Alk: 8;sg: 1.026; no3: 2(low range).
Going to try and get some phosphate remover while doing more water changes as I have stopped running GFO when switched over to biopellets... Currently also dosing vinegar... Guess I had better pick some GFO too... Lucky I am on holiday right now...:neutral:

Any suggestions appreciated.

Brad, thanks for the support working on it right now... Started to do 20% water changes last week... On my second week s**t happens... :sad:

Those parameters are not bad at all. As far as the Mg goes I'm not sure I'd even bother raising it, 1300 is already not bad.

Pretty much anything we add to the tank is going to have some effect on phosphate (it's in everything or so it seems, anyhow). I found that the biopellets also don't do a lot for me for PO4 reduction, although having said that, I think I read that they can only reduce PO4 alongside NO3. NO3 becomes the limiting factor, ie., once it's down to zero or near zero then the pellets can't reduce the PO4 any further than wherever they are at. So getting some GFO might not be a bad idea going forward.

Although if you're doing vodka isn't that supposed to take care of PO4 as well as NO3? I'm not really sure about that.

If you ran Chemiclean recently to take care of cyano, you might need to let that run its course before things completely settle out. I find it takes at least a week plus a water change or two plus new carbon to get a tank to settle back in after doing a cyano treatment.

Quick refresher for those of us who are rusty:

http://vimeo.com/13497928

I did have the mg at the high 1400 before but lately the tank demanded more and when it slipped down to 1250 did I started to raise the daily dosage. Could it be the drop in the mg creating the imbalance cause the red turf?

I used to dose VSV before running biopellets but I am only dosing vinegar along with the pellets. The no3 isn't too bad... Using the low range testing the no3 is at .02 (or so based on the colour chart). Not certain either if this had an effect on the po4...

I did the chemiclean back in early November so I am assuming that it may not be that. But I then jumped right into Zeozym two weeks later...

Guess I'll just work on the water change and see if the numbers will continue to drop or not...

I've something along the lines that higher Mg can impede the growth of certain algaes like Bryopsis, but I was under the impression that Mg had to be pretty low, like maybe <1000 or something. Natural seawater is supposedly somewhere in the 1250 ballpark so I think 1300 is fine. I tend to target my tank to have Mg around 1450 but I do this for 2 reasons unrelated to algae - 1) I can't definitely explain how or why, but my anemones just look better and more inflated and so on when Mg is at 1400 then when it is at, say, 1100 or 1200. In fact, if I notice my anemones looking less inflated I immediately check Mg and so far 100% of the times this has happened I've found Mg to be low (this was before I would adjust my water change water to have higher Mg, this way when I do a waterchange it bumps Mg back up and I never need to dose the tank itself anymore). 2) Since Mg will deplete over time at a rate proportional to Ca and Alk, having it higher than needed allows for it to deplete without it getting too low in between waterchanges. It seems things are more tolerant of Mg being slightly too high than slightly too low (if that makes any sense).

Anyhow long story short, at 1300 I wouldn't sweat the Mg value but just maybe add a little to your water change water so it goes up to say 1400 after that and you should be set.

Otherwise, stay the course, sounds like you have a good plan for things to settle out. Good luck!

Thats the ticket. You might have to deal with the extra iron in your tank wayne and run gfo intermittently.

Yep, I may just have too. After reading more on Zeozym I am thinking that it could be breaking down the proteins in the rocks thus resulting in this sudden po4 spike. Just did another 20 gallon water change. Tested the water before the change... Still at .21. Will be testing the water tomorrow and hope that it has dropped... Will be preparing another batch of water in the morning. So far no casualties ( knock on wood )...

Does running GFO tend to increase the iron readings in the tank? I know you can get test kits for iron but I've never tried one.

This morning's po4 reading was .25... It went up. After a strong cup of coffee I traced back to everything that i did in the last four weeks, including the water changes... could it be a defective Hanna or the RO unit? I don't recall checking the RO water lately... I had just made a fresh batch this morning... The TDS read 016. Tested the tap water... .019... Then it hit me... I forgot to change the RO units membrane! To be certain I took it to a LFS and had the tap water and the tank water tested and it came up with very similar results. The last four week of water changes was all for nothing. I could have prevented the build up of po4 had I used the TDS meter.
Will be making a large batch of RODI water tonight ( with a new membrane).. . The lesson learned is to not assume the water is po4 free even though the last batch was. I will put off in using GFO at this time and try reducing the po4 naturally. Will be testing the po4 regularly for now.

Have you tested the tap water for PO4 or just used the TDS?

I'd do a Hanna PO4 test on the tap water.

Have you ever flushed the RO membrane? I'd try flushing the RO membrane before replacing it.

I thought I read somewhere that the Hanna checkers for phosphate don't give correct readings on freshwater. Having said that I can't seem to find the link where I read that, so I'm not 100% sure. I guess it can't hurt to have a new RO membrane regardless..

Yes, I did... First test was a triple zero, second test was .028 and third test was .017... That was what prompt me to question the Hanna po4 tester.
The old membrane was due for a change. I had forgotten to do so in the summer.
I don't know much about that but after testing it with the Hanna you may be right about that. Have a new one, in fact, I upgraded to the deluxe puratek... No more guessing and forgetting... Guess I'll be keeping the old one ( which is like new) for drinking only.
Making new water right now. TDS: 000.:biggrin:

Thanks Wayne. There are quite a few familiar looking pieces in that last round of pictures. :wink:

Phosphate issue update: Did a 40 gallon water change yesterday and the po4 level dropped from .25 to .19. Just completed another water change today... 30 gallons... Making another batch of water tonight and will do another test tomorrow. Traded with kevink today for gfo and a salifert po4 test kit for frags . May try some GFO if the water changes are not working.

Wayne, if you do go the GFO route, keep in mind that a rapid removal of PO4 can upset your SPS, so do it gradually over a couple/few months
Ie; first month 10ml/10g, second month 15-20ml/10g, then you can move onto 25ml/10g from there
FWIW - I use 250ml each 4 weeks on my 110g system

Greg, thanks for the advice. I heard that too and hop that I won't have to use it but if so will surely be adding ever so gradually.

Tested the water this morning... PO4 is .09. :biggrin:

Will do another water change over the weekend...

Minor update...
PO4 has dropped to .06 prior to another water change. One more water change should bring the PO4 down to undetectable or at least close to that... :biggrin:

Purchased a rabbit fish to work on the red turf (hope it likes red turf) and any other undesired algae. This rabbit fish has been at Blue World for a few months and eating well. I did not quarantine this fish as I would normally would as I would and based on its reputation being a very hardy fish ( and that I wanted it to work on the algae) I have taken the chance on it. :neutral:
The rabbit fish seems to be doing very well and has already been picking on the algae off the rocks. It seems that the sailfin tang does not like the rabbit fish and finds it intrusive to its feeding grounds... And I have noticed that the other tangs are also more attentive to feeding on the algae as well. From my observation this morning, he is not taken any interest on any corals but I will continue observing it for the time being.

Have also picked up five more sps frags... Trying to find or make room... (LOL)
I have also picked up two photosynthetic ( purplish) gorgonians ... I have really taken a liking on gorgonians so I hope they will be happy in the tank.

Hope to add some picks of the rabbit fish and gorgonians later tonight.

Just an update on the PO4... I've now completed 170 gallons of water change over the last two weeks and the PO4 is now down to .03. The colours on the corals are coming back and overall all, lost only two frags ( thank goodness). I have also started using GFO this weeek to help bringing it down to 0, however this is only going to be temporary.

Moving forward, I will be doing even more water changes on a regular basis (30 gallons every 10 days) as I am seeing a very positive affect on the corals (sps).

As for the red turf algae it looks like I am winning the battle with improved water conditions, the extra mexican turbo snails and my new two bar rabbit fish.

I have also finally set up the Neptune Apex Controller yesterday! Should have done this six months ago...:redface:

Lastly, just waiting for the new ... Hope they will be here soon... :biggrin:

Sweet buddy! Finally got the apex done eh. It's about time. :mrgreen: I can't wait till your new lights get here...

Unboxing the GHL Mitras
 

Recieved the two Mitras last night and had a chance to peak at one of them... iphone pics...:biggrin:
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/920A1069.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/F8FC073D.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/A05BE103.jpg

Couldnt wait so I hooked one up to see how the Mitras compared to the Radion G1 with TIR lens...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/57397FF0.jpg


Placed one between two other Radions (turned off). Please note that the Mitras is above the Radions and the light spread is somewhat limited. I have it set close to the max...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...14F521FF-1.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...84A2F434-2.jpg

The first thing I had noticed are the colours. IMHO, the lights from the Mitras are the closest resembling T5s. The colours are better spread then the Radions and even the pics turn out sharper and colours being more vibrant (even with a iphone).