40 breeder reef

[xlzerolx]

Well I decided to move my light fixture 2-3inches lower than it was and had it there for the past 2 weeks

DEATH



DECAY
So anyway... after seeing this the light is now 12 inches above the water line.


ENCRUSTING
This is the tri-colour i had in my 10 gallon that started dying off i fragged the remaining tips and glued them to the highest platform. the bases have encrusted which was quite a surprise to me.



Some of the monti caps continue to encrust.. Here's one of them:


GROWTH



FTS


So this is approximately a 1 month update. I have been dosing vodka. (0.5 ml) every day, and one capful of MB7 every week. The red slime algae has completely dissappeared. I can only attribute that to the MB7. It just dissappeared on the third day of using it. I didin't have a lot but it was forming long strands and was getting quite annoying to look at.
The purple polyped monti and green slimer were doing great until about a week ago. I'm pretty sure it was because i moved the light a few inches lower . The greem monti cap on the top has shown no signs of colouring up either. So now the light is now 12 inches above the surface and hoping that the slimer will bounce back.
I was struggling to keep my calcium levels up. It's been at 380 since I setup the tank. Which led me to believe i was low on magnesium. I have been using Instant ocean salt (not reef crystals.)... and it has to be the crappiest salt out there to use for a reef. Every time I mixed it I'd get brown hard residue and stuff on the side of my bucket that looked and felt like hard brown algae. I just got fed up of this a week ago and ordered a magnesium test kit and seachem reef salt which was delivered today. I tested my water for mag and it was at 1200. This was also after I dosed epsom salts do bring mag levels up. I didn't measure what it was before i just dosed according to what other people were saying their mag readings were at by looking at various forum threads of people complaining about instant ocean salt. I dosed approximately enough to bring it up by 300 ppm. The seachem is now mixing in a bucket and the next water change will be done using the new salt. Hopefully I will have my parameters up to good levels by the end of the month.

[xlzerolx]

So I ended up using all six bulbs in the ATI again and dropping the fixture about 6 inches from the surface ofthe water. I think the result is quite good so far. I was afraid of bleaching the corals, but moving the fixture lower seems to have improved things. I did some moving of stuff around in the tank. Stopped dosing calcium for now.
Added a sixline wrasse a 3 weeks ago (?) and a elegance (was an impulse buy) and it was in bad shape when i bought it, let's see how it does in the tank. THe birds nest has really pinked up

Anyway here are some shots