GQLMAO's Small Peninsula Tank

[gqlmao]

Just a small update:


I have been noticing a decline in my montipora and birdsnest for some reason. After reading online I had a hunch it was a potassium deficiency. My current vodka dosing is .5ml per day split into two doses, 3 hours prior to feeding and right after feeding. I suspect the additional carbon source is generating more bacteria, therefore slowly up taking the potassium. I guess over the course of 3 months it took its toll and by using a salt low in potassium and I started noticing these affects more and more after 4-5x 10 percent water changes. I decided to give potassium a shot, after dosing and switching to a salt with higher trace elements, the colors have come back significantly.


I have noticed that the majority of my SPS were darkening to the point where it was brown... I have stopped using KZ vitalizer, pohl's xtra, SPS amino acids, LPS amino acids and sponge power all together. The only thing I use is coral snow to allow for water clarity and to possibly bond to small organic waste that the skimmer otherwise isn't able to pull out. I have stopped the KZ for approx. 4 days and the results are considerably better, the dark tissue began to lighten and I can start to see the actually colors again. I suspect that there wasn't any need of the AAs at this time in my tank, I do feed heavily once a day. Once the corals lighten up more, I will begin dosing KZ in small moderate amounts to see if I can tweak everything to how I wanted.


I am able to ramp my lights up to around 5 hours for the 6 bulb channel and 9 hours for the 2 bulb channel at 100 percent, my SPS seem to be getting really use to it and I am seeing significant color changes on the blues, and purples,. Greens are good. Reds and pinks will need more work... I suspect it was too much KZ giving my corals unneeded nutrients causing excessive amounts of zooxanthellae to hide the actual colors. I should see better results in a couple weeks time!


Just wanted to post some tank details and current situation since I have noticed that this thread was more of a photo dump. If you have any suggestions feel free to chime in.

[kien]

That sounds reasonable and i would agree with your assessment. Sounds like you've got it all under control. Just remember, brown doesn't mean dead, so there's hope. Keep on reefin' on :-)

[gqlmao]

Thanks Kien!

Well, since I moved everything to my old little cube, things are looking better. I would say certain zoas will need atleast a week or two before they get back to their original size and color. Overall I am happy that I did it,

On to some pictures, the tank is lit by only Royal Blue Leds. Color balanced is pretty much maxed out with the camera and editor, any more yellow would create excessive noise.

Green Ric:


Blue Ric:


Multi Color Ric:


Bella Blue:


Rastas:


Fruit Loops:


La Lakers:


Orange Oxides: