Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[Myka]

I stopped Sponge Power, but upped the frequency of dosing Coral Snow. I was only dosing Coral Snow maybe once a month on average, and right now I'm dosing it every 3 or so days to help with this bacteria/algae since it seems to be making a significant difference. The effect of the Coral Snow dosing showed up before I stopped the Sponge Power, but maybe the stopping of the Sponge Power has helped as well. I'm not totally sure at this point. Once it's all cleared up I'll start the Sponge Power dosing again and see if it comes back.

[ALBERTA REEF]

Your tank looks great.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ALBERTA REEF

Your tank looks great.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it.


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My tank is suffering zero nutrients again...

SG 35 ppt (calibrated with 35 ppt solution)
Cal 405 ppm (new Salifert kit), 390 ppm (end of an Elos kit) <--- this is usually 400-410 ppm
Alk 6.8 dKH (new Hanna reagent), 6.85 (new Salifert kit) <--- this is usually 7.0-7.2 dKH
Mg 1240 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
NO3 0 ppm (Salifert), 0 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
PO4 0 ppb (Hanna)

Dosing kalk, and needs a bump up I see.

A few weeks ago I was getting a whiff of nutrients and the tank was looking better. Now the nutrients are gone, and everything is uber pale again. I do have some fluffy brown algae growth everywhere that I'm not sure what it is. It's particularly growing on the powerheads and back glass. It starts by looking like diatoms, but then gets fluffy if I don't scrape it off. It comes off super easy like diatoms. I added some more clean up crew to try to help: 6 Ring Cowries (2 weeks ago), 3 small Turbos, Peppermint Shrimp (had a couple tiny Aiptasia and he got em), 1 small female Emerald Crab (bubble algae is getting out of hand too).

Another thing that I hesitate to mention is pH. Ever since day one with this tank, I haven't a reading over pH 7.7. I am using a calibrated handheld meter. It's probably a decade old, maybe more. Every time I calibrate it I read the solutions with the meter first and they always read 7.0 and 10.0. Then I calibrate and they again read the solutions at 7.0 and 10.0. Today pH just before the white light cycle is 7.6. I've tried messing around with opening windows, and that doesn't help. I want to do with pH test with outside air, but it's been really cold here (-30C), so the water will freeze before the 1 hour aeration is done. Today it's only (-6C) so I'll see what I can do to get it done today. I'll use a big jug of water and put it in a cooler with a heat pack maybe.

The skimmer has been driving me nuts overflowing lately, so I put a couple sheets of eggcrate under it to prop it up a bit. It was in 8 5/8" of water, and now it's in 7 7/8" water.

I cleaned the back glass and powerheads 2 weeks ago, and this is what they look like now:



Here are some of the worst affected pale corals:











Here's that nice wild Aussie Acro, and it's paled as well. It has a little nubbin growing where I took a frag off and the colors are looking quite nice, though still pale. Right now the tips of the corallites are looking neon yellow in person.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Myka

I don't have much exciting to report. I bought a browned out maricultured A. plana yesterday. Not much for PE yet - it did not enjoy the Bayer dip.

So I was talking to the LFS owner and he said the "plana" came is as a desalwii. It looks too bush-type to be desalwii to me, but I sure am hoping! That's the coral I miss the most from my old SPS tank. To me, plana and desalwii are impossible to distinguish until you have a good growth pattern established - if it tables it's desalwii, and if it's a bush it's plana.

Here it is today, starting to show a bit of color, but not much.



In comparison, here's a known plana frag that I ordered (it arrived brown as a turd). With close pics like these though, it does appear that the corallites are shaped differently. Hmm...


Here's that maricultured mille (or prostrata?) that's an interesting color. I still can't quite get the burnt orange color of the tips on the camera. It's certainly different than a typical Sunset Mille.
Polyps out:


Polyps in:



A new smooth skin I bought yesterday that came in as caroliniana. I could believe that, but maybe multiacuta? It was brighter when it first arrived at the LFS, but it's been there awhile. Can anyone spot Little Kenny's cousin Tiny Tim? He thinks he's tough enough to handle insecticide, but I told him only adults are allowed to choose to be exposed to that type of drug, and when he's 18 he can decide then. Hopefully Snoopy (the Yellow Coris H chrysus) will leave him alone, or he'll have worse problems than a close call with insecticide!

[Proteus]

Not sure about your ph meter but I have a old one I bought when I was studying botany. I found that if I tried to use it directly in dt that I would get low readings. But when I too water out of tank I would get higher readings.
I could only attribute it to the lights affecting the probe. Not sure if it's accurate but may be worth a shot with yours just to see

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Proteus

Not sure about your ph meter but I have a old one I bought when I was studying botany. I found that if I tried to use it directly in dt that I would get low readings. But when I too water out of tank I would get higher readings.
I could only attribute it to the lights affecting the probe. Not sure if it's accurate but may be worth a shot with yours just to see

Thanks for the idea, and actually I unconsciously did this yesterday. I removed a 2L jug of saltwater from the display and set the jug into a cooler. I tested pH at 7.8 in the tank, and also in the jug. Ironically that's the first time I've seen it hit 7.8. I aerated the jug outside for 3 hours, and then tested pH at 8.0. So there's definitely some CO2 in the house affecting the tank, and I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to do something about that or not. Running a line outside won't work since it gets so cold I think it will affect the tank too much. A CO2 scrubber is probably the only reasonable option, but then I'd have to monitor pH all the time and replace the media. So I'm not sure I like that idea either.

[SoloSK71]

Any updates?

Charles

[Myka]

Originally Posted by SoloSK71

Any updates?

Charles

Yeah! The corals have grown in the last year and they're not pale anymore!

[Rory]

Did you ever figure out a solution to the growth on the powerheads and glass? I've been dealing with the same stuff since forever!


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[Myka]

Originally Posted by Rory

Did you ever figure out a solution to the growth on the powerheads and glass? I've been dealing with the same stuff since forever!

It seemed to just cycle out on its own. A Blue Tuxedo Urchin liked to eat it, which helped as well.

I haven't taken pics of the corals in a few months, so I'll do a photo shoot today and post up some pics.