Maroon Lagoon V2.0

[Gig 'em]

Performed a water change tonight to bring my Alk, Ca, and Mg up after my recent calcium reactor issue when the CO2 ran dry for a week while I was out of town. Took some pictures of some nice looking corals with the iPhone while the water level was lower.

[Ucantwin]

Which iPhone?

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Which iPhone?

The iPhone 6s

[Ucantwin]

Same phone I have but your pictures look much clearer.

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Same phone I have but your pictures look much clearer.

Thanks, when the iPhone makes the pictures look too blue, I'll use an orange gel filter to help balance it. The filter brings out the closest to true colors as I can get with the iPhone

[Gig 'em]

Needed to take a study break and the actinics were one so I grabbed some shots with the iPhone

My frag farm of goodies. Pink Floyd, Vivid Confetti, GE's the Upside Down, and RCA Baton Rouge.


My UC Bali Shortcake


My sunset Mille




The Cornbred rising Phoenix is starting to look good too

[Ucantwin]

Where do you get your fish eggs?

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Where do you get your fish eggs?

An Asian grocery market in town. It's bright orange sushi roe, just have to soak and rinse it a couple days to get the orange dye out.

[reefmutt]

I love that Bali shortcake. That’s a coral I’ve never kept... after seeing your colony, I’m gonna have to find one.
Looking good!

[Ucantwin]

Sorry if I'm wrong but I thought I read somewhere that you tried the product Vibrant. How did it work for you? Any negatives?

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Sorry if I'm wrong but I thought I read somewhere that you tried the product Vibrant. How did it work for you? Any negatives?

I did. If I remember correctly it took a while to take affect and it didn't knock out all the types of algae in my tank. I do believe it helped get rid of the red slime algae that was on my sand for a long time. It hasn't returned since, but now I have ulva growing in my tank in high flow areas.

[Ucantwin]

I started dosing some amino acids in my tank and I started to get some dino (confirmed with microscope). I am wanting to try vibrant before it gets out of control. I had no algae or anything before this dino started to show. I purchased the 8 oz bottle and if I dose once a week I will have a two month supply. I hope it takes care of it.

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

I started dosing some amino acids in my tank and I started to get some dino (confirmed with microscope). I am wanting to try vibrant before it gets out of control. I had no algae or anything before this dino started to show. I purchased the 8 oz bottle and if I dose once a week I will have a two month supply. I hope it takes care of it.

I think mine was red spirulina, but I never tested that for sure, I just know chemiclean never had any affect on it whereas Vibrant did. Best of luck getting rid of it! Such an annoying nuisance

[Gig 'em]

I know chromis aren't considered the most fancy fish, but man I sure love these little guys!

[Gig 'em]

This thing is going to need a bigger tank soon!!


UC Bali Shortcake is looking good


Vivids Confetti is starting to take off

[DesertReefT4r]

So awesome. I love your tank. Coral selection is great. All very colorful.

[Ucantwin]

Corals are looking great!

[Gig 'em]

Thanks! The tank hit a snag recently and coral tips were burning and showing filaments. Alk has been stable around 7 for a couple weeks now and I couldn't figure out what else could be causing this. PO4 has been at 0.05-0.06 lately so I added some more GFO, which hasn't reduced PO4 yet. I also noticed that my RO filters have reached 6 months old and the DI resin was starting to change colors in some areas. I swapped out all my RO prefilters and DI resin and have performed several water changes now. I'm pretty sure there's something in my public water here that makes its way through older carbon blocks and really bothers acros. Seems like this happens every time my filters reach that 6 month mark, so I'm pretty convinced now that there's a strong correlation between coral health and RO filter age. Things seem to be getting better now and tips are starting to regrow flesh. Hopefully I'll keep more on top of my filters in the future and change them at 5 months instead of waiting until corals are unhappy!

[Gig 'em]

What to do when your 2 year old table of red planet shears off?

[Gig 'em]

I just received my Triton test results back for the year. I timed the test so that my water sample was collected right when corals were ticked by something (what I hypothesize as something making its way through old RO prefilters and old DI resin). So whatever it is isn't tested for by Triton, because for the most part everything looks normal...

[watchguy123]

Chloramine isn’t tested by triton and lots of municipalities have added it to the water supply. It’s possible you may wish to add an additional chloramine specific filter to your ro/di set up. Although nutrient, lighting and alkalinity levels can all play a role in burnt tips, chlorine and/or chloramine are sometimes the culprit. I also change my pre-filters every three months in an abundance of caution. You can test your waste ro/di water with chlorine/chloramine specific tests to see if your those filters need replacement

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by watchguy123

Chloramine isn’t tested by triton and lots of municipalities have added it to the water supply. It’s possible you may wish to add an additional chloramine specific filter to your ro/di set up. Although nutrient, lighting and alkalinity levels can all play a role in burnt tips, chlorine and/or chloramine are sometimes the culprit. I also change my pre-filters every three months in an abundance of caution. You can test your waste ro/di water with chlorine/chloramine specific tests to see if your those filters need replacement

Yeah, I'm pretty certain it's something like chloramines getting through my filters when they get older. I have the little strips from BRS, but they aren't the best quantifier IMO. Once chloramines make it through, I can easily tell by the reactions from my acros. I have added two extra catalytic carbon canisters in my setup and will be changing pre filters before they reach 6 months in age. Changing them every 3 months is very protective! But I guess it depends on how much water you filter each month, so I can see that on larger systems. I just wanted to demonstrate to some that all the major components can be in the proper range, but you can still experience issues with your SPS. And unfortunately TRITON tests won't identify some of those components, like chloramines. I've considered sending RO water in to a professional lab to be analyzed, but I would rather spend that money replacing pre filters more rapidly than identifying what is penetrating through my RO/DI.

[Gig 'em]

Snapped some photos with the iPhone macro lens. Happy Friday!

[tripdad]

Wow!You have some really nice corals, and healthy too. Do you do anything special to keep your reds so pure?

[Gig 'em]

Originally Posted by tripdad

Wow!You have some really nice corals, and healthy too. Do you do anything special to keep your reds so pure?

Thank you! No I don't really add anything purposefully for the reds, I just try to keep my nutrients above 0 and all the other tank conditions stable.