Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[Wally.B]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Hey Wally, thanks! It took me a bit to go back in my photos to find when I added the wave.. it was almost exactly 2 years ago. It's been through a lot.. a few setbacks, so not as much growth as it would have had in two years of perfect water..
Here..
Sept 2016 right below red wrasse.

January 2017 in left again.

Thanks for the Wave Sequence, it's growth and acceleration is amazing.

This Photo is great and shows the mix you have. And the various stages you have going in you tank.
I assume you introduced the SPS at different times, and some grow slower, while other Faster. Some could be colonies that survived from your previous tank.

Do you have a timeline of a Coral (Starting at Frag) that you would consider Medium Speed grower, and show what progress one should expect every 3 months or so.

That would help me set a degree expectation.
So 4 or more photo's over a period of a year of same coral.
I would greatly appreciated that, and it would help me with the Waiting Game.

[James404]

Amazing tank, great job!

[codydemmel4]

Hey Matt. I know you were struggling with high po4 and nitrates before but lowered them recently.

I just tested for the first time in a long time and my p04 is around 0.1 with hanna ulr and my nitrates are 64 and probably higher via the red sea kit.

How would you recommend slowly lowering these?

[reefmutt]

Hey guys, sorry for the late response, family stuff- my wife traveling and the holidays have sidetracked me a bit..

Originally Posted by biggles

Congratulations on the ROTM recognition Matt, very well deserved mate

Your pics are just mind blowing to me buddy, all the growing acros contrasting against each others crazy colors. The Fox Flame is awesome, never seen anything like that in my travels.
Wonderful to see your reef hitting it's stride after all your hard work getting it there mate.

I love this pic the most, just awesome mate

Hey Andrew, thanks! I’ll have to shoot some more fish pics with my zoom. It allows the fish to act normal because they done see me from across the room.
Yes, the tank has recently really hit a good patch. Not complaining!
Over the past month, I have had to double the kalkwasser dosing. My doser pushes - or was pushing 4ml/min for 14 hours/day - I have been raising the volume in response to higher and higher demand. I’m currently at 8.5ml/min and may have to raise it higher. Alk is just holding at 7. My ca reactor, I have set at a good level and don’t want to play with it much but I may have to increase co2 at some point.
Currently, I am adding a few heaping spoonfuls of kalk to my stirrer every weekend to keep it fresh and I’ll have to starte cleaning it out monthly...

Originally Posted by i2ik

Working on the tank a little bit everyday. Hopefully, it will be up and running in about a month Will probably keep much of my equipment but I was thinking going dosing pumps instead of a calcium reactor this time.

Sounds like Greg took his time and he is off a great start!

Hey Rich, yes Greg’s tank is going like gangbusters..and he definitely set it up right.
Don’t get rid of that ca reactor! Nothing wrong with two part, that’s for sure but just keep the reactor, just in case..
Good luck with the cleanup

Originally Posted by tripdad

Hey Matt, Any new pics of the Furiosa? I really like that one in your tank. All is looking spectacular by the way.

Hey Scott, furiosa was almost completely killed last October but I salvaged a few sections. I have a really nice frag growing out in the frag tank and the mother colony in my dt is doing fine but not well placed. It’s off to one side and I’m not crazy about it’s growth.. not sure what I’ll do but I am toying with the idea of removing the mother colony and adding the frag I have somewhere else in the reef.. I’ll try to get some shots of it up over the next week or so.

Originally Posted by Rakie

yeah the green is just coming back on the Fox Flame. That picture isn't old, but as of today it's completely encrusted. It's starting to pickup steam. And of course, congrats on your ROTM win!

Thanks very much Tim! I find the Fox Flame is a pretty good grower in my tank, hopefully the same for you!

Originally Posted by Wally.B

Thanks for the Wave Sequence, it's growth and acceleration is amazing.

This Photo is great and shows the mix you have. And the various stages you have going in you tank.
I assume you introduced the SPS at different times, and some grow slower, while other Faster. Some could be colonies that survived from your previous tank.

Do you have a timeline of a Coral (Starting at Frag) that you would consider Medium Speed grower, and show what progress one should expect every 3 months or so.

That would help me set a degree expectation.
So 4 or more photo's over a period of a year of same coral.
I would greatly appreciated that, and it would help me with the Waiting Game.

Hey Wally, thanks. I have 1 inch frags that after 2 years are still one inch and then in contrast, I have others like furiosa or the wave that grew like weeds. But depending on when I added them or what the conditions are/were in the tank, the Corals have/will grow differently.
I don’t think I could give you any type of timeline as so many factors play a role in coral growth. Type and intensity of light to flow to nutrient and mineral levels will change things.. not to mention pests or picking fish.. sorry, I really think it’s impossible to give any type of timeline..

Originally Posted by James404

Amazing tank, great job!

Hey James, thanks!

Originally Posted by codydemmel4

Hey Matt. I know you were struggling with high po4 and nitrates before but lowered them recently.

I just tested for the first time in a long time and my p04 is around 0.1 with hanna ulr and my nitrates are 64 and probably higher via the red sea kit.

How would you recommend slowly lowering these?

Hey Cody, I have tried both carbon dosing and older methods like dsbs and macro algea.
I have always been a bigger fan of the more traditional methods but I have also seen great results with carbon, but, generally, for my system in particular, carbon was never very effective.
Over the last several months, my cheato haze done an amazing job on nitrates and more recently, now that n has almost gone to 0, I have been adding back some n in hopes that the cheato will pull a little more p. As of last week, my p got below .1 for the first time in a very long time. We will see if it continues..
I’ll post a full cheato update this weekend I hope.
I believe that part of what is keeping the cheato so happy is the prodibio Bioptim because of its iron, potassium, zinc, manganese etc..
carbon dosing will rev up all sorts of bacteria in a system- good and bad- most of the time the benefits outweigh the risks as long as it isn’t over done.. but I think I’m still a bigger fan of macro algae.
The new(ish) products by Fauna Marin and Tropic Marin are also interesting. TM’s Reef actif or FM’s reef Vitality and coral balance may help a lot but not sure they could do the whole job..
If you are able to set up a cheato fuge, it can be extremely effective. If you can’t, carbon dosing - starting very slowly- will also help, no question.
I should add that for reasons I can’t explain, I feel that the way cheato pulls down nutrients is less stressful to Corals than how carbon/bacteria does it..

[reefmutt]

Hey guys, time for an update and a few pics..
So as mentioned above, my cheato fuge did such a good job on nutrient reduction, it brought n almost to zero with p still slightly above.1 I have been dosing kno3 and cano3 to bring it up a bit and hoping the cheato would continue to pull down p.
It was working up until 10’days ago when i dosed fluconazole.
I was dosing enough no3 to get n back up to around .5 and p had gotten down to about .08.
But a week after dosing fluconazole and watching the bryopsis wither and disappear, I had a little nutrient spike.
This could have had a bit to do with adding one new evansi anthias- I was feeding a bit more but not tons more.
One week after dosing fluconazole,n was up to 2 and p .18.
I stopped adding extra no3 and put a small amount of gfo in the system. 3 days later n is closer to 1 and p is around .13 so, in general not a huge spike but a noticeable one..
I assume the system will adjust over the next week or two and get back into the rhythm it was in.
It is sooooo nice to not have bryopsis!!.. I won’t do a wc for another week or two nor add carbon.
Alas, I have had some cyano appear in my frag tank, now.. grr.. but it isn’t a plague so I will leave it a while and watch before taking action.. once the system sorts itself out, it may go away on its own. I had begun adding some aminos when n dropped to 0 sommaybe that started the cyano.. I have since stopped aminos as well..
I’ve had a few sleeping corals wake up lately but still have a bunch of sleepers. Cal and alk demand really went up in the past 6 weeks. I have more than doubled my kalk dosing and turned up my co2 a touch. Growth is pretty good lately..
And the cheato continues to grow like an animal possessed. It’s pretty amazing.
Anybody local need cheato? I have buckets of it. I wonder if it has nutritional value.. maybe I should try eating it as a salad... maybe not..
I have been kind of busy lately and very unsatisfied with 95% of my photos of late and haven’t really had time to apply myself properly.
I got up on the ladder today and will probably have more time this long weekend.
I did get a few super clean and nice shots today. But only macros. I’ll have to step back and take some wider shots..
Here are some macros.
This is Robinhood. A growth tip that is moving fast.

Here’s the wave and habanero from side:

And exact same sections from top.

Good old pink matrix growing like stink:

This is a cool shot of a coral from Fragbox he was calling ‘frozen’ it’s body was all white when I bought it. With my phone where it is I was expecting it to colour up and it has. Thebtip still looks similar to how it all looked when I bought it. I’m reasonably sure this is a myagi tort. Really nice and clear this one..

Here is another shot that just came out really crisp.
It’s a pink matrix with a Red Bull or diablo growing close to it.. crazy colour going on here..

And here’s pink tips meeting jf Flame head on..

Suharsenoi

Oh! And a rare fishy shot..

So thats all I got for now... I’ll try to do more this long weekend..

[tenurepro]

Wow! Great Build, love the shots! Are you in Toronto? (Saw miracles on the first thread) I am also sure that you talk about your lighting setup somewhere here but I didn't want to go through the 270 pages? Looks like t5, correct? Thanks!


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[reefmutt]

Hey tenurepro, thanks!
I’m in Montreal.
I use a combination of 6x t5, 3x 150w mh (ushio Blue) and 4x AI Prime LED.

[DiscusHeckel]

Your Acroporids seem to be at their peak condition Matt. I bet your chaeto’s growth will accelerate further as there is no other micro algae competitor left in your tank.

(Re)appearance of cyano did not surprise me as the nitrate-phosphate balance in your tank has changed after the demise of bryopsis. I would prefer cyano to bryopsis any day.

[reefmutt]

Thanks Bulent, I added an extra hour to the cheato photoperiod to give it more time at taking up the slack. I may have to remove a rock or two from the cheato area to give it more space to grow. It is extremely dense and fast growing right now.
The cyano appeared just before I started fluconazole- shortly after beginning aminos, but since the fluconazole, it has spread..
Once I am able to do a water change, I’ll do a cleanup of the frag system and try to remove as much of it, manually, as possible.
I changed out some old bulbs in the frag tank, replaced my RO prefilters and resin and stopped aminos- hopefully this will help as well..
We shall see.
i agree 100% I would prefer cyano too!

[FloformAustria]

Man matt! Really love those new pictures

So did you win against the bryopsis?

Cheers

[mhucasey]

That Robinhood is spectacular! So excited to hear that the chaeto is working well- it seems that the key is getting the fudge a real and intense light- but the old school method is really effective. I have had similar success with chaeto and it's just so easy. Whe I can I will upgrade my fudge lights and expect to see even better growth.

[watchguy123]

Cyano appearance is always exasperating. There seems to be a correlation with amino acid supplementation and cyano outbreak. I don't know if that is universal problem or not.

I have wondered about redfield ratio and how it fits in to our tanks. It seems that nitrates to phosphate ratio in the tank needs to be at a minimum of around 6:1--that's not a number that I have seen written or specifically spoken about, rather it's my extrapolation when I follow all these various threads. The ratio can probably go up to at least a couple hundred or more to one though. It seems to be pretty forgiving anywhere in between.. When nitrate to phosphate ratio gets too low, cyano tends to flourish.

Oh, and I continue to marvel at the beauty of your tank

[Usernam Invalid]

That pink matrix is awesome really regretting selling mine before letting it grow out.

[Wally.B]

I'll agree on the PINK Matrix. Looks awesome.
You just inspired me to get another Frag of one since I lost a couple during my recent setback.

Happy Thanksgiving Matt.
Looking forward to more Stunning Photo's of Stunning SPS.

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by FloformAustria

Man matt! Really love those new pictures

So did you win against the bryopsis?

Cheers

Hey Flo, so far yes. It is completely gone- 10 days after treatment. But apparently you have to wait a good 3 weeks before doing a wc or adding carbon.. so, so far, so good.
Thanks! I’ll try to take some more tomorrow..

Originally Posted by mhucasey

That Robinhood is spectacular! So excited to hear that the chaeto is working well- it seems that the key is getting the fudge a real and intense light- but the old school method is really effective. I have had similar success with chaeto and it's just so easy. Whe I can I will upgrade my fudge lights and expect to see even better growth.

Hey Matt, thanks! The turbo growth is pretty cool. I’ll get a shot of the whole frag. I have another piece of it lower down in the tank that came in half alive. I cut away the dead sections and glued it and now it has encrusted. I’ll take a pick of it as well..
My experience with cheato is that when it likes the water it’s growing in, it’ll grow like crazy, regardless of lighting. I’ve used mh and had it wither away, I’ve used cfls, t5, leds.. whatever it’s under it has both grown well and died off at different stages.
It seems to have specific needs like k z mn fe i as well as n and p.. since I’ve been dosing these things, the cheato is absolutely on steroids.
Clearly good strong light is better than poor dim light but I’m not convinced that these new grow lights are essential to great growth.
Here’s a full shot of robin hood- along with a mediocre pickachu and pink Cadillac.

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Here’s a full shot of robin hood- along with a mediocre pickachu and pink Cadillac.

Interesting; i also have a small frag of pink Cadillac, purchased from an excellent reefer in Toronto. I paid a LOT for it. But so far, very disappointed by the color. Mine looks a bit like yours, but It certainly looks no where like the pics here
https://************.com/2016/07/26/...ra-divaricata/

Just wondering if you've ever actually seen a pink Cadillac colony in person that looks like the one pictured on ************ or the rr Facebook page?

Ps... like is for reef builders dot com
Pss here is what my frag looks like. Nice but not like the 'picture'


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[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by watchguy123

Cyano appearance is always exasperating. There seems to be a correlation with amino acid supplementation and cyano outbreak. I don't know if that is universal problem or not.

I have wondered about redfield ratio and how it fits in to our tanks. It seems that nitrates to phosphate ratio in the tank needs to be at a minimum of around 6:1--that's not a number that I have seen written or specifically spoken about, rather it's my extrapolation when I follow all these various threads. The ratio can probably go up to at least a couple hundred or more to one though. It seems to be pretty forgiving anywhere in between.. When nitrate to phosphate ratio gets too low, cyano tends to flourish.

Oh, and I continue to marvel at the beauty of your tank

Thank Mark, when my nitrates got really low, I started adding nitrate and then shorty after I began adding aminos.. I gues either one or neither could have been the cause of the reappearance of the cyano.. tough to say..
I’l stop both n and amino additions for now and see..
BigE has often commented on an ideal ratio of 100/1 (with a fairly wide range of error) for general coral happiness and one would hope general cyano unhappiness. Red field’s is another consideration but there is lots of debate about its relevance to our systems.. all things to keep in mind, for sure.
I’ll watxh the cyano for now, it’s not too bad. I could probably use better flow in my frag tank.. once my fluconazole treatment is done, I’ll clean out the frag tank and see if it returns.
If it does, I’ll consider dosing with one of the red slime removing products. They are quite harmless, in my experience.

Originally Posted by Usernam Invalid

That pink matrix is awesome really regretting selling mine before letting it grow out.

Thanks, the matrix family of corals- tenuis I guess but not sure about that- all seem to need some time and size to really show what they can do..
Here’s a shot of one of my colonies from yesterday.

Here’s another matrix colony that I’ve had for years and only recently desired to blast off. Not as nice as thenpink matrix but we’ll see where it goes..
It’s rr lady in pink

Originally Posted by Wally.B

I'll agree on the PINK Matrix. Looks awesome.
You just inspired me to get another Frag of one since I lost a couple during my recent setback.
Happy Thanksgiving Matt.
Looking forward to more Stunning Photo's of Stunning SPS.

Hey Wally, thanks! Same to you! Rainy indoor thanksgiving day for us- I assume Toronto is the same.. good day for tank stuff..
Here’s a series of shots of a blue coral that has really begun to grow for me, along with my happy suharsonoi and a couple others in the periphery..
Blue coral

Blue and su

Just su!

A couple other angles..

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by tenurepro

Interesting; i also have a small frag of pink Cadillac, purchased from an excellent reefer in Toronto. I paid a LOT for it. But so far, very disappointed by the color. Mine looks a bit like yours, but It certainly looks no where like the pics here
https://************.com/2016/07/26/...ra-divaricata/

Just wondering if you've ever actually seen a pink Cadillac colony in person that looks like the one pictured on ************ or the rr Facebook page?

Ps... like is for reef builders dot com
Pss here is what my frag looks like. Nice but not like the 'picture'


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Your looks great. Nice pe.. when I got my frag- which my come from the same source as you, I broke it off and glued the pice into my tank. The plug remains in my frag tank. It has fantastic dark purple polyps and grows really well. Way better than the piece in my display.
I might try glue it in down low in the tank or something.
It is certainly the Corals that around out for me as the biggest bonehead purchase I’ve ever made..
I’ve nevwr really seen a big mother colony, nor one that looks particularly good.. oh well.. I’ll leave it alone and see what it does.

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Your looks great. Nice pe.. when I got my frag- which my come from the same source as you, I broke it off and glued the pice into my tank. The plug remains in my frag tank. It has fantastic dark purple polyps and grows really well. Way better than the piece in my display.
I might try glue it in down low in the tank or something.
It is certainly the Corals that around out for me as the biggest bonehead purchase I’ve ever made..
I’ve nevwr really seen a big mother colony, nor one that looks particularly good.. oh well.. I’ll leave it alone and see what it does.

thanks for the input; i am also curious to see what it does in lower light...

[reefmutt]

So here a couple fts.

The left side is looking better these days as I’ve done less messing around with it..

And I just liked this angle even though it isn’t the best shot..

Here are a few random shots..
Rr red diablo and an Aussie piece that was pale green and blue tipped when I got it.. now it’s just green it may come out one day..

Here’s su with an op I glued at the bottom of my tank along with a mystery coral that really likes being down low..

Here’s the most recent macro of the red coral and su growing into each other..

My ice fire..

Bonsai with a mystery acro that I really like the shades of and a rr fruity pebbles down at the bottom left that has recently begun to sprout a new tip - after about a year’s dormancy. Bottom right is a pink Cadillac wannabe..

Finally, another bonsai colony on the bottom of the tank. Also starting to grow out well..

Ok! Those are all my shots for now..
Haven’t done a full test work up lately.. if/when I get the tests done, I’ll post my latest results.. may take a week..

[reefmutt]

Originally Posted by tenurepro

thanks for the input; i am also curious to see what it does in lower light...

I’ll try to get a decent shot of the old frag base.. it’s way nicer..
The pink Cadillac is really about the contrasting purple polyps and I have several fish in my display that pick at polyps all day.. I think that part of the reason for the boringness of my display piece....

[Alfrareef]

What kind of light do you use?

[reefmutt]

I have 4 AI Primes. Blues max out at 45% violet and uv max out at 20%, whites 5%
they run from 9 am, ramp up to 3pm and then turn off for an hour, then from 4pm, they go from max back down to 0 by 10:30pm.
They are really only supplemental ‘pop’ lighting.

I have 6 54 w T5.
3 blue plus come on at 11:30 am and turn off at 10pm
2 coral plus and 1 blue plus come on at 12:30, off at 3p-4p, then back on till 8:30p

3x150w ushio blue are on from 1-3 and 4-6p

[tripdad]

Hello Matt, just curious...why the break at 3 - 4? Also, how do you fit all that lighting over one tank, must be packed overhead?

[Alfrareef]

Thanks Matt.
Every day that passes I’m more pro T5 than ever.
I like led light, control capabilities and power saving, but I’m starting to believe that a hybrid solution it’s the best option for my tank.
Maybe Santa brings my tank a ATI Hybrid for coral grow and colors...