kpiotrowski's 300DD

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im about to crank up the lighting on both tanks...second one has no fish, but the corals are surviving rather than thriving. wish par meters werent so spendy
 
are you running led's also? probably advisable start a post and ask people running the same brand what they run at, depth of water etc.
 
yea, both tanks got them....sounds like a subtle way of saying quit jacking my thread, but i am fighting through similar issues on a smaller scale
 
ngreenaway said:
yea, both tanks got them....sounds like a subtle way of saying quit jacking my thread, but i am fighting through similar issues on a smaller scale
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no, not at all! I never even wanted to go through the hassle of even begining this thread! but I felt responsible to my fellow reefers I have learned EVERYTHING from to share information and my experinces. what brand model are your lights? size of tank and oreinteation of the lights. water depth, height of fixture above tank, photoperiod and settings of the lights. what corals do you feel need more light and how high are they in the tank? what are your algea issues?......ok, guess thats why I said start a thread with an appropiate title that will get attention and help. noboday is gonna read or help here.
 
Phosphate update is I have test twice and got 0.10 and 0.09 BUT I have changed something. I was feeding lite before I discovered the effect increasing my lighting had on po4 and since I have been feeding about as heavy anyone would want to. so I'm pretty happy all things considered!
 
was posting these pic on another site and thought I would share them here. what my house looked like before I got into reef tanks and the tanks that were sold to afford to get into reefing lol, and the last pics I took of my 120g and the 65g softy.

I had 7 tanks set up at one time but only found the following.


this was the first to be sold.




after the 120g with 50 fuge was started I then sold the 125g african cichlid tank in the background.





2 more in the background that were sold




the 120 and 65g





 
kpiotrowski said:
clean up crew...now that I finally put one in is doing its job. Important to note it has never been my concern, is why I even took a video lol.
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I was just wondering in reference to the phosphate readings. While we think algae is a problem, nature considers it a solution. The extended impact of the increase in lighting as a solution to the phosphate is interesting to me, and while the readings speak to what is in the water column, it isn't a full picture. If the CuC is taking is keeping it in check or knocking it out though, then those readings are a little more 'true'...
Theoretically as I ran the scenario in my head, I wondered if what you might see is that level off or even head back up as things in the tank adjusted to the increased lighting... kind of in the vein of things in the tank were 'starving', the increase resulting in a 'binge' but as things evened out and they started to metabolize at a more comfortable level, and with the lighting being the only change, your levels would even out or even begin a slow rise.
I'm not in anyway saying there is anything at all scientific about that, I just spend way to much time over thinking things... :)
 
spieszak said:
I was just wondering in reference to the phosphate readings. While we think algae is a problem, nature considers it a solution. The extended impact of the increase in lighting as a solution to the phosphate is interesting to me, and while the readings speak to what is in the water column, it isn't a full picture. If the CuC is taking is keeping it in check or knocking it out though, then those readings are a little more 'true'...
Theoretically as I ran the scenario in my head, I wondered if what you might see is that level off or even head back up as things in the tank adjusted to the increased lighting... kind of in the vein of things in the tank were 'starving', the increase resulting in a 'binge' but as things evened out and they started to metabolize at a more comfortable level, and with the lighting being the only change, your levels would even out or even begin a slow rise.
I'm not in anyway saying there is anything at all scientific about that, I just spend way to much time over thinking things... :)
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yes way over thinking and not taking everything in to consideration. don't forget to take the fact that I said " BUT I have changed something. I was feeding lite before I discovered the effect increasing my lighting had on po4 and since I have been feeding about as heavy anyone would want to." and plug that factor into your equation.

my advice to anyone at this point is if your going to run LED then know their particular par values. I was going by best advice from other LED owners and it wasn't until I got my hands on a par meter that I discovered how low I was actually running them. The fact that the light increase had a significant effect on po4 and my dual skimmers started pumping out green phyto was just an observation regarding my increased lighting. There was never a cry for help about hair algae.
 
Update FYI Re Phosphates. my hanna checker packets expired in april so I just got some new ones. Keeping in mind when I was getting higher po4 reading on the old reagents they were not expired, the new reagents tested at 0.00 and 0.01 compared the the average of 0.09 I was getting. Just fyi for anyone using the hanna checker.

Also all hair algae has been completely gone for at least over a month now and considering I apparently never had a po4 issue in the first place I will refer back to running my lights too low, the phyto plankton bloom, and not having any real CUC in the first place. ....and to think I never factored in the fact that I have had zero nitrates all along, in hindsight I should have questioned the po4 checker in the first place.
 
I use to have the same luck with Salifert test kits. So now when they are within 5-6 months ( or more) of passing the expiration dates, I get new ones and am usually surprised with the results.
 
:focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus::focus:


Ok back on topic, please stick to the thread and i read a few pages back where someone had similar issues, we love to help but most likely it would be better to start a new thread, we encourage that and hope you do feel free to post and start thread even for the smallest issues!

Ok on topic please!
 
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Thank-you. So what is apparent to me at this time is my po4 reagents for the hanna checker seemed to be giving false reading perhaps even 6 months before expiration.

To recap, I has issues with sps and frogspawn death and at that time had some what I thought was minor hair algae in the absence of a CUC. Found out I was running my LED's way too low and since over cranking them way up compared to where they were at my sps is thriving. also added a cuc and all algea is gone. But I continued to get high po4 reading which to me were no making sense considering my husbandry practices and overall health of the tank. if I truly had a po4 problem then wouldn't it make sense that the CUC eating all algea would raise those values as the algae would have been a po4 sink.

So I began to suspect my test were wrong over 2 months ago and set out for new reagents since mine were close to expire and actually ordered some in 2 weeks ago. I think given the overall health of my tank that I have kept clams, sps and even a blueberry gorgonian alive in, I will choose to believe that my old test kits that were testing as high as .20 for p04 were false all along. I never had a po4 issue, only a lighting issue....also elos test kits have always read 0 nitrates which with p04 of .20 you would think you would have some.
 
I should switch to a meter like yours for tests.
Only having to buy reagents over time would seem to be the cheaper way to go, over having to buy a whole new test kit ( Salifert).
 
Marty

I have a po4 tester and love it
The tester range is up to 2.00

The test kit shows blue so u don't know if that is 1.00, 1.5 etc
With the tester there is a digital display of your number
 
Been a while. bad pics but its what I have. Had to add a calcium reactor (sro5000) to keep up with needs, dosing pumps were running too long. already blew through 1/3 of the media in 2 months.



75g frag tank with lots of coral to place yet. ....man these pics do not do justice!

 
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