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Journal One Zero Three

It’s a fair point and has been considered. To be frank, may just continue lighting the floss and binning it periodically.

Algae does grow on the floss and it’s convenient just removing the strip of floss, replacing and letting algae grow back again. NO3 sits between 2-5ppm, PO4 between 0.03-0.5ppm just lighting the floss. Feeding schedule is regular as can be so this is possibly all that’s needed.

Finding it’s very easy to over complicate matters with marine when simple but regular carries the system a long way.

It is very easy to go OTT with marine.

I remember driving myself mad trying to get PO4 to undetectable levels with all sorts of gizmos and reactors, even started dosing vodka to the tank, in the end, I worked out it was easier to drink the vodka and relax a little bit (though I never stopped fussing over water parameters, but it was a full SPS system so a little more fragile)
 
More corals added:

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Placements are weird as leaving gaps for specific species that might enjoy a home in certain spots. Just have to wait for availability. Should hopefully grow out and be ‘full’ all things willing.

Clean up crew added too. Sand sifting Goby and Star Astraea snails:

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Goby is brilliant white with electric blue markings. Handsome and love him. He whacks his tail against the thermometer when he wants feeding, so nice to have feedback from a fish. Astraea snails are likely to do well due to the permanent light spill from the 1200. Won’t go hungry and algae is managed. Just need to keep an eye on their numbers.

The ‘dead’ montipora that went in is doing well:

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Growth tip is as it should be:

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Good lesson, don’t give up on a coral.

Alveopora and Goniopora’s are growing well in this setup:

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Some spreading stuff added too:

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Acan producing new polyps and spreading on to the rock:

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Sad thing is none of these colours are representative of what they look like in real life, but without a filter you just get blurple. They’re something special under varying light.

Simplified the sump further. Three stages mechanical, bio media, skimmer:

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Small skimmer but well matched after the floss, fine mesh bag and more floss. Altogether adds up to easy control of NO3 and PO4 against load and feeding. Tank is fed a lot and managing a stable 5ppm NO3 and 0-0.5ppm PO4 depending on method of extraction. Tank is drawing 10-15ppm Ca per day but still monitoring this closely to get a better average for dosing. Alk is regularly between 10-11dKH but suspect this will drop to 8-9 in the long run. pH is always between 8 and 8.3 under this arrangement, in winter, with windows closed and the house loaded with everyone breathing.

Getting to this point has involved a thorough mental workout as well as a few ass kickings. Marine seems to be good at getting you to scratch your head if you want to understand as many relationships as you can. Fun!

Not unhappy for the tanks three month birthday today. It’s going in the right direction.
 
Keen to know how the Goby fares and how you feed?

He ain’t going hungry. When away this is the back wall of the tank.

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The Clowns and the Goby swim up the glass when they want to snack on pods.

Six cubes of frozen minimum go in per day, usually in sets of two. Pellets get shoved in the sand near his den for him to find. Target with a coral feeder and give him a decent pile of Mysis shrimp once per week in the same spot.

Usually up at all hours so the system gets fed throughout day and night, broadcasting. The copepod population is steady but the tank also gets phytoplankton at regular intervals so not surprising.

In return he turns all the sand over everyday. Fair trade.

Keeping so few species in this setup that it’s relatively easy to meet their demands in novel ways. Working on new ones. Hoping this works as understand Goby’s can drop dead a few months in from discussion. Keeping this one active, hunting out food and offering a varied diet so we’ll see how he goes.
 
Three and half month update:

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Marking this period as it is now a week before the glass gets dirty on this setup, a most welcome change. Seems to have shifted up a gear and coralline coverage accelerated rapidly.

Took a punt on some more corals that were fading in the store, the SPS nest at the top wasn’t too box clever when it went in. But glad to say it’s recovering, colouring up and spreading back over the skeleton:

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Getting spread off some of the corals onto the rock. Even the nugget of Cyphastrea is making slow but steady progress over the days now:

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Probably seems silly to be getting excited about such small amounts of growth, but very pleased to be seeing any growth at this early stage. Appear to be getting some things going in the right direction. The War coral is off onto the rock as well:

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What isn’t going right is the Anemones and the Hammer coral. The Hammer coral seemed to suffer a bacterial infection, then declined rapidly. As for the Anemones, they’ve turned brown but continue to feed. Not doing anything to aid the situation as unsure if this should be a worry, an unforeseen consequence of a parameter shift, or an ongoing reaction to something that hasn’t even been noticed.

Most things are showing growth and colour though so reticent to react. Goniopora and Alveopora are thriving in the setup:

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Montipora are also doing well, as is the freebie digi that was thought dead:

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Assuming the purple tips occurring at the bulging lower down are new growth tips for branching?

Macromussa and Blastomussa species seem content in their placing. They feed well but no major growth as such yet:

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Same story with the Duncan, Trumpet, Psammocora and Montipora hybrid. Stable is good enough for now:

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On the setup… the floss for mechanical backed up with the small Bubble Magus skimmer is staying. Much more control compared to the refugium and since removing the chaetomorpha, not having to dose micros at all to achieve good colouration beyond what is in the 25% weekly water change.

This may change with time but can’t see the benefit on running a refugium for the time being. The tank is teeming with pods and other life so a refuge for them is not a justification. The K1 media in the sump is housing a ton of pods without anything messing with parameters so it makes the refugium moot for now.

Also corrected flow. Got some Cyanobacteria appearing in dead spots:

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Installing the second gyre solved the problem overnight. Woke up next day and it’s been gone since.

As for the fish, the clowns keep hosting the most ridiculous areas but each to their own. Goby is doing well and has trained me to feed him by flicking his tail on the thermometer:

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Does it like clockwork which is really useful if you forget to feed, he’s not shy in giving you a reminder when you’re walking by the tank. What he lacks in colour he makes up for in personality.
 
That Seriatapora guttatus is showing classic signs of a alkalinity drop, so the shop probably bombed their alk. I'd keep an eye on it whilst it's recovering as the bare skeleton can be plagued by algae and if it gets a foot hold its near impossible to get rid of. In the past I'd have just fragged the good bits from something like that so interested to see how you patient approach works.

The digitata is showing signs of growth and yes those points are where the branching will appear. In the same way that your encrusting corals are beginning to spread you tend to see slow growth to begin while they are initially encrusting, before a period of much faster growth. So you will likely see a boom in the next few months.

I can't see the anemones but if they are going brown, it's likely a light issue. It's quite common that they pick a spot where they are happy but the light isn't quite strong enough to maintain the full colour. The other option is that they have simply changed colour due to,available light and the previous owner/shop had more light over them. Either way I wouldn't be worried if they aren't moving around and are eating.

Blastomussa welsii and Duncans are very similar in that you don't really see new growth even when they have some. You get tiny little new heads forming around the edge of the polyp and these are shaded by the polyp. If you have a look at night you might be able to see little bumps forming which is very quick on Duncan.

I also love the chalk goby. They are by far the easiest, mostly well behaved, sandsifter out there.

All in all its a truely stonking tank for such a young age, a real credit to your skill as a aquarist. Normally at this age I used to have to go in with a scythe to cut back the hair algae.
 
That Seriatapora guttatus is showing classic signs of a alkalinity drop, so the shop probably bombed their alk. I'd keep an eye on it whilst it's recovering as the bare skeleton can be plagued by algae and if it gets a foot hold its near impossible to get rid of. In the past I'd have just fragged the good bits from something like that so interested to see how you patient approach works.

The digitata is showing signs of growth and yes those points are where the branching will appear. In the same way that your encrusting corals are beginning to spread you tend to see slow growth to begin while they are initially encrusting, before a period of much faster growth. So you will likely see a boom in the next few months.

I can't see the anemones but if they are going brown, it's likely a light issue. It's quite common that they pick a spot where they are happy but the light isn't quite strong enough to maintain the full colour. The other option is that they have simply changed colour due to,available light and the previous owner/shop had more light over them. Either way I wouldn't be worried if they aren't moving around and are eating.

Blastomussa welsii and Duncans are very similar in that you don't really see new growth even when they have some. You get tiny little new heads forming around the edge of the polyp and these are shaded by the polyp. If you have a look at night you might be able to see little bumps forming which is very quick on Duncan.

I also love the chalk goby. They are by far the easiest, mostly well behaved, sandsifter out there.

All in all its a truely stonking tank for such a young age, a real credit to your skill as a aquarist. Normally at this age I used to have to go in with a scythe to cut back the hair algae.

You’re a legend @mort thank you for the info.
 
Learning how to eyeball micros for colouration:

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Similar to plants you can get into a pretty reactive conversation with these life forms from dosing. Difference being how reactive corals are time-wise to parameter changes compared to plants.

It is nice knowing what you’re seeing visually, you can dose a single element to remedy without resorting to barrage testing. Simply by paying attention walking passed the tank.

Still learning, but the importance of amino acids seems pronounced when running things at this pace. It saves the corals a ton of effort on production having them available regularly along with vitamin additions. However, application needs to be fast and heavy to work, then removed by means of a skimmer to avoid penalties from experience so far.

Feeding responses are interesting too. Each species has a heightened sense to one thing or another the moment it hits the water. Pretty cool.

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Acan is sort of ready for anything but Goniopora’s and Alveopora’s get excited when rotifers are on the menu:

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The extension isn’t that pronounced in the pics above and it seems crazy how large they suddenly get once something is in the water they like. Probably old hat to seasoned reefers but fascinating to someone new to the salty side. Watching corals hunt…

All in all picking up the pace. Even the montipora digi is finally throwing out branches:

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Tank has just gone over 4 months so looking forward to the half year mark now everything is picking up pace.
 
Super interesting Geoffrey! Sorry if you've mentioned it already but what kind of fertiliser are you using for this setup?

Understand why you are asking @Courtneybst but it is not a very useful question as you’ll find out in time. To answer presupposes that the needs of a reef and macro algae setup are the same. Have no experience of macro algae tanks so don’t want to waste your time.

A relatively sound piece of advice, choose a comprehensive salt that has everything in from the get go and hits the targets you are after. That way greater water changing isn’t troublesome as they will bring you back to datum as closely as possible. Really great tool to have, especially on a smaller tank. If you choose a salt mix that stores well you can even go little and often so there aren’t any drastic parameter changes should you need to correct.

So as to not fob off the question, here are the current parameters in the tank:

NO3 = 20ppm
PO4 = 1ppm
Mg = 1470ppm
Ca = 500ppm
dKH = 10.7
pH = 8.3
S.G. = 35ppm

Measured at lights on and in addition to this, K is kept above 450ppm with potassium chloride. No one would particularly want to aim for those numbers, but this is where this tank sits with routine inputs at the moment. N is generally descending either through denitrification, algae growth that is then consumed by snails, uptake by the coral colonies or a combination. It’s high now as feeding has been heavy the last two days.

When you say how do you fertilise, there’s the core input with 25% weekly water changes with Red Sea Coral Pro salt, one input midweek of Ca, KH, Mg, Sr, K, Br and I to boost. Micros are then eye balled using off the shelf products and always conservatively. There’s then the addition of feeding of fish and coral stock through broadcast or target feeding. Twice daily dosing of a complex of amino acids, fatty acids, carbohydrates and vitamins to save the corals effort in production. Then there’s the daily addition of live phytoplankton that supports the smallest colonies of critters in the tank.

As you can see the ‘fertilise’ part doesn’t quite capture how you meet the needs of animals like corals compared with plants. Nor would doing all the above be any use in a macro algae setup.

Practical response, if heading in the direction you are would consider the Triton method as it is honed around taking care of macro algae in refugiums. A macro algae tank is a big refugium in effect and regular ICP testing to manage your water is helpful on top of home testing.

Hope this answers your question @Courtneybst and maybe members who have kept a macro algae setup can lend you their thinking.
 
Thanks @Geoffrey Rea ! I was just curious in relation to reefs how they're managed as opposed to macroalgae but thank you for the info! That's definitely very helpful and puts it into perspective by describing it as a big refugium. I'll be spending the next few weeks going ham on research.

I knew reefs were more involved but damn, I didn't realise just how much! Now I see why you see setups with a million pipes and dosing containers. Either way, yours is looking good.

Thanks again 😉
 
It could be my eyes but it looks like you have two goniopora. Alveopora have 12 tentacles on the polyps and goniopora 24. Alveopora also tend to have more flower like polyps ime. They are really easy to tell apart at night as well.
It doesn't make much difference if I'm right but thought it's worth checking.
 
Alveopora have 12 tentacles on the polyps and goniopora 24

There’s others about the tank too:

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It wouldn’t be surprising Mort, taxonomy is not the strong suit over here 😂 Will try checking at night as you’ve suggested.

As ever, really appreciate your input @mort 🙂
 
That looks like a goni as well but with more alveopora type tentacles (although alveopora only have one ring of them). They are obviously happy and thrive in similar conditions, so it doesn't really matter what they are.

Coral taxonomy has been changing so fast in the last few years that it's really hard to keep up, if you go to bed and then wake up, somethings been reclassified. Everyone still says acans but strictly speaking they are now micromussa. Scolymia, which everyone went crazy about during the last decade are now homophyllia, which is a strange choice for a rainbow colour coral.
 
Another month gone by with the reef setup:

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Demand shot up about two weeks ago. Alkalinity was decreasing so had to reconsider the dosing. Despite paying attention to incremental changes, new dosing was causing parameters to creep up instead so added an additional hour to the photoperiod, problem solved in one move.

New parameters sitting steady:

NO3 = 5ppm
PO4 = 0.5ppm
Mg = 1500ppm
Ca = 500ppm
dKH = 10.8
pH = 8.3
S.G. = 35ppm

pH is consistently spot on through the photoperiod too:

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In other news… Had to make the call on the Harem. Cut the group down to four Clowns that get along and re-homed the others.

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The remainders are getting along great and always grouped together without any signs of aggression. Hoping the four may work out but suspect this may drop to ‘a pair with a spare’ further down the line.

Goby is happy, making dens:

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At night with a red torch you can see just how copious and diverse the tank has become with critters. Goby ain’t going short of a meal.

Even found some free bonus Stomatella Snails about the tank:

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New polyps appearing on various corals:

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Others spreading and colouration is good overall:

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All just needs to keep trucking.

PS If anyone wants to make a frozen cube defroster for feeding, have found using one of the Tropica pots we all have laying around with a couple of suction cups works well:

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Cheap and cheerful but does the job.
 
Looks stunning Geoff. Interested to know what top off system are you using? In weeks to come watch out for salt creep around the pipe work in the sump. Will need regular cleaning. As for Dosing Alkalinity Magnesium calcium need to be kept in check. Below is my 60g set up 6yrs on .
 

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Interested to know what top off system are you using?

Hydor smart level and a Aqua One aqua lifter pump.

As for Dosing Alkalinity Magnesium calcium need to be kept in check.

Levels are high, but consistent. Switched to All For Reef now as have no pH issues on this tank. Downside of AFR is no pH boost but don’t appear to need it on this system, always between 8.1 and 8.3. Keeps things simple.

In weeks to come watch out for salt creep around the pipe work in the sump. Will need regular cleaning.

Sump not too bad, overflow box is the most prone area of the system currently. Will keep an eye out though 🙏🏽

Below is my 60g set up 6yrs on .

Amazing @Welearn ! Only at five months along with this setup and appreciate that 6 years is something quite special.
 
Thanks Geoff for your input. Hydor smart level top notch :) mine was a Tunze.
You won't require any PH Boost 8.1 should be fine but not any higher.
Yes overflow box is where I have to clean regularly. My Heater in the sump is prone too. My skimmer is Tunze .
My testing kit is Red Sea as my salt, and Dosing. The Red Sea test kits are Triton method which I find is more accurate. Salinity as yours 35pmm or 1.23 according to my refractometor.
Keep up the good work your system is stunning:) for my personal preference is soft to LPS corals .
P.s Royal Gramma would look great in your set up.
Cheers.
 
P.s Royal Gramma would look great in your set up.
Cheers.

Funny you should say this as this is the only fish on the radar if any stock were to be added.

However, the Goby has become quite territorial so it could upset things. Also had to reduce the numbers of the Percula Clownfish down to four very recently. Need to see how this plays out.

Been very vigilant and lucky so far @Welearn , avoiding introducing any undesirables. Always question if any additions are worth potential trouble.
 
Tank is nearly six months old, just a few days left to go.

Three new additions since the last update:

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Leptastrea, Red Goniopora and a Warpaint Scoly.

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Not new, but the greediest fish to ever grace a tank in this place:

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Built like a 50. Calibre round 😂

Swear he would eat me if he could. Starting to get markings that are becoming more pronounced with each month.
 
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