75 gallon-The beginning

Updated tank shot. Things have turned for the better and getting some decent growth following a series of unfortunate events from November last year until March.

 

Things still going well. Having to keep on top of 2 part dosing adjustment as the growth is changing the needs weekly.

 

Tank is doing ok except for the green birdsnest up top. It might come back but its 2/3 dead, had them this far before and completely recover so we will see. Every winter I have some ridiculous issue that causes die off in the tank. I had a finnex thermostat fail while on vacation and my backup heater thermostat wasnt calibrated properly so the temperature stayed around 76 for a couple days. That doesn't sound too low but I normally run at a steady 80 so the change was enough to make stupid corals like green birdnests freak out. Yes they're stupid. The paradise birds nest on the right is actually doing well despite looking pale, the top sides are green and it is growing well. Maybe a sign I need t-5 supplements. I'm already thinking of what I can put top center to replace that birds nest. Also I think this bubble tip needs to go soon or I need a bigger tank.

 

A top down view of the purple pocillopora I think I got from Jeanette Becker as a small frag, now softball size Also the cali tort I got from her that has filled out and gotten taller. Its sprouted about double the number of tips it had when I got it.

 

Also a red digitata with blue polyps I think I got from her as well. It has spread out quite a bit.

Hard to get a good picture until i find the right gel filter but its much more red than orange and the polyps are more visible.

 

So my tank is surviving. Apparently inside my gyre pump the wires were exposed so with time corals nearby have stopped growing and some tissue loss. I wondered why my flame hawk stopped perching on top of it. So I messed with cord while cleaning it after reading about the cracked cord issue. Sure enough it was and some copper exposed. That's what I get for buying name brand. Then the replacement motor I ordered had bad crazing on the cord near the casing. So I have to send that back. Good thing I have my trusty never fail Jebaos to keep the flow while the other name brand Chinese company tries to get it right.

Anyway, I'm switching to the Triton method and have it all set up dosing the recommended start amount. Just waiting on my test results to come back to determine specific dosing levels.

 

Yeah the gyre is still good and Id buy it again but Im fine with a Chinese company stealing from another Chinese company. Not my money haha. I was annoyed at receiving a replacement with a damaged cord though. Im dosing Core7. Im waiting for my alk to drop below 8dkh in about a week then will start dosing it. Got a new Jebao doser set up and the bottles ready to go. I did a triton test a year or so ago so I can see where things have changed since.

 

I've got my new doser set up and Core7 ready to go. Lithium is high as expected from Reef Crystals. I'm going to do som\e small water changes over a month with the Aquacraft Marinemix I've had sitting around and get it down as well as my Calcium and Alk before I start dosing. My Alk is at 9.4 dKH currently. The iodine and Silicone are probably just testing aberrations from what I've read by Randy on R2R. I don't dose either of them. Tin is a little high, not sure what that's from. Maybe the metal exposed in the gyre wiring? Not sure. I did a triton test about a year ago and it was barely measureable. Possibly from the doser I had above the sump that rusted and was perhaps leeching tin from condensation dripping down. My alk should be low enough in a couple days so I'll start small dosing all but calcium as that will probably take a week or so to get to 440ppm. I think my doser was uncalibrated and damaged that caused the high alk/cal/mag and haven't been testing but every 2 months as things have been really stable until recently. My Triton results HERE.

 

I don't run any nutrient reduction except for a skimmer and algae scrubber. I run carbon for about 2 weeks every couple months.

 

I was advised by Unique Corals to use the regular triton Core7 as I was using an algae scrubber. Basically the Triton is identical to the Other Methods bottles except for bottle 1. The Other Methods bottle has less nutrients for algae, but as it is beneficial to a scrubber as well the Triton method is fine. I guess I'll find out if that's true when everything is nuked or not.

 

If anyone was wondering how long my tank can last without power. The answer is at least 11 hours. Through an address mistake MidAmerican shut off my power without notice yesterday morning after I left for work, and I got home and it took them several hours to come back out and turn it on. Everything lived but I expect some corals may die off over the next couple days.