Who's Into Saltwater?
- Thread starter Tony
- Start date
Tony
Staff member
Well, have a small plot twist. I did the water change and dosed some alkalinity and as expected, the Nitrates went down, and the dKh went up. However the phosphates also went up. I'm thinking they went up because I stirred up the sand bed. But from 0.00 to 0.12 PPM, that is a HUGE jump! I will try to do a test tomorrow to see what it shows then.
Tony
Staff member
Removed the post about that being the last post because turns out, it's a little harder than I thought to move a thread from one database to another. So yea, here we are again lol.
I also know that there are quite a few people here that really like to read about what is going on with this tank and like watching the changes that are happening right now. And rather than forcing everyone to sign up on yet another forum, I thought why not just keep updating this one. So here we are.
I did just post an update in the 150 build thread linked here --> 150 Gallon Saltwater Tank Build
The 90 is doing great, still have the black algae issue but it doesn't seem to be affecting the corals or fish, so all is well.
Getting ready to do a water change today on the 90 as I just made up fresh saltwater yesterday and it's heated and ready to go. Coral growth is great for not dosing like I should lol. May try to get a video up later of just the 90.
I also know that there are quite a few people here that really like to read about what is going on with this tank and like watching the changes that are happening right now. And rather than forcing everyone to sign up on yet another forum, I thought why not just keep updating this one. So here we are.
I did just post an update in the 150 build thread linked here --> 150 Gallon Saltwater Tank Build
The 90 is doing great, still have the black algae issue but it doesn't seem to be affecting the corals or fish, so all is well.
Getting ready to do a water change today on the 90 as I just made up fresh saltwater yesterday and it's heated and ready to go. Coral growth is great for not dosing like I should lol. May try to get a video up later of just the 90.
Tony
Staff member
I have not missed as much over here than I missed on the 150 thread, but it's time for an update. And yea, there is something happening that is new, and highly annoying....
Here is an update on the 150, however I talk about the 90 in here. The video will start where I start talking about the 90, however if you want an out of sequence update on the 150, you can go to the beginning.
After I shot the video above, I went ahead and did a dedicated video for the 90 as I was finishing up my water change.
At the end of that video, I made mention that I might need to clean my return pump and....
and this is the last dedicated video of the 90 that I have not updated here and it's all about the BRS 1.1ml/min dosing pump, which is a lie, a LIE I tell ya lol. 1.1ml/min my butt. My voltage at my house is 119-121 volts depending on if high power items are on (AC, water heater (why do they call it a "hot water heater"?? It's technically a "COLD water heater"... I digress lol)) and this dosing pump is running from 2.01 to 2.02ml per minute. But, once you know how fast it doses, you can use the code I talk about in the video to set it up.
And that brings me to another joint video, talking about testing water parameters.
So above I mentioned something happening that is annoying, and it's what I touched on in the last video there. I keep raising my KH dosing and it never levels out. With the code you saw in that video, it runs 7 times every morning from midnight to 7am, and I started out at 43 seconds. In that video, which was shot last night by the way, I was at 53 seconds. I added a minute and ten seconds to the overall dosing since the beginning, and I did another test today.... I lost .3dkh, again! So now I have raised it to 55 seconds, and I have a feeling that I will need to dose it over a minute before too long, which is far more than I thought.
Basically, the more I dose the tank, the more it consumes. I raise the dosing (trying to keep it at 9.5dkh) and the next day, I still lost dkh, so I raise it again. I feel like I'm chasing my tail.
Then in the above video at the end, we test Calcium. And I'm going to need to start dosing calcium as it is low as well. So with that in mind, I ordered a new dosing pump. The one from BRS is fine, but I hate having to use spreadsheets to figure out what the dosing times are needing to be, so I ordered the DOS. Now, I just tell it how much to dose over what time frame in the Fusion app, and it just does it. Does this stop the headache of testing and chasing my tail? Nope... But at least I don't have to do math. And here soon, I may not have to do the math anymore, the tank may just start doing all of this on it's own.... Automation at its finest!
Here is an update on the 150, however I talk about the 90 in here. The video will start where I start talking about the 90, however if you want an out of sequence update on the 150, you can go to the beginning.
After I shot the video above, I went ahead and did a dedicated video for the 90 as I was finishing up my water change.
At the end of that video, I made mention that I might need to clean my return pump and....
and this is the last dedicated video of the 90 that I have not updated here and it's all about the BRS 1.1ml/min dosing pump, which is a lie, a LIE I tell ya lol. 1.1ml/min my butt. My voltage at my house is 119-121 volts depending on if high power items are on (AC, water heater (why do they call it a "hot water heater"?? It's technically a "COLD water heater"... I digress lol)) and this dosing pump is running from 2.01 to 2.02ml per minute. But, once you know how fast it doses, you can use the code I talk about in the video to set it up.
And that brings me to another joint video, talking about testing water parameters.
So above I mentioned something happening that is annoying, and it's what I touched on in the last video there. I keep raising my KH dosing and it never levels out. With the code you saw in that video, it runs 7 times every morning from midnight to 7am, and I started out at 43 seconds. In that video, which was shot last night by the way, I was at 53 seconds. I added a minute and ten seconds to the overall dosing since the beginning, and I did another test today.... I lost .3dkh, again! So now I have raised it to 55 seconds, and I have a feeling that I will need to dose it over a minute before too long, which is far more than I thought.
Basically, the more I dose the tank, the more it consumes. I raise the dosing (trying to keep it at 9.5dkh) and the next day, I still lost dkh, so I raise it again. I feel like I'm chasing my tail.
Then in the above video at the end, we test Calcium. And I'm going to need to start dosing calcium as it is low as well. So with that in mind, I ordered a new dosing pump. The one from BRS is fine, but I hate having to use spreadsheets to figure out what the dosing times are needing to be, so I ordered the DOS. Now, I just tell it how much to dose over what time frame in the Fusion app, and it just does it. Does this stop the headache of testing and chasing my tail? Nope... But at least I don't have to do math. And here soon, I may not have to do the math anymore, the tank may just start doing all of this on it's own.... Automation at its finest!
Tony
Staff member
I need to find a balance between work and time lol. 10 days since the last update. ugh.
I ended up putting a new DOS on my 90 gallon tank to take care of the alkalinity and calcium and I'm starting to get it dialed in, however my DOS arrived with the left button very sensitive and no tactile feedback, no click. So, in the video below, we take it apart!
I ended up putting a new DOS on my 90 gallon tank to take care of the alkalinity and calcium and I'm starting to get it dialed in, however my DOS arrived with the left button very sensitive and no tactile feedback, no click. So, in the video below, we take it apart!
Tony
Staff member
Here is another update on the 90. It's just doing what it does lol. I'm still trying to get the dosing right and it keeps going down requiring me to increase the dose lol. This is a good thing, but man, it's tiring chasing these numbers. I checked the Alkalinity last night as it was 7.5, which is 2.0 lower than I want it (I want 9.5), but with that number, I can do larger increases as I have a large buffer zone. 7.5 is still just fine, in fact, it's what most reefs are at in the ocean. So no danger to the corals. The calcium is at 385 and above I had mentioned that I had to turn it down because it rose over a few days, well, lowering it to 18.5ml/day was too much, and it dropped. I want 420, it was at 385 last night, And on May 21st it was at 406 (hm, guess I didn't give y'all an update. oops. update below)
Calcium update that I didn't post previously. On May 18th 2023 it was at 399. I raised the dosing up to 20ml/day and it rose to teh 406 above. Well, I dialed it back down to 18.5 and it was at 385 yesterday. So I raised it to 19.3ml/day. Should be close. In fact, below is the video where I posted I was dialing in the dosing (2 part) which went live on May 21 2023
From there, the 90 is just kind of existing for the most part. I have not cleaned the sand in a while because I wanted to get a cleanup crew and yesterday the wife and I went to OKC and did just that. Full disclosure, we went there for a handfull of Chromis fish, but we ended up leaving with 11 Nassarius Snails, a sand sifting star fish and a lawnmower blenny.
Information on the Chromis will be in the 150 thread.
To be honest, I'm tired of vacuuming the sand bed lol. There are creatures out there that do this every day in the reefs, and guess what, no algae issues in the reef. So I wanted to get some little guys together to assist with the sand.
First are the Nassarius snails. At first I wanted the small ones, but they couldn't really find them (they found 1 lol) and so I said fine, lets get the medium ones. Since he had one, I said to give me 9 for a total of 10, and it was like, I will just give you 10 medium and you can have the small one for free. Okay great, the more the better. Now I have 12 in my tank. Adn last night after putting them in the tank, only my original was out and about. I'm sure after a few nights, the new ones will come out and play.
I did forget to mention that we purchased 5 Emerald Crabs. These little guys do nothing but eat detritus and algae. Perfect for helping keep the tank clean. They should grow quite fast.
The Lawnmower Blenny that we got was quite small. He has plenty to eat as I'm having a bit of a hair algae outbreak (reason for the crew honestly) and it's mainly due to me feeding more and not doing water changes as often. But a Blenny has a personality that I think everyone needs in their saltwater tank. They are just fun to watch.
The sand sifting star fish did do some cleaning last night when we put him in the tank, however once the lights came on, he went under the sand, and I'm not sure where he went lol. Having him down there is reason enough to not probe the sand bed with my gravel vac unless I absolutely have to. But, that is what they are there for.
I thought about getting a diamond goby, but resisted lol. Those guys are jumpers and I want to get the 150 setup before I get him.
I did actually do an update on the tank on May 27th but in the video I mentioned that I would overlay an image, and I had already uploaded it and was too busy to edit it and upload it again, so it never got published. I will post it below just for this site though.
That pretty much catches us up on the 90. There is more going on with the 150, so head on over there and have a read. It's exciting times right now, in a way lol.
Calcium update that I didn't post previously. On May 18th 2023 it was at 399. I raised the dosing up to 20ml/day and it rose to teh 406 above. Well, I dialed it back down to 18.5 and it was at 385 yesterday. So I raised it to 19.3ml/day. Should be close. In fact, below is the video where I posted I was dialing in the dosing (2 part) which went live on May 21 2023
From there, the 90 is just kind of existing for the most part. I have not cleaned the sand in a while because I wanted to get a cleanup crew and yesterday the wife and I went to OKC and did just that. Full disclosure, we went there for a handfull of Chromis fish, but we ended up leaving with 11 Nassarius Snails, a sand sifting star fish and a lawnmower blenny.
Information on the Chromis will be in the 150 thread.
To be honest, I'm tired of vacuuming the sand bed lol. There are creatures out there that do this every day in the reefs, and guess what, no algae issues in the reef. So I wanted to get some little guys together to assist with the sand.
First are the Nassarius snails. At first I wanted the small ones, but they couldn't really find them (they found 1 lol) and so I said fine, lets get the medium ones. Since he had one, I said to give me 9 for a total of 10, and it was like, I will just give you 10 medium and you can have the small one for free. Okay great, the more the better. Now I have 12 in my tank. Adn last night after putting them in the tank, only my original was out and about. I'm sure after a few nights, the new ones will come out and play.
I did forget to mention that we purchased 5 Emerald Crabs. These little guys do nothing but eat detritus and algae. Perfect for helping keep the tank clean. They should grow quite fast.
The Lawnmower Blenny that we got was quite small. He has plenty to eat as I'm having a bit of a hair algae outbreak (reason for the crew honestly) and it's mainly due to me feeding more and not doing water changes as often. But a Blenny has a personality that I think everyone needs in their saltwater tank. They are just fun to watch.
The sand sifting star fish did do some cleaning last night when we put him in the tank, however once the lights came on, he went under the sand, and I'm not sure where he went lol. Having him down there is reason enough to not probe the sand bed with my gravel vac unless I absolutely have to. But, that is what they are there for.
I thought about getting a diamond goby, but resisted lol. Those guys are jumpers and I want to get the 150 setup before I get him.
I did actually do an update on the tank on May 27th but in the video I mentioned that I would overlay an image, and I had already uploaded it and was too busy to edit it and upload it again, so it never got published. I will post it below just for this site though.
That pretty much catches us up on the 90. There is more going on with the 150, so head on over there and have a read. It's exciting times right now, in a way lol.
Tony
Staff member
It's for a good cause. Because behind me in the picture, is my 150, where everything went. Definitely sad to see a tank that I have had for over 10 years be broke down though. I'm debating on making a video to update on the 150. I did make a video today, but eh, it has some rant elements due to some asshats. Not sure if I will upload it. May just make another one tomorrow and actually point out what is pissing off the others, including the amount of money I have spent to built it (not the actual amount, but just rub it in the haters faces that they can't afford it because they are being asshats about it....). But yea, the coral is doing fine, at least I think. I just moved it today. The hammer, I did not acclimate, Just dumped it in. I have far too much and if I lose some, it will help with nutrients which are super low anyway lol.
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
Wow Tony, it was such an awesome looking tank sorry to see it now. The first thing that came to my mind was seeing the endangered coral off the coast. Three years ago got my wife a Bosai Tree for Mother's Day (had it shipped in from a nursey in Louisiana) and it die a two months ago. We followed the instructions on care and maintenance and still to this day don't have an answer.
Tony
Staff member
Hey James! Yea, It's hard to look at the tank in this state. But thankfully there is a new tank that it all went into (for now). Once I get done with tearing the 90 down and get all the fish moved over or to another tank, then I can finally finish my floor in the living room. Sucks having a half finished floor lol.
As for the Bosai Tree, they are definitely not the easiest thing in the world to care for. But dying in two months... that is incredibly fast. And those trees are not cheap at all if you got a good one.
As for the Bosai Tree, they are definitely not the easiest thing in the world to care for. But dying in two months... that is incredibly fast. And those trees are not cheap at all if you got a good one.