Chad’s 180 Reef

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Lol, let me know. I have the RRC Jaw Dropper arriv9ng Sunday

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
That’s awesome! I’ll let you know. I’m interested in Pink Floyd, hippie juice and maybe a home wrecker?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

GugsJr

TeamCR
Funny I have a Hippies Juice healing. Home wrecker and floyd aren't ready.

Here is my homewrecker will be soon I'll let you know


Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Well, really hoping I’m not getting Dino’s. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of bubble on my rock. Looks like photosynthesis to me as they aren’t stringy brown. I can blow them off and they disappear.

However I started noticing some brown stringy bubbles on my gyres. Took them out and soaked them in vinegar and also hydrogen peroxide. Noticed one coral had a small brown stringy piece hanging from the frag plug so I sucked it out.

NO3 and PO4 aren’t bottomed out, although my NO3 has been decreases from around 25ppm to 10ppm over the past few weeks.

Other than that I did switch over to the balling method from tropic Marin about two weeks ago. I also dosed AcroPower twice over the past few days. Did notice some cyano as well and have been sucking that out. Not much, just a few patches on my base rock.


. I had what I think was the amphimoodium (sp?) back in November. Had to dose a ton of H2O2 and also ran a UV and raised my NO3 and PO4 higher and after a while it just went away.

If it’s Dino’s it will be a shame as the tank has been cruising along nicely the past month with SPS doing well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Here’s a pic of what I think are the photosynthesis bubbles. Had them for a while now and no brown strings or snotty.



Don’t have a pick of what was on my gyres but will post a pic if it comes back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
So it turns out the MH bulbs I’ve been running are not 250w...they are actually 400w. When I set up the giesseman spectra in November, I ordered the bulbs from BRS. The boxes said 250/400 and I didn’t think anything of it. Didn’t read the bulb, being new to MH I was so worried about installing the bulb without getting my fingerprints on it lol.

Well went to install the 250w and immediately notice the size difference. So yeah, dumb error on my part. BRS initially sent me the wrong size but didn’t catch it.

Guess I’ll order another 400w since the tank been running well and not sure I want to change that. My only other concern is the existing 400e bulbs. On my luxacore electronic selectable ballast I’ve been running them at the 250w HQI setting so they’ve been under-driven. Wonder if that’s why the current one popped?

On a side note, makes sense why I was frying some corals (maybe?).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

GugsJr

TeamCR
So it turns out the MH bulbs I’ve been running are not 250w...they are actually 400w. When I set up the giesseman spectra in November, I ordered the bulbs from BRS. The boxes said 250/400 and I didn’t think anything of it. Didn’t read the bulb, being new to MH I was so worried about installing the bulb without getting my fingerprints on it lol.

Well went to install the 250w and immediately notice the size difference. So yeah, dumb error on my part. BRS initially sent me the wrong size but didn’t catch it.

Guess I’ll order another 400w since the tank been running well and not sure I want to change that. My only other concern is the existing 400e bulbs. On my luxacore electronic selectable ballast I’ve been running them at the 250w HQI setting so they’ve been under-driven. Wonder if that’s why the current one popped?

On a side note, makes sense why I was frying some corals (maybe?).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Could be if they weren't used to the par levels

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Could be if they weren't used to the par levels

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Now that I think about it, that’s probably not it. I was under driving a 400w bulb so not getting the full impact. Probably not exactly the same, but guessing it’s closer to a 250w impact.

I’m gonna replace this one with a 250w bulb and then keep under driving the other two. I’m guessing they’ll follow suit and go bad shortly in which I’ll replace the other two with 250w bulbs. Seems overkill to use the 400w if I haven’t truly been running 400w.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Ended up just putting 3 new 250w Radiums in. Back in business.

Also here’s a pic of what I think might be Dino’s. I’m a little worried as I had them last year, although they were limited to the sand. I was seeing this start to grow on my gyres, but I took them off and cleaned in vinegar.

Here’s what’s ground in my return. Stringy brown stuff with bubbles. Maybe I’m just getting worked up over nothing but curious what others think

I’m seeing a couple of spots like this on a coral that’s got a dead tip and some rock.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Busted out the cheap microscope, and grabbed a small sample, saw one Dino. Seemed to be spinning around but can’t get a good enough view. Bummer.

Started dosing microbak to get more bacteria going and will delay water changes. Guessing it has to do with my drop in NO3? This tank just doesn’t seem to like going below that, although this time it just came down after a series of water changes and lightening my stocking load.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

GugsJr

TeamCR
Busted out the cheap microscope, and grabbed a small sample, saw one Dino. Seemed to be spinning around but can’t get a good enough view. Bummer.

Started dosing microbak to get more bacteria going and will delay water changes. Guessing it has to do with my drop in NO3? This tank just doesn’t seem to like going below that, although this time it just came down after a series of water changes and lightening my stocking load.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Low nitrates invites dinos

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
Low nitrates invites dinos

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
It’s odd though my NO3 or PO4 never bottomed out. Lowest I tracked was 10ppm on NO3 and .06 on PO4.

Picked up a cheap UV to run in the display and going to suck out what I can. It’s so minimal now that I’m hoping by treating early I can get ahead and beat it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Chad_Pedersen

Premium member
A little over a week in this Dino battle. NO3 is between 5-10ppm, have been trying to keep PO4 around 0.1ppm but it’s swung a bit even with dosing, as the Dino’s seem to take in the PO4 (and NO3, which I’ve also had to dose but seems to be more stable). Have also added a cheap UV filter in the display.

Here’s some pics. Really frustrated as I have no idea what brought this on. PO4 and NO3 never bottomed out but maybe just got to low (with testing error). Although my case is not nearly as bad as some I’ve seen. It’s the worst on my gyres and anemones tips. On the rocks you have to search for it (which is good) but it’s in some spots. Hoping I got ahead of this quick enough. Looked Ostri based on microscope.

Dosed neophos and neonitro and that larger dose of NO3 seemed to drive my PO4 down. So today focusing on bringing my PO4 up from 0.03 to above 0.1 today. Did a dose this morning and now PO4 is at 0.09. Will dose another small amount to get it above 0.1.






Not the best pics but it’s more stringy and less snotty then what I’ve seen. The more strung stuff on the rocks seems to be in small patches. Again I seem to have a mild case as it’s not all over the live rock and not affecting the coral at all.

Also it must not be toxic as it seems my yellow, purple and blue tangs are constantly picking at it. Also seems the snails are eating it without any deaths.

Have maintained rock steady alk and ca st 8.3 and 440



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:
Top