55 gallon SPS reef- new additions (12/18/14)

It's always a work in progress.

 

It sure is, but I try to keep my hands out as much as possible.

I just looked in the tank for the evening and I noticed that the purple is coming in on the tips of my two valida mini colonies.

My aeculus and slimmer are bright green. It's really just the body of my valida.

 

Phosphate down to "0" on the ULR Checker.

 

Got the calcium reactor back up and running yesterday.

 

Corals are becoming pale from the lack of nutrients now after setting up phosphate reactor and started growing chaeto. I am starting to dose amino acids again and feeding more again. I need to find balance again.

Alk. slowly raised 40 ppm from 130 to 170 in 24 hours via calcium reactor. Now I need to dial it in to maintain.

My pH is no longer an issue with the calc. reactor now that the tank is in the much bigger roombnesr the AC input and output vent. I also have a lot of surface agitation in the sump. Most importantly, I have a pH controller greatly reducing the CO2 compared to the bubble counter.

 

Unplugged the phosban reactor. Too much nutrient removal between my skimmer, reactor and newly placed 55 diode LED unit over my chaeto. Stuff took off in growth. Stripped my water.

Coral are either slightly bleaching from clean water or going pale from low nutrients.

 

Corals are still ticked off, but I think I am on the road to recovery.

Temperature stabilized at 77 day and night thanks to a heater and fan combination.

I started dosing oyster eggs in addition to the amino acids to help increase color in corals again. I added a damsel too.

Additionally, I think my tank went through a bacteria bloom. It got cloudy for a week. I finally had enough and added some carbon over the weeked. The tank is as clear as ever.

I don't know what happened, but man has this been a rough two months. Red bugs, no growth, no color, cloudy water etc.

I think my roomate got some air freshener in the tank when he overreacted to a couple day sour chicken.

 

I had enough. I drained my tank completely yesterday and replaced it with new water.

There was something in the tank water; a pollutant.

I didn't lose much the last two weeks, but growth, color and polyp extension was minimal at best.

Nothing died in the water change.

 

3.5 months of struggles after going bare bottom, going through red bugs, going through temperature issues, incessant bacteria blooms, issues from the addition of new sand, a mini-cycle and high alk. (14 DKH), I am back to coral growing.

A lost a few frags completely and had several STN for a bit, but now, in the last week, my back wall is finally beginning to cover in purple coraline (pretty quickly and heavily in fact) and my coral are beginning to encrust over their previous skeleton that became exposed from STNd.

Hopefully in a few weeks, everything will be back to color and in shape enough to warrant a new photo.

 

Strong work, keep it up, I'll be following for some new pics when you're ready.