Sacul1573's 90g - RIP

Update coming tonight ;D

 

Good one? Can't wait!

 

I dont know yet... jury is still out... just an update w/pics

Continuing to eliminate factors...

I miss fuzzy sticks :-/

 

Feb 16th update

Alright, much karma to Travis45 for donating a few frags as "fresh" victims to help determine what's going on. His new 90 is amazing, everything growing well and sooo many fuzzy sticks with awesome PE! Seeing his tank in person gave me some much needed motivation to stick with it. Thanks man!

I've decided to go back to the beginning and start things over, more or less. No more carbon dosing, meticulous maintenance, etc.
Things I've done/doing:

- Started changing out activated carbon on a twice a week basis.
- Slowly ramped down vodka dosing, and am now completely sober.
- Brought a fuge back online with chaeto.
- Daily dosing Seachem 2 part.
- 5 gal WC twice a week.
- Stirring sandbed twice a week.
- Reduced lighting to 4 bulbs, same 11hr/8hr photoperiod.
- Coral Beauty is in the fuge... I caught her taking a nip at the new slimer!

The LPS definitely seem happier. PE is better than I've seen in a while. SPS is still iffy, hence my desire to start with some fresh frags. The frags Travis gave me are not showing the PE that they displayed in his tank, and so I think things are still somewhat amiss with my water, but time and dedication will hopefully slowly turn things favorably.

New frags (green slimer, orange digitata, and fire garden table acro):


Comparisons (before/now):








Fishies:




Thanks for viewing

 

Very nice update.

So nice of Tavis to hook you up, really nice.

Congrats on the corals.

 

Congrats on staying with it and learning from your experiences. Good luck with getting it all settled.

 

Thanks Corailline. I think one of the reasons for the long detailed updates is to solicit feedback from resident experts like you. Given what's going on and what I know, does my current path make sense? Are there factors I might be missing or over analyzing? I welcome any and all feedback from anyone who would like to provide...

I know it's hard for people to admit when they make mistakes, or "fail", but I thought documenting my difficulties might benefit reefers in the future.

Travis is awesome. I didnt get his permission to mention him, but he's been great to me in the past, and he's continued to provide valueable feedback and mentoring. Just thought he needed a shout-out.

 

May I ask a few questions please

Why change the carbon so frequently and what type of carbon are you using?
As far as stirring the sand bed, is this to provide feedings for the lps, remove detritus and how deep is the sand bed, only disturbing the upper most layer right?

The fuge back on line sound excellent, as does the 2 part dosing accordingly to your values for Ca/alk.

It's a learning curve for me too.

 

I think your plan is good. I would change the carbon every two weeks though so you are getting the most out of it. Great job on reducing the number of tubes. I have found the more doses in a day the steadier the parameters and the happier the corals. I don't think stirring the sand bed twice a week is necessary, maybe 1/4 of the area every week.

 

Looks good Lucas. Yeah the other two frags you got were an Orange Digitata and a piece of my fire garden table acro. I think they should rock in your system man, if you have any problems, you know where to come and snag more. ;D I would definitely change the carbon once every two weeks and like John mentioned maybe stir a 1/4 of your sand bed every week. I ended up changing my lights differently in my fixture, I traded out a Blue Plus for an Actinic. So now I"m running 2 Blue Plus, 2 Actinics, 1 Coral Plus, and 1 Aquablue Special. I will let you know how it goes.