Too much anything is no good...

[Bob 1000]

The changes over the last month now...

Okay so I ripped out all of my macro in my display(180)... Still have half of a sump/refugium(125) full of macro..
Then sold all my large Sps colonies, to start all over with small frags mostly ora...
Then I boosted up the level of Nitragone(mentanol)used to cycle nitrates down to 0 and Phosphagone used to cycle phosphates down to 0 in my Natureef Denitrifier... So that I could bring down my growth of turf algae in my tank.. It never grows out to hair just looks green on my rocks and is coarse like chaeto... Very annoying on my eye..
Then I took one of my 2 400 watt metal halides away for a rail system with one light(400 watt halide)...
Then i performed a series of water 50 gallon changes over a 5 day period totaling 200 gallons to bring phosphates from .10 to .06 and even added 500ml of purigen..
Added 3 more fish also... That are fed spectrum pellets 2 to 3 times a day...
Now the rocks are all purple again and the walls and floor of my display are green after losing the green for a week...
My parameters are all where they need to be except my Mag... It's higher than a salifert test kit can measure.. I'm not really worried about this because that will even out on it's own...
When I started these drastic measures I knew what I was doing and got the results I wanted but the algae on the walls just laughed at me,,,lol...
Coral color is good on all my frags... No RTN..
I just feel the need to step up to the harder Sps.. The ones that can't handle to much light and need the exact amount of flow,,,lol... As soon as I get this green off the walls I will be posting pics of how this single halid on a rail system is working... Truthfully right now I believe it might not be able to work without supplements.. I'm currently 4 48in vho actinics to keep the color of the blue mixed with green acros I have... I will ramble more as this change levels out..
Thanks for listening people..

 

[KathyC]

Wow, that's all quite an undertaking Tobin! Your plan sounds very interesting. What particular types of corals are you planning to add?

What are the new fishies? Do you feed the fish food other than pellets considering that they do add more phophates to the tank?

 

[Bob 1000]

I've added all the new and old Ora catalog of acros except the caps.. The new fishies are a 1" brevorostris, 1.5" tenneti, and a 1" mata tang.. All tangs... Nothing but these pellets from now on... The last month had brine, mysis, plankton, flakes, squid pieces, and a muscle or 2 that i decided to sacrifice to the rock lobster that is now 8" long(just the body)... Now that the 1" misbar regal is eating pellets, that's all that I want to feed..

 

[Domboski]

Never a dull moment in this hobby. Can't wait to see pics Tobin. You always have beautiful stuff.

 

[Bob 1000]

Thanks Dom.. I'm a little nervous about the one light but I will give my tank some time to adjust to it.. And now that I think about it this bulb is probably do for a change it's about a little over a year old now...

 

[Bob 1000]

Okay here's an update... I remodeled the tank the phosphates held their ground... I didn't have to bump up the phosphagone(additive for my denitrifier that takes care of the phosphates)...
Fish update: 2" orange shoulder, 2" black, 2" tennetti, 2"mata, and a 2" lavender tang that looks like the one in my avatar, 4 neon gobies, bicolor blenny, spotted mandarin, regular mandarin, 8" rock lobster, and last but not least well probably least a 1/2" red stone fish..
Oh yeah I killed the 1" brevorostris with and open powerhead, noticed it was going a little slow and then noticed the coral food coming out shortly after..

 

[BZOFIQ]

Sounds like a lot of work. The only thing that is not logical to me is the fact that you have 3 tangs (algae eaters), plenty of algae (for them to graze on) and you are feeding (or overfeeding) them 2-3 times a day. Feed them every other day and once, they'll be just fine.

 

[Bob 1000]

Yeah that was just to make sure the black tang was eating now they get a lot less... Well I'll be overfeeding to get the lavender eating and the stone fish also.. Then it's back to the rocks for these fish...

 

[BZOFIQ]

got it.

 

[Bob 1000]

Update: After a call to Natureef and speaking with Bob, I realized why I have the algae bloom since I started using the phosphate option...
I also realized what the phosphagone option was,,, Stronium nitrate... I have noticed really deep coloration since the phosphate option was kicked into use on my tank I think it's because of the stronium biproduct of the phosphate cycling down to 0..
In the last 2 days I have noticed a nitrate level on a salifert test kit in my display this is the reason for the algae bloom.. I raised the phosphate option but didn't raise the nitrate option, causing my tank nitrate level to elevate... I corrected the problem and now I should really start seeing my coraline come back...
I tell you guys I have been messing with this thing for a while now and even on my badest days I don't go through the problems and catastrophies a lot of people go through... I recommend this product to anyone in this for the long run... This is my first nitrate problem in 2 years, and all it did was cause a small amount of algae on the back wall of the tank, that's it.... Not long hair algae just a little bit.. All of my fish never even noticed it the problem some of the corals did but all are still alive and colored up all the way...
So in closing I'd like to say this wasn't a problem but it did bother me.. Thanks for reading..

 

[crox99]

Pics?

 

[Bob 1000]

As soon as my father comes back from vacation I will post pics, I lent him the camera again..

 

[crox99]

Again? Buy him one for Xmas!!!!

 

[Bob 1000]

Can't say no to Pops.... And I don't use it only to take tank pics and that only seems to be when I lend it to him,,,lol..

 

[Bob 1000]

Hey, colors don't lie.. This is a bad pic but I'm building a top down box the weekend if I get a chance.. I laid it down to see more of it in the light.. I think this the purplest bonsai I've seen so far...