Reef tank transformation after 1 year

[Dmitri]

Hi guys, question here. What kind of cycle have you experienced with your tank between year and year and a half?
My tank just turn a year mark, what to see what to look for in the next six months.

I’ve hear people saying there are several transformations reef goes in the first year to 18 months.
Please share your experiences

 

[civics14]

Ummm i used old rocks from my previous tank that had aiptasia and been dealing with that... worst mistake ever.

 

[Rickdareefa]

Ummm i used old rocks from my previous tank that had aiptasia and been dealing with that... worst mistake ever.

I did this as well i have 4 peppermints but besides that have given up trying to control them

 

[Adam]

Hi guys, question here. What kind of cycle have you experienced with your tank between year and year and a half?
My tank just turn a year mark, what to see what to look for in the next six months.

I’ve hear people saying there are several transformations reef goes in the first year to 18 months.
Please share your experiences

I found that the first 18 to 24 months we're the most unstable. I contribute some of that to my learning curve as it was my first system. I found that as time went on things became more predictable and at the same time much more stable, again probably due to the learning curve. I still think a tank, especially larger tanks, start coming into their own after 18 months through the 24 month mark. My hypothesis is that as the coral biomass increases the whole system is able to process nutrients better.

You're not a noob Dmitri but some of this could still apply. The biggest thing noobs need to do is not over react to the ugly phase. Let the system find it's balance naturally while you do little things to help mitigate the issues early tanks face. You want to do as little as possible to upset water chemistry and let nature take it's course. (Looking at you @NanCrab ) The more people add chemicals and products to a new system trying to get rid of this or that the longer they push out the maturity of the system.

Being that this isn't your first tank Dmitri you're probably ahead of the curve and the system is close to being mature. My guess is that things will continue to stabilize even more and the coral growth is about to jump. You're going to need to pay attention to Alk closely because the demand will start climbing and it may catch you off guard. That in and of itself is a big factor in stability. Most experienced reefers that I've talked to say that once they know their system they can take a quick look at the coral and know how things are going. That quick peek will let them know if they need to test or not and for what. I found that to be true on my system. The last 7 to 8 months before I moved (Months 34-40) were the best the display ever looked. It was also the time where I did very little maintenance and only three water changes. But I kept an eye on things, looking at the coral told me I needed to test. Alk demand went up, make an adjustment to the CARX & Kalk, add some trace and so on. So continue to learn your beautiful tank. Look at the poylp extension, colors, bleaching spots, burnt tips... and do whatever necessary not to introduce any pests.
You'll do fine and I look forward to your next pics. I've be reefing vicariously through watching your journey.

 

[Dmitri]

In the passed 4 months I’ve been having some issues that’s I’m playing catch up with...
1. ever since I have changed calcium reactor media, my reactor isn’t keeping up with alk demand. So I’ve set up kalk reactor but still can’t get above 7.2 dkh
two things on my mind, one I’ll build bigger kalk reactor and I will get different smaller media for calcium reactor that I had prior the change

2. bigger issue lately has been phosphates. Reading over the top at the moment, ultra lower kit can’t read it,

I have been dosing lot of lanthium chloride to keep it down but I finally gave in and planning to set up gfo reactor.
my plan is to start slow with gfo, maybe 4lbs at first the increase it to 7lbs (that’s based on recommended usage)

I lost Few high end frags to algae but surprisingly some stick are looking amazing and really flourishing.
Here is my favorite one at the moment
TSA prince peach, really exploded with growth


Over all is seems to be never ending uphill battle between nutrients control and balance.

I’m looking forward to see how the gfo will help me with phosphates and how this new reusing GFo method will work out.

 

[civics14]

Just wondering what calcium reactor media did you change from and to?

my understanding was lanthium chloride was more cost efficient in large volume tanks, why the switch?

 

[lshin037]

Just wondering what calcium reactor media did you change from and to?

my understanding was lanthium chloride was more cost efficient in large volume tanks, why the switch?

Wondering this too. I've been using Reborn and got my calrx set and stable. With the shortage of Reborn and the possibility it may never come back, Im dreading having to change to another brand and having to change setpoints and dialing it in again.

 

[civics14]

Wondering this too. I've been using Reborn and got my calrx set and stable. With the shortage of Reborn and the possibility it may never come back, Im dreading having to change to another brand and having to change setpoints and dialing it in again.

Yeah.... sucks. Reborn was nice. I'm using ARM right now and not having any issues with keeping up with demand. I just have a lower set point.

 

[NanCrab]

In the passed 4 months I’ve been having some issues that’s I’m playing catch up with...
1. ever since I have changed calcium reactor media, my reactor isn’t keeping up with alk demand. So I’ve set up kalk reactor but still can’t get above 7.2 dkh
two things on my mind, one I’ll build bigger kalk reactor and I will get different smaller media for calcium reactor that I had prior the change

2. bigger issue lately has been phosphates. Reading over the top at the moment, ultra lower kit can’t read it,

I have been dosing lot of lanthium chloride to keep it down but I finally gave in and planning to set up gfo reactor.
my plan is to start slow with gfo, maybe 4lbs at first the increase it to 7lbs (that’s based on recommended usage)

I lost Few high end frags to algae but surprisingly some stick are looking amazing and really flourishing.
Here is my favorite one at the moment
TSA prince peach, really exploded with growth
View attachment 25479

Over all is seems to be never ending uphill battle between nutrients control and balance.

I’m looking forward to see how the gfo will help me with phosphates and how this new reusing GFo method will work out.

Very pretty picture!

 

[Adam]

In the passed 4 months I’ve been having some issues that’s I’m playing catch up with...
1. ever since I have changed calcium reactor media, my reactor isn’t keeping up with alk demand. So I’ve set up kalk reactor but still can’t get above 7.2 dkh
two things on my mind, one I’ll build bigger kalk reactor and I will get different smaller media for calcium reactor that I had prior the change

There are lots of people with large systems over on R2R that are using crushed coral for their CARX's, the kind used for substrates. I think switching over to that type of media will give the CARX a big boost in production.

2. bigger issue lately has been phosphates. Reading over the top at the moment, ultra lower kit can’t read it,

I have been dosing lot of lanthium chloride to keep it down but I finally gave in and planning to set up gfo reactor.
my plan is to start slow with gfo, maybe 4lbs at first the increase it to 7lbs (that’s based on recommended usage)

I lost Few high end frags to algae but surprisingly some stick are looking amazing and really flourishing.
Here is my favorite one at the moment
TSA prince peach, really exploded with growth


Over all is seems to be never ending uphill battle between nutrients control and balance.

I’m looking forward to see how the gfo will help me with phosphates and how this new reusing GFo method will work out.

GFO will help deal with large reductions of PO4 but I don't think you should use it for the long term. GFO indiscriminately pulls trace along with the PO4. Lanthanum is more discriminant in targeting the PO4 and Phosphorus. Using it into a fine filter sock followed by the skimmer will be the most effective over time. This is the method WWC uses as well.

Also if your PO4 is that high the GFO will suck if up to exhaustion pretty quickly, like a day maybe less. You'll see that it has turned dark brown or black when it's used up. So after a day test and refill till you get it comfortably down. I don't think you'll have problems with the coral unless you drop it too fast, to at, or very near zero. If you start seeing signs of stress just take the reactor off line. As long as you only drop it down to like 0.10~0.15 there should be no issues. Just be ready to pull the reactor off line if something unexpected happens. Then let the systems adjust and see how fast it starts going back up. That may also happen faster than you think, as what's now bound in the rock starts releasing.

I don't remember what your main nutrient export system is. What are you using again?

 

[Dmitri]

Just wondering what calcium reactor media did you change from and to?

my understanding was lanthium chloride was more cost efficient in large volume tanks, why the switch?

I switched from regular arms to arms extra coarse. I guess it make sense since smaller ones would have more surface area for media to dissolve.

As far as using lanthanum chloride, it works but my skimmer doesn’t pull out enough particles and I’m too lazy to put socks and change them daily.

 

[Adam]

I switched from regular arms to arms extra coarse. I guess it make sense since smaller ones would have more surface area for media to dissolve.

As far as using lanthanum chloride, it works but my skimmer doesn’t pull out enough particles and I’m too lazy to put socks and change them daily.

I'm not a fan of socks or any mechanical filtering. I would only put the sock(s) in for the Lanthanum dosing using a fine sock material, like 10 micron or less.
Put in the sock(s), add the Lanthanum into the display overflow, Remove and rinse the socks inside out after 5 or so minutes. I'd also shutdown one of the return pumps before dosing. This will increase the contact time and reduce the volume of water going through the socks. It also increases the time for the skimmer to remove the finer stuff the gets past the socks.

These socks are sold in ten packs. So under $6/sock. They are also 32" long instead of the 16" ones you get at BRS or MD. With the limited use they should last a long time.

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