Matt's 29g Custom LED

Looking good Matt, lots of new colors!

Going to be a good week. Getting in a TON of stuff. I'll get the MP10ES on Thursday, then on Friday is my huge order of stuff for my rack system. Included in that order is a lab grade PH Probe for the AC3, SMR1 Biopellet Reactor, and a whole bunch of Brightwell Aquatics products such as MB7, two part, mag, patassion, and some elos test kits.

Not to mention, we should get a lot of our Black Friday/Cyber Monday stuff in. Should be a great week for receiving goodies! :-)

Yep, good days indeed!

Got in everything today. The MP10 was a day late, but that's expected the week after Thanksgiving! I was glad the large order came in. I would have been worried about that all weekend. Everything is in, and everything made it well. Nothing broke or unexpected at all. :-)

The MP10 is on the tank and it's very good. $220 good? Debatable. I'll post a review thread shortly. That way I can update my thoughts after I've had it for more time. Short review... this thing is small (2.5 inches wide... about the length of your thumb) and there are basically no cons except for the price.

I also received a small mountain of Brightwell products. My plan is to let the MP10 do it's work for a bit. Then begin my two part dosing, then once I've got those stable and saw the results of those start dosing their "color enhancing" products and trace elements to see if there is a real difference. Will do a good 30 day tracking with daily pictures.

I've worked out your business plan!

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small print
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Got a lot figured out this morning. First of all, my water parameters were way too low. I knew they were low, but I didn't trust the api test kits enough to dose based on their results. Here are my results:

Ph 7.71 - dual calibrated lab grade probe
Alk 6.4 - salifert kit
Cal 380 - elos kit
Mag 1150 - elos kit

I began my dosing to up those numbers. I'll add 2.5 ml of alk twice a day, 5 ml of cal and mag twice a day. Once each number reaches it's ideal spot I'll test daily and calculate my maintenance dose.

The great news is my other parameters look great! Elos test kit says 0 (less than 2.5) nitrates, hannah checker says untraced phosphate. Sadly I think those numbers are perfect because I still have a bit of green hair algae growing, but I'd rather have the algae in this small quantity than the phosphate. I'm going to increase my photo period on my chaeto. I decreased it by several hours recently... perhaps that is effecting it's ability to combat the gha.

So after dosing my alk in the morning before my lighting came on my ph was at 7.81. At the end of my photo period it was up to 8.21. Since it raised .1 when I added the alk in the morning I waited until it was down below 8.1 before I did my night dose.

I'm considering adding a program to my controller that will turn my fuge light on at a certain time if my ph gets too low. I'll check to see how much running the fuge light effects my ph.

Matt I've read in several places where they help control the pH swing by running the fuge light at night.

My only issue is that I hate that light being on. It lights up my whole house! Lol.

I need to buy me a nano glo and see if that would help. I love that right now it's only on when I'm asleep.

Nice tank Matt.

I'm using this as my own journal here. Lol.

I should reach 8.6 dkh alk after tuesday nights dose.

I should reach 450 ppm calcium monday night.

Going to re test mag tomorrow. The current dosing schedule appears wrong to me. If dosing at their maximum suggested rate I'm only raising mag by 5 ppm per day. So my test result saying I'm at 1150 would put me 40 days of max dosing to get those numbers up. Seems wrong...I'm going to keep a close eye on this.

Edit: after more research I am correct. 40 days of their dosing schedule. I'm in no hurry I suppose! Lol

What salt are you using? A good sized water change in a 29 gallon should raise the mag quite a bit I would think. I can't remember what my Reef Crystals mag is straight out of the bucket but I think it's in the 1350-1400 range if I remember correctly. I'll do a test on it when I get a chance to see what the numbers are. 1150 mag sounds like Instant Ocean numbers unless your tank used some magnesium. If you haven't had to dose alk or calcium yet then your tank probably isn't using much mag, it's used up way slower than alk or calcium.

Yeah, that's why I'm going to test again. I'm using reef crystals, so I think the test numbers have to be off. The mag test I used was an older one but isn't "out of date". I'll double check it...need to order another test kit.

Matt
On your next water change, test your mixed water for cal, alk and mag just so you know what the numbers are out of the salt, remember my experience with 3 DKH right out of the bucket, Testing your first mixed batch will give you the numbers on the bucket you are using, the rest of the bucket should be about the same. might be mag is low in the salt and if it is you can dose before changing water.

I was going to test that as well. I just mixed some up to run tests on and do a water change tonight. Thanks for helping me out. I can see how someone could jack their tank with dosing...especially with these color change test kits.

Api kit says 8 (although it starts it's color change on drop 7, it's only green, not yellow until . Salifert test kit says 7.0

Calcium was at 440. I'll raise it just a touch more and find my maintenance dose.

I haven't tested mag yet. My current dose is adding 3 ppm a day...so I figured I may as well order the new kit and test when I get it

Quick tank update. It's been so long since I've taken lots of pics of my tank that I'm literally not as good at it. Lol. I took forever trying to mess with the settings on the camera and in the end I still wasn't happy with what I took. I was able to get them to look decent, but I took a lot more crappy pics that ya'll don't have to look at! Haha. The whites were already off, so they're all under blue LEDs.

Got a lot done on the tank today... water change... switched out some new chemi-pure elite ect. I'm also adding in my biopellets tonight. Seems almost insane to have a reactor for how much I'm adding.

I'm starting off with 1/3rd of the recommended dose for 20g (10ml, less than a tablespoon!)... so I shouldn't have any chance of an algae outbreak or a tank crash. I've also been dosing MB7 for a few weeks now, just trying to get everything ready (5ml once a week... not much). I'll take some nitrate and phosphate readings tonight just before adding them and then keep checking every couple of days. I'm hoping to pull my phosphates down to .02 and keep nitrates at 0. I'm curious if I'll need to start adding anything for my clams, or if I'll be like other biopellet users who feed two and three times a day in order to keep their phosphates from dropping all the way to 0. Or ya know... maybe they won't do jack! Hahaha.

I believe that I've started slow enough with the biopellets. Nothing has happened thus far which is good! Many people get an algae outbreak when they fire them up but I'm not seeing anything yet. I'm going to let them sit for several more days and then add another half table spoon. I'll keep adding once every week until I'm up to the full dose for a 20g. Then I'm going to wait and add even slower past that.

Added another 10ml of biopellets tonight. I'm also adding approx 1ml of microbiactor 7 each night. No changes yet... no algae outbreaks. :-)

Doing extra water changes during the change, so I've got water ready for tomorrow.

I've got some diatoms on a small patch of sand today. I haven't seen those in a year! I read that this or a cyano outbreak was possible, and if I got my pic of the two I'd take the diatoms. If I hadn't read and expected something like this I'd likely pull them and vow to never use them again... but it's actually quite common and I'm pushing through.

I'm actually glad to see something changing in the tank. it's reminding me to take it slow! I'll do a 10% water change tonight and continue my dosing schedule. :-)

Another biopellet update. Diatoms are gone, no bacteria bloom, no reduced algae... everything is just chill. It's so hard adding these to a system that really has no problems because when no new problems start you wonder if there are enough in there to actually do anything. I will say this though... since I've added them I've fed the tank daily heavier than I've ever fed before and I see no signs of increased algae growth and my chaeto looks a touch pale.

I'm playing with dynamite!

I'm also getting the dosing closer to figure out. My math was off before Christmas when I calculated my dosing numbers apparently. I'm dosing triple what I recorded in dec to keep up (might have something to do with 17 sps corals being added). My alk dipped down to 5.8 before I kicked the dosing way up. Tonights levels:
Cal: 500
Alk: 6.55
Mag: 1350

What I'm shooting for...
Cal 460-480
Alk 8-8.2
Mag 1400-1450

And then one day the tests were not as Matt wished.




"Mein Gott zer Magnesium und Calcium results sind Krazy!"

Lol^^^

Your numbers are fine IMO. Bump the alk up a bit just to be safe. I'd leave the Mag were you have it. People raise mag up to 1500 to get rid of bryopsis and I've heard it's hard on snails when it's that high. Your mag is perfect. Nothing wrong with calcium at 500 either.

Unless you're getting deep into perfect ionic balance then don't worry about your numbers too much.

I know I'm getting much closer than I was.

I'm trying the old shooting trick... aim small miss small. lol I will keep mag in the 1350-1400 range though now that you mention it. 1450 is a touch high... I was just coming up with that based on triple 480. I was getting decent growth the lsat few weeks too... so I'm excited to see it with the numbers raised.

Yeti that's a pretty accurate description of me realizing my alk was 5.8ish. hahaha.