How stable does stable have to be to be stable?

[Jay6363]

Following

 

[glb]

Maybe I'm just whimsical, but to me a "stable" tank just is, and has nothing to do with params. It's when your tank gets to that point where the water looks crisp and clear, the algae is minimal if at all present, corals look amazing, fish and other inverts are healthy, and coralline is growing steadily. To me "stable" takes a long time, it's not just the end of an initial setup/cycle. It's when everything in the tank is just at an equilibrium. I have a 2.5 year old tank that has been stable in my opinion since maybe its 6th month in operation (20 gal), and my 1.5 yr old 55- i looked at it yesterday and thought, ya know, everything is finally "perfect" (after going through several bouts of algal blooms). My biocube has been up since may and although the params test out fine, to me it just isnt "there". Everything is healthy, but it just doesnt have that "look", if anyone can relate. Maybe I'm just a lazy reefer, but I seldom test my tanks once they're truly "stable", and cut water changes to a minimum. Don't fix what isnt broke i guess... sorry to get all philosophical lol

I totally understand what you're saying. I am getting better at looking at the tank and knowing if something is off. The reason I started this whole experiment was that my zoas were dying. You're right, you know when everything is working.

 

[glb]

Alk today: 178ppm

 

[glb]

I think I happened upon another possible contribution to my zoa problem. Water parameters are now more stable. Crabs gone. Then I realized that I had changed the lights around the time the zoas stopped growing. I had 75% 10000k and 25% blue actinic. The corals were growing nicely, but they weren't fluorescing the way they did in the store, so when I replace the lights, the lfs said I could do 75% blue actinic and 25% white, reversing the ratio. The colors of the corals looked better but I'm thinking maybe it wasn't enough light for them. Yesterday I replaced the blue actinic bulb with a 10000k white one, back to the original ratio I had. The tank is a lot brighter! The zoas look a little better. Could it have even the lights all along? Stability has more to do with just water quality! Here's the latest pic!

 

[glb]

Just when I thought things were calming down...

See those reddish brown patches with little bubbles? It seems that I have cyano. Sheesh. It's towards the top of the tank so I'm wondering if the new lights are causing it. Nitrates were 10ppm and phosphates were 0.06ppm so I'm not too sure what's going on. I'm going to brush it off with a toothbrush and let the filter take care of it. Any advice would we welcome, as this is a new one for me!

 

[beaslbob]

Just when I thought things were calming down...

See those reddish brown patches with little bubbles? It seems that I have cyano. Sheesh. It's towards the top of the tank so I'm wondering if the new lights are causing it. Nitrates were 10ppm and phosphates were 0.06ppm so I'm not too sure what's going on. I'm going to brush it off with a toothbrush and let the filter take care of it. Any advice would we welcome, as this is a new one for me!

adjust your ighting (kill the lights for a few day is a good start) and feeding (suspending feedign for a few days is a good start) and see if the cyano dies off.

my .02

 

[glb]

adjust your ighting (kill the lights for a few day is a good start) and feeding (suspending feedign for a few days is a good start) and see if the cyano dies off.

my .02

Thanks!

 

[glb]

I scrubbed it off with a toothbrush. Came off easily. Hope that's the end of it!

 

[glb]

Well, stability comes in lots of forms. I changed out the lights to get my coral to grow again and then I get cyano algae. My tank has always been 78f. Always. Yesterday it was 83! Must be the new lights. I tilted open the top even more to cool it off. Here's my question. Should I run the lights for less time or should I swap out the 50/50 bulb for 100% blue actinic to cool things down? If I did that, my ratio would go from 75% white/25% blue to 50/50 white/blue. Sheesh. You try to solve one problem and you create another. Any advice is welcome!

 

[Hampton]

Run fans over sump, or if you don't have one, aim them at the lights. I've always had to run fans at the lights to keep them from overheating and/or from overheating my tanks.

 

[glb]

Run fans over sump, or if you don't have one, aim them at the lights. I've always had to run fans at the lights to keep them from overheating and/or from overheating my tanks.

Thanks! There's a paddle fan in the room that I'll turn on high. I also changed the timer to 6 hours instead of 9 to keep the temp down.

 

[Dan1789]

I always found it easier to test on a weekly basis to find my daily consumption rates. Test once, don't do anything for a week, test again divide by 7. A lot of stuff happens in one day that might not be directly related to your dosing. And chasing Ph through buffers is a waste, let it be stable at 7.8, get more airflow and it will naturally be higher. I also dose my water change water to what my tank is at. Love the scape btw.

 

[glb]

I always found it easier to test on a weekly basis to find my daily consumption rates. Test once, don't do anything for a week, test again divide by 7. A lot of stuff happens in one day that might not be directly related to your dosing. And chasing Ph through buffers is a waste, let it be stable at 7.8, get more airflow and it will naturally be higher. I also dose my water change water to what my tank is at. Love the scape btw.

I only tested weekly as an experiment. I'm done with that. Lol. I'm not dosing alk for ph. I'm fine with 7,8. I'm dosing for stability, as it drops really fast in my tank. Glad you like my scape!

 

[beaslbob]

Well, stability comes in lots of forms. I changed out the lights to get my coral to grow again and then I get cyano algae. My tank has always been 78f. Always. Yesterday it was 83! Must be the new lights. I tilted open the top even more to cool it off. Here's my question. Should I run the lights for less time or should I swap out the 50/50 bulb for 100% blue actinic to cool things down? If I did that, my ratio would go from 75% white/25% blue to 50/50 white/blue. Sheesh. You try to solve one problem and you create another. Any advice is welcome!

kill the lights and stop feeding until the cyano dies off.


the resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust to the cyano stays away and things look great.


(pssss I know I know repeat. But it will also cool the tank down. LOL)


my .02

 

[glb]

kill the lights and stop feeding until the cyano dies off.


the resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust to the cyano stays away and things look great.


(pssss I know I know repeat. But it will also cool the tank down. LOL)


my .02

Thanks! I also forgot that the air was off last night and this morning because it froze up. Hopefully that was most of it. Came home today and it was 84. Put ice packs in and turned the air back on and temp is going down. No more cyano that I can see but I'll keep looking!

 

[glb]

Update. I have discovered a new area of instability in my tank. I've been using purified seawater that's been sitting around sometimes for weeks. I was buying more at one time because I don't live close to the lfs, but I've learned that seawater or saltwater is unstable over time and needs to be used quickly after purchase/mixing. I'm switching to IO Reef Crystals and ro water to see if that helps keep my numbers more stable. I'll only mix a gallon at a time so it will always be fresh. I'll let everyone know how it goes!
Another thought. Testing daily, like I did for about 10 days, is an easy way to burn out. I went on strike and didn't test for 2 weeks, just did the water changes and cleaned the filter. I'm going back to testing weekly and I'll dose on average what I use up daily. And the tank looks fine.

 

[glb]

Another new thing. I recently got a hydor nano circulator and love it. I think the moving water will keep my corals cleaner.

 

[Hampton]

Another new thing. I recently got a hydor nano circulator and love it. I think the moving water will keep my corals cleaner.

I think you may be right. My latest aquarium design is round for just that reason - circulation. Circulation requires circles, right?

 

[Hampton]

Thanks! There's a paddle fan in the room that I'll turn on high. I also changed the timer to 6 hours instead of 9 to keep the temp down.

Fan on light.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[mcarroll]

Update. I have discovered a new area of instability in my tank. I've been using purified seawater that's been sitting around sometimes for weeks. I was buying more at one time because I don't live close to the lfs, but I've learned that seawater or saltwater is unstable over time and needs to be used quickly after purchase/mixing. I'm switching to IO Reef Crystals and ro water to see if that helps keep my numbers more stable. I'll only mix a gallon at a time so it will always be fresh. I'll let everyone know how it goes!

Eh...unless there's something unique that goes bad in natural, packaged seawater I'm gonna call bunk-o on that. There are some vitamins (in e.g. Reef Crystals) that will break down after a few days, so you do lose some value, but the batch would hardly be unusable.

Regardless of that, you may find your tank to be more stable (or stable in a better range) with Reef Crystals as it's designed with a much larger margin of safety for alkalinity and the other major minerals.

Another thought is that mixing small batches can actually lead to inconsistency by other avenues, unless you are buying mix in small batches....depending how you handle your salt, you cause more or less settling every time you move it around or use it. Also, you will have some measurement inaccuracies, among other things.

I say don't worry too much about any of this once you have a salt that gives you the right profile of major minerals you're looking for. Get a good routine that you can make easy and stick with and just roll with it.

-Matt