Heidi's 150g cube

[bigbill]

gl luck with the restock your ever my way i can frag u some stuff to get u going

[Sir Patrick]

Glad to see ya around again!

Also glad to not see your tank full of algea....as your description had me picturing!

[Heidi]

It really don't look bad at all. From the way you were talking I was expecting it to look like a city dump. Why you wanna go and start dosing stuff again? Ever hear of KISS? If not it means Keep It Simple Stupid!!! Sometimes less is more Glad to have you here Heidi

Aww shucks Miz,, but you know it could be looking way, way better I am really going back to the simple method of carbon dosing and MB7 which is what I did in the little Hex and in this tank before the original one broke and I had to replace it. I had colorful acros... that is all I desire

WOW! Ya must be frustrated ! I agree with the bio pellet comments. We lost allot of mature corals when we gave em a try as well as other reefers we knowIt would be easy to say it was something else but both mine and the wife's tank fell victim to the stripping effect of them.I even bought what is probably the most expensive reactors on the market. They now are just expensive carbon reactors. One nice thing about a crash you get to do the things that you wanted too ! I am sure your tank will be beautiful again in no time. Will be following along for sure.

That "Stripping" describes it perfectly. It was like slow RTN and so slow you thought stuff might come back but slowly they all just completely died. Sad cause it was the corals I had grown from little frags that seemed so healthy and sturdy, I had the reef octopus bio-pellet reactor and I tried a few different kinds of pumps and a few different kinds of bio-pellet media, and stuff looked alright for maybe 4 months then bad things started to happen.

gl luck with the restock your ever my way i can frag u some stuff to get u going

Thanks for your kindness Bill I may take you up on that, I will be coming to the Lansing Swap

Yeah biopellets if done to quick or overdone can be devastating from what I have read on them. You have to feed alot or you will completely strip the tank and that sounds like what happened unfortunately Keep in mind tho, with vodka etc. dosing you can do the same thing if not done properly. Either way you have a fresh canvas now paint a pretty picture

I had started the "VGV" carbon dosing method (from Coral Magazine) it's a mix of 80 proof, vinegar, and glucose. I like the "old school" dosing methods because you can back way off if you notice problems or ramp it up so it is very personalized to your system and how you feed etc. I thought about automating the VGV but I want to get it really perfect and for that to happen I have to start really slowly stinks cause I wish I could just plop what I was dosing in there (from my measurements before) but my system is fluid... teeheehee that is to say it has changed and I need to personalize my dosing again. I think I may automate my MB7 dose because it is the same no matter what for an "upkeep" amount. I like to feed my tank a lot so really the only way I would ever be able to have pretty coralz and fat fish is with a carbon program. (I am only a week into the carbon dosing so I will keep yall updated on how that goes. Thanks for the encouragement Chris it's great to be back!

Glad to see ya around again! Also glad to not see your tank full of algea....as your description had me picturing!

It feels right to be back plugged in, man is there so much stuff to read on here I feel so out of the loop!! it isn't full of green stuff with my little tang gang they keep all that mowed down. Its more of a huge Nitrate issue so the cyano is really really bad, I vacuumed it right before the picture BUT I'm taking desperate measures.. BECAUSE DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MESSURES SO 3 days ago I tested my nitrates, lets just say I knew they were high. (They were between 60 and 80 PPM) See back when everything died this summer around Julyish, I really stopped caring about my tank. My mother at one point even said "Man Heidi, whats up with that tank, it looks pretty ****ty..." This is a woman who has named my fish by their respective "Finding Nemo" names you know its bad when one of those type rags on it. SO from August on I bought no new coral, didn't test my water, didn't do water changes, just fed my fish and that was about it. A few weeks ago (after the comment from my mother) I bought more live rock and added sand, rescaping a bit and trying to make the ugliness look better. I noticed the cyano was pretty bad but I still didn't have time to fix it and mess around with the tank (when it gets this bad it just kinda is... its pretty hard to even look at it I was just feeding my fish to keep them alive wondering if I just wanted to take the tank down and call it quits for now) BUT I love my tank, and I know it can be good again. I have resources to help me and I can make it better then ever, I am sure of that. So I went to the store today and bought some Amquel, dosed 300 ML and checked my water again tonight and the nitrates are way down! (about 30ppm) A couple corals look stressed but they were stressed before, and my fish I swear are happier! The skimmer has been crazy today I have had to empty it once today already. So we will see, I have 50 gallons of mixed and ready to go in for a water change if it was needed today, but I think everything will be fine. I am going to do a 30 gallon WC in the morning regardless, it will be the first since the middle of June. Well thats all for now, that was a lot, but it has been a while. I'll update in a few days to keep you all in the loop. Cheers! Heidi

[marc49127]

How is the tank doing?

[Riblet]

Any updates? I'm just starting my 36" cube.

[binford4000]

Any updates? I'm just starting my 36" cube.

My thoughts exactly ! Lets see some growth shots !