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Mikes reefy tale

Okay here it goes, better late than never. I started with saltwater about 12 to 13 years ago. I had a 75 gallon tank with a fuval fx 405 coral life aqualunar deluxe light and some idk maybe 1st Gen Hydor korillas. Couple months later added coral life super skimmer 125. So let's fast forward about 6 to 7 years, I built a sump with hob overflow, went through about 5 korillas, bought the smart wave for them, and a used 6 bulb t5. Let me tell you I thought I was in my glory days. My reef was rocking. About a year later I stitched to my current maxspect razors and played the led is wreaking havoc on my reef game, it took some time to figure out but i was able to stop the bleaching. Two years later I upgraded to a 90 long with a 55 gallon sump and added a reef octopus classic 160 int skimmer. Take was doing well, or at least as good as it could for bad husbandry. I experimented with alot of different fish and learned real quickly why some don't belong in a reef tank. About two yrs. ago I moved into my now wife's parents house. I kept the tank at my parents and on my way home from work I would feed and fill evap. in sump. Every 2 to 4 wks doing a water change. Yes this was a bad time for my take. In March of 2016 I had done enough renovating in my in laws house that the upstairs had became an apartment for us and I was finally able to transfer the tank over. In August of 2015 I saw an add for a brand new rr 93 cube and stand for a great price and jumped on it. I also bought a brand new eshopps r100 sump and gyre fx150 for the tank. I had to do some modifying to the stand to make it work better for me but needless to say it was all done by March. My tank transfer went extremly well. As of toady the only thing I changed was the gyre for a set of jebao sw15s, and a bio reactor around June of 2016.
 
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Tank info; 93g cube rr durso with eshopps r100 sump
2 jebao sw15 ph and jebao dct 4000 return pump
Reef octopus classic 160 int skimmer
2 maxspect razor 16k 120w led, time and percentage (w,b) is 6am 0,1 10am 0,1 12pm 55,97 7pm 55,97 8pm 0,1 11:30 0,0
Aqueon 300w heater
Gravity feed eshopps ato
Reef octopus mf-300b reactor with npx bioplasstics
Brs dual reactor only carbon in one reactor
 

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Live stock: Fish- blue throat trigger, purple tang, 2 flurry clownfish fish, 4 chromis, latern basslet,
Inverts- cleaner shrimp, 2 pepermint shrimp, 2 sand sifting stars, alot of snails and hermits, Rose bulb anenome.
Coral- mixed reef, zoas, mushrooms, blasto, Lobo, hammer, frogspawn, devils hand, Kenya tree, sorting cap, and and acro. No clue what type
Marco- cheato
 
As of today I am still trying to correct my tank parameters. I use an api master test kit..... will be replaced as the run out.... and I use salifert for phosphate, alkalinity, and calcium.
My parameters as of today are,
Temp, 80
Salinity, 1.025
Ph, 8
Amonia, 0
Nitrate, 80-160
Nitrite, 0
Phosphate, .25
Calcium, 440
Alkalinity, 9.3
I usually do about 15g water change every 10-14 days, but for the past two Sundays I have been blowing out my rock with a ph for 30 min letti g it settle then doing 30g and dosing special blend to try to promote some getter bacteria growth. I have not seen any really change as far as testing goes but tank does look slightly happier. I do not or haven't had any algea breakouts in a long time. Can anyone help me figure out my issue.
 
My last harvest was 10 days ago. I had cheato as well as a couple other macros in there. My fuge section actually spins the cheato so while it is big it's not dense. I will normally harvest ithe once it stops spinning
 

horseplay

NJRC Member
Tank looks great, especially consider the high nutrient level. How long have you been running the BP reactor? It can take a while (like 1 month) to kick in and once it does it should bring down the level quickly. So be careful not overdoing it.
 
Thank you, it has been running since June, so it has had quite some time to culture. Took me 2 months to go to 400 ml. I did not have any cyno outbreaks or algea blooms so that seemed to go well. I unfortunately never marked the full level on the reactor so I'm not sure how much has been exhausted. I don't think it has been alot. I also just started adding special blend in hopes that it can kick start bacteria growth.

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horseplay

NJRC Member
Hmm. It seems brand of pellets does make a difference. I use EcoBak it has completely striped my system in a matter of 2 months. 400ml in 200g. I now have to take it offline. We had a post a few months back discussing this.
 
Wow and yes I did see the thread. Do you have any of the EcoBak pellets left, I would definitely switch over from the npx if that's the results your getting. I used the same amount in half the water and haven't seen any real result. My question is would I just empty out my reactor and start from the beginning adding slowly when I switch over.

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horseplay

NJRC Member
I have majority of the pellets left and will use it when the need arises. Right now taking it offline so the tank can recover :)

I would empty the reactor and use the new pellets only. If anything it will be a good comparison tests. Start with 200ml you should see much heavier skimmate when it kicks in.

Large water change will lower the nutrient level significantly. A 30g change for 90g system should reduce nutrient level by 33.3%. You tank seems to be doing very well so don't do anything drastic.
 
Thanks horseplay that sounds good I will order a container this weekend normal or plus? I have done 2 30 gallon water changes the past two Sundays and havent seen any real change as far as my api test goes (I know the test kit has a horrible scale) but my anenome and coral do seem alot happier. I'll do one more 30 gallon change this Sunday.
 
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My reactors pump is only 95gph do you think I need to run a bigger pump on it? I do have a mj 400 which would be 15gph more than what I have now. I do think the media tumbles well as its not sticking together.
 
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