Frag Contest Check-In #3 (12/15/16)

Contestants have until the end of the day Friday, December 23rd to complete and answer the following.

This is pretty short and sweet. Parameters have been steady as she goes until I left for a work trip this week and in 4 days I manually carbon dose vinegar daily. This is a necessity due to the amounts I feed my tank of 18 fish and well over 80 corals. My amazing wonderful loving wife forgot to dose for 4 days (could you tell I am worried she will read this) anyways I digressed po4 was 1.8 when I tested and no3 was at 5. These numbers are kept as close to 0 as I can. They are back on the mend but the algae it in full force which tells me I have been walking a tight rope with feedings. I am going to bring my alk upto around 9 over a week to see if that helps with the algae. Current parameters as of today at 6am are as follows:
Alk 7.5
Calc 420
Mag 1300
Po4 0.04
No3 2
Temp 24hr average 78.2
Salinity 1.026
I use a filter sock always helps keep the sump clean, changed every 3 days tops
Increasing the light period has shown additional growth with my sps although it's a fine line with little to no shade in my tank to keep all my lps and zoas/palys happy. This is the challenge of reefing I love to hate. Hope that helps anyone or not. The growth seems very consistent week in week out. The third pic was taken the following day under full whites.




Edited by Reefer4Ever - December 17 2016 at 4:55pm

12/11/16
Po4 - 0.08
SG - 1.026
Mg - 1260
Ca - 380
KH - 9.1

12/18/16
Po4 - 0.07
SG - 1.026
Mg - 1260
Ca - 380
KH - 9.1

I do use a filter sock and I change it out twice a week.  My system is still fairly young and I'm always amazed at how much gunk I pull out every time, perhaps as things stabilize I can switch to not using one but for now I think it's helping a bunch.

-Dave