Recent content by cb684

I have been cycling tanks, both saltwater, and freshwater, for more than 20 years, and had never seen this happening. What do you think is going on? I started cycling a new freshwater system for Sulawesi shrimps on January 8th. Sulawesi shrimps need a high Kh, high calcium, low TDS (120 -...

I use frag glue (acrylate) to control my encrusting montis. I just put some in my finger and cover the parts I want to kill. It is a never ending process, but it works. Good luck.

I would not be that worried with ALK or pH. First, I do not believe your pH is 7.2, and if it is 7.8 that is ok. If you wish to increase the pH I would either use a CO2 scrubber before the skimmer air intake, or get air from outside to feed the skimmer. Also, I have been keeping KH of between...

Thanks for sharing, great information. This last part is what actually increases NO3 and PO4, right? So that still needs to be exported one way or another, right?

Luca, Thank you for sharing. This sentence is from the first page of that presentation: "At high carbon to nitrogen (C/N) feed ratios, heterotrophic bacteria will assimilate ammonia-nitrogen directly from the water and produce cellular protein.". So I think we might be talking about the same...

That is great, 95% after all those years is excellent! That also means that you learned some throughout... And even if you could go back and change those things, likely in a few months or in a couple of years there would be another 2.5% change you would like to do... I just finished going...

Ink, I have been thinking about that a lot lately. I read some interesting literature implying that imbalances between NO3 and PO4 may cause problems like cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates blooms... http://dspace.ut.ee/bitstream/handle/10062/591/Tonno.pdf...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28580836_The_impact_of_nitrogen_and_phosphorus_concentration_and_NP_ration_on_cyanobacterial_dominance_and_N2_fixation_in_some_Estonian_lakes

It's a second hand information but I've read (in a long thread from another forum) that imbalance between NO3 and PO4 (16:1 proportion) could add to cyano outbreaks. People fixed that dosing Seachem Flourish Phosphorus or nitrogen.

I have been pondering about activated carbon lately, and one thing that intrigues me is the fact that in the Zeovit/ Zeolite method the amount of Zeolites and flow through the reactor are apparently very important. Several problems are frequently believed to be associated to those variables and...

Right. I saw it and ordered from BRS. I will test and report back .

I am wondering if any reference solution would work for those tests or they need to be in saltwater for the test to work properly. I use Hanna checker for alkalinity and PO4 and Salifert for the others... Thank you.

Check your your test, or test for NO2 and NO3. If it was a very quick cycle these other parameters should be high.

If it is very important to you, here what I would do: I would pull this sand out (you can add later after washing it with RODI water for a week with daily water changes). Connect the frag tank to my main one (nothing inside, no rocks, sand or anything that would start a cycle) and let water run...

So I can se some acros there, monti, and other SPS, along with few LPS. All stony corals. And you are saying they are growing for one year without dosing or water changes? Top off with plain water (What that means? Not RODI?) . But maybe I just don't understand the chemistry well enough...