Syntax1325
Acro Addict
I'm starting this thread so I can document my results with the aquaforest products. Here is some basic information about my tank that is NOT included in my signature:
The tank has been up for 2 years and is a mixture of SPS, LPS and a few softies... My true passion are Acropora; however, my wife likes the lps and softies, they are there to the money keeps flowing.
About four months ago I was having some issues with my acropora, I was losing large colonies seemingly without cause. I panicked a little and ended up selling off all my acros before I lost them all... I was going to break the tank down and save for a larger system and then had a change of heart. I used the money from selling my acros to perform a "soft reboot" of my system: Lots of water changes and some rock rework... I began stocking the system with higher end frags this time. By the way... after having a Triton water test done, my system was low on Potassium, Iodide and Strontium.... I had many coral "nubs" from my sell off still attached to the rocks.... as soon as I corrected my Potassium all the corals recovered and started growing! Lesson learned... check potassium. Before I sold my acros I did not have a potassium test or a supplement.... i corrected the issue with a salifert test and KZ Strong Potassium. So, now that the coral leftovers were growing I decided to introduce some frags....
Current tank parameters:
Alk: 7.4 (red sea)
CA: 400 (salifert)
Mag: 1260 (salifert)
Potassium: 380 (salifert)
Nitrate: 0 (salifert)
P04: 0 (red sea)
Fish Load:
Sailfin Tang
Foxface Lo
Kole Tang
Blue Spot Goby
Cleaner Wrasse
Melanurus Wrasse
Lyretail Anthias (2)
Clown Fish
Solon Wrasse
Things are growing fairly well but I'm not really pleased with the colors of all the corals at this point... I'm looking for not only improvement, but spectacular colors and growth. There are some issues that I'm dealing with going into this transition:
1) I have some cyano growing on the substrate and a little on the rocks. It is not a major problem, but it is unsightly.
2) I've had some bryopsis growing in my overflow box for over a year.... It only stays there and I harvest it once every two weeks... I don't stress over it because it stays in the box, kind of my own mini algae scrubber.
3) One of my Mariculture colonies that was coloring up nicely started to show some recession on a couple of the tips. I'm not sure of what is causing this; however, it seems to be an isolated case at this point. I snipped the tips with recession and put the coral back and will observe.
The combination of the bryopsis in my overflow box, cyano, and a large ball of chaeto in my sump has brought my nutrients to 0.... Obviously this is a false negative and something I hope the Aquaforest products will help to remedy.
Things I'm contemplating:
I'm questioning whether to remove my sandbed... As it stands, the sand is uneven, the front middle of the tank is bare and the back may have as much as 3 inches of sand. the sand is populated with many small fan worms... some of these fan worms have grown rather large to small feather duster in size.
My sump is a mess.... I don't use a filter sock so there is a lot of detritus there... there's also an incredible amount of sponge life, diverse as well. I have some rocks in there and will vacuum some of the detritus out occasionally. I have an almost basketball sized clump of chaeto in my sump, never tumbles but grows like mad.... also has a lot of small white feather duster type worms towards the bottom of the clump. I harvest it every two weeks or so, enough to fill up a gallon ziploc bag. Anyway, I'm not sure how to handle my sump... i don't want to disturb the sponge life in it.
Ok, so now onto my process for dosing:
I'm using BRS additives for the big 3 via a dosing pump.
I have purchased Components A,B and C / Coral A,E,V,B and Kalium / some phos minus / Pro Bio S and NP Pro.
I've never run gfo on this system and haven't used carbon in months... this morning I did add a reactor with 1 cup of BRS Lignite. I do have a Tlf 150 reactor filled with Matrix bio media and some in a makeshift mesh sock in the sump... totalling 1 liter.
Dosing Schedule
Monday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and V (2 drops)
Tuesday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Wednesday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and v (2 drops)
Thursday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Friday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and v (2 drops)
Saturday Kalium (1 drop)
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Sunday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Component ABC (1 cap full)
Please excuse my photo's, they are quite terrible. I'm using a Canon T3I with a Canon 100mm macro.... I haven't figured out how to take solid pictures of the tank; however, these should give you a good idea of the colors and conditions of the corals.
Yongei grown from two small pieces:
Cali Tort from Cultivated Reef
Ice Tort from DD: Been in the tank for two weeks: hasn't really done much
Ultimates blue Stag: Came from T5's and was a very Pastel color, has faded a little and even changed color:
Lime Green Milli: Had white growth tips but they have colored up, been in the tank for about two weeks:
Tricolor: Been in the tank for about a month... encrusting
DFS Red Dragon from DD: been in the tank for two weeks: Has been growing and encrusting
DFS Pacman from DD: Been in the tank for two weeks: Growing and encrusting
Forest Fire Digi: Been in the tank for about a month, Growing and encrusting
Unknown Mari Colony: Purchased when it was brown... Been coloring up nicely but have noticed a couple tips with some tissue recession... not sure what's going on with it.... clipped the tips and put it back in the tank.
I can't tell if my system is not producing colorful corals because of lack of nutrients or because of an excess of them.
I feed the tank once a day with frozen food, sometimes Mysis and sometimes a mixture of a bunch of frozen seafood. I rinse the food first.
The tank has been up for 2 years and is a mixture of SPS, LPS and a few softies... My true passion are Acropora; however, my wife likes the lps and softies, they are there to the money keeps flowing.
About four months ago I was having some issues with my acropora, I was losing large colonies seemingly without cause. I panicked a little and ended up selling off all my acros before I lost them all... I was going to break the tank down and save for a larger system and then had a change of heart. I used the money from selling my acros to perform a "soft reboot" of my system: Lots of water changes and some rock rework... I began stocking the system with higher end frags this time. By the way... after having a Triton water test done, my system was low on Potassium, Iodide and Strontium.... I had many coral "nubs" from my sell off still attached to the rocks.... as soon as I corrected my Potassium all the corals recovered and started growing! Lesson learned... check potassium. Before I sold my acros I did not have a potassium test or a supplement.... i corrected the issue with a salifert test and KZ Strong Potassium. So, now that the coral leftovers were growing I decided to introduce some frags....
Current tank parameters:
Alk: 7.4 (red sea)
CA: 400 (salifert)
Mag: 1260 (salifert)
Potassium: 380 (salifert)
Nitrate: 0 (salifert)
P04: 0 (red sea)
Fish Load:
Sailfin Tang
Foxface Lo
Kole Tang
Blue Spot Goby
Cleaner Wrasse
Melanurus Wrasse
Lyretail Anthias (2)
Clown Fish
Solon Wrasse
Things are growing fairly well but I'm not really pleased with the colors of all the corals at this point... I'm looking for not only improvement, but spectacular colors and growth. There are some issues that I'm dealing with going into this transition:
1) I have some cyano growing on the substrate and a little on the rocks. It is not a major problem, but it is unsightly.
2) I've had some bryopsis growing in my overflow box for over a year.... It only stays there and I harvest it once every two weeks... I don't stress over it because it stays in the box, kind of my own mini algae scrubber.
3) One of my Mariculture colonies that was coloring up nicely started to show some recession on a couple of the tips. I'm not sure of what is causing this; however, it seems to be an isolated case at this point. I snipped the tips with recession and put the coral back and will observe.
The combination of the bryopsis in my overflow box, cyano, and a large ball of chaeto in my sump has brought my nutrients to 0.... Obviously this is a false negative and something I hope the Aquaforest products will help to remedy.
Things I'm contemplating:
I'm questioning whether to remove my sandbed... As it stands, the sand is uneven, the front middle of the tank is bare and the back may have as much as 3 inches of sand. the sand is populated with many small fan worms... some of these fan worms have grown rather large to small feather duster in size.
My sump is a mess.... I don't use a filter sock so there is a lot of detritus there... there's also an incredible amount of sponge life, diverse as well. I have some rocks in there and will vacuum some of the detritus out occasionally. I have an almost basketball sized clump of chaeto in my sump, never tumbles but grows like mad.... also has a lot of small white feather duster type worms towards the bottom of the clump. I harvest it every two weeks or so, enough to fill up a gallon ziploc bag. Anyway, I'm not sure how to handle my sump... i don't want to disturb the sponge life in it.
Ok, so now onto my process for dosing:
I'm using BRS additives for the big 3 via a dosing pump.
I have purchased Components A,B and C / Coral A,E,V,B and Kalium / some phos minus / Pro Bio S and NP Pro.
I've never run gfo on this system and haven't used carbon in months... this morning I did add a reactor with 1 cup of BRS Lignite. I do have a Tlf 150 reactor filled with Matrix bio media and some in a makeshift mesh sock in the sump... totalling 1 liter.
Dosing Schedule
Monday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and V (2 drops)
Tuesday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Wednesday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and v (2 drops)
Thursday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Friday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral A and v (2 drops)
Saturday Kalium (1 drop)
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Coral B and E (2 drops)
Sunday
Kalium (1 drop)
Pro Bio S (2 drop)
NP Pro (2 drop)
Component ABC (1 cap full)
Please excuse my photo's, they are quite terrible. I'm using a Canon T3I with a Canon 100mm macro.... I haven't figured out how to take solid pictures of the tank; however, these should give you a good idea of the colors and conditions of the corals.
Yongei grown from two small pieces:
Cali Tort from Cultivated Reef
Ice Tort from DD: Been in the tank for two weeks: hasn't really done much
Ultimates blue Stag: Came from T5's and was a very Pastel color, has faded a little and even changed color:
Lime Green Milli: Had white growth tips but they have colored up, been in the tank for about two weeks:
Tricolor: Been in the tank for about a month... encrusting
DFS Red Dragon from DD: been in the tank for two weeks: Has been growing and encrusting
DFS Pacman from DD: Been in the tank for two weeks: Growing and encrusting
Forest Fire Digi: Been in the tank for about a month, Growing and encrusting
Unknown Mari Colony: Purchased when it was brown... Been coloring up nicely but have noticed a couple tips with some tissue recession... not sure what's going on with it.... clipped the tips and put it back in the tank.
I can't tell if my system is not producing colorful corals because of lack of nutrients or because of an excess of them.
I feed the tank once a day with frozen food, sometimes Mysis and sometimes a mixture of a bunch of frozen seafood. I rinse the food first.
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