47G SPS...Revamp

[sahin]

Latest Parameters...

Latest Parameters...

Measured PO4 and Alk which stand currently at: less than 0.02ppm PO4 and 8dKH.

Eventually, once the tank is mature, I would like to run the PO4 a bit higher to get deeper colours...in order to avoid massive algae blooms, I will let it stay a little below 0.03ppm for the time being.

Perhaps it is my mind/eyes, but the Millepora frag appears to have slightly more hints of colour...

 

[selje]

Hmm, maybe I'll try Prodibio too. I had to take out 1/2 of my LR to kill all the star polyps who was growing on it. Maybe Prodibio will help to cycle faster when I take it back in Looking forward to see the progress here!

 

[sahin]

Hmm, maybe I'll try Prodibio too. I had to take out 1/2 of my LR to kill all the star polyps who was growing on it. Maybe Prodibio will help to cycle faster when I take it back in Looking forward to see the progress here!

The Prodibio will certainly help with the fast cycle. The two tester frags I put in my VERY young tank with no significant amount of LIVEROCK has cycled very fast and is supporting the Acropora frags very well.

Did you now FLUKE tablets easily kill the GSP? But it wouldnt kill the Aiptasia...so you are still left with that problem.

 

[stevedola]

Sahin,

Im out for now but my Im helping my dad set up another tank...he is retired so he has the time. Moved the RSM 250 into place tonight. prolly have water and sand by the weekend. Ill post pics. There will be SPS!

 

[Reefvet]

At the beginning of the thread you said you were dosing these products.

The rocks were cycled in a vat for around six weeks before they went into the tank. I have been dosing the following bacteria: Microbe Lift Special Blend, Microbe Lift Nite-Out II and Zeovit Zebac every day.

Now it's these products.

OK...so in the above post I mentioned that I am dosing bacteria.

This is what I am dosing:
On the left is a years supply of Bioptim and on the right BioDigest (Carbon/food source for bacteria and corals and the latter being Bacteria).

I'm curious why you changed ?

 

[sahin]

Sahin,

Im out for now but my Im helping my dad set up another tank...he is retired so he has the time. Moved the RSM 250 into place tonight. prolly have water and sand by the weekend. Ill post pics. There will be SPS!

Very good! Will look out for the pics.

At the beginning of the thread you said you were dosing these products.

Now it's these products.

I'm curious why you changed ?

Several reasons:
1. I have run out of those; I had used bottles of each product which I bought last year or very early this year. I dosed these products on a daily basis to jump start the filtration. Eg the Zeobac product, Zeo users dose Zeobac initially at a frequent interval and then 14 days later are able to place SPS corals into a new tank.

2. The Prodibio product is easier to dose by non reefers should the need arise as it is one vial per dose.

3. I used Prodibio in previous tanks and I am simply returning to using products or combination of products and tank practices which gave me the best results.

One of my buddies who took some of my nicer SPS corals only has a small tank; so I had to fast cycle my tank. He was kind enough to take 11 of my nicer pieces ranging from a large 6inch+ Red Planet colony to other smaller colonies or frags. He had to move some of his rocks around to accommodate the corals as he has a nice collection of LPS corals. He made some purchases this week and so last night I picked up my SPS from him.

I have bad news regarding the 30 other pieces of SPS... My buddy with the large tank had major water issues in his tank which resulted in him losing not only many of my corals, but many of his own.

His tank is under 6 months and deep down I did think it might have issues...hence why I banked my nicer corals with the buddy with the smaller, but established tank. I am pretty gutted for both of us. I just dont have the time to go and pick up the remaining corals...

I came home at 1am last night after picking up the SPS and a few other bits from my buddies and finished transferring the SPS corals into the tank at 3am.

My 1 month old son woke me up with his crying around 7am...consequently I look kind of like this at the moment:

I just checked my SPS corals and they look fine.

 

[Fishy 1]

Man that sucks buddy, hopefully you can salvage some.

 

[ap123]

I'm sorry for your losses. I've been quietly following along, but wanted to thank you for posting about the Prodibio products.

I'm currently planning/gathering equipment for a new tank, not my first but my first time using dry rock, so I've been looking at the various bacteria additives, trying to sort through what's useful and what's snake oil.

Hope you get a nap in--I remember those bleary days well!

 

[reefmutt]

Sahin, that sucks about the big stuff. I know how it feels and it feels terrible..
I'm glad you saved some. Looking forward to seeing them begin to grow out.
The good thing about being exhausted from kids waking you up is that you have absolutely no choice in the matter so you don't dwell on it... You just do what you gotta do!
.... And drink more coffee doing it.

 

[cugly]

Looking great my friend Its coming along. Welcome to being a father of hardly getting any sleep I miss it when they were small but not the sleep less nights. .now my kids will be going to college in a year..so did you acclimate the baby really well lol..congrats again glad you're back

 

[ifarmer]

sorry to hear about your tank crash.
keep it up Sahin

 

[DML08]

Sahin, glad your back at it my friend, good luck and keep us posted on your dosing, this is something I myself have consider trying when I get my system back up.

 

[sahin]

Man that sucks buddy, hopefully you can salvage some.

Sahin, that sucks about the big stuff. I know how it feels and it feels terrible..
I'm glad you saved some. Looking forward to seeing them begin to grow out.
The good thing about being exhausted from kids waking you up is that you have absolutely no choice in the matter so you don't dwell on it... You just do what you gotta do!
.... And drink more coffee doing it.

Looking great my friend Its coming along. Welcome to being a father of hardly getting any sleep I miss it when they were small but not the sleep less nights. .now my kids will be going to college in a year..so did you acclimate the baby really well lol..congrats again glad you're back

sorry to hear about your tank crash.
keep it up Sahin

Thanks guys. I could have lost a whole lot more. I was so happy to put my Red Planet colony, Blue Tort, my Hot Pink Millepora and a few others into my tank early on Saturday morning. I can gladly report that all the corals that went into the tank about 3 days ago are doing well and have great polyp extension. So far, no RTN/STN etc.

When most of these corals left my tank a few months ago they had no polyp extension and looked fairly unhealthy.

The combination of Bacteria dosing and maintenance practice has gone a long way to help establish this system very fast to be able to support Acropora. No doubt I will get some algae cycles but so far I am glad the system is able to support Acropora which is one of the most difficult of corals to keep alive.

I'm sorry for your losses. I've been quietly following along, but wanted to thank you for posting about the Prodibio products.

I'm currently planning/gathering equipment for a new tank, not my first but my first time using dry rock, so I've been looking at the various bacteria additives, trying to sort through what's useful and what's snake oil.

Hope you get a nap in--I remember those bleary days well!

There was an article with a little experimental data presented by Dana Riddle which shows that these bacterial supplements do actually work and can hasten cycling a new tank. The article is called 'Rapid Cycling' of Marine Aquaria: Brightwell Aquatics' MicroBacter7 and Continuum Aquatics' BacterGen.M http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/review

The combination of Products I used did work sufficiently for my purposes. This is probably the fasted I've cycled a tank. I can tell by how fast the Coralline Algae has started to appear that things have progressed much further in a shorter time than I expected.

Diatoms have disappeared from the branch rocks completely. There is some still present on the large plate, but it is only perhaps 20%. The sandbed is getting better too and now only has a slight dusting of diatoms.

I would have preferred to allow the system to mature a lot longer, but due to my situation I had little time and needed to utilise some of these potions

I carried out a 10% water change last night...wanted to do a larger change but had too much other stuff to so.

Sahin, glad your back at it my friend, good luck and keep us posted on your dosing, this is something I myself have consider trying when I get my system back up.

Hello my friend! Good to see that you are still around. I do look back at your 45G tank thread for inspiration man. I consider it one of the best small sized SPS systems on this forum :beer:...colours were amazing using just T5's and no enhanced pop from Blue LED's. Let me know when you start up again. Would love to follow your new tank thread.

 

[Bello]

Tanks looking good, Sahin!

Looking at all the Prodibio discussion, I just realized that I haven't dosed it in a month . Time for a quick ampoule!

Is that a Tomini tang in the vid? I have one, and they're incredibly underrated fish. Have had an excellent record with them. Great cleaners, just a bit nasty sometimes to newcomers... Keep the info rolling... I'll be stalking you

 

[sahin]

Tanks looking good, Sahin!

Looking at all the Prodibio discussion, I just realized that I haven't dosed it in a month . Time for a quick ampoule!

Is that a Tomini tang in the vid? I have one, and they're incredibly underrated fish. Have had an excellent record with them. Great cleaners, just a bit nasty sometimes to newcomers... Keep the info rolling... I'll be stalking you

Thanks Bello.

Yeah thats a Tomini Tang. He was rather thin at the LFS, but has fattened up nicely. I've had him for around a year. Unlike the larger tangs, this one is very hardy and much much less prone to Ick etc. Not had any issues with him.

He is a good cleaner as you say and is a model tank citizen; he doesnt bother anyone else.

Are you dosing both Biodigest and Bioptim? I'm dosing both. No way as extreme as the Zeovit system...Prodibio is rather subtle, but from previous experience, it does work.

Incidently, I realised today that I did dose 4 ampules of Prodibio Biodigest (bacteria) along with the 3 other types of Bacteria when I was looking to kickstart the filtration. I only had those ampules left and I think I dosed an ampule every two days on the first week the sand and rocks were added. Was so busy during those times I somehow forgot and due to the new baby I think I wasnt all that ok in the head during that time

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey sahin are you planning to keep the tang? I'd really like one for my tank but don't know if that would be a good idea?

 

[sahin]

Hey sahin are you planning to keep the tang? I'd really like one for my tank but don't know if that would be a good idea?

The Tomini is one of the smaller tangs. I am planning an upgrade to a 93G, but not sure when that will happen. In any event, if I feel he needs to go, then my buddies 6x2.5x2.5 will do nicely.

 

[markalot]

My little Kole tang is lost in my 150. Yours is a bristletooth as well, right? Seems like the name is given to multiple fish.

Need some more pics Sahin.

 

[ap123]

There was an article with a little experimental data presented by Dana Riddle which shows that these bacterial supplements do actually work and can hasten cycling a new tank. The article is called 'Rapid Cycling' of Marine Aquaria: Brightwell Aquatics' MicroBacter7 and Continuum Aquatics' BacterGen.M http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/review

The combination of Products I used did work sufficiently for my purposes. This is probably the fasted I've cycled a tank. I can tell by how fast the Coralline Algae has started to appear that things have progressed much further in a shorter time than I expected.

Diatoms have disappeared from the branch rocks completely. There is some still present on the large plate, but it is only perhaps 20%. The sandbed is getting better too and now only has a slight dusting of diatoms.

I would have preferred to allow the system to mature a lot longer, but due to my situation I had little time and needed to utilise some of these potions

I carried out a 10% water change last night...wanted to do a larger change but had too much other stuff to so.

Thanks so much! Glad to hear your acros are settling in well. It's a pleasure to follow along here.

 

[reefmutt]

I'm afraid to ask, but... Was that blue/green tenuis that looked so much like an orange passion saved or lost?