A Splash of Color

[shih87]

I have never tested potassium so have no idea of my level, but I change water weekly and I'm sure there is some in the fauna marin balling light trace element stuff and you say you hadn't noticed much difference unless it's really low.
After my stn I have stopped dosing all other stuff outside the balling lite. I was using sponge power, acro power, and fauna marin color elements (but hadn't been using long) I was wondering if it all contributed to stn so I'm hesitant to add other stuff. Is lugols likely to be in other trace elemt things I have been dosing? Do you mean the Kent lugols stuff or the not meant for aquarium stuff?
Do you dose?

Pretty much same questions I would have for FM dosing ....

BTW, very nice test acro....Biggles

 

[martinphillip03]

Since Potatohead is gone, their seems to be a power struggle in the tank.

Marty

I've run potassium from 370-420 and seen no diff with pinks, i once let it drop to 350 and the pinks on the SSC were fading. In short the whole 'potassium is the magic pink parameter' idea is a load of garbage and was probably made up by Sahin years ago, it's the sorta thing he would do.
Get some Lugols and dose 1 drop per 75gal a day which is a light dose so you won't overdo anything. You should see a nice shift in all your pigments within a couple of weeks Mike :thumbsup:



Thanks Bulent

This is my attempt to get a top down vid with the iphone and gel filter. There's no sound because i was cutting loose big time with the expletives at Moby........:deadhorse1:

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yU2klN6gcH0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


The forecast high is 108 today so i'm bunkering in with the acros and the aircon all day. That means TOP DOWN PORN SATURDAY !!!!!!!!!

 

[reefmutt]

Andrew, your 'recovering' acros are looking bloody stupendous!!

 

[Myka]

It's very hard to just watch the fallout from an epic goof without constantly second guessing yourself and thinking something else is wrong.

Sorry to hear of your troubles Andrew. I did an epic multi-goof in September, and now 10 weeks later lots of corals still haven't returned to where they were before. It's a long, hard, road out of hell.

 

[biggles]

Oooo, those are looking good! Cute fish.

Thanks Mark, he's a big goofy dufus fish blundering about lol. He nuzzles my hand for food every time i put my hand in the tank

Hi Andrew, I hope things are going well from now to on"¦.and glad to hear your mummy is doing better...:wavehand:

Thanks my friend

I have never tested potassium so have no idea of my level, but I change water weekly and I'm sure there is some in the fauna marin balling light trace element stuff and you say you hadn't noticed much difference unless it's really low.
After my stn I have stopped dosing all other stuff outside the balling lite. I was using sponge power, acro power, and fauna marin color elements (but hadn't been using long) I was wondering if it all contributed to stn so I'm hesitant to add other stuff. Is lugols likely to be in other trace elemt things I have been dosing? Do you mean the Kent lugols stuff or the not meant for aquarium stuff?
Do you dose?

Hey Mike, when in doubt and the tank is off stopping all but the basics is a good idea and i do the same if things are way off.
I use the brightwell lugols but any decent brand like kent would be the same thing i'm sure. Just about every additive/trace element will normally specify that it doesn't contain iodine so it's unlikely you are dosing iodine or iodate. It's easy to avoid - don't start adding that stuff back to your water and try just using the lugols for a couple of weeks.
I dose 3 drops each morning for 150gal system volume and have done for about 3 months now. I dose 5 drops of SP each evening and feed the fish 3 or 4 times a day. No other outside additives or foods.
I'd really like you to try the lugols Mike as i'm sure you'll notice a change within a couple of weeks unless you have an uncorrected water parameter.

Remember this piece i bought that was freshly collected and healthy, i started dosing the lugols shortly after adding it from memory.

Despite being poopy atm and just beginning to brighten back up from the near disaster i think you'll agree that the colors and saturation levels of the pigments that can be achieved given the right conditions are not at all what the wild acro actually colors up like under the sun. I like to think of it as giving old mother nature a helping hand with her half arsed attempts at making a pretty acro - i'm like an eco color warrior really
The baby blue highlight tip color is that inky satin blue you can see appearing on the purple branches which were the pale grey blue looking bits in the first pic. It was encrusting nicely and looking much cooler just prior to 'the event'. The pale base tissue is what the whole thing looked like a few weeks ago when i was still sh#tting myself silently. It still has poor PE day and night but it's getting better slowly.

Wow, the one on the left looks awesome!!! :beer:

Nice video too. Watch it on YT soon as it went online.

PS why is there a "Matt" video? That mad me laugh so much!!! Hahaha

Thanks buddy, it's very bright pink in person so it stands out nicely
I think Matt was talking about flubber purchases or something

 

[biggles]

Pretty much same questions I would have for FM dosing ....

BTW, very nice test acro....Biggles

Thanks Shih

Since Potatohead is gone, their seems to be a power struggle in the tank.

Marty

Moby and the feisty little royal gramma are two of my fav fish Marty. Moby runs away when the royal gramma chases him away from his cave complex.

Andrew, your 'recovering' acros are looking bloody stupendous!!

Thanks Matt, everything is well and truly looking better now so it's nice to smile when looking at the tank again.

Sorry to hear of your troubles Andrew. I did an epic multi-goof in September, and now 10 weeks later lots of corals still haven't returned to where they were before. It's a long, hard, road out of hell.

Thanks Mindy, these things seem to happen to all of us repeatedly and it can be depressing as all hell to sit and watch each time. Luckily there's something wrong with people like you and i Mindy as normal people wouldn't keep going through this and call it a hobby........ :spin2:

My little baby blue frag is finally showing a hint of PE after the STN stopped, you can just make out the blue polyps hiding away. I shield most of the flubber with acros as much of the bottom is too bright for them.

Oh and i changed over all my T5's to Geisemann bulbs yesterday and the Radiums were shipped from the US today so might take a couple of weeks.

 

[glaukos]

Happy that blue baby is doing ok buddy:beer:
Keeping my fingers crossed things will be good for the rest of the corals too!

Andrew,can't remember if i've asked before(damn old age and small brain ) are you running bp's and if not what's your method for nutrient removal?

 

[biggles]

Happy that blue baby is doing ok buddy:beer:
Keeping my fingers crossed things will be good for the rest of the corals too!

Andrew,can't remember if i've asked before(damn old age and small brain ) are you running bp's and if not what's your method for nutrient removal?

Thanks Mike, i don't run anything in the sump except the skimmer and a bag with a cup of carbon sitting in flow. Stopped GFO months back and do a 10% water change every two weeks. I have 10 litres of matrix laying on the bottom of the sump and overflow and the live rock, sand in the display.
About a week ago the nitrates suddenly dropped from 5 to .2 so i think some of the matrix has kicked into gear at last.

 

[glaukos]

Thanks for the info bud.
Why did you stop gfo?I'm thinking of using it atm or at least some antiphos.

 

[reefmutt]

Andrew, have you ever tried reeflux bulbs?

 

[naecO.rM]

Hi Andrew,
I saw that you are giving skimmat as a Coral food.
What do you give as food is it a skimmat liquid or that is brown substance from skimmer neck?
How old can be the skimmat fresh after cup or skimmer cleaning?

 

[biggles]

Thanks for the info bud.
Why did you stop gfo?I'm thinking of using it atm or at least some antiphos.

Nothing wrong with using gfo if you need to Mike, i just want to control it by over gunning the bio filtration with heaps of matrix which is just a more efficient form of LR bacteria hosting media. I will keep adding matrix until the water runs with barely detectable phos and dose seachem flourish to maintain nitrates at whatever level i think is best for the acros.
If i had some crazy phos problem i wouldn't hesitate to use some gfo for a few months to gain control. I'd try to slowly wean the reef off it though once things were looking good again - you do what you think works for you Mike, you know what you're doing mate.

Andrew, have you ever tried reeflux bulbs?

No i've never tried those bulbs Matt.

Hi Andrew,
I saw that you are giving skimmat as a Coral food.
What do you give as food is it a skimmat liquid or that is brown substance from skimmer neck?
How old can be the skimmat fresh after cup or skimmer cleaning?

I usually stir the liquid in the cup so all the settled goopy stuff is in suspension and then open the tap on the drain hose straight into the return pump area of the sump. My skimmer is back to normal daily production within 24 hrs of a total clean so the skimmate is ready to go then.

Btw, i have observed a very big increase in PE response at night when i turkey baste the matrix stones compared to when i just used to turkey baste the rock in the sump. The acros like whatever i'm blowing away from those stones.

 

[glaukos]

Thanks again for the info bud:beer:

 

[MichaelW]

Hi buddy, from my reading it seems that one of the trace elements you add in the balling lite containers for the fauna marin system has iodine in it. I don't know if anyone out there knows for sure about this? But if this is the case I likely would not want to add more.

 

[MichaelW]

P.s. that is quite the incredible color tranformation on that piece

 

[biggles]

Thanks again for the info bud:beer:

No probs mate

Hi buddy, from my reading it seems that one of the trace elements you add in the balling lite containers for the fauna marin system has iodine in it. I don't know if anyone out there knows for sure about this? But if this is the case I likely would not want to add more.

Might be wise to invest in a Salifert kit just to be sure Mike. I can't help you with FM info but some of the other guys will know i'm sure.

 

[cFloor]

That is one nice looking acro buddy!

I was just reading through that matrix/siporax thread and it's got me thinking about trying some.

 

[nemodan]

Andrew, that coral with blueish body and blue tips is breathtaking man !!!!

GREAT that the tank is coming back !!!!

Cheers
Daniel

 

[naecO.rM]

Thank you Andrew!
How often you do feed the corals with the skimmat?

 

[naecO.rM]

......The total rock in the display would be less than 25lbs and another 10lbs in the sump. I do a 10% water change every fortnight.
For months now i have only run the skimmer and a cup of carbon in a bag in the sump, i stopped all forms of artificial phos removal and intend adding enough matrix to handle the phos - not the nitrates. When the phos drops to where i want it i will already be dosing nitrates since they will bottom out early once the bacteria levels increase. I have tested nitrate dosing when i had zero nitrates and high phos and it does indeed make a positive difference to the acros colors - they pop a lot more.
I have another 4L of matrix ordered to make a total of 10L so far and will keep adding until i can hold just measureable phos with bacteria control. Dosing nitrates will allow me to control the level and ratio to phos with much more precision.

.... I lose pinks and reds when the water gets too dirty with nitrates and phos.

Do you still use the same filtration?
Sorry what is the matrix what do you use in the sump? How it looks like?
What do you use for nitrate dosing?
Can you post some pictures of your sump please?

How big level of nitrates and phosphates was when you lose pink and red colors, please?