Good polyp being subjective of course, thanks to a flame angel few of my acros show during the day (fortunately he’s not bothered recent additions), I consider any extension as good
Tank : 30”x 30” x 20” deep
Ca : 400
Mg : 1300
Alk : 7
Po4 : 0.01
No3 : 1 - 2
Salinity : 1.025
Temp : 24c
Feeding is heavy (four times daily) as is skimming.
I also dose Aquaforest Coral A, B (Half Dose), E (Half Dose), V & Coral Food (3 Times Per week). I started using Aquaforest before my fish stocks were up and PO4/No3 were undetectable and was sufficiently convinced to continue.
I run quite a short photo period 9 hours of 4 25w T5 & 3 hours 250w 14k MH
Matthew
Hey Matthew, your parameters are why the wild echi has PE already, keeping close to NSW levels is a good move if you intend to add recently collected wild and or mari pieces on a regular basis.
Wild acros do not turn brown or sulk for ages unless you put them in water that immediately places further stress on top of the collection and transportation trauma.
I really want some of you to think about the fact that spiking your water from say 7 to something like 9 or even 10 alk in 10 mins would most likely result in acro carnage. Taking an acro frag out of a bag of 7 alk water and placing it into 9 alk water is exactly the same thing. If you spiked the alk over 3 hours to reach the high reading you would still see all hell break loose so why on earth does anyone think dripping different tank water into a bucket with the frag over a couple of hours will somehow soften the blow.
Acros in good condition like the two in Bulent's pics do not turn brown or sulk for months unless you make them do so by stressing them with conditions that freak them out. :hammer:
When acros slime they are crying............... don't make your acros cry people !
Andrew, when Matthew came to my house a few weeks ago to pick up an Acropora aspera "frag" (4" X 5" X 4"), I suggested to him that changing his BLV 14K MH bulb (250W) to 20000K Radium may transform the colour of his corals. I had your tank in mind of course as THE perfect example :twitch:.
Andrew, do you target wet skimmate, dry skimmate or something in between? My skimmer (Deltec SC 1350) produces very dry skimmate and it takes for the skimmer cup to fill up. I blame Sahin for this as he questioned the colour of my skimmate when I first set up my skimmer as it was quite light tea colour :mixed:.
PS. I like the look of that friendly and domesticated dingo.
My first 4x2x2 had 2 x 250W BLV's over it Bulent. At the time, about 17 years ago now they were $190- each bulb from memory. After about 6 months i saw a Radium tank in person and promptly ditched the BLV's for 2 x 250W Radiums that were $60- each. I have never had any other bulb as my primary light source since.................
17 years later and no one has bested that bulb still. If they had it would be lighting my tank.............
My skimmate is wet. About as clear as black tea is to look through. While i think of it, if your skimmate looks fine but has almost no bad sulphur smell but more of a stagnant pond stink - check your salinity because that's what happened ages ago when my salinity was over 1.028, from memory that was Sahin's fault.......
Anyway, i run my deltec 1455 in 24omm of water with the screw open enough to keep the water level in the riser just below the white bit on top of the clear reaction chamber. I have the air valve closed by about 10 % and it is very reactive this way compared to running it in less water depth. I mean it responds quickly to any extra crap in the water and pulls it fast rather than not showing a change in skimmate production after a putty session or sliming acros etc. I have always found that the dryer i ran the skimmer the slower it responded when i really really wanted it to lol. That's just my experience though Bulent. :wave:
Andrew,
what is your current water parameters?
Seem like it is stable nutrients with just seachem matrix.
I wonder if I can use just 7 litres of sera siporax mini to reduce my nutrients consistently?
Currently running AIO bio pellets - 300ml worth in a bio pellets reactor.
No3 always dropping to 2.5ppm and it doesn't go lower.
Have to dose potassium phosphate to a tune of 0.03ppm on dosing pump daily to maintain at 0.04ppm.
Hey Kevin,
Alk - 7.0 Salifert
Cal - 400 Salifert
Mg - 1320 Salifert
K - 410 Salifert
SG - 1.0260 refractometer calibrated with standard solution.
Nitrate - 2.0 Salifert
Phos - 0.050 Elos high res
I would add the siporax and do nothing else for at least 2 months as it will do bugger all until around the 75-90 day mark from my experience so don't rely on it for much help at all until a few months have passed. As soon as you start having trouble keeping nitrates detectable you start weaning the tank off the pellets as the bacteria population increases in your system. I have doubled my daily feeding amount in the last three weeks or so since the nutrients started bottoming out gradually. I'm still waiting to see what the phos is going to do but the tank is basically spotless algae.cyano etc wise yet the glass needs cleaning within 5-6 hours of the last. If i don't clean it daily i can see that wavy shimmer you pick up when the algae is just long enough to sway in the current - i'm talking pain in the bum fast growing glass algae guys !.
Since the acros are all happy campers i will just wait for the rest of the matrix to seed with sufficient bacteria levels to make it useful. Just before i doubled the food the glass was clean for 2 full days so it should pull back in time. From observation in my system, high phos compared to nitrates equals slower growth but good colors. The other way around results in drab colors but growth seems fine. Both too high and no growth and high zoa populations. Both too low and washed out colors with slow growth.
That's just my very general guide to what i see in my own tanks with differing nutrient levels while other parameters remain stable.
The mother of pearl white at the base of that acro is impossible to photograph with my phone camera, when i stare it it through the camera zoomed in it makes my eyes water lol. I had it all over the acro tissue when it was in the 65 gal with the marbled blue pigment throughout. That was for about a three week period and then it suddenly lost the mother of pearl white glow and i haven't been able to get it back since..........until quite recently when it started returning from the base out. You can see the pigment change well under way in the pic i hope.
If my nitrates rise above about 5 i see it immediately in my white skins like the other acros in the pic. They start to get a tinge of color same as the corallites on the branches which takes away the spectacular contast you want. The phos doesn't appear to have the same effect as i mentioned earlier.
