A Splash of Color

[DiscusHeckel]

I have 600L of water in the system give or take 20L. 25 US gallons is close enough to 100L for me so we will be using that conversion rate.

I have a bit more than 150 US gallons of water in the system so........

One drop per 5 gal becomes 30 drops per 150 gal. 30 drops is 1.5ml daily going off the recommended daily dose.

Have i got that wrong or have you Bulent lol - either way the koral color will do nothing unless you mix it with something else.

I raised alk to 200ml daily 10 days ago. Today it is at 220ml daily to maintain 7.0 alk.

Thanks for the explanation Andrew.

You previously stated that "I dose 2.5ml of the koralcolor along with 10ml of salifert trace hard every second day". Therefore, I interpreted this as you followed the basic dosing method (because of "every second day), according to which:

150 (US) gallons / 25 (US) gallons = 6 ml "every three days (alternatively, twice a week), hence my query. :clown:

Now you are saying that you dose daily. In this case, 150 (US) gallons / 5 (US) gallons = 20 drops per day, which is just over 1 ml daily. Phew ...

What do you mean by "either way the koral color will do nothing unless you mix it with something else"?

In my case, I mix it with Tropic Marin anionic and cationic elements.

Cheers

 

[biggles]

I have been regularly swishing the matrix in either the sump or overflow every second night as i think i'm getting a bacteria feeding response from the acros. Never saw such crazy reactions before swapping the live rock out for matrix.

The long whip like filaments are maximizing the corals ability to capture food from the water i believe. About 1.5" long at times.

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M-4cTxgKOzU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I need to go back and answer everyone before i spill the beans on what i stumbled upon quite recently. :reading:

 

[Reefvet]

The long whip like filaments are maximizing the corals ability to capture food from the water i believe. About 1.5" long at times.

Those are Mesenterial threads, extensions of the mesenteries - internal folds of tissue that form a coral polyp's body. They're full of nematocysts and are used for feeding and attacking other corals.

 

[biggles]

Those are Mesenterial threads, extensions of the mesenteries - internal folds of tissue that form a coral polyp's body. They're full of nematocysts and are used for feeding and attacking other corals.

Yes they are mate, i know i'd probably lose a game of chess to one of your test monkeys but i do know basic coral anatomy.............

While we're talking test monkeys, how many do you have in that lab of yours.......... if you're up to no good experimenting on them just say you don't actually have test monkeys and we'll all know what you really mean.......:thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

I guess the grass is always greener then because I think mine have nothing on yours. :beachbum:

You have dragons Greg........... dragons :deadhorse1:

That I do mate and look at those pretty acro's you have :eek2: I'm thinking it might be the way to go and simplify it further with a Ca reactor too lol

Calcium reactors are a pain unless you add all the extra expensive stuff like a dedicated dosing pump etc. Dripping alk out of a Tupperware jug works ok for me.......

Very nice picture's A.


I do remember when you said the algae on your film comes back about 15-30 minutes after a clean.


The reason I ask is this morning I went to clean the glass, And about a few hours later I see a nice film on each pane of the glass. Oddly this has never happened before so there must be some nutrient in the water = good I hope.


What is your nutrient export like? besides having the matrix in the sump and a good skimmer?

I only have an overratted skimmer, a few scoops of gfo, and matrix with a filter sock in mine, So I dont know if that's enough. I will also be cutting back on feeding so i can figure out the sweet spot. Im beginning to see an early stage of red/brown cyano building up on my rocks.

Hey Bob, i have the skimmer and a cup of carbon in a mesh bag in the sump along with the matrix stones in the overflow and sump return section for my water filtration. I have a small amount of green cyano on the top section of the overflow wall but it stays there so it doesn't bother me too much tbh.

I have 16L of matrix for 600L of actual water volume and a large sand bed with the small amount of rock in the display so the bacteria have lots of cozy places to hang out.

Andrew. I am a bit speechless... But I'm going to try to express myself.....

HOLY JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH!!!!!!!

I can NOT believe my eyes...

Something has gone in your tank over the past month... The richness and the saturation are unlike anything I have EVER seen... Literally... I have NEVER seen a collection of consistently mind blowing corals, EVER..... AND I SEE QUITE A FEW CORALS!!

have you gone back 8 or so pages? Your corals do not look this good (yes they still look better than most..but..)
What have you done in the past month?
Koral color..iodine.. What else???
Just un bloody believable!!!!

No, I'm not done... The amount of shades of blue and purple in your tank are out of this world.. Let alone pink and red..and.. It's just crazy..
And I'd still never kick that nice little yellow-greening a bit but not much-Acro out of my reef... She calls to me, Andrew! She whispers, too.....she says things...... but I'm getting off topic.. COLOR!!! LIKE CRAZY COLOR!! And Matt's madness...... COME ON!?!
I'm intrigued by your noting that your nutrients have been dropping and you've been feeding more to compensate.... I've had the same thing happen lately, but I've been dosing some aquaforest bacteria..
When did you start using brightwell koral color- or whatever it's called..

Lol, i think you were the only one who actually noticed how sudden and dramatic the shift was without me saying anything Matt.

Love it. Amazing coral collection and all look super healthy. What indeed you did recently?

Thanks my friend.

Holy crap. Not much more to say except thanks for sharing the pictures and videos. Awesome.

Thanks Mark.

This icefire echi has set a very high standard to which I am unlikely to reach .

I am lost for words.

:beer:

Bulent

You're a great acro reefer Bulent, you won't have a problem pulling the icefire colors on your echi mate

 

[biggles]

Crazy... You're doing something right, Dr. Biggles!!

What does that mean.. "The koral color will do nothing unless you mix it with something else"?

Now go clean the glass and report back!!!

Please..

It bloody means what i said it does Matt. You can not make bigglejuice unless you mix koral color and salifert trace hard together. :reading:

Thanks for the explanation Andrew.

You previously stated that "I dose 2.5ml of the koralcolor along with 10ml of salifert trace hard every second day". Therefore, I interpreted this as you followed the basic dosing method (because of "every second day), according to which:

150 (US) gallons / 25 (US) gallons = 6 ml "every three days (alternatively, twice a week), hence my query. :clown:

Now you are saying that you dose daily. In this case, 150 (US) gallons / 5 (US) gallons = 20 drops per day, which is just over 1 ml daily. Phew ...

What do you mean by "either way the koral color will do nothing unless you mix it with something else"?

In my case, I mix it with Tropic Marin anionic and cationic elements.

Cheers

Don't be quoting stuff i said before Bulent......... i don't like it.........

I don't follow any dosing method Bulent so do like me and don't even read the tiny writing on the side of the bottle.

I mix the salifert trace hard with the koral color at a ratio of 5:1 and i dose from that solution at a rate of 1ml per 100L of actual water volume every morning by squirting 6ml in the display. I'm actually dosing 6.6ml now as i want to see how much is too much by slowly increasing the dose each week.

I dose 2 drops of lugols every morning not 3 as i'm experimenting with that as well.

Not even skimmate has been going in the water anymore, just mysis, pellets, flake and nori every day along with the basic stuff above and that's it.
You don't need to mix the solutions together but you should dose both daily not weekly etc if you want to experiment for a giggle.

bigglejuice............ you know you want to Bulent.

Using the tinted film over the nokia lately in case you didn't notice. When i don't alter the colors at all it gives a pretty decent result. The three frags on the left on new white plugs are the first truly aquacultured frags i have ever added to a display. Except for the red and blue monti the other frags are part of the high explosive frag bomb i am constructing for my partner in acro crime Dom - we are planning to detonate the device in his display this week :blown:

 

[Reefvet]

Yes they are mate, i know i'd probably lose a game of chess to one of your test monkeys but i do know basic coral anatomy.............

Well I thought so but your comment made me think you might not know how common that reaction is.

While we're talking test monkeys, how many do you have in that lab of yours.......... if you're up to no good experimenting on them just say you don't actually have test monkeys and we'll all know what you really mean.......:thumbsup:

No need for Monkeys when you have graduate students :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

I should have used the correct terminology but 'whip' has a ring to it. I meant to say that i don't normally see such long extension on the mesenterial threads (as if they were whips cracking in the water) - can't help it

What i was worried might happen........ the wild stuff is going to beat the aqua cultured frags up when the lights go out i reckon.........

 

[bimborocks]

Just spent a few hours reading through your entire thread, amazing documentation and photography

 

[mhucasey]

Andrew, bigglejuice looks remarkably like dabbling in rebel alliance alchemy...

Whatever you are doing, it is obviously working. Oh and I think a tracking ankle bracelet for reefmutt Matt may be a good idea given his feelings for the princess:lol:

 

[Reefvet]

What i was worried might happen........ the wild stuff is going to beat the aqua cultured frags up when the lights go out i reckon.........

There's no research that would suggest that's likely to happen and I've never seen a difference in defensive response over 30+ years of mixing wild collected and aquacultured SPS and LPS.

In fact mesenterial threads are typical when food is small and in a high concentration in the water caused by bacterial breakdown of something the polyp can't catch without putting out a finer feeding mechanism.

So when you stir up the matrix and or drain the skimmer cup back into the tank you're most likely to see that response.

 

[reefmutt]

It seems to me that i notice them more on my corals when my nutrients are lower than normal, or when nutrients are dropping.. As though the corals are 'hungrier' and trying harder to get nourishment from the floating food instead absorbing dissolved nutrients.
Lately, I have been using a not too aggressive po4 absorber and have been watching my nitrate go down from 3-5 ppm to around .5ppm. This has corresponded with more of my corals putting out those mesenteric filaments during fish feeding...
I have no idea if corals respond like this or if it is just a coincidence..

 

[reefmutt]

Andrew, bigglejuice looks remarkably like dabbling in rebel alliance alchemy...

Whatever you are doing, it is obviously working. Oh and I think a tracking ankle bracelet for reefmutt Matt may be a good idea given his feelings for the princess:lol:

I have to agree! The tracking bracelet may indeed be a prudent idea... I cannot trust myself!!!

 

[reefmutt]

Andrew, bigglejuice looks remarkably like dabbling in rebel alliance alchemy...

Whatever you are doing, it is obviously working.

Just figured I'd quote this..... might be worth repeating.

Has anyone compared Aquaforest's Micro E to Salifert Trace Hard?
They are very similar in ingredients... no idea about ratios or concentration...

 

[biggles]

Just spent a few hours reading through your entire thread, amazing documentation and photography

Thanks mate

Andrew, bigglejuice looks remarkably like dabbling in rebel alliance alchemy...

or i may be pulling you all into a cyano black hole that will swallow your puddle reefs........

There's no research that would suggest that's likely to happen and I've never seen a difference in defensive response over 30+ years of mixing wild collected and aquacultured SPS and LPS.

In fact mesenterial threads are typical when food is small and in a high concentration in the water caused by bacterial breakdown of something the polyp can't catch without putting out a finer feeding mechanism.

So when you stir up the matrix and or drain the skimmer cup back into the tank you're most likely to see that response.

Lol it's happened again mate, i was making a joke due to the way the acros were crowded around the new frags that looked like bullies about to beat up some new guys......

It seems to me that i notice them more on my corals when my nutrients are lower than normal, or when nutrients are dropping.. As though the corals are 'hungrier' and trying harder to get nourishment from the floating food instead absorbing dissolved nutrients.
Lately, I have been using a not too aggressive po4 absorber and have been watching my nitrate go down from 3-5 ppm to around .5ppm. This has corresponded with more of my corals putting out those mesenteric filaments during fish feeding...
I have no idea if corals respond like this or if it is just a coincidence..

If you add the paste off the diamond wheel after slicing an acro up you can get an instant filament response - not really sure that info will ever help any of us move forward in the hobby however..........:hmm2:

I have to agree! The tracking bracelet may indeed be a prudent idea... I cannot trust myself!!!

That's why i moved her today Matt...........:wavehand:

Just figured I'd quote this..... might be worth repeating.

Has anyone compared Aquaforest's Micro E to Salifert Trace Hard?
They are very similar in ingredients... no idea about ratios or concentration...

 

[mhucasey]

or i may be pulling you all into a cyano black hole that will swallow your puddle reefs........

Gentlemen, you may begin your attack run...


All wings report in.

Red Ten standing by.

Red Six standing by.

Red Nine standing by.

Red Two standing by.

Red Five standing by.

 

[biggles]

:mad2: #$$@##$! rebels...............

Darth Acro shuddered with rage at the unprovoked rebel pink acro stunner porn attack carried out by their stinkin leader Obi Matt Kenobi.............. :mad2::hammer:

The Acro Death Star made a sudden course change away from the small salty cesspool planet of Sahinooine............. hidden acro porn cannons began humming with life........

 

[FloformAustria]

this is by far the most funny thread i have ever read..

and maybe a few beautiful corals... maybe... :blown:

:strooper::strooper:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Andrew,

In post #516, you indicated that you planned to send water sample for an ICP test. Assuming that you went for it, have you got the results yet?

Thanks

Bulent

 

[Wrangy]

You poor poor rebel scum.. :lol:

You have no idea of the power of the Acro Death Star that awaits you, you will all be crushed in an instant of the Acro Porn Cannons firing at maximum charge :strooper: