A Splash of Color

[reefmutt]

I always sit down and tilt my head before I look at this thread..
Keeps me from falling down and hurting myself.

 

[bibarassa]

Once i use up the last of this bucket i'll get some NSW and flush the system with a few 20% water changes over a month. I might go back to continuum salt which was 7.6 mixed.

Andrew,
maybe I don't understand, this means monthly WC with NSW. Is it right?

 

[JB NY]

Andrew your coral are really looking spectacular.

Your observations on Manganese have me interested. One of the elements I have been dosing separately for the last 2 month has been Manganese. I found that dosing weekly seems to not be enough to keep a decent level so I am currently getting ready to start dosing daily to try and keep levels around .02 mg/l, but after talking to a few people it seems that I can easily go as high as .14 mg/l without issues so there looks to be lots of room for error. I was adding the manganese for growth and color, but I like the information you posted on it's relation to cyano and low iron. One of the interesting things about traditional reef methods of supplementing manganese is that it is almost always dosed with iron. I have been using the triton manganese supplement, but that will be too expensive in the long run so I am currently trying to get another supplier to mix up some that I can dose.

 

[Piper27]

I think this topic deserves it's own thread, in order to not blow up bjggles thread and also to let others that aren't viewing his thread learn from the topic. Is there a certain chelated maganese in pill form that is safe to use for supplimenting our reefs?

 

[Piper27]

That icefire colony is crazy! It would be cool to grow out in a tank by itself just to watch the growth formations change from being pulled out of the oceae and put into a tank. I would hate to see that thing get dropped!!! My lord, there would be like 2 million 1/2" frags laying on the floor, slimey and smashed.... actually that thing looks like it has some gurth in the center branches. Beautiful!

 

[mhucasey]

Andrew your coral are really looking spectacular.

Your observations on Manganese have me interested. One of the elements I have been dosing separately for the last 2 month has been Manganese. I found that dosing weekly seems to not be enough to keep a decent level so I am currently getting ready to start dosing daily to try and keep levels around .02 mg/l, but after talking to a few people it seems that I can easily go as high as .14 mg/l without issues so there looks to be lots of room for error. I was adding the manganese for growth and color, but I like the information you posted on it's relation to cyano and low iron. One of the interesting things about traditional reef methods of supplementing manganese is that it is almost always dosed with iron. I have been using the triton manganese supplement, but that will be too expensive in the long run so I am currently trying to get another supplier to mix up some that I can dose.

It can be purchased as manganese Chloride online and probably enough Manganese to last years at a fraction of the cost of a commercial supplement. Interesting that Triton has a Manganese supplement.

One other thing, if I remember correctly, along with Iron, the Zeolites we use also leach manganese...

 

[JB NY]

It can be purchased as manganese Chloride online and probably enough Manganese to last years at a fraction of the cost of a commercial supplement. Interesting that Triton has a Manganese supplement.

One other thing, if I remember correctly, along with Iron, the Zeolites we use also leach manganese...

Yeah, I have been looking at doing just that. I need to find a dosing calculator to work in conjunction with it so I know what to dose. My target is to dose .016 mg/l per day, then see if I need to up the dosage from there.

 

[reefmutt]

Joe, are you relying on triton for testing manganese?

 

[JB NY]

right now I am.

I still need to find out what kind of Manganese Chloride to buy, Anhydrous or Tetrahydrate.

 

[bibarassa]

right now I am.

I still need to find out what kind of Manganese Chloride to buy, Anhydrous or Tetrahydrate.

Can't you see what kind of manganese is triton manganese supplement?

 

[JB NY]

Can't you see what kind of manganese is triton manganese supplement?

well that would be the obvious answer. Unfortunately the bottle just reads, Manganese (Mn).

 

[Acronic]

just send triton a vial of their maganese and get the read out hahaha

 

[Oldude]

Today i get a text saying ' it's ready, 18" just like you wanted mate '

HOLY CRAP!! :crazy1:

 

[biggles]

HOLY CRAP!! :crazy1:

Indeed Greg - i reckon if you pulled that out and pointed it at a convenience store worker they'd open the till and step back with their hands up........

 

[mhucasey]

Indeed Greg - i reckon if you pulled that out and pointed it at a convenience store worker they'd open the till and step back with their hands up........

I have an Echinata! Don't make me frag you!!!:lmao:

 

[biggles]

Wow!! That's insane , look at the size of that thing!!

It's nuts isn't it Jess. :uhoh3:

Holy **** :eek1: now that's what an echi(?) should look like!!!

You might need to move the clam to fit that one in Dom......

Very nice make me a big island and send it to me

I'll get right on it Dan :beer:

Didn't tilt left... But that colony broke my neck on the double take.

It's an eye catching echi isn't it kevin.

Hi Andrew
Love your thread and particularly the current subject of iron and manganese.
It has got me thinking!
There are thousands of ways to skin a cat! We can basically run our systems in three ways. Algae driven nutrient reduction, bacterial driven or a combination of the two.
It seems to me that systems driven by mostly bacteria have the greatest chance of success, as we drive down nutrients, but most importantly create food for corals. Where as systems driven by algae, macro in the sump or cyano drive down nutrients but do not create food for the corals.
Bacterial nutrient reducing systems (BNRS) ie Aquaforest and Zeovit seem to understand this but we as hobbists may not be fully grasping the principles and it's importance.
I wonder if both of these systems are iron limited and manganese rich????

Thanks again Andrew, I love a good topic to get the cranial juices flowing!
Justin.

Hey Justin,

I'm glad you're finding it interesting mate

The colours are Insane, and even more insane......is the simple way you achieved them.

Thanks Greg, so far things are going really well

 

[sahin]

I made a little island just for you Sahin

Sahin Island looks great. :thumbsup: Nice choice of acros to grow on the island. :beer:

However, the flattery only goes so far mate...I asked for a properly white balance top down video of the corals...

I suggest you pickup that awesome little phone of yours and start recording...even Kevin is prepared to take up arms against Darth Acro. The rebel alliance is getting stronger...

When I asked Richard for a video of his Radium tank he produced a nice video...

I gave this piece to Nick so he could send it to Chris to grow out for me and send it back when it was an 8" tall colony - he knows room is tight so i trusted him to give me a yell as soon as the magic 8" size was reached. I figured i could put one over on you guys. :beer:

Today i get a text saying ' it's ready, 18" just like you wanted mate '

I'll just pop that on a monti with some glue will i Cris and the guys won't pick that something is up............:facepalm:

Bloody collectors..........

Thats bloody awesome mate. I love the pale colours on that echinata...pale colours is not my kind of thing...but this is one acro where I feel pale colouration is just cool.

My piece has blue tips and is largely brown...I need to decrease the nutrients in my stupid tank.

 

[slavetonet]

I know where that echinata photo came from...

 

[afernandez]

judging By the looks of your "TEST ACROS" your tank is back on track .

Even though I miss the dramatic minute by minute details of your agonizing moments.....
I'm truly happy your "TEST ACROS" are doing great!

 

[biggles]

Andrew, I agree with everything you said about bacteria feeding corals. While trying to eliminate cyanobacteria in my own tank, I dosed KZ ZEObak and Cyanoclean for quite a long time. Though these bacterial products proved to be ineffective in my system, I observed a very noticeable increase in the growth rates of all my corals. This growth has continued since I started to use Tropic Marin NP bacto balance last year. NP BB contains organic carbon that feeds heterotrophic bacteria.

Thanks for the links. The book you cited is THE book on cyanobacteria. Boomer recommended it to me to properly understand cyanobacteria as a lot of people go on about Redfield ratio as one of the causes of cyano. I managed to read the chapter on nitrogen fixation. I will now read the whole book. Thank you again.

Cheers

Bulent

PS. I have increased KoralColor to 0.75 ml per 600 l a couple of days ago after not noticing any improvement in pigments and sent you a progress report via pm.

I think keeping higher bacteria levels than would normally exist in our tanks is a very good thing Bulent.
If you see no change in the corals after a week of that dose there is something interfering with the manganese/cobalt toxicity imo mate. I have been very transparent with the chemicals i have added over the last three months but i cannot speak for the consequences of any deviation from the parameters i keep.

I always sit down and tilt my head before I look at this thread..
Keeps me from falling down and hurting myself.

Your bloody reef is going to be like a roller coaster ride of acro colors Matt, i'll need a barf bag to check your journal in six months time........

Andrew,
maybe I don't understand, this means monthly WC with NSW. Is it right?

I will do a few 20% water changes with natural sea water to flush the system is what i mean mate. I eventually plan to resume regular water changes.

Andrew your coral are really looking spectacular.

Your observations on Manganese have me interested. One of the elements I have been dosing separately for the last 2 month has been Manganese. I found that dosing weekly seems to not be enough to keep a decent level so I am currently getting ready to start dosing daily to try and keep levels around .02 mg/l, but after talking to a few people it seems that I can easily go as high as .14 mg/l without issues so there looks to be lots of room for error. I was adding the manganese for growth and color, but I like the information you posted on it's relation to cyano and low iron. One of the interesting things about traditional reef methods of supplementing manganese is that it is almost always dosed with iron. I have been using the triton manganese supplement, but that will be too expensive in the long run so I am currently trying to get another supplier to mix up some that I can dose.

Hey Joe,

Manganese is oxidised fast by UV-450nm light so weekly dosing means you probably have none in the water after day two. You need to dose it every day or so to keep a more regulated and even presence in the water i believe.

That icefire colony is crazy! It would be cool to grow out in a tank by itself just to watch the growth formations change from being pulled out of the oceae and put into a tank. I would hate to see that thing get dropped!!! My lord, there would be like 2 million 1/2" frags laying on the floor, slimey and smashed.... actually that thing looks like it has some gurth in the center branches. Beautiful!

It's a beast of an echi isn;t it mate lol.

Sahin Island looks great. :thumbsup: Nice choice of acros to grow on the island. :beer:

My piece has blue tips and is largely brown...I need to decrease the nutrients in my stupid tank.

No mate, you need to change the way those nutrients are delivered to your corals - via bacteria

I know where that echinata photo came from...

Better be interesting info Kevin after you used the dot dot dots...... now i'm bloody doing it.........:fun4:

judging By the looks of your "TEST ACROS" your tank is back on track .

Even though I miss the dramatic minute by minute details of your agonizing moments.....
I'm truly happy your "TEST ACROS" are doing great!

Thanks very much Arlin, things are going well my friend.