drummereef's 180g in-wall build

UPDATE:


Order has been placed for...

ZEObak 50ml
Amino Acid High Concentrate 50ml
KZ Coral Snow 250ml

I plan on dosing a similar schedule as v1...Rotate and Sonny, along with Sonny's "Magic Brew". Hopefully I will see improved color, growth and polyp extension. First time dosing any kind of additive so anyone with experience please chime in. :)
 
110galreef said:
Looking forward to the results!
Click to expand...

Thanks 110g. Interesting how Krzystof is using over double the recommended amount of bio pellets in his system. I wonder if that is because his bio load is so large or simply to help keep his large corals happy from a bacteria standpoint...?


In other news... I'm getting some GHA on my sandbed. The rocks are looking OK even without the Mexican Turbos but for some reason there's algae growing on the sand bed still. PO4 is still 0.00 and NO3 always tests yellow which is 0 on my API kit. Sand bed is < 1" and I vacuum it every couple weeks. Maybe it needs another vacumming this week. Hmmm... :confused:
 
Brett,

I would really look into the phosphates in your ro/di.

Are you still dosing mb7? I had stopped for a week while my 2L bottle arrived and almost instantly i started getting some algae and it was very very minimal at that. After 2 dosings of MB7 I noticed my algae was gone. I have 0 snails or cleanup crew in my tank, I don't really like them and prefer shrimp over crabs/snails.

I notice my tangs do a better job than snails anyway long term. I haven't vacummed my sand bed since starting as my tangs pick at the sandbed if there is any algae on it. If you are still getting algae you may want to look at culprits.
 
cromedogg33 said:
Brett,

I would really look into the phosphates in your ro/di.

Are you still dosing mb7? I had stopped for a week while my 2L bottle arrived and almost instantly i started getting some algae and it was very very minimal at that. After 2 dosings of MB7 I noticed my algae was gone. I have 0 snails or cleanup crew in my tank, I don't really like them and prefer shrimp over crabs/snails.

I notice my tangs do a better job than snails anyway long term. I haven't vacummed my sand bed since starting as my tangs pick at the sandbed if there is any algae on it. If you are still getting algae you may want to look at culprits.
Click to expand...

I changed both DI resins last Friday before my last water change over the weekend. I can test PO4 of the DI water again but I would presume it's 0.00 again now that I changed out the resins. I am still dosing MB7. I was dosing weekly but I started dosing daily yesterday.

I don't know how long the PO4 was building in the DI water but I would guess it was for a while. I could see it causing some issue but I thought I would see it get at least slightly better after the last water change.
 
How much MB7 are you dosing daily now?

I would think you will see a big improvement if you can find the balance with dosing fairly quickly.
 
cromedogg33 said:
How much MB7 are you dosing daily now?

I would think you will see a big improvement if you can find the balance with dosing fairly quickly.
Click to expand...


Quite a bit still, 6ml/daily or a little over 1 capful. That is per the "new tank" schedule on the bottle. I have an order in for some zeoBAK that should be coming this week. Hopefully this will help to diversify the bacteria in the tank some more.
 
Keep up with the updates, I'm interested in why you are having a minor algae problems that I haven't seen quite yet, and your husbandry is a little more extensive than mine. I'm still not quite ready for higher end SPS that I'm willing to "risk" in my new tank. So I could just be getting ready to run into problems, but I'm much more heavily stocked in fish than you are right now. I as well am following the same ~6ml/daily.
 
cromedogg33 said:
Keep up with the updates, I'm interested in why you are having a minor algae problems that I haven't seen quite yet, and your husbandry is a little more extensive than mine. I'm still not quite ready for higher end SPS that I'm willing to "risk" in my new tank. So I could just be getting ready to run into problems, but I'm much more heavily stocked in fish than you are right now. I as well am following the same ~6ml/daily.
Click to expand...

Will do. From my research and Jeremy B's help at PA, he claims zeoBAK is much better in terms of bacteria diversity and effectiveness. This bacteria needs to be refrigerated after opening if that means anything, so apparently it's a "live" culture to be stored at a temp between 39.2 - 68 degrees F. I'll continue the MB7 however since Sonny told me too. :) This hobby is starting to get expensive. :lol:
 
Just out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you're getting into such hardcore dosing so fast? I can't imagine that you're already seeing undesirable shifts in your coral coloration. Then again, these systems work very very well for people like Sunny and V1...rotate, and there are much worse systems to emulate.

I answered your question over on my thread and posted a link to a bunch of articles that I think you would find very interesting if you want to know how all these little things effect coral biology.
 
Taqpol said:
Just out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you're getting into such hardcore dosing so fast? I can't imagine that you're already seeing undesirable shifts in your coral coloration. Then again, these systems work very very well for people like Sunny and V1...rotate, and there are much worse systems to emulate.

I answered your question over on my thread and posted a link to a bunch of articles that I think you would find very interesting if you want to know how all these little things effect coral biology.
Click to expand...


Excellent question - My answer is two-fold. :) First, I only have two fish in a net 220g system. I do plan on adding more fish at some point, just not yet. So feeding is extremely light given the water volume. I've basically cut the Rod's out as my Tang doesn't care for it and my Cleaner Wrasse only will eat the tiny bits. So there's a lot of waste. They both eat Nori and Flake readily and sometimes I will give the wrasse some frozen Cyclops as well. But in general feeding is light and fish waste is presumably light as well. This brought me to the idea that because my system is nutrient deficient, at least in the water column, I should be feeding the coral a very specific diet, not broadcasting the tank since there would be a lot of waste created.

Second, I'm attempting to find a system of feeding corals in a bio pellet based ULNS. Like you had discussed in your thread, I too believe there is a vast misconception of what and how to feed when using bio pellets. Fish are relatively easy imo but coral in this environment can be somewhat difficult to satisfy. I think there is a lot of confusion that bio pellets are a "set it and forget it" system. I believe this is false. When hobbyists, even in your own experience, are seeing corals suffer when using bio pellets I believe feeding is to blame. Nutrients are so low that fish waste alone isn't enough to keep them happy.

This being said, maybe I should have presented my dosing schedule better. I'm definitely NOT going to start aggressively. zeoBAK to culture the bio pellets and add diversity to the system, Coral Snow for nutrient reduction, and AA's for feeding. Even if I'm dosing 1 drop of AA per week but seeing improvement in color and growth I'd be happy. I want to follow a "model" for dosing but obviously adjust the amount appropriate for my baby system. I think the bio pellet system is very similar, in theory, to a zeo system with some obvious differences. Those systems dose from the beginning depending on the needs of the corals. I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. :)
 
Brett, are you able to explain (in a nutshell) why you need to continue MB7 now that your tank is cycled, and how long you expect to have to do so? I probably missed this discussion some pages back...
 
iwishtofish said:
Brett, are you able to explain (in a nutshell) why you need to continue MB7 now that your tank is cycled, and how long you expect to have to do so? I probably missed this discussion some pages back...
Click to expand...

You know how I like to ramble... :D No seriously, obviously the tank has cycled per the nitrogen cycle but I don't think the system is quite there biologically - meaning biologically balanced. We will all deal with the balance of nutrient import/export issue at times which ultimately results in nuisance algae when the system is unbalanced. In theory, there is a balance of good vs bad bacteria. The good bacteria is efficiently consuming NO3 and PO4 which is obviously what we want.

I'm still not convinced my system is mostly devoid of bad bacteria, thus the reason I continue to dose MB7. Whether it's working I have no idea but I think it's doing something. I also think my bio pellets are running at about 30% efficiency. They are working but I'd like to get even better results with them hopefully through dosing bacteria regularly. And since my rock and presumably SSB is still leaching small amounts of phosphate I'm trying to dose enough bacteria to compete with these nutrients. ;)
 
UPDATE:


Couple updated coral shots for you. :)



1-19-11
Corals-15.jpg~original


2-23-11
Table.jpg~original




1-19-11
Corals-14.jpg~original


2-23-11
Slimer.jpg~original




I just thought this was a cool shot of the gorgonian. :)

2-23-11
Gorgonian.jpg~original
 
Last edited by a moderator:
drummereef said:
You know how I like to ramble... :D No seriously, obviously the tank has cycled per the nitrogen cycle but I don't think the system is quite there biologically - meaning biologically balanced. We will all deal with the balance of nutrient import/export issue at times which ultimately results in nuisance algae when the system is unbalanced. In theory, there is a balance of good vs bad bacteria. The good bacteria is efficiently consuming NO3 and PO4 which is obviously what we want.

I'm still not convinced my system is mostly devoid of bad bacteria, thus the reason I continue to dose MB7. Whether it's working I have no idea but I think it's doing something. I also think my bio pellets are running at about 30% efficiency. They are working but I'd like to get even better results with them hopefully through dosing bacteria regularly. And since my rock and presumably SSB is still leaching small amounts of phosphate I'm trying to dose enough bacteria to compete with these nutrients. ;)
Click to expand...

I think I understand now, at least enough! :) Thank you.

Beautiful coral shots. Gorgonians are fascinating, but I've always been concerned that they may hinder the option of having a lot of flow in certain areas of the tank. Do you find this to be a problem in your case?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

sauceyreefOG
New (but old) Member - Hello!
Replies
10
Views
139
Reefing102
Reefing102
R
Is it aiptasia or maybe hydroids?
Replies
3
Views
176
griss
griss
N
Bristletooth chasing butterfly
Replies
1
Views
136
Reefing102
Reefing102
H
25 year old yellow tang dying :(
Replies
10
Views
416
sallypur
S
J
Clown interested in conch
Replies
3
Views
159
kfisc
kfisc
Back
Top