Going Slooooow... LQT's Oceanic BC29 Build
- Thread starter LQT
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Here is the link in Reefkeeling Magazine: Vodka Dosing Distilled
Cyano is a pain. I'd fight it with bacteria, not just GFO. Or vodka for lowering of nitrates+phosphates. Cyano can be stubborn though, so I try to approach it with many different methods at the same time.
Cyano is a pain. I'd fight it with bacteria, not just GFO. Or vodka for lowering of nitrates+phosphates. Cyano can be stubborn though, so I try to approach it with many different methods at the same time.
LQT
Active member
My most sincere thank you to ReefWreak for lending a fellow reefer a helping hand. ReefWreak very generously took time out of his morning to help me with some repair soldering for my LEDs. As a follower of his thread and many helpful posts, it was a pleasure to meet him and have the opportunity to pick his brain...
Got back home late last night and got to test out my lights. Everything fired up worked like a charm! After learning from watching you solder, hopefully I'll have the confidence to take on a soldering project myself moving forward. Thanks again ReefWreak, for your help and generosity.
Got back home late last night and got to test out my lights. Everything fired up worked like a charm! After learning from watching you solder, hopefully I'll have the confidence to take on a soldering project myself moving forward. Thanks again ReefWreak, for your help and generosity.
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LQT
Active member
Okay... what I thought was cyanobacteria on the sandbed turned out only to be diatoms. Whew, that I can deal with. On Wednesday of this week, I have an 11 piece SPS frag pack coming. With just weekly water changes and no dosing as of yet, my big three are
Alk - 7.3
Cal - 450
Mag - 1400
with NO3 at 5 and PO4 at 0.
I'll be sure to update this thread with photos when the SPS come in... Game on!
Alk - 7.3
Cal - 450
Mag - 1400
with NO3 at 5 and PO4 at 0.
I'll be sure to update this thread with photos when the SPS come in... Game on!
LQT
Active member
Sorry guys, it's been waaaay too long since my last update. Over the last month and a half I've had a few ups and downs here and there but I think I'm slowly beginning to dial in and catch a groove. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I had a battle with cyanobacteria for a time. I did all the customary things like cut my light cycle, reduce feeding and run GFO. I was always getting 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 yet the cyano wouldn't go away. To combat the cyano, I did a bit of research and followed a method laid out by twillard on R 2 R. For two weeks, I dosed 2.2ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide directly into the DT every 12 hours. This works out to be a dosage of 1ml per 10 gallons of water every 12 hours. It seemed to have worked out quite well with no noticeable adverse affects on my livestock.
Equipment wise, I have made a few changes as well. To make room for my dosing lines in chamber 3, I took the GFO reactor offline. In the InTank media basket, I'm running floss, Purigen and 3 tbs of Rox carbon and 1 tbs of high capacity GFO in a media bag (changed out every 2 weeks). I replaced the ReefLink with a WXM, added another EB8, added 2 BRS 1.1ml dosers and bought an Eshopps dual reservoir for calcium and alkalinity solutions.
Livestock wise, I added a sixline wrasse and also purchased an 11 piece SPS frag pack from Reefers Garage and picked up a few SPS frags from Reef A Palooza NYC as well. Among the new frags are a green caulastrea, green M. Digitata, A. Tenuis, pink deepwater acro, purple stylo, M. Setosa, pink birdsnest, staghorn acros. several milleporas and an ORA green birdsnest. I think I'm almost done stocking. I think the last piece I want to add is a Forest Fire Digitata.
My parameters have been quite steady...
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 0
Phospate: 0
Calcium: 440
Alkalinity: 8.83
Magnesium: 1350
I've been dosing about 15ml of BRS 2 part calcium and alkalinity per day every hour. about 5 days in and still testing every day. Not wanting to cause an algae outbreak yet still concerned about starving my frags with 0 NO3 and 0 PO4, I am adding about 3 drops of Polyp Labs polyp booster and a tiny pinch of reef roids once a week. I also feed my acans, caulastrea and duncan Fauna Marin ultra LPS grow & color pellets once a week as well. So far so good.
I had a battle with cyanobacteria for a time. I did all the customary things like cut my light cycle, reduce feeding and run GFO. I was always getting 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 yet the cyano wouldn't go away. To combat the cyano, I did a bit of research and followed a method laid out by twillard on R 2 R. For two weeks, I dosed 2.2ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide directly into the DT every 12 hours. This works out to be a dosage of 1ml per 10 gallons of water every 12 hours. It seemed to have worked out quite well with no noticeable adverse affects on my livestock.
Equipment wise, I have made a few changes as well. To make room for my dosing lines in chamber 3, I took the GFO reactor offline. In the InTank media basket, I'm running floss, Purigen and 3 tbs of Rox carbon and 1 tbs of high capacity GFO in a media bag (changed out every 2 weeks). I replaced the ReefLink with a WXM, added another EB8, added 2 BRS 1.1ml dosers and bought an Eshopps dual reservoir for calcium and alkalinity solutions.
Livestock wise, I added a sixline wrasse and also purchased an 11 piece SPS frag pack from Reefers Garage and picked up a few SPS frags from Reef A Palooza NYC as well. Among the new frags are a green caulastrea, green M. Digitata, A. Tenuis, pink deepwater acro, purple stylo, M. Setosa, pink birdsnest, staghorn acros. several milleporas and an ORA green birdsnest. I think I'm almost done stocking. I think the last piece I want to add is a Forest Fire Digitata.
My parameters have been quite steady...
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 0
Phospate: 0
Calcium: 440
Alkalinity: 8.83
Magnesium: 1350
I've been dosing about 15ml of BRS 2 part calcium and alkalinity per day every hour. about 5 days in and still testing every day. Not wanting to cause an algae outbreak yet still concerned about starving my frags with 0 NO3 and 0 PO4, I am adding about 3 drops of Polyp Labs polyp booster and a tiny pinch of reef roids once a week. I also feed my acans, caulastrea and duncan Fauna Marin ultra LPS grow & color pellets once a week as well. So far so good.
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LQT
Active member
Yeah, I see what you're saying. However I want to proceed with caution. After getting over my cyano outbreak, I made the mistake of overfeeding with the polyp booster and reef roids leading to another hair algae outbreak. I recently performed another peroxide scrub of the rocks to kill off the hair algae. I want to be able to proceed carefully and keep algae at bay over the next month before considering upping my nitrates to 5 ish and phosphates to .03 ish. Over the last month or so, I have seen growth on the SPS frags but color could definitely be better.
What are you using to dose nitrates?
What are you using to dose nitrates?
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Pure Potassium Nitrate -- It's a FW planted fert.
Here's a good thread on Nitrate Dosing: Zero Nitrates = Pastel Acros (dosing nitrates)
Here's a good thread on Nitrate Dosing: Zero Nitrates = Pastel Acros (dosing nitrates)
LQT if you find yourself in my neighborhood again, I'll send you home with some KNO3. I bought a tub of it after reading that thread, and still haven't used it. I'm too lazy to deal with any problematic effects it may have 
I can still see through my glass, and I don't think I clean it monthly.
I can still see through my glass, and I don't think I clean it monthly.
LQT
Active member
LQT if you find yourself in my neighborhood again, I'll send you home with some KNO3. I bought a tub of it after reading that thread, and still haven't used it. I'm too lazy to deal with any problematic effects it may have
I can still see through my glass, and I don't think I clean it monthly.
Haha, thanks again for your generosity ReefWreak. My lights are still running smoothly thanks to your help... you are the man!!! Since things are growing, for now I'm going to keep it going as is. I really want to be able to keep a handle on nuisance algae before tweaking my tank any further. Since I just began dosing through the Apex and BRS pumps, I think that's enough for me to test and monitor for the time being.
LQT
Active member
He's been okay. I added him last so he's low man on the totem pole. Every so often he tries to flex his muscles and buzz the clowns, but they won't have any of it and chase him right back.
LQT
Active member
Just found some bubble algae on the base and plug disc of my green candy cane frag. Took the whole frag and plug disc off the rock, removed the two bubbles and dipped the base of the coral and plug disc in hydrogen peroxide. Hopefully I caught it in time and hasn't spread anywhere else.
And no easy way to get rid of it.Similar threads
