Tank looks great, Matt. Love your aquascape. It looks like the tank will turn out to be like your old tank in no time. :thumbsup:
Nick, thanks for dropping in! I'm hoping it will eventually be like my old tank!! I don't know about anytime soon but I can wait..
Your corals look healthy, that supersedes everything else. Interesting that your cyano is worse after taking pellets offline. Like you, I would have thought the opposite.
Yes.. That's why I'm not going to go crazy about the nuisance algeas.. I'm just going to try to tweak things slowly..
I tried ZEOzym with with both KZ cyanoclean and ZEObak on separate occasions in the past. In my case, it aggravated cyanobacteria every time I used it. Prominent zeoheads told me that this was not their observation, but they advised me not to continue with ZEOzym treatment. Moreover, some users reported increase increase in PO4 readings shortly after ZEOzym dosing. I did not quite understand how and why enzymes in ZEOzym impacted on phosphates.
Every reef tank is based on different checks and balances. Cyanobacteria are very opportunistic to exploit any changes/shifts in this regard. Some people observe cyanobacteria outbreak when they change their salt brand and blame their new salt, and some people get outbreaks when they start organic carbon dosing and some when they stopped dosing (or when they reduce dosing). Having read different scenarios and different treatments (successful/unsuccessful), nothing surprises me anymore. Nevertheless, dealing with cyanobacteria gives one a good opportunity to learn about different checks and balances that exist in his/her reef, which some reefers may take for granted. Every setback is a good learning opportunity. In my opinion, you become much more knowledgable if you devise a plan and execute it with patience rather than just dumping antibiotics (e.g. chemiclean) because you lose the opportunity to understand the biological boundaries of your reef tank.
Well.. This makes things a bit more..... Interesting.. I guess, since it's early into my zeozyme dosing, I will continue with it for a bit.. Along with the biomate.. If nothing changes with the cyano, or it continues to get worse, I'll try switching to plain coral snow..
Hey Matt, coral colours are looking good.
As far as the cyano is concerned, I dont find it surprising that its appeared; the pellets were doing their job. In their absence the filtration has been passed onto the rest of the system. It will take some weeks but in time it will subside.
At one point I used Zeolites to tweak nutrient levels...nutrients did start to reduce, and corals got pale. I didnt like the whole thing with dosing daily etc and removed the zeolites. Within a few days cyano appeared, but it went away on its own.
Some of the KZ products described can and do help; but the results are not always guaranteed as our systems differ. Thats why one person says use A+B and another says use B+C.
Anyway, now you just need to grow these corals so we can have a TOTM of your tank in the future.
Thanks, Sahin.. Yes.. Every mini environment is it's one microcosm.. Finding the right formula ain't easy!!
I think that I am going to try a little Redfield's experiment.. Since I am dosing nitrate right now to keep levels at around 5ppm and p is stable at .07, this is giving me a ratio of close to 70 to 1 for n to p. Redfield's ratio is 16/1 for n to p.
I will try dropping my n dose from 14 ml per day to 7ml per day, while testing levels regularly and watching for adverse reactions from the corals, in an attempt to get closer to Redfield's ratio..... I just want to see how the tank reacts to this.. I know Redfield's is not by any means a hard and fast target for a reef but I also don't think, with all of the fish and feeding I am doing, that it will be that bad for the corals... We shall see..
