Leonardo's Formosa Forest 2

[mpoletti]

Thanks Mark!

A Reactor, do you mean Zeo? I will keep the setup and maintenance very basic initially; Two-part dosing, large weekly waterchanges, few trace elements, no Vodka/Carbon etc.
So in a later stadium when the tank is running constantly I can always give it a try to bring things a step further

Leonardo

Yep :celeb1: Its been almost 5 weeks and I have not seen any negative effects of the tank with the ZEOvut. Are your running BB like the first forest? If I was running BB I wouldn't even worry about dosing, but the sand (especially larger grain like mine) trap some detritus so the extra bacteria punch is nice

 

[Leonardo_]

Looks awesome Leo!

The SW in the rock bin looks "yummy"

Yeah, the picture was from the first day... Even with the amount of foam on the water it's hard to imagine the smell :eek2: That why I changed the water daily the first days.
After three days the smell was gone

Yep :celeb1: Its been almost 5 weeks and I have not seen any negative effects of the tank with the ZEOvut. Are your running BB like the first forest? If I was running BB I wouldn't even worry about dosing, but the sand (especially larger grain like mine) trap some detritus so the extra bacteria punch is nice

That's good news Mark I will run the Forest BB initially, but there is a very small chance that I will add some sand later.
You're right about the dosing, I'll see how my corals react to the new tank and equipment, and I decide later what to do

Leonardo

 

[pookstreet]

Leo, I've always loved how clean your entire setup looked in the past and I am sure this will be another awesome example of your skills.

 

[reefsic]

Hi Leo,

I know your SPS colonies from the Formosa Forest 1 setup, were huge which I assume sucked in a ton of calcium!

Question:

Unsure if I missed it on this Thread but, how will you feed calcium into the new setup? Do you plan to go 2-Part or will you be running a Calcium Reactor and if so, what Brand/Model/Size?

 

[Pcrain]

I cant wait to see this tank turn out. i loved FF1 your clean simple look and all you patience always seems to Show through.

1.will you be using any controllers to monitor/ help with dosing?

2. what made you drift away from carbon dosing? you really seemed to stand by it.

I am happily awaiting for the next update.

 

[Leonardo_]

Thanks Kenny, I will try!

ReefSic, you're right. Because Staghorn and A. Formosa in particular are mostly fast growers, they will use a lot of Ca and Alk.
Calcium and alkalinity will be maintained using two part, controlled by a Grotech TEC III dosing computer. Trace elements according to the Balling method are dosed together with the solutions.
Additionally I use a Schuran Kalkwasser reactor to keep the pH up during the night. All the top off water be fed through the reactor.

Pcrain; thanks Like i said before, I will use a Grotech TEC III dosing computer for the two part solutions and trace elements.
I'm not going to use any carbon sources in my new tank, because I believe it doesn't benefit the balance of the aquarium on long term. It can be great to use for a certain amount of time to bring down nutrients, but in my experience it can bring the tank out of balance on long term.
I'm struggling with Dinoflagellates and Cyanobacteria for some time now, and I strongly believe this is caused by dosing carbon. I've stopped dosing for quite some time now, but it's hard to get rid of them once they are present.
Besides that my corals didn't respond very well to it, becoming more and more pale and even started to STN, while red cotton algae, cyano and dino's were blooming. This told me some parameters just were out of balance and I decided to keep it simple and just stick to waterchanges, two-part+kalkwasser and some trace elements.

Leonardo

 

[Dejavu]

Wow Leo, the tank looks great. What do you plan to use for flow?

 

[ksed]

Hi Leonardo
I see Tropic Marin test kits in the picture above. Are you using them for all water parameters?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[Pcrain]

i vodka dose but try to keep it to less than 1 ml a day but i agree and envy your keep it simple approach i cant wait to see the system up and running

 

[Leonardo_]

Wow Leo, the tank looks great. What do you plan to use for flow?

Thanks Brian. I will use three Tunze Stream 6101 and one 6201. I will mod the shrouds to increase the flow by 40% and make the flow wider, with more undertow (like Vortecs)

Hi Leonardo
I see Tropic Marin test kits in the picture above. Are you using them for all water parameters?

Thanks

Kevin

Kevin, I use Tropic Marin test kits for some years now, after the problems Salifert had in the past.
I "tested" all the test kits using reference fluids, and the kits that I use (Mg, Ca and Alk) are spot on. So I'm confident that they will give me accurate parameters.

i vodka dose but try to keep it to less than 1 ml a day but i agree and envy your keep it simple approach i cant wait to see the system up and running

Thanks! I want to start as simple as possible and when everything develops as planned I can always experiment with different additives.

Leonardo

 

[v1...rotate]

This is going to be great Leonardo!! I've been catching up on your old tank "Formosa Forest"... Incredible!! Looking forward to the updates!!

 

[Leonardo_]

Thanks Andrew, see you soon

Leonardo

 

[nUgZ]

Very nice Leonardo!! I can't wait to see this thing full of corals.

 

[flying_dutchman]

wow, the clear overflow turned out a lot nicer than I thought it would.
nice updates, can't wait to see what your are going to do with the aquascape, nice write up on Iwagumi BTW.

 

[Leonardo_]

Thanks nUgZ!

Thanks Joost, I will keep everything transparent, background overflow etc, like most Japanese tanks. Of course this will only work if I keep everything very clean
The aquascape will be based on Japanese gardens and Iwagumi. I'm currently thinking of several (three) "floating" islands.

Leonardo

 

[ksed]

Sorry for the questions Leonardo

Are you going to use TM test kits for nitrate detection and phosphates?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[gary faulkner]

Thanks Brian. I will use three Tunze Stream 6101 and one 6201. I will mod the shrouds to increase the flow by 40% and make the flow wider, with more undertow (like Vortecs)

Leonardo,

Please show us how to mod the shrouds.

Thanks

Gary

 

[biecacka]

+1 on how to mod shrouds and will it work on old 6000's?
corey

 

[ibscott]

Will algae build up on the inside of a clear overflow? Won't that be tough to keep clean?

 

[DFason]

Leo - Great stuff! How long has your store had the Apogons? Are they doing well?

-Dave