Leonardo's Lagoon

[Leonardo_]

Thanks Merlin! Will start a thread of my new setup about Jan 2010. Do you like the Alpha 250?

bhovinga, My skimmer skims a bit wetter too when the snails decide to spawn As long as it's not overflowing it's fine.

Kinlayan, lionfish300, bhovinga, John&Steph; thank you!

Steve, thanks. Instead of the white center, the color is very light fluorescent green, but that is very hard to capture. This piece has colored up a lot lately, because I decided to increase the photoperiod of the MH a bit (one hour), and reduce my Iron supplement.

Leonardo

 

[Leonardo_]

Tomorrow I will DIY an underwater box for my camera. I hope I'm able to shoot some better top-down macro's and vids then.

Leonardo

 

[flying_dutchman]

Have you ever seen hiroyuki's tank?

http://aqua-rei.com/photo

Can't wait till January!

 

[Leonardo_]

Hello Joost, of course I have seen this tank! Japanese reef tanks have always been my favorite and I know most of these tanks posted somewhere on the web.
I think my next tank will look a lot like Hiroyuki's.

Thanks, Leonardo

 

[Tritonian]

Hi Leonardo,

Great progress. Can't wait to see your NEXT setup
Should be awesome. I have a giant grey sponge and lots of yellow, pink and light blue string like sponges in my main display. They grow everywhere. I never planted them, they've just always been there. I think they started in my previous system that had high nutrient levels.

Do you have any experience with monti eating nudibranchs? I have removed a really large red monti cap. I've moved it to a separate 35L holding tank. Dosed it with Kent Iodide. And Have been manually removing the nudi's with a syringe.

Do you know of a safe medication I could use that might not kill the coral.

I would PM this. But your inbox might be full. So I apologize for the off topic question.

And best of luck with the new setup.

 

[Oldude]

:mad2:

Leonardo

That's a beauty!!

 

[Leonardo_]

Hi Leonardo,

Great progress. Can't wait to see your NEXT setup
Should be awesome. I have a giant grey sponge and lots of yellow, pink and light blue string like sponges in my main display. They grow everywhere. I never planted them, they've just always been there. I think they started in my previous system that had high nutrient levels.

Do you have any experience with monti eating nudibranchs? I have removed a really large red monti cap. I've moved it to a separate 35L holding tank. Dosed it with Kent Iodide. And Have been manually removing the nudi's with a syringe.

Do you know of a safe medication I could use that might not kill the coral.

I would PM this. But your inbox might be full. So I apologize for the off topic question.

And best of luck with the new setup.

Thanks! The sponges I have growing now also came with the liverock a few years ago. Do they grow in full light in your tank? Mine seem to disappear if they are exposed to too much (day)light.

I don't have much experience with Montipora eating nudibranchs. Iodine doesn't seem to affect them really well to get rid of them. I once had an infected piece and I mostly removed the nudibranchs manually, and scraped off the eggs.
Maybe a very short freshwater dip will be more effective, but this will hit the coral pretty good.
Maybe you can ask of search for more information because I don't have a lot of experience with them
btw, my inbox is never full

Thanks Greg!

Leonardo

 

[Dave's Reef]

Leonardo,

I continue to be in awe and inspired by your beautiful corals and reefkeeping skills, you're a real inspiration to all of us!!!

Please keep us informed and I'm very anxious to see what you've got up your sleeve come January!

Dave

 

[Crypsis]

Leonardo,

I don't have much experience with the Alpha 250 as it's new and still breaking in. It's been in my system for about two weeks now. My first impressions though are very good, it's built like a tank, and runs silent. It makes my last skimmer (ATB Econo840 which I liked very much) look like a toy. I had to cut some of the bracing away on my sump to get this thing to fit.

 

[Leonardo_]

Leonardo,

I continue to be in awe and inspired by your beautiful corals and reefkeeping skills, you're a real inspiration to all of us!!!

Please keep us informed and I'm very anxious to see what you've got up your sleeve come January!

Dave

Thanks for the compliment Dave! Can't wait to start the new tank. First I have to pass some exams, and find a new job since the I lost it because of a bankruptcy.
But I'm sure I can start the project next month

Merlin, do you have a build thread? I'm curious what your shallow reef looks like

Leonardo

 

[Leonardo_]

This week I will perform my first waterchange using the new "Tropic Marin Salt - Bio-Actif"
I have used "KZ Reefers Best Premium" for years, but I can get a bucket of Tropic Marin for only a few $$ extra now, so I'll give it a try.
Besides that I had good experiences using "Tropic Marin Reef-Actif" (carbon dosing/polymer additive).

I'll keep you updated about the Parameters I get with this salt, and how the corals react

Leonardo

 

[RoWall]

Leo, don't worry about the job, at least now you have time for the project.
I would really like to know the bio-actif parameters

 

[Tritonian]

Leonardo;
Yeh - some of them grow in full light. The others grow in the darker areas.

I've been trying to hunt down some Levamisole her in South Africa.
Not very easy. The only stuff I can find is for humans, cats and dogs.

I'm not sure how high the concentration needs to be.

The thing is I can hardly see these critters. There are definitely eggs.
I've got a black back butterfly and 2 yellow coris wrasses. I'm hoping they are
doing a job on the eggs and younger nudi's.

I'm only thinking it's monti eating nudi's cuz the only coral getting attacked is my red monti cap.

I am contemplating a freshwater dip. I've haven't read so many good things about FW dips.

 

[Tritonian]

I managed to track down levamisole in 97% purity. What would my dosage be if I used a 30 Litre tank to do the dipping?

 

[Leonardo_]

Peter; your right about the time, but the financial side is another story I'll post the parameters ASAP.

Tritonian; I'm afraid that Levamisole won't work at Monti eating Nudi's, only for Flatworms... Maybe an Iodine dip or very short freshwater dips will work. Also some wrasses like to eat these Nudi's.
It's not a waste to have the Levamisole; in the future you can dip new frags and colonies for AEFW. (50 ppm dip)

Leonardo

 

[Leonardo_]

My bucket of Tropic Marin Bio-Actif is in!! For the retail price you expect there are goldflakes in this salt, but I got it a bit cheaper, so I will give it a try and share my experiences

Leonardo

 

[Leonardo_]

Some data for the new salt (of course testkits can't give really accurate parameters):

pH right after mixing:
Tropic Marin: 8.6
Cal. Probe: 8.64

One day after mixing with turbulent flow and preheated RO water (25 C):

pH
Tropic Marin: 8.4
Cal. Probe 8.45

KH
Tropic Marin: 8
Salifert: 7.4

Calcium
Tropic Marin: 430
Salifert: 420

Magnesium
Tropic Marin: 1300
Salifert: 1350

After all some decent results, although the alkalinity is a bit low. Rather have it at about 9

From now on I will do 10% weekly water changes and see if I can determine any differences in corals etc.

Leonardo

 

[Leonardo_]

Although the testkits haven't pass the expiration date, I will retest the salt with some fresh, new testkits within a few weeks.

Leonardo

 

[RoWall]

Seems like the perfect parameters to me...I've gotto try this one.
Thanks for the tests Leo.

 

[Leonardo_]

Peter; before you decide to buy I want to share one thought I have about this salt. Normally I do a waterchange of 10%-15% every two weeks. Tropic Marin suggests that you have to do a waterchange of 15% every week to sustain the level of active "bio" ingredients, and get the optimal results.

So in my case I have to do more water changes, otherwise the salt won't work optimally (if there will be a change/work to begin with).
My suggestion is to buy your regular salt, with the parameters that you prefer, and add Tropic Marin Reef Actif to your dosing regimen. That way you have the benefits of this salt, but without the need to do the weekly waterchanges. It will save some money too.

I have experiences with Reef-Actif for months now, if this salt gives different results then the Reef Actif results I will share this of course.

I don't want to dismiss this product immediately, but I'll try to keep an objective view.

Leonardo