Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[maxxII]

Matt,
Over on JBNY's thread you mentioned that you rarely do water changes, and you mentioned it again here in the last two pages. I honestly have not read your entire thread, but your FTS on the previous page is very nice and the corals you posted pictures of on this page look great!

Could you please elaborate for me what you dose, how much of it you dose, and how often? Also, how often do you do water changes and what salt are you using?

 

[mhucasey]

Matt that's amazing color !

The rebellion forces look formidable :thumbsup:

Thanks, it really is!
I got this coral a couple of years ago as a 10 dollar frag - it was this peachy yellow color. It grew into a pretty big colony, but changed a bit to a yellowish brown color with hints of green in the polyps. I fragged it back and re-set it on the disc a couple of months ago and the color began to change as the AF system kicked in. I like it a lot!

 

[mhucasey]

Resplendent Anthias right? It's a gorgeous group!

You are correct, thanks! Two more coming this week(hopefully)

 

[mhucasey]

You're both right. Nothing compares to NSW and I'm damned fortunate that I can take as much home as I can carry :dance:

Since I run all the systems, KZ, AF, RS etc, in ongoing studies in the lab I know all of them can work and if you live in Ohio, that's good news.

Matt since you're now running the calcium reactor I seriously doubt that you need any of the minor elements/metals. The SPS food will make the flubber happy even if the SPS never need it. The aminos are important. The vitamins highly subjective. Zooxanthellae are autotrophic and translocate everything that's in that vitamin bottle to your corals. I won't dose any form of Iodine, too risky. Strontium, fluorine, magnesium and strontium only if you never change water. Changing only 10% of your water bi-weekly would be significantly prefered over guessing the dose to replace these elements.

The -NP Pro and ProBioS are the key.

Image courtesy Advanced Aquarist

Thanks, I've been thinking that the Calcium reactor would supply many of the trace elements, which is part of the reason I have been dosing so little of the Micro E. I was under the understanding that the calcium reactor could keep up with strontium demand but not magnesium unless I fortified the mix. Is there just too little strontium in the aragonite matrix?

It's the mathematics of the water change that cause me to be skeptical - unless the element that you are putting back is depleted very slowly, the water change only seems to delay the inevitable decline unless you dose. One thing to note though, since I am always removing salt water with the skimmer, even though its small volumes, I have to replace that water from time to time with fresh salt water to maintain specific gravity. So there is a very small water change occurring - I have been watching closely to see if there are apparent positive reactions from this small dose of water.

 

[mhucasey]

Matt,
Over on JBNY's thread you mentioned that you rarely do water changes, and you mentioned it again here in the last two pages. I honestly have not read your entire thread, but your FTS on the previous page is very nice and the corals you posted pictures of on this page look great!

Could you please elaborate for me what you dose, how much of it you dose, and how often? Also, how often do you do water changes and what salt are you using?

Sure - ill give you the quick tour:thumbsup:
I increased the system from one tank to two last April, before that I had gone a year without water changes. I had settled on that after some trial and error to identify which elements I was losing through uptake by organisms or by skimmer.
At that time I used AIO biopellets, and dosed only Randy's two part(always equal amounts), occasional Magnesium chloride, Iron citrate solution(DIY) and Lugol's Iodine. The Iron Citrate and Lugol's were dosed every couple of days, and fairly small quantities. The two part had some added Strontium Chloride.

Salt was removed with the skimmate, and the two part replaced the lost sodium and chloride ions. I didn't have to add any fresh saltwater. I switched over to also dosing a small amount of FM Color elements toward the end, and kept this approach going as the system was increased to two tanks and 195 gallons. Of course I had to add salt water when I increased the system size but I kept the original water.

I kind of broke one of the rules if you want to do this and started dosing unequal amounts of two Part, leading to an imbalance of ions(I believe). After several months, I started having trouble with overly broken-down AIO Pellets as well and some coral issues. I was also kind of looking for a new challenge, so I switched over to the Aquaforest system in December.

To start fresh with their system I did a series of 5 25 gallon water changes over 3 days. I also switched to a calcium reactor. As part of Aquaforest, I dose their Bacteria and carbon source, and as far as trace elements I dose Iodine, Flourine, and a small amount of their heavy metal complex. I use Zeolites in the system so I know that they will release Iron into the system so no additional Iron is dosed. I will dose some strontium and magnesium if needed but so far the magnesium level is stable. I will monitor but I don't plan to regularly change water but I certainly may change my mind

 

[maxxII]

Thanks for the information. I'm trying to reboot my 120 and have been using a calcium reactor for a very long time, but was having serious issues with PO4 levels with the original set up. Heavy use of GFO and weekly 20% water changes kept PO4 on the high side of things so I did get acro growth, but not much and if I neglected my regular water changes and failed to change GFO regularly, I started seeing recession in short order.

I've been using an ARID E18 reactor to handle the PO4 since April and its been working quite well, but I was curious about what you were doing to reduce or even stop doing water changes entirely.

Have you not done a water change at all since December? What is the longest you have gone without a water change in this system?

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks for the information. I'm trying to reboot my 120 and have been using a calcium reactor for a very long time, but was having serious issues with PO4 levels with the original set up. Heavy use of GFO and weekly 20% water changes kept PO4 on the high side of things so I did get acro growth, but not much and if I neglected my regular water changes and failed to change GFO regularly, I started seeing recession in short order.

I've been using an ARID E18 reactor to handle the PO4 since April and its been working quite well, but I was curious about what you were doing to reduce or even stop doing water changes entirely.

Have you not done a water change at all since December? What is the longest you have gone without a water change in this system?

No water change since December with aquaforest, the longest I went without a water change previously was one year.

 

[JB NY]

You have other Anthias in your tank yes? How do they get along with the Resplendent Anthias? I have a good group of 7 Lyretail Anthias and have been thinking of adding a different group of Anthias, just a little concerned on how they will all get along.

 

[mhucasey]

You have other Anthias in your tank yes? How do they get along with the Resplendent Anthias? I have a good group of 7 Lyretail Anthias and have been thinking of adding a different group of Anthias, just a little concerned on how they will all get along.

I have 2 Hutchii, One Purple Queen, and 4 Resplendant. The male Hutchii checked out the Resplendent and let them know he was the big bad on day one, since then they pretty much ignore each other. The purple queen pals around with the Resplendant.

 

[JB NY]

cool, Thanks!

 

[reefwiser]

Matt do you run carbon currently to help with yellowing of the water since you do no water change?

 

[mhucasey]

Matt do you run carbon currently to help with yellowing of the water since you do no water change?

Yes, I use 250ML of Aquaforest's activated carbon in a mesh bag in the sump.

 

[reefwiser]

Thats for the clarification Matt.

 

[gregkn73]

You're both right. Nothing compares to NSW

The -NP Pro and ProBioS are the key.

Hi
I would like to ask you ,why do you think that the routinely dosing of anaerobic bacteria as probios, is the key . in an established reef as Matt's, I can understand the sporadic use of bacteria, to avoid the dominance of a single strain, but I can not think of any advantages, for using them routinely.

Also what dou you think are the advantages of using NP pro ,instead of another diy carbon source as vodka or any vsv solution.


I also remember that you nearly sterilize the NSW before use it. So why it will be superior to use it , instead of other commercial salt's?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
I got the first ten replacement bulbs:

I swapped 8 of the 14 that are in the two fixtures over the SPS reef so as to not shock the corals too much. I'm working out the final combination once I get a good idea of what the light looks like coming from these new bulbs. To start the combo is:
Aquablue Azure
B+
B+
Fiji Purple
B+
B+
C+
ABS
C+
B+
Fiji Purple
B+
B+
Aquablue Azure

I used to really dislike the Coral Plus but buried in so many bulbs the lavender light they give off doesn't bother me. All the white and purple bulbs are new except the ABS, also i replaced two blue plus bulbs. Ill see how I like this arrangement and buy the remaining 4 replacements once I am more sure.

The Empire has struck back, as you may have seen on sith lord Biggles' thread. I cant match that pic, so Ill go with some flubber and a wiener dog:

 

[maxxII]

What are your thoughts on the new LED T5 builds?

 

[tripdad]

Hey Matt, coral color changes are going in a nice direction, things are looking great. Do you turn your skimmer off for a while after dosing the AF products?

 

[plyle02]

If that 2nd pic doesn't weaken the dark forces, nothing will

 

[mhucasey]

What are your thoughts on the new LED T5 builds?

I was super excited about them, but then they kept getting delayed, and the company is very slow with putting out anything of value to show them in action. Then recently, they said they would be giving PAR info "soon" but first they wanted to educate everyone on the so called "green spike" effect of regular T5 tubes that increases their par readings(aka getting your excuses in order before showing numbers).

Until I see them in a real reef and see some second party data the company itself has made me skeptical. I really want them to work because royal blue tubes would be awesome over the reef.

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

man that's a lot of bulbs.... and one cute pup