Mhucasey's SPS obsession

biggles said:
Good to hear the cyano is abating and the colors popping again, i think it's always a case of 'personalizing' any of these proven methods to each individual system it's being applied to Matt as using a calcium reactor as opposed to dosing might impact the system overall in more ways than we realize - just an example so you know what i mean.

Once the cyano is all gone for a few weeks i would slowly back off a drop a day until you find the spot that is just enough to keep the bad guys away and keep it at that dose long term :)

I do notice that many of the pieces you add tend to 'puff' up in growth rather than having the sharper pronounced growing tips we normally associate with good growth. Our two TDF branches are a good example of the drastic difference in growth i am talking about. I can see it already in that after pic of the loripes, colors are getting good but it's looking 'fuzzy' at the tips rather than sharp if you know what i mean. Not sure if Kevin means the same thing but i have noticed it. I am in no way slagging your stuff so don't get the sh#ts like Kevin has over my slagging of Canada, i just wanted to know if you noticed the difference between our TDF's growth. :thumbsup:
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I am referring to the same thing Andrew. It is indicative of an ionic imbalance and going back a few posts about the alk and hearing about the high mag proves my initial thoughts. Keep an eye on it Matt. Though IME it's rarely fatal to the coral, it does affect the growth pattern. Like Andrew is saying about the carx, I'm curious to see any anomalies too.


Edit: Canada>Austraila
 
So Matt are you at about 1 drop/100L of the Micro E? I'm having a decent cyano issue in one of my tanks that I'm going to be switching over to Aquaforest soon. I may start the Micro E dosing early to see if it will help clear it up. You and Andrew have me motivated to give it a go.
 
drawman said:
So Matt are you at about 1 drop/100L of the Micro E? I'm having a decent cyano issue in one of my tanks that I'm going to be switching over to Aquaforest soon. I may start the Micro E dosing early to see if it will help clear it up. You and Andrew have me motivated to give it a go.
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Im using a little more than recommended, i have about 740L system volume and so the normal amount would be 7 drops. I'm using 10 drops per day, 5 in each tank after lights out.
 
Acronic said:
I am referring to the same thing Andrew. It is indicative of an ionic imbalance and going back a few posts about the alk and hearing about the high mag proves my initial thoughts. Keep an eye on it Matt. Though IME it's rarely fatal to the coral, it does affect the growth pattern. Like Andrew is saying about the carx, I'm curious to see any anomalies too.


Edit: Canada>Austraila
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When you are referring to the ionic imbalance, are you talking about the Magnesium being too high in comparison to the other major ions? Since I don't use 2-part any longer the Calcium Reactor prevents or slows the imbalance between sodium and chloride ions that can occur with uneven dosing of 2-part.

I'm pretty confident that the puffiness is due to the magnesium, it seems to only be affecting the newly added acros now where as when it was higher I could see it on the tips of many more corals. Magnesium levels have been dropping, but slower than I would have expected. The high magnesium is also keeping the calcium levels higher than I would expect given the low alkalinity.
 
mhucasey said:
When you are referring to the ionic imbalance, are you talking about the Magnesium being too high in comparison to the other major ions? Since I don't use 2-part any longer the Calcium Reactor prevents or slows the imbalance between sodium and chloride ions that can occur with uneven dosing of 2-part.

I'm pretty confident that the puffiness is due to the magnesium, it seems to only be affecting the newly added acros now where as when it was higher I could see it on the tips of many more corals. Magnesium levels have been dropping, but slower than I would have expected. The high magnesium is also keeping the calcium levels higher than I would expect given the low alkalinity.
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Exactly yes. I knew you ran a carx so I was surprised to see the imbalance signs until I red back a few pages and saw that there was some fluctuations happening. I believe you are correct about the calcium reading being suspect. Keep that carx humming and all should come back into equilibrium.
 
mhucasey said:
Oh, I think you would love it, being as detail oriented as you are.

It's really not much time, maybe two minutes to dose various components(typically at night). If you go with zeolites most people shake them once or twice a day, but it is not required per Aquaforest. Change the zeolites/carbon/Phosphate minus every four weeks.

I dose the following daily:
8-10 drops NP Pro(carbon source)
8 drops ProBio S(Bacteria)
3 drops Iodium(Iodine)
3 drops Flourine
8 drops MicroE
14 drops Coral B


The heart of the system is the NP Pro and ProBio S, the other items are enhancers.

I also dose Coral A(Aminos) and Coral V(Vitamins) 6 drops each every other day
On opposite days I dose 6 drops Coral E(Food)

It sounds more complicated than it is.
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Another question for you Matt what made you decide to just do Iodium, Fluorine, and Micro E over say the Component A,B,C?
 
drawman said:
Another question for you Matt what made you decide to just do Iodium, Fluorine, and Micro E over say the Component A,B,C?
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I use a calcium reactor so the trace elements that are in Parts A,B, and C are replenished by the CalRX. Iodine, Flourine, and the elements within MicroE are depleted more rapidly and not replenished from the CalRX adequately. I also dose a drop or two of Strontium every other day or so. I do this because Aquaforest indicated that the amount of Strontium replenished by the CalRX is slightly less than what is needed to maintain proper levels.
 
mhucasey said:
I use a calcium reactor so the trace elements that are in Parts A,B, and C are replenished by the CalRX. Iodine, Flourine, and the elements within MicroE are depleted more rapidly and not replenished from the CalRX adequately. I also dose a drop or two of Strontium every other day or so. I do this because Aquaforest indicated that the amount of Strontium replenished by the CalRX is slightly less than what is needed to maintain proper levels.
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Makes perfect sense thanks! Never used a CalRX so one of those basics things I never knew :facepalm:
 
Matt, do you ever miss a dose or 2 of the aqua forest products that you use? The reason I ask is because I go out of town somewhat frequently and might miss a daily dose here or there. As my tank has gotten full, I'm looking for stuff to do with it and I think a element dosing regimen might be a fun experiment.
 
SkullV said:
Matt, do you ever miss a dose or 2 of the aqua forest products that you use? The reason I ask is because I go out of town somewhat frequently and might miss a daily dose here or there. As my tank has gotten full, I'm looking for stuff to do with it and I think a element dosing regimen might be a fun experiment.
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I have gone down to just Np Pro on some occasions and skipped the other doses. Other longer term users have missed doses without issue.
 
Well I am a believer in Manganese, especially since finding out that Triton sells it as an individual element solution. It's sold at the low low price of 32 dollars for 100mL. So I started thinking, why not make some of my own. Looking on eBay, you can buy 100grams of Manganese Chloride for 15 dollars.

So the question is, how much Manganese is needed per Liter of solution? Well Triton's results on Mark's tank gave me a clue - the target is 2ug per Liter. Since he has zero Manganese, his correction dose is 11.36mL for his 150 gallon tank.

So some back calculating comes to 150Gallons = 567.8L

567.8L X 0.000002g = 0.001136g this is the total dose of Manganese ions to bring 150gallons up to target level

Dividing the amount in grams per ml Triton Solution gives you:
0.001136g/11.36mL = 0.0001g/ml Manganese ions by weight per ml

Convert to Grams per L
0.0001g/ml X 1000 = 0.1g/L Manganese ions by weight per L

Manganese Chloride Tetrahydrate is ~28% Manganese by weight.
If I need 0.1G Manganese, I need 0.36g Manganese Chloride Tetrahydrate

Dissolve 0.36 Manganese Chloride Tetrahydrate in 1L water.

Daily dosage per Triton appears to be 0.00633mL per gallon of system volume
For my 195 gallons that would be 1.234mL per day.

Ok...its been a long time since college chemistry, did I calculate this right? It seems like a tiny amount of Manganese Chloride per Liter. If it's right you could buy enough for over 100L or 600+ years worth.
 
Nope i'm not even trying to follow that Matt, very interested to see how you go using straight Mn - boldly going is what we do right.........:beer:

Good stuff buddy :)
 
^
What he said..

But Matt, Andrew is getting results using Koral color and trace hard. There is iron in there. Amongst others..
What is your plan if you make your own manganese solution?
Will you stop using micro e and only dose manganese?
Clearly the aquaforest method works as well..
What's you plan once you have manganese on its own?
 
The math looks solid. I don't know where you got the weight per L in triton solution but I trust you did your homework. (Sorry, brain fart.. I see now. Problem solving is hard) I'd hazard to stay on the lower side of the .36 grams.

Would there be any merit to using ethanol over water to make the solution?
 
Last edited:
reefmutt said:
^
What he said..

But Matt, Andrew is getting results using Koral color and trace hard. There is iron in there. Amongst others..
What is your plan if you make your own manganese solution?
Will you stop using micro e and only dose manganese?
Clearly the aquaforest method works as well..
What's you plan once you have manganese on its own?
Click to expand...

Well the concept is keeping the Iron level low while keeping the Manganese levels up, but since I use Zeolites and Phosphate Minus those are leaching some amount of iron then MicroE adds more iron. If I could dose manganese by itself I could dose less MicroE and perhaps enhance the effect and prove the concept. It's something that's in the "concept" stage at this point. Triton has Zinc as an individual element too, it would be cool to see each element's effect on the corals.
 
Acronic said:
The math looks solid. I don't know where you got the weight per L in triton solution but I trust you did your homework. (Sorry, brain fart.. I see now. Problem solving is hard) I'd hazard to stay on the lower side of the .36 grams.

Would there be any merit to using ethanol over water to make the solution?
Click to expand...

You could drink it:wave:
 
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