Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

Matt! You need some more mind boggling pe shots to counteract the mind boggling numbers going on!
All your new pieces are amazing.
Do you dose both fluorine and iodine?
The AF flourine has both iodine and flourine in it..
I have ordered it so that I can dose both at once. Atm, I dose lugols but want to stop this in favor of only the flourine.

My brain fought me the whole way, I can assure you! Waaaaaay too long since college O-chem.:fun5:

I dose both the Flourine and "Iodium". The Flourine is clear and I suspect has iodide in it while the "Iodium" is like lugols and likely has elemental iodine in it. I only dose 3-4 drops per day of each.

 

[reefmutt]

Ok. So 3-4 drops of both for 200 ish gallons?

 

[mhucasey]

Ok. So 3-4 drops of both for 200 ish gallons?

Correct, and I just set up NP Pro on a dosing pump. The dosing pump formulation requires 5ML per 100L but comes in a 2L jug.

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, in terms of drops of np pro. How much are you adding per day?

 

[mhucasey]

Matt, in terms of drops of np pro. How much are you adding per day?

I was adding 10 drops per day, 5 in the morning, 5 at night.

Now I'll be dosing 45 ml per day in 3 15mL doses

 

[maxxII]

Math, math, math, math, math

More math, more math, more math, even more math, Dear God make the math stop

You guys math really good.



:spin2:

All jokes aside, You two are really really making me wish I'd paid alot more attention in Chem classes....

 

[spkennyva]

I was adding 10 drops per day, 5 in the morning, 5 at night.


Now I'll be dosing 45 ml per day in 3 15mL doses

Wow, that seems like a very significant increase, yes? If so, what led you to make that jump?

 

[rburns24]

Wow, that seems like a very significant increase, yes? If so, what led you to make that jump?

-
It's diluted.
-

 

[mhucasey]

-
It's diluted.
-

Correct, it's a diluted version designed for dosing pumps.

 

[mhucasey]

You guys math really good.



:spin2:

All jokes aside, You two are really really making me wish I'd paid alot more attention in Chem classes....

Me too...my brain was ****ed at me for working it so hard:lolspin:

 

[JB NY]

You guys math really good.

:spin2:

All jokes aside, You two are really really making me wish I'd paid alot more attention in Chem classes....

Ha! running the numbers is not as hard as writing down each step. My head hurt too at the end of it. Half the time I was like "Now why did I do it like that again?"

 

[Acronic]

It would be fascinating to get to the heart of why some tanks have algae problems while others don't, regardless of the Phosphate and Nitrate numbers - this appears to be related to Manganese competing with Iron in chlorophyl production but selective dosing of one element will be able to help confirm that.

As for Zinc, That may prove to be even more intriguing. If it is an essential element for SPS corals as it seems to be, resulting in burned tips when the levels go to zero for too long, how many tip burning incidents have been incorrectly chalked up to ALK? Does Alkalinity interact with Zinc in some way, like lower Alk systems need less Zinc so the chance of tip burn is less? Lots to ponder here.

I think the zinc is going to be either right or a big piece of the puzzle. Alk over 8 dKH giving burnt tips only applies when it happens to you. I know so many tanks that alk can bounce all over the place and never get burnt tips. For years I never had that problem until one day I suddenly did. But since I started with zinc I have not seen that problem at all.

Perhaps it is a relation between zinc and the acidity within the coral tissue during calcification. PH regulation being spatially variable within the coral could represent a relation between the biological activity of the newest growth and a limited or excess value of "X" (zinc?)

 

[JB NY]

Perhaps it is a relation between zinc and the acidity within the coral tissue during calcification. PH regulation being spatially variable within the coral could represent a relation between the biological activity of the newest growth and a limited or excess value of "X" (zinc?)

At a MACNA talk Ehsan from Triton said something similar, there is a cofactor of an enzyme in acropora that in inhibits the buildup of acids close to the coral when it grows. Without enough zinc in the water, this doesn't happen and you see burnt tips.

 

[mhucasey]

Science Time!!
I made a solution of Manganese today, using the info from my conversation with Joe here a page or so back. I made the solution 20X strength so i could dose it the same as the aquaforest products - one drop per 100L per day. I needed to measure 0.407g MnCl2.4H2O for 100mL of solution, so I bought this Milligram scale from Amazon for 16 bucks:

It comes with check weights and tweezers, pretty cool:

I weighed the MnCl2.4H2O as close to the target 0.407g as I could get:

I added it to a beaker and filled to 100mL:

And dispensed to a cleaned and sanitized dropper vial and a sterile Poly bottle.

At this point I have spent 15 dollars plus a few bucks shipping for 100g MnCl2.4H2O and 16dollars with free shipping for the scale. A bottle of Triton Manganese solution costs 32 dollars for 100ml. I plan to make a Zinc solution next

 

[RBKKREEF]

Nice! time to market it for the local reefers

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[drawman]

Good work Matt! I'll be curious to see how it goes. Do you plan to use coloration or cyano presence to let you know where the sweet spot will be for dosing? Hopefully you're not on a list somewhere for ordering all of this online lol.

 

[March.]

hey buddy whats your alk right now and what do you aim for?

 

[taekim78]

Man it's like breaking bad up in there

 

[mhucasey]

Nice! time to market it for the local reefers

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Good work Matt! I'll be curious to see how it goes. Do you plan to use coloration or cyano presence to let you know where the sweet spot will be for dosing? Hopefully you're not on a list somewhere for ordering all of this online lol.

Man it's like breaking bad up in there

Chemistry can be fun Drawman, Ill use the presence of cyano as an indicator, if that is eradicated at a particular dosage Ill see how things look coral wise. I haven't dosed MicroE since Monday and at this point the Cyano hasn't made much of a comeback. I will probably dose 7 drops per day to start and add back a few drops MicroE for the other trace elements it has.

hey buddy whats your alk right now and what do you aim for?

I aim for 6.5 to 7.5, last I checked I was at 6.7

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
I went by the LFS and picked up two more Resplendant(Tierra) anthias, these have been really fragile according to the LFS. I also found a new coral friend....

...Here is where I said Hi:

This is what my friend looks like in natural sunlight out of water:

And now my new friend is resting comfortably in a prime location: