Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[Reefvet]

10 LBs of Calcium Chloride flakes makes just over 9 gallons, for this reef I currently dose 114.4ML per day. That means the 24 dollar bag will last me about 300 days at current rate. I used to buy ESV B-ionic for ~35 dollars for a gallon of alk and calcium solution.

There are a lot good deals on high quality bulk chemicals right now.

That's a pretty small dose for your tanks. What level are you trying to keep ?

 

[mhucasey]

I've always maintained about 6.5-7.5. Many of my inspiration tanks have had great success with Alkalinity in this range and it avoids drifting above 8 and ending up with burns.

My dose was close to this amount when it was just the one tank and stuffed with corals, but back then I had a ton of Montipora chewing up the Alk. I got rid of a lot of Montipora colonies and lost a few other corals during the transition from one tank to two.

Those are some pretty good prices but I get Bonus points from the wife if I can find stuff on Amazon and take advantage of Prime. I've found some really good deals on bulk chemicals like Magnesium and Calcium chloride by buying from places that aren't targeting aquarium owners.

 

[wcharon]

This is the Damprid that you use for Calcium??? How much time you have been using it???

 

[mhucasey]

This is the Damprid that you use for Calcium??? How much time you have been using it???

Yes, I used the unscented Damprid for about 8 months last year. It's a little dirty with some residue left over at the bottom of a gallon but it works just fine. Apparently it's quite a popular source in Australia. More recently I have been buying calcium chloride from Amazon.

 

[wcharon]

Yes, I used the unscented Damprid for about 8 months last year. It's a little dirty with some residue left over at the bottom of a gallon but it works just fine. Apparently it's quite a popular source in Australia. More recently I have been buying calcium chloride from Amazon.

Thanks...

 

[aggie13reef]

Oh yes, 2-part can be very cheap! For alkalinity I use regular old arm and hammer baking soda, you can buy it in big bags rather than the boxes. If you bake the baking soda first you can essentially dissolve twice as much so you only have to dose half the volume. Take a look at Randy's article: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/

For Calcium, none of the Calcium Chloride products for melting ice are sold here in Southern California, so I have used Damprid - used for drying out stuff sold by the bag or bucket. More recently I buy a purer grade of Calcium Chloride from a hydroponics company. The hydroponics stuff is 24 bucks for 10 lbs, Damprid is about half that. With 10Lbs of Calcium Chloride flakes I could dose for about a year or more.

Thanks for the advice! Around the holidays this year I will be buying a dosing pump of some sort and I am all about saving money where I can. So far my stuff has been growing with my manual dosing, so we will see if I can keep it up until Dec.

 

[mhucasey]

I've been quite happy with the BRS dosing pumps. They are pretty heavy duty and have been going strong for over three years now. You do need a timer or controller to turn them on and off.

 

[JB NY]

I've been quite happy with the BRS dosing pumps. They are pretty heavy duty and have been going strong for over three years now. You do need a timer or controller to turn them on and off.

+1 for this. I have one that has been used for daily dosing since 2008 with zero issues.

 

[markalot]

That's great to hear, I use the pumps for topoff in both my 150 and 29 gallon going on 1 year now. Have you had to replace any of the hoses yet?

 

[JB NY]

I have not had to replace any parts at all yet. I just checked accuracy about 4 months ago and it was spot on still.

 

[mhucasey]

That's great to hear, I use the pumps for topoff in both my 150 and 29 gallon going on 1 year now. Have you had to replace any of the hoses yet?

I havent replaced them yet, no. I take them out every so often to ensure that they aren't getting brittle, so far so good.

 

[Oldude]

Things look great Matt. That sarmentosa is off the hook!

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks! Things are improving and some corals that were damaged are recovering over dead skeleton, which is very cool. I'm taking photos to document it.

I just ran across Damian's reef tank:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2513806
and after shaking off the catatonic, drooling state I was in, I was excited to glean that his reef has T5 bulbs 10 inches off the water over a 24" tall tank. I would estimate that the majority of the corals are 8" or more below the surface. I think that I'm on the right track raising the lights

 

[mhucasey]

Im seeing dramatic improvements in the tank in the last few weeks, but here is a very good example. I have an Abrotanoides that has been a pretty uniform brown since I got it way back about a year or more ago. Occasionally a bit of pink would show up at the tips but otherwise nothing. After a couple weeks of reduced lighting, it looks like this:

As I understand it this is a high light, high flow coral. Its at the top and always has been even in the previous tank. Perhaps I have been cooking it this whole time...

 

[markalot]

Excellent, and really cool colors.

I'm seeing more as well but still have a long ways to go. Trying to not change anything else and go for a month or so here to see what happens.

 

[wcharon]

Good to know... I have been using my Sunpower with 3 B+, 1 C+, 1 P+ and 1 True Actinic at 8" for 8 hours and it is bleaching my Hammers. I am sure it is the lighting and not the quality of the water because i have some frags of the Hammers underneath the Montipora and the colors are great with no bleaching.

I raised them to 12" to see if they improve and thinking to reduce the hours length and change my combination replacing the P+ for a Super Purple (Aqua Pink) to the combination.

 

[Reefvet]

Im seeing dramatic improvements in the tank in the last few weeks, but here is a very good example. I have an Abrotanoides that has been a pretty uniform brown since I got it way back about a year or more ago. Occasionally a bit of pink would show up at the tips but otherwise nothing.

It looks like you're definitely headed in the right direction.

In the wild I saw this coral with a lot of different morphs. The most common form had pink on the top inch or two where it was actively growing and then green all the way down to the base.

It's hard to see from your photos. Is your's following that pattern of color ?

 

[mhucasey]

It looks like you're definitely headed in the right direction.

In the wild I saw this coral with a lot of different morphs. The most common form had pink on the top inch or two where it was actively growing and then green all the way down to the base.

It's hard to see from your photos. Is your's following that pattern of color ?

So far so good...

It started as a green sheen at the base, then the green progressed up to the tips. Now there are spots of pink here and there around the tips. This coral was stagnant for so long growth-wise that it lost a lot of the sharp definition around the corallites.

 

[mhucasey]

Excellent, and really cool colors.

I'm seeing more as well but still have a long ways to go. Trying to not change anything else and go for a month or so here to see what happens.

The only thing I am changing is the amount of 2-part, which I actually raised again last night. I drifted down to 6.5 again, so the uptake is on the upswing.

Its difficult to not change something to "Help" but so far you have shown some encouraging results. Hopefully the color and growth trend continues here in my tank too!

 

[mhucasey]

Good to know... I have been using my Sunpower with 3 B+, 1 C+, 1 P+ and 1 True Actinic at 8" for 8 hours and it is bleaching my Hammers. I am sure it is the lighting and not the quality of the water because i have some frags of the Hammers underneath the Montipora and the colors are great with no bleaching.

I raised them to 12" to see if they improve and thinking to reduce the hours length and change my combination replacing the P+ for a Super Purple (Aqua Pink) to the combination.

I don't think you will see much if any visual difference between those purple bulbs, and the change won't impact the corals in any meaningful way. Raising the light is a start, but be careful to not change too much all at once.

In my experience LPS corals can adapt to a lot of different light conditions even though they are sold as "lower light" corals.