Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

I love that coral at the bottom right of the echinata in the last picture, what is that?

The green/pink one? Its a pink tabling coral I picked up at Shipwreck Cove in Encinitas Ca., but I don't know the name on it. It immediately went green and then a few weeks later started this slow transition to pink

 

[markalot]

Love the echinata, wow. If only I could grow some smooth skins as big as my stags I would be happy.

 

[Wazzel]

Nice pump bracket Matt. Your tank is coming along nice.

What sized 80/20 sections did you use for your stand? I still have not fully decided what to do for my upgrade.

 

[mhucasey]

Nice pump bracket Matt. Your tank is coming along nice.

What sized 80/20 sections did you use for your stand? I still have not fully decided what to do for my upgrade.

Thanks Mark, I used the 80-20 channel model 2020, which is 2" square. I got it from Amazon(8020 is the supplier).

 

[mhucasey]

Love the echinata, wow. If only I could grow some smooth skins as big as my stags I would be happy.

So far so good with the Echinata, lots of polyp extension

 

[Wazzel]

Thanks Mark, I used the 80-20 channel model 2020, which is 2" square. I got it from Amazon(8020 is the supplier).

Thanks. I know you posted pics of the stand, but I have not found them yet. Do you know about what page of this thread the pics are located?

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks. I know you posted pics of the stand, but I have not found them yet. Do you know about what page of this thread the pics are located?

Page 12, post 298

 

[JB NY]

Nice pick up Matt, Echinatas are one of my favorite too. They have done the best for me in the lower third of my tank with good flow around them. Good luck with yours, when it colors up it will be beautiful!

Salifert vs acropower, I think they are pretty similar, but I always had some cyano start to show up right when I started to dose the acropower so I switched back to the Salifert. But I agree with you, of all the AA I think these two work the best. I tried the zeo AA too and had similar results, too expensive and didn't see much results.

 

[Wazzel]

Page 12, post 298

Your photo bucket account must be over drawn, the pics do not show up.

 

[mhucasey]

Your photo bucket account must be over drawn, the pics do not show up.

Strange, They show up when I pull up the page. i actually pay for Photobucket, so i have plenty of space. Maybe try refreshing the page?

 

[mhucasey]

My wife noticed our beautiful Gray Head wrasse was getting bullied by our (now) enormous green wrasse He was hiding in the sand in the flubber tank but he was in rough shape. I caught him out and put him in the SPS reef, and prepped a second container of sand for him to sleep in. While adding the container, i noticed the sand wasn't blowing away on the starboard bottom.

I added some test sand, just enough to cover the bottom and it stayed put! I ordered some more of the same awesome sand(Tropic Eden Miniflakes) and once it gets here Ill put a thin layer down. I wanted a white bottom to the tank but the starboard is just dark red with coraline and it doesn't scrape off, so I'm excited to get some sand in there! White sand is terrific at reflecting light back up under coral branches

Its pretty surprising that the sand isn't moving, with the extra pump its like a washing machine in the tank!!

 

[mhucasey]

Nice pick up Matt, Echinatas are one of my favorite too. They have done the best for me in the lower third of my tank with good flow around them. Good luck with yours, when it colors up it will be beautiful!

Salifert vs acropower, I think they are pretty similar, but I always had some cyano start to show up right when I started to dose the acropower so I switched back to the Salifert. But I agree with you, of all the AA I think these two work the best. I tried the zeo AA too and had similar results, too expensive and didn't see much results.

Thanks Joe, I went to the LFS not intending to get any corals unless they had an Echinata or a big Lokani...It was my lucky day!

I was reading the original Salifert Amino Acids threads, and one of the interesting pieces of info I gleaned was that Aspartic Acid was possibly used as part of an organic matrix to lay down new skeleton, and that corals do not produce this AA on their own. The major source for production of this AA in the ocean? Cyanobacteria. Hmmmm

 

[.Chris.]

My wife noticed our beautiful Gray Head wrasse was getting bullied by our (now) enormous green wrasse He was hiding in the sand in the flubber tank but he was in rough shape. I caught him out and put him in the SPS reef, and prepped a second container of sand for him to sleep in. While adding the container, i noticed the sand wasn't blowing away on the starboard bottom.

I added some test sand, just enough to cover the bottom and it stayed put! I ordered some more of the same awesome sand(Tropic Eden Miniflakes) and once it gets here Ill put a thin layer down. I wanted a white bottom to the tank but the starboard is just dark red with coraline and it doesn't scrape off, so I'm excited to get some sand in there! White sand is terrific at reflecting light back up under coral branches

Its pretty surprising that the sand isn't moving, with the extra pump its like a washing machine in the tank!!

I'm happy to hear someone else has a grey head. Mine is about 6-7 inches from Vanuatu and is simply stunning. I hope yours is happier in the other tank!

 

[mhucasey]

I'm happy to hear someone else has a grey head. Mine is about 6-7 inches from Vanuatu and is simply stunning. I hope yours is happier in the other tank!

Awesome fish, ours is about 6 inches also

I'd just as soon skewer the green wrasse and let "Sleepy" go back to the Flubber Reef, but hes tricksy...very tricksy...

 

[Reefvet]

I was reading the original Salifert Amino Acids threads, and one of the interesting pieces of info I gleaned was that Aspartic Acid was possibly used as part of an organic matrix to lay down new skeleton, and that corals do not produce this AA on their own. The major source for production of this AA in the ocean?

Macro Algae, primarily in early growth stages, produce Aspartic Acid a proteinogenic AA, 1 of 23 AA's that are key to building protein. So yes, a useful AA for growing coral.

The constant consumption of MA as a food source on the reef means it's being digested and passed back into the water column.

Feed you tangs Nori and you'll have plenty of Apartic Acid available in your reef tank.

There's a significant difference in the formulation of the Salifert AA supplement and Acropower. One notable difference is the higher nitrogen level in AP, hence the Cyano outbreaks noted by so many users. Cyano is a nitrogen fixing bacteria so the most minute addition of free nitrogen makes it show up quickly.

 

[mhucasey]

Macro Algae, primarily in early growth stages, produce Aspartic Acid a proteinogenic AA, 1 of 23 AA's that are key to building protein. So yes, a useful AA for growing coral.

The constant consumption of MA as a food source on the reef means it's being digested and passed back into the water column.

Feed you tangs Nori and you'll have plenty of Apartic Acid available in your reef tank.

There's a significant difference in the formulation of the Salifert AA supplement and Acropower. One notable difference is the higher nitrogen level in AP, hence the Cyano outbreaks noted by so many users. Cyano is a nitrogen fixing bacteria so the most minute addition of free nitrogen makes it show up quickly.

Believe it or not, our powder blue tang has no interest in Nori or any other algae sheet I have tried...

 

[reefmutt]

Macro Algae, primarily in early growth stages, produce Aspartic Acid a proteinogenic AA, 1 of 23 AA's that are key to building protein. So yes, a useful AA for growing coral.

The constant consumption of MA as a food source on the reef means it's being digested and passed back into the water column.

Feed you tangs Nori and you'll have plenty of Apartic Acid available in your reef tank.

There's a significant difference in the formulation of the Salifert AA supplement and Acropower. One notable difference is the higher nitrogen level in AP, hence the Cyano outbreaks noted by so many users. Cyano is a nitrogen fixing bacteria so the most minute addition of free nitrogen makes it show up quickly.

Very interesting and informative, as usual.. I will go back to using nori..

Matt is the pbt your only tang?
Mine wouldn't eat the nori either until it saw everybody else over there eating it..

 

[mhucasey]

Very interesting and informative, as usual.. I will go back to using nori..

Matt is the pbt your only tang?
Mine wouldn't eat the nori either until it saw everybody else over there eating it..

I have a Scopas tang in the Flubber reef- it will eat algae off a clip. The powder blue- no dice on any kind of algae except the algae on the rocks. Even the stuff in frozen preparations like reef frenzy get spit out and end up blowing around the tank until they go into the overflow.

 

[mhucasey]

Macro Algae, primarily in early growth stages, produce Aspartic Acid a proteinogenic AA, 1 of 23 AA's that are key to building protein. So yes, a useful AA for growing coral.

The constant consumption of MA as a food source on the reef means it's being digested and passed back into the water column.

Feed you tangs Nori and you'll have plenty of Apartic Acid available in your reef tank.

There's a significant difference in the formulation of the Salifert AA supplement and Acropower. One notable difference is the higher nitrogen level in AP, hence the Cyano outbreaks noted by so many users. Cyano is a nitrogen fixing bacteria so the most minute addition of free nitrogen makes it show up quickly.

Where do you get the information about the difference in Nitrogen between the two products? A while back you said something to the effect of "once you look at the ingredients you will understand why Acropower causes cyano". Salifert AAs list the ingredients as:amino acids and amino carbohydrates
Acropower lists their ingredients as: not listed

 

[.Chris.]

Where do you get the information about the difference in Nitrogen between the two products? A while back you said something to the effect of "once you look at the ingredients you will understand why Acropower causes cyano". Salifert AAs list the ingredients as:amino acids and amino carbohydrates
Acropower lists their ingredients as: not listed

This is fascinating information.

What I'd like to know is if there's a way to bind the nitrogen before it causes cyano issues. Or if it's just preferable to use salifert AA off the top.