Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
milsaltnewbie07
New member
Dang i might have to jump on this aquaforest train lol
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I am watching closely too.
nemodan
New member
Matt, when was the last time you did a water change ?
I am very happy that you already have seen good results very fast, but that also triggered in my head a question. Could it be possible that with all the supplements you are adding to prolong the time of a WC, something was out of balance, explaining a fast reaction of your SPS with more polyp extension and also on the Ciano.
What do you think ?
Cheers
Daniel
I am very happy that you already have seen good results very fast, but that also triggered in my head a question. Could it be possible that with all the supplements you are adding to prolong the time of a WC, something was out of balance, explaining a fast reaction of your SPS with more polyp extension and also on the Ciano.
What do you think ?
Cheers
Daniel
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Daniel, its a good question.
I haven't done a water change in 6 months, but that is not abnormal for me or this tank. The tank went for 12 months previous to the upgrade without a water change with rampant coral growth and no issues. The tank currently is doing very well other than a few SPS frags with some tissue loss, other than that the growth is very good and color is good as well. There was a recent tissue loss event off a couple of larger pieces, that was my own fault for adding too much Calcium Chloride to the tank at once. I don't want to give the impression that a large shift has occurred after one water change.
I took some pictures of some of the corals last night and compared them to before the change and the polyp extension is slightly better, but not any kind of crazy difference(my memory of how much PE was on some of the corals was not as good as I thought). I was more reporting that the corals were not responding poorly, sometimes new water can cause the corals to slime or close up.
The cyano peeled up last night but is back today. Keep in mind each water change is replacing only about 12% of the water, so it would only be removing 12% of something or changing the balance by 12%. This salt mix is seeded with bacteria, vitamins, and probiotics, so there can be some initial bacterial shifts because of it.
All that being said, for a while after tank setup this year I was dosing Calcium and Alkalinity in unequal amounts. I did that a long time back and saw some of the same random tissue loss issues and performed a large water change, that seemed to correct the problem.
I'm dosing in equal amounts now, and this water change is intended to replace enough water to correct that as well as set up a baseline using Aquaforest's salt. That will remove the initial water chemistry as a variable if I have issues with their system. I hope to switch over to a calcium reactor soon and remove the possible ionic imbalance issue from the equation as well.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I've gone both ways, water changes or not. When I first moved the tank plumbing to the garage I built in a water change system, it was literally a matter of pushing a few buttons, turning a few valves, and dumping in some salt to make up a batch. It was very easy. Most of the time when I did changes I didn't see much of a benefit. I almost killed the tank several times by leaving the supply water on and draining into the tank. I had ALK swings because of high ALK salt mixes, salinity swings, and the occasional irritated coral.
I felt like just as the tank was stable it would be time for the next water change. I started experimenting with longer intervals and found the elements that were getting stripped, and started adding them back. Ill probably always be looking to extend the length of time between them with the goal of eliminating them all together if possible. I wouldn't suggest everyone do this, but I hope that one day everyone can eliminate them all together as well...
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Amazon came through and I got my bottle of ProBio S, which is the bacteria to go with the carbon source.
I started dosing both at half dose.
The ProBio S is unlike other bacterial supplements I've used- its opaque orange. Some of the clear and colorless bacterial supplements make me wonder how much bacteria is in the liquid.
Before dosing the water was very clear, it reminded me of when I dosed Vinegar and the bacteria would clear up the water. As I said earlier, the Cyano was back and pretty close to the same as yesterday - too early for any permanent change to occur there.
Here is part of the colony I burned with Calcium Chloride
I cut off a bunch of good branches and mounted them in different places and on plugs, and put the remainder of the colony on the frag rack, expecting that it would continue to lose tissue. About 2 days later, it stopped melting and has held steady like you see since then. Ill use it as a reference to see if it recovers.
I started dosing both at half dose.
The ProBio S is unlike other bacterial supplements I've used- its opaque orange. Some of the clear and colorless bacterial supplements make me wonder how much bacteria is in the liquid.
Before dosing the water was very clear, it reminded me of when I dosed Vinegar and the bacteria would clear up the water. As I said earlier, the Cyano was back and pretty close to the same as yesterday - too early for any permanent change to occur there.
Here is part of the colony I burned with Calcium Chloride
I cut off a bunch of good branches and mounted them in different places and on plugs, and put the remainder of the colony on the frag rack, expecting that it would continue to lose tissue. About 2 days later, it stopped melting and has held steady like you see since then. Ill use it as a reference to see if it recovers.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I'm switching to Aquaforest, I will use some Zeolites but way less than Zeovit system recommends.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Do you dose 2-part?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I tested prior to water change #3 tonight:
Nitrate:5ppm
PO4:0.00ppm
Nothing new to report after WC#3, other than this salt mixes and is clear very fast, 10-15 minutes max. Oh, and pH on the tank was a bit lower on the tank today. Possibly increased bacterial action could have caused this, but no way to know for certain.
Nitrate:5ppm
PO4:0.00ppm
Nothing new to report after WC#3, other than this salt mixes and is clear very fast, 10-15 minutes max. Oh, and pH on the tank was a bit lower on the tank today. Possibly increased bacterial action could have caused this, but no way to know for certain.
biggles
Premium Member
Thanks for detailing this transition so well Matt, i'm going to enjoy watching how the whole process takes place over the coming months mate. 
Really hope you see some cool results, you know fresh mixed salt water has an excess of CO2 and will lower your pH - pretty sure that's what i remember :thumbsup:
Really hope you see some cool results, you know fresh mixed salt water has an excess of CO2 and will lower your pH - pretty sure that's what i remember :thumbsup:
MichaelW
New member
Thanks for detailing this transition so well Matt, i'm going to enjoy watching how the whole process takes place over the coming months mate.
Really hope you see some cool results, you know fresh mixed salt water has an excess of CO2 and will lower your pH - pretty sure that's what i remember :thumbsup:
Interesting my ph always jumps up with water change then falls back down.... But my ph sits low.
biggles
Premium Member
I found that when i stopped checking the pH levels that i no longer noticed any changes in pH whatsoever Mike
Matt, are you going to end up with the same pastel colors that Debora achieves. I mean is that the aim of the system because i like that look when it's done well.
cugly
Dansreeftank
I see want to see how it turns out.
nemodan
New member
That sounds correct. I also have a drop in pH every weekend when I do my WC. Always, after the WC, I do ASAP new salt water (30 G). 5 G will be used in my son's tank and another 20 G in my tank. I keep it very well aireated (strong air pump), heated and a pump to keep the water moving. This new salt water sits in the brute for 1 week getting ROOM AIR , and the tank gets OUTSIDE AIR through the skimmer. I can see in my Apex Graph how pH drops (lowest point ~8.0 to ~7.95 and highest point ~8.4 to ~ 8.3) and it takes 1-2 days to increase again.
Daniel
Myka
Reefing since '93
My old 90-gallon was exclusively SPS, four years old. It went through 125 mL of calcium and alkalinity a day on Fauna Marin balling. I had to replace 2 liters of saltwater with RO per week or the SG would creep up as chloride and sodium (I assume) ions would build up so bad and increase SG. I started doing the big water changes to flush out the chloride and sodium. I'd usually do 75%. I matched temp, pH (close), cal, alk, Mg, and potassium. The response from the corals was within an hour. Color also increased within a few days. It got so that I'd look at the tank and be able to tell it needed a flush. This is one area where a calcium reactor wins imo.
Btw, I'm switching to Aquaforest in the new year too.
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