Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
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mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Ok, so this is weird. The Cyano has been slowly going away, but some is always left here and there on the rocks in the SPS tank, and on the surface of the sand in both tanks. I've knocked it down a little with Coral B. Last week I looked back in this thread to my initial Cyano stage in the SPS tank, and that took about a month to go from being everywhere to the stage that it has been in this last week.
In the thread, though, i had an entry where I added nitrate even though the value was between 5 and 10 and dosed it again the next day, and when I was done - the cyano disappeared almost overnight.
I thought, what the heck? So I threw in about half a teaspoon last night and then another half teaspoon again this afternoon. This afternoon i did the second dose because the Cyano had retreated noticeably by then. Several hours after dose 2, almost zero Cyano - even on the containers of sand in the SPS reef. It's just gone.
I tested and the nitrate value hasn't really risen very much at all, still around 10 on the Salifert test. I don't know if I jump started something or what, but its pretty interesting. The sand in the flubber tank hasn't been this white in a long time.
In the thread, though, i had an entry where I added nitrate even though the value was between 5 and 10 and dosed it again the next day, and when I was done - the cyano disappeared almost overnight.
I thought, what the heck? So I threw in about half a teaspoon last night and then another half teaspoon again this afternoon. This afternoon i did the second dose because the Cyano had retreated noticeably by then. Several hours after dose 2, almost zero Cyano - even on the containers of sand in the SPS reef. It's just gone.
I tested and the nitrate value hasn't really risen very much at all, still around 10 on the Salifert test. I don't know if I jump started something or what, but its pretty interesting. The sand in the flubber tank hasn't been this white in a long time.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Yes they can eat until they burst so one to three feeds like that max per day(usually more when anew fish is added), and in regular state like now just one per day. Without a larger feed some of the slower fish don't get anything. You also get a better feed reaction with the pumps going - the fish take a little bit to get used to chasing dinner, but it doesn't take long
MichaelW
New member
Hi Matt. So if I'm not mistaken you used to run AIO pellets successfully? I have some but are not using them at the moment. I do not have a nutrient or algae problem really but lately my sand bed has been getti,g rather brown looking and wondered if this may help with that by lowering nutrients a bit. Do you have any tips or reccomendations on using them?
Also I have been very interested in aquaforest (as many are) and I have seen "youdontknowme's" thread where he is basically replacing np pro with AIO and using the probio s bacteria. Do you think you would have seen similar results as you do running the full system if you had gone this direction?
Also I have been very interested in aquaforest (as many are) and I have seen "youdontknowme's" thread where he is basically replacing np pro with AIO and using the probio s bacteria. Do you think you would have seen similar results as you do running the full system if you had gone this direction?
plyle02
Active member
Matt,
I find that Coral B is a similar product to that of zeovits Coral Snow, but with additional supplementation for corals. It is white in appearance, it does not show cloudiness as CS does, however the dose is much smaller. CS has always been advised to use in combo with Bak to drive cyano out, could this be contributing to the cyano decline, what is your dosage? Just thinking out loud
If you have time, do you think you could detail your AF lineup, and dosage amounts? Thanks
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I think AIO pellets are a great product, I would not hesitate to go back to them if the AquaForest system does not work out. They must be used in a recirculating reactor and tumbled - but not too vigorously. The AIO Biopellets Club thread here on RC has some videos that show how much tumbling is needed. The output of the reactor should ideally flow into a sock to catch fines, then it should be directed to the skimmer's intake. It takes a few weeks for them to kick in, but they work well. About every 4 months pull the pellets out and discard any small bits and replace half the pellets with new ones for optimal perfomance.
For your situation, if you have low nutrient numbers already, just start with a slow output rate from the reactor. The pellets are very effective and you will strip the water quickly if you are not careful.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Matt,
I find that Coral B is a similar product to that of zeovits Coral Snow, but with additional supplementation for corals. It is white in appearance, it does not show cloudiness as CS does, however the dose is much smaller. CS has always been advised to use in combo with Bak to drive cyano out, could this be contributing to the cyano decline, what is your dosage? Just thinking out loud
Thanks
Very similar to coral snow, yes. I found a post on a UK reef board where AF said using it in conjunction with additional Probio S dosing at night helped with Cyano. I was adding a few extra drops of ProBio S and about 10 drops of Coral B every night. Ill probably taper off if the Cyano stays away.
AF lineup:
500Ml Zeomix with 55gph flow in Vertex reactor - I shake the stones once or twice a day when I remember.
500M carbon passive in bag in the sump.
ProBio S: 8 drops each morning
NP Pro: 8 drops each morning
(Slowly raising doses on these):
Coral A and V - 5 drops every other night
Coral B: 10 drops/night
Iodum: 5 drops every other night(opposite nights from A and V dosing)
Flourine: 5 drops with Iodum
MicroE: 3 drops twice a week
CoralE - just starting to dose this - first two doses were 3 drops each about 3 days apart. I dosed 5 drops last night. Witching for signs of stress after this one is added.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
1-2 of those frozen food feeds per day, plus one pellet feed each day.
reefmutt
Active member
Just noticed this.. What about po4? Did you test p after dosing the n?
Did the po4 change at all?
Since dosing n, my cyano completely arrested it's growth. It's around in small spots only.. My po4 didn't not change but I wasn't dosing a carbon source at first.. Now I am and p has dropped..
I feed about the same as you minus the pellet but I add some coral foods instead..
plyle02
Active member
:thumbsup:
Thanks for taking the time to detail.
I can tell you that like zeovit, a little seems to go quite a distance. I am doing only 3 drops morning of Pro Bio S, and NP pro. I am adding 2 spoons of Pro Bio F. My dang reactor was supposed to be here Tuesday, anyway, the zeolites have been soaking for days, going to strain them out and put in dry once the reactor arrives(same vertex rx as yours). So you are tumbling the stones? I think I am not going to, only because siporax is after the zeolite rx, and do not want the mulm to clog them. I remember reading you do not run filter socks, is this still the case? I switched over to them again after cleaning my sump, and so far they do a pretty good job of keeping the gunk out of the sump, I have seen no adverse effects. Anyway, I am trying to keep the siporax as clean as I can, running in a rx at this time, I may add more and just keep in the center chamber of the sump. Thank You again for detailing your dosing method, we are fairly close in overall volume, I think you may be 20 or so gallons more, but it is cool to see your schedule, it helps in figuring out a base line for mine.
Thanks again!!!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
No change in Phosphate level here either.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
No problem, I tumble the stones because the mulm is a food source for the corals and it frees up the surface of the zeolites for new bacterial growth. As far as the filter socks go, they are just an enormous pain in the butt as far as I'm concerned. They may keep the sump cleaner but that's not a big priority for me. My sump is full of feather duster worms, I guess they are part of my mechanical filtration.
I added a small amount of Eheim Substrat(like Matrix) a week and a half ago in a bag in the sump but with the fact that I have basically zero live rock in the SPS reef I bought a couple of liters of Siporax and I'll add that too.
My thinking is that water from the SPS reef has to go from there, to the sump, then to the Flubber tank to reach live rock. This may be hampering the systems ability to deNitrify, so the Siporax will be in the path of water directly leaving the SPS tank and hopefully that will improve that aspect of the water chemistry. I'm not terribly concerned about nitrate but I would like to see the system reduce the amount on its own more effectively.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
dkeller_nc
New member
Nah. You can get filters for 35mm lenses for anywhere between $4 and $400 (the last are Heliopan filters - ridiculously expensive). Try looking through Adorama's selection here. There's 60 pages of filters under "color correction" so it might take a while.
Reefvet
New member
Oh good my memory served me correctly.
You bought 5Ca(NO3)2.NH4NO3·10H2O, more commonly known as Calcium ammonium nitrate.
It fed the bacteria that out-competed your cyano by supplying ammonia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium#Biology
That's what you 'jump started' in your words.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Very interesting, thanks for the info!
According to the Bag it is 19.0% Ca and 15.5%N, which matches up with the Wikipedia entry for the "double salt" formulation with the formula you provided. So, for every Calcium there are 3 Nitrate and 1 Ammonium?(its been a long time since I took O-chem:uhoh2
Or is it one Nitrate and one Ammonium for every 5 Calcium Nitrate?There was some discussion recently about dosing Ammonia rather than Nitrate. Do you think that there is any merit in regularly dosing Ammonia in a reef tank that is using a carbon dosing method? Is the Ammonia a more readily available nitrogen source or does it have to be converted to nitrite or nitrate first?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I love your journal Matt, it's chock full of so much interesting and useful info :thumbsup:
I think a lot of acros will die if ammonia dosing becomes the next big thing btw..........
Actually one guy on RC was unable to get nitrogen fertilizers where he lived due to legal restrictions and so he dosed ammonia and it worked great.
Oh yeah. I'm not talking to you after your "little yellow princess" post:fun2:
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