Lilbitreefer
New member
are you dosing? if so what are you using?
My 120G SPS System
- Thread starter SoloGarth
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SoloGarth
Active member
My 120G SPS System
Thanks! Yeah it is a trade off. It is quicker and easier to get that grown out look with a higher/larger Aquascape. But I have always admired those tanks that have the top half full of acros. I'm a big fan of montis as well so I positioned them along the bottom half.
Yes that is a red dragon. It's picking up some speed too. I bought it back in December I believe along with a frogspawn and M. Setosa. The red dragon is by far the quickest growing of the three. And a beautiful coral for sure. There is a macro shot of it in this thread.
This is a shot of the frag in December.
I'll have to get a better shot of the RD colony now. Haven't taken many tank pics in the last few weeks. I have an awesome purple Bonsai that is growing out as well. One of my favorites right now.
Thanks! Yeah it is a trade off. It is quicker and easier to get that grown out look with a higher/larger Aquascape. But I have always admired those tanks that have the top half full of acros. I'm a big fan of montis as well so I positioned them along the bottom half.
Yes that is a red dragon. It's picking up some speed too. I bought it back in December I believe along with a frogspawn and M. Setosa. The red dragon is by far the quickest growing of the three. And a beautiful coral for sure. There is a macro shot of it in this thread.
This is a shot of the frag in December.
I'll have to get a better shot of the RD colony now. Haven't taken many tank pics in the last few weeks. I have an awesome purple Bonsai that is growing out as well. One of my favorites right now.
SoloGarth
Active member
I do dose amino acids in the form of TLF acropower. Honestly I am not sure it makes a difference. But I have a huge bottle of it and the dose is small (4ml per day) and automated. I like how everything looks and don't want to make any changes so the acropower stays for now.
Also I use bio pellets as a carbon "dosing" method. I love BP. In my opinion they are the single best tech that has come about in the hobby during last 6 or 7 years. Cheap, low maintenance and extremely effective.
Other than that I infrequently dose mg when it measures low. Maybe every 6 months as I only run CaCO3 in my cal Rx.
Salty Pickle
New member
Your tank is spectacular and your photography skills really bring out the beauty in the corals, hats off to your sir.
Land_shark067
New member
Where did you get the wire covers? Been looking for better ways to my wires organized!
SoloGarth
Active member
SoloGarth
Active member
Where did you get the wire covers? Been looking for better ways to my wires organized![/QUOTE]
You can order it on several websites. I have a whole lot of different sizes/brands of wireway a used for different spots. You can order it on amazon but may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.
gdemos
New member
Solo great photos! I also run BIOPELLET on my 120g sps tank and find it to be the heart of nutrient export in conjunction with the skimmer. Share more about your BIOPELLET experience, brand pellets, flow rate, bacterial additives if any, nutrient level experiences, skimmer interaction, thoughts on need to further supplement things like potassium of you've notice that gets stripped, lessons learned etc. I'm intrigued by your eye on glass scraping frequency as a measure of BIOPELLET tune and want to hear your thesis on this. [emoji106]
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SoloGarth
Active member
My 120G SPS System
Thanks!
Well let's see. Like many people I am not a huge fan of testing water params. Haha. So I try to bundle things whenever possible. For example using a calcium/alk supplementation method that is balanced (I use a CaCO3 Rx) means that alk, which is much easier to measure, can be used to give a decent approximation of CA levels. I do occasionally test calcium to make sure it is where it should be.
I apply the same thought process to NO3/PO4. BP export both of these so I only measure NO3. NO3 is also the limiting factor in BP PO4 removal. IMO it is pretty easy to determine the correct NO3/PO4 levels in the tank by observing algae growth rate and coral appearance. If the glass needs cleaning more than every 3rd day I increase BP effluent. If it goes much more than 3 days I decrease. I aim to keep NO3 around 0.5ppm. I am not a fan of pale, "pastel" coral colors such as you see in ULN or Zeovit systems. I believe that corals in this state are unhealthy and can easily be pushed into a downward spiral. I have run both ULNS and Zeo and found I had a much higher coral mortality rate. Running things the way I do now I don't ever lose corals. I also get good growth and (to my taste) great color.
I am currently using TLF bio pellets I believe. I've used a bunch of different brand pellets. They all seem about the same. I don't use bacterial additives. I've used them before and don't find them necessary (ZeoBak and others). I don't supplement anything I can't test for. I find even simple tests like alk and calcium to be of very dubious accuracy. So testing for K is a near futile exercise. That said, I do perform a 10g water change every week and every 6 months or so I do a series of large water changes. This is crucial for me because I am somewhat lax on testing and it helps bring things back toward NSW levels.
So my thesis (if you can call it that) is that "nutrient" levels are able to be determined by observation of algal growth rates and can thus be regulated using a controllable carbon dosing method.
It's pretty obvious if they are too high; algae growth becomes a problem. Too low is less obvious but IME corals become pale and have a less robust and healthy appearance. The problem is that corals have somewhat of a delayed response to changes and so I try to keep algae growth at a rate that requires me to clean the front panel about every 3 days.
Thanks!
Well let's see. Like many people I am not a huge fan of testing water params. Haha. So I try to bundle things whenever possible. For example using a calcium/alk supplementation method that is balanced (I use a CaCO3 Rx) means that alk, which is much easier to measure, can be used to give a decent approximation of CA levels. I do occasionally test calcium to make sure it is where it should be.
I apply the same thought process to NO3/PO4. BP export both of these so I only measure NO3. NO3 is also the limiting factor in BP PO4 removal. IMO it is pretty easy to determine the correct NO3/PO4 levels in the tank by observing algae growth rate and coral appearance. If the glass needs cleaning more than every 3rd day I increase BP effluent. If it goes much more than 3 days I decrease. I aim to keep NO3 around 0.5ppm. I am not a fan of pale, "pastel" coral colors such as you see in ULN or Zeovit systems. I believe that corals in this state are unhealthy and can easily be pushed into a downward spiral. I have run both ULNS and Zeo and found I had a much higher coral mortality rate. Running things the way I do now I don't ever lose corals. I also get good growth and (to my taste) great color.
I am currently using TLF bio pellets I believe. I've used a bunch of different brand pellets. They all seem about the same. I don't use bacterial additives. I've used them before and don't find them necessary (ZeoBak and others). I don't supplement anything I can't test for. I find even simple tests like alk and calcium to be of very dubious accuracy. So testing for K is a near futile exercise. That said, I do perform a 10g water change every week and every 6 months or so I do a series of large water changes. This is crucial for me because I am somewhat lax on testing and it helps bring things back toward NSW levels.
So my thesis (if you can call it that) is that "nutrient" levels are able to be determined by observation of algal growth rates and can thus be regulated using a controllable carbon dosing method.
It's pretty obvious if they are too high; algae growth becomes a problem. Too low is less obvious but IME corals become pale and have a less robust and healthy appearance. The problem is that corals have somewhat of a delayed response to changes and so I try to keep algae growth at a rate that requires me to clean the front panel about every 3 days.
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