My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[sahin]

Amazing progress Bulent. Really happy to know that you are kicking Darth Acros' butt with these pics. :lol: Awesome work and thanks for the info in the PM's. :beer:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

you heard of it in the UK? wow

yes very close, but there is something fundamentally wrong in austrian politics... i voted for the winner but not because i agree with him just because i wanted to save us from the other one and that´s not how this should work ...
people are angry...

Oh yes. Remember we live in the internet age.

When mainstream politicians fail to address fears and aspirations of ordinary folks in their day to day lives, vacuum created by them can easily be filled by not so mainstream politicians or sometimes by extremists as we witness nowadays. People have nowhere else to turn. The rise of right wing politics in the mainland Europe and elsewhere is all too obvious, but not surprising. So-called moderates have work to do to win back voters. Sadly even they exploit people's fears, which we are witnessing in the UK right now during the EU in-or-out referendum. It is really distasteful to say the least ....

 

[FloformAustria]

Oh yes. Remember we live in the internet age.

When mainstream politicians fail to address fears and aspirations of ordinary folks in their day to day lives, vacuum created by them can easily be filled by not so mainstream politicians or sometimes by extremists as we witness nowadays. People have nowhere else to turn. The rise of right wing politics in the mainland Europe and elsewhere is all too obvious, but not surprising. So-called moderates have work to do to win back voters. Sadly even they exploit people's fears, which we are witnessing in the UK right now during the EU in-or-out referendum. It is really distasteful to say the least ....

yeah but i didn´t know our politics are inportant enough ^^

yes something is going on in Europe! I´m really listening to all the news coming from the UK. the EU referendum is really interesting specially to see how the you guys think of the EU...

But the election of the new mayor of London was a very positiv anti right wing statement!!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Amazing progress Bulent. Really happy to know that you are kicking Darth Acros' butt with these pics. :lol: Awesome work and thanks for the info in the PM's. :beer:

You are welcome Sahin. Good luck with the reading.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I wonder if all the native algea growing in the tank also produces aspartic acid when digested, or if it's only the nori..

Well, between the bubble, bryopsis and (recently returned) cyano I have growing - not to mention the dsb, cheato fuge and 12 liters of matrix, I'm sure I could come up with a few nitrates if I had to!! Actually, I do run around 2 ppm at the moment and p is at .07 with po4 absorbers running, so I'm not far off from recommended starting levels for bacto balance..
I recently tried my own version, using kno3, cano3 and np pro.. But I had to use such high doses of nitrates and np pro to get p to budge, I got uncomfortable doing it.. Not to mention excessively high calcium levels..
I don't think it is even readily available in Canada.. I'd probably have to special order it...
I'm thinking seriously about giving it a try... I'm going to look into its availability around here..

Bulent, I'm also curious as to why you would stop using the k+ and only continue with the other.. And while we're at it, what's in the other supplement?
I understood from your post that because you got to a certain dose of bacto balance, you needed to stop the k+ and I don't really understand the relationship between the two..

I'd be curious to have a look at that thread..

Hi Matt,

Nori is seaweed. I am guessing that algae that grow in our tanks cannot be any different unless they are physiologically different. I remember from the Triton literature that reefers are encouraged not to remove algae that grow in their sump, so that when overgrowth eventually dies "it releases amino acids" to water column. I do not know if there is a difference between dying algae or fish excrement that contains algae in terms of their aspartic acid content.

Cyanobacteria have also returned to my tank albeit in small patches (for the time being). Their return coincided with removing half of my sand bed and replacing it with new sand during the deforestation exercise as part of my nutrient export strategy. My action must have disturbed the bacterial balance in the tank. Furthermore, since I increased BB amount from 1.4 ml per day to 1.7 ml and then 2.0 ml per day, there has been rather rapid decline in nitrates as I documented before. I cannot rule out this fairly sudden reduction in nitrogen in water column as another interruption in the delicate balance I managed to achieve.

Referring to your question about my decision to stop K+ dosing, my rationale was two-folds, but before explaining it I would like to clarify the relationship between bacto-balance and K+. According to Hans-Werner Balling, K+ is essential for the growth and colouration of corals. Unlike most other companies that market different products for growth, colouration and nutrient control, Tropic Marin decided to include K+ elements in bacto balance, so that they offer a complete solution to reefers. Essentially, 1 ml bacto balance also contains 1 ml K+. Hans-Werner suggested that their testers reported that until bacto balance dose reaches about 70-80% of the recommended dose, bacto balance did not have colour improvement effect, hence the need to dose further K+ to supplement it. In the light of this, I stopped K+ dose since my daily bacto balance dose has reached 80% of the daily maximum recommended dose. Second, the online book on cyanobacteria cited by Andrew shows a link between cyanobacteria and excess iron. So, I thought perhaps I should lower the iron input to see if it will make a difference. Errm, it did not because I am already dosing iron contained in bacto balance. As of today I have started to dose K+ again, which is only 0.5 ml per day.

The other trace element bottle I use is A- elements. The product contains anionic elements. According to Randy-Holmes-Farley one of the ingredients is in fact not an anionic element (I cannot remember which one). Here is the contents: bromine, fluorine, iodine, lithium, vanadium, molybdenum and selenium in pure mineral form. Iodine is in the form of potassium iodide.

Finally, referring to your second paragraph above in which you described your experiments with different chemicals to control nitrate and phosphates independently with potential side effects, I recently posted the following comment to a fellow reefer on a UK forum who wanted advice on dosing regimen for bacto balance for his net tank volume of 400 litres (sadly it contains some repetitive information and information you are already familiar with as a very experienced reefer. But I did not remove it with the hope that it may benefit to anyone who is less experienced in case s/he reads this post).

I hope this helps.

Bülent

1. Get a 500 ml-Tropic Marin NP-Bacto Balance bottle;
2. Get a 500 ml Tropic Marin K+ elements bottle;
3. Get a 500 ml Tropic Marin A- elements bottle.

Stop using GFO. Use GAC passively in a filter bag in your sump.

Start with a daily dose of 0.5 ml bacto balance (i.e. 0.125 ml per 100 lt). Supplement this with a daily dose of 3.5 ml K+ elements and 4 ml of A- elements. Note that the dosing sum of bacto balance and K+ elements is equal to dosing amount of A- elements. This is because bacto balance also contains K+ elements. After two weeks, increase the daily dose of bacto balance to 1 ml (i.e. 0.25 ml per 100 lt). Supplement this with a daily dose of 3 ml K+ elements and 4 ml of A- elements. Every two weeks you need to increment bacto balance in small steps. Each increase in bacto balance will be matched by a corresponding decrease in K+. A- will remain constant. The big question is when do you stop increasing? The answer is not in the test results. You will need to observe your corals instead. You will see that their polyps will be extended more and their colours will improve. If you observe that your corals' colours start to look pale and/or your tank water starts to look cloudy, do not panic, just go back to the previous dose. Corals will react far more quickly to changes in the water column than your test kits register the same changes. By changing your mode of operation, you will be in tune with your corals. According to Herr Hans-Werner Balling many bacto balance users see positive results before (or when) the dosing reaches 0.5 ml per 100 lt. In your case, I would anticipate that this will be at about 1 ml per day.

One of the bottlenecks of organic carbon-based methodologies is that nitrates are lowered very rapidly. When this happens, facultative heterotrophic bacteria struggles and their ability to consume phosphates diminishes. The same phenomenon occurs when reefers dose nitrates in conjunction with or without GFO. Bacto balance, on the other hand, does not suffer from this phenomenon because the product is designed in such a way that some nitrates and phosphates will always be present in the water column. This implies that accidental starvation of corals is avoided.

As the colours of your corals change from one shade to another, you may wish to take nitrate and phosphate measurements out of interest. You need to remember that we are not guided by specific NO3 and PO4 numbers. We are guided by coral colouration, the degree of polyp extension and skin thickness, which are good indicators of coral health.

I hope this helps.

Bülent

PS. Please observe your sump and dark sections of your tank. You should be able to see an increase in the sponge and barnacles population too. This is of course a welcome news because as you know sponges, barnacles and tunicates convert organics from one form to another, so that undesirable organics are either consumed by bacteria and/or removed by a skimmer.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Feeding Frenzy in the Morning (under blue+ and actinic)

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks for the very detailed response, Bulent. I really appreciate your very careful answers to questions.
Now I understand the rationale for cutting back on the cation and anion elements since they are contained in the bacto balance in lower concentrations.
Hm.. I do like the concept and action of the bacto balance but I am a little uncomfortable with all that is 'built in' to the product..
Although, I am on the verge of trying one of the currently popular (around here) sps additives, anyways..
I guess using the bacto balance without the extra k+ and a- would be an acceptable starting point..
I'm going to snoop around for the bacto balance.. See what I can find..
Thanks again!
..and nice shot!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks for the very detailed response, Bulent. I really appreciate your very careful answers to questions.
Now I understand the rationale for cutting back on the cation and anion elements since they are contained in the bacto balance in lower concentrations.
Hm.. I do like the concept and action of the bacto balance but I am a little uncomfortable with all that is 'built in' to the product..
Although, I am on the verge of trying one of the currently popular (around here) sps additives, anyways..
I guess using the bacto balance without the extra k+ and a- would be an acceptable starting point..
I'm going to snoop around for the bacto balance.. See what I can find..
Thanks again!
..and nice shot!

You're welcome Matt. Please note that bacto balance contains only K+ elements. K+ and A- cannot be mixed in the same bottle because they react to each other. If you decide to go ahead with the bacto balance please start with drastically lower dose than the one suggested on the bottle. Instead use a dosing regimen I suggested in my previous post. Your coral colours are so good that I do not think you will need additional K+ dosing anyway.

Cheers

Bülent

 

[naecO.rM]

Thank you. I am relatively inexperienced compared to majority of folks who contribute to my thread. So, hopefully they will chip in the discussion.

I would check your light's spectrum (mine is heavy on the blue spectrum) as well as PAR (mine receives ~400 mmol/m2/sec).

My coral seems to hold its blue colour in a different range of NO3 and PO4 values (NO3: 1 ppm-10ppm PO4: 0.024 mg/l-0.18 mg/l).

Potassium levels are next to check. My potassium levels are consistently above 400 ppm (420-430 ppm).

I do not test iodine. I dose Tropic Marin A- elements daily. This product contains potassium iodide among other anionic elements. In addition, I dose 1 drop of Lugols solution (Tropic Marin Pro-Coral iodine 3 times a week).

I am not aware of any other trace element or halogen or heavy metal that can impact on the blue colouration of a coral.

I hope this helps.

Thank you Bülent for the advice!

Хорошего рифа!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thank you Bülent for the advice!

Хорошего рифа!

You're welcome.

Happy reefing.:wave:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hello all,

Here is my first attempt at recording a short video of my tank. I recorded the video on 26th May 2016 using my iPhone 5SE on HD (1080p at 30 fps) mode. For some strange reason, I cannot select 1080p on my iMac despite my machine is capable of displaying 1920 X 1080p images. Depending on your display device please select the highest video quality setting and let me know if you can select 1080p please. I will try to improve the recording quality next time and perhaps include soundtrack of some description. Note that the colour of the gomezi is too blue, but everything else seems OK. Finally, if you listen to the video carefully, you will hear birds chirping outside as my room window was open at the time of recording.

I am taking a short break from next Wednesday for ten days. My younger son will be in charge. I realised yesterday morning that I did not have enough bacto balance left :hammer:. I had to place an emergency order after ensuring that my German rfs (read it as remote fish store) has one in stock. They shipped it within a few hours. Phew ...

 

[reefmutt]

Really nice, Bulent!
The pe on that ssc is extraordinary!
The fish looked a little spooked by the new piece of equipment being panned around in front of the tank.
Your tank is beautiful.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Really nice, Bulent!
The pe on that ssc is extraordinary!
The fish looked a little spooked by the new piece of equipment being panned around in front of the tank.
Your tank is beautiful.

Thank you Matt.

I have another video clip on the polyp extension of the SSC. It seems to like a lot of flow. It is not growing vertically or laterally for the time being, but it has started to encrust its base.

 

[naecO.rM]

Your Reef is beautiful!
Fish, corals are nice and healthy!
Great job, and great result!
Thank you for the video!

PS good to see your sump and equipment too

Хорошего рифа!

 

[Wrangy]

Looking gorgeous Bulent I had no issues watching in 1080 either

 

[mhucasey]

Hello all,

Here is my first attempt at recording a short video of my tank. I recorded the video on 26th May 2016 using my iPhone 5SE on HD (1080p at 30 fps) mode. For some strange reason, I cannot select 1080p on my iMac despite my machine is capable of displaying 1920 X 1080p images. Depending on your display device please select the highest video quality setting and let me know if you can select 1080p please. I will try to improve the recording quality next time and perhaps include soundtrack of some description. Note that the colour of the gomezi is too blue, but everything else seems OK. Finally, if you listen to the video carefully, you will hear birds chirping outside as my room window was open at the time of recording.

I am taking a short break from next Wednesday for ten days. My younger son will be in charge. I realised yesterday morning that I did not have enough bacto balance left :hammer:. I had to place an emergency order after ensuring that my German rfs (read it as remote fish store) has one in stock. They shipped it within a few hours. Phew ...

Awesome video Bulent! Your tank is looking spectacular! Enjoy your break

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Bulent, I was thinking about a comment you made a few months ago when you added an actinic bulb to your mix. You thought that the actinic had caused your granulosa to turn more green..
If I recall, you removed the actinic.. Not sure.
Just wondering, in retrospect and with the other changes that have gone on in your tank, if you still attribute the greening of the coral to the actinic bulb..

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Matt,

My granulosa wasn't the only coral that developed green pigmentation. My gomezi also showed a hint of green pigments, but not as much as the granulosa. Since my nitrate levels dropped from around 5-10 ppm down to 1-2.5 ppm, my gomezi is now looking solid blue again and the granulosa looks less green. I am still using a single actinic tube.

I find it difficult to establish whether the nutrients or change in tube combination is the culprit (perhaps a combination of both). Last year I used 5 X blue+ and 3 X Coral +. I am now using 3B+, 2C+, 1P+, 1ABS and 1 Actinic. This is a sigificant change in terms of spectrum. I may never know. It would be nice to ask Scotty as he has the same tube configuration, but I am not sure if he has a granulosa.

Cheers

Bülent

 

[DiscusHeckel]

It has been a while since I last posted as I do not spend much time on here lately. Here are some photos I took a few days ago:

My current dosing regimen:

Tropic Marin Bacto Balance: 1.6 ml per day
K[SUP]+[/SUP]: 0 ml
A[SUP]-[/SUP]: 2.5 ml per day
KZ Sponge Power: 2.5 drops per day (maximum dose) (i.e. 2 and 3 drops in alternate days).

Latest test results:

KH: 7.65 dKH
Ca: 415 ppm
Mg: 1360 ppm

 

[reefmutt]

Bulent!
Great to see you posting.
The tank is looking perfectly dialed in.
The ice fire is stunning.
I like your Acro crab in the second shot.
Photos are super nice!
Do you watch potassium, these days?