My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[DiscusHeckel]

I was close.. over hear glandular fever, 'the kissing disease' is called mono which is short for mononucleosis..
Not fun!!! Sorry to hear. I'm glad he's on the mend..
Good to see your nutrient shift wasn't too dramatic..
Will you go back to what you were doing in June or early July..

Thanks for the scientific name for this disease. This is all new to me too. My son's body looks exactly the one in this photo at the moment.

I have already gone back to my usual nutrient export mode, i.e. daily dose of 1.7 ml Bacto-Balance and that of 2.5 ml A-elements. I am also continuing with TM Reef Actif. I have dosed eight times so far (i.e. four times at 1/4 of recommended dose weekly and four times at 1/2 of recommend dose weekly). I am increasing the current dose to twice a week from next week (i.e. 1/4 and 1/2). The full plan is show below. Dosing increases will be subject to how my animals react to increased biopolymers in the water column.

 

[reefmutt]

When I was in high school, mono was the boogie man. You didn't want to catch it and you always heard of a couple kids, in the various schools we interacted with, that were sick for months with mono. We probably all got it and most of us didn't even know..

I got some Reef actif. I haven't used it yet because the cheato is doing such a good job of reducing my nutrients but I have been using Fauna Marin's Reef Vitality for years - in a mix with polyp lab's Reef roids. I ad a heavy pinch every night.
To me, the two products look absolutely identical and have similar product descriptions..

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I have noticed three observable changes in my tank after eight weeks of using Reef Actif. First, phosphates dropped very slightly even though nitrates remained more or less constant. Second, the frequency of cleaning aquarium class decreased. I cleaned my front glass on 16th July. It still does not need cleaning at all. I am not jumping to any conclusions just yet because I stopped using Bacto-Balance and A- Elements for ten days. Third, coral growth has also accelerated very slightly.

Moreover, skimmate production increases during the first few days of dosing Reef Actif and then goes back to normal. From next week, I should be in a better position to confirm or deny my observations as I am starting to dose Reef Actif twice a week.

 

[Superpuma]

Hi Bulent
If only you've come across something that prolongs the frequency of glass cleaning...
I work offshore, only a week at a time, my biggest hate is coming back from offshore to algae on the glass, it really starts to build up after 3/4 days, phosphate and nitrate are in check, the algae's still there. On returning from offshore it only takes 10mins and the tanks looking good again.
May get hold of some Reef Activ, dose it low, see how it goes....
Nice Work
Mike

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Bulent
If only you've come across something that prolongs the frequency of glass cleaning...
I work offshore, only a week at a time, my biggest hate is coming back from offshore to algae on the glass, it really starts to build up after 3/4 days, phosphate and nitrate are in check, the algae's still there. On returning from offshore it only takes 10mins and the tanks looking good again.
May get hold of some Reef Activ, dose it low, see how it goes....
Nice Work
Mike

Hi Mike,

In my opinion, 3/4-day frequency for glass cleaning is really good. I used to clean my glass every day.

Getting stubborn/dust algae on glass is not always a sign of excess nutrient build up. I was told by Santa Monica that if you feed too much food to your fish at once, bacteria sometimes cannot process sudden rush of ammonia/ammonium efficiently. This then results in dust algae build up on glass and elsewhere. Smaller and more frequent feeding may address this issue. In the case of Reef Actif, because the product contains marine-based bio-polymers, it effectively locks up nutrients along with trace elements to be unlocked by bacteria to be used as food at a later time. This may be the reason why the frequency of glass cleaning drops because bacterial population get a helping hand in consuming organic nutrients.

Thanks

Bülent

PS. How is Wayne? Please say hello to him if you see him.

 

[Superpuma]

Haven't seen Wayne for a couple of years, don't think he's in Norway anymore, if l see him l'll pass it on.
Thanks for the info.
Mike

 

[DiscusHeckel]

A quick update:

I have dosed TM Reef Actif twice a week for the first time this week. My fast growing corals have started to grow even faster. I have had to increase dosing to meet the demand.This stuff is a bit like steroids. Coral colours have also sharpened a little. Pinks in particular are more vivid. Glass cleaning frequency is now once every three days down from once a day.

Nutrient test results on 16th July 2017 were as follows (after no bacto-balance dosing for ten days):

NO3: 2.5 ppm
PO4: 0.092 mg/L

Nutrient test results on 26th July 2018 (after starting to dose bacto-balance on 16th July) were as follows:

NO3: < 0.5 ppm (just under)
PO4: <0.092 mg/L (just over 0.046 mg/L)

Bacto-Balance do work!

As part of my high energy reef strategy, I have decided to exploit subtle positive changes in my reef and started to feed a little more as I feel that additional nutrient export coupled with faster coral growth will be able to cope with the increased nutrient input. Corals are expected to be the overall beneficiary rather than algae.

Moreover, as coral growth has picked up, I have increased trace elements in tandem. I am now dosing K+ elements in addition to A- elements.

Daily K+ (including K+ in Bacto-Balance): 35% of daily maximum dose or 71% of daily recommended dose
Daily A-: 73% of daily maximum dose or 146% of daily recommended dose

Finally, I bought a tub of TM Reef Mud Vital after being informed by Hans-Werner Balling that mud is always kept wet from the point of collection. If so, by dosing I introduce some live bacteria, fungi and other microbes to the water column. Contrary to what other people who used this product observed, I do not notice gink clear water the day after dosing. This is perhaps because my tank water is already clean especially after starting to dose Reef Actif. I guess you can only improve things so much beyond which you reach a plateau.

I now possess almost the entire range of TM's Bio-Actif range of products with the exception of Reef Actif salt.

 

[reefmutt]

Glad to hear the positive results.
Isn't it I nice to have the 'problem' of needing to add more food?

 

[Ucantwin]

I like when you go into theories in your thread so I want to ask you why you believe some people with high nutrients can have no algae issues but some with low nutrients can have algae issues.

I am one who has clean rocks but my back glass gets REALLY green and gets algae that will grow over my coralline on overflows when I get nitrates about 1 ppm. I am always having to run my chaeto to where it sucks up all my nitrate.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

This morning's photos under "moonlight" (front ATI actinic ATI blue+ back):

Corals at dawn by M Bülent Özcan, on Flickr

Corals at dawn by M Bülent Özcan, on Flickr

M setosa at dawn by M Bülent Özcan, on Flickr

 

[westreef]

Nice corals thanks for sharing.

I notice you use Flickr for last set of photos. Good move.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Nice corals thanks for sharing.

I notice you use Flickr for last set of photos. Good move.

You're welcome. Thank you.

I already started to move my existing pictures in this thread to FlickR a few days ago. It is a slow process, but I will get there eventually.

I am debating with myself whether I should retain the two links that appear next to each picture or not. The links allow readers to access my entire albums, but at the same time create 'noise' and can be distractive.

What do you think?

 

[westreef]

I also moved most of my small amount of pictures from photo bucket to Flickr and try to rebuild my lost photos in my latest thread. Well, I can't believe photo bucket does this to us. Money talks -- I guess.

I am still trying to learn how to get rid of the link. I think it is nice to get rid of the link.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I also moved most of my small amount of pictures from photo bucket to Flickr and try to rebuild my lost photos in my latest thread. Well, I can't believe photo bucket does this to us. Money talks -- I guess.

I am still trying to learn how to get rid of the link. I think it is nice to get rid of the link.

Removing the two links is straightforward. All you need to do is to keep the following section of the link and remove the rest once you copied it in your thread. Note that I had to use "" to be able to show you what the link looks like.

"

"

Below is the result:

 

[westreef]

Thanks. It works. It is so simple.

 

[reefmutt]

Beautiful shots Bulent. The two pumps look like a pair of eyes peering into the tank.
Good luck with the photo migration.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I like when you go into theories in your thread so I want to ask you why you believe some people with high nutrients can have no algae issues but some with low nutrients can have algae issues.

I am one who has clean rocks but my back glass gets REALLY green and gets algae that will grow over my coralline on overflows when I get nitrates about 1 ppm. I am always having to run my chaeto to where it sucks up all my nitrate.

This is a very good question. I do not know the answer, but I will speculate anyway. That said, I will avoid making general statements.

When I kept chaeto in my sump, nitrates were untraceable and phosphates were between 0 and 0.024 ml/L phosphates. I had terrible bubble algae everywhere, but there were no micro algae or bryopsis. I dosed iron (Kent Marine super chelated iron) to boost the growth of chaeto.

I no longer keep chaeto. Since I started to dose TMP NP-Bacto-Balance more than two years ago, measurable nutrients went up slightly. Soon after that all bubble algae literally disappeared completely. I still have no micro algae, but get bryopsis from time to time. This may sound counter intuitive to some as one would expect to see increase in algae population.

As I said to you in my previous reply, there is a constant competition between various bacteria (i.e. facultative heterotrophic bacteria and cyanobacteria) as well as between bacteria and algae to consume available nutrients in the water column and surfaces. Who wins or gets an upper hand in our tanks depends largely on the balance between these nutrient consumers.

Note that nutrients are only one of the parameters in this equation. Dosing certain trace elements can also tilt the balance in favour of one or more of these consumers. For example, excess iron can be an invitation to bryopsis as well as cyanobacteria. Excess molybdenum and/or iodide can be an invitation to cyanobacteria.

In your situation, i.e. fairly low measurable nutrients and excess algae growth on glass, I think you must feed your fish large amounts of food in one go. What happens in this case is that fish urea floods the water column suddenly. it is quite possible that there are not enough bacteria to break down ammonia completely. Hence, nutrients are taken up by algae forming green/brown dust on glass temporarily. A solution to this problem is to feed small amounts, but more frequently, so that bacteria can cope with the nutrient influx.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Update on Tropic Marin Reef Actif:

I have been dosing TM Reef Actif for nearly two and a half months. Previously, I observed positive changes in coral growth, the drop in the frequency of glass cleaning and subtle changes in coral colouration. I will now demonstrate very subtle colour changes by providing two sets of colours for my chosen corals taken on two different dates, April 2017 (one and a half months prior to the commencement of dosing) and 6th August 2017. The same camera, camera settings and T5 light combination were used to take both sets of pictures. That said, it should be noted that on 20th July 2017, the daily dosing of A- Elements was increased from 2.5 ml per day to 3.5 ml per day. Likewise, K+ elements were restarted with a daily dose of 0.8 ml raising the daily dose from 1.7 ml (taking NP-Bacto-Balance into account) to 2.5 ml. This increase mirrored the increase in coral growth. Consequently, trace elements have also become an integral part of this experiment. This is consistent with Herr Hans-Werner Balling’s statement on the interaction between A- and K+ elements and TM Reef active. To quote Herr Balling again: “In the right interaction of REEF ACTIF with PRO-CORAL K + and A- ELEMENTS, really great things are possible”.

Below is a set of photos of some of my chosen corals for visual comparison:

6th April 2017

6th August 2017

20th April 2017

6th August 2017

20th April 2017

6th August 2017

20th April 2017

6th August 2017

20th April 2017

6th August 2017

Nutrient test results:


BEFORE Reef Actif

2nd April 2017

NO3: 2.5 ppm
PO4: ~0.05 mg/L

15th April 2017

NO3: 0.5-1 ppm
PO4: ~0.05 mg/L


AFTER Reef Actif

26th July 2017

NO3: <0.5 ppm
PO4: >0.046 mg/L (~0.05 mg/L)

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Bulent, quite honestly, I don't see a significant change in colour except maybe reds in the last pair of shots.
Pe looks better, however and the growth is absolutely astonishing! Although, your growth was amazing beforehand as well..
I see it reduced n more than p..
Maybe with prolonged use, p might begin to come down..

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hey Bulent, quite honestly, I don't see a significant change in colour except maybe reds in the last pair of shots.
Pe looks better, however and the growth is absolutely astonishing! Although, your growth was amazing beforehand as well..
I see it reduced n more than p..
Maybe with prolonged use, p might begin to come down..

This is a good objective feedback, which is what I needed. Thanks Matt. My younger son also struggled to see a difference between the two sets of colours. For me, pink on A. millepora is more vivid in the second picture, but there might be confirmation bias on my part. I t think it is best to leave decisions to objective observers like yourself.

Growth has definitely picked up. Acropora gomezi is growing at an astonishing pace.

Here is the growth of my favourite A. millepora (the one on the right):

20th April 2017

6th August 2017

Finally, two examples of polyp extension at the extreme (in addition to the coral on the left in the above picture):