My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

DiscusHeckel said:
Bacto-Balance can be used with a dosing pump, but TM says that Bacto-Balance container must be sealed really well. Otherwise, you will get fungus growing inside the bottle rendering the product useless, I guess. The product cannot be diluted for ease of dosing purposes.

I dose manually everyday.
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Bulent, thanks for the detailed responses. FM's Coral Balance and reef vitality and TM's reef active all sound like very similar products.. reef Vitality and reef active in particular..
Coral Balance however, strikes me as simply a dry version of AF's build or KZ's coral snow... I'm pretty sure we'll never know the truth!!!!
I have asked in the Fauna facebook group about adding Coral Balance to RO water to make a stock solution that can be shaken and added to the aquarium..the inly responder said that they have done this without issue..

As for bacto Balance, I suspect that I would be in the same boat as you, using a gfo to control po4.. using my current method of Fauna's MINs, Bak (which I may discontinue) and Organic, I need constant gfo while n is quite low..
with this current system, n has been below 1ppm for about 2 months while p sits between .06 and .12..
 
reefmutt said:
Bulent, thanks for the detailed responses. FM’s Coral Balance and reef vitality and TM’s reef active all sound like very similar products.. reef Vitality and reef active in particular..
Coral Balance however, strikes me as simply a dry version of AF’s build or KZ’s coral snow... I’m pretty sure we’ll never know the truth!!!!
I have asked in the Fauna facebook group about adding Coral Balance to RO water to make a stock solution that can be shaken and added to the aquarium..the inly responder said that they have done this without issue..

As for bacto Balance, I suspect that I would be in the same boat as you, using a gfo to control po4.. using my current method of Fauna’s MINs, Bak (which I may discontinue) and Organic, I need constant gfo while n is quite low..
with this current system, n has been below 1ppm for about 2 months while p sits between .06 and .12..
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You're welcome Matt.

Herr Balling suggests that we use aluminium-based PO4 adsorber instead of GFO if an organic carbon source is used to control nutrients. He argues that this is because organic carbon reduces O2 levels in the water column. GFO releases PO4 while adsorbing it under such conditions. This is why I use FM Ultra Phos. I do not think it is as effective as, say Rowa Phos. I target a PO4 level of under 0.1 mg/L. Coral growth slows down markedly above this level even though colouration does not suffer as much (this is perhaps because of Reef Actif).
 
Bulent,

I decided to test Bacto balance due to your success.............my goal was to use it without having to use GFO as I currently do with my display.

If eventually you have to use GFO or another phosphate media in conjunction with it, I have no use for Bacto balance as my skimmer alone keeps nitrates in check.

The frag tank now is using bacto balance, a skimmer and I still do my 10% water changes weekly.

The Bacto balance does add some phosphate in some form so maybe that's why over time there is an imbalance or issue..........but this is also the key reason why I like it so you don't bottom out P04.

Reason/theories why having to use phosphate remover---

--Too high a dose of bacto balance
-- Very high fish load systems
-- Too tight a ratio...........wider ratio with N03 higher allows for faster growth and more populated zoo which in turn the corals take up more P04. Algae will grow faster as well which gets skimmed eventually in other forms from fish(algae eaters--tangs, ect), clean up crews and hand cleaning the glass panes every 3 days or so.

I can vouch first hand when my N03 is lower approx below 1.0 there were a handful of corals that just wouldn't grow or were pale with less color, but they were maybe 15-20% of my acro population. In other cases corals look and grow fine but the new tips stay white for a long time versus them having some zoo and color as the coral grows.

As a ballpark range I believe the 100-1 is the best overall and even 200-1 is fine but then a few acros get too dark and the color doesn't pop as much.

I'm at 10ppm nitrate with both my systems right now......I think more in the 5.0 range would be more ideal for all corals, but I'm fine at this level.

----------------------------
Reef-actif-
I do get the possibly the Reef-actif is more focused to help the bacteria that is symbiotic with each coral, but maybe less helpful for the anaerobic bacteria that sucks up nutrients that our skimmers can take out.

Sooo, in theory corals growing faster help suck up P04 to help having no need for phosphate removers.
------------------------------------

I think Bacto balance is a good and simple inexpensive bacterial system that needs tweaking over time, at least 6 months to find a sweet spot. I don't believe you have to use countless bottles like the other commercial products to find success with acro systems.


On another note--

I agree growing acros above .10 P04, growth in some corals start to stall......by .20 or above it's almost every acro in my tank. This is over 10 years of observation of the same acro species. Color was never really effected.
 
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Great job on the deforestation ... though I too would like to see the latest FTS. It's hard to do, I was very hesitant to break apart the slimer ... though I got over it pretty fast once I realized how much harm that beast was causing to the other acros.

As far as KH, you know I'm always low, 5.5 to 6.5 depending on how lazy I get. Only some of my montis seem to dislike the low Alk.
 
You guys have me interested in these products now... Especially since I got rid of most of my fish and downsized.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
 
Just want to translate what Xiao is saying: Thanks for sharing. And I am learning a lot.

I am echoing the same! Beautiful tank!
 
DiscusHeckel said:
It is update time. There are three developments:

I went to my lfs this morning. I bought three more resplended anthias. I now have seven of them. They school nicely and swim together against the water current. They also congregate among the thick and dense branches of Acropora aspera. They eat eagerly. However, they seem to eat more eagerly if food offered is small, e.g. red plankton and cyclopeeze.

I also purchased 1 kg of Siporax (15 mm) and a fairly large sheet of egg create to build a box. 1 kg of Siporax equates to roughly 3 litres.

Finally, this afternoon a courier company delivered a package containing three Acropora frags, A. nana, A. bali shortcake and A. secale. As soon as I attach them to rocks, I will take some pictures. I did not actually see any picture of A. scale before purchasing it nor did I see it in person before ordering it. Its purchase is nothing more than a punt. On the other hand, A. bali shortcake is supposed to be nice. A. nana is an old timer, which should do well in my tank.

Cheers
Click to expand...


Hello,

What food do these little fish eat?
Almost all the sales here are on hunger strike. I'm confused.
 
Hello DiscusHeckel, how many liters of circulating water pump per hour, how many times the total water body is suitable, the answer I get here is 10 times the total water body
 
markalot said:
Great job on the deforestation ... though I too would like to see the latest FTS. It's hard to do, I was very hesitant to break apart the slimer ... though I got over it pretty fast once I realized how much harm that beast was causing to the other acros.

As far as KH, you know I'm always low, 5.5 to 6.5 depending on how lazy I get. Only some of my montis seem to dislike the low Alk.
Click to expand...

Thank you Mark. My corals seem to be happy when alk is just below 7 dKH.
 
Here is the latest update:

My yellow tang died two weeks ago. He was nearly 7 years old. I got really upset about her death. I bought a much smaller replacement shortly afterwards. While I was at my lfs, I also bought a copperband (C. rostratus), which came from Australia. As both fish were introduced to the tank at the same time, there was no aggression from the yellow tang towards the CBB.

The damn fish eats only frozen PE mysis. Fortunately, she also eats live mussels and clams. Excess feeding increased nutrients as you would expect. NO3 is 25 ppm and PO4 is close to 0.3 mg/L. The ratio between them has gone up to 85:1.

Here are the latest photos I took earlier this evening:

P1120264

P1120266

P1120271

P1120274

P1120283

P1120296

P1120297

P1120305
 
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