New Tank with ULNS and Carbon

[mavjoy]

.

only thing I would add is using a product like reef roids, oyster feast ect.

I might try roids but in moderation. I think people get carried away feeding a lot of different stuff and by the time they get all this algae blooms it's too late. Having a oversize skimmer helps prolong the agony...lol.

 

[JayVIP]

Not sure what you mean about afraid to put it on paper, but Daryll Vanackers and Krzysztof Tryc's tanks are advert enough that bp's can work.

Read up again. Never said "afraid" to put it on paper. I said willing to, as in novices and beginners are too lazy to document their findings. Also, while I appreciate everyone's input, this thread was started for me to document what's going on my my own tank, It's really a way for me to collect my thoughts.

Also, isn't the two above tanks Zeovit? I didn't think they were biopellets but I could be wrong.

 

[JayVIP]

I've been carbon dosing for two years on my 75 mixed reef and absolutely love it! Yes, I agree with most post here unless you know what you're doing you could very quickly starve your corals to death. I've been using the Red Sea coral program (NOPOX, coral colors and reef energy) with amazing results, while also being able to keep my dKH at a constant 10 with no ill effects. I also run 1 cup of Rox and 1 cup of HC GFO in separate reactors changed out once a month.. I barely test my parameters anymore my sps tell me how my tank is doing..View attachment 314078 View attachment 314079 View attachment 314080 View attachment 314081View attachment 314082

love the tank. well done!

 

[nashorn]

How much I feed the corals everyday a big scoop of each.
I Volka dose and no way i could do it without carbon dosing.
I also believe in the acropower.

I gauge the film I get over front glass to determine if I'm over feeding.
Should always be a light film. Feed more if that happens.
too much film then stop or feed less.

Very scientific method.......lol

 

[mavjoy]

How much I feed the corals everyday a big scoop of each.
I Volka dose and no way i could do it without carbon dosing.
I also believe in the acropower.

I gauge the film I get over front glass to determine if I'm over feeding.
Should always be a light film. Feed more if that happens.
too much film then stop or feed less.

Very scientific method.......lol

Very true about the glass...lol. I feed Coral frenzy sometimes( 1-2 a week at nighttime )

 

[toothman]

Carbon dosing hasn't allowed the hobby to evolve, it has set it back. The percentage of people that are carbon dosing that understand the dynamics of what they're doing and the risks involved is probably very low. There are lots of positive threads and short term success stories with carbon dosing and bio-pellets. However, I don't know of many tanks and people that can balance it out properly in the long term, and eventually once those nitrates and phosphates dip too low people have problems. Then they start dumping large amounts of amino acids and food in the tanks to try and offset the problems... It just doesn't make sense to me. A carbon source is a quick perceived fix, if you have nitrates building up in your tank fix it with a larger skimmer, it's pretty clear to me that dumping sugar or adding bio-pellets isn't the answer. I was an early "experimenter" and tried carbon dosing years ago, I had similar problems to what you're having, so have many many others. It's just one guys opinion, but I feel the people with biol-pellet reactors should have just spent that money on a better protein skimmer.




Rant over!

On another note, I think bio-pellets are a solid option for fish only and non SPS tanks with higher nutrients.

Carbon dosing can be the quickest way to stn a acro available. One of the biggest reason I feel is that kh in a reef tank should be 7.2 like nsw, any higher it really does stress corals. Second being biopellets, their dosing is not regulated. Using dosed products like zeovit and fauna marin are much easier to control, because you can adjust dosing. Carbon dosing is better left for more experienced reefers. With that said I feel you can have a better sps tank with proper carbon dosing.

On another note I really do not think acros like GFO or activated carbon either.

 

[Moser]

Of course my daily feeding regiment is 2 cubes of PE mysis a sheet of Nori and a few pinches of NLS Pellets. The corals are fed twice a week using a mix of oyster feast, Reef Roids and Reef Chilly, I also dose 3mls of reef energy aminos and perform 10g water changes weekly using RSC! oh and did I also mention I run a bare bottom .

Parameters
Salinity: 1.025
pH 8.32-8.45
Temp 77 Winter- 81 Summer
Po4: 0-.03ppm Hannah checker
No2: 1-3ppm Hannah checker
dKH: constant 10 Hannah Checker
Ca: 440 Hannah checker
Mg: 1550

My livestock include:
2x bartletts Anthias
1x sunburst Anthias
1x copperband butterfly
1x sailfin
1x purple tang
1x mystery wrasse
1x lineatus wrasse
1x clown wrasse
1x cleaner wrasse
1x tanakas Pygmy Wrasse
1x Midas Blenny

75g-40g sump
Dual reactors (ROX, HC GFO)
Skimz sm163 skimmer
4 part Doser (alk,Ca,NOPOX, Mag)
6 bulb t5 (4x blue plus, 2x coral plus)
ATO
RKE Controller



View attachment 314095

All of the above it started with the larger piece first.

Read up again. Never said "afraid" to put it on paper. I said willing to, as in novices and beginners are too lazy to document their findings. Also, while I appreciate everyone's input, this thread was started for me to document what's going on my my own tank, It's really a way for me to collect my thoughts.

Also, isn't the two above tanks Zeovit? I didn't think they were biopellets but I could be wrong.

Thanks- all useful info.
I certainly agree about the documentation, sorry for misreading.

Both tanks were biopellets. Krzysztof started on Zeo and switched to pellets when they were first released.

One thing I would add is that rapid nutrition loading into systems that have been nutrient poor is likely to lead to algae blooms as the filter will not be "big" enough to deal with a sudden load. You have to slowly build up the amount you feed.

The same goes for amino acid dosing in nutrient starved tanks. Sick corals won't take them up as well as they should. The filter won't be able to process the extra and so its left for other organisms to grow and feed on. That's why you often see brown slimey algae growing if aa's are suddenly introduced.

Mo

 

[david.faik]

Thanks for this fascinating thread. It is an area I'm researching to improve my tank. I've use activated carbon just because I thought "you had to". I suspected it might strip other elements (trace etc).

May I ask a stupid question? By references to carbon dosing, are posters referring to vodka dosing and similar?

Was also curious if posters here feel that iron supplements to scrub out phosphate (like rowaphos and others) might also bind up other more useful elements?

I personally control nitrates by use of a deep sand bed (DSB) I also have a large sack of carbon that I am thinking of removing to "see what happens", and if not wholly positive replacing with a smaller one.

My brains, turbinaras, polyps and montis do well, my stylos grow slowly but I struggle with acros. Seeing similar slow browning on those.

I have very over rated skimming, and am thinking to rely more on that and the skimming, remove the carbon and was considering very light vodka dosing. Need to read up more though.

Thanks for the pearls of wisdom!!!

 

[knukles55]

Thanks for this fascinating thread. It is an area I'm researching to improve my tank. I've use activated carbon just because I thought "you had to". I suspected it might strip other elements (trace etc).

May I ask a stupid question? By references to carbon dosing, are posters referring to vodka dosing and similar?

Was also curious if posters here feel that iron supplements to scrub out phosphate (like rowaphos and others) might also bind up other more useful elements?

I personally control nitrates by use of a deep sand bed (DSB) I also have a large sack of carbon that I am thinking of removing to "see what happens", and if not wholly positive replacing with a smaller one.

My brains, turbinaras, polyps and montis do well, my stylos grow slowly but I struggle with acros. Seeing similar slow browning on those.

I have very over rated skimming, and am thinking to rely more on that and the skimming, remove the carbon and was considering very light vodka dosing. Need to read up more though.

Thanks for the pearls of wisdom!!!

research different articles on vodka dosing im on my second month almost of researching (not religiously) but you get the idea. theres many different articles and even a dosing guide to go by whats keeping me from starting is my skimmer just took a dump on me once my new one comes in ill be pulling the trigger on vodka dosing once I break in the skimmer.

 

[Spslvr]

all it really takes is an understanding of np uptake in scleractinians, i run bp and gfo and purposfully strip my system of all nutrients, if i dont suppliment then my sps fade, tissue thins, and stn begins.

i "feed" my tank plant fertiliser with a NPK ratio of 25:5:8.8 which is an NP ratio of 5:1.....

 

[brad65ford]

Damn good thread! Would love to know more about Wings6010 system as well. he seems to master BB system.

 

[JayVIP]

all it really takes is an understanding of np uptake in scleractinians, i run bp and gfo and purposfully strip my system of all nutrients, if i dont suppliment then my sps fade, tissue thins, and stn begins.

i "feed" my tank plant fertiliser with a NPK ratio of 25:5:8.8 which is an NP ratio of 5:1.....

Any more info on this? I'm interested since I know fertilizer is usually high in iron and would probably bind all the available phosphate in the aquarium causing a skimmer reaction? How do you go about feeding this and what fertilizer do you use?

 

[brad65ford]

All i know is i added a 1/2 a teaspoon of sump remover (potassium nitrate) to a 50 gallon system and it raised my system 8.0ppm which was shocking.

 

[markalot]

I can't add much here except to say I do know of someone who was able to stop STN of some acros in newer tank by adding a little phosphate. She was not carbon dosing but was dealing with moving corals to a new tank that was just too clean.

I have to say I've never tried it.

 

[Hockeynut120]

I can't say I am the most knowledgable reefer out there and things still stump me but here is my observation.
In my current and most successful system a 90 gal mostly sps tank is as follows
My tank was humming along with low nutrients for about a year corals would grow but had not so great color. Now my tank is going on 2.5 years and have nitrates around 10 and phos around 2 , I have a large bio load around 18 fish and I feed 3 times a day pinch of pellets in the morning before work, auto feeder around 2 with pellets, and then around 5 I feed 3 cubes or equivalent of home made food.
My tank now has great color and very nice growth. I do not dose any sort of carbon my skimmer pulls dark gunk I dump every 2 to 3 days. I also change 10% water a week.
I do not think a newer tank could handle the amount of food I dump I think newer reefers want to have a bio load like mine and just do not give there system the time it needs it be able to Handel these type of loads. So they wind up with algae.
Or they add carbon and nuke there tank and take all nutrients out and starve there corals.
I really think keeping it simple is the best way, feed heavy, skim heavy, and do water changes often and keep your alk and cal stable and you will be successful. That's all
I also want to add I run NO GFO OR CARBON I have no need.