picked up a couple things today

[reefkoi]

Murf, us po' cigar smokers like the made for Stag Dominicans, If I'm feeling saucy maybe a macanudo, but always a robusto

Scott i to have read that the closer to 11 or 12 DKH produces much faster calcification. I hate to add anything to my tank thats probably why i am at 8 since I don't add anything to boost the Alk.

I for one want growth but at the same time don't want it too fast, I may be the Donald but there is no way in hell Mrs. Trump will be letting me get a larger tank anytime soon

 

[reefkoi]

OK here are pics of the pink gorgonian (yes its alive and doing well!) and the coco worm I just took today!

[/IMG]

[/IMG]
The Don

 

[murfman]

Don, try the CAO cirillo or Kuba Kuba by ACID.

 

[reefkoi]

o.k. will do Murf.

 

[Deuce67]

Hmmm, back to the alk thing, I wonder if there is only certain corals that dont do well with higher alk. Both Chris and Dan recieved corals from me and they were even freshly cut ones too. Chris, you keep yours at 8-9 and Dan is at 11. However, I do think that Dans corals does seem to grow a bit faster in his system IMO. I dunno, it could be his 400 watters too. I swear this hobby just makes you just scratch your head sometimes and just wonder.

 

[aquaman2000]

And don't forget that every tank is a unique individual!!! Meaning that two aquariums set up identical, and maintained identically to one another will typically yield different results. Then add in all other factors to non similar aquariums, lights, filtration systems, skimmers, phosphate level, nitrate level, calcium, maintenance schedule, water change regimen, type of salt, other additives, the list goes on and on.


Monkey Boy….. nice photos. The koko looks like it should be on stage in Las Vegas …LOL and super nice close up on pinky.

Scott

 

[reefkoi]

I don't think I have got frags from you before this last weekend did I Russ? I agree though with 400 watts and a possibly longer photo period I am sure He'd get faster growth. I only run the halides for 8 hours per day, I don't know what Dan was running?
It's funny some corals grow so much faster than others.

I have 2 identical milleporas from eric drew.
1 grew to roughly 5 times the original size from a few months ago, the other maybe only doubled. Same frags from the same mother colony, different placement in the tank.
Sometimes its just where you put it, how much light and current it receives, so you really cant accurately compare to frags in 2 different tanks for growth I now have learned.

You tell me, maybe I am not getting fast enough growth. This picture of the mille for example (one of the first sps I added thats why I'm using it as an example) picture was taken 9/06 the tank was in bad shape, calcium at 300ppm. dinoflaggelates, you can see it was a small frag.

[/IMG]

this next photo was taken 6 months later 3/07 its easilly 6" now. I thought that was fast for a SPS but like I say this guy is one of the first I added so I don't really know how fast they are supposed to grow?

[/IMG]

 

[Deuce67]

That mille is growing fast! I have a mille that only grew 1/4" for the first year it was in my tank. Then it finally started growing to a nice mini colony. Yup, this past weekend was the first time you have gotten frags. Im sorry, I meant growth between Dans tank and mine. Im with you about placement. That red mille you got from me started out as a 1" frag on 12/06. Its a nice size now.

 

[normanviking]

My Photo period was 8 hours for money reasons. lol The only coral that I can think of that I have that was slow was the blue yongei. Orgeon grew much faster. lol I have read and been told that the calcium that kalk puts out helps grow corals faster too. I was dumping in copoious amounts of kalk.

 

[reefkoi]

OK Russ I thought maybe I was losing my mind again
I really think the whole deal is placement and conditions for a particular coral. Like my millis for example, they sure love current!
Dan my photoperiod is 8 hours also for money reasons, I'm not made of the stuff like everyone thinks !
I thought about adding a kalk reactor, but have read that I may have to be cleaning pumps and other surfaces way more often because of the higher alk means more buildup of carbonate.
I really think if the dkh of natural seawater is 7-8 thats what I want then.
I would think all NSW values are what we aim for. At least thats what i am going to do.

Oh and if anyone wants to see the difference between 10K and 14K bulbs see the photos above, what a difference eh? all the growth was with the 14k's

 

[normanviking]

Yeah but our systems are not the ocean. The alk is rapidly depleted in our small systems. The ocean is much more stable. So the higher you have the more room for error or laziness you have. Know what I mean? Plus when you dose kalk it helps keep your alk levels up. Sometimes I have had to dose more calcium while dosing Kalk. I have had no problemd with buildup like some people have.

 

[Deuce67]

I ran kalk for 1 1/2 years. I actually was getting the best growth with it. But my pumps did sieze from time to time from calcium build up. Lately, I have been wondering about a lower par rated bulbs and the effects on corals. I have been running these 12K Reeflux for over a year now. Par info on it finally came out a few days ago and the par value really sucks bigtime! But I still have good growth and colors. I dunno man.

 

[Deuce67]

I may consider kalk again here soon. The main reason why I stopped was because of Zeo. Im considering weaning my tank off of it. It dips into my upgrade funds! Or I can just stretch my zeolite exchange from 8 weeks to 12 weeks.

 

[Deuce67]

I thought kalk didnt do anything to alk levels? It just effects Ph and Calcium doesnt it? My CaRx should be keeping my alk in check.

 

[reefkoi]

So if the calcium reactor keeps the alk in check how do you tweak it to go up in dkh? more c02 or more water flow?

 

[reefkoi]

As far as stopping Zeo I wouldn't Russ, your tank has such nice colors I'd hate to see that stop. You would have to come up with a different way to limit nutrients I do the Prodibio but it's not cheap either and I don't know if it will allow me to get the colors you have, only time will tell.

 

[Deuce67]

OK, you convinced me Chris. I wont stop Zeo. But I will prolong the zeolith exchange for now. I really dont think that will be a big deal since my system is a low nutrient system.

 

[reefkoi]

Russ I did some reading today in the Reef Aq. vol 3 about the alk issue.
It seems Kalkwasser does in fact keep the calcium as well as alk in check. However it did say that when you start using Kalk for the first time you will usually notice the level of alk drop at first.

Alkalinity is pretty interesting, I still have a lot of reading to do but its a measure of a bunch of different things really indicating the buffer capacity of the water. Ph Calcium and Alk all closely affect each other.

It seems that you need to know what your calcium level is and then have a goal for the Alk to be balanced. So if you have 480 ppm calcium you'd need a dkh of 16!
So I think your right this hobby is really complex if you really dive into the research of all the water parameters.

Take Zeo for example why does it work? why do we need it? I don't know exactly what its doing but we are trying to imitate the NSW conditions for color and growth and Zeo is one way right?

Dan hit it on the head our tanks aren't the ocean and we need to manipulate the water with different things to try and duplicate of even exceed what happens out there.