Sonny's Rimless Shallow Reef.

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15522319#post15522319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lyfey
So I have a question for the general public..

I preformed a 30 gallon water change last night after testing my nitrates and they were at 20 with an API test kit. I will do a full range of tests tonight, I just got my brand new test kits in the mail yesterday and they were made in May of 2009.

Note to newer reefers, if you buy test kits from local petstores, check when they were made on the packaging. On API test kits, the LOT number is written on the bottle and the last 6 numbers I believe is the date it was made. I checked a major brand pet store last week to find that their test kits were made in early 2008, so even if you were to buy them, they would not be accurate possibly. A quick question to go along with that subject. I know certain reagents expire after a certain amount of time. Are there any test kits that do not have expiration dates? I threw away all my year+ old test kits last night including ones that I didnt have replacements too, ammonia and nitrite. I am focusing more on the major three since my tank is established, nitrate calcium and alkalinity.

So heres the question sunny. I have been cooking a tub of rocks ~ 80 or so lbs since July 1, 2009. I performed my first water change and rock scrub down last night. this included a 100% water change and rock shaking / scrubbing down in the old water first. I found alot of baby snails and sea stars and I put as many as I saw into my reef. The baby sea stars are cute! I have a ton in my system, usually when I pick up a frag there is at least one one the bottom of it. So that aside, I am continuing to cook that vat of rock. I also recieved my Caribsea Seaflor special grade reef sand (Sonny ;D)

What would happen if I took out 100% of the rock thats left in my reef and replaced it with already cooked rock? Only 50 lbs or so. I have a feather duster problem in my display reef and the cooked rock has been eradicated of hopefully all the pest algaes and dusters.

I would then clean the 40lbs of new sand and put that into my display. With two possible methods:

1. Push all the sand that is already in the system to one half of the tank and fill the empty half up with the new sand or,
2. Place the new sand lightly on top of the sand until all 40lbs have been displaced evenly.

My concern is for both of those situations, replacing rock and adding the new sand. When I added my first 40lbs of sand, my tank was barebottom so I didnt have this to worry about.

By replacing 100% of all my live rock with select pieces of freshly cooked live rock (has already been in my system for at least 6 months - 18 months) will this create a cycle? Will this technically reduce the age of my tank to zero? Would I lose any age on the tank where the age would be the maturity of the system? How much maturity did I lose by moving my established 1 year system to my new home in Late May 2009?

Sorry for all the questions but these have been things that have been lurking in the back of mind with insecurity. Thank you for the help everyone and especially you Mr. SonnyX

Cheers,
Chris

You could replace the rock in your system with cooked rock, but you may or may not kick off a cycle. It really depends on how much detritus and waste is trapped under the rocks, and how large your bioload is. As long as the water is still in the tank you dont have to worry about reducing the age of your system.

As for the sand, I would simply place it over the old sand bed. I have done this in the past with no repercussions.

I would dose the MB7 on the heavy side if you decided to move the rock and place new sand in the system.

 

[rsuplido]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15521842#post15521842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
Hello,

That is a great question!

When I see my No3 creeping up I increase the dosage of vodka. Once I have lowered the No3 I scale back the vodka to what I had been dosing.

The only time I would increase the MB7 is if I had an explosion of red cyano or something died in the tank.

Thanks for answering my question!

Here's an observation. I noticed on your blog that onyour updated dosing post, you didn't mention Probidio Reef Booster there anymore. Have you stopped the product? Are you dosing any replacement to feed your corals?

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15522450#post15522450 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rsuplido
Thanks for answering my question!

Here's an observation. I noticed on your blog that onyour updated dosing post, you didn't mention Probidio Reef Booster there anymore. Have you stopped the product? Are you dosing any replacement to feed your corals?

Hello,

I have stopped dosing Reef Booster and feed AA's only once a week. I found that feeding the fish more food has done a better job for my corals.

 

[blide]

Sonny

I've been following the thread for a while and was wondering why you chose to use Brightwell AA's vs the other brands?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[aquariumclown]

Sunny, sorry if this was asked previously, how often are you changing your water and how much?

 

[Logzor]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15521742#post15521742 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
Hello,

Moving the fixture up would be ideal, but if this is not possible you could scale back the photo period to achieve something similar. Is hanging the fixture and option?

My fixture is suspended 3" off of the rim of the tank, the corals are about halfway down. Even that far down my SPS continue to grow and have amazing coloration. Just take into consideration that my tank is only 20" tall, and that my water is clearer then most.

Hanging my constellation is probably not an option, I live in an apartment. The riser brackets raise the fixture around 3" above the tank, I am hoping this will be enough.

My photoperiod is only 8 hours. I use all three switches to ramp up the amount of light, each set is spaced by an hour in the morning and evening.

Regardless, my corals are extremely close to the light compared to yours. If you can get that good of color a bit further down then maybe I should follow suite.

 

[ksed]

Sunnyx

I was wondering if you are using a filter sock to prefilter the water to the sump if so how many microns?
Or sponges.

Thanks

Kevin

 

[stratos21ss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15521842#post15521842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
Hello,

That is a great question!

When I see my No3 creeping up I increase the dosage of vodka. Once I have lowered the No3 I scale back the vodka to what I had been dosing.

The only time I would increase the MB7 is if I had an explosion of red cyano or something died in the tank.

Hi Sonny,

On NO3, have you ever suspected or seen effects of having too little? Awhile back I believe I ran my tank too clean via ulns and got the monti issues that are usually associated with a lack of potassium..not sure if low potassium was really the culprit. Just wondering if you have run into the "too clean" issue yet in your experience and what you keep NO3 at?

Thanks,
_Matt

 

[drifty]

Hi Sonny,

Like snaza I cant get mb7 here in New Zealand. I can get zeobak though. Their suggestion is to dose 2 times per week, would you suggest to dose daily or follow their recomendations.

Thanks

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15522952#post15522952 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by blide
Sonny

I've been following the thread for a while and was wondering why you chose to use Brightwell AA's vs the other brands?

Thanks,
Bill

Hello,

I chose Brightwells AA's because it was what my LFS had.

I have been happy with there products, but would have gone with ZEO AA's if they were available locally. The ZEO AA's are much more concentrated.

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15522983#post15522983 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aquariumclown
Sunny, sorry if this was asked previously, how often are you changing your water and how much?

Hello,

I change out my water once a month, 30gl with Reef Crystals. With the carbon dosing I no longer have to conduct frequent water changes.

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15523004#post15523004 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Logzor
Hanging my constellation is probably not an option, I live in an apartment. The riser brackets raise the fixture around 3" above the tank, I am hoping this will be enough.

My photoperiod is only 8 hours. I use all three switches to ramp up the amount of light, each set is spaced by an hour in the morning and evening.

Regardless, my corals are extremely close to the light compared to yours. If you can get that good of color a bit further down then maybe I should follow suite.

Raising the fixture up 3" should help with the colors. If that dose not work then you may have to scale back on the photoperiod.

Give it a shot and let me know what happens.

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15523877#post15523877 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ksed
Sunnyx

I was wondering if you are using a filter sock to prefilter the water to the sump if so how many microns?
Or sponges.

Thanks

Kevin

Hello, I dont run filter socks. If I did, I would run these: http://filterbag.com/PONG100P4P-p845.html

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15523993#post15523993 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stratos21ss
Hi Sonny,

On NO3, have you ever suspected or seen effects of having too little? Awhile back I believe I ran my tank too clean via ulns and got the monti issues that are usually associated with a lack of potassium..not sure if low potassium was really the culprit. Just wondering if you have run into the "too clean" issue yet in your experience and what you keep NO3 at?

Thanks,
_Matt

Hello,

I ran into the "too clean" issue a few months back. My system reached a point where my coral faded and were starving. I combated this by feeding the fish more and adding AA's.

 

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15524135#post15524135 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drifty
Hi Sonny,

Like snaza I cant get mb7 here in New Zealand. I can get zeobak though. Their suggestion is to dose 2 times per week, would you suggest to dose daily or follow their recomendations.

Thanks

The Zeo stuff is great. I would follow the dosing on the bottle. You cant go wrong with the stuff Zeo makes. :thumbsup:

 

[Rodrigo_BG]

Sunny how do you dose Lugol? You drop direct in the tank or you dilute it in water and target feed? You turn off the skimmer for a while or let it running?

 

[Joel A]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15515264#post15515264 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
Thanks for answering jennmac415 question.

I am dosing formula #1 of Randy's Two part soultion. Which formula are you doing?

My CA is @ 430 and ALK is @ 9.6, actually had to scale back on ALK as it was rising rapidly.

Perhaps your corals are growing much faster then mine? I get decent growth so I am not sure why you would have to be dosing so much more.

upon looking into my issue more, i think i found where i messed everything up...

I too was using Recipe 1... but somewhere along the line i forgot the whole "dose equal parts of 1 and 2" thing... so i wasn't dosing any where near as much CA as i was Alk.. because my CA was spot on so i didn't want to raise my dosing anymore...

But still not sure if not dosing equal parts of both led to my issues?

Anyways, i pulled the plug on my dosing pump... i did a water change today, and i'm not going to dose any 2 part for a few days until my levels drop a bit (CA is 500)... then i'm going to start the whole dosing process again from scratch... hopefully that will fix things?


And no, there's no way my corals were growing faster than yours :eek2:

 

[Joel A]

another quick one for you.. what are your thoughts on using Zeostart (carbon source) instead of vodka?

 

[Reefer08]

Sonny,

How much MB7 would you suggest dosing daily for a 80g total water volume? For the initial 1 or 2 week period. Then after this how much?

Thanks

 

[reefrad]

help please!

help please!

Hi,
I started dosing voda and MB7 a few days ago, as per the regimen. I have a refugium and am running GFO as well. Today I decided to take the GFO offline. About 3 hours later my PH dropped from a rock solid 8.0 to 7.4! Is it possible that the GFO was limiting phosphates in the water which was limiting the bacteria and that now suddenly there is an explosion of bacterial growth with resulting CO2 acidifying the water???

If so, what do I do right now to correct the drop and how do you prevent this in general?

Thanks