Sonny's Rimless Shallow Reef.

[aquaph8]

who sells mb7? How long does it last you?

 

[JCR's Reef]

jennmac415......I think you need to mix your bucket better. The salt study conducted here on RC shows Oceanic mixing @ 8.5 dkh and the study that AWT did shows it mixing at 9.2 dkh. I am leaning heavier towards the Brightwell salt though as I have been pleased with their other products and their exceptional service.

I think Sunny said he bought a bucket of Brightwell. Im curious what his results will be as we have all came to trust him and value his opinion. Im patiently waiting though. I still have about 720g of ReefCrystals to burn through yet. :twitch:

 

[Dave's Reef]

Sunny your tank is just simply.... AMAZING!!! I really love the look and am in awe of your color and growth.

Curious... what temp range are you running at?

Thanks!

 

[redsea reefer]

Beautiful tank!

 

[Robert Patterso]

Taggin along

 

[v1...rotate]

Very very nice!! Great growth!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

If able, can you provide some pics from the sides looking along the back and front. Interested in seeing the rock-work, space etc.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[reefsahoy]

Stood on a stool and took this shot:

sunnyx, you are taking this to another level! looks real good!!! great job!

 

[9501gle]

Sunny

Heres pics of 2 of my browned sps. I'll use these as my test subjects and post pics of progress as it goes along. I'm really excited about this new (to me anyway) dosing. Thanks for all your hard work and great documenting of this.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

OK, Heres the 1 month update. Browned acro showing signs of lightning up and much bluer tips. Tri-color starting to purple up and better PE.

[/IMG][/IMG]

 

[9501gle]

[/IMG]

 

[9501gle]

Also the acro has much better PE during day time and crazy PE at night. The vodka and MB7 are definatly working. Thanks for all your help Sunny.

 

[SunnyX]

One of the better, not off the charts expensive, salts for ULNS is Red Sea Coral Pro. It's alk runs in the 7.5-8 range.

Others ($$$$) are reefers best or gettankedaquariums dot com

I just switched from Reefers Best to RedSea Coral Pro in my Zeo system and have not seen any change (better or worse).

Sunny, I keep following this thread because I am setting up an 120 (upgrade fr 90) and am seriously considering going to vodka and MB7 based on the success you and others have had. I have had good to great results with Zeo but it seems to run closer to the hairy edge of ULNS where the vodka and MB7 appear to be working without the expense and risks (STN etc...) that Zeo has.

MB7/Vodka may be a cheaper option then ZEO, but I really cant say if it will be better or worse as I have no experience with ZEO. I guess it wont hurt to try the MB7/Vodka when setting up your new system. If it doesn't work out as well as ZEO you can always switch back.

Sonny, question for you. I have been experiencing a couple of things which I do not know if it's normal or not.

1. PH drop of .02. A few weeks ago my PH dropped to 7.8 from 8.0, I got a little nervous when it started hitting 7.7. I had been dosing kalk for a few weeks prior to that and I have not made any dosing or equipment such as lighting changes. I have been upping my kalk drip, and it's currently at 3120 ml per day, or 130ml an hour. This alone is keeping my alk steady so I've stopped my 2 part. PH today at this kalk rate is 7.9-8.1

2. I've noticed my skimmate getting lighter at about the same time as the PH drop. It overflowed a couple of times for no apparent reason and the skimmate is very very light in color. I've had to open my gate valve to make it skim drier, so now it's collecting dark skimmate, but much less of it than the previous 8 months. I took the skimmer pump apart yesterday to see if anything is lodged in the pin wheel, or broken, but everything looked normal.

My question is. Does the above 2 symptoms seem to correlate to my tank finally reaching UNLS? I had been adding quite a bit of mb7, about 4ml per day and 1ml/day of VSV (I've stopped these dosings about 4 days ago). My PO4 and NO3 are both low but still detectable. I'd love to know your thoughts and experience.

All my corals and fish seem healthy and happy.

TIA

What your experiencing sounds normal to me. The PH drop is likely due to excess bacteria consuming the available Oxygen. The skimmer will output will vary in the first few months of dosing. My skimmate went from dark to light and now back to dark over a one year period. The Ph drop you have has is very small so I wouldn't worry. If the PH drops rapidly then you know there is a problem, likely cased by too much bacteria.

I am not sure what is causing the skimmer overflow, but I would like to gather some more information as a few other reefers have reported overflows when using MB7/Vodka.

 

[subshop]

sonny, when you test for Nitrate & PO4 are you using test kits or meters? the reason i ask is when you use a test kit, for PO4, the reading is zero but on my meter it is 0.09. so if using the meters reading is that low enough to consider it zero and move on with the MB7 low nutrient dosage? neil

 

[SunnyX]

amazing setup!

Thanks!

Sunny, your tanks are truly inspiring to me. I have a question, how deep is your sand bed?

Thanks! Sand is about 1/2"

Hey sunny just curious how many times a week do you clean the glass?

Every chance I get! If I let it go it will be noticeable after a week.

I think Sunny said he bought a bucket of Brightwell. Im curious what his results will be as we have all came to trust him and value his opinion. Im patiently waiting though. I still have about 720g of ReefCrystals to burn through yet. :twitch:

I still have some of the water in the mixing tub. I just need to get around to testing. Salt is salt so I really wouldn't hop to another brand unless you are really having problems with RC.

Sunny your tank is just simply.... AMAZING!!! I really love the look and am in awe of your color and growth.

Curious... what temp range are you running at?

Thanks!

Thanks! Temp run stable at around 78.

Taggin along

Glad to have you along for the ride.

 

[newsalt]

I've been using MB7 for about 3 months now. My total water volume is about 198g. I'm currently dosing 5 drops per day. I was dosing Vodka, but I stopped because I was getting this deep red "something" on some of my rocks. I'm not sure it's cyano because it does not siphon off easily. It's only on some of the rocks. Not on the sand. I did some testing today and got the following results:

Alk: 8.06 (LaMotte)
PO4: 0.03 (Hanna)
NO3: 0 (Salifert)
Mg: 1400
Ca: 440

Aside from whatever that deep red stuff is on my rocks, I have these issues: I have a few spots of Hair Algea, I noticed a day or two ago this white-ish/clear growth on my rocks and overflows. The best I can describe it is "peach fuzz". Also, my water clarity is not nearly what I would expect. Looking from the side, I can see through to the other side, but that tank just has this "haze" to it.

Any idea what might be causing the "peach fuzz"? What could the red stuff on my rocks be? How can I improve the water clarity?

Thanks

From my post I'm quoting above, I'm using MB7 (14 drops/day). I also started dosing 1 drop of Kents Lugols per day and 3 drops Zeo AAHC twice a week. I still have a few small patches of green HA, I have the "peach fuzz" on my overflows and some on the LR, and I still have the deep red colored stuff on some of my LR. I am still not dosing Vodka. I'm not dosing Vodka because of the HA, peach fuzz and red stuff. Am I wrong for doing that? Maybe the Vodka would help. Please let me know.

 

[crab0000]

Sonny,
Any idea how to easily lower the dKh of water change water? I mixed up ~30 gallons of RC and alk. came out to 12.5 with calcium of 500! Thanks!

 

[rtparty]

Sonny,
Any idea how to easily lower the dKh of water change water? I mixed up ~30 gallons of RC and alk. came out to 12.5 with calcium of 500! Thanks!

Unless you are doing a LARGE water change it shouldn't change your alk all that much in the tank. In my nano's I keep alk around 8-8.5. I use Reef Crystals and do a 25% water change. If I test my water the next day my alk is around 8.5-9.

Change water every day for a couple days and that way you won't get a spike. Let the corals use up some of the new alkalinity and then add more.

I think there is a chemical you can add to lower alk but I can't remember the name. Sorry

 

[moo0o]

Unless you are doing a LARGE water change it shouldn't change your alk all that much in the tank. In my nano's I keep alk around 8-8.5. I use Reef Crystals and do a 25% water change. If I test my water the next day my alk is around 8.5-9.

Change water every day for a couple days and that way you won't get a spike. Let the corals use up some of the new alkalinity and then add more.

I think there is a chemical you can add to lower alk but I can't remember the name. Sorry

Muriatic acid lowers alk. Don't know how much to dose though.

 

[rtparty]

Muriatic acid lowers alk. Don't know how much to dose though.

:thumbsup:

That is it!

 

[crab0000]

Unless you are doing a LARGE water change it shouldn't change your alk all that much in the tank. In my nano's I keep alk around 8-8.5. I use Reef Crystals and do a 25% water change. If I test my water the next day my alk is around 8.5-9.

Change water every day for a couple days and that way you won't get a spike. Let the corals use up some of the new alkalinity and then add more.

I think there is a chemical you can add to lower alk but I can't remember the name. Sorry

It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal on my 65, but I normally do a 5 gallon change on my daughter's 12 gallon Nanocube and I'm afraid it would be a big shock. I guess I could do several 1 gallon changes instead.

 

[killagoby]

Awesome tank. I had to tag along...