Sonny's Rimless Shallow Reef.

[SunnyX]

Sonny - Looking AWESOME! Do you still have the Dendro in there too?

Loving the look, hopefully my mini-SunnyX set up will be there sometime

-Dave

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

The Dendro is in the 30gl rimless. It was being picked on my the tangs in the main display so I moved it. It have since grown a few small heads. :thumbsup:

 

[reefman76]

Your tank looks great.
I am amazed by your colors and the growth rate of your corals. Your tank is an inspiration. Keep up the good work:thumbsup:

 

[adddo]

Beautiful Sunny a true inspiration for all of us.

 

[Lyfey]

Sonny I finally got to test my MG last night. The ELOS MG kits instructions do not make any sense, this is the first time I have ever tested for MG and it came out to be 1250. I only use Reef Crystals water changes for MG suppliment. If anyone needs help with the ELOS MG test kit instructions feel free to PM me or I can post to instructions. Sonny as far as a 1250 MG do you think I need to do anything? I have another 30gal water change lined up for tomorrow night. I am about to run out of salt though, should I switch to something different with lower alk? Im at 9.5 DKH roughly and 460 CA, Nitrate is still at 20ppm. Should I start the cycle of MB7 for 14 days back up? I dont have much left should I still do the 4 capfuls/day?

Oh and my blue tipped rasberry mille sorta fell onto my orange cap and bow it whallopped the caps behind, I didnt expect that at all. Theres a quarter sized section on the cap that is much lighter in color, not bleached just yet, maybe I caught it in time. The cap I am sure will recover with no problems correct?

 

[Aqua Keepers]

Have you recently purchased more coral since your last pics or did things just grow? Looks great though man. Keep it up.

 

[Dutch06]

Hi Sonny.

Spoke to you a few times over PM and thought I would move my questions here so they may benefit others.

I received my MB7, Lugols and Strontium in the mail. I began my initial dose of 25 ml (based on 125g of total water) of MB7 tonight. Will continue that daily for two weeks per your instructions at which time I will start vodka.

My question is do I also begin the Lugols and Strontium now?

As a reminder, I have nothing in my tank, no fish, no corals, nothing. Just an established refugium and about 150 pounds of live rock. This is basically a new tank. Thank you for your help.

 

[SunnyX]

Your tank looks great.
I am amazed by your colors and the growth rate of your corals. Your tank is an inspiration. Keep up the good work:thumbsup:

Thank you!

Beautiful Sunny a true inspiration for all of us.

Thank you!

Sonny I finally got to test my MG last night. The ELOS MG kits instructions do not make any sense, this is the first time I have ever tested for MG and it came out to be 1250. I only use Reef Crystals water changes for MG suppliment. If anyone needs help with the ELOS MG test kit instructions feel free to PM me or I can post to instructions. Sonny as far as a 1250 MG do you think I need to do anything? I have another 30gal water change lined up for tomorrow night. I am about to run out of salt though, should I switch to something different with lower alk? Im at 9.5 DKH roughly and 460 CA, Nitrate is still at 20ppm. Should I start the cycle of MB7 for 14 days back up? I dont have much left should I still do the 4 capfuls/day?

Oh and my blue tipped rasberry mille sorta fell onto my orange cap and bow it whallopped the caps behind, I didnt expect that at all. Theres a quarter sized section on the cap that is much lighter in color, not bleached just yet, maybe I caught it in time. The cap I am sure will recover with no problems correct?

Your MG looks good. If things are starting to calm down them I would lower the dosage of the MB7. Has it been two weeks already with the MB7 heavy dosage? The salt you have is good so I would change anything. Just keep an eye on the ALK, try not to let it go any higher. Once your nitrates are under control you should be one your way to success. :thumbsup:

I wouldn't worry about the cap, they are resilient. Although, if the dead spot develops algae you may have to frag it off.

Have you recently purchased more coral since your last pics or did things just grow? Looks great though man. Keep it up.

:lol: :lol: :lol: My wife said the same thing to me the other day! She thinks that I have been secretly buying more corals. I wish I had more room for corals but I dont. I have just about every coral I set out to get so I am happy. The funny thing is I fragged off at least 50 frags between June-July! The trimmings seem to have accelerated my growth. My ORA Red Planet wasnt growing at all until I took a razor and nicked it. It has been growing rapidly ever since. Same thing happened to me in my old setup, the growth didn't take off until I started fragging. Perhaps I am on to something......:idea:

 

[SWINGRRRR]

My wife said the same thing to me the other day! She thinks that I have been secretly buying more corals. I wish I had more room for corals but I dont. I have just about every coral I set out to get so I am happy. The funny thing is I fragged off at least 50 frags between June-July! The trimmings seem to have accelerated my growth. My ORA Red Planet wasnt growing at all until I took a razor and nicked it. It has been growing rapidly ever since. Same thing happened to me in my old setup, the growth didn't take off until I started fragging. Perhaps I am on to something......:idea:

You plan on selling and shipping any?

 

[Aqua Keepers]

Thank you! :



:lol: :lol: :lol: My wife said the same thing to me the other day! She thinks that I have been secretly buying more corals. I wish I had more room for corals but I dont. I have just about every coral I set out to get so I am happy. The funny thing is I fragged off at least 50 frags between June-July! The trimmings seem to have accelerated my growth. My ORA Red Planet wasnt growing at all until I took a razor and nicked it. It has been growing rapidly ever since. Same thing happened to me in my old setup, the growth didn't take off until I started fragging. Perhaps I am on to something......:idea:

Actually, I have read about this somewhere. I don't remember the who, what where, or why, but others have seen the same results after fragging.

 

[Lyfey]

Your MG looks good. If things are starting to calm down them I would lower the dosage of the MB7. Has it been two weeks already with the MB7 heavy dosage? The salt you have is good so I would change anything. Just keep an eye on the ALK, try not to let it go any higher. Once your nitrates are under control you should be one your way to success. :thumbsup:

I wouldn't worry about the cap, they are resilient. Although, if the dead spot develops algae you may have to frag it off.

Well I was dosing MB7 / Vodka for almost a month and a half and then about 2 weeks ago I stopped dosing because the system went out of wack, now that I have stopped dosing I am going to start the MB7 again, I just have to order it. Going to start again tonight with the 2 weeks of MB7 then start at .3 ml of vodka/day on the 15th day. Thanks Sonny my question about the salt is that RC has a alk of 12-13 right? How do you combat that during water changes? my alk is slowly lowering along with my CA, my target CA/ALK is 420/8DKH

 

[SunnyX]

Well I was dosing MB7 / Vodka for almost a month and a half and then about 2 weeks ago I stopped dosing because the system went out of wack, now that I have stopped dosing I am going to start the MB7 again, I just have to order it. Going to start again tonight with the 2 weeks of MB7 then start at .3 ml of vodka/day on the 15th day. Thanks Sonny my question about the salt is that RC has a alk of 12-13 right? How do you combat that during water changes? my alk is slowly lowering along with my CA, my target CA/ALK is 420/8DKH

I dont do water changes all that often so I haven't run into the issue of high alk. I believe the RC recently adjusted thier levels, let me see if I can dig up the link.

 

[Henry Bowman]

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.

 

[tas5tas]

The only thing about RSCP salt is that is is ultra low in pottasium. I've used it for 2 years now and always wondered why my blues and greens seemed to lack something. Since I started dosing pottasium, my blues and greens are better than ever. RSCP tests around 225ppm for pottasium and NSW is around 390ppm. I am switching to either Brightwell or Oceanic as soon as this bucket is gone. They seem to be the most complete and balanced salts out as of now.

 

[aquariumclown]

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

 

[jennmac415]

I use oceanic salt and my cal stays somewhere around 560 and my alk WAS staying around 11-12...and I only dose 20 ml of both alk and cal everyday...I had to seriously adjust my dosages when I began vodka/mb7...now my alk is right around 8 everyday and my cal is about 520...but when I was not dosing vodka or mb7 my alk and cal were waaayyyy HIGH....once I didn't dose any alk or caL for 2 weeks just to let the levels fall....

I had many burned tips of sps while using Oceanic also because the alk would get up to 13-14 sometimes

Once I finish up what I have of Oceanic I will be changing to something that tests for alk in the lower range...I was looking at the salt thread that is out there, the other day, and it looks like the salt from Petco, (now don't laugh) may actually be a good one... anyone have any

experience with it?

oh... this is in a 180 gallon with 100 gallon stock tank sump...

 

[tas5tas]

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.

 

[jennmac415]

Mix my bucket better??? I get my water up to temp and then add my salt to 1.025 SG and let it aerate for a day or so...how should I mix it better??? And as far as "balanced" salt, I believe I read in the alt test thread started by Billybeau1 that Oceanic is the most "unbalanced" salt that he tested....

anyway, this is jmo of course...

 

[acronuts]

amazing setup!

 

[ryanjiang]

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

 

[RealReef7]

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