szathmary
New member
JB, these corals are stunning :spin1:
I wish I could leave in a country where you have access to such SPS corals :headwalls:
SPS care for advanced aquarists
- Thread starter szathmary
- Start date
JB, these corals are stunning :spin1:
I wish I could leave in a country where you have access to such SPS corals :headwalls:
szathmary
New member
Wow! Very nice corals. Those colonies are really big so you definitely do not have space left for any sea urchins...
Do you have a tank thread somewhere? I would like to know more about your system. Especially about your lighting and I'm also wondering whether you feed your corals with something.
JB NY
Active member
Always happy to discuss!
I have given thought to it I just haven't done anything about it yet, I probably will though. Probably in the fall.
Yes Mn levels are still zero. Although in speaking with a lot of people, Mn levels are very hard to keep in a tank, it seems that Mn is rapidly used up as well as can oxidize leaving very low levels even when dosing. Even the way I am dosing I have changed to only make up enough solution for 1 month due to concern about Mn oxidation.
Big E said:
Interestingly enough I have had a lot of discussion about that very article. I feel that it shows almost the opposite, low levels of Fe are more than enough for healthy growth of Zoox, but low levels of Zn or Mn cause stress.
" In the corresponding set without Cu/Zn/Mn, increasing Fe' concentrations resulted in higher biomass attained by S. kawagutii, but all were lower compared to biomass achieved by corresponding Fe treatments in the set with Cu/Zn/Mn (Figure ?Figure3B3B). This disparity in observed biomass clearly indicated that the absence of Cu/Zn/Mn in culture medium negatively affected S. kawagutii growth"
To me that is a good indicator of the importance of Cu/Zn/Mn in our tank. So I'm willing to try this experiment for a while and see where it goes. But I'm not ready to add Cu yet so I'll stick to Zn and Mn
Big E said:
I had been using Triton tests well over a year before I tried dosing the Triton elements. They always showed zero Fe. I was also using the ARID for well over a year before dosing the base elements, so I was adding a good amount of Fe daily for over a year.
I don't agree with the idea that the ARID was sucking up elements so rapidly that water changes and supplements were unable to keep up and that was what was causing my acropora problems. I had the exact same issues with acropora both before and after I switched to the ARID reactor. Other than helping reduce nitrates and phosphates, my acropora behaved exactly that same. Burnt tips, no growth, slow recession were a common problem in my tank for well over a year before I changed to the ARID. Actually the entire reason I switched to the ARID reactor was because I found a number of people who claimed to have similar problems to my tank when using carbon dosing and GFO as their means of N and P reduction. So I stopped carbon dosing and GFO (still have not used it since) and switched to ARID, but it did not change the problem I was having with SPS at all.
The trace elements from Brightwell I did get the chaeto to respond, but only so I got minimal growth. What I did gather from that was the idea that trace elements played a more important role in my tank than I fist thought. But even with the Brightwell trace element dosing, I still had the same problem with SPS. Actually one of my worst loses of acros was after using brightwells trace elements for 3 months.
I don't know what is in the Triton base elements, I originally though it had Fe as well but all the liquids are clear there is no visual indicator that there is Fe in the solution.
When I did start dosing Triton basic elements I stopped all other additives for the first 6 weeks. Then I started adding some Zn and Mn. But I have not added any Fe supplements at all. As you are aware all of my problems stopped when I switched to the Base Elements. So there is something there that was missing from everything else I was doing. A lot of this for me is trying to find out what.
Big E said:
I agree with everything you wrote about algae, but lots of people have used it for a long time with good results. Using GAC removes trace elements from the tank as well, yet almost everyone is using GAC. I used to keep a well growing refugium filled with chaeto well over ten years ago and I never had problems with keeping SPS. For me I guess it worked out fine that I already was using an ARID reactor for algae filtration, when I decided to try the base elements the only thing I changed in my system was that I turned off my Calcium reactor and started dosing. I don't follow any of their other recommendations or use their other products I just am dosing the base elements.
SzathMary
I have just been out and got a haloween and a tuxedo tomorrow for my son's tank.there is a bit of a thread under maxwells video in this section.the reason I posted the pics was after nearly losing the tank I went back to basics starting with the icp and then bringing all the levels back.the results are great with good colours and I was looking to see if I could improve .thanks again it's a great thread to follow.
Bill
I have just been out and got a haloween and a tuxedo tomorrow for my son's tank.there is a bit of a thread under maxwells video in this section.the reason I posted the pics was after nearly losing the tank I went back to basics starting with the icp and then bringing all the levels back.the results are great with good colours and I was looking to see if I could improve .thanks again it's a great thread to follow.
Bill
szathmary
New member
I got my most recent water analysis this morning.
Altogether 65 days has passed since the last test and now the entire sample to result time was only 4 days. I'm very impressed!
Unfortunately I have some minor and even some major issues to deal with:
Unwanted heavy metals
Aluminium is high (56.60 µg/l) due to AL99 PO4 media but as far as I know it is fine until 100-150 and it did not grow since last time so there is nothing to do.
Macro-Elements
Ca 480.00 mg/l (NSW: 440.00 mg/l)
Unfortunately Ca is growing while kH is steady 8,0 in my tank. I think it is typical. There might be very few tanks where Ca and kH consumptions are well balanced. I know that it is against ionic balance but I will decrease the calcium chloride component of the balling to let Ca go back to 440-450.
K 400.00 mg/l (NSW 400.00 mg/l)
Perfect. The 11 ml/week maintenance dosage kept it where I wanted.
Br 57.00 mg/l (NSW 62.00 mg/l)
With the extra 5 days lag of the report the 5.00 mg/l deficit is very likely 5.33 by today. This requires 1.65 g NaBr to reset NSW level. This deficit was accumulated within 65 days so for the old 0.15 g/week maintenance dosage I will add 1.65/65*7= 0.17 g/week.
B 4.92 mg/l (NSW 4.50 mg/l)
Last time I increased my 6 ml maintenance dosage to 7.5 ml/week. It seems to me that it was a mistake and the trend based on which I made the "œdose more" decision has changed and now I have 0.45 mg/l excess boron. This means that out of my 7.5 ml/week maintenance dosage 2.9 ml/week was not consumed by the system. So as opposed to raise the 6 to 7.5 I should have lowered it to 4.6 ml/week. Now in order to get rid of the excess amount I need to stop the dosage for 41 days.
Sr 5.04 mg/l (NSW 8.00 mg/l)
I'm very surprised by this. It seems to me that the strontium consumption keeps growing. So far the 18 ml/week maintenance dosage was ok. So first I need to reset the NSW value with 94.6 ml. I also need to raise the maintenance dosage from 18 ml to 28 ml/week. This is a significant increase so I must send another test within 30 days to double check it and to avoid a significant overdose.
Li-Group
Li 200.00 µg/l (NSW 200.00 µg/l)
Perfect. The 2.6 ml/week maintenance dosage is correct"¦ so far.
Ni 2.16 µg/l (NSW 5.00 µg/l)
I'm still searching for the correct maintenance dosage. The 3.0 ml/week dosage was not able to keep up with the consumption. First I will reset NSW value with 7.3 ml, and I will also increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 3.8 ml/week.
Mo 15.99 µg/l (NSW 12.00 µg/l)
This was always high. Probably one of the fish foods has more than consumed by the system. But at least it decreased from 16.68 µg/l since the last test.
I-Group
Zn 0.77 µg/l (NSW 4.00 µg/l)
I'm still searching for the correct maintenance dosage. The 0.3 ml/week dosage was not able to keep up with the consumption. First I will reset NSW value with 0.8 ml, and I will also increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 0.4 ml/week.
Mn 0.00 µg/l (NSW 2.00 µg/l)
This is a problematic element confirmed by many people. I already dose 6.5 ml/week but so far I was not able to break the 0,0 barrier. First I will dose 5.1 ml to reach NSW and increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 5.5. I hope that next time the test will show at least 0.01
I 153.00 µg/l (NSW 60.00 µg/l
I made a very stupid mistake :headwally:. Last time instead of decreasing my maintenance dosage with 0.2 ml/week I did increase it. Thanks to 65 days since that stupid mistake this extra dosage has nicely raised the iodine to 153.0 µg/l. So I have to stop dosing iodine for a while. If my calculation is correct the excess 99.1 µg/l was generated by 4.76 ml iodine reagent which was not consumed. To get rid of this I need to put on hold the maintenance dosage for at least 13 days. Since I plan to send a new sample within 30 days due to the suspicious strontium values I still need to come up with a maintenance dosage otherwise my iodine could decrease to 0.00. The wrong dosage was 3.1 ml/week. Due to the 99.1 excess value the optimal dosage would have been 2.6 ml/week. So this is what I will use.
Altogether 65 days has passed since the last test and now the entire sample to result time was only 4 days. I'm very impressed!
Unfortunately I have some minor and even some major issues to deal with:
Unwanted heavy metals
Aluminium is high (56.60 µg/l) due to AL99 PO4 media but as far as I know it is fine until 100-150 and it did not grow since last time so there is nothing to do.
Macro-Elements
Ca 480.00 mg/l (NSW: 440.00 mg/l)
Unfortunately Ca is growing while kH is steady 8,0 in my tank. I think it is typical. There might be very few tanks where Ca and kH consumptions are well balanced. I know that it is against ionic balance but I will decrease the calcium chloride component of the balling to let Ca go back to 440-450.
K 400.00 mg/l (NSW 400.00 mg/l)
Perfect. The 11 ml/week maintenance dosage kept it where I wanted.
Br 57.00 mg/l (NSW 62.00 mg/l)
With the extra 5 days lag of the report the 5.00 mg/l deficit is very likely 5.33 by today. This requires 1.65 g NaBr to reset NSW level. This deficit was accumulated within 65 days so for the old 0.15 g/week maintenance dosage I will add 1.65/65*7= 0.17 g/week.
B 4.92 mg/l (NSW 4.50 mg/l)
Last time I increased my 6 ml maintenance dosage to 7.5 ml/week. It seems to me that it was a mistake and the trend based on which I made the "œdose more" decision has changed and now I have 0.45 mg/l excess boron. This means that out of my 7.5 ml/week maintenance dosage 2.9 ml/week was not consumed by the system. So as opposed to raise the 6 to 7.5 I should have lowered it to 4.6 ml/week. Now in order to get rid of the excess amount I need to stop the dosage for 41 days.
Sr 5.04 mg/l (NSW 8.00 mg/l)
I'm very surprised by this. It seems to me that the strontium consumption keeps growing. So far the 18 ml/week maintenance dosage was ok. So first I need to reset the NSW value with 94.6 ml. I also need to raise the maintenance dosage from 18 ml to 28 ml/week. This is a significant increase so I must send another test within 30 days to double check it and to avoid a significant overdose.
Li-Group
Li 200.00 µg/l (NSW 200.00 µg/l)
Perfect. The 2.6 ml/week maintenance dosage is correct"¦ so far.
Ni 2.16 µg/l (NSW 5.00 µg/l)
I'm still searching for the correct maintenance dosage. The 3.0 ml/week dosage was not able to keep up with the consumption. First I will reset NSW value with 7.3 ml, and I will also increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 3.8 ml/week.
Mo 15.99 µg/l (NSW 12.00 µg/l)
This was always high. Probably one of the fish foods has more than consumed by the system. But at least it decreased from 16.68 µg/l since the last test.
I-Group
Zn 0.77 µg/l (NSW 4.00 µg/l)
I'm still searching for the correct maintenance dosage. The 0.3 ml/week dosage was not able to keep up with the consumption. First I will reset NSW value with 0.8 ml, and I will also increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 0.4 ml/week.
Mn 0.00 µg/l (NSW 2.00 µg/l)
This is a problematic element confirmed by many people. I already dose 6.5 ml/week but so far I was not able to break the 0,0 barrier. First I will dose 5.1 ml to reach NSW and increase the weekly maintenance dosage to 5.5. I hope that next time the test will show at least 0.01
I 153.00 µg/l (NSW 60.00 µg/l
I made a very stupid mistake :headwally:. Last time instead of decreasing my maintenance dosage with 0.2 ml/week I did increase it. Thanks to 65 days since that stupid mistake this extra dosage has nicely raised the iodine to 153.0 µg/l. So I have to stop dosing iodine for a while. If my calculation is correct the excess 99.1 µg/l was generated by 4.76 ml iodine reagent which was not consumed. To get rid of this I need to put on hold the maintenance dosage for at least 13 days. Since I plan to send a new sample within 30 days due to the suspicious strontium values I still need to come up with a maintenance dosage otherwise my iodine could decrease to 0.00. The wrong dosage was 3.1 ml/week. Due to the 99.1 excess value the optimal dosage would have been 2.6 ml/week. So this is what I will use.
szathmary
New member
Hi Aaron, no, it is due to the aluminium based PO4 remover I use.
szathmary
New member
I'm calling the attention of those who are experimenting with individual trace element dosage especially: Mn, I, Ni, Zn, Fe.
What I'm wondering about is whether you have experienced the same "œissues" with your light like I did.
To be honest, especially when it is about SPS light, I'm on the T5 side in the T5vs.LED debate. Or let's say I used to be. I do not want to make my thread to be another battle field but I think I'm allowed to say a few words about my point of view: for me the main problem with LED is its "œoptical characteristic". Let me explain what it is for me: so as long as for MH we were able to use big Lumenarc diamond reflectors and as long as at T5 light the main principle of their application is to use as many tubes as possible to cover the entire surface of the tank plus use good reflector mirrors, in case of LED we only have the "œlens". The problem is not that whether LED will burn or not the corals. The problem is that the less LED you use the more shadows you will have. I see friends who invested into expensive lights like Radion or AI and they had "œbeautiful" light at the very beginning but once corals started growing they got stuck.
So I used to be fanatic T5 guy, with a "œpastel color obsession". Since I saw that few fellow aquarists can reach haven with T5 and Zeovit I was convinced that there is no other way. But I was not among the chosen ones.
The enlightenment came in 2 doses:
So this is what I experienced:
I had low nutrient, close to NSW level stable trace elements, rock stable Kh, salinity, etc. What else could be missing?
Since I had 6x54W Ati Powermodul over my 120x45x45 (cm) tank I have never thought that light will be ever an issue.
But it was.
I think that certain trace elements (including especially manganese and iron) make zooxanthellae thrive at low nutrient as well. The host corals have no interest to lower their amount as long as they get what they want: sugar. The only way to convince the corals to expel some of their simbionts if they are sure to get the same amount of sugar. The key here is light. More light increases the performance of zooxanthellae so the coral needs less of them.
So I finally considered adding LEDs. I can not afford LANI LED, so I built my own T5+LED combo based on my good old ATI:
The old tube combo was: 3x54W Ati BluePlus + 3x54W Ati CoralPlus (app. 11.000 lumen) Due to the nature of tri-phosphor T5 tubes the CoralPlus tube has a very low color rendering index. As long as the chromoprotein of the coral is in the matching range with the peak of the red or the green component of the T5 tube it is fine. But I wanted more saturated red colors in my tank.
Now I have: 4x54W Ati BluePlus + 2x54W Ati TrueActinic. I think that this combo has a better PUR than my previous light, but obviously worse color rendering so to fix that I added 72W 4000K SMD LED strip. Even though the strips hide a bit the T5 lamps I still think that it has app. 14-15.000 lumen. To make the colors pop I added 60W 400nm SMD LED as well.
And I love this new light as well as my SPS corals.
Here is the lamp:
This is not related to the upgrade of my light which is an older story.
FYI: there is 21 days between the 2 photos:
What I'm wondering about is whether you have experienced the same "œissues" with your light like I did.
To be honest, especially when it is about SPS light, I'm on the T5 side in the T5vs.LED debate. Or let's say I used to be. I do not want to make my thread to be another battle field but I think I'm allowed to say a few words about my point of view: for me the main problem with LED is its "œoptical characteristic". Let me explain what it is for me: so as long as for MH we were able to use big Lumenarc diamond reflectors and as long as at T5 light the main principle of their application is to use as many tubes as possible to cover the entire surface of the tank plus use good reflector mirrors, in case of LED we only have the "œlens". The problem is not that whether LED will burn or not the corals. The problem is that the less LED you use the more shadows you will have. I see friends who invested into expensive lights like Radion or AI and they had "œbeautiful" light at the very beginning but once corals started growing they got stuck.
So I used to be fanatic T5 guy, with a "œpastel color obsession"
. Since I saw that few fellow aquarists can reach haven with T5 and Zeovit I was convinced that there is no other way. But I was not among the chosen ones.The enlightenment came in 2 doses:
- I started understanding that Zeovit is a complete twist of the nature. I think that the Zeovit method makes the life of the zooxanthellae almost completely impossible with eliminating everything that it needs: ammonia, trace elements, and if it survived it radically ends the fight with 10 µg/l copper sulfate. This is such a thin layer between life and death so that very few people can manage it for long. I have no scientific proof but I think in such an environment the SPS coral rather "œoperates" as a bleached coral where light is not a food source but basically something that enables us to see them. (I'm exaggerating a bit"¦)
- I saw the show tank of Triton with my own eyes. As far as I know due to the calibration requirements of the lab he tests the tank 8 times day so I expected something really beautiful anyway but I was also impressed by the LANI LED lamps. There was crazy amount of light there and SPS corals were thriving 15-30 cm under the surface. And the corals was pastel like I love. At that time I thought that Ehsan only implemented the T5 principle so he put as many LEDs as possible to cover the entire tank but with a lower performance as opposed to use 3-5-10W brutal LEDs to eliminate shadows. Later I understood with my own thank that it is a little bit more than just that.
So this is what I experienced:
I had low nutrient, close to NSW level stable trace elements, rock stable Kh, salinity, etc. What else could be missing?
Since I had 6x54W Ati Powermodul over my 120x45x45 (cm) tank I have never thought that light will be ever an issue.
But it was.
I think that certain trace elements (including especially manganese and iron) make zooxanthellae thrive at low nutrient as well. The host corals have no interest to lower their amount as long as they get what they want: sugar. The only way to convince the corals to expel some of their simbionts if they are sure to get the same amount of sugar. The key here is light. More light increases the performance of zooxanthellae so the coral needs less of them.
So I finally considered adding LEDs. I can not afford LANI LED, so I built my own T5+LED combo based on my good old ATI:
- I added LED strips (I think they are an underestimated technology)
- And I changed the tube combination.
The old tube combo was: 3x54W Ati BluePlus + 3x54W Ati CoralPlus (app. 11.000 lumen) Due to the nature of tri-phosphor T5 tubes the CoralPlus tube has a very low color rendering index. As long as the chromoprotein of the coral is in the matching range with the peak of the red or the green component of the T5 tube it is fine. But I wanted more saturated red colors in my tank.
Now I have: 4x54W Ati BluePlus + 2x54W Ati TrueActinic. I think that this combo has a better PUR than my previous light, but obviously worse color rendering so to fix that I added 72W 4000K SMD LED strip. Even though the strips hide a bit the T5 lamps I still think that it has app. 14-15.000 lumen. To make the colors pop I added 60W 400nm SMD LED as well.
And I love this new light as well as my SPS corals.
Here is the lamp:
This is not related to the upgrade of my light which is an older story.
FYI: there is 21 days between the 2 photos:
reefmutt
Active member
This is a fascinating discussion that I want to follow.
I can't really add to the chemistry portions as I am no chemist but I wanted to point out that after over a year of slow growth in my sps tank, the addition of a half recommended dose of Brightwell's Koralcolor (Proprietary blend of Cobalt chloride, Sodium feredetate, Manganese chloride, Lithium chloride) and half recommended dose of Aquaforest's Micro E (manganese, vanadium, zinc, nickel, iron, chromium, cobalt & copper) had a dramatic effect on sps growth in my system. Less so in colour.. I was already dosing iodine and potassium. It did not, however have any effect on the mediocre growth of my cheato..
Anecdotal and non scientific I know and may muddy the waters here but speaks to how even if one could pinpoint the exact elements required, the types of foods used and types of invertebrates (known or not known) that inhabit the system can change the chemistry.
I recall Reefvet mentioning that feeding the fish sheets of nori will produce aspartic acid as the fish metabolize the algae. I wonder if this is also the case when snails, urchins, hermits and any other algae grazing invert consumes algae.
I have a couple long spines and a tuxedo urchin in my cheato sump and the tuxedo never leaves the Centre of the cheato mass. I assume it is consuming some of it. In this way some of that the cheato is absorbing from the water column is being recycled and reintroduced to the system..
I have never met a more efficient algae remover than an urchin. I wish they came in miniature size, so that they could squeeze between the tighter growing sps colonies..
I am in Montreal, Canada and I sent a sample to Triton. It went from me to Toronto and then to Germany. By the time I got results, 7 or 8 weeks had passed.... How accurate can I assume these results are??
I might try Fauna Marin as there is a local dealer who should be able to reduce turnover by a few weeks..
Anyway, fascinating discussion.
And Joe, I would love to try mirroring what you are adding to your system to see if I could get similar results with your methodology..
Our systems employ many of the same elements, except I still Use a ca reactor.
How do we organize that? I'm pretty sure Tritons products are not available in Canada..
I can't really add to the chemistry portions as I am no chemist but I wanted to point out that after over a year of slow growth in my sps tank, the addition of a half recommended dose of Brightwell's Koralcolor (Proprietary blend of Cobalt chloride, Sodium feredetate, Manganese chloride, Lithium chloride) and half recommended dose of Aquaforest's Micro E (manganese, vanadium, zinc, nickel, iron, chromium, cobalt & copper) had a dramatic effect on sps growth in my system. Less so in colour.. I was already dosing iodine and potassium. It did not, however have any effect on the mediocre growth of my cheato..
Anecdotal and non scientific I know and may muddy the waters here but speaks to how even if one could pinpoint the exact elements required, the types of foods used and types of invertebrates (known or not known) that inhabit the system can change the chemistry.
I recall Reefvet mentioning that feeding the fish sheets of nori will produce aspartic acid as the fish metabolize the algae. I wonder if this is also the case when snails, urchins, hermits and any other algae grazing invert consumes algae.
I have a couple long spines and a tuxedo urchin in my cheato sump and the tuxedo never leaves the Centre of the cheato mass. I assume it is consuming some of it. In this way some of that the cheato is absorbing from the water column is being recycled and reintroduced to the system..
I have never met a more efficient algae remover than an urchin. I wish they came in miniature size, so that they could squeeze between the tighter growing sps colonies..
I am in Montreal, Canada and I sent a sample to Triton. It went from me to Toronto and then to Germany. By the time I got results, 7 or 8 weeks had passed.... How accurate can I assume these results are??
I might try Fauna Marin as there is a local dealer who should be able to reduce turnover by a few weeks..
Anyway, fascinating discussion.
And Joe, I would love to try mirroring what you are adding to your system to see if I could get similar results with your methodology..
Our systems employ many of the same elements, except I still Use a ca reactor.
How do we organize that? I'm pretty sure Tritons products are not available in Canada..
szathmary
New member
Hi Maxwell,
very nice colors! :eek1:
I'm so envious!!
Which corner of the World you are living on? How do you collect these SPS corals? Do you buy them at a LFS? Do you travel hundreds and hundreds of km to buy unique pieces? Or do just you order them from the Internet?
Here in Hungary we have very limited availability and when I tried some German online stores almost 50% of the shipment arrived dead.
Recently AquaForest (aka Coralfarm.eu) has opened a store closer, so I'm planning to visit them soon, but they seem to sell big colonies as opposed to smaller frags and I have very limited space unfortunately.
very nice colors! :eek1:
I'm so envious!!
Which corner of the World you are living on? How do you collect these SPS corals? Do you buy them at a LFS? Do you travel hundreds and hundreds of km to buy unique pieces? Or do just you order them from the Internet?
Here in Hungary we have very limited availability and when I tried some German online stores almost 50% of the shipment arrived dead.
Recently AquaForest (aka Coralfarm.eu) has opened a store closer, so I'm planning to visit them soon, but they seem to sell big colonies as opposed to smaller frags and I have very limited space unfortunately.
szathmary
I live in the UK we too suffer from not having access to the stunning corals they have in the USA.I made the decision to try and get corals that i like to fit the tank as i have no idea what a lot are.I mainly buy from 2 LFS ( wild aussie corals but they seem to have dried up ) and a couple who ship within the UK.I have tried corals from Germany and it was disappointing saying that im looking at one seller in germany but i have no room unless i move things on. I am a bit confused with Aquaforest who like to show professional video's and tank threads for promo but no access to corals displayed also i am waiting to see the results in a hobbyist tank displaying those colours (wild new cuts) not tanks supported by them. I will always make room for a nice frag lol as most of us do.I was amazed myself with the colours in the top down shots and wanted to share and how they have benefited from lifting the elements to ICP levels .Hope to keep following your thread thanks
Bill
I live in the UK we too suffer from not having access to the stunning corals they have in the USA.I made the decision to try and get corals that i like to fit the tank as i have no idea what a lot are.I mainly buy from 2 LFS ( wild aussie corals but they seem to have dried up ) and a couple who ship within the UK.I have tried corals from Germany and it was disappointing saying that im looking at one seller in germany but i have no room unless i move things on. I am a bit confused with Aquaforest who like to show professional video's and tank threads for promo but no access to corals displayed also i am waiting to see the results in a hobbyist tank displaying those colours (wild new cuts) not tanks supported by them. I will always make room for a nice frag lol as most of us do.I was amazed myself with the colours in the top down shots and wanted to share and how they have benefited from lifting the elements to ICP levels .Hope to keep following your thread thanks
Bill
You can view their corals at coralfarm.eu and order.
To order I believe the email is sklep@coralfarm.eu.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
szathmary
i have checked the AF website and it appears the same stock as we get in the uk as wild aussie corals so it would not be worth paying postage,the images are not very good compared to the german sites but that may be me.I like some corals on the faunamarin website who also get wild shipments and the corals look good with some unusual pieces, i have emailed them about shipping and they tell me the corals are sent in A1 condition. Heres a few more that we have here that grow well and good colours under the process in your thread.
Bill
i have checked the AF website and it appears the same stock as we get in the uk as wild aussie corals so it would not be worth paying postage,the images are not very good compared to the german sites but that may be me.I like some corals on the faunamarin website who also get wild shipments and the corals look good with some unusual pieces, i have emailed them about shipping and they tell me the corals are sent in A1 condition. Heres a few more that we have here that grow well and good colours under the process in your thread.
Bill
davyboy1970
New member
Great article i did a slightly different method but along the same lines as such. I used Fauna Marin salts and added the 3 bottles of Fauna marin 1, 2, 3 to the solutions which worked well and also did regular Icp tests which then over several tests worked out how much i needed to add each week of trace elements to get to Nsw levels and worked very well. The trace elements i didn't mix all together i did them the following way Strontium Potassium and Boron in one. Lithium Nickel in another and Iodine Manganese and Vanadium and Zinc in another. I added enough to make up for approx 1 months worth at a time in Ro water and dosed accordingly each week. I have switched to using Ati essentials set 1, 2, 3 and see how that goes for the moment as been finding it hard to get hold of Fauna Marin salts lately.
szathmary
New member
Pretty cool! I look forward to hearing news about the progress you make.
Do you have a reason why you separated the trace elements in such way? E.g if both manganese and zinc are in the form of sulfate (e.g MnSO4 or ZnSO4) which very likely they are then they can be mixed I think.
JB NY
Active member
in the mixture I dose, I mix Mn, Zn and I in the same container.
szathmary
New member
Is anybody here with a good understanding of chemistry?
I'm a bit confused by chelating agents.
I'm a bit confused by chelating agents.
- As far as I know they are used to increase the bio-availability of trace metals. What is not clear for me related to this particular role of the chelating agents is whether we still need them when the trace elements are dosed in small increments e.g every hour?
- Are trace metals available in nature in chelated forms as well or this solution is rather artificial and designed by chemists to increase shelf life?
- After analyzing some products it seems to me that not every trace metal requires chelating agents. I found that in most case iron, zinc, a copper is used with chelating agents like gluconic acid, acetic acid, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Concerning zinc and copper I believe that the main reason is to enable higher amounts to be dosed with low risk. (Cu and Zn ions are harmful). Is there any role when and which metals are used with chelating agents?
- In case we use chelated version of metals do we also need preservatives to prevent bacteria to grow in the solution?
