Sps like watching paint dry!

Quick update.

I have done 4 water changes now and i have increased my alk dose 3 times in a week.
Every time i raise the dose something uses it and it dropps back down which is obviously very interesting.
And it does look like the acros are begining to grow.
It could be that holding alk at arond 7 has held back growth all this time!
I am now up to 140ml of bicarbonate a day!

Exciting times.
 
justy said:
Triton results back.
Quite interesting mg,k,br,b,sr,li,ni,v,zn,mn,i all low plus sulphur is low buy 231ppm indicating a small ionic imbalance.
Going to do a load of Water changes to bring things back into balance.
Just shows that we do not realy know what levels we are maintaining by dosing, at best its an educated guess.
Water changes are still a good method for maintaining balance.
Click to expand...

justy said:
Quick update.

I have done 4 water changes now and i have increased my alk dose 3 times in a week.
Every time i raise the dose something uses it and it dropps back down which is obviously very interesting.
And it does look like the acros are begining to grow.
It could be that holding alk at arond 7 has held back growth all this time!
I am now up to 140ml of bicarbonate a day!

Exciting times.
Click to expand...

My conclusion from these two posts would not be that 'holding alk at 7 held back growth'
The only reason alk 'held' at 7 was because there was no demand for more.
Imo, the the replenishment of trace elements and the ionic correction has perked up the corals, letting them produce a proper skeleton and grow.
With the new growth, the demand for alk has increased.
Nice to hear your corals are starting to grow!
 
I once had a Tank like this but come to find out ca test kit was a little faulty and with 380 390 calcium the corals would just sit in limbo.
I also never rule out flow. Stylos etc can have little to no flow and be ok but acros frags will usually do nothing just like this in a low flow situation.
Shoot at least your able to keep acros alive for years!! [emoji15]that's half the battle


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
reefmutt said:
My conclusion from these two posts would not be that 'holding alk at 7 held back growth'
The only reason alk 'held' at 7 was because there was no demand for more.
Imo, the the replenishment of trace elements and the ionic correction has perked up the corals, letting them produce a proper skeleton and grow.
With the new growth, the demand for alk has increased.
Nice to hear your corals are starting to grow!
Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the response. This is the reason i am carrying out water changes, but i didn't think i would correct any deficiencies or imbalance so soon?
I must admit that i watched the talk by Dana Riddle on alkalinity and photosynthesis so had already convinced myself that raising alkalinity could increase growth rates?
This also tied in with my friends comments on raising alkalinity and doing water changes.
Obviously there are loads of tanks running natural sea water levels of alkalinity and i completely get that.
Why do we always change several things at once???

Many thanks keep the comments coming.
 
lynchmob3000 said:
I once had a Tank like this but come to find out ca test kit was a little faulty and with 380 390 calcium the corals would just sit in limbo.
I also never rule out flow. Stylos etc can have little to no flow and be ok but acros frags will usually do nothing just like this in a low flow situation.
Shoot at least your able to keep acros alive for years!! [emoji15]that's half the battle

Yes early on in the history of this tank i had the same thing happen with a test kit? Triton test showed it up massive 100ppm difference!
I do have a lot of flow 20,000ltr per hour in a 300ltr tank.
But could always add more.
Thanks for your comments.
Justin


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Click to expand...
 
I have been using Aquaforest products for over a year now.
My nutrient levels normaly sit around 0.5 No3 and 0.03 for p04 just wondering what people think about bringing those levels up a bit to encourage faster growth.
Holding back on dosing a bit?

Has any body noticed an increase in growth with raising nutrient levels in a LNS?

Many thanks.
 
I've seen my best colours with an n reading at around 5ppm. Your p is my target, although, I rarely get it there.
As for growth, nitrates, being a good source for the coral, one should expect better growth with a bit more n than you have..
 
justy said:
Quick update.

I have done 4 water changes now and i have increased my alk dose 3 times in a week.
Every time i raise the dose something uses it and it dropps back down which is obviously very interesting.
And it does look like the acros are begining to grow.
It could be that holding alk at arond 7 has held back growth all this time!
I am now up to 140ml of bicarbonate a day!

Exciting times.
Click to expand...



How high is your ALK getting? Precipitation can reduce ALK and prevent it from getting higher.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
reefmutt said:
I've seen my best colours with an n reading at around 5ppm. Your p is my target, although, I rarely get it there.
As for growth, nitrates, being a good source for the coral, one should expect better growth with a bit more n than you have..
Click to expand...

Yes these were my thoughts re nitrates but a bit nervous to reduce np pro and pro bio s. But maybe nothing to worry about?

Thanks for your helpful comments.

Justin.
 
This is the conundrum i have. Part of the package in achieving healthy growing corals is nutrients. How is it possible to have zeo and AF tanks with light coloured corals growing so well? They are ULNS how do they get the growth?
 
justy said:
This is the conundrum i have. Part of the package in achieving healthy growing corals is nutrients. How is it possible to have zeo and AF tanks with light coloured corals growing so well? They are ULNS how do they get the growth?
Click to expand...

It helps a lot if the tank was started that way. Then, the corals have adapted to a system that is already stable but low nutrient. It's much more difficult to transition a tank to uln when the corals have adapted to something else- this is not to say that is is impossible, though. Plenty of reefers do it. I've never really been able to do it but reefers with more skill, patience and perseverance have.

If you really like that pale look, then you'll need some guidance from reefers who run uln systems..

But pertaining to your question about raising nutrients, a couple posts back, reducing your np pro by 10 % per week will probably see a very slow nutrient rise. When you see n reach around 3 ppm (if your target is in fact 5ppm) stop reducing np pro and watch levels for a month. After that point, make more small adjustments as needed..

The biggest mistake you can make (I have learned this he hard way) is making big changes and not waiting long enough to see the full effects. You might get away with one big change if you let things stabilize after that but if you start making them often, the corals will punish you.
 
reefmutt said:
It helps a lot if the tank was started that way. Then, the corals have adapted to a system that is already stable but low nutrient. It's much more difficult to transition a tank to uln when the corals have adapted to something else- this is not to say that is is impossible, though. Plenty of reefers do it. I've never really been able to do it but reefers with more skill, patience and perseverance have.

If you really like that pale look, then you'll need some guidance from reefers who run uln systems..

But pertaining to your question about raising nutrients, a couple posts back, reducing your np pro by 10 % per week will probably see a very slow nutrient rise. When you see n reach around 3 ppm (if your target is in fact 5ppm) stop reducing np pro and watch levels for a month. After that point, make more small adjustments as needed..

The biggest mistake you can make (I have learned this he hard way) is making big changes and not waiting long enough to see the full effects. You might get away with one big change if you let things stabilize after that but if you start making them often, the corals will punish you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments means a lot speaking to an experienced reefer with a fabulous tank!

My tank has undergone plenty of changes over the three years its been running. Personally i dont like the zeo looking pale corals. I have pretty good colours but slow growth.
I have considered reducing dosing slightly tested no3 yesterday and it was 0.75
I have read plenty of posts of people carbon dosing but also adding Kn03.
This is something that scares be a bit, i can see the theory but it feels a bit counterintuitive.
It would be nice to add more food per day currently manage two cubes of frozen a day.

Big thanks again i appreciate it.

Justin
 
Thanks, Justin :)
If you could add a bit more food and maintain dosing where it is, that would be my first choice.
I don't think you have to worry about dosing no3. Your p isn't high enough to need that. Imo..
Maybe start adding a small amount a good quality dry pellet food.. fish usually love it and if you check out the ingredients, you'll notice that most of the trace elements that many experimental reefers are attempting to dose are contained in the pellet food as preservative. Zinc, manganese, copper, iron..
Forget.. what's your wc regimen and the salt you use?
 
Thanks for that no I have not read that thread, i will start now cheers.
Ive not used pelleted food recently might give it a go maybe on a auto feeder?

Thanks
 
No problemo. Enjoy the articles and the porn. They are both excellent in Ed's thread. :)
If my nutrients weren't so bloody sky high, I'd put pellets on an auto feeder myself.
 
Just finished reading his thread, wow is all i can say.
It reminds me of a few things i have forgot over the years.
Keep it simple if you can, 15 years ago i had great success growing corals with mh and t5 and no dosing of anything.
I think we can all get caught up in the hype of new ways to run our systems. Unfortunately the more complex a system gets and the more perceived control we have the opposite becomes true. We chase numbers and lose control and our corals suffer.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks Justin
 
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