Taqpol's 220 gallon custom Miracles tank!
- Thread starter Taqpol
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Taqpol
New member
All good stuff, Claudio, and I'm glad you're system is turning around!
I'm going to be running a booster pump to increase my water pressure, so I should be good running the two membranes (they specifically say on their site to not bother running two membranes without a booster pump unless you have really nice water pressure). I've thought about zeo, but at this point its just more equipment/media that I would have to buy. Besides all the technology in the controller and dosing pumps my system is pretty simple, so I'd like to keep it that way for another few months to see if simple good care practices can pull my tank out of its slump.
I'm going to be running a booster pump to increase my water pressure, so I should be good running the two membranes (they specifically say on their site to not bother running two membranes without a booster pump unless you have really nice water pressure). I've thought about zeo, but at this point its just more equipment/media that I would have to buy. Besides all the technology in the controller and dosing pumps my system is pretty simple, so I'd like to keep it that way for another few months to see if simple good care practices can pull my tank out of its slump.
Taqpol
New member
For some reason my wife finds this hilarious, I don't even know what to think yet...
When I come home from work our new dog (pictured a few pages back) always gets really excited to see me. She jumps around, she wiggles, and more then anything she just wants to play. One of the many, many weird quirks about the dog is that she hoards all of her many toys and keeps them on her dog bed. When I got home today she was jumping and wiggling like normal, and then she ran to her bed to pick out a toy for me to play fetch with her. As you might imagine I was a bit shocked when the "toy" she dropped at my feet was my dead and dried up chalk bass.
The weirdest part of this story is that the Chalk Bass disappeared a week ago when I got back home from Christmas with the family. I assumed it had decomposed in the tank or that cat had gotten to it. Another possibility is that the cat was playing with it and then the dog took it from her, as the dog also loves to steal the cat's toys.
Regardless, I really need to get my canopy put on the fish tank. Its in the garage assembled and dyed, I just need to take a day to put poly on it.
When I come home from work our new dog (pictured a few pages back) always gets really excited to see me. She jumps around, she wiggles, and more then anything she just wants to play. One of the many, many weird quirks about the dog is that she hoards all of her many toys and keeps them on her dog bed. When I got home today she was jumping and wiggling like normal, and then she ran to her bed to pick out a toy for me to play fetch with her. As you might imagine I was a bit shocked when the "toy" she dropped at my feet was my dead and dried up chalk bass.
The weirdest part of this story is that the Chalk Bass disappeared a week ago when I got back home from Christmas with the family. I assumed it had decomposed in the tank or that cat had gotten to it. Another possibility is that the cat was playing with it and then the dog took it from her, as the dog also loves to steal the cat's toys.
Regardless, I really need to get my canopy put on the fish tank. Its in the garage assembled and dyed, I just need to take a day to put poly on it.
Blitzburggirl
Member
ReefSmart was supposed to be held 4 times a year, but the group running it is considering dropping it down to 3 times a year. The most recent was Dec 4th (I think it was the fourth!) Anyway, there are a couple local forums, both are good, one is great, and I'd be glad to share them with you if you are interested. If so, just shoot me a pm
Taqpol
New member
Actually yes, I have some major updates. The fish room and all the cabinetry are done, and I've added three new super awesome fish!
I plan on doing a major picture/video update as soon as I get everything cleaned up and looking presentable, but it probably won't happen until after this weekend as I have family coming up.
I plan on doing a major picture/video update as soon as I get everything cleaned up and looking presentable, but it probably won't happen until after this weekend as I have family coming up.
drummereef
Team RC
C'mon, we aren't your family too?? 
Waiting patiently for the new pics.
Waiting patiently for the new pics. FlowerhornNYC
New member
Very nice tank thread Alex
Your diy led light are very impressive
Your diy led light are very impressive
drummereef
Team RC
Sorry I pulled this quote from December...but,
How much and what brand amino acids and lugols were you dosing on the old tank? Have you started dosing again on the new tank? I just place an order for some zeo products and just trying to get a baseline of how much to dose.
Taqpol
New member
I used to dose Kent Lugol's but a LFS had Brightwell Aquatics Lugol's so I picked that up instead. For AA's I use Brightwell Aquatics Coral Amino, but this particular bottle had been sitting in my garage all summer so I don't know how much of it has degraded, or if degradation of proteins on this level even matters. Back in the day my 120 was roughly the same size as Sunny's rimless so I followed exactly what he did: 7 drops of microbacter7 a day, 1 drop of Lugol's a day, and 6 drops of AA's two days a week (Tuesday/Thursday). He said that you could titrate the amount of AA's you use to get the coral color you wanted (light or dark) so I might add some more AA's until I start to see color coming back into my corals.
At first I was worried about dosing something to my reef to increase the nutrients because one of my highly respectable LFS owners said that feeding corals anything besides phytoplankton was just dumb but after reading some more stuff I think a combination of my lights and the biopellets (the only two things that have changed about my system) might be the cause of my coral troubles:
In May 2007 a public Aquarium in Germany hosted a massive meeting with the brightest reef minds of the world and compiled a book, mainly for public aquarium people, about how to successfully keep corals. The entire thing is available for free download and they have forty chapters of very interesting articles here:
http://www.burgerszoo.eu/over-burgers-zoo/coral-husbandry/table-of-contents?ce=1
Specifically, Chapter 18 about light had this very interesting thing to say:
In Summary, what it says is that most starved corals reach photoinhibition at around 300 PAR, whereas heterotrophic feeding corals reach photoinhibition closer to 800 PAR. With my LEDs most of my tank is above 300 PAR, and after hearing the anecdotal evidence that biopellets are so effective at removing nutrients from the water I started thinking that I might actually be starving my corals. As of a few weeks ago I have started feeding much heavier as well as dosing Amino Acids, so I'm going to see if this has an effect on any of my remaining corals.
Taqpol
New member
As an aside, I wonder if this has anything to do with why LEDs are getting such a bad rap/such spotty results. People who are more likely to jump on the LED bandwagon seem to also be more likely to try employing new methods like biopellets and vodka dosing compared to more "oldschool" reefers.
drummereef
Team RC
Perfect Alex, thank you. I agree completely and think we are on the same page in regards to nutrient reduction and feeding. :thumbsup: I'll read through the link you posted as well. Great thoughts as always!
patrickbush
New member
I think thats a great observation, I'm also dosing vsv and feeding heavily and have upped my LED's to levels that initially bleached sps that came from tanks with 400w MH. I've also heard that par is not the most accurate way of measuring the light output of led's, 300 par with halides and 300 par with led's seem to be two different animals.
Blitzburggirl
Member
Bear with me here, because I'm "oldschool" and on the verge of adding a biopellet reactor and media. The hardware and media are in a box three feet from my tank!
As a related subject, I'm glad I came across your post, because, it makes sense. If photosynthesis increases, growth and nutrient uptake makes sense. Starving nutrients from a system seems counter productive in that environment.
But, in the back of my mind, there is a nagging feeling. After reading everything I could get my hands on, it is my understanding that the biopellets provide a "surface" for beneficial bacteria to adhere to, and the tumbling simply keeps the "surface" clean due to friction, thus releasing the nutrients in a more usable fashion. As the biopellets are in use, they degrade, and a user must periodically add more to the reactor, which avoids many of the problems associated with using bioballs.
Anyway, it seems to me that, if I'm understanding anything correctly, that the use of biopellets (I know nothing about vodka dosing) would increase the availability of nutrients, and give LED users a nice side benefit.
drummereef
Team RC
Not an expert here but maybe I can clarify.
The output of the bio pellet reactor is positioned as close to the skimmer input as possible as to skim out dead bacteria and to limit bacteria entering the water column and making it back to the display. So, in my experience the bacteria itself is only used for reducing NO3 and PO4 but it does't directly "feed" the corals etc... This is different from a Zeovit system where the "mulm" created inside the Zeovit reactor directly feeds the corals. Any excess bacteria that sloughs off inside a bio pellet reactor is to be skimmed out. Bio Balls are not a carbon source. These are two separate systems entirely. Bio pellets are a "consumable" carbon based material that beneficial bacteria eat and then intern multiply within. They are essentially a home for good bacteria to populate and multiply. This bacteria is very efficient at reducing NO3 and PO4. As the bacteria consumes the bio pellets the pellets will need to be replenished overtime. This is dependent on their efficiency, bio load of the system, and other unknown factors...
The use of bio pellets reduces unwanted nutrients such as NO3 and PO4 quite effectively in my experience. When elevated nutrients are present, the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae present inside the corals will be essentially "fertilized" by the available nitrogen. When this happens it can make SPS corals look brown as this is the natural color of the zooxanthellae algae. When these nutrients are reduced, i.e. through the use of bio pellets (solid carbon dosing), zooxanthellae is reduced and a more colorful presentation of the coral comes through.
Once the bio pellets have been established and a ULNS environment has been created, subsequent feeding imo are necessary for corals to thrive. The available nutrients that were present in the water column are now unavailable. There are many known beneficial methods to feed corals but you'll have to decide if you go this route, what the most suitable method would be for the corals you are keeping would be, whether it be SPS or LPS, or both. I don't believe a ULNS environment is a suitable one for softies in general but I don't have much experience with that. Hope this helps.
As far as LED's in relation to bio pellets ULNS, Alex would have to chime in.
salali
New member
drummereef that is a good information. I was dosing vodka but know I do have couple of red algae spots going on the sand and the rocks. My tank was doing good when I was dosing vodka but know I have to stop as Sunnyx advise.
I am using Bio pellets I do not see the effect. I really depend on my vertex protein skimmer and monthly water changes.
I am using Bio pellets I do not see the effect. I really depend on my vertex protein skimmer and monthly water changes.
