THE Tank Build By Aqua Digital

[GatorPharmD]

Michael,

Your tank is just beautiful. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I am waiting for an Elos MIDI and it will be, like yours, a full GHL tank.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Thanks for the kind complement, please feel free to start your own build thread on the forum if you wish.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Well - I think i reached the limit that my corals can tolerate the Ai's extreme power.

I increased the intensity from 70% to 80% over a period of time, but the Ecno has become stressed, all other corals are fine as they were before.

The Ecno has now (with much stress to me and it) been moved lower and slightly shaded until it recovers.

Other updates -

Filter sock or no filter sock?! My sock bungs up every 24 hours I have a great supply of socks from Chris, so not too much effort to replace on a regular basis, but I am wondering if I can run the system without?

Whats everyones thoughts?

 

[Stoneyscoral]

You will find that most LPS cannot tolerate Par levels above 100.

With your tank depth and the intensity levels you are running all of your LPS will be banished to caves and under overhangs.

Try dialing your whites down, your SPS won't suffer that much.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

I posted this on my forum about the BM needle wheel replacment for the aqua bee, for those that are interested its worth a look

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1855505

I will be changing over some things in the GHL set up soon, adding a return pump control rather than just a main tank overflow sensor. Our annual shut down is coming up and the tank will be left for over two weeks so all avenues will be covered, I also hope to have a webcam set up by then, but again that depends on my time, which is in rather short supply

Little does our neighbours know that when they come to our summer do this weekend, one will get the short straw in looking after the tank

 

[joe_dejesus]

What am I dosing

ProdiBio BioDigest one vial every 2 weeks
ProdiBio BioPtim one vial every 2 weeks

Question?

ProdiBio BioDigest,BioPtim vials are rated for 50+ gal of water, what if I have
28G nano? do we use half vial? will the other half go bad?


Nice tank!!
Joe

 

[AQD_ottawa]

use the Bio Reef nano kit

But you cant over dose Prodi it is only active to the level of your tank, due to its unique bacterial blend the product will only stay as active as your tank requires.

My tank is 200L but I am dosing Bio Digest rated "UP TO" 1,000L

Prodibios advise is to lengthen your dosing regime if you are significantly under the stated dosing, so for me I can dose every 20 days instead of every 14 but i choose not to as i have a lot of corals in a small tank.

 

[joe_dejesus]

ahh ok sounds good... I already have the prodi on route...so I will just dose ever 20 days..


You are also dosing:
Fauna marin Ultra Min-s 1ml daily
Fauna Marin Ultra Amin 2ml daily
Fauna Marin Power trace 1,2,3,4 @ 1ml daily


can they be combined or do each have to be dosed seprate?

 

[AQD_ottawa]

as the FM products are daily doses and the prodi at least bi weekly, then there is no issues when you dose.

BUT do not dose any FM unless you have zero nutrient loading otherwise you will end up with a algea farm!!

 

[joe_dejesus]

glad you mentioned that... I am low nutrients now... just not zero..

I suppose I can start FM products 1 week after starting prodi... or wait longer?


my nano is not a new setup, and also already has acros....

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Prodi recommedn 6 weeks cycel before starting their own nutrient dosing (reef booster) so fm will be no different.

If after 2 weeks you see your nutrients drop to non existant then add Min-S only

 

[joe_dejesus]

Prodi recommedn 6 weeks cycel before starting their own nutrient dosing (reef booster) so fm will be no different.

If after 2 weeks you see your nutrients drop to non existant then add Min-S only

so to understand... after 2 weeks "IF" low nutrients start Min-S only.. then 6 weeks after prodi start I can start dosing Ultra Amin,Power trace 1,2,3,4???


Also can you elaborate on the way power trace are used to tweak colors? is there a method? or just dose each daily...

 

[dancewithethan]

I would like to now conclude for everyone the balling set up guide, and I think this is the most important part for everyone.

" have all the equipment now what?'

Ok so you have downloaded the manual and have added your salts and trace elements, of course if using the 2.5L containers you just halve all quantities.

Note - it is imperitive if you are following the ballign method to use the Ultra trace B elements as well.

The biggest missconception here is accuracy of the amount of salt to use, the simplest way to explain this worry away is this

Question -I added too much salt OOPS!

Answer - You mix will be stronger so you will find you will require to dose less per dosing cycle.

The opposite of course goes for if you mixed too weak a mixture. So you see no big issue you just adjust your dosing to suit. of course it is advised to try and keep some level of accuracy otherwise everytime you have to make up a fresh batch you would be adjusting your dosing rate to suit.

Initial dosing

Before you dose one single drop make sure you know your levels of Ca,MG,and DKH. Next step is to dose one element and see how that measured amount effects your systems level after 2 hours.

Example - dose 50ml of Ca and then measure who much your calcium rose in two hours from dosing the 50ml amount. if it rose by 50 points you know then 50ml has xx effect on your system.

Repeat this for the DKH and Mg. Once you have reached your target values then it will take about a week for you to dial in exactly what your system draws from the elements. You will find you use 4x the amount of DKH than any othr element this is normal, and also due to the fast take up of FM sodium bicarbonate by your corals do not be surprised if you use even more than this, it is a normal and positive outcome.

Your target values should be

Ca 380-420
Mg 1200-1350
ALK 6.5-8Dkh
Salinity 33-35PPT

A thorough explanation of initial set up is covered in the guide.

Good luck with the system, and you will soon see how great the FM system is and also how amazingly easy the GHL dosers make running such a system

HI

Finally I have the time to set my up.

Questions:

-Which of the begs included in the kit is Ca,and Alk ?
-What is Sodium Bicarbonate included with the kit? and why I'm dosing it?

Sorry, I'm coming from the Cal reactor, and two parts method and new to the Balling method + Fauna Marin.

Thank you
and lastly,

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Each bag is marked what is in it

ca is calcium
MG is magnesium
Alk is sodium bicarb

You are dosing sodium bicarb or ALK to maintain your DKH levels.

If you need more help in the setup you can post on the link below and get an answer direct from Fauna marin

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=569

 

[joe_dejesus]

Did you notice when you started dosing the ProdiBio BioDigest/BioPtim If it
raised your ALK a little?

I am going on week 2 with the ProBio and all seems good, I just noticed my ALK
went up from 7.5 to 8 , I have lowered sodium bicarb doses a little to bring ALK down a bit.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

hi

no not that i noticed, there is no buffering properties in the digest or ptim

 

[joe_dejesus]

ok....

things must be changing a little... I will continue to monitor and adjust accordingly..

for balling light, ideal alk should be between 6.5-8 correct?

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Yes keep to around 7-7.5

OK update for you.

I have been dosing a mixture of ProdiBio and Fauna marin from the start, just to recap

ProdiBio every two weeks
Bio Digest
BioPtim

My findings are that this stuff rocks, my mV shoots up after dosing, I tried an experiment and stopped dosing for 3 weeks, after the end of the 3rd week my mV had dropped to a day time average of 350-360mV. After 3 days of re dosing my mV was back up to 460mV. of course I can report cystal clear water and zero nutrients, and only a minor amount.

Fauna Marin

The balling method is amazing at keeping your ALK, Mg and Ca at a steady level, the GHL doser plays a big part in this as does the fluid containers making a clean holding device. I am not dosing enough Mg or Ca to say I am getting the full colouration effect from the Trace B elements, but I have noticed the draw of Ca is increasing so I hope to dose more of these two in the near future.

This brings me onto the other items I am dosing.

daily
Min-s 1ml
Amin- 2ml
Power trace 1,4 1ml
Power trace 2-3 2ml

Ok this is where I am not getting the results I hoped for. The Min-S and Amin are doing a great job at coral health and polyp extension, in fact I would not receommend anything else. As for the power traces I am getting mixed results. The concept of the power traces is to enhance the natural colour of the corals, this I can agree they do, although by stag horn colony is proving stubborn of shedding its brown layer but the more I dose i can see the blue pushing through.

The issue is, since increasing elements 2,3 which is the iodine and heavy metals, my glass cleaning has become a twice daily chore, the rest of the tank is fine, only the glass, so I can not push these elements any further.

The positive side is the colours are very vibrant but in a natural way, the negative side is in my tank I have to now do morning and early evening glass cleanings.

So experiment 2 is about to start, I am going to carry on with the Min-S and Amin of course but stop the power traces just for now and see if the colours fade, I think they will but I will then switch to Ultra organic, a more all rounder of the FM range of colouration products.

I have also started target feeding my Ecno and ricordea with Ultra minF and Ultra Sea Fan mixed with ultra Min-D, I never knew an Ecno had such a big mouth!!! Oh my! I will have to get a video of this for you all to see, this little frag had its mouth(s) open for about half an hour sucking in the microscopic particles. My torch puffed up like a football!

I will keep you informed.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Canada Day update for you all and a bit of eye candy

Thanks at Aqua Valley in Ottawa for this hydnophora gem!

 

[fishypets]

Looking good Michael!

BTW I picked up a bottle of the Fauna Marin LPS food and love it! Most of my chalices have doubled the amount of eyes over the last month. This stuff rocks! Any idea of when Kingfish will get their shipment?