Aquaforest Guide

[Aquaforest]

RX - Fluized Filter.

Regards,
Aquaforest

 

[pan_Oz]

hello @Aquaforest, I just bought reef salt and I'm interesting completely switching from vodka to aquaforest.

here is a pic of my display tank.



and a few info

tank size 220lt.

daily dose 2.5ml vodka.

every 4 days 10ml microbacter (bacteria) and occasionally prodibio biodigest.

I also use, occasionally, amino acids and sponge power from KZ.

I use calcium reactor and a 6 bulb ATI fixture.

and here is may parameters

alkalinity 6.9- 7.5 dKH

Calcium 400-420 ppm

Magnesium 1.350 ppm (no need to dose)

salinity 35ppt

Nitrates 5ppm

Phosprate 0.052 ppm


How do you suggest to switch method and transfer to full aquaforest program??

 

[pan_Oz]

any help?? @Aquaforest ???????????????

 

[Perry]

Most begin with starting water changes and incorporating the Pro Bio S into the program along side NP Pro which is essentially the carbon source. When you are ready, simply begin using these at 1/2 dose and rise as you monitor conditions and evaluate test results. You can switch fully over or in parts, I am completely on AF now, but did use my own trace formula and mineral formulas, but now using Component123 balling lite program, and I love it. Your numbers seem fine and, the program is quite gentle comparatively so. Please read the PDF guide and gain understanding of each product. If yo have more questions, please do not hesitate.

 

[jsker]

+1 @Perry

I am still messing around with algae control through.

 

[Staggs]

What would the signs of using to much Pro Bio S and NP Pro? I've been battling a cyano breakout but I've switched to reef salt and started Pro Bio S + NP Pro (started with the others but I'm holding off for a month or so).

 

[elElequis]

Can someone please explain how balling lite program work? I am fairly new to this

 

[Anirban]

+1 with Perry

I started shifting slowly from my tropic marin Pro and use the reef salt now with Pro bioS and NP Pro. I started dosing the 123+ component few weeks back with 1/3 of recommended dosing and it holds my parameters at perfect numbers. When I started using the reef salt and Probio S I had a outbreak of algae but over a week the system stabilised and now I dont have any issue. Also I run a bare bottom system but I have a huge pile of rock in my sump and I dose my Probio S and NP pro there. I observed a good steady growth response on my every coral including SPS and LPS.

 

[LILBUDDHA]

Can someone please explain how balling lite program work? I am fairly new to this

We'll it is a full balling system and not lite like FM or other's . U are dosing components A B n C . calcium , alk , n mag with sodium free salts . All trace components are incorporated .
It's the same as two part with the exception of adding part 3 or C in regards to dosing . You basically get your parameters close to NSW . Write the levels down . Wait a 3 days or week if possible and test the big 3 .
U look at the depletion rate . What u started with and what it is on that day. Divide the number of days n this will be your starting dosage per day . U can do this manually or use 3 head min dosing pump for automated addition .
Forgot to say u want to dose the components at least 5 minutes apart between each of the 3 . Some say and hour but I have confirmed 5 minutes with a AF Rep

 

[landlubber]

this might be a little long winded but in order to tell the whole story and hopefully reach a resolve heeeere we go.
so in january after my tanks 1st birthday i reviewed my tank goals. i keep zoas and sps corals and at that point was newb dosing (only dosing Ca and kH and getting Mg through water changes) and i decided to introduce a few changes and i slowly introduced a new dosing pump and aquaforrest system, their Ca,kH,Mg, reef mineral salt and then adding component strong and i switched to using their probiotic reef salt for water changes.
i test my water regularly anyway but knowing things might fluctuate decided to be even tighter by testing my Ca and kH every day which led me to run my test kits close to dry. when i replaced them the first thing i did was side by side comparisons of my old kits to the new to make sure my numbers stayed consistent and they couldn't have been further from that. the 420Ca, 8.4kH and 1150 Mg i thought i had was more like 500Ca, 12kH and 1500Mg so i got confirmation from my lfs and the elevated values were in fact the truth.
this set me off to find my tanks consumption by stopping my dose for 24 hours and measuring. initially my dose was 100mL/day of Ca+Mg, kH, and reef mineral salt and over the course of 2 months it has been reduced all the way down to 35mL/day where i still am sitting today at 460Ca, 8.8kH and 1480Mg.
my corals don't look terribly great. zoas aren't open as much and i've even lost a couple of acros along the way due to the instability associated with attempting to adjust/lower my parameters.
i'm at a loss for ideas now... do i keep risking corals by messing with my dosing amount? unplug and re-affirm my tanks needs or is there something i got bad information on and have been doing incorrectly this entire time?
also, i'm going to copy and paste this to find an answer so please excuse the duplicate if you see this on another site.
happy reefing!

 

[Anirban]

I find you on both sites ...lol.

To start with I know your parameters are bit off....may be consistently off. Lets start from the beginning. First and foremost forget about your Mg for sometime..anything below 1500 is fine and not kill anything. Now, for a day if you don't dose how much your 3 main parameters drop. Also a little more details on your system will be helpful, like water volume, NO3, PO4, GFO, activated carbon, other dosing like NP pro or Pro Bio S, lighting etc. Also a picture will help a lot.

 

[landlubber]

the tank is a 120 standard with a 35 gallon sump and contains 10 fish between 1-3". as for related equipment i use an ati 8x54w light, a aquamaxx q2 skimmer and an apex dos. the tank is fed once daily with a single thawed and rinsed mysis or spirulina/mysis and i don't generally feed my coral.
in general i don't run my reactor very often unless i notice something. this week i saw gha coming up so i very slowly ran gfo in the reactor but switched it out in favor of some npx bioballs after noticing my nitrate creep up to .5 on a salifert test.
activated carbon is always in my tank but just in a bag above my filter socks for the time being.
today's measurements were the typical 1.026 dkh , 8.8kH but this time my calcium came up a little to 465Ca after my weekly water change which happened last night.
these are just some bunk cell photos but they're both recent and of the same area of the tank albeit i positioned an acro falling to rtn that i was about to frag in the photo that's under daylight.



i'm going to take another measurement of my parameters around 9 tonight to test the difference over the course of the day. after that i'll cut the dose off for 24 hours and start a current measurement for consumption.

 

[Anirban]

OK, so two question still remain....
1. How much your Ca, Mg, Alk parameters drop over 24 hour period if you dont dose anything in the tank?
2. Where your PO4 runs?

You have very low nutrient almost none and you started using bioballs just because your NO3 is 0.5ppm. First any kind bioballs or pellet media doesn't work very well with Af system. I tried that with few other people but its too much hard on the system. Also, with ULNS and high alkalinity if you are running your 8 bulb ATI you are actually burning down the system..almost.

 

[svogun]

Is there any issue doing a daily water change with the probiotic reef salt. I currently mix 32 gallons in a brute containter and do about a gallon change a day with a Neptune DOS?

 

[Anirban]

Is there any issue doing a daily water change with the probiotic reef salt. I currently mix 32 gallons in a brute containter and do about a gallon change a day with a Neptune DOS?

Actually I really don't understand the daily water change stuff but that may be my poor brain. But why you are using Probiotic salt to do daily water changes? Do you dose too?

 

[svogun]

Actually I really don't understand the daily water change stuff but that may be my poor brain. But why you are using Probiotic salt to do daily water changes? Do you dose too?

@randyholmesfarley may be able to explain better than I can. I'm currently no using Probiotic salt to do daily water changes, I'm using Red Sea. I'm asking if it would be an issue.

 

[Anirban]

@randyholmesfarley may be able to explain better than I can. I'm currently no using Probiotic salt to do daily water changes, I'm using Red Sea. I'm asking if it would be an issue.

Does he do that? Ok I will find why. As far the salt concern I will say its costly and contains a lot of extra things like vitamin and amino so if you are fine with dosing them daily in your system then may be fine.

 

[landlubber]

OK, so two question still remain....
1. How much your Ca, Mg, Alk parameters drop over 24 hour period if you dont dose anything in the tank?
2. Where your PO4 runs?

You have very low nutrient almost none and you started using bioballs just because your NO3 is 0.5ppm. First any kind bioballs or pellet media doesn't work very well with Af system. I tried that with few other people but its too much hard on the system. Also, with ULNS and high alkalinity if you are running your 8 bulb ATI you are actually burning down the system..almost.

right, i forgot PO4 which is a consistent zero using a hanna phosphate tester. as i touched on, my phosphate is primarily held up in my back and forth battle with gha. as i mentioned regarding my basic parameters, i haven't measured them recently while dosing nothing so i have to do a new 24 hour test to know for sure.
i agree that while my lighting fixture can cause an overabundance of par it's a dimmable and i'm never running it at 100%. both channels top out at around 75% and are never even at that point for longer than a couple hours if that. my light cycle is 10 hours with gradual ramp up and down. do you think i should reduce intensity or photoperiod?
i'm ignorant as to what you mean by burning down the system in relation to my light and alkalinity.
i appreciate your willingness to help with this. life was a lot sweeter when my coral was happier.

 

[landlubber]

Is there any issue doing a daily water change with the probiotic reef salt. I currently mix 32 gallons in a brute containter and do about a gallon change a day with a Neptune DOS?

i've read and heard through my research into aquaforest that probiotic salt is to be used within 4 hours of mixing. i believe it's even printed on the pail.

 

[Anirban]

right, i forgot PO4 which is a consistent zero using a hanna phosphate tester. as i touched on, my phosphate is primarily held up in my back and forth battle with gha. as i mentioned regarding my basic parameters, i haven't measured them recently while dosing nothing so i have to do a new 24 hour test to know for sure.
i agree that while my lighting fixture can cause an overabundance of par it's a dimmable and i'm never running it at 100%. both channels top out at around 75% and are never even at that point for longer than a couple hours if that. my light cycle is 10 hours with gradual ramp up and down. do you think i should reduce intensity or photoperiod?
i'm ignorant as to what you mean by burning down the system in relation to my light and alkalinity.
i appreciate your willingness to help with this. life was a lot sweeter when my coral was happier.

Ok, let me know your reading after 24 hours of not dosing anything. I wanted to know how much your system is consuming. Also, the PO4 level. Stop using the biopellet and lower down the light intensity a bit like not more than 60%.