Aquaforest transition

Davy Jones · Nov 30, 2016

*Wall of text warning* Turn back now if you arent much of a reader lol
Ive decided that since there isnt much information available about the aquaforest line of products here in the US as well as the fact that i could get it on sale for black friday i figured why not and bought most of the items in their *guide*

Ill be doing a sort of progress type post here for people to follow along with if anyone is interested. If not then i guess im just using the thread to log information for myself haha

Products:
Reef Salt - Packaged nice, like the bucket it comes with. Havent used it as of right now.
Bio S - Bacteria additive, nice little bottle with easy instructions. 1 drop per 27 gallons daily first 2 weeks, then use after a large waterchange, fish addition or fish loss. Dosed 3 drops last night.
AF Amino Mix - Same bottle as the Bio S (and all other additives i guess) dosing of 1ml per 27 gallons every other day after lights out. Dosed 3 drops last night after lights out.
AF Build - Claims to assist corals in uptake of calcium and alk, looks similar to Kz Coral snow but doesnt make the water as cloudy. Same dose as above but i dosed this am while lights were still out
AF Energy - I think it is similar to red sea energy A and B type products. Even has a flourecent green color like they do. Dosed 3 drops this morning while lights were out.
AF Vitality - Not sure what is in this but it is supposed to help corals with their slime coat and heal/prevent issues. A destressor of sorts im guessing. Dosed 3 drops this morning as lights were out.
FishV - Viatmins for the fish. Personally i think this is kind of a gimick as the frozen mysis isnt goign to absorb any of this but whatever, it was less than $7 so what the heck, added 1 drop to the shrimp cube as it thawed.

I plan on doing a night and morning after dosing schedule of the products i have. Ill dose 2 bottles at night and the other 3 in the morning before work. Then per the instructions ill skip a day and do it all over again.

I plan on buying pro bio s and -np pro as well but this is good for now. Also will make the switch to the Probiotic salt when i run out of the stuff i have (was out of stock when i made my order)

Information that may or may not be pertinant..
-Vertex omega 150 skimmer
-Seachems Matrix 2L in various sump chambers
-Using red sea no3po4x recently as i have high nitrates
-I think my red sea no3 and po4 tests are bad.. Showing 60+ nitrates and 0 Phosphates.. even after a 20 gallon waterchange on a 65 gallon system. I have 0 algae on the rocks and scrape the glass every ~4 days. I plan on testing a brand new batch of saltwater to see what the kit reads..
-I dont run carbon or GFO, but i might set my brs reactor up with the AF carbon and zeomix and maybe the phosphate minus (if i get a second test and the levels are crazy out of whack)
-I have almost no polyp extension from any of my sticks. Aside from the Stylo, which I dont think is doing too good.
-I picked up the upgrade from a 4 stage to a 6 stage ro/di thing during the sale too. Maybe something isnt getting removed that should be.
-Pink lemonade is encrusting pretty rapidly but no upward growth. Colors are fine but more on the green side than the yellow.
-Cali tort is growing slowly but growing. Nice blue/green/purple coloration. Sometimes i see the green polyps but rarely.
-SSC is encrusting, but not growing. And has been an ugly pinkish color since the day i got it . Not sure if it is lighting or flow or nutrients or what but maybe we will see a change. I havent seen polyps on this since i had the dino outbreak 8 months ago. (6 Months free! *knocks on wood*)
-Rics and Yumas are spittin out babies left and right. No issues here!
-Hammer corals are doing good.
- Anthellia is growing fast. I think im gonna pull the rock and scrub it off with tooth brush or something.
- Havent been able to keep duncans alive since I moved and removed the sand bed ~6 months ago. Tried and lost 3-4 different frags/mini colonies. However i got a whisker coral (isnt that the same thing?) from petco minnetonka about a month ago and it looks amazing. All while a different duncan slowly loses flesh and never has its polyps open.
-Currently i have had issues keeping Monti caps alive. Even the ones i bought at the fragswap turned gray and chalky in days and i dont think they are gonna make it another week. Shame. No idea what the issue is as i have a few acros doing fine.
-My biggest issue: Any time a coral loses tissue or flesh or gets stung or anything, it ALWAYS dies. There is never a recovery. Not sure what my issue is there but it is very frustrating..

I am not expecting any miracles here, but im hoping that by me using a program with a guide (instructions to somewhat follow) that it keeps my attention on the tank and therefore do better maitenence and the like. lol a little better health and growth would be nice as well but we will see!

Sorry for the wall of text.

Reference pictures before starting program:

Sad Starburst cap

Sad (drawing a blank and cant remember the name right now) Cap

Stylo. Small little white spots have no tissue/polyps. I think it is my 6 line wrasse, he seems to pick at that coral from time to time. Not sure if he is eating things or the coral it self.

Right side of the tank. With most of the sps.

Happy cali tort

First time ive seen growth tips other than encrusting on this guy. (Still prior to Aquaforest)

FTS prior to Aquaforest. Also just after the monti caps were added. So about a week prior to starting the program. All other pictures are from last night.

Jimbo662 · Nov 30, 2016

Following...

jsker · Nov 30, 2016

Welcome to the purple side

My I suggest looking at the 1+2+3+ Balling Method products for AF.

I have been running the AF reef salt and 1+2+3+ since February 2016 with great success.

Davy Jones · Nov 30, 2016

jsker said:
Welcome to the purple side My I suggest looking at the 1+2+3+ Balling Method products for AF. I have been running the AF reef salt and 1+2+3+ since February 2016 with great success.

I plan on doing the 123+ eventually however as of right now my consumption is very little it seems. It has dropped quite a bit. As well i have an apex dos.. and dont want to buy a second one.. So i think i might just use the dos to do 2 of the 3 components and then use the third every few days.

jsker · Nov 30, 2016

Sounds like a plan. FYI 1+ is Ca, Mg with two components (strontium/barium/heavy metals) 2+ is the alk plus a component(iodine/fluoride), and 3+ is the trace elements with potassium

Davy Jones · Nov 30, 2016

Thanks for that info! Ill likely do 1 and 2 by Dos and 3 by hand a few times a week. Meanwhile ill keep my eye open for a used dos for cheap.

Davy Jones · Dec 1, 2016

Got home last night... No miracles happened while i was away. lol. Ill be doing my second dose tonight and tomorrow morning, after 1 week ill upload new pictures. I hope to do a waterchange this weekend. Also upgraded from a 4 stage to a 6 stage rodi last night and replaced all the filters and media other than the ro membrane.

jsker · Dec 1, 2016

Dirtrider225 said:
Got home last night... No miracles happened while i was away. lol. Ill be doing my second dose tonight and tomorrow morning, after 1 week ill upload new pictures. I hope to do a waterchange this weekend. Also upgraded from a 4 stage to a 6 stage rodi last night and replaced all the filters and media other than the ro membrane.

I took about two week before a started see noticeable results

ksc · Dec 1, 2016

"I am not expecting any miracles here, but im hoping that by me using a program with a guide (instructions to somewhat follow) that it keeps my attention on the tank and therefore do better maitenence and the like. lol a little better health and growth would be nice as well but we will see!"

This is the biggest benefit of these "programs". For the most part I think they are a waste of money. But if this is what you need to do better maintenance then you got to do what you got to do. I've followed the aquaforest cult and seen negligible differences in established tanks. Regular old IO water changes and feeding will keep up with trace elements, and the bulk calcium, alk. and mag supplements work just as good.

Davy Jones · Dec 1, 2016

ksc said:
"I am not expecting any miracles here, but im hoping that by me using a program with a guide (instructions to somewhat follow) that it keeps my attention on the tank and therefore do better maitenence and the like. lol a little better health and growth would be nice as well but we will see!"

This is the biggest benefit of these "programs". For the most part I think they are a waste of money. But if this is what you need to do better maintenance then you got to do what you got to do. I've followed the aquaforest cult and seen negligible differences in established tanks. Regular old IO water changes and feeding will keep up with trace elements, and the bulk calcium, alk. and mag supplements work just as good.

Its very well possible thats what it is, but during the bf sale i bought the salt and most of the additives for ~$100, which before i bought just a box of salt (hw marine mix reefer) for ~$80 so for $20 that if my math is right should last me almost 6 months, its not a huge deal to me if it does nothing more than give me a reason to do something with the tank daily

Davy Jones · Dec 1, 2016

jsker said:
I took about two week before a started see noticeable results

Haha yeah it was mostly a joke! Ill do a few photos weekly just for my own documentation purposes and if anyone still wants to follow along after some time has gone by they can look at the transition and my experience with the stuff

jsker · Dec 1, 2016

Dirtrider225 said:
Haha yeah it was mostly a joke! Ill do a few photos weekly just for my own documentation purposes and if anyone still wants to follow along after some time has gone by they can look at the transition and my experience with the stuff

I have been doing on on my build thread, it starts in Feb of 2016

120reefkeeper · Dec 1, 2016

I think you'll be very pleased. Using the AF products has definitely been a good thing for me. [emoji4]

A little patience and a little time is all that you need.

kanders87 · Dec 1, 2016

Following.

Davy Jones · Dec 5, 2016

Did my first waterchange using Aquaforest salt last night. Reef salt not probiotic. I can say that im fairly impressed. Mixed right away, and was clear within minutes. My bucket had a scoop in it that has Litre measurements on the side for how much salt to put in based on how many litres of ro water you have made up. Handy but essentially useless to me as i dont know the number of litres i have made up. (could convert from gallons but i dont even know the exact gallon i mix up, usually just set my rodi unit on for about 3 hours which should be roughly 9 gallons of water give or take.)

It has been nearly a week since i started using the program and so far nothing has really changed lol but thats to be expected. If anything i think my use of NoPox is having more of an effect on the tank and corals than this stuff is.

I still havent had a chance to pick up a different nitrate test kit or go to a LFS to confirm mine, however i tested against an older API nitrate kit which read 0. Which kind of makes it interesting in my eyes. on one hand, i dont see any reason my tank would have such high nitrates (60+ on red sea kit) as i change about 9 gallons a week in a 65 gallon system, have an oversized skimmer and only feed 1 shrimp cube a day. No algea growth and slow growth of anything on the glass. On the other hand i dont really trust the api one that much. But polar oppisites make it hard to tell.

Not sure what exactly it is from but i do have increased polyp extension in a few of my sticks, will continue to monitor.

Montipora continue to go down hill and lose color. I dipped the starburst monti in iodine last night to maybe see if it is bacterial but i doubt it. It may be too far gone. The green one pictured above is almost gray. I think it still has flesh but cant tell.

I have had 0 luck keeping montipora or milliepora alive in this system. Not sure if it is flow or lighting or what. Hoping things turn around with the different additives, maybe my tank is deficient something.

Alk measured at 7.6dkh last night before waterchange. I have extremely little consumption right now and have my apex dos turned off. It maybe falls .1dkh a day at most. This concerns me as i have that large clam in there from Brian that i picked up at the swap. It looks healthy but i have never had a clam before and on top of that i thought they consumed a ton of cal and alk.. Thoughts?

Pictures for reference.

Sorry for the bad top downs, still dont know how to do this correctly.

Davy Jones · Dec 20, 2016

Ive changed about 40-50 gallons of water since i bought the salt, so far i do like it. Mixes really fast and clear, and 0 cloudyness when it goes into the tank. Something i didnt like about the hw marinemix salt from before.

First dose last night of pro bio S and -np pro, did 4 drops of each product. This is to start the probiotics and bring the nutrients down while establishing the bacteria that the corals will consume (or so the product guide says)

Tested EVERYTHING last night after the waterchange.

Cal 470ppm
Mag 1520-1560 ppm
Alk 7.6dkh
SG 1.026
Nitrates ~32ppm (down from 60+ 4 days ago, not going for 0ppm but ~5 would be good.)
Phosphates .04-.08 (FINALLY HAVE A READING!!!! Again not going for 0, Infact im perfectly okay with phosphates around .04 although if the AF stuff works im sure itll come down)

(elevated levels of cal, mag and nitrates are from before starting the system. Doing 10-15 gallon waterchanges every couple days to get things back in line.)

I stopped all dosing of the aminos, energy, fishv and coral food until the levels drop.

Dosing 6ml a day of n03po4x using the apex Dos. The reccomended dosage is around 10ml, And i will continue to lower the dosage to about 3 ml daily. The reason for this is i am often gone on weekends or for ~3 days at a time, when im away i wont be able to hand dose the AF products like pro bio s and -np pro (liquid polymer). I understand nopox is different but for now its the best i can do, atleast until i get a second Apex dos and idk if i want to do that.

Got the tunze powerhead but unsure if im gonna use it, The physical size is way more than anticipated. I think im gonna keep my eyes open for a WAV kit and ditch the vortechs. Or maybe just go 2 mp40's. I dont like the uneven flow of the mp40 and mp10.

PS. Sorry if this is sounding more like a tank build, a lot of the stuff i type in here is kind of a reference for myself as well.

Davy Jones · Dec 28, 2016

Nitrates down to ~6ppm and falling. Coral growth in the frag rack has exploded. colors and polyp extension in the ones that arent growing is improving. Not sure if it is the AF products or the lower nitrates that are doing the trick but no matter what if it keeps going in the direction it is ill be a believer

Billymetz135 · Mar 6, 2017

Interesting thread. Any updates?

jsker · Mar 6, 2017

Dirtrider225 said:
Nitrates down to ~6ppm and falling. Coral growth in the frag rack has exploded. colors and polyp extension in the ones that arent growing is improving. Not sure if it is the AF products or the lower nitrates that are doing the trick but no matter what if it keeps going in the direction it is ill be a believer

Any updates?