Battlecorals Vivid's Rainbow Acropora - Contest Discussion Thread

PSXerholic · Apr 19, 2018

PSXerholic said:
Here is the Reef Moonshiner's TM recipe for Potassium Nitrate ;-)
Mix 50gram of Potassium Nitrate into 1Liter or 1Kg RODI water which you will have available as a carrier liquid.
To increase 1ppm No3, with this Solution, you need to dose 3.26ml per 100Liter tank volume.
If you want to do only 0.25ppm simply divide the total by 4...... simple math.

So you see it is weaker than Sodium Nitrate solution and need some more!
The amount of Potassium increase is extremely low for our tanks and only increases 0.63ppm which is nothing compared to a standard value of around 400-410ppm. Just in case you guys are interested on the potassium increase ;-)

Forgot to mention that. If you use RODI water for Nitrate solutions, they won't last longer than 3-6 months or so, due to the fact of bacteria growth.
RODI is not good for professional supplements, just saying.

Caravanshaka · Apr 19, 2018

PSXerholic said:
Here is the Reef Moonshiner's TM recipe for Potassium Nitrate ;-)
Mix 50gram of Potassium Nitrate into 1Liter or 1Kg RODI water which you will have available as a carrier liquid.
To increase 1ppm No3, with this Solution, you need to dose 3.26ml per 100Liter tank volume.
If you want to do only 0.25ppm simply divide the total by 4...... simple math.

So you see it is weaker than Sodium Nitrate solution and need some more!
The amount of Potassium increase is extremely low for our tanks and only increases 0.63ppm which is nothing compared to a standard value of around 400-410ppm. Just in case you guys are interested on the potassium increase ;-)

Got it, thanks! Using KNO3 so that is what I needed. Will update my info on notes and change the dosing required. I guess I was closer to 0.4 ppm instead of 0.5 ppm then

PSXerholic · Apr 19, 2018

Caravanshaka said:
Got it, thanks! Using KNO3 so that is what I needed. Will update my info on notes and change the dosing required. I guess I was closer to 0.4 ppm instead of 0.5 ppm then

Well, in the first few days everything will suck and refill the No3 reservoirs. So careful when this limited has been reached, No3 goes then constantly up from that point on if the demand goes down.

MTBake · Apr 19, 2018

PSXerholic said:
Forgot to mention that. If you use RODI water for Nitrate solutions, they won't last longer than 3-6 months or so, due to the fact of bacteria growth.
RODI is not good for professional supplements, just saying.

I've noticed a whitish film in my nitrate solution holding container(mason jar). I dumped out the solution and made a new batch in a smaller container so I use it up faster. Is mixing sodium nitrate with potassium nitrate a bad thing? Should I stick with just one or the other? Right now I have equal parts mixed in my nitrate solution. Seems to be working fine and been dosing it this way for 2 or 3 weeks now. I will say that the amount I need to dose has diminished some. Then, the system started using phosphates at a rapid rate. So, I now dose phosphates in the form of a trisodium phosphate solution. It's been an experience for sure. Never tried for an uln system. It just kinda happened.

MTBake · Apr 19, 2018

Caravanshaka said:
Thanks, Andre.

I can't seem to find ATI elements for Flouride and Barium, but Aquaforest seems to have part A and part C that are Barium/Strontium and Iodide/Flouride respectively.

lol, I bet your driveway never gets ice in Houston I'm in Austin, didn't realize you were that close. I was considering heading to Houston this weekend for the show, but not sure if I will make it.

What didn't you like about Fritz? I was considering going back to reef crystals, but have 400g worth of fritz left still, lol.

Aquacave has Triton's fluorine supplement in stock right now. If that helps any.

Caravanshaka · Apr 20, 2018

Caravanshaka said:
I have mixed up 100 mL of the solution you suggested and dosed enough to raise the ppm to 0.5 last night. I will do the same dose again around lunch today, and then test again tonight and see where we stand.

Nitrates still read about 0.1-0.25 this evening after what should have been close to a 1.0ppm dose over the last 24 hrs. This means a lot of what I dosed was consumed. Going to up the dosage to 2 ppm worth the next 24 hrs and test again tomorrow night.

I altered my solution with some math to make it easier on me. 62g of KNO3 in 1,000ml of water allows me to dose 1.0 ppm of nitrate per 10 gallons of water in 1.0mL of solution....always easier when things are in multiples of 10!

My phosphate is also sitting at 0, and the test showed it actually dropped from yesterday to today, so I’ve also mixed up a phosphate dosing solution. I dosed 0.01 ppm of phosphate tonight, and will do the same tomorrow at lunch and see where it lands tomorrow evening again.

Meanwhile my elements should arrive tomorrow to bump up my lacking trace elements. Guess it will be time for another ICP soon to verify progress.

Hoping these changes have a good impact on my contest frag...it’s got color now, just need some growth!

PSXerholic · Apr 20, 2018

MTBake said:
I've noticed a whitish film in my nitrate solution holding container(mason jar). I dumped out the solution and made a new batch in a smaller container so I use it up faster. Is mixing sodium nitrate with potassium nitrate a bad thing? Should I stick with just one or the other? Right now I have equal parts mixed in my nitrate solution. Seems to be working fine and been dosing it this way for 2 or 3 weeks now. I will say that the amount I need to dose has diminished some. Then, the system started using phosphates at a rapid rate. So, I now dose phosphates in the form of a trisodium phosphate solution. It's been an experience for sure. Never tried for an uln system. It just kinda happened.

That's the issue, not really a huge problem but you never know what bacteria you just growing in your jar! May be also some pathogens and we won't need that in our life ;-)

You can mix most Nitrate such as Potassium-Calcium-Sodium nitrates, but stay away from minor element nitrates, they will poison your tank due to overdosing of the metallic element. Hence you use Nitrate complexes from Mayor elements! I doubt there is a benefit of mixing it!

Phosphates is extremely complex, hence I do either Phytofeast / Live Phytoplankton or feed more frozen foods and don't drain that. It has mostly organic phosphorus rather than only inorganic phosphates which are harder to be used in the biological processes in the tank. Hence there is a danger for accumulation of certain phosphates which can only exported via GFO etc.
I used in the past Fertilizer but that brought in too many minor traces and they went through the roof and is hard to control that way.

PSXerholic · Apr 20, 2018

MTBake said:
Aquacave has Triton's fluorine supplement in stock right now. If that helps any.

Problem with Triton is that they don't tell on the bottle how much to be used without their lab report!
If anyone can give me their lab result with dosing instructions, I can reverse engineer their concentration.
I keep the dosing instructions on my Elements on the bottles to allow to choose any Lab of choice, as long the lab tests accurately for Fluoride.

MTBake · Apr 20, 2018

PSXerholic said:
That's the issue, not really a huge problem but you never know what bacteria you just growing in your jar! May be also some pathogens and we won't need that in our life ;-)

You can mix most Nitrate such as Potassium-Calcium-Sodium nitrates, but stay away from minor element nitrates, they will poison your tank due to overdosing of the metallic element. Hence you use Nitrate complexes from Mayor elements! I doubt there is a benefit of mixing it!

Phosphates is extremely complex, hence I do either Phytofeast / Live Phytoplankton or feed more frozen foods and don't drain that. It has mostly organic phosphorus rather than only inorganic phosphates which are harder to be used in the biological processes in the tank. Hence there is a danger for accumulation of certain phosphates which can only exported via GFO etc.
I used in the past Fertilizer but that brought in too many minor traces and they went through the roof and is hard to control that way.

Never thought of using phytoplankton instead of dosing phosphates. This intrigues me. My lfs was culturing live phyto and rotifiers. Not sure if they still are as they are remodeling and moving stuff around right now. I'll head there tomorrow and check it out. I do know they carry phyto feast, so I'll grab a bottle of that at least.

And there was no way I was going to use my nitrate solution with the whitish film. Looked off to me so I dumped it.

Triton test kit is on the way. I'll post results when I have them.

Thanks for all the advice, Andre. Much appreciated.

PSXerholic · Apr 20, 2018

MTBake said:
Never thought of using phytoplankton instead of dosing phosphates. This intrigues me. My lfs was culturing live phyto and rotifiers. Not sure if they still are as they are remodeling and moving stuff around right now. I'll head there tomorrow and check it out. I do know they carry phyto feast, so I'll grab a bottle of that at least.

And there was no way I was going to use my nitrate solution with the whitish film. Looked off to me so I dumped it.

Triton test kit is on the way. I'll post results when I have them.

Thanks for all the advice, Andre. Much appreciated.

Man, glad I can help out here. That's the intention of this grow out contest ;-)
Trying to get the most out of it, many frags could do better, but it's an expensive hobby and sometimes priorities are somewhere else!!!

Personal note, but that's just me, I really like and prefer the ATI tests.
Takes a week longer but it's less costly and postage is included, also it tests for Nitrate, ALK and Fluoride which I did not have on the older Triton test reports if I recall correctly.

PSXerholic · Apr 20, 2018

MTBake said:
Never thought of using phytoplankton instead of dosing phosphates. This intrigues me. My lfs was culturing live phyto and rotifiers. Not sure if they still are as they are remodeling and moving stuff around right now. I'll head there tomorrow and check it out. I do know they carry phyto feast, so I'll grab a bottle of that at least.

And there was no way I was going to use my nitrate solution with the whitish film. Looked off to me so I dumped it.

Triton test kit is on the way. I'll post results when I have them.

Thanks for all the advice, Andre. Much appreciated.

Reason why Phytoplankton is a great substitute is, that they need plenty of phosphates to grow the Phytoplankton, hence its in the liquid and in the plankton.
Phytofeast is very rich in Po4, so careful not to overdose Po4, lol.

MTBake · Apr 20, 2018

PSXerholic said:
Man, glad I can help out here. That's the intention of this grow out contest ;-)
Trying to get the most out of it, many frags could do better, but it's an expensive hobby and sometimes priorities are somewhere else!!!

Personal note, but that's just me, I really like and prefer the ATI tests.
Takes a week longer but it's less costly and postage is included, also it tests for Nitrate, ALK and Fluoride which I did not have on the older Triton test reports if I recall correctly.

I never finished my checkout for the triton test kit. Just realized it's still sitting in cart. I'll see if I can find the ATI test.

PSXerholic · Apr 20, 2018

MTBake said:
I never finished my checkout for the triton test kit. Just realized it's still sitting in cart. I'll see if I can find the ATI test.

I usually buy the ATI kit through prime and it's on the front door within 2 days ;-)

Caravanshaka · Apr 21, 2018

After a few days with some nutrients, all corals are looking better. Color and PE have improved, also noticed a slight bit more of encrusting on some corals as well.

I have upped my Bromine to ATI levels (unconfirmed until next ICP test, but it’s been dosed). This was the only element I could find in the US out of the 3 I needed to dose.

I grabbed some aqua forest strong components in hopes of upping fluoride and Barium, but I have searched for a couple hours now for dosing instructions to increase X ppm per Y gallons, but cannot find it. For fear of overdosing, I’m going to have to skip those for now.

I think I have found a fluoride supplement with dosing instructions, but no luck with Barium yet.

MTBake · Apr 21, 2018

I have both test kits on the way. Triton and ATI. Figured why not try both and see how they compare. I'll post results when I get them.

drawman · Apr 21, 2018

bubbaque said:
I just went through the list again and tried to write down who was suppose to be in the contest and didn't make an update and who made an update but I didn't see their name on leahfish's list.

These were the names on the list that didn't make a March update that I could find.
@Waalker
@Zaven D
@wopadobop
@ptpablo
@Swayne_07
Mykesocalreef - Out of contest
@drawman

These are the ones who made an update but I could not find them on Leahfish's list
@PSXerholic
@ChiCity

Yeah I sadly missed the deadline by 2 days before I remembered I think so I never updated

. Frag is still alive with a little bit of coloring up. My tank bottomed out on PO4 so sadly everything took a hit and I'm trying hard to get stability back.

bubbaque · Apr 22, 2018

drawman said:
Yeah I sadly missed the deadline by 2 days before I remembered I think so I never updated . Frag is still alive with a little bit of coloring up. My tank bottomed out on PO4 so sadly everything took a hit and I'm trying hard to get stability back.

You were allowed to miss one month.

drawman · Apr 22, 2018

bubbaque said:
You were allowed to miss one month.

Well double screw up by me because I missed two thinking I was already DQ'd. I can still try to comment on how mine is doing as time goes on just for fun.