jda's 240g Acropora Rebuild

[GarrettT]

Hey! I use that salt too!

Do you lower the alk in the salt before water changes? It’s about 9-10 dkh

I know this was directed towards Jda, but see #6

Using Muriatic Acid to Lower Alk

I use regular IO salt mix and consistently get around 10.5 Alk, 410 Cal and 1250 Mag. I like my Alk lower around 9 so I use muriatic acid to lower alk in freshly made salt. I notice when I do this my calc jumps to about 470 and mag 1500 plus. Is this normal? Any way to mitigate this? Any...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Miami Reef]

@jda Do you test your alk before adding the muriatic, or do you just use the same dose and assume the batches of salt are similar?

 

[jda]

I have done the same for a long time. 50 gallon bag in 44g brute with cold water. Add 2 tbsp of dowflake. Mix and heat. 20mls of muriatic acid. Let mix for a few more days. Good to go. I tested it 5 or so years ago, but otherwise, have been using this for a LONG time. I mix the whole bag of IO, so I don't have to worry about settling or inconsistent stuff in a bucket.

If I get in a rush, then just straight IO works. 10-20 gallons in 300 gallon systems (ish) does not move alk much.

 

[jda]

The muriatic formula is: desired dKh drop * gallons * .123 is the number of mls of Muriatic Acid to use - regular Lowes or Home Depot Muriatic Acid. There are different strengths, so yours might vary slightly. If still too high, then a bit more muriatic... if too low, then some baking soda to bring it back up. Just be smart with the acid - it is plenty safe if you handle it safely.

Edit: there are other acids that you can use. I use muriatic because is is cheap, available and pure. I can also use it to clean pumps and tanks. Some use Acid Buffer, but I don't know what they other filler products are in the can, so I avoid it... they are probably OK, but it is also 20-100x more expensive and I can handle Muriatic without issue.

 

[Quiverfull]

Got this in the used section of the LFS for a Hundo - barely even used. I know that some of you do not care, but you should at least browse the used section since you could find a gem. For the people who do care and will PM asking me to ship them the ballasts (please, don't - I am going to keep them), this pretty cool, I will likely never use the fixture, but the ballasts, sockets, switches and stuff are really handy when you run 8x HQI fixtures like I do.

I have gotten some really nice finds in the used sections of LFS like PanWorld 150 and 250 pumps for $25, LifeReef Skimmers for really cheap, Ballasts, Osmolator for like $20 (this was really dumb) and much more. For the nerds amongst us, I once found a few SGI Indigo 2 with monitors and all accessories in the recycle pile.

Nice. I remember the SGI Indigo 2 - had one and also had a Crimson at one point. Those machines were way ahead of the time and came at a nice price as well! good luck searching the used pile - love that stuff too.

 

[Murraydar]

Question for you Jda. Do you measure Par on your tanks or do you just blast it with halides / t5? Also, what is your opinion on par levels of Led lights vs Halides / t5?

The reason I ask is that I'm attempting to run my tank at nsw levels as you do but I am running leds (reef breeders photon v2) and I'm not sure how intense I should be running it. A common opinion seems to be that higher nutrients tanks can handle more light and low nutrients tank need less, but you're clearly doing fine with blasting your corals with light at "low" nutrients. Can I get your take on this?

 

[jda]

I have an Apogee 510... pretty good PAR meter for a hobbyist. I used to borrow a LiCor, but I moved and that got hard.

My tanks range from 300-600 PAR with some areas slightly lower and some maybe a touch higher. Since MH and T5 have light outside of the visible range (PAR meter only detects visible light), you are getting more light with T5 and MH with the same number as with LED... so 300 PAR from LED is not as much actual light as from MH or T5 at 300 PAR... the amount of difference depends on the light, of course. I offer complete light from UV to IR (350-850nm) so the low range energy and also Emerson Effect works in my tanks, if you believe in these things (I do).

I don't have much recent experience with LED over acropora, so I should not be offering opinions on how to run them. Most of my experience is with number of units, electricity, etc. when I spec'd out maybe switching and decided not to. My last foray with LED over acropora was when Gen 4 Radion just came out... so a long time ago and with different units.

therman uses Photon v2 and has perhaps the best acropora that I have ever seen under LED. He runs all channels at/near 100% and uses plenty of PAR. He did a video with ReefBum if you want to check it out or he has threads on here. He does not need trick or blue-only lighting, black backgrounds or photo boxes to show how awesome his corals look. He would be the person that I look to if I was using v2s.

You don't have to shoot for too specific of numbers with your residual building block levels. Set up a system and see where it settles out. My sandbed keeps no3 about .1 and my fuge, multiple skimmers and stuff keeps po4 about 1-3 ppb, but sometimes it goes up to 10 if I have a skimmer pump go out or fuge is too full and needs pruned. If you settle out at .5 and 7-9, then that works... or 1 and 6-12, then that works too. You get the point... set up a system and don't chase. If you need more export, then get something new to export more. BTW - these are natural, not low. Low is when you drive them below this with media or chemicals - this is a bad idea unless you really have an acute plan like Zeovit.

Lastly, my corals likely get more N and P than tanks with residual levels of 100 nitrate and 1.0 phosphate. They are available in forms that the corals can actually use, not on the back end with a test kit. I have a massive amount of fish and they get fed a lot. I also export a lot. Whomever came up with the BS about lower that with this light or higher this with that light likely has no idea what they are talking about since they probably only considered what they could test for, which is fools gold. Fish waste is what drives the bus for your corals. What most of them don't get is that even if they have higher N and P and their corals are doing fine then they are both 1). probably still getting their nitrogen and phosphate from fish waste and not nitrate and the one kind of po4 on the test kit and 2). that the higher levels of N and P are likely inhibiting calcification and zoox production in some way, even if small.

 

[Murraydar]

You answered my question perfectly, thank you. Ill have to check out those videos and see how they're running it. It's always tempting to increase intensity after seeing how well those bright halides grow corals.

Unrelated to that, I've been trying to run my reef with the same levels that you are. My hanna checkers are showing 0 ppm nitrates and around .03 phosphates and my corals look fantastic. No chemicals running or even a skimmer, just some filter socks to keep the sump less messy and a big ol' ball of chaeto. Alk is around 6.5 but it will be around 7 soon. Very excited to try growing corals that I've had issues with before; running higher alk and nutrients gave me nothing but issues. Thanks again!

 

[jda]

Brushed the dust off of my pH pen, so did a little pH experiment.

Noon yesterday 8.11, before lights came on.
Ran the 10000-12000 CFM attic fan for 2 hours with windows open on all three levels - it was 64 degrees.
Noon today 8.29.

For anybody who is fighting pH, you will never do more than just getting fresh air into your home... like with power.

 

[jda]

Some small patches of the clove polyps came back after a bit. I started to feed the flake food again in post 267. I fed for longer this time and it is all shriveled up and looking bad. I guess that I needed a few more days of feeding/dosing the last time, but it still got probably 85% of the cloves. Still absolutely no impact to anything in the tank other than the cloves.

 

[Miami Reef]

Please post a FTS!

 

[Perry]

On page 10, been awhile, still have more to go, but really cool to see all you do for our community. The knowledge you share is quite refreshing. More importantly, the time you put in for the hobby tells a lot. Anyway, your photos are really nice, and I love the colors, as well as your photo skills. Using a Euro Reef I see, man they are so good, wish I could get my hands on one! Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Edit- All caught up, 4 skimmer? Holy crap!!!

 

[jda]

Quick update... the anthias are savage. All of them got to where they would eat flake, pellets and any frozen food. After a while, they would pick out a weak one and just savagely beat it to where it had no tail left. I was able to rescue a few to other tanks with differing degree of success, but there are just a pair of the originals left now. This has nothing to do with food or feeding, but just straight savagery.

All of the extra feedings of frozen for the anthias caused my residual P to go up a bit to about 8-10 ppb. This caused some extra algae to grow. I needed to refresh my emerald crabs and snails anyway, so I ordered some more. Coralline slowed down, but still grows. Some acros have slowed a bit, but still grow. The P is on it's way back down through more than normal chaeto export. I still like my residual P around 1-3 ppb, but I also feed a lot so there is no chance that the corals are deprived of any amount of nitrogen or whatever form of phosphate/phosphorous that they are looking for.

Refilled my large 10001 Korallin reactor. Opened my last 50lb sack of Reborn. Mixed it 50/50 with another sack of ARM (the newer calcite kind). Kinda made me sad. My very-old aquatek co2 regulator stopped working, so put on a backup Tunze. Looking for another backup right now... so probably another Tunze for me since they show up on eBay used for under a hundo all of the time.

 

[rtparty]

Quick update... the anthias are savage. All of them got to where they would eat flake, pellets and any frozen food. After a while, they would pick out a weak one and just savagely beat it to where it had no tail left. I was able to rescue a few to other tanks with differing degree of success, but there are just a pair of the originals left now. This has nothing to do with food or feeding, but just straight savagery.

All of the extra feedings of frozen for the anthias caused my residual P to go up a bit to about 8-10 ppb. This caused some extra algae to grow. I needed to refresh my emerald crabs and snails anyway, so I ordered some more. Coralline slowed down, but still grows. Some acros have slowed a bit, but still grow. The P is on it's way back down through more than normal chaeto export. I still like my residual P around 1-3 ppb, but I also feed a lot so there is no chance that the corals are deprived of any amount of nitrogen or whatever form of phosphate/phosphorous that they are looking for.

Refilled my large 10001 Korallin reactor. Opened my last 50lb sack of Reborn. Mixed it 50/50 with another sack of ARM (the newer calcite kind). Kinda made me sad. My very-old aquatek co2 regulator stopped working, so put on a backup Tunze. Looking for another backup right now... so probably another Tunze for me since they show up on eBay used for under a hundo all of the time.

What kind of anthias?

 

[jda]

Carberryi, if I spelled that right.

Once they all ate pellets and flake up by the auto feeder, I thought "game over, they win," right? Nope. It was almost like they waited to get stronger to start beating the others to death.

 

[Miami Reef]

Quick update... the anthias are savage. All of them got to where they would eat flake, pellets and any frozen food. After a while, they would pick out a weak one and just savagely beat it to where it had no tail left. I was able to rescue a few to other tanks with differing degree of success, but there are just a pair of the originals left now. This has nothing to do with food or feeding, but just straight savagery.

All of the extra feedings of frozen for the anthias caused my residual P to go up a bit to about 8-10 ppb. This caused some extra algae to grow. I needed to refresh my emerald crabs and snails anyway, so I ordered some more. Coralline slowed down, but still grows. Some acros have slowed a bit, but still grow. The P is on it's way back down through more than normal chaeto export. I still like my residual P around 1-3 ppb, but I also feed a lot so there is no chance that the corals are deprived of any amount of nitrogen or whatever form of phosphate/phosphorous that they are looking for.

Refilled my large 10001 Korallin reactor. Opened my last 50lb sack of Reborn. Mixed it 50/50 with another sack of ARM (the newer calcite kind). Kinda made me sad. My very-old aquatek co2 regulator stopped working, so put on a backup Tunze. Looking for another backup right now... so probably another Tunze for me since they show up on eBay used for under a hundo all of the time.

How do you even maintain phosphates at 1-3ppb? That seems really low even though you feed so much. What are your export methods?

 

[jda]

I use a massive amount of chaeto, multiple skimmers and do some water changes. It pretty much stays there on it's own. If it was a bit higher, I would not chase it too much.

I am like 2 to 6 times higher than the ocean. Ha.

 

[Miami Reef]

I use a massive amount of chaeto, multiple skimmers and do some water changes. It pretty much stays there on it's own. If it was a bit higher, I would not chase it too much.

I am like 2 to 6 times higher than the ocean. Ha.

How do you prevent dinos?

 

[jda]

I never used dry/dead rock. I dunno. Dinos were always a rite of passage. You had them for a month or two early on and they went away with only small patches showing up here and there. They have been more of a deal since the dead/dry rock stuff started, but that is not me.

I get some cyano, diatoms or dinos patches from time to time, but they leave as fast as they come, or I can suck them out.

Edit: I just looked around in my tank and I don't currently have any dinos or diatoms, but a few patches of cyano the sized of silver dollar or maybe a bit larger - one on a rock and one in the sand under a rock lip.

 

[jda]

Food shipment is in. 10 kilos of mysis, 10 pounds of pacific plankton and 5 pounds of Carribean Mixed Seafood and Roe from Brine Shrimp Direct.

If I have not said this before, the mini freezer in my storage/fish room is a marriage saver. My wife has never had an issue with my tanks or other hobbies, but she hated if I got sloppy with the frozen fish food or frozen mice when I used to breed snakes. Probably the best few hundy that I ever spent.