Moving from Red Sea to Aquaforest - information needed

[allrover75]

Yes, brand new tank - cycled, but only 12 days since the coral and fish went in. Obviously not an ideal situation to move SPS colonies from an established system into a new one, but I had no choice. I am already dosing Pro Bio S every day, do you mean I should also add Bio S as well?

Any advice with regards to the lighting, would it help the coral to adjust by reducing the photoperiod, or would it likely make no difference.

 

[Aquaforest]

Bio S - nitryfing bacteria. You can dose Bio S and Pro Bio S(probiotic bacteria) now.

 

[allrover75]

Hi, I’d like to provide an update, and ask for a little further support please.

I am continuing to try to find the right dosage level of Aquaforest parts 1,2,3 to maintain a stable level of alkalinity. I have been measuring Alk every day, and each day I am finding that it has dropped a little in level from the day before. I therefore top it up with a little manual alk addition, and then increase the volume that my doser is adding split over 24 hourly doses.

A day or two later, I find that kh has fallen again, and so on. To give an example, I am seeing it drop from around 7.3, to around 7, over a 24 hour period. This is approximate, given testing inaccuracies obviously.

I have got to the point where I was dosing 125ml of each solution per day, and I increased that yesterday to 150ml.

A quick reminder, my display tank is around 750 litres, plus 250 in the sump. Cycling since Christmas, then coral and fish added three weeks ago. Stocking level is light for a tank this size, probably looking at around a dozen small to medium size SPS colonies, plus half a dozen LPS.

I wanted to ask the Aquaforest experts, or other reefers dosing AF 1,2,3 for a sanity check at this point. In your experience, is this level of daily dose in the right region for a tank such as mine? If so, that’s fine, I will continue to adjust until kh is maintained from day to day.

Thanks.

 

[andrew james]

Hi, I’d like to provide an update, and ask for a little further support please.

I am continuing to try to find the right dosage level of Aquaforest parts 1,2,3 to maintain a stable level of alkalinity. I have been measuring Alk every day, and each day I am finding that it has dropped a little in level from the day before. I therefore top it up with a little manual alk addition, and then increase the volume that my doser is adding split over 24 hourly doses.


Thanks.

What are you using for the additional Alk boost? Hopefully not part 2 of Comp 1,2,3. I was kind of in the same spot as you, using the entire line of AF on a new tank. I had some loses of some coral that I had for years that had survived all manner of mistakes over the years. Yet within weeks of it being in a AF tank it started to die. I had Polyp bailout, melting zoa, and my SPS where STNing all over the place. I did a Triton test and found out my system was ODing on trace elements even though the only trace I add is what is in Comp 123.

I hit the pause button on the AF products. I switched over to Salt with NSW parameter and nothing else in it. I started only adding Alk, Ca & Mg. and the tinniest bit of nopox as my carbon source. my tank started to bounce back. I'm now running Randy's recipe for 80% of my Alk, Ca & Mg intake and 20% AF comp 123. This has helped me keep my trace elements right where they should be. I've seen a full recovery and things are really starting to grow again.

I guess what I'm saying is do some testing. You might be ODing your tank and not know it.

 

[allrover75]

What are you using for the additional Alk boost? Hopefully not part 2 of Comp 1,2,3. I was kind of in the same spot as you, using the entire line of AF on a new tank. I had some loses of some coral that I had for years that had survived all manner of mistakes over the years. Yet within weeks of it being in a AF tank it started to die. I had Polyp bailout, melting zoa, and my SPS where STNing all over the place. I did a Triton test and found out my system was ODing on trace elements even though the only trace I add is what is in Comp 123.

I hit the pause button on the AF products. I switched over to Salt with NSW parameter and nothing else in it. I started only adding Alk, Ca & Mg. and the tinniest bit of nopox as my carbon source. my tank started to bounce back. I'm now running Randy's recipe for 80% of my Alk, Ca & Mg intake and 20% AF comp 123. This has helped me keep my trace elements right where they should be. I've seen a full recovery and things are really starting to grow again.

I guess what I'm saying is do some testing. You might be ODing your tank and not know it.

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Having a Triton test done is a great idea, as that will give me full coverage across all trace elements. Even if trace element levels are indeed ok, this is the sort of baseline knowledge I should have.

I am actually topping up using some Red Sea Foundation B powder I have left over from my previous tank. I think this is essentially just various buffer, the blurb on the red sea site doesn't mention any other elements.

Good idea on the test though, I'll get one ordered today.

 

[HolisticBear]

I am continuing to try to find the right dosage level of Aquaforest parts 1,2,3 to maintain a stable level of alkalinity

BRS published an FAQ video on "Why won't two-part raise my levels" just last week. I don't know if it applies to you, just sharing since it seemed so topical. I believe their short answer is that overdose actually has the opposite effect (lowering) and I think they recommend 2-3 days before adjusting dose. Again, just quoting their video, don't know if it applies to your tank

 

[allrover75]

BRS published an FAQ video on "Why won't two-part raise my levels" just last week. I don't know if it applies to you, just sharing since it seemed so topical. I believe their short answer is that overdose actually has the opposite effect (lowering) and I think they recommend 2-3 days before adjusting dose. Again, just quoting their video, don't know if it applies to your tank

Cheers dude, yeah I saw that video. I did wonder myself, and that was exactly the prompt for my post here, just to check I'm not in that category.

I thought it probably wasn't the case here as there are no visible signs of precipitating calcium carbonate in the tank or sump. However as I have no idea how much anyone else doses, and AF's instructions simply says 'dose as much as your tank needs', I don't know whether I am close, or miles away at 150ml.

I guess what I am looking for is from AF themselves, or others dosing the same thing, to just say "yeah Chris, we typically find that mixed SPS/LPS tanks of about your size, typically dose anywhere between 100-200ml per day", and boom, I would be happy, and I can continue to adjust my dose every few days until I find the balance. I need some input to sanity check I am not absolutely miles away.

 

[Anirban]

Cheers dude, yeah I saw that video. I did wonder myself, and that was exactly the prompt for my post here, just to check I'm not in that category.

I thought it probably wasn't the case here as there are no visible signs of precipitating calcium carbonate in the tank or sump. However as I have no idea how much anyone else doses, and AF's instructions simply says 'dose as much as your tank needs', I don't know whether I am close, or miles away at 150ml.

I guess what I am looking for is from AF themselves, or others dosing the same thing, to just say "yeah Chris, we typically find that mixed SPS/LPS tanks of about your size, typically dose anywhere between 100-200ml per day", and boom, I would be happy, and I can continue to adjust my dose every few days until I find the balance. I need some input to sanity check I am not absolutely miles away.

I understand what you want is a approximate dosing amount of components 123. But the trust me no one can really help you with that. Every tank is different with different consumption so you have to play with different amount to reach balance levels. There are large variables which control these consumption rates. Only one thing I will suggest that first bring your alk, Ca and Mg to the point where you want them and then start dosing component 123. If you feel there is little drop in alk then try adding a little more component 2 but dont try to adjust it with 2 parts. In short, once you start balling then continue with balling.

 

[HolisticBear]

I guess what I am looking for is from AF themselves, or others dosing the same thing, to just say "yeah Chris, we typically find that mixed SPS/LPS tanks of about your size, typically dose anywhere between 100-200ml per day", and boom

Their Facebook group is very active, that situation happened last week. Someone posted a question similar to yours (but using all the supplements + 123). AF replied, please send us a picture. Once AF saw the picture, they said 'full stop'. They responded that weekly water changes should be all he needs and this was someone using AF Vitality daily. When you look at some of their 'show' tanks, they are incredibly heavily stocked. If AF provided a slew of sample tanks along with their dosing schedule, that would be nice. However, I suspect they want people to measure and not match pictures. Try posting on FB.

On their product page, it says 50ml raises the KH of 1,3 dkh-Alk 0,46 meg/l in 100l. If you measured daily before you did any supplementation, what was your daily ALK consumption? Is it a case where 30ml should have sufficed and you're now using 150ml?

 

[Anirban]

Yeah, the tricky part is that "KH of 1,3 dkh-Alk 0,46 meg/l in 100l" but for which kind of tank??? On an average a very lightly stock tank with a lot of coralline algae can easily eat up over 2 dKH. So its relative and can only be decided based on consumption but then its good.

 

[Aquaforest]

At start many macro are consumed by coralline algae.

Can you please write me how much are you dosing and what parameters are you keeping?

 

[allrover75]

At start many macro are consumed by coralline algae.

Can you please write me how much are you dosing and what parameters are you keeping?

Hi, I have recently been dosing 125ml per day of Aquaforest parts 1, 2 & 3. I upped that to 150ml last night as my Calcium has been falling (450 to 375 in last 4 days), and my Alkalinity still appearing to fall slightly too. My tactic was to keep increasing dose until I saw levels stabilise or even start to rise slightly, then I would back it off a little to achieve stability.

My parameters as of yesterday are
Nitrate 6
Phosphate 0.05
Alkalinity 7.1
Calcium 375
Magnesium 1380

I have never been brave enough to dose nothing for 24 hours, in order to measure my systems consumption, my corals are already very unhappy since the tank move, I don't want to shock them again.

 

[Jeevan]

Hi, I have recently been dosing 125ml per day of Aquaforest parts 1, 2 & 3. I upped that to 150ml last night as my Calcium has been falling (450 to 375 in last 4 days), and my Alkalinity still appearing to fall slightly too. My tactic was to keep increasing dose until I saw levels stabilise or even start to rise slightly, then I would back it off a little to achieve stability.

My parameters as of yesterday are
Nitrate 6
Phosphate 0.05
Alkalinity 7.1
Calcium 375
Magnesium 1380

I have never been brave enough to dose nothing for 24 hours, in order to measure my systems consumption, my corals are already very unhappy since the tank move, I don't want to shock them again.

Hi =)

I was reading whole thread recently. Is your tank doing good now? Any update?