New to aqua forest need help getting levels sorted

[Rooster66]

Hi everyone,

I have a Red Sea reefer 425xl, which for the past 12 months I have been running on the Red Sea care programme. About 4 weeks ago I changed over to aqua forest.

I am changing 10% tank water each week with AF pro biotic salt, i have 2 reactors running one with 1 litre of life bio fill, the second running a stack of zeo/carbon/phos minus. I am adding 4 drops of NP Pro and 4 drops of Pro Bio S in the morning.

I am dosing parts 1+ 2+ and 3+ At a rate of 20ml per day pt 2 and 1 ml per day of 1 & 3.

I also have a basket of siporax and a bubble magus curve 7 skimmer set at dry.

At present my levels are
KH 7.3
Ca 500
Mg 1600+
No3 12ppm
Ph 0.02 ppm
Sg 1.026

With only minimal dosing of pt 1 & 3 my Ca and Mg levels do not drop and I have started tomet a browny red covering over my sand.

Sorry for such a long first post but I wanted to try and give as much info as possible, any advice / guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Rooster66

 

[Anirban]

Hi everyone,

I have a Red Sea reefer 425xl, which for the past 12 months I have been running on the Red Sea care programme. About 4 weeks ago I changed over to aqua forest.

I am changing 10% tank water each week with AF pro biotic salt, i have 2 reactors running one with 1 litre of life bio fill, the second running a stack of zeo/carbon/phos minus. I am adding 4 drops of NP Pro and 4 drops of Pro Bio S in the morning.

I am dosing parts 1+ 2+ and 3+ At a rate of 20ml per day pt 2 and 1 ml per day of 1 & 3.

I also have a basket of siporax and a bubble magus curve 7 skimmer set at dry.

At present my levels are
KH 7.3
Ca 500
Mg 1600+
No3 12ppm
Ph 0.02 ppm
Sg 1.026

With only minimal dosing of pt 1 & 3 my Ca and Mg levels do not drop and I have started tomet a browny red covering over my sand.

Sorry for such a long first post but I wanted to try and give as much info as possible, any advice / guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Rooster66

First thing, you are shifting to a new system so you will see changes which can be good or bad. When you are using probiotic salt you are adding bacteria, amino and vitamin all 3 together. Now, bacteria will reduce nutrient but amino and vitamins are extra nutrient. If you have a full grown reef and alot of corals to consume nutrient then you will need extra nutrient which will come from the probiotic salt but if you dont have a lot of corals consuming those extra nutrients then it will create an extra nutrient pool which will give rise to algae and nutrient imbalance. Siporax, skimming can help but because you are also changing your older bacteria with newer ones from AF it will take few months of time. So, in short lower your bacterial dose and as you are doing weekly water changes with probiotic salt you can dose every alternate day the Pro bio S and NP pro. Also, you have to wait for few months before everything stabilize.

Now, for dosing 123+ how much Alk, Ca and Mg you loose if you dont dose anything for one day?

 

[Rooster66]

First thing, you are shifting to a new system so you will see changes which can be good or bad. When you are using probiotic salt you are adding bacteria, amino and vitamin all 3 together. Now, bacteria will reduce nutrient but amino and vitamins are extra nutrient. If you have a full grown reef and alot of corals to consume nutrient then you will need extra nutrient which will come from the probiotic salt but if you dont have a lot of corals consuming those extra nutrients then it will create an extra nutrient pool which will give rise to algae and nutrient imbalance. Siporax, skimming can help but because you are also changing your older bacteria with newer ones from AF it will take few months of time. So, in short lower your bacterial dose and as you are doing weekly water changes with probiotic salt you can dose every alternate day the Pro bio S and NP pro. Also, you have to wait for few months before everything stabilize.

Now, for dosing 123+ how much Alk, Ca and Mg you loose if you dont dose anything for one day?

Anirban,

Thanks for your comprehensive response much appreciated.

Dosing 123+ I am dosing 20ml per day of part 2 which is maintaining my alk at 7.3, I am only dosing 1ml per day of parts 1 and 3, just to keep my dosing pumps turning, but my Ca and Mg don’t appear to drop. I am checking with Red Sea test kits and Ca remains above 500 with Mg remaining above 1600.

At present I have mainly softies and lps with a few sps frags.

I’ll try and upload a photo.

Regards

Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Anirban,

Thanks for your comprehensive response much appreciated.

Dosing 123+ I am dosing 20ml per day of part 2 which is maintaining my alk at 7.3, I am only dosing 1ml per day of parts 1 and 3, just to keep my dosing pumps turning, but my Ca and Mg don’t appear to drop. I am checking with Red Sea test kits and Ca remains above 500 with Mg remaining above 1600.

At present I have mainly softies and lps with a few sps frags.

I’ll try and upload a photo.

Regards

Rooster

How much Alk will drop if you dont dose for a day?In case you are just dosing Alk then dose only Alk like AF kH buffer and maintain the level. Once your all 3 start moving down then start equal amount of components.

 

[Rooster66]

How much Alk will drop if you dont dose for a day?In case you are just dosing Alk then dose only Alk like AF kH buffer and maintain the level. Once your all 3 start moving down then start equal amount of components.

Thanks, I’ll turn off the dosing pumps and see how much the alk drops in the next 24 hrs. Then I’ll supplement withAF kh buffer.

I was also adding energy and build / amino mix and vitality on alternate days 2 drops each. Should I stop adding these also until my levels start to equalise

Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Thanks, I’ll turn off the dosing pumps and see how much the alk drops in the next 24 hrs. Then I’ll supplement withAF kh buffer.

I was also adding energy and build / amino mix and vitality on alternate days 2 drops each. Should I stop adding these also until my levels start to equalise

Rooster

Great let me know. Yes you can stop the vitality and amino for timebeing but continue dosing build and energy every alternate day.

 

[jsker]

What are you running your Hydra's at?

 

[Rooster66]

Hi jsker,

My ai settings are below, I’m no techno wiz, it’s a programme I found on the internet, I can’t remember if it is based upon either a David saxby setting or a Howe setting.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I’ve seen so many cracking tanks based on aquaforest products I want to get the basics right.

Cheers

Rooster

 

[jsker]

Hi jsker,

My ai settings are below, I’m no techno wiz, it’s a programme I found on the internet, I can’t remember if it is based upon either a David saxby setting or a Howe setting.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I’ve seen so many cracking tanks based on aquaforest products I want to get the basics right.

Cheers

Rooster

I found when I turned down my white below 25% at the max for 5 hour I had a lot less diatoms and cyano.

 

[Rooster66]

Thanks jsker, I’ll give it a go.

Anirban, no dosing for the last 24 hrs and my alc has gone up to 7.7 , I’ll see what happens in the next 24 hrs

Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Thanks jsker, I’ll give it a go.

Anirban, no dosing for the last 24 hrs and my alc has gone up to 7.7 , I’ll see what happens in the next 24 hrs

Rooster

let me know where the Alk is currently.

 

[Rooster66]

let me know where the Alk is currently.

Hi anirban,

Thanks for keeping an eye out, unfortunately I’ve had to go away for the week, my wife is just keeping on top of things while I am away. When I get home on Friday I’ll do a water test and let you know.

Thanks again

Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Hi anirban,

Thanks for keeping an eye out, unfortunately I’ve had to go away for the week, my wife is just keeping on top of things while I am away. When I get home on Friday I’ll do a water test and let you know.

Thanks again

Rooster

I hope you are dosing while you are away or else the Alk will be too low.

 

[Rooster66]

I hope you are dosing while you are away or else the Alk will be too low.

Yep, turned my doses back on just for alk to try and keep it up around 7.3.

As soon as I get home on Friday, I’ll take a sample and turn my dosers back off and see what happens to the levels over the weekend and let you know.

Cheers

Rooster

 

[Rooster66]

Hi anirban,

Returned on Friday, sampled my water on Saturday with DKH reading 7.3, just tested now (Sunday) DKH is at 6.7DKH, Ca is 450 and Mg is still over 1600.

Should I just use KH buffer to keep my DKH around 7.3.

If so at what levels should I start dosing the full 3 part solutions.

Regards

Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Hi

Just dose Kh buffer and maintain the Alk at your desired level for now. Once you Mg comes down a bit you can start dosing. Let me know once your Mg comes down below 1500.

 

[Rooster66]

Thanks for all the help

Regards

 

[Rooster66]

Hi anirban,

Daily testing DKH and I am maintaining 7.5 - 8 using AF kh buffer, just bought AF Ca and mg test kits in case my Red Sea test kits were off. Today’s readings are Ca 460, mg 1600+. The mg doesn’t seem to have moved, I still am not dosing any AF components and still doing 10% water changes using AF pro biotic salt. Phosphates are reading 0 with nitrates at 12. Can you think of anything I can do to bring my mg back in line, any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Rooster

 

[Anirban]

Hi
Mg generally takes time to come down. If possible dont do water changes for few weeks and also test the water with AF Mg kit. Red sea Mg kit is bit tricky.

 

[Rooster66]

Cheers, I’ll update you in a couple of weeks hopefully there should be some movement in the mg by then and I can start dosing components 1,2 & 3 and seeing the excellent results everybody else is getting with AF products.
Thanks