Perry's Shallow Water Acro Dominant Build Thread

[Perry]

Hey @Perry, I am looking for a quality SPS coral food. I see that you’re using oyster egg feast from RUsalty. How long does an 8oz container tend to last you? Does it go bad? I’m deciding between a 4 and 8oz container for a 65g mixed reef.

I would estimate about 6 months or so, depending on frequency. I haven't noticed it smelling off, but it's obviously refrigerated, so far so good. I don't just find it to benefit sps, I believe all filter feeders get a good chance at it, and see micro life booming as well. I feed 2 to 3 times per week. Most of my acros show full PE 24/7, so I tend to think it helps, I imagine LPS and soties would benefit too.

 

[minus9]

Give Easy Reefs Sps Evo a try, it's great stuff. Just hook up to a doser, done. Same with their phyto, EasyBooster.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Give Easy Reefs Sps Evo a try, it's great stuff. Just hook up to a doser, done. Same with their phyto, EasyBooster.

Thanks, I’ll look into that!

 

[Perry]

Give Easy Reefs Sps Evo a try, it's great stuff. Just hook up to a doser, done. Same with their phyto, EasyBooster.

I have been lurking on the easy reef thread, but I am home everyday, rarely travel, and prefer dosing by hand. I still don't have a reason to dose main minerals, as the crushed coral bed maintains alk and calcium. If I did have to dose, I would prefer by hand anyways. I have a doser, but it's not been online yet, since having the tank. I recently added a couple fish, so pretty much all that's needed The easy reef product looks great for the reefer who choses automation. Despite how complicated running my reef appears, it's actually very basic, still rocking a DA Lite, lol

 

[drawman]

I have been lurking on the easy reef thread, but I am home everyday, rarely travel, and prefer dosing by hand. I still don't have a reason to dose main minerals, as the crushed coral bed maintains alk and calcium. If I did have to dose, I would prefer by hand anyways. I have a doser, but it's not been online yet, since having the tank. I recently added a couple fish, so pretty much all that's needed The easy reef product looks great for the reefer who choses automation. Despite how complicated running my reef appears, it's actually very basic, still rocking a DA Lite, lol

That's wild to me that you're still not dosing. But here I am with barebottom so every little bit of alk draw goes noticed.

 

[Perry]

That's wild to me that you're still not dosing. But here I am with barebottom so every little bit of alk draw goes noticed.

.It's crazy Tim, wherever my salt mixes, it stays, one reason for using RS Blue, now on to AF Reef Salt, both mix quite low for dkh, and I only do 15% every 2 weeks or so I am seeing really good growth, so I am certain they are consuming, it's like nature's version of a CARX. I test every week for alk, and tell myself that this week I will see decline, yet 7.0 every week, been this way since October. I may start a thread on the topic, just think how much $ in buffer I am saving, versus a couple 20# bags of CC, lol.

 

[ScottB]

.It's crazy Tim, wherever my salt mixes, it stays, one reason for using RS Blue, now on to AF Reef Salt, both mix quite low for dkh, and I only do 15% every 2 weeks or so I am seeing really good growth, so I am certain they are consuming, it's like nature's version of a CARX. I test every week for alk, and tell myself that this week I will see decline, yet 7.0 every week, been this way since October. I may start a thread on the topic, just think how much $ in buffer I am saving, versus a couple 20# bags of CC, lol.

Yeah, enjoy those savings while they last. Here are a couple years worth of ESV 2-part buckets.

 

[Perry]

Yeah, enjoy those savings while they last. Here are a couple years worth of EXV 2-part buckets.

Holy smokes!!!
Yeah, I will consider myself bleesed in this anomaly for the time being, and I know this will not always be Man thats a lot of buffer!

 

[ScottB]

Holy smokes!!!
Yeah, I will consider myself bleesed in this anomaly for the time being, and I know this will not always be Man thats a lot of buffer!

I finally bit the bullet on a calcium reactor for my larger system. My display is not hard to keep up with right now as I ripped out all the starter SPS that had overgrown it. Came out with two buckets of reactor media as I could not give away pounds of slimer, stylo, monti cap stuff that I started with.

Now just nubs and small colonies of the good stuff to supplement.

 

[martinphillip03]

I have been lurking on the easy reef thread, but I am home everyday, rarely travel, and prefer dosing by hand. I still don't have a reason to dose main minerals, as the crushed coral bed maintains alk and calcium. If I did have to dose, I would prefer by hand anyways. I have a doser, but it's not been online yet, since having the tank. I recently added a couple fish, so pretty much all that's needed The easy reef product looks great for the reefer who choses automation. Despite how complicated running my reef appears, it's actually very basic, still rocking a DA Lite, lol

My brother had a 300+ SPS reef tank. He is old school. MH and reef brights. Tank is rather new, around a year, so he still hand doses. Has a calcium reactor but isn't on line yet. Not enough draw. He has concerns over a "dirty" water tank, being old school. But he is not into automation. He likes to keep it simple. A ton of light, good flow, and good water

 

[minus9]

.It's crazy Tim, wherever my salt mixes, it stays, one reason for using RS Blue, now on to AF Reef Salt, both mix quite low for dkh, and I only do 15% every 2 weeks or so I am seeing really good growth, so I am certain they are consuming, it's like nature's version of a CARX. I test every week for alk, and tell myself that this week I will see decline, yet 7.0 every week, been this way since October. I may start a thread on the topic, just think how much $ in buffer I am saving, versus a couple 20# bags of CC, lol.

I think you have a condensed version of the Jaubert method going on. You enough areas in your sand bed to create lower pH, which dissolves the aragonite and gives you a good supply of alk and calcium. It's how I ran my tanks in the 90's, added with topping off with kalk makes for everything you need.

 

[Perry]

I finally bit the bullet on a calcium reactor for my larger system. My display is not hard to keep up with right now as I ripped out all the starter SPS that had overgrown it. Came out with two buckets of reactor media as I could not give away pounds of slimer, stylo, monti cap stuff that I started with.

Now just nubs and small colonies of the good stuff to supplement.

I love it, re-using skeletons, did you bleach them before use?

 

[Perry]

My brother had a 300+ SPS reef tank. He is old school. MH and reef brights. Tank is rather new, around a year, so he still hand doses. Has a calcium reactor but isn't on line yet. Not enough draw. He has concerns over a "dirty" water tank, being old school. But he is not into automation. He likes to keep it simple. A ton of light, good flow, and good water

I love it, sometimes we make things far more complicated than necessary. I don't think flow in the tank can be over done, I am always looking at ways of getting more flow, of course without clunking up the display Strong light from t5 or halides doesn't seem to harm corals, I think LED can easily do so, and major kudos to those who have figured it out. Given my history with certain hardware, it will be difficult for me to go all LED. As far as dosing and monitoring, I prefer hands on, I really have no reason for alk monitoring, expensive controllers, and technology running my system or dosing. All these things have failing points, and at some point, will fail, it's just a matter of how quickly you catch the error. This would make ME lazy, and use less observation, which is critical in my style of reefing. So, I don't knock those who do, we all have different levels at which we feel comfort. If I were to travel, or have an inconsistent schedule, automaton would be necessary, it all depends on time, I have plenty

 

[Perry]

I think you have a condensed version of the Jaubert method going on. You enough areas in your sand bed to create lower pH, which dissolves the aragonite and gives you a good supply of alk and calcium. It's how I ran my tanks in the 90's, added with topping off with kalk makes for everything you need.

Thank you sir!
I truly appreciate your insight and wisdom, and providing me with clarity on this anomaly! I came into the hobby using Berlin method, and then quickly adopted to bac driven systems. I heard of Jaubert method, but knew little of the practice. Your description is exactly what I see, and makes total sense. I have tried researching the topic regarding crushed coral and maintaining alk/ca, and see that eventually it will not be as effective in this process, so time will tell. One weird observation is how thick my corals are. It could be flow related, however I have read of others using CB and FWS from KZ reporting similar observations. Regardless, I have great skeletal growth, ions coming from somewhere, thanks for helping make sense John!!!

 

[Perry]

So, when it comes to the display, I am kinda weird about aesthetics, I am not a fan of easily seeing clunky powerheads, and although the magnetic branch rock is really cool, I didn't like how cluttered it made the display. The height made it difficult to not overblast corals, and my goal is to be able to keep acros on sandbed. So, I moved it under the overflow, on left side glass. This opens the reef back up, giving it a cleaner look. Also disguise my mp10 under the ledge. I now feel the peninsula style, despite on 2 sides viewable, looks as designed, and most of all, clean

 

[ScottB]

I love it, re-using skeletons, did you bleach them before use?

I did bleach them. It was quite a chore and a stinky process. Once bleached, I put them in dechlor. After that RO. Then dry. Then chop.

This was back when you couldn't buy toilet paper or TLF Reborn media, so I made the effort. And learned how to use the bidet properly.

 

[Perry]

I did bleach them. It was quite a chore and a stinky process. Once bleached, I put them in dechlor. After that RO. Then dry. Then chop.

This was back when you couldn't buy toilet paper or TLF Reborn media, so I made the effort. And learned how to use the bidet properly.

Very cool!
That's how you repurpose my friend
Well done!

 

[Perry]

Few looking decent today...

JF Solar Flare

TGC Cherry Bomb

MattV Cookie Monster

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Few looking decent today...

JF Solar Flare

TGC Cherry Bomb

MattV Cookie Monster

Looking more than decent! Well done!

 

[Perry]

Looking more than decent! Well done!

Thank you Brandon!
Taking photos can be challenging, I use Samsung Pro mode, 10k setting, during full spectrum. I use Lightroom to post edit to match as closely as my eyes see. No filters, and not under blue. As accurate to what you would see real life. Thanks for looking over the journal