SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[sdreef]

I am very envious of your leopard wrasses, still mainly about the potters.

Thanks. I took your advice, and these arrived today. I'm going to get them on a doser and interested to see how the sps responds.

 

[rds85]

Thanks. I took your advice, and these arrived today. I'm going to get them on a doser and interested to see how the sps responds.

I love that stuff. SPS crack in a bottle.

Just letting you know to shake the bottle once or twice a week when it is hooked up to a doser FS settles, CB will clog the tubing over time, so just keep an eye on it!

Keep me updated on what you think of them. I would image you will see extreme basing out on your sticks to start then some thick tissue ( really noticeable on stags and slimers)

Where did you get the Choats from. I have kept an eye out with no luck.

 

[Billldg]

Thanks. I took your advice, and these arrived today. I'm going to get them on a doser and interested to see how the sps responds.

Never tried to Coral Booster, I have always used the LFS though. Curious as to what you see with the Coral Booster.

 

[sdreef]

I love that stuff. SPS crack in a bottle.

Just letting you know to shake the bottle once or twice a week when it is hooked up to a doser FS settles, CB will clog the tubing over time, so just keep an eye on it!

Keep me updated on what you think of them. I would image you will see extreme basing out on your sticks to start then some thick tissue ( really noticeable on stags and slimers)

Where did you get the Choats from. I have kept an eye out with no luck.

Ok, that's good to know. I may look into a magnetic stirrer to control through the apex. Now that things have settled into place, I'm hoping I'll be able to observe some changes.

 

[sdreef]

Never tried to Coral Booster, I have always used the LFS though. Curious as to what you see with the Coral Booster.

I haven't used either in the past. I'm a little reluctant to use additives that don't list the ingredients. In this case, given my recent experience, I'm hoping it will be prophylactic. I decided to try coral booster and flatworm stop at the same time simply because they were promoted as being synergistic and it was recommended here and by some local reefers I trust.

It's good to know you've used the flatworm stop. Just curious if you've observed noticeable effects?

Maybe @rds85 can share his experience with coral booster.

 

[rds85]

Ok, that's good to know. I may look into a magnetic stirrer to control through the apex. Now that things have settled into place, I'm hoping I'll be able to observe some changes.

Making it nice and fancy I see. That will work no problem. the booster will be the problem child as it will start to crystalize over time, similar look to salt creep if it mixes with any saltwater and left to dry. You will be fine for a long time though.

 

[rds85]

I haven't used either in the past. I'm a little reluctant to use additives that don't list the ingredients. In this case, given my recent experience, I'm hoping it will be prophylactic. I decided to try coral booster and flatworm stop at the same time simply because they were promoted as being synergistic and it was recommended here and by some local reefers I trust.

It's good to know you've used the flatworm stop. Just curious if you've observed noticeable effects?

Maybe @rds85 can share his experience with coral booster.

I have always used them in conjunction with each other except for one month. So I cannot tell exactly what the booster itself will do. Only the combo. Increased base encrustation will be first, thickened tissue will be second, Healing from fraging ( intentionally or if you got big fish) will be within a 4-7 days, for me growth seemed to improve ( growth is a hard claim due to other water parameters, how long the stick has been in the system etc)

 

[ScottB]

I hear you on GFO. If you have a lot of PO4, it will take a lot of GFO and a fair amount of time and many media changes.

When I creep up past .15 or so, I knock it back with a diluted lanthanum chloride -- Tropic Marin Elimi Phos Rapid. Dosing according to instructions, I got back to .08 or so with 2 treatments a week apart. Super simple to administer.

 

[sdreef]

I hear you on GFO. If you have a lot of PO4, it will take a lot of GFO and a fair amount of time and many media changes.

When I creep up past .15 or so, I knock it back with a diluted lanthanum chloride -- Tropic Marin Elimi Phos Rapid. Dosing according to instructions, I got back to .08 or so with 2 treatments a week apart. Super simple to administer.

Thanks, that's a treatment I hadn't considered. Do you find that you get more algae or cyano when the phosphates creep up past .15 or are you treating for some other effect?

I did increase the photoperiod for the refugium from 12 to 16 hours and bumped up the daily water change from 2 to 3 gallons per day. I vacuumed out the sump where detritus had collected as well.

The phosphates are certainly higher than what I would have targeted, but I'm not sure it matters for some reason. I didn't want to chase a number when everything looks healthy. I made adjustments thinking the effects would be slow, and would slow the trend of increasing nutrients.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks, that's a treatment I hadn't considered. Do you find that you get more algae or cyano when the phosphates creep up past .15 or are you treating for some other effect?

I did increase the photoperiod for the refugium from 12 to 16 hours and bumped up the daily water change from 2 to 3 gallons per day. I vacuumed out the sump where detritus had collected as well.

The phosphates are certainly higher than what I would have targeted, but I'm not sure it matters for some reason. I didn't want to chase a number when everything looks healthy. I made adjustments thinking the effects would be slow, and would slow the trend of increasing nutrients.

Honestly no. I cannot report any undesirable effect from even .2 PO4 all things equal. It CAN lead to a bit more algae growth depending on your herbivore population. I took a little hit there when some HUGE lawnmowers outgrew my system (orange shoulder 8" and one spot foxface 7". I did get some GHA and wife complained a little but not my acropora. I have restocked with juveniles but used LCl to bring algae growth back a bit.

Cyano I have had in the past when nutrients were "noisy" and vacillating. I need to look (way) back to see what that imbalance looked like.

 

[sdreef]

Full Tank Shot before I start messing with how I'm maintainin the chemistry for the tank. Everything is growing well. Colors are improving in the sps now that I'm not messing with them. I'm adjusting the location of some of the LPS as there is a lot of flow throughout and a little too much flow for some of corals on the sand bed.

Dragonface pipefish cruising among the frags.

Elegance Corals are all doing well. The neon green with blue tips was bleached when I got it and is coloring up and has some yellow tones developing, will see where it ends up.

New addition red ball sponge.

 

[sdreef]

One of the blastos was receding last month. I started spot feeding it with a combo of reef roids and KZ LPS aminos once every 2 weeks on the weekend. I turn off all the flow for about 15 minutes. I leave the returns off for one hour in order to allow the rest of the coral to feed from the particulate before the food gets sent through filtration.

I also changed the location. It was previously in an area with both lower light and higher flow and likely what initiated the recession. Not sure the feeding is necessary long term, but I believe it's played an important role in the recovery. I will continue spot feeding periodically for the next 1-2 months.

July 18

August 21

 

[sdreef]

A few changes I'm planning over the next month
1. Dosing KZ Flatworm stop and Coral booster
2. Dosing Kalkwasser
3. Transitioning from 2 part dosing to calcium reactor

Today, I added KZ flatworm stop and coral booster on a doser. The contents can settle and it's recommended to stir the content periodically. I get busy at times, and not something I can commit to doing consistently. I found a magnetic stirrer online that I'm running it with the apex on a timer before the daily dose. I'm dosing once per day. Coral booster is recommended every two days, so I cut the dose in half in order to dose daily.

 

[sdreef]

I worked on the kalk dosing setup. I'm using the Avast K1 Kalk stirrer. I added a Neptune DOS in the garage. It draws water from the freshwater reservoir and delivers to the kalk stirrer in the stand. There is tube extending from the kalk stirrer to the return section of the sump.

Between inquisitive children and Southern California earthquakes, I was concerned about the stirrer getting tipped over and spilling the high pH solution. I wanted to reduce the chances of that happening and added a few straps to secure the stirrer to the leg of the stand to avoid any tipping.

 

[rds85]

A few changes I'm planning over the next month
1. Dosing KZ Flatworm stop and Coral booster
2. Dosing Kalkwasser
3. Transitioning from 2 part dosing to calcium reactor

Today, I added KZ flatworm stop and coral booster on a doser. The contents can settle and it's recommended to stir the content periodically. I get busy at times, and not something I can commit to doing consistently. I found a magnetic stirrer online that I'm running it with the apex on a timer before the daily dose. I'm dosing once per day. Coral booster is recommended every two days, so I cut the dose in half in order to dose daily.

Let me know what your observations are after dosing these products after about a month or two!

 

[sdreef]

 

[sdreef]

I added kalk to the stirrer mid week. It took about 48 hours for the solution to settle and clear. I started with four intervals on the DOS. I have the drip stop for 30 minutes before and after when the trident performs its sampling. Probably unecessary, but I wanted to reduce the chances of forming precipitate in the trident's sampling line as the sampling line is located in the return section of the sump.

I rely on a couple fans for evaporative cooling and top off more than 5 liters per day, so no concern regarding salinity with the addition of the kalk. I did program in pH and salinity parameters for the DOS as safeguards regardless.

I typically adjust the volume of dosing weekly and had deliberately fallen behind a bit in order to give a little wiggle room with the alkalinity and avoid an alkalinity spike when the kalk drip came online. I also added a large tridacna noae which will increase consumption as well.

I don't have a great sense of how much the kalkwasser is going to add to the alkalinity and calcium levels. I also don't have a great sense of the volume required to affect the pH. I plan to go slowly and monitor carefully. It is going to take some time and trialing to get things dialed in, and I plan to hold off on adding the calcium reactor in the meantime.

 

[ctenophore]

You may be able to get close to fully supplementing your tank for alk/ca with just kalk given the size of the colonies in the pics. That won't be the case as they and the clam grow, however.
It shouldn't take a lot to affect pH- can you do an overlay of your pH graph with the dosing times?

 

[sdreef]

You may be able to get close to fully supplementing your tank for alk/ca with just kalk given the size of the colonies in the pics. That won't be the case as they and the clam grow, however.
It shouldn't take a lot to affect pH- can you do an overlay of your pH graph with the dosing times?

For the initial set up, I added one cup of kalk to the stirrer about four days ago. Here is the overlay from the last week, and I added kalk powder on August 26 in the afternoon on the graph. I was playing with the intervals a bit which is the reason for the variability in the volumes dosed on the graph.

Here is the past 36 hours or so, shows the frequent small doses of fluid. I did cut back my alkalinity and calcium dosing a bit, and so far alk has stayed within 7.6-7.9 while I've been making adjustments. Trident has been reading 450-470 for calcium. I'm planning to double check these values with manual tests tomorrow.

 

[ctenophore]

It looks like you could do even more kalk, especially on the downhill pH time periods. I set mine to start dripping just before pH peak, and usually let it drip until an hour or so before lights on. I've noticed about a 30 minute lag time between drip start/stop and the effect on pH. It's kind of fun to play the "flatten the pH curve" game.