spspirates 150 gallon build

spspirate · Oct 29, 2015

I'm running 2x250 Radiums and Blue ReefBrite Led's.

spspirate · Nov 5, 2015

spspirate · Nov 5, 2015

For some reason Pink Lemonade never did any good in my last system but this guy is taking off

prsnlty · Nov 5, 2015

spspirate said:

Andy, what is this beauty called?

BigJohnny · Nov 5, 2015

prsnlty said:
Andy, what is this beauty called?

Darth maul porites with tubbs stellata monti below it

prsnlty · Nov 5, 2015

Thank you

I had seen the Darth Maul before but didn't know the name of it. I love it

spspirate · Nov 5, 2015

BigJohnny said:
Darth maul porites with tubbs stellata monti below it

Yup!!

spspirate · Nov 5, 2015

Almost bare bottom!! 60% of my sand bed is gone. I have been dosing MB7 to counter balance what I'm removing from the system. So far so awesome

gettaReef · Nov 5, 2015

I've been dosing MB7 on and off for about a year now but haven't come up with a good dosing schedule (how much to dose and how often to dose it). I have a 75gal and don't carbon dose, have a skimmer and use a sulfer reactor (use Korallin model 1502 unit) to help with n03, along with doing 2-3 water changes a month equalling around 35gal. Do you have any advice for dosing the MB7? I also changed to barebottom about 6 months ago....love how there is no more trapped detritus in the sand and being able to turn up the flow

spspirate · Nov 6, 2015

Well, I dose 1 capful for every 25 gallons a couple times a week between my weekly 10% water changes. I run a light fish load and run a skimmer rated well over my water volume. Are you trying to beef up your bacteria load? Of what I understand is that bio loads should = what your bacteria can handle in a well established system. So maybe it would benefit you to add a carbon source like vodka or vinegar to help bring down your nitrates by ramping up your beneficial bacteria. Maybe you can take the sulfur reactor off line. The reason I'm dosing is to compensate what good bacteria I'm taking out when removing my sand bed. Im only dosing for this reason. In your case it sounds like you could maybe add more rock? Feed a little less? Upgrade skimmer?

gettaReef · Nov 8, 2015

spspirate said:
Well, I dose 1 capful for every 25 gallons a couple times a week between my weekly 10% water changes. I run a light fish load and run a skimmer rated well over my water volume. Are you trying to beef up your bacteria load? Of what I understand is that bio loads should = what your bacteria can handle in a well established system. So maybe it would benefit you to add a carbon source like vodka or vinegar to help bring down your nitrates by ramping up your beneficial bacteria. Maybe you can take the sulfur reactor off line. The reason I'm dosing is to compensate what good bacteria I'm taking out when removing my sand bed. Im only dosing for this reason. In your case it sounds like you could maybe add more rock? Feed a little less? Upgrade skimmer?

Thanks for the suggestions. Honestly I am not sure why I'm dosing MB7....I was given it by a reefer buddy. I certainly am not attempting to use it to reduce nitrate or compensate, like you are after taking out your sand. I guess I was just curious if people typically dose it to help maintain their system/bio load/corals, like people will dose amino acids. I haven't seen any negatives from dosing, or any noticeable positives either. I'm pretty happy since I setup the sulfer reactor, it has reduced my nitrates from 40+ to around 4ppm now, and I can also feed fish/corals much more now without n03 creeping up. I really like how I can adjust the output drip rate to either reduce n03 to near zero or to whatever level I want. Since adding it my system looks better/healthier with more coral growth. Also I don't think my skimmer is too small (have a 75gal system, using Vertex Omega 180i). I also have a nicely built Algea Scrubber around that I plan to hook up to see how that does, but am not sure it will grow much algae as my system is pretty low on n03 (and near zero phosphates) and I don't want to completely deplete all nutrients where it will impact the corals. I think I will just stop dosing the MB7 completely as I haven't seen any positive impact....Lmk what you think. And thanks again for your input!