Tanks based on Aquaforest Products:

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hotnickz07 said:
I have not been able to keep cheato alive while on AF. Pretty sure most people are on the same boat, due to the tank being ULNS.
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Yeah I've read that. My Cheato has been growing like crazy. I'm at ULN with my test kits. But maybe that's because the Chaeto is sucking up all the remaining nitrates. Much like when you have an algae problem and test 0 phosphates. What do you think?
 
I have been running AF for about 6 months and have a **** tone of chaeto in my fuge.. unless your tank is a desert with little to no life your not an ULNS.. sorry im an engineer so i tend to be a little to the point. There are other reasons why your cheato dies off but its not because your tank is void of nutrients! What is present with AF just doesn't provide what is required to maintain a healthy culture of cheato.
 
Tbabcock said:
I have been running AF for about 6 months and have a **** tone of chaeto in my fuge.. unless your tank is a desert with little to no life your not an ULNS.. sorry im an engineer so i tend to be a little to the point. There are other reasons why your cheato dies off but its not because your tank is void of nutrients! What is present with AF just doesn't provide what is required to maintain a healthy culture of cheato.
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I hear what your saying for sure and something I've been considering. My 150 gallon system has but 3 fish in it. I've been wondering if that is part of the issue. However I've been feeding those 3 fish as if there were 10 or more fish 3 times a day and still no increase in nitrates.
 
have a bunch growing in my fuge as well but I feed 3 times a day and over stocked tank P04 = 0 -.02 no3 .02 -.03

I've always had some growing in my tank helps with ph and place for pods to do their business
 
Tbabcock said:
Ok i need some advice from the kings of Aquaforest. I currently use the reef salt, dose 1+2+3, np pro and pro bio S in my 40gal DS.
Im in the process of gathering all my goodies to build my new 90gal corner overflow. I just got my new skimz sp34 sump and a vertex omega 150. Im looking for advice on my sump build as i plan to use the life bio fill if we ever get it in the states. The sump has a 5x14" fuge section where i was planing to place the life bio fill and maybe a bio block. I currently run live rock and cheto in my sump now but im not planing to use it in the new setup. I will also have a carbon and gfo reactor in the new sump or should i go with the zeao,carbon and gfo? Thanks for your help and i look forward to your comments.
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Hello,
The fuge area of the sump sounds like a nice place to harbor media, I would ensure 2 things. 1. ample flow and 2. detritus free. Now, many make baskets out of eggcrate that allows for the basket with the media to be shaken off with exchange water from a water change to sort of clean the material every so often, as the pores can become clogged over time. I would imagine you could use siporax and Life Bio Fil together, it is what I do. The Life Bio Fil media is pumace, or pomice, it is highly porous and comes pre loaded with bacteria, the advantage is it begins to work right away. I would imagine the stack method with AF Zeo Mix, AF Carbon, and AF Phosphate Minus would be a good choice for mature tanks with heavy fish and larger corals. I have been doing the AF method for a year now, I exchange the medias every 4 weeks or so. The stack method I have used for 8 months or so, it is easy to simply change all the medias at once. The skimmer should be set to dry to allow for heavy export of N&P, and with the use of NP Pro and Pro Bio S, your skim should be dark like black coffee dark :) Let me know if you have more questions :)
 
arch85 said:
My tank is running the full AquaForest regimen as well. Here's a video I took a couple of days back of my acros -- will add a full tank shot later.

You might want to watch it in 1.5x speed so you don't get bored to death :)

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Wow your acro's are flipping awesome looking!!! Were those aqua cultured frags? They look terrific great job!!!
 
Acronuts said:
Wow your acro's are flipping awesome looking!!! Were those aqua cultured frags? They look terrific great job!!!
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thanks! they are all wild and maricultured colonies. I'm not one with patience to watch frags grow unfortunately. :)
 
Hey Perry. Big E recommend 3b+ and 3c+ is what he uses with amazing results. Apparently between both bulbs, the entire spectrum needed for photo is covered. I will say, i have noticed an increase in alk and calc consumption. Colors look fantastic to, not to white and not to blue. Ohhh and its bright!!!!!
 
Just have to say that this thread is much more alive and with loads of contributions and observations than the thread at the other place. Glad I'm a member of both!
Well diving in!!!
Many Reefers out there have excellent results from using the program and their reef tanks look amazing.

I am however doing a slower decent as with anything new it is best to go slowly so that you can acclimate and not shock your tank corals and inhabitants.

On 12/2 I started manually dosing the following at half strength:
For my tank vol it recommends 9 drops I am using only 4 drops instead and plan to increase 1 drop per week till I reach the full recommended dosage. While it may take me a little longer to see results I am ok with that.

Pro bio s
Np pro
Af energy
Af build
Af vitality
Af aminomix
Af power food

On 12/4 after testing my water I installed the chambers that will house Components 1+2+3:
Dosing 1+ at 25ml per day
Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day
Dosing 3+ at 25ml per day

These will be monitored and dialed in appropriately with rigorous testing using Red Sea tests.
Alk was at bit high at 9.5 so need to slowly lower it to 7.5-8.0.

On 12/5 the first 20% water change made with 1/2 Probiotic reef salt and 1/2 Instant Ocean.
Bought two boxes at Black Friday sale so will be using it till gone.

Will share my progress with you all here.



 
I am going to try a new bulb combo later this week when the bulbs come in. 5 b+, 1 AB special(or Coral+ haven't decided yet, since I have both bulbs still in packaging in my closet), 1 Giesemann super purple and 1 Giesemann Super Actinic. The combo now is 6 b+ and 2 purple+.
 
So I went to salty supply and no longer do they carry the big 25kg of aquaforest reef salt....can someone please give me a link to where I can buy it
 
domination2580 said:
So I went to salty supply and no longer do they carry the big 25kg of aquaforest reef salt....can someone please give me a link to where I can buy it
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Salty Supply is no longer carrying the line in their online store. According to Chris they have transferred the products to BRS website.
 
Acronuts said:
Just have to say that this thread is much more alive and with loads of contributions and observations than the thread at the other place. Glad I'm a member of both!
Well diving in!!!
Many Reefers out there have excellent results from using the program and their reef tanks look amazing.

I am however doing a slower decent as with anything new it is best to go slowly so that you can acclimate and not shock your tank corals and inhabitants.

On 12/2 I started manually dosing the following at half strength:
For my tank vol it recommends 9 drops I am using only 4 drops instead and plan to increase 1 drop per week till I reach the full recommended dosage. While it may take me a little longer to see results I am ok with that.

Pro bio s
Np pro
Af energy
Af build
Af vitality
Af aminomix
Af power food

On 12/4 after testing my water I installed the chambers that will house Components 1+2+3:
Dosing 1+ at 25ml per day
Dosing 2+ at 5ml per day
Dosing 3+ at 25ml per day

These will be monitored and dialed in appropriately with rigorous testing using Red Sea tests.
Alk was at bit high at 9.5 so need to slowly lower it to 7.5-8.0.

On 12/5 the first 20% water change made with 1/2 Probiotic reef salt and 1/2 Instant Ocean.
Bought two boxes at Black Friday sale so will be using it till gone.

Will share my progress with you all here.



Click to expand...

Hey welcome to the AF train, im sure you will have great results. Quick observation, you seem to be dosing different amounts of 123. From what i have gathered and read, this shouldn't be done when dosing a ballin type system. It can lead to ionic imbalance, so all 3 should be the same. Im sure Perry can give his opinion on this. From what it seams unless it was a typo , your tank alk consumption is low or different thank you calcium / mag . Or you are barely consuming alk. This has happened to me before, and i corrected it by dosing all 3 the same. In your case if 25 ml of alk is to much, then find what you need and set the other 2 to the same.

Example my tank hit a wall and alk stop being consumed. At the time i was dosing 60ml of all 3 , at my parameters were dead on at 400 calc , 7.7 dkh, 1300 mag. My alk crept up to 9 dkh but the other 2 stayed spot on. So i cut dosing in half to bring alk below 8. Even doing this, my calcium, and mag stayed at the same. Im now dosing 4 ml every 4 hrs 6 times a day for a total of 24ml daily.. woshh math.. lol. I also have my doser set to dose each component within an hour of the last so comp 1, then 1 hr and comp 2, then 1 hr and comp 3.. Anyways good luck, hope this helped.
Jorge
 
hotnickz07 said:
Hey welcome to the AF train, im sure you will have great results. Quick observation, you seem to be dosing different amounts of 123. From what i have gathered and read, this shouldn't be done when dosing a ballin type system. It can lead to ionic imbalance, so all 3 should be the same. Im sure Perry can give his opinion on this. From what it seams unless it was a typo , your tank alk consumption is low or different thank you calcium / mag . Or you are barely consuming alk. This has happened to me before, and i corrected it by dosing all 3 the same. In your case if 25 ml of alk is to much, then find what you need and set the other 2 to the same.

Example my tank hit a wall and alk stop being consumed. At the time i was dosing 60ml of all 3 , at my parameters were dead on at 400 calc , 7.7 dkh, 1300 mag. My alk crept up to 9 dkh but the other 2 stayed spot on. So i cut dosing in half to bring alk below 8. Even doing this, my calcium, and mag stayed at the same. Im now dosing 4 ml every 4 hrs 6 times a day for a total of 24ml daily.. woshh math.. lol. I also have my doser set to dose each component within an hour of the last so comp 1, then 1 hr and comp 2, then 1 hr and comp 3.. Anyways good luck, hope this helped.
Jorge
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Hey Jorge / Thanks for the heads up. It wasn't a typo.
On 11-28 had my water tested after a 2 wk WC at the lfs. They use Salifert tests. The results prior to starting AF products were:
Ca 380
Alk 12
Mg 1290
Po4 0.10
No3 15

Alk was too high so I took Ocean Blend part two offline.

Then on 12-03 using Red Sea Tests my results were:
Ca 450
Alk 10.5
Mg 1350
Po4 0.10
No3 15

Alk still too high but no AF dosing yet w/ 1+2+3

Tested again on 12-05 and after a 20% WC the results:
Ca 450
Alk 9.5
Mg 1350

My Alk is still too high but 1+2+3 went live yesterday on my tank.
I thought we needed to have the alk at 8 dkh w/ Af products. I want to bring it down slowly then maintain it at 8 dkh.
I am wrong?
Will dosing 25ml per day not increase my alk?

Your guys help is appreciated
 

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