Trapped in house and changing gears
I have not been feeling so great lately so I have not been able to make grumpy postings in a few weeks. What I have been doing is I have watched every House M.D. episode aired, that’s 100+ TV shows…
Waving
There have been a few changes to the aquarium during this time, the most obvious one being the purchase of Fishstreet’s copy of Tunze Wavebox. Compared to Tunze’s product, the main differences are: better materials, higher quality finish, smaller size, better controllability and 1/3rd of the price. I have been very happy with my purchase, especially because I hate the overpricing of most EU products, most of them are not actually made in EU anyway and the quality has dropped significantly in the last 10 years. A nice bonus of wavebox in my tank is a short storm simulation every morning as I shut down the main pump to dose the CaCO3 slurry to the mechanical filter. Normally the water level in the tank is so high that both the longitudinal supports and the overflow restrict the wave height. But as the main pump is shut off and the water level drops, the waves grow really high, thus creating a “storm”. This dislodges a lot of detritus from rocks and sand and helps to keep the tank clean. Great for filter feeders also!
Input and Output
Another change is that I have switched from vodka + sugar dosing to Tropic Marin’s Reef Aktif. It is too early to give any kind review of this filtration method but if even half of the praises given in German forums are true it should be an improvement. I remain skeptical though…
Finally, I have also added new foods to my feeding regimen. I’m testing products from both Aqua Connect and Preis. So far, nothing I have tried have been able to beat the products from Fauna Marin but “nanoFood” and “picoFood” from Aqua Connect do show some promise.
Tatu,
Hope you are feeling better my friend. I have to admit I love House MD as well. Great show. The lead actor Hugh Laurie is a Brit and pulls off the US character so well, you’d never know.
Will be interesting to follow your adventure with Reef Actif. I spend about 45 mins on the phone with the US rep for Tropic Marin discussing the product and other reefing issues. I have had high nitrates (20 ppm) and am trying to get them down and once I do, would like to give that product a go.
Brian
Hi Brian!
Thank you very much, feeling better every day
I have now been using Reef Actif close to two weeks and initial impressions are very positive. The most obvious result is that most of the cyanobacteria I have had (I feed heavily) seems to have disappeared. I will measure PO4 and NO3 and report back.