Tank update, June 2009 (Updated)
- Note! I now work mostly with my laptop and although it’s a fantastic (Unibody Macbook), I don’t trust it’s display enough to make any kind of color correction. So I’m shooting in JPEG (I usually shoot RAW) and just resize the images.
- Took 60% of my large Stylophora and exchanged the frags (plus Echinophyllia and Catalaphyllia) to two Acropora sp. from LFS
- Fragged the Turbinaria reniformis
- Switched from vodka + sugar to Tropic Marin Reef Actif. So far the results have been very good but it is too early to give any final judgment. One good thing about products like these is that you can alter the dosage more freely than with the VSV components. For example, you could add an additional dose after doing some major cleaning operation in the tank.
- Finally glued some of the corals to rocks and moved the Subergorgia frags
- Corals grow but not very fast. And that’s a good thing! I think it’s because I now maintain the alkalinity at lower levels than before
- I continue to use the CaCO3 slurry filtration method. Water clarity continues to be excellent although sometimes there does seem to be a bit discoloration due to very heavy feeding of planktonic foods. This is easy to fix though, I just add the slurry straight in to the tank once and it takes care of the discoloration in one shot. The reason I don’t do this normally is that I think the CaCO3 particles harm filter feeders if they must deal with the increased sedimentation every day
- I have started to experiment with new invertebrate foods from companies Preis and AquaConnect. Naturally I’m also using the foods from Fauna Marin. Unfortunately I’ve ran out of Fauna Marin Ultramin-D and as a result I can see reduced sponge growth. This was unexpected since I do feed a very varied selection of invertebrate foods, I honestly didn’t think that the absence of one product would have that much difference but the results are quite obvious
- “Morning mix”: 2 ml AquaConnect nanoFood + 5 ml AquaConnect picoFood + 1 ml Fauna Marin Ultramin-F + 1 ml Fauna Marin Ultra-Seafan + 1 ml Mrutzek artemia food. Fed in two 30 minute batches during the day
- “Evening mix”: 2 ml Preis Coral-V Power + 2 ml Preis Coral-Energizer + 20 ml CoralShop DOM + 1 ml Fauna Marin Ultramin-F + 1 ml Fauna Marin Ultra-Seafan + 1 ml Mrutzek artemia food. Fed in two 30 minute batches during the evening
- Every now and then I also add my own amino acid mix, mostly to just observe if there is a deficiency and to give that extra boost to bacteria
- After winning the 2nd price in the Coral-Shop photo contest I’ve switched from Tropic Marin Pro-Coral K- and A-elements to Coral-Shop SOL Trace and SOL Sr-B
Update: I took some quick snapshots also:
Very good status, I have to say. I have myself just started doing vodka about 2 weeks ago and seem to notice a bit more skimmate and lowering of nitrates (currently around 15-20 ppm). I also added one dose of Prodibio Bio Digest and Bioptim. I have one more dose of each. I am also thinking out starting the Tropic Marin Reef Actif myself. I have lost some colors in my corals (mostly small 1-2 inch frags) and have M. digitata with polyps receding. I am hoping water clarification and nutrient reduction will help improve coloration and polyp extension.
Slow and steady…we will see.
Brian
Hi Brian!
I have used vodka and sugar many years and they certainly work great. In contrast, I can’t really say the same about Prodibio products… I’m not a great fan of adding bacteria anyway, in my experience feeding the existing bacteria works much better.
It would be great if you could share your experiences with the Reef Actif in your blog!
Hey Tatu!
I believe the dry “lace” rock I used as the majority of my rock leeched nitrates since I had high nitrates for nearly 6 months with a tank stocked only with a small clean up crew. My friend and LFS owner used to sell teh same rock but stopped since too many people also experienced this.
I finally had zero nitrates for a while until I removed my rocks to get out a few ornery chromis and then added a few more pieces of live rock. I then used Boyd’s Chemiclean to eradicated cyanobacteria. I think all of these combined to get my biological filer off base. I think the added die off, rock moving kicking up detritus and the Chemiclean killing off some bacteria all combined for the “perfect storm.”
I did notice the nitates lower a tad two weeks into my vodka dosing of 1.1 ml a day. I am now on my third week and dosing 1.6 ml.
I dosed my first shot of Reef Actif today and it seemed to work. I noticed an increase in gas bubbles in my dying hair algae (FINALLY!!!) and some massive polyp extension on my corals. A strange thing happened too. I have many, many, many vermatid snails in the tank and most of them extended their feeding “web.” I’m hoping this is going to help. I’ll document the Reef Actif on Ocean@Home but want to get at least a week in and see if there are other hints of progress for my initial post.