Back to spirits (Updated)

My experiment with Tropic Marin Reef Actif took a huge hit today as I measured some water parameters this morning. As I started using Reef Actif a few weeks ago I also stopped the Vodka + sugar dosing because I read some very promising comments about the Reef Actif’s ability to lower nutrient levels in a reef aquarium.

Unfortunately it seems that the Reef Actif is really no match for my heavy invertebrate feeding: today I measured some pretty amazing levels of both phosphate and nitrate: 0.2 ppm PO4 and 25 ppm NO3! I have never in the last 12 years measured anything even close to this high nutrient concentrations in spite of a few really awful catastrophes I have had over the years. Typically, both nitrate and phosphate are undetectable by the best test kits available and I won’t accept anything else.

It s possible that I could get better results by just increasing the Reef Actif dosage but that would be too costly. Besides, with nutrient concentrations this high, I must deal with the crisis as fast and as effectively as I can. Based on my previous experiences, nothing beats organic carbon dosing in achieving this goal.

So, I’ve restarted my Vodka + sugar dosing with 10 ml/day dose (6 x ~1.7 ml using dosing pump). I expect nutrient levels to start to drop in a week and will report how it goes. I will continue to add Reef Actif in modest amounts to see if I can observe other positive effects other aquarists have reported but obviously I will not rely on it to take care of inorganic nutrients in the future.

[Update]

I hate when people are too fast to make negative comments without researching the issue first

Turns out that Tropic Marin Reef Actif is far from expensive if compared to almost any other additive you can buy for your reef aquarium. Here are some calculations I made:

Costs for Tropic Marin Reef Actif, dosage 1-3 spoons/500 litres per week, 500 ml container, 50 € (all prices in €)

Tags: chemistry, Husbandry, nutrients, tank

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 10:50 and is filed under Husbandry, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.