[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Myka

What if you blow the powerheads at the rock? Any detritus come flying off there?

Nope very clean over all, of course a bit can come off, as sand and some debri can settle, but nothing much

Originally Posted by Myka

Why do you have ammonia and nitrite? What test kits do you use for each test?

I use ELOS, so I don't cheap out on the testing, that is important. And I bought new kits, just in case some were bad and no change in results.

Originally Posted by Myka

I notice you don't have readings for nitrate or phosphate. Provided the "big three" (and K imo) are in check, I have found that NO3 and PO4 are very good at browning out SPS. I find the Salifert kit for nitrate is sufficient and keeping nitrate below 5 ppm is essential for good SPS coloration although I find the best coloration when nitrate is undetectable with a Salifert kit. I use a Merck high sensitivity kit for phosphate as I find anything greater than 0.15 ppm in the water will cause SPS colors to diminish. You need a high sensitivity kit to read these low levels.

I will go buy the phosphate, and as stated I also ran out of nitrate, so need to order more. Haven't done phasphate for awhile, as I never had a problem, so just stopped buying it. ELOS can do both high and low sensitivity, they usually come able to do both.

Originally Posted by Myka

Excuse me, but I don't have to read the entire thread. Are you using any sort of phosphate absorbing media? I use GFO on any SPS tanks (and at different times in non-SPS tanks). I really find it makes a huge difference in SPS coloration whether phosphate is problematic or not. Lots of GFO, and little carbon imo. I find huge amounts of carbon will reduce polyp extension on SPS. I use carbon intermittently because of this (just a day or two per week). Some people have mixed reefs with chemically aggressive corals where limited carbon use isn't possible.

Nope, no phosphate media, not suppose to with Pellets or with Zeo, so I have never done so. I only use 1L of carbon (Kent Reef Carbon) in a reactor and change it out every month. Again, carbon is part of the Zeo method. 1L is below what my tank is needing, probably should have 1.5L for the water volume, but keeping it at 1L.

Originally Posted by Myka

Which brings up another point. Many corals are chemically aggressive; like leathers, GSP, Zoas, and Palys. The presence of these corals in an SPS system can and will diminish SPS coloration, polyp extension, and growth. Using carbon will help to absorb many chemicals released by corals, but that's a catch 22 as described above. Keeping away from some of the worst chemical fighters is a good plan, or remove them entirely.

I see many sps tanks with zoas, like what I have without issue. So not sure this is an issue. Not sure here.

Originally Posted by Myka

Personally, I would ditch the Biopellets (I'm not sold on their claims). I would run GFO in a reactor. Run carbon passively and intermittently if possible. Play around with the use of Zeolites instead of Biopellets, vodka, or any other "raw" carbon dosing. I'm a stickler for reef designed products. I find the use of "raw" chemicals (calcium, sodium bicarbonate, vodka, etc) to be far inferior to reef designed products. I'm a huge fan of balling salts, which are essentially super pure raw chemicals designed for reefs with some interesting chemical engineering and secret ingredients.

HTH.

I won't ditch the pellets, unlike most others, I have seen great results from them. Like no cyano, algae of any sort, before them I had lots. So they do work when used properly. Which is the problem, most reefers using pellets are using them incorrectly. I was one of them also, but now I can testify how to use, based on actually having instructions from manufacturer and actual documentation of other reefers. And I do think having the Zeolites with them are enhancing things, again I have no scientific evidence, but if I see it looking good, why remove. As per Tony/Delphinus, he regretted removing his, and saw things regress when he did.

Otherwise with calcium, magnesium, etc... I don't have anything automated and control this manually. I do have a daily regime of dosing and additions of supplements. Just did my tests, and can say all is perfect as usual.

I also looked around today and will make this claim. I was running my lights for 11 hours, now things have been really cut back for the past 2 weeks. I will now say I am seeing polyp extension of SPS that never had any. This is a good thing. Also these same frags/colonies are starting to show lightening in color, again not much yet, but I am noticing areas of change. The big thing for me is POLYP EXTENSION, I like this and tells me they are much happier.

So what I am saying is light is very important, and too much light probably isn't good either, which would be my case. I will post on this as the weeks/months progress.

Also water quality continues to look impicable. It is soooooo clear, and again no algae's. So this is why I have decided not to change things. So pellets and Zeolites will remain, until such time I see really bad things, I cannot justify removing them. Yes I am a big promoter of the BioPellets, but again they have always worked on their claims. "I have no algae and cyano", and I had alot... so how can I say they don't work, they do... I just want better coral color, that is my big problem I guess. But with the light changes over the past 2 weeks, I am seeing slow changes there now also.

The reason I was asking about Vodka dosing, was I thought it may assist in coloring up of SPS, I now realize this probably won't be the case. So I have now concluded to NOT dose vodka and keep on going on what I do already and NO changes will happen to my current setup.

Thanks for all the info everyone, please feel free to voice your opinions, I love to hear them. Even if I don't use them. But I do listen, believe me.