Upgrade time !

[Craigdillman]

yea I'm just not sure how people ever get there nitrates to zero , like i dont feed a ton just over a cube worth of home made mixed frozen that was rinsed , and some nori, skimmer works good i do min 20% WC every 2 weeks (lately been doing big ones)


Naso tang
kole tang
2 clowns
2 cleaner wrasses
yellow Wrasse
christmas wrasse
goby
flame angel
mandarin

in a 125g

[TimT]

Hi Craig,

The original carbon method was adding Vodka, Sugar and Vinegar mixture. All 3 are carbon sources and feed slightly different types of bacteria. When overdosed one causes snotty type strings from rocks etc, another causes hazy type films and another clouds the water.

I presently use Vodka/white vinegar mix with Foz Down. Don't add the Foz Down to the Vodka/Vinegar mix. The Vodka is stronger than the vinegar so less is needed. There is no problem combining Vodka and Vinegar at the same time. The way I maintain my acro grow out system is by using Vodka/Vinegar to control Nitrate and Foz Down to control Phosphate.

You don't want to have zero Phosphate and zero Nitrate in your system. The symbiotic algae that the corals use for a large portion of their energy, needs some Phosphate and some Nitrate. As long as the Phosphate is < 0.03 and Nitrate is < 7 I do not worry about it.

What is the concentration of Vinegar your using? ie % Acetic Acid. Sounds like your using a lot for that bio load. Are you measuring it with a syringe or going by a dosing pump?

If you decide to add Vodka to the vinegar don't add more than 2ml Vodka/day to start with. With the Vodka Vinegar method you are growing bacteria so you need to build it slowly over a several month period. You can safely increase the dosage by 25% per week until you see the nitrate begin to drop. Then keep it at that level until nitrate is down to where you want it, then reduce dosage until nitrate stays steady.

Looking at your water tests from the 2nd I would say that hardy acros like millipora etc would not have a problem with the Phosphate and Nitrate levels. They would have lots of problems from the Calcium at 320. It needs to be around 430. The key to a successful reef tank is stability in all parameters and maintenance.

Thanks for using Foz Down!!

Cheers,
Tim

[Craigdillman]

yea the calcium is now stable at 425 ish level and I'm dosing both foz down and the vinegar from a dosing pump , P04 has came down nicely just i feel the nitrates are still higher

[Craigdillman]

Well update time, tank is looking million times better now that i got all those big WC done and got my parameters back in order finally seeing growth tips on all the sps again and the lps looking super healthy









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[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Happy to see things are doing so well for you with your tank.

[Craigdillman]

Thanks coming along good almost ready for more frags

[Craigdillman]

Update time .. well I got my new lights all installed some hitches with the new app that controls them but I'm really liking them my coral colours have never looked better mostly cause the old lights were starting to get some burnt out leds and the speed wasn't as good as these .

Working on the final touches of my water change system super hyped about that will make WC a breeze and ill do them more often this summer was bad at one point didn't do one for 2 months ... Few of my sps still recovering from our trip last November others have never looked better , Im thinking of doing a big aquascape change on the right side of my tank not sure yet

And I broke down an bought a Apex to replace my Reef keeper got it all programmed up but I'm going to wait to mount it and put it in till we come back from holidays ( heading to Nicaragua for 24 days woo)


Heres the awaited photo dump
















Cant forget the clowns still spawning every month