|
|
|
|
|
#1
04-08-2006, 02:21 AM
|
|||||
|
|||||
Quote:
Polyp extension, well seeing as we don't know what causes polyp extension that doesn't mean anything.. I get better extension during the day some people at night, some who feed, some who don't, see my point? Color well who knows but I have found Alk levels make a huge difference in color where some haven't.. also lighting is a factor. the problem is as in growth, a frag can sit there and do nothing for months then boom it starts growing when nothing has changed.. I personally believe that this is kinda of a recovery period from being fraged and a base laying period. so I'm my belief most frags don't start good growth until they have a solid foundation, how much of a base they need who knows but at some point I have found the base stops growing and the tips take off. and like I said I have seen only guesses at to who the polyps extend. I have never had a problem with extension so I have never worried about it. It may be a good thing but then it may be bad, with my open brain I find it swells up when its hungry and shrinks when it is satisfied which seams to be opposite of what other think. all I know is when my LPS are swollen I feed them then they shrink down for a week then start swelling up again and so on. Like I said this is my opinions and because there hasn't really been any research with SPS on these issues or if there is it isn't finished the questions cannot be answered and everyone will have there own opinion.. and as I stated before when I started feeding I thought there were drastic changes in growth and color, found out the color was because of an increase in my Alk and the growth was a combination of me just not noticing it before as I wasn't looking for an effect of feeding up to that point and corals just deciding to grow. heck I had one that worked on the base for almost 1 year with almost no top growth then boom it was growing 1cm a week from the tips.. nothing changed in 6 months prior to the explosion. so we can argue this back and forth all year and no one will win as there is no proof or even studies that will affirm one way or another.  Steve PS: I am not trying to discourage anyone from using it I started last week as I got a free sample in the mail, so who knows maybe this will turn out to be different that other foods and maybe not. Also one thing I just thought of is that if your lighting is a little on the low side for your corals maybe feeding will help a lot, but who knows.
__________________
 *everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive. 
|
|
#2
04-08-2006, 03:18 AM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Stircrazy,
I think you have your products mixed up.... This thread is about Reef-resh. A bacterial export system. We never gave out samples of Reef-resh. I think you are talking about Reef-roids which is our coral food for filter feeders. =)
|
|
#3
04-08-2006, 07:05 AM
|
|||||
|
|||||
Week 1
The first week has passed and I have been impressed with some of the differences I have seen in my tank. I know that the information and data herein is subjective. I have paid more attention to corals that have been in my care for an extended period of time since I have more knowedge on their growth rate and polyp extension prior to Reef-Resh. My feeding schedule has been the same all along. My lighting consists of 2-250W 14K venture bulbs that are 2 1/2 months old and 1-400W venture 10K bulb that is 1 1/2 months old. Flow rates have not changed. The specs for the rest of the equipment are on my signature. There have been no corals/livestock added since starting Reef-Resh. Feeding: 9:30 AM 1 cube mysis and a pinch of Formula flake 3:00 PM 1- 3 inch strip of nori 8:30 PM 1 cube of mysis (1cube of brine every second day instead of mysis) and a pinch of Formula flake 1 teaspoon of reef roids in the evening on Mon. and Fri. DT's phytoplankton every 3 nights. Corals Frogspawn, Hammer, Torch - very healthy and hard to tell if any changes have occurred. Orange Plate- tentacle extension has increased noticeably. They were approx.1/2 inch and now are 3/4-1inch. 2 Open brains- tentacles come out more often in the daytime-not longer Numerous zoos- definite tentacle extension difference-almost double! No color change Galaxy- polyp extension is a little more, looks great but no noticeable changes 14"Dia. Toadstool, Colt, Devils Hand. Kenya tree- All doing great- same as before. 4 various Montipora- All show definite improvement...growth has gone from 1/8 inch per week to 1/4 inch this week. Polyps are more defined and the polyps underneath are actually coming out now. Color appears deeper Pink Birdsnest- Growth has gone from 1/4 inch to 3/8-1/2 this week. Polyps stay out longer and are longer. Pink tips more defined Pocillipora- growth is roughly the same but polyps are longer and out All week. Appears to have 'lightened' up from darker beige to lighter. Christmas tree rock- polyps are definitely larger and are growing on to adjacent rocks- cant tell if there is more growth....I didnt realize it was spreading! Ha Ha! The feathers look more defined, that could be due to water quality. Big Cup coral- Polyps are larger and are out more often. Growth 'seems' to be more, but not sure. Noted that polyps were coming out underneath as well....it has never done that in the year and some that have had it. Orange Digitata- Growth this week has been equal to the previous two. polyps havent changed ( its in a high flow area) Orange coloration is more defined. Blue acropora and blue green acro- growth is good 1/4 inch last week. Coloration is awesome...these corals are reatively new so I cannot compare too much. I have more corals, but these are the ones I am using for comparison. The leathers are harder to note changes. My tank has typically taken along time for sps to grow- maybe since I do have a mixed tank and no reactor, I dont know. That is why I am excited to see the results for the sps's...hopefully the trend continues! The Lps are also hard for me to note skeletal growth differences, it will be easier over a more prolongued period. I have noticed better water quality though...the only evidence I have is the drop in Nitrates from 5 to 0 though. My water looks clearer and fish, corals, inverts look more defined. I might be looking into it too much, but I have had others tell me that the clarity is better (without me telling them of Reef-Resh) I do notice I have to empty the skimmer cup a day earlier now...anyone out there notice the same? Overall....Very happy of the first week! Next report will be Week 2 Thanks
__________________
180g tank(6x2x2) w/170lbs LR, 2-250W 1-400W Halides, 2-3ft t5 Actinics,H&S 1260 200 Skimmer, 1-Tunze 6000stream w/controller, 1-6060stream, 70g sump, 30g refugium Neptune controller, Sequence Hammerhead inline return, Lifeguard 25W UV, 1-Tunze osmolator, 1-Tunze wavebox, 1/4Hp Pacific Coast chiller, MarineTech calcium reactor
|
|
#4
04-08-2006, 04:47 PM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
I'm going to give this a try as well I will try to take some pictures every week to document changes... There are a few questions That I would have... Maybe polyp lab could answer them for me... Does this new strain of bacteria we are adding replace or compete for nutrients with the de-nitrifying bacteria that is normally present in our reefs... ie if I run out or decide to stop using this product wiil my tank re-cycle as the normal flora returns?... are there any negative effects to missing a day or two? will the bacteria die off too rapidly (without the food) and release the nitrates and phosphates ,back into the water collumn, that they had comsumed? I don't think this would be to big an issue with the size of skimmer I am running (G4X on ~100gals) but good to know.
Mike: are you seeing the development of bacterial mats like they advertise? Polyp lab: Is the food (reef fuel) simply a source of organic carbon... and would this fuel the growth of the pre-existing bacterial strains present in our reefs? without the addition of your bacterial strain? Thanks for your answers, I am looking forward to giving this product a try Regards, Dan
|
|
#5
04-08-2006, 05:35 PM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Well it's been a week of using this stuff and I can't really significantly report any major difference up till now. I did notice that the water clarity was good, and I can also report a bit more skimmate than before.
As for SPS changes, I can't really say. I am not going up to the tank every night and checking to see whether there are any difference because I honestly wouldn't know whether a branch is growing more than before or not. The best way is definitely to take some before and after pics which I may do this weekend. These will be the before shots and I'll post them here. I think the normal waiting period is about 4-6 weeks before you can really notice any dramatic improvements so I'm not gonna get too excited at this point.
|
|
#6
04-08-2006, 06:03 PM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Mike Olson: I’m glad the product is working out for you.
Tangman: The winner of our photo contest has placed some photos of his progress on several forums. I am not sure if I am allowed to post links to these forums on Canreef so I’ll let you do some searching =) There is some information on cost on our faq page at www.polyplab.com/faq/html The cost for a 100 gallon aquarium is around 17-18 dollars a month. StirCrazy: No problem about the confusion =) I must admit, the names we chose are a little confusing. You can read more about this product at www.polyplab.com/reefresh.html Ruth: System Reef-resh is a much more gradual (and consequently safer) nutrient export system than other European bacterial systems. We use more efficient strains and a much safer carbon source. Bleaching is not a problem that you will encounter with this product. VanReefer: I’ll try to answer your question with a quick summary of some of the mechanisms at work here.. There are several bacterial species in the RF-Genesis product. Some species are designed to stay in a planktonic (free-floating) state in the aquarium while other species are designed to firm micro-colonies with existing and novel strains. These micro-colonies are also known as biofilms. Biofilms typically contain many layers of bacterial cells to form microcolonies. These colonies have fairly complex cell to cell communication between the cells and act as a “team”. The bottom layers of these biofilms attach to a surface and provide some kind of structure for the upper layers. The upper layers are the nutrient exporting elements. They trap nutrients to feed the cells that it is made of. As the top layers of the biofilm consume nitrates and phosphates, it repeatedly grows and sheds. The layers of the biofilm that have been shed are either eaten by your corals (sound tasty huh?) or are skimmed out by your skimmer. That is why people are noticing more skimmate - you are skimming out bacterial slough. There is no real problem with missing a day or two of dosing, but the system is most effective when dosed as instructed. With an extended period of non-dosing, the biofilms will find other food sources to survive, but over time will be unable to sustain the structure of the biofilm and will slough off entirely. If you are running a skimmer, they will not break back down before they are skimmed out. However, if you are running a skimmer-less setup and you stop dosing the product for an extended period of time (several weeks), then you do run the risk of the biofilm layers breaking back down. This is why we do no recommend running System RF in a skimmerless setup. Will you get a second cycle? Unlikely… At this stage your aquarium will likely be mature enough to handle a temporary increase in excess nutrients. Correct. RF-Fuel is a source of organic carbon and several amino acids that are soluble in the carbon source. The fuel source encourages some strains to multiply that we want to grow, while not effecting other strains that we do not want. It does minimally fuel the growth of some of your existing bacterial stains. Some European methods use vodka as a carbon source. Vodka is a terribly stupid thing to use as a carbon source in aquariums since it encourages the wrong types of bacteria to grow (Mostly autotrophic as opposed to heterotrophic). It also rapidly results in monocultures of that species and over time you end up with aquariums filled with bacteria that do not provide any real nutrient export. In a market saturated with hundreds of garbage "reef products", skepticism towards any new product is wise. So regardless of how this product sounds on paper, the experiences of other hobbyists will be the best reviews. We have put in a LOT of time into developing this product, so to hear positive experiences with the product is very rewarding. Thanks!
|
|
#7
05-17-2006, 04:45 AM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Quote:
|
|
#8
04-08-2006, 04:18 PM
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Quote:
 you got a link to the info on this stuff?Steve
__________________
*everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
|
Hybrid Mode
