Balling method

[Myka]

I haven't found any of the carbon dosing in a bottle stuff to work too well for lowering nutrients, biopellets are probably the best bet there. So if you have PO4 and NO4 handled with that then you're looking at trace schtuff. Brightwell Aquatics is another I would consider looking at, and Prodibio. I really like Prodibio products - mainly the BiOptim and BioDigest (improve color even though I don't find they affect nutrients at all). The Fauna Marin Ultra Organic is a nice product but has to be used sparingly. These are affordable products that don't need daily dosing.

FWIW, try talking to your LFS about buying salt in bulk...you may be able to work a deal. Also, many suppliers have salt sales (particularly Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals) which vendors don't pass on to the customer. Ask your LFS to let you know when that sale it going on and see if s/he would cut you a deal if you buy 6 or 10 pails during the sale.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Myka

I haven't found any of the carbon dosing in a bottle stuff to work too well for lowering nutrients, biopellets are probably the best bet there. So if you have PO4 and NO4 handled with that then you're looking at trace schtuff. Brightwell Aquatics is another I would consider looking at, and Prodibio. I really like Prodibio products - mainly the BiOptim and BioDigest (improve color even though I don't find they affect nutrients at all). The Fauna Marin Ultra Organic is a nice product but has to be used sparingly. These are affordable products that don't need daily dosing.

FWIW, try talking to your LFS about buying salt in bulk...you may be able to work a deal. Also, many suppliers have salt sales (particularly Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals) which vendors don't pass on to the customer. Ask your LFS to let you know when that sale it going on and see if s/he would cut you a deal if you buy 6 or 10 pails during the sale.

I have been running pellets for well over a yr now with undectectable PO4 & NO4. So far from what I have read about Ocean Fresh it's a good stable product at a reasonable price as well.

We don't have a local store here in Red Deer so I rely on days like today to buy salt. I still have a 2 - 200 gal boxes of Reef Crystals left from last yr & picked up 6 - 160 gal buckets today @ Big Al's in Edmonton. Only way to get stuff here we need is to go to the big cities or online shop, another reason I have been thinking of setting up a small shop at home.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

I have been running pellets for well over a yr now with undectectable PO4 & NO4. So far from what I have read about Ocean Fresh it's a good stable product at a reasonable price as well.

Ok, well that's good. Be careful not to do any unintentional carbon dosing then...some products have funny names. Stay away from anything that says it reduces nutrients or sludge buildup and that such thing as it may mess with your biopellets by screwing up the PO4/NO4 balance. Since those are working, don't F with them.

I honestly don't think adding any trace products will reduce your water changes though. I would be very skeptical of such claims. For what it costs, I think a 10% waterchange will probably get you better results.

We don't have a local store here in Red Deer so I rely on days like today to buy salt. [...] Only way to get stuff here we need is to go to the big cities or online shop

Don't you have a "usual' LFS in Calgary or Edmonton? Talk to the place where you do the most of your dry goods purchasing. This is where privately owned LFS really shine. If you're doing a lot of online shipping though then you probably haven't developed a real good customer relationship with an LFS, and in that case you're up the creek. This is why I always encourage people to shop at their LOCAL Fish Store.

another reason I have been thinking of setting up a small shop at home.

That's probably not a great idea. If you're just doing very small amount of sales then you won't be buying enough from suppliers to get any reasonable pricing anyway and it will just be one giant PITA. Check your zoning too - it may not allow home-based business.

[Royal Aquariums]

We will be launching our own line of bulk additives in the very near future.

[The Grizz]

If used correctly pellets do a very good job IMO, at least for me. Also run ROX carbon & HC - GFO. I do have a design for a WC system so that will be in the works as well with the new tank.

I'm in pretty good with Concepts in Calgary, Blue World, Marine Aquaria & Red Coral in Edmonton. I know all the owners personally & if the need arose I know one of them would take care of me for sure.

There seems to be a bit of an increase of reefers in my area that would support something local so I'm sure it might work out. I am also sure I could piggy back on an order from the city to get supplies as well.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

If used correctly pellets do a very good job IMO, at least for me. Also run ROX carbon & HC - GFO. I do have a design for a WC system so that will be in the works as well with the new tank.

Have you ever tried weaning off the GFO? Asking out of interests' sake. I haven't met many people that say biopellets alone keeps PO4 <0.08 ppm.

There seems to be a bit of an increase of reefers in my area that would support something local so I'm sure it might work out. I am also sure I could piggy back on an order from the city to get supplies as well.

Hahaha, "I'm sure it might"?

Why would an LFS in the city let you take customers away from them by piggybacking on their order? That doesn't make sense.

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by Myka

Have you ever tried weaning off the GFO? Asking out of interests' sake. I haven't met many people that say biopellets alone keeps PO4 <0.08 ppm.



Hahaha, "I'm sure it might"?

Why would an LFS in the city let you take customers away from them by piggybacking on their order? That doesn't make sense.

Ran nothing but pellets for 6 months & just for extra measure added the GFO.

Not every reefer in my area likes to travel to the city's on a monthly basis for many reason, cost to travel being one & no everyone can afford it. A couple stores I have talked to realize this & offered to get me stuff for there cost + 5% allowing me to still make some money to restock. It's called a business relationship, everyone makes a little & customers are happy.

[PFoster]

We have been running the Balling Lite method from Fauna Marin for many years now.
Balling lite is definately different that the original balling method and its much easier to follow.

We use the Fanua Marin Balling salts + the Fauna Marin Trace B (trace elements added to your ca, alk, mg solution and dosed in the required proportins)
Was anyone from Canreef at MACNA?
Hans Balling had a presentation on the Balling method there and one of his topic of conversation was with respect to the importance of the trace elements being added to your solutions as otherwise you get a very fast decrease in some of these trace element levels.

I have tried TONS and TONS of other bulk ca, alk, mg additives and nothing mixes as well, stays as crystal clear and keeps my organic levels nearly as low as the Fauna line. I read a post in this thread with respect to nurtrient build up, this may be an issue with bulk additives. I tried using a bulk alkalinity solution one time that mixed clear but after about 6 weeks i started to get a filamentous algae. Changed back to fauna, did a couple wc's and it never came back. Hard to say for sure of course,

I can take some progress pic of corals if people want, but if you want to know why our corals look so good its pretty simple. We run the Balling method.

We did just start dosing the full set of Amino acids about 5 days ago too actually. Finally had time with the holidays to get my dosing pump setup and run all the lines....