I will start with a quick update: Here is my tank and life for the past month
My garden:
Now some text…
I have done a lot of aesthetics to the tank surroundsing to make it less of an eyesore with plumbing. I have the ATO all hooked up and working, and everything is going to plan. now i have to leave to college and i have to train someone who has no idea about SW aquariums to take care of the tank. The corals are finally outdoing water changes so i have to start dosing. i have decided to just do an easy pump 3 part or 2 part or whatever part solution. I dont know what kind or what brand or how much, so that is one thing ihave to work on.
second i need to build a RO making and sw mixing station outside of the house, and make it as easy as possible…
Thats all i canthink of right now… If you have any questions just ask.
i see youve got some nice growth tips on your red tabling acro (potential red planet) is that your polypless superman there. man that base color is nice, mine has browned out completely and looks like crap…and it never really did look like a superman, i think i may have been duped in the DVRC raffle.
I actually bleached it it’s not growing tht much.that is another thing I changed.I went from a 13 hour cycle to a 10hour cycle and I raised the light an inch… Everything is getting more and better color now. I reallly need to start figuring what solutions to dose with…
That’s going to be tricky. First off I wouldn’t buy many corals or make any other major changes and start the dosing and testing at least every other day and the biggest part: “KEEP DETAILED RECORDS”. Telling you Mom or little sister, “I think you need to dose about half a scoop of this, but you are going to need to test to make sureâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ, won’t work well at all. A cheap DIYS two part solution dosed regularly over the course of a year will lead to an imbalance.
Most hobbyist read a couple random articles or take the advice of some random person on the web, don’t really understand what they are doing, get in a routine that works for a couple days and either OD their tank or find out a week later they haven’t been keeping up with the demand. Moving into the point where you start to dose is one of the most difficult part of keeping a tank for most hobbyist. And most give up. There is an article out there somewhere that has a cost analysis of using a CA reactor vs dosing. The Ca reactor ends up costing less in the long run. (Constantly burning through test kits I am really wishing I had saved some money to go that route a long time ago)
If you are dead set on dosing I would go with a name brand product, so you are sure it is a balanced product and doesn’t contain significant impurities such as nitrates, phosphates, or heavy metals. I would suggest making up a chart for whoever is doing it or a log book so they can keep track of what they are doing and you can see what they are doing. Might be a good idea to explain adding the chemicals to the water as if they are feeding the corals and giving them something like milk so they can build strong bones. Also explain that if they do it consistently they way you tell them to it will help keep the algae down.
There are a lot of products out there and I would say just cup up with something where they can use 3 scoops or 4 scoops.(Say if you need 1.5 or 2 teaspoons of something you hand them a half teaspoon measuring cup) If you want to set up something that will dose with pumps to do it in such a way that is not going to over dose your tank is going to cost you as much as a CA reactor and you still will frequently need to test and buy chemicals.(both high start up and operating costs) Your going to also need to set it up asap so you are sure it works without flaw. The other down side is instead having your family add something every morning when they have their coffee or every night feed the fish when they are having dinner, they are going to have to randomly get down on their knees and reach under the tank and see if they need to add something.(It won’t be as regular of a routine)
looking good john!
Ya jon i know thats the problem. Obviously the absorption will go up over time as corals grow, and so things will have to be adjusted… My plan is to figure out whats going out now, buy a name brand product, and see how much they need to add every few days. Then when i come home maybe 4 times per year i can look at the records (or put them online so i can see from school) and adjust the dosing depending on whats happening… Then have them dose for 3 weeks then do a Test and a water change… Its not gonna make the conditions optimal or right on the brink of oversaturation, it will just keep everything good enough in line so that it works out… right now my alk is at 610 because i have done nothing to the tank since 2 weeks ago…
what name brand stuff is good…
Thanks shawn
Tropic Marin makes some really nice high end chemical additives. Although i dont dose i do use their Bio-Calcium and Bio-Magnesium to make corrections here and there if things get off track. They also just came out with a liquid Ca 3-part system for dosing calcium. The starter kit is a little pricey but the refill kits dont seem to bad and as far as i can tell you dont really need the starter kit.
MY chaeto is dying, while the caluerpa is growing… why is it not growing like crazy?.. maybe to much light diffusion?
Whatever you use get a balanced system. Don’t try to piece together parts yourself. TLF C-Balance would be one way to go.