Chemical Additive Receipes-Whats yours?

[Darrell]

well im new to this but i have been useing G.A.R.F's receipe for about 6 months now andmy tank has been set up for 16 Months its been going ok but i would like to know what you all use ?,How much ,and when you add it timeing wise,once a week twice and week Ect i tryed kent products before but i found them confusing
Just wanted to know your secrets of mantaining good Corline growths and Coarl growth my tank is not growing Corline Alge as well as i would like it to

 

[mojoreef]

what kind of stuff ae you keeping darrel

Mike

 

[Darrell]

i have very few softies a few Rics,some star polyps,a plate,and a few Srooms. i want to get some more but i cant get Corline alge to grow on my glass or other things in the tank.its slowly starting to grow on the LR since i started G.A.R.F receipe
I would like to get into some sps's and some more softies but mostly im looking at Rocks LOL
Darrell

 

[mattseattle]

i'm dosing using Warner Marine CalxMax (2 part additive) as well as Turbo Calcium to raise my calcium when need be, Reef Builder to raise the alkalinity when it needs it. I drip Kalk every so often.

I have coralline growing on my entire back wall, my rocks are covered with it as well as all my power heads and return flow. it started off as a pink but now that seems to be dying off (turning white) and a new dark red has taken over.

when my magnesium is below recommended limits i use WM Magnesium to bring it back up.

right now i test calc, alk and magnesium on a regular basis and try to keep my alk up around 10 - 11, calcium around 420 - 430 and magnesium up around 1300.

hope this helps....

 

[mojoreef]

Darrel you will learn to hate corraline algae, lol. I am not sure what the Garf reciepe is so I can comment on that, but thier ar a numbers of ways. Once you have a balanced system, most folks use kalk as top off water to maintain thier levels of calcium and alk. I use kalk plus from warner, but thier are several brands. usually some thing like that will be all you need, then just the occasional touch up of magnesium as matt mentioned. Best thing to do when it comes to additives is to fins what you tank needs, the critter that require it will take what they need as long as it is available.
Get your levels up to balance and at the levels they need to be, lets say mg at 1300, cal at 420 and alk at 8.5dkh. once close to those totals stop all doseing for three days retest the above and this will tell you what you tank needs over a three day period, if the cal and alk come down together (which they should) you can set up a simple kalk regimine to maintain them back up.

hope it helps

Mike

 

[Darrell]

Thanks that sounds easy, IM not using Kalk but what i am using is Seachem Reef plus, Reef Cal and Reef Complete twice a week and my make up water with Seachem advantage one week and reef builder the next i alternate these to in my make up water i haven't ever tested for Mag maybe that's my problem Oh and i buff with kent Pro buffer. will adding Iodine or Strontium benefit any or is it nesassary.
Darrell

 

[jlehigh]

I add Kalk to my top off water along with some iodine to assist my crustacians in molting. I am not familiar with Strotium uses.

Hmm well Another question along these lines. I know Kalk has a farely low obsorbtion rate (from our last mtg) and Calcium reactors are efficient automated tools for adding active calcium, but why run both or even use a calium reactor if Kalk meets the needs?

 

[reedman]

One reason to run a calcium reactor and dose kalk is to mitigate the high PH issues of Kalk with the low PH effluent of a calcium reactor. This way you are not limited to only dosing kalk at night.

I think the biggest factor is convienience. Most people get sick of dosing Kalk after a while and choose to move towards a calcium reactor. Also, some people have too high of demands or not enough evaporation for kalk alone to meet their needs. It really is lifestyle and tank dependent.

 

[mojoreef]

Darrel that sounds like alot of stuff. is thier a problem you are dealing with???

jlehigh both wont meet all the needs completely,. Both systems come with inherent cons. on the kalk it comes in with a very high PH level, so it will tend to raie the ph in the tank. the reactor on the other hand does the opposite, because of the co2 the ph comes out real low, so this can also pose a problem
Folks that have both tend to run the kalk at night when the lights are off so that it compensates for the lack of Photosysthesis a normally low ph time, and then run the reactor during the lighted hours, takeing advantage of the Photo.....


Mike

 

[mattseattle]

The GARF recipes just looks like overkill to me. Alot of unneeded additives. After having an unstable tank when I first set it up because I was putting too many additives in it I finally went the simple route. I used to dose iodine as well but after reading so many horror stories about overdosing I stopped. I came to realize that most things are replenished when you do your water changes unless you have something in your tank that is really demanding of that component like calcium & alk.

I also bought good test kits. I bought Salifert Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium test kits. Any additives you put in your tank make sure you are testing for them so you know the levels and also to not overdose.

 

[mojoreef]

Boy Matt your starting to get the hang of this, hehehe


Mike

 

[mattseattle]

I've learned from the best

 

[plumber_bob]

Tropic Marin Bio Calcium and Iodide with some Trace Elements.... Great polyp extension and awesome growth.

 

[Curtswearing]

I'm pooped so I'm C&P'in.

Let me first state that I have no problems with GARF nor Seachem whatsoever other than this---There is no such thing as a bulletproof reef. If there was, forums like this wouldn't even exist. Let's think about this.

You have 2 55g tanks. One contains a 3 foot long snowflake moray eel with only only mushrooms and zooanthids. The other tank contains a relatively small bioload but is stacked from top to bottom with SPS corals, a couple clams, and maybe a few softies.

The calcium needs of the 2 tanks vary widely. The nitrate problems of the two tanks vary widely.

If you treated both of these tanks the same based on a "recipe" you are waiting for disaster. It's the "recipe" and word "bulletproof" that bother me.

 

[NaH2O]

I'm pooped so I'm C&P'in.

LOL, Curt, is that some type of new drug to keep you awake?

 

[Darrell]

Well, I think I need to rethink this Chem thing a bit. Curt you have a very good point and Matt i felt the same way about adding to much. i tested tonight and Alk was 10 Cal was 400 and pH was on the high Side of 8.5 now i have been fighting a Syno Bacteria problem for week I.ve done water changes for the last 10 days and cut the lighting back to 5 hours a day and Syphon as much algae i can.today is the 10th day and still have the problem, it seem that when i add the Seachem Reef plus (witch is Elements) it starts to bloom again so i think i need to relook at what IM doing and find out what to do

Thanks,
Frustated Darrell

 

[NaH2O]

Sorry if I'm being redundant...for some reason I have a short attention span this evening.... Anyway, my question is....wouldn't it be better to add supplements to your make up water during a water change? Bring this water up to the levels you desire, that way you aren't overloading your main system, thereby keeping everything ionically balanced? sheesh - do I even make sense?

 

[mattseattle]

and GARF goes on to say his reef tanks are the most documented ever that he has taken over 50,000 pictures of his tank and he promises his 'RECIPE' will work.

 

[Darrell]

True i getting to wonder about that
i need to change something and start over
Darrell

 

[Curtswearing]

First off----Nikki, behave yourself!!!

Secondly----Darrell, Hakunna Mattatta (it means no worries). You don't have to start over.

I'm known for taking threads off topic and then I have to go back later and deal with what the original question was. (Sorry about that). Well, let's get back on topic.

What do you need to grow coralline? You need your tank to age, you need consistent and balanced tank parameters, low phosphates, and you need the seeds for coralline to grow.

Let's deal with these one by one.
Tank aged? Yup.
Consistent and Balanced Ca and Alk? Unknown
Low Phosphates? Probably not as you are having cyanobacteria probs.
Seeds for coralline to grow? Unknown

Since we don't have to deal with the tank age issue, let's jump to the consistent and balanced Ca and Alkalinity issue. This is just my personal opinion-----prior to your next waterchange, I would test the replacement water for Calcium and Alkalinity and make the appropriate adjustments. Here is a good article and here is another.

Once you have done several waterchanges with balanced waterchange water, I would suggest Kalk to help you stay there. It has a side benefit of precipitating phosphates which also inhibit coralline. My Calcium needs exceed my ability to replenish via Kalk alone so I have been dosing with B-Ionic. However, based on Mojoreef's advice, I will be switching to the Warner Marine products shortly.

Phosphates? Are you using RO/DI water? What do you feed your fish? Beyond that, you have noticed that supplements that claim to be phosphate-free aren't always phosphate-free. To avoid going off-topic again, I'm sure there is a phosphate thread around here somewhere.

That leaves us with Seeds for Coralline to Grow. A farmer can't go plow his field and then say, "I command corn to grow". He has to go put corn seeds in. If you don't have much coralline in your tank, go buy some. Get a snail or hermit or piece of LR that has coralline on it and scrape it in front of a powerhead to spread the spores. Now your got your seeds and now you have to wait for a bit. You'll get your desired coralline algae.