Chemical Additive Receipes-Whats yours?

[Scooterman]

How can you supplement what Curts just posted, Hummm, nope he did an excellent job!:razz:

 

[mojoreef]

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?

Not really Nikki, its a good practice to follow, but I dought it would satisfy the needs of the tank alone.
Example: your tank is down 50 ppm of cal and 2 point of dkh, putting in a water change where the elements are all balanced would not make up for the deficiencies. a good practice is to make sure your water is properly balanced prior to changing it out, but you must find you tank demands and suppliment accordingly. Just get your tank balanced ...say using a two part additive. once they have reached the desired levels, stop all addivtive say for 1 day. now take a measure of all the parameters again (mostly just alk and cal, mag you can do this over a monthly basis) what ever the difference is in the span of that 24 hour period is, is what you need to add in the way of cal and alk in a 24 hour period.

Curt excellent post!

Darrell no need to start over, all our tanks go through little problems as time goes by. Chemicaly you need to just bring your element levels to balance form thier do as I stated above. you can do this by sucessive water changes of balanced water (in your case that is what I would do).
On your algae problem, that is an easy one to. ALgae will not grow without food, find the food (nitrogen or phosphates) and you can work to eliminate it. Cyano is a big part of our tanks, it is in everything. A way to look at your problem is that, in the areas you are seeing it the enviromental conditions are skewed towards the kind of enviroment it likes, change that and it goes away.
On the seachem reef plus this is a trace element suppliment, that is also loaded with amino acids, so in reading the total elements in this additive I would call it more of a food then a element replenisher. mix that with all the polygluconate in the calcium additive and you are introducing alot of nutrients, this could be a large source of your problem.


MIke

MIke

 

[Curtswearing]

HeeHee

Actually I was wrong. I had never used that product but guessed it contained phosphates based on your description of what happened.

Gluconate = Glucose = Sugar = Food for cyano's to grow.

 

[Darrell]

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


Tank age -16months
Consistent and Balanced Ca and Alk? working on that and i think adding Kalk is my sulution
Low Phosphates non detected in testing and have added Phosphates sponge
Seeds for coralline to grow-there is a little Corline growning i could just pick up some that have it and scrape it off into the tank over the LR
should i pull the carbon pads out of my filter?
Darrell

 

[Darrell]

Oh and im useing ro/di water

 

[Darrell]

ok how to i set up a drip system of kalk?

 

[reedman]

To drip Kalk all you need is the following:

container with volume equal to or greater than your daily evaporation (I used a 1 gallon paint mixing bucket)

airline tubing

barbed fitting to connect tubing to container (and some silicone to connect fitting to container - about 1" above bottom to prevent solids from entering tank)

a valve of some sort to control drip rate (I use Aquatic Micro Ball Valves from Petwarehouse. They're only $7.50 for 6 of them., so when they clog you can either clean or toss.)

Connect it all up, place container above either sump or tank and run the tubing to a high flow area. Set your drip rate and walk away.

Works great.

-Reed

 

[Scooterman]

OR you can order the Kent aquadoser from Marine depot!

 

[reedman]

Oh sure Sccoterman....make it sound easy why don't you

 

[Scooterman]

:lol:

 

[Darrell]

well ill try some changing and see how that goes add the Kalk get some good tests and wait and watch
hey does anyone have any seeds they want to sell ? ill try to be at the meeting so you all can point and laugh at the rookie LOL
Darrell

 

[Curtswearing]

If you have any on a rock that is accessible, pick up that rock and scrape it off the rock. Don't try to scrape it off in one piece.....you want lots of little pieces to blow around the tank.

Alternatively, go to your LFS and buy a snail, hermit, or piece of LR that has coralline on it scrape that.

 

[mojoreef]

Darrel I got ya covered, I got sheets of it, just shoot me a pm the night before the meeting and I will donate some to your cause

MIke

 

[Darrell]

you got it, thanks Mike

 

[Nautilus]

One thing you never will see in a GARF tank.
FISH! Garf tanks only have corals in them.

The one thing I dislike about seachem is they make several products and make a reefer think they need them all. This leads to over dosing and tank crashes.

As someone above posted keep things simple.
Even Randy Holmes Farley suggests a 2 part supplement.
I use Waner Marine CalxMax 2 part cal & Alk additive, also use Kent powder turbo calcium if I need it but the jar just sits there most of the time collecting dust. 1 drop of iodine every so often.
And use Kent strontium powder when coraline algae looks like it is needing some boosting.

What seeds are you talking about? coraline?

 

[mojoreef]

yep corraline Nautilus. Randy does suggest the use of it, but if doing it in his manner he also suggests that every time you use it you empty out and ammount of water and replace it with sme RO/DI to compensate for the other stuff you are adding via the 2 part. To me that seems like a waste, but nothing says you cant do it that way.

Mike

 

[Nautilus]

Mojo,
Don't ever remember Randy saying anything like that, but he has so many articles it is possible.

Just saying that a 2 part Cal & Alk supplement is better then adding 6 different bottles (additives) from seachem, and alot cheaper to boot.

 

[mojoreef]

Don't ever remember Randy saying anything like that, but he has so many articles it is possible.

I here ya on the ammount of articles, lol here is a quote from here in regards to the two parters

If it is made perfectly (and I've not tested any to know whethr that is true or not), then all that you get besides the calcium and alkalinity is a small boost in total salinity. That boost is easily dealt 9by removing a bit of salt water and replacing it with fresh water

I here you on adding 6 different types of additives, it can get confusing and be quite a PITA. for me I go withe the kalk/calcium reator and just add the suppliments trace and mag every so often.


MIke

 

[Darrell]

well i think i need to really up grade some of my filtration and lighting and test equipent the Bio Wheel is probly the cause of my Cyno problem and the Prizm Skimmer i have read isnt all what the LFS told it was now keep in mind i dont have a sump or a stand w/doors to put one so i either need to upgrade to a new tank w/stand and hood (witch im looking) or upgrade Skimmer,filtration and lighting im up grading lighting because i want to keep SPS's i was looking into CPR Back Pack 2R and a Aquafuge and changing to 2 x250 Halgen and selling my twin 65 PC
what are your thoughts
Darrell

 

[Nautilus]

Mojo,
Never had a salinity issue at all.

Darrell,
Metal Halide lights are better.
Hang on skimmers don't thrill me to much.
Ever thing about a sump/refugium?

Dave