R_P's 120 build!
- Thread starter Cake_Boss
- Start date
I started using Warner Marine Ecobak(seems to be the best brand of pellets) in October last year. I ramped up to 1000 mil in a DIY reactor for my 210g and I have a pretty good skimmer a Super Reef Octopuss 3000.
Like almost everybody else I went from having a little bit of hair algae(the reason I started using it) to full on cyano. After doing some reading online I started dosing Microbacter 7 with it as some people seem to have luck with it. My cyano started going away but then I started to develop something similar to dinoflagellates and that's not something I want to mess with.
I took my ecobak reactor offline, stopped water changes, upped my pH with kalk and dosed some hydrogen peroxide. Now it might not be dinoflagellates but some kind of algae starting with an L(sorry it's late) that you get with biopellets.
Cut a long story short, I regret wasting money on biopellets. Once I get my algae under control and start feeding more again I'm going to vinegar dose.
Like almost everybody else I went from having a little bit of hair algae(the reason I started using it) to full on cyano. After doing some reading online I started dosing Microbacter 7 with it as some people seem to have luck with it. My cyano started going away but then I started to develop something similar to dinoflagellates and that's not something I want to mess with.
I took my ecobak reactor offline, stopped water changes, upped my pH with kalk and dosed some hydrogen peroxide. Now it might not be dinoflagellates but some kind of algae starting with an L(sorry it's late) that you get with biopellets.
Cut a long story short, I regret wasting money on biopellets. Once I get my algae under control and start feeding more again I'm going to vinegar dose.
Vinegar dosing is the exact same thing as vodka dosing. Less likely to cause cyano like vodka dosing in some tanks. Randy Holmes Farley is a big on dosing vinegar and has written quite a few posts on RC about it. He recommends that you take your vodka dose and x8 to get your vinegar dose. Dosing white distilled vinegar is also much cheaper than dosing vodka.
Then there are people who dose VSV, a mixture of Vodka, Sugar and Vinegar. It's like some carbons work better in some tanks than others. Some reefers have success with just sugar dosing and for others it causes problems. Here's a good primer on vodka dosing by Genetics. If you want to vinegar dose you follow the dosing instructions for 80 proof vodka just timed 8 for vinegar, must be plain white vinegar.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php
If you do a search on RC there are a lot of threads about vinegar dosing in the Chemistry forum. Here's a good one.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1981622&highlight=vinegar
If you want to try dosing solid carbon like Ecobak, I still have mine, well the leftovers. I rinsed them pretty good and dried them so they should be ok. I also made my own reactor from stuff I bought at Fort Collins Plastics for about $15.
Then there are people who dose VSV, a mixture of Vodka, Sugar and Vinegar. It's like some carbons work better in some tanks than others. Some reefers have success with just sugar dosing and for others it causes problems. Here's a good primer on vodka dosing by Genetics. If you want to vinegar dose you follow the dosing instructions for 80 proof vodka just timed 8 for vinegar, must be plain white vinegar.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php
If you do a search on RC there are a lot of threads about vinegar dosing in the Chemistry forum. Here's a good one.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1981622&highlight=vinegar
If you want to try dosing solid carbon like Ecobak, I still have mine, well the leftovers. I rinsed them pretty good and dried them so they should be ok. I also made my own reactor from stuff I bought at Fort Collins Plastics for about $15.
Thanks. I was planning on converting my old skimmer into a reactor, but don't know now. I have some dosing pumps also that everyone wants...but no one will answer my pm's. Maybe I could use those guys to dose some vinegar. I know Lance uses the VSV, but I wrote down all the info on my old phone :wall:
I'm curious why you want to carbon dose? From your recent pics your tank looks really healthy. From my research, plainly put, carbon dosing will strip your tank of nutrients and consume them faster then anything else in your system, this includes corals. Corals need nutrients as well and without them they will fade and die. I can see carbon dosing if your system was sps dominated but its not, I think your asking for trouble man to be honest. If you do decide to carbon dose you better be prepared to supplement at least amino acids and start overfeeding. Feeding every 2 days will not cut it in a carbon dosed system. For a lot of people the whole point in carbon dosing is so you can overfeed. Granted I have never carbon dosed but I have done a lot of research on it and it was almost the direction I was going to go with my recent build but decided against it. You better be on top of your game with carbon dosing though and do some serious research before doing so because you are keeping your corals on the brink of death by doing so. Just my opinion man, good luck and if it aint broke dont fix it!!
This is why I'm researching, I want to add 4-5 anthias and a tomini. IMO, this will cause my system to be overstocked with fish. My skimmer isn't great, research says because I'm understocked and the skimmer is oversized. I'm really fond of fish so those aren't going anywhere. I've started my SPS collection, but they're all frags right now. As they grow out I'd like to take them off of the table I drilled and position them for a more permanent location. My system does a pretty good job of being stable after I added the phosban, thanks BTW. I really can't say with great accuracy that my po4 and no3 are high or low, still waiting on hanna checkers. From the API tests, they are between 0 and the first level. I had hair algae, but a h2o2 dip took care of it. I'm starting to get bubble algae behind my frag magnet though, not sure where this is coming from but I figure my system has excess no3 and po4. I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger on anything except that sweet SWC 200, again with the oversized skimmer. Bio-pellets need extreme caution from what I've read and what Will said. I'd really like to get one of the lab grade pipettes if I decide to dose anything though, but with the dosing pumps maybe I'm just throwing $$ away. I'd like to add one of the eheim autofeeders when I get the anthias to feed pellets, I'm concerned with the added amount of po4 when I do that.
For me I started dosing carbon because my Marco rock just leached phosphate. I hate using phosban and it also gets expensive when you have a big tank. Thirdly I feed my fish a lot. I have anthias that need to be fed and they are quite picky with what they will eat, only shrimp and scallops. I have to feed a lot to make sure they get some because my other fish are pigs.
Rocky I wouldn't dose carbon with dosing pumps. When I dosed vinegar(will start doing it again after I get rid of my last bit of whatever I have right now) I suck it up with a big syringe and squirt it into my overflows when I feed. Keep your dosing pumps for your 2 part.
Rocky I wouldn't dose carbon with dosing pumps. When I dosed vinegar(will start doing it again after I get rid of my last bit of whatever I have right now) I suck it up with a big syringe and squirt it into my overflows when I feed. Keep your dosing pumps for your 2 part.
That makes sense. I like fish also. I am at 14 fish now and still want more but I just know that I am overstocking 
I think the thing you have to be more concerned with then nutrients with overstocking fish is tension (not sure thats the right word but im using it!). The more fish you add to a system the more aggressive they get and the more uncomfortable they get. Carbon should take care of pretty much any bioload but it cant fix mad fish. For me I know I am at my limit, not bioload but comfort level for the fish. Just by adding the tang over the weekend I see a couple more of my fish becoming more aggressive and territorial.
I think the thing you have to be more concerned with then nutrients with overstocking fish is tension (not sure thats the right word but im using it!). The more fish you add to a system the more aggressive they get and the more uncomfortable they get. Carbon should take care of pretty much any bioload but it cant fix mad fish. For me I know I am at my limit, not bioload but comfort level for the fish. Just by adding the tang over the weekend I see a couple more of my fish becoming more aggressive and territorial.
You should be fine without carbon dosing IMO. Your running a fuge right? And GFO? Any other means of nutrient export? If it where me I would start feeding once a day to get your system accustomed to the higher load. I added 3 large anthias at the same time and my system adjusted just fine, I would think you would be ok with 4-5 as long as you start adjusting your feeding schedule before hand.
Stopped using skimmer. Feeding once per day now. Target fed the nems, the rainbow is looking more colorful now. Some shrimp was left over from feeding, I saw the velid-something snail leftovers the other guy had, now thinking it's part of decaying food. I really want to use my ca reactor, but I can't monitor for a few days, so I think I'll wait until I come back. I don't want a crazy over flow to wipe the tank. Changed the T-12 light to the par38, mixed feelings. Nice to have a better light, but the spread sucks. Aren't T-12 lights, VHO?
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The par38 fell into the fuge. Did a 30g w/c yesterday, another one today. Casualties so far: seasons greetings, superman monti, purple haze monti, golden orchid, rouge millie, broncos acro, madonna acro, flower pot acro, fiji echinata, ice/fire echinata, rainbow millie, xtreme fire/ice, big o acro, joker acro, ps acro, rainbow sherbert acro, pink lemonade, appleberry monti, jedi mind trick monti, pavona, turquoise millie, fungia, 2 clams, cucumber, 2 cleaner shrimp, tons of CUC. That's just confirmed, all my z's and p's are closed up and chalices receding. On the bright side most of the LPS is coming back...and the fish are ok.
This is what I've decided, whatever corals make, it I keep. I'm not worried about replacing the loses. No more coral purchases for me.
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This is what I've decided, whatever corals make, it I keep. I'm not worried about replacing the loses. No more coral purchases for me.
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