Acro help!

[greg0385]

Man. In hate mysteries like this. Wish I could offer advice on it but I'd say skip a month of water changes and see what happens. What have you got to lose?

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100's of $ of coral but i am already doing this no W/C as i trying selling what that does.

I think once i get my list of improvements done over next couple of months with first on my list to do is get rock solid params then do the rest.

While im thinking about it, since i run biopellets and pretty low nutrient system, what is everybody's suggestion for alk/cal/mag levels?
I was first leaning towards upper 7s(7.8), but now im leaning more toward mid 8(8.4).

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[pickupman66]

mine is right around 8dkh. that makes it much more of a mystery that you have not done the water change. my nitrates run in the 25 range and phosphate between .04 and .08. ph is 8.0-8.1. My cal was high last time i checked. not sure why that happened.

 

[greg0385]

I havent tested nitrates in months, i only have a api nitrate test and dont trust it.
Do you reccomend a reliable nitrate test kit?

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[greg0385]

I should add that this is the longest i havent done a w/c and its been around 5wks since my last one.

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[cee]

Skimming through this I would say your light levels are a bit low and flow is lacking. Also, with such infrequent water changes the trace elements we don't test for could be getting rapidly depleted (strontium and potassium come to mind first). Some acros grow slowly when starting out from frags as well. Heavy skimming is also advised but you didn't say anything about your skimmer.

Dave

 

[greg0385]

My skimmer is a beast!
SWC 300 with a modded eheim 1262 and a psk 2500.
-Trace elements should be fine as i have always did routine water changes up until 5wks ago.
-When you say my light levels are low, do you mean my par readings are low? Because i felt 350-400par was plenty but i can bump it up a tad more if most people feel its too low.
- i do feel like i need more flow, just have to wait for my wp40 to show up from the mtrc group buy.

-I do not run carbon or gfo, i think i left that out of my orginal post.

Thanks for suggestions
Keep them coming!

Greg


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[greg0385]

Bump! Give me your opinions/suggestion!

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[Dowtish]

I think you need to find out your PAR levels correctly, obviously. And you definitely need to try some kalk. I'm telling you, both Kevan and I's growth shot through the roof once we added the kalk to our ATO tanks. And I was already dosing 2 part for months when I started using kalk, I couldnt believe the difference.

But I will say also, which has already been said, you started with all very small frags, which can take a while to get going, but once they do, they will really kick into high gear. Another thing, I guarantee you, If I came out there I would see a lot more growth from the last time I saw it. You look at your tank everyday and just dont see it.

 

[greg0385]

I think you need to find out your PAR levels correctly, obviously. And you definitely need to try some kalk. I'm telling you, both Kevan and I's growth shot through the roof once we added the kalk to our ATO tanks. And I was already dosing 2 part for months when I started using kalk, I couldnt believe the difference.

But I will say also, which has already been said, you started with all very small frags, which can take a while to get going, but once they do, they will really kick into high gear. Another thing, I guarantee you, If I came out there I would see a lot more growth from the last time I saw it. You look at your tank everyday and just dont see it.

-I will get back in line for the par meter.
-I was using KALK(mrs wages) 1/4 tsp/gallon and was wanting to use my dosing pump to try and make things even more steadier. So i went to 2part.
-i agree that there has been some growth on certain acros, but its far from what i think it should be and feel it will get better when my params dont move for day to day, week to week and hopefully month to month

Thanks Chris
Greg



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[Dowtish]

I will also say that as soon as your second wp40 shows up your acros will appreciate that as well. Flow is important for growth as well.

 

[greg0385]

I will also say that as soon as your second wp40 shows up your acros will appreciate that as well. Flow is important for growth as well.

In your opinion, do you think i should stop dosing 2part and go back to Kalk?

I do believe that onces i get the items below i may start to see a jump in growth
-new ATI bulbs next month
-new rodi filters(says 0tds but they are 1yr old) next month
-wp40(a few weeks)
-super steady params(couple of weeks)

Also in your opinion, is 8.4dkh too high when running biopellets?

Thanks


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[bknapp]

Also in your opinion, is 8.4dkh too high when running biopellets?

In my opinion that's a great alkalinity number with the use of pellets, wouldn't go much higher.

 

[greg0385]

In my opinion that's a great alkalinity number with the use of pellets, wouldn't go much higher.

Awesome, when it was around 8.4 is when i had my highest PH of 8.30 and nothing else had been had changed in my tank so i dont know if it was the corals were liking(growing at) that level or what.
Still havent figured out PH meaning yet even though Daniel has explained to me a few times. But my ph was always at 8.18 when my alk was 7.8-8.0dkh before. now i keep the alk at 8.4dkh and its reading a little higher(8.30).
So i guess thats a good thing?



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[Dowtish]

In your opinion, do you think i should stop dosing 2part and go back to Kalk?

I do believe that onces i get the items below i may start to see a jump in growth
-new ATI bulbs next month
-new rodi filters(says 0tds but they are 1yr old) next month
-wp40(a few weeks)
-super steady params(couple of weeks)

Also in your opinion, is 8.4dkh too high when running biopellets?

Thanks


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If you can keep your alk at 8.0-8.4 you are golden.

I would think that the kalk would be able to handle your demand at this point. How many ml are you dosing of 2 part of each per day?

 

[greg0385]

Kalk
1/4tsp of kalk(mrs wages)

Brs 2part
10ml/day was too much
1ml/day and i used my last 2 test and they were reading high(lots of floating debris) so i dropped down to .05ml/day until my new reagent shows up today to be on the safe side.

Honestly i say between 1ml-3ml/day once i get these new reagent in and test for a few days.

My alk demand is only .03-.04dkh a day for some odd reason but i suspect once things take off that # will go way up too.


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[Dowtish]

I say stop using the 2 part for now, as you really dont need it yet. I would just use kalk and try to figure a way to drip it slowly at night, instead of using it in your ATO. That way you can trully dial in what you need and not over do it and cause swings.