The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube

[Janci]

Reef looking great, even with the cheappy camera!

 

[CoralWealth]

Yes* <--- Asterisk.

* It's not a plug and play system, your tank will have to adjust to it. Your alk is going to be all over the place for like a week or two. And as you adjust dose the uptake will change. This happened to everyone I spoke to.

* It's a weaker mix for sure, but not a big deal. You'll probably have to dose somewhere around 2x the amount, not 4x.

* It's nice, no doubt. I like whats happening in my tank for the most part. Growth is solid, colors are improving, etc etc.

* I've used BRS, and ME Corals -- Greatly prefer ATI Essentials myself. ME Corals is extremely potent with crazy pH boost.

* I'm not 100% sold on the zero water changes thing though. I believe water changes are still a good thing in general.

So I am about to be out of BRS 2 part and I am just not that mucg of a fan of it so I want to try something different. So you really recommend ATI over BRS?

 

[Rakie]

So I am about to be out of BRS 2 part and I am just not that mucg of a fan of it so I want to try something different. So you really recommend ATI over BRS?

Yes -- so long as you pay heed to the warnings.

ATI is NOT a simple "plug and play" system. You will have to aggressively watch your parameters and adjust dosing as necessary. Alk will swing up and down and all over the place for about a week.

After that? Smooth sailing.

Although I may also admit, while I really like the 2 part and noticed quite a few little perks -- I'm not a fan of zero water changes. Not for nutrient reasons, I just notice everything loves a good water change.

 

[CoralWealth]

Yes -- so long as you pay heed to the warnings.

ATI is NOT a simple "plug and play" system. You will have to aggressively watch your parameters and adjust dosing as necessary. Alk will swing up and down and all over the place for about a week.

After that? Smooth sailing.

Although I may also admit, while I really like the 2 part and noticed quite a few little perks -- I'm not a fan of zero water changes. Not for nutrient reasons, I just notice everything loves a good water change.

Thank you and I will still do water changes probably once every two weeks or maybe still once a week. I used to hate them but the corals always love a water change, at least in my tank.

I will test alk at least twice a day then. Right before the lights go on, around lunch and then right after they go out at night and adjust accordingly.

 

[Rakie]

It's time for a photo dump. Not being a big fan of my junky FTS, i'll be throwing out some pics today, including a few top-down shots.

A Frag Rack

Little PC Rainbow

MDR Yellow Microlodos imposter

Red Planet (I've nicknamed it Count Popula, because it always looks good)

Some type of orangy, peachy, thing

Beach Bump and Pink Diamonds pallin' around

ASD Rainbow doing ASD things

JF Fox Flame

RR Diablo

Peaches n' Green

Spots -- He jumped out right in front of the camera today

 

[CoralWealth]

nice man!

How many ml a day are you dosing of ATI by the way?

 

[Rakie]

nice man!

How many ml a day are you dosing of ATI by the way?

Right now I'm at 45ml -- I was at 55ml previously, but took out some bryopsis and the meds angered the corals.. Because of that, alk intake slowed dramatically and alk went from my average of 8 dKH to 10 dKh. So I took it down to 30ml to let it lower and let things rebound.

I got hit with something the IT department calls an I.D. Ten T error, (ID10T error) -- And never calibrated my Refractometer... Salinity slipped to 1.020. After fixing that, then I fixed the bryopsis. So things have been less stable than typically the last month or two..

Before my ID10T error, I was running 60ml -- A lil bit of a story, @codydemmel4 -- But hopefully it'll help explain why my alk has been all over the place, and where it's at now. I don't want you to think ATI is crazy unstable. It's rock solid after the tank gets used to it.

 

[CoralWealth]

Right now I'm at 45ml -- I was at 55ml previously, but took out some bryopsis and the meds angered the corals.. Because of that, alk intake slowed dramatically and alk went from my average of 8 dKH to 10 dKh. So I took it down to 30ml to let it lower and let things rebound.

I got hit with something the IT department calls an I.D. Ten T error, (ID10T error) -- And never calibrated my Refractometer... Salinity slipped to 1.020. After fixing that, then I fixed the bryopsis. So things have been less stable than typically the last month or two..

Before my ID10T error, I was running 60ml -- A lil bit of a story, @codydemmel4 -- But hopefully it'll help explain why my alk has been all over the place, and where it's at now. I don't want you to think ATI is crazy unstable. It's rock solid after the tank gets used to it.

No makes sense, I am just trying to figure out if it is worth it for me to get or not. I am at 100ml of BRS 2 part (each) so I am worried that I will be a lot higher with the ATI Essentials and it may be pretty expensive. If I stayed around 100-150, it wouldnt be that bad for a couple months before I get a CaRx

 

[Rakie]

honestly i'd probably be using a calcium reactor too if it weren't for a couple things.. Beyond not having space for the steel tank, my family is pretty weird about it, and would assume it's going to cost a million in electricity, or that it's going to explode or start a fire.. I can't explain or defend their reasoning, but I assure you it's not quite worth the hassle at the time

 

[Rakie]

Tonight was a great night. Talked about fishy stuff, hung out with reefy people, went home with reefy stuff. @mdbannister was there too!

And of course a huge thank you to 5.56 -- He hooked me up with a stellar pump tonight. So here's the loot:

 

[Rakie]

So, follow up to the thing I won: I need to build a floating canopy

That light tree looks horrific without the ATI fixture

Also, forgot it doesn't come with a hanging kit... So, we went a little ghetto

 

[Rakie]

Small update. I did some stuff !

Mounted this stuff on the wall -- Finally.

Radion FTS

Radion Beach Bum

 

[GoVols]

Rakie,
Your reef is doing awesome.
Can you keep us updated with the Radion fixture?

Thanks, Freddie

 

[drawman]

Also are you still using the Vertex 130 and did you add an air valve? I've always found mine are a lot easier to keep dialed with an air valve.

 

[truepercs]

Rakie,

Found your thread when searching ATI essentials, read quite a few pages still have a few more to catch up. I have watched Mdbannister's thread since we started builds around same time and have same type of tank. As i am reading your thread I can only chuckle as it seems that we all experience the same waves of issues.
My livestock choices have been more economical, however I think I may begin buying a few nicer sticks now that I believe my aquarium is a bit more stable. Over the year i have lost about 6-8 frags during my learning curve so i am happy that most were only about 15.00 frags.
Over the weekend i made the transition to ATI essentials although most of my corals are considered "easy to grow" I was concerned about the switch as I did not want to lose corals that now have a years worth of growth. Fortunately all went well... I expected the worse... I was at about 20ml per day with 2 part. I know it is diluted more than the two part so I double my dosage as a start, and set doser to dose every hour. Checked after 2 hours, after each check I doubled the amount of hours before checking again. My initial 40 ml dose turned out to be right on target! During the transition my ALK did not fluctuate more that .25 on the Sailfert tests. I am so happy that I got throughome without an issue.

So for my second year I will be dosing ATI, I am excited and hope to see positive results. I will need to relocate some of these faster growing corals in order to put some nicer acros in the mix. I already had to move coral around due to stinging.

Your aquarium is looking nice keep up the good work! I am looking forward to reading more of your updates.

 

[Rakie]

Watching the Alk swing with the new lights!

- Radions day 2: Alk 8.6 (from 8.4) -- Lowered dose by 10ml
- Radions day 3: Alk 8.8 (from 8.6) -- Lowered dose by 10ml
- Radions day 4: Alk 8.8 (from 8.8) -- Dose steady, probably will lower tomorrow a few more ml.

Surprisingly (or not...) after raising my SG to proper levels I had some coral fatality.. So Alk consumption went down. I went from dosing 65ml down to dosing 45ml, and am currently dosing 25ml as the tank adjusts to the new lights. Fun times.

 

[Rakie]

Rakie,
Your reef is doing awesome.
Can you keep us updated with the Radion fixture?

Thanks, Freddie

Thanks Freddie, and thanks for earlier. I need to remember text doesn't translate particularly well to my real-life style of talking. I've found people seem to understand things best when they're left to connect the dots themselves, and in text format something is lost in translation. Oops! I'm a good example of how one should not write in a public forum

Also are you still using the Vertex 130 and did you add an air valve? I've always found mine are a lot easier to keep dialed with an air valve.

I sold mine off. Now, when it worked, it was amazing. But when it didn't, it would randomly overflow. I have no clue why this would happen, but one night when my bedroom floor was wet and my Vertex had transformed into a geyser for the 4th or 5th time I decided it was time to go.

Again, when it worked, it worked...

But now, I'm using a "Your Choice Aquatics" DC13, which is a Seaside Aquatics 'off brand'. It's cheap in every way imaginable, both good and bad. BUT, it works like a champ. I can make anything from light green tea to pudding with this thing.

 

[Rakie]

Rakie,

Found your thread when searching ATI essentials, read quite a few pages still have a few more to catch up. I have watched Mdbannister's thread since we started builds around same time and have same type of tank. As i am reading your thread I can only chuckle as it seems that we all experience the same waves of issues.

My livestock choices have been more economical, however I think I may begin buying a few nicer sticks now that I believe my aquarium is a bit more stable. Over the year i have lost about 6-8 frags during my learning curve so i am happy that most were only about 15.00 frags.
Over the weekend i made the transition to ATI essentials although most of my corals are considered "easy to grow" I was concerned about the switch as I did not want to lose corals that now have a years worth of growth. Fortunately all went well... I expected the worse... I was at about 20ml per day with 2 part. I know it is diluted more than the two part so I double my dosage as a start, and set doser to dose every hour. Checked after 2 hours, after each check I doubled the amount of hours before checking again. My initial 40 ml dose turned out to be right on target! During the transition my ALK did not fluctuate more that .25 on the Sailfert tests. I am so happy that I got throughome without an issue.

So for my second year I will be dosing ATI, I am excited and hope to see positive results. I will need to relocate some of these faster growing corals in order to put some nicer acros in the mix. I already had to move coral around due to stinging.

Your aquarium is looking nice keep up the good work! I am looking forward to reading more of your updates.

Thanks! You are one of the few who didn't have transition problems going to ATI. Even a vendor here whom I've spoken with was so concerned his entire system (and valuable livestock) was going to crash he stopped using it. So you're one of the lucky ones. But as long as you're on top of things you don't have much to worry about.

As for our water issues... There's been some strange things happening in Southern California. Many, many people have had rash outbreaks of Dinos the last few years. Including a few of the large vendors, one of which almost lost half of their inventory. So there's some stuff going on... Many of us down here are running into Bryopsis, and Dinos.

And yeah. I hadn't ever lost a coral due to my own mistakes until after my two year mark. I was proud of not losing anything, and surprisingly, what did it was Salinity... I hadn't calibrated my Refractometer in forever, it's SG slipped by 0.006, which means my water was at 1.020 -- Very low. Eveything managed it well, but bringing my SG back to 1.026 (up by 0.006) cause me to lose about 10-12 corals. I raised the SG nice and slow, but not slow enough it seems.. Ah well. It was inevitable, I'm glad I made it two years without being a doofus at least.

 

[drawman]

Thanks Freddie, and thanks for earlier. I need to remember text doesn't translate particularly well to my real-life style of talking. I've found people seem to understand things best when they're left to connect the dots themselves, and in text format something is lost in translation. Oops! I'm a good example of how one should not write in a public forum



I sold mine off. Now, when it worked, it was amazing. But when it didn't, it would randomly overflow. I have no clue why this would happen, but one night when my bedroom floor was wet and my Vertex had transformed into a geyser for the 4th or 5th time I decided it was time to go.

Again, when it worked, it worked...

But now, I'm using a "Your Choice Aquatics" DC13, which is a Seaside Aquatics 'off brand'. It's cheap in every way imaginable, both good and bad. BUT, it works like a champ. I can make anything from light green tea to pudding with this thing.

Yeah I found mine needed the air valve. With it it performed like a champ without it there would be a lot of fluctuation. Glad to hear the new one is working well!

 

[truepercs]

[QUOTE=".And yeah. I hadn't ever lost a coral due to my own mistakes until after my two year mark. I was proud of not losing anything, and surprisingly, what did it was Salinity... I hadn't calibrated my Refractometer in forever, it's SG slipped by 0.006, which means my water was at 1.020 -- Very low. Eveything managed it well, but bringing my SG back to 1.026 (up by 0.006) cause me to lose about 10-12 corals. I raised the SG nice and slow, but not slow enough it seems.. Ah well. It was inevitable, I'm glad I made it two years without being a doofus at least.[/QUOTE]

Ha I experienced this too! Very early after getting an Apex, the reading was showing high salinity I kept adding top off water,more and more things just did not seem right. Hopped online and learned about possible air bubbles in probe. Shook the probe a bit checked the reading it was now low, verified with refractometer... holly crap. Next few days I had to slowly bring up the salinity.