Veng Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 That's just crazy talk Ok you're right. I'm not upgrading yet! Link to comment
jbb Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Ok you're right. I'm upgrading ! Link to comment
Veng Posted February 7, 2015 Author Share Posted February 7, 2015 So what salt should I switch to? I'm tired of RCP and it causing swings on me when I do water changes. Looking for something decent around 8-9dKH. Any suggestions? Link to comment
markalot Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 So what salt should I switch to? I'm tired of RCP and it causing swings on me when I do water changes. Looking for something decent around 8-9dKH. Any suggestions? I had to like the post with the snail spraying water. Sorry. First off you should upgrade to a 40 breeder. Ok? Second, good question. I have liked Kent Reef Salt, Seachem Reef Salt (but don't mix over 1.026 by accident or it's a precipitate mess), and D-D H2Ocean. My favorite is Red Sea Blue Bucket and I'm scheming to switching back to it, though I'll have to spend mucho $$$ buying the smaller buckets. I will probably blend 50/50 RSBB + RC and hope Alk comes out around 10. Link to comment
Veng Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 I had to like the post with the snail spraying water. Sorry. No worries First off you should upgrade to a 40 breeder. Ok?If I ever cash out the kids college funds and upgrade, I'm going to blow past the 40B, probably end up in something like a 105 rimless or maybe even a true custom near 200G. Second, good question. I have liked Kent Reef Salt, Seachem Reef Salt (but don't mix over 1.026 by accident or it's a precipitate mess), and D-D H2Ocean. My favorite is Red Sea Blue Bucket and I'm scheming to switching back to it, though I'll have to spend mucho $$$ buying the smaller buckets. I will probably blend 50/50 RSBB + RC and hope Alk comes out around 10.Thanks for the ideas. Bucket size doesn't really bother me, so I might give RSBB a shot. Link to comment
tailes Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Hmmmmm Cruise vacation or upgrade the tank? Choices, choices... Link to comment
metrokat Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You'll need the Vacay after the upgrade. So what salt should I switch to? I'm tired of RCP and it causing swings on me when I do water changes. Looking for something decent around 8-9dKH. Any suggestions? Yup, that is what RSCP does. I tried Reef Crystals for a whole year - can't say anything bad about it. I'm on my second bucket of Brightwell NeoMarine (and 2 more new buckets in my closet already) so I'm liking this new salt obviously. You have to mix it for 24 hrs though. Link to comment
Veng Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Vacay would be much cheaper than an upgrade! I'm not patient enough to let it mix for 24 hours, so may try reef crystals again. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Congrats on the new arrival Veng and Tailes . Link to comment
afyounie Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 You'll need the Vacay after the upgrade. Yup, that is what RSCP does. I tried Reef Crystals for a whole year - can't say anything bad about it. I'm on my second bucket of Brightwell NeoMarine (and 2 more new buckets in my closet already) so I'm liking this new salt obviously. You have to mix it for 24 hrs though. I'm the opposite. I have been using Brightwell's NeoMarine for about 8 months now and I'm tired of it. I kept getting drops in my parameters when using it. RSCP allows me to keep my parameters really stable. I keep my tank at 8.4dkh/430ppm Ca. With Brightwells, it kept dropping to 7.8dkh. At this level, my corals were always upset. Maybe once my tank has very low nutrient levels I'll switch back to Brightwells because it was much better at mixing at NSW levels. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 So I did a water change yesterday, first time in about 2 months. Tank's surviving despite my neglect! Trying to make changes so it'll be easier for me to do a 5-6 gallon water change every 3-4 weeks. that is quite the awesome view! Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I'm the opposite. I have been using Brightwell's NeoMarine for about 8 months now and I'm tired of it. I kept getting drops in my parameters when using it. RSCP allows me to keep my parameters really stable. I keep my tank at 8.4dkh/430ppm Ca. With Brightwells, it kept dropping to 7.8dkh. At this level, my corals were always upset. Maybe once my tank has very low nutrient levels I'll switch back to Brightwells because it was much better at mixing at NSW levels. AFyounie - can you elaborate more? Why are you getting drops in parameters? RSCP is supposed to mix at ~12.3 - much higher than 8.4. While BW is supposed to mix at ~7.5 I'd say your drop in alkalinity was much more substantial with RSCP. But test kits aside, your visual observations are interesting - why are the corals upset? Which corals? I'm also very curious about why BW would work with low nutrient levels but not with high, and how high are we talking? Thanks Link to comment
afyounie Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 AFyounie - can you elaborate more? Why are you getting drops in parameters? RSCP is supposed to mix at ~12.3 - much higher than 8.4. While BW is supposed to mix at ~7.5 I'd say your drop in alkalinity was much more substantial with RSCP. But test kits aside, your visual observations are interesting - why are the corals upset? Which corals? I'm also very curious about why BW would work with low nutrient levels but not with high, and how high are we talking? Thanks I haven't tested my batch of RSCP yet, maybe I'll do that soon. It could be that I only do 5 gal WCs twice a week, 3 to 4 days apart. I prefer the multiple smaller WCs. But what I observed in the past months when using BWs is that when my NO3 was below 5ppm, I had great growth and the corals would open up a bit more. After my mini crash/bacterial bloom when I went on vacation during Xmas, the NO3 rose to about 20ppm and I got it back down to 10ppm about a week afterwards. PO4 has always been low or at least lower than API can test. Since then the corals I'll list below haven't done well until I switched to RSCP. BW with low NO3 BW with high NO3 RSCP with high NO3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chalice like coral Puffy/fast growth Retracted/receding Puffy/growing again Green monti plating PE/fast growth No PE/slow bleaching Coloring back up Purple encrusting monti Slow growth/ok color Dying Great color/fast growth Purple Gorg Open sometimes Never open Very open Red finger gorg Open most of time Never open Open occasionally Zoas Open occasionally Open infrequently Open mostly Ricordia (FL) Big and puffy Shrunken most time Big and puffy Shrooms Open/quick multi slow multi/small These are corals I added after the crash, before I switched to RSCP. Parameters were stable aka alk moved 7.8-8.1: Monti Setosa Slow bleach/sensitive Color returning/PE Green Acro Some PE/sensitive/brown/STN PE/coloring slowly/no STN Rainbow Acro Some growth then random RTN Random Acro Slow bleach then color/growth then random RTN That's all I can remember for now. Since switching to RSCP, the corals are not as sensitive to small fluctuations during the day. I have to manually dose because I haven't setup my peristaltic pumps to be controlled by my arduino. I blame myself for the corals not doing well, not so much the salt. If I provided far more stable conditions, the BW salt would be fine. When I say my parameters aren't stable though, I don't mean huge fluctuations. As I stated before, alk varied between 7.8-8.1 dkh. Very seldom down to 7.6. I was testing about twice a day for about 3 wks trying to get dosing in order and ensuring I have stable parameters. Based on my observations of my own tank, other "high" nutrient tanks, and the ULNS tanks I've recently been looking at, with higher nutrient levels, higher alk and calc levels are needed while at lower nutrient levels, closer to NSW levels are needed. So I'm trying an experiment using Kent marine zeolites along with vinegar dosing and adding MB7 to see if I can create a similar zeovit style tank, but in a cheap way. Edit: I wish I had done better recording of my tank. I only keep a log of water tests, but I wish I had a log of how the corals looked at different times. Maybe I'll start photographing a few different specimens as a way to keep track of changes. Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I appreciate the detailed reply, you've given me a lot of food for thought and more questions to ask. I'll circle back with you in a bit. Thanks again. Link to comment
afyounie Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I appreciate the detailed reply, you've given me a lot of food for thought and more questions to ask. I'll circle back with you in a bit. Thanks again. No problem. Always willing to help. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I used RSCP for around 2 years, worked great when I was doing frequent water changes and before my tank started sucking Alk and Cal. I made the switch to Blue Bucket late last year as it is easier to maintain stable levels and I have seen an improvement in coral health from reducing Alk from 12dKH to 8-8.5dKH. I have made the change over the last 3 months going slowly. I can't comment on SPS happiness though as they all died due to swings I was having between 12dKH and 10dKH. Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Hey, I need new pictures. Of everything. Naoplzkthxbai. Link to comment
markalot Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Trying to kill the competition already. That didn't take long. Link to comment
metrokat Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Mama, does the diaper go on his face? Link to comment
eitallent Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 This thread is killing me with CUTE!!! Link to comment
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