franklypre Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Ive been reading about the Blue Coral Method the last few days and was curious as to who if anyone uses it, I will be trying as best I can. The feeding is just the start, you are also supposed to keep KH up around 11 or 12(I'm at about 10) and calcium at 500(which I have already achieved), you are also supposed to have ALOT of light I will be running my 400w halide over my 58 show. I feed nightly amino acids and heavy feedings of Cyclopeeze, Oyster Eggs, and whatever else I come across. The parameters seem to stay consistent though the ph stays around 8.1 and 8.0 at night. For those of you that don't know what the Blu Coral Method is pappone or Blu Coral Method Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 Just from using the amino acid I can can see an improvement in feeding response, I will try to get some pics of my montipora peltiformis that will answer anybody's question as to whether or not SPS eat. I also notice my caps are starting to feed more the acros seem to "swell" a little and of course all LPS love it. Is anyone using this already? Link to comment
cptbjorn Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 That was tl;dr but I skimmed and saw somatropin/human growth hormone? Added to the food of invertebrates? Link to comment
mmelnick Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 So you're feeding your coral HGH? Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 HGH isnt cheap enough for my budget, and If I did buy some I wouldn't put it in my aquarium, amino acid is what the coral would get out of the HGH, being that that is alot of what the growth hormone is. I use AA(amino acids by Seachem) about an hour or two before my lights go out, it says to do it when your lights go off and then feed an hour later, I feed about 15 minutes after lights out. If I can get this photobucket account working I will post pics. Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 Since the link is so long I will simplify the method and give a copy of the food. Please know this is by no means my recipe or method, I am just about to have my water parameters correct and as soon as my bulb gets here my lights will be ready. The idea of this is based on the thought that in the wild corals have a constant supply of food,true, they also have perfect water quality. Both of these seem hard to attain in a small glass box, however It seem to work pretty well as long,like everything good, you take your time. My nitrates did go up for a little while, I grew a littl cyano, but after about 2 months everything tests good. Moderation is the key. Tank measurements: Calcium: 500+mg/L Alk: 11-12 dkH Mag: 1500 mg/L Strontium:16-30 mg/L and nutrients near 0 (lol) The idea is to have a "reserve" of element The food recipe is: 5 mussels 5 clams 5 lg shrimp 5 oysters 250 ml ro/di water 1tblsp sugar ( this changes in different recipes) Blend it 5 minutes on and let it sit for a minute blend five more, let it sit, blend 5 more and put into food cubes to freeze The HGH seems to get way more attention than the fact this is a natural recipe for a coral food Let me know who's gonna try it, and if anyone has. Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 from what i read, the understanding i gathered was that you are feeding all of your inverts.. with them healthy they will begin to breed. the larva are what feed your coral.. but i have witnessed a few of my sps picking around at something during feeding time using marine cuisine. a while back i also disided to try dosing the system with live brine to try and get some sorta colonization.. i saw few bbs land on polyps of acros and they would draw them in. when the polyp came back out, no bbs.. Link to comment
SpankythePyro Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 hmm well considering my tank was started with dry rock it looks like the only larve that mine will live off is copepod and amphipod larvae Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 hmm well considering my tank was started with dry rock it looks like the only larve that mine will live off is copepod and amphipod larvae not really.... did you seed it or bring in any coral on rock?? man ive noticed wierd things my tank that i havent seen before.. like the other day i spotted what looked like itty bitty (i do mean little too) flies swarming some detritis. never seen this before and no one else can explain it either... and they are to small to take a pic of. but i can see them, under a rock ledge in 2 different places of the tank... pretty friggen cool.. someimes stuff just pops up.. Link to comment
SpankythePyro Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 lol nope just dry marcorock and some mb7, a bit of chateo and a few frags oh and fish poop Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 lol nope just dry marcorock and some mb7, a bit of chateo and a few frags oh and fish poop you have any coraline??? how old is your tank??? you should atleast be able to see some sponges or something.. Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 Do you have any coral or inverts at all, this is not a fish food. It will do little to feed your fish, though I guess if you grew enough "bugs" it would might help supplement them. Anyway unless you only have dead rock and pods, assuming you do have coral to feed the rocks the coral is on will bring life into an aquarium. I recently bought the coral out of a friends 100 gallon, he started the whole tank with texas holey rock. I have found 4 different kinds of aptasia, several different worms, dusters galore,many stometella, and a 1inch pistol shrimp. No telling what was in the sand and rock, I like the idea of knowing what is in my tank and getting rid of the rest. However a tank that doesn't have all the little bits of unique life is really no different than a freshwater setup, IMO. I do have 2 freshwater tanks just so I don't seem harsh. Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 this is very interesting to me as a coral lover... the only problem that i can see with this in a nano system is the available nutrient for algae blooms... with this being said, i have tried several different things in my tank from feeding constantly to not feeding at all, and now i just feed my fish..i also just started dosing coral amino... i dont use a skimmer. i dont believe that they are a "have to have" especially if you keep a good macro refugium... this might be a situation where you would want one.. however, if you have a system setup like i do it may be very possible to baby step your way into it... add just a little every day or 3.just like you do with amino acids, eventually doubling up after a few weeks. i would definantly love to give it a try and may.. i could see where ater changes etc would be a must.. i can also see where good flow would be helpful too to keep it suspended... my tank hates it when alk get above 9 though... just looks like $hit.. dunno why... just does.. hits 9 again and everything is fine.. however this might change with addition of available nutrients.. Do you have any coral or inverts at all, this is not a fish food. It will do little to feed your fish, though I guess if you grew enough "bugs" it would might help supplement them. Anyway unless you only have dead rock and pods, assuming you do have coral to feed the rocks the coral is on will bring life into an aquarium. im thinking if there are pods, there are others. it all had to get into the tank somehow. Link to comment
carbon-mantis Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 What sort of amounts are we talking about when feeding the home brewed mollusk-shake? I'd imagine the sugar added would have an effect similar to vodka dosing in the tank... Link to comment
SpankythePyro Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 no coraline,,, I don't want coraline as it competes with encrusting sps just pods no sponges Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 no coraline,,, I don't want coraline as it competes with encrusting sps just pods no sponges ???? coraline is a good thing i thought.. i have sps with coraline growing on the rock and the sps grows over it not vice versa What sort of amounts are we talking about when feeding the home brewed mollusk-shake? I'd imagine the sugar added would have an effect similar to vodka dosing in the tank... thats a pretty good point. i would think a slow addition of this stuff would be the wisest choice. over feeding it could probably result in a serious bloom even with sugar in the mix.. however, im not so sure that vodka dosing couldnt eliminate alot of this.. there again i dont run a skimmer therefore i would probably build the shake minus a carbon source.. Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 Some call the sugar the most important part, it allows easy skimming of the phos and n04, like the vodka method from above. As far as calcium goes with this method you will have PLENTY of it to go around, plenty of everything. Good food, good light, good chemical comp, and good water comp. I will try and post my results. I am still waiting on this darn bulb. As far as amounts start small and work your way up. Nobody ever tells you exactly how much to feed your fish, it depends on how many, what kind, and any other variable. Please DO NOT overfeed this. Try to get a regular cycle, less more often, besides we all like playing in our tanks. This is not a new method it has been around for years, it just seems to get forgotten. With the equipment we have now it should be relatively easy to maintain. Link to comment
SpankythePyro Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 ???? coraline is a good thing i thought.. i have sps with coraline growing on the rock and the sps grows over it not vice versa thats a pretty good point. i would think a slow addition of this stuff would be the wisest choice. over feeding it could probably result in a serious bloom even with sugar in the mix.. however, im not so sure that vodka dosing couldnt eliminate alot of this.. there again i dont run a skimmer therefore i would probably build the shake minus a carbon source.. coraline is a competetor.. you'll notice that growth should slow a little bit when corals are trying to grow over coraline. It is an algae, just a encrusting calcified algae, not like the chateo and hair algae that you think of generally when you hear algae Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 coraline is a competetor.. you'll notice that growth should slow a little bit when corals are trying to grow over coraline. It is an algae, just a encrusting calcified algae, not like the chateo and hair algae that you think of generally when you hear algae i dont think ive ever really notcied. ive even had some sprout new tips and/or polyps out of the coraline. i have a monti cao that i actually glued to a rock right where it was covered in coraline and it still took off Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 11, 2010 Author Share Posted February 11, 2010 So here are before pics, before pappone and before 400 watt halide. SPS are mostly brown a few have slight tints, all have good PE. It is a 58 show. Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Alright lights on and burnin! I hung it a little high and used glass tops for acclimation purposes, so this i not by any means as intense as it will be. Maybe 60% is getting through the glass, it is pretty cloudy but that was the idea. Link to comment
scubasteve2580 Posted February 12, 2010 Share Posted February 12, 2010 dude that is such a huge difference. looks so much better! Link to comment
Dirtbikerider987 Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I really like the arch and cave look you have with your rock! Very cool Link to comment
franklypre Posted February 25, 2010 Author Share Posted February 25, 2010 I really like the arch and cave look you have with your rock! Very cool Thank you. A buddy of mine and I are getting ready to make some rock via Portland cement and those two that make the cave are going to be my model. It is almost impossible to get rocks like those anymore. Link to comment
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