Kat's Ol' Max

[jgpico]

meh. they both have been moved, or have moved themselves. Fussy clams.

you need to take control of your clams! They are walking all over you!

[metrokat]

you need to take control of your clams! They are walking all over you!

Uh oh here comes the stick.

 

Used the Red Sea Test kits for the first time. And spilled almost all of the Calcium reagent too.

But I was able to test Calcium, Alk and Mag and life is beautiful in the tank.

 

Now, I need a RELIABLE test kit for Nitrate, because I'm convinced it is high again as witnessed by some corals browning. Again. However, it could have been due to the substantial Alk and Calc swings.

 

Does anyone have experience with SPS browning with high Nitrates only or is it always ALK/Calc swings??

[SerenityReef]

Considering buying DTs oyster eggs and reef blend. Anybody used these? Opinions?

 

My little fridge isn't up to the task of keeping things frozen very well, I have no idea what causes the temperature fluctuation in the appliance, it is only opened once a day when I feed the tank. The frozen foods routinely start to thaw just a bit and re freeze back up. Then sometimes it gets cold enough that the liquid foods in the door get little bits of ice inside. Getting a new fridge is not an option but is there a really small compact sized freezer, almost like a personal sized appliance?

 

Walmart online does, just pickled up a split freezer fridge so Audrey can have the fridge/freezer free lol.

[ZephNYC]

you need to take control of your clams! They are walking all over you!

 

Yes Kat. You need to comtrol your clam!

<giggle>

 

Uh oh here comes the stick.

 

Used the Red Sea Test kits for the first time. And spilled almost all of the Calcium reagent too.

But I was able to test Calcium, Alk and Mag and life is beautiful in the tank.

 

Now, I need a RELIABLE test kit for Nitrate, because I'm convinced it is high again as witnessed by some corals browning. Again. However, it could have been due to the substantial Alk and Calc swings.

 

Does anyone have experience with SPS browning with high Nitrates only or is it always ALK/Calc swings??

 

Besides Lamot, which are lab grade quality and price, the red sea nitrate is the best I have used.

Also my nitrates are up to 4 ppm, and no browning on my sps (yet), but I am slowly bringing them down to 1 ppm. with 10 gal daily water changes.

Edited November 11, 2012 by ZephNYC

[metrokat]

Besides Lamot, which are lab grade quality and price, the red sea nitrate is the best I have used.

Also my nitrates are up to 4 ppm, and no browning on my sps (yet), but I am slowly bringing them down to 1 ppm. with 10 gal daily water changes.

The clam tank has hardly anything in the way of SPS. Also a 4ppm in a 125 gallon with the little SPS you have probably has very little effect compared say the same 4ppm in my little system with the amount of SPS I have (which is a lot more than yours in the 125. And I know you love me but please don't make me beat you. Your tank chemistry is entirely much much much more stable due to the sheer size. Your SPS tank is 210, with a how big of a sump on top of it?

[ZephNYC]

The clam tank has hardly anything in the way of SPS. Also a 4ppm in a 125 gallon with the little SPS you have probably has very little effect compared say the same 4ppm in my little system with the amount of SPS I have (which is a lot more than yours in the 125. And I know you love me but please don't make me beat you. Your tank chemistry is entirely much much much more stable due to the sheer size. Your SPS tank is 210, with a how big of a sump on top of it?

 

 

Um sweatheart...its the same water as my 210...its all the same system. You know this big brain!!!! 125 and 210 both sharing a 125 sump. My new phone is charging up call you tonight. I just ate a whole chicken. Ineed a nap.

Edited November 11, 2012 by ZephNYC

[metrokat]

Um sweatheart...its the same water as my 210...its all the same system. You know this big brain!!!! 125 and 210 both sharing a 125 sump. My new phone is charging up call you tonight. I just ate a whole chicken. Ineed a nap.

WHAT THE FAOK IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU'RE PUTTiNG NITRATES IN THE SPS REEF?

LOCK THE DAMN DOOR I'M.COMING OVER TO BEAT YOU!

[jedimasterben]

SPS can take a lot more nitrate than they can phosphate - I'd venture to guess 10ppm is perfectly fine so long as everything else is kept up. If they browned out with higher nitrate levels than just 1 or 2ppm, then I'd have nothing but brown coral, and I don't. I was losing them earlier because of instability. :/

[metrokat]

SPS can take a lot more nitrate than they can phosphate - I'd venture to guess 10ppm is perfectly fine so long as everything else is kept up. If they browned out with higher nitrate levels than just 1 or 2ppm, then I'd have nothing but brown coral, and I don't. I was losing them earlier because of instability. :/

so it's not nitrate, it's ALK/CA swings

[jedimasterben]

so it's not nitrate, it's ALK/CA swings

I've seen them start to bleach from that, not browning out. Browning (to me, anyways) has always meant too little light or too much phosphate, neither of which are problems for you. :/

 

 

What did all your levels test to? And another thing I really like about Red Sea is that you can purchase just the reagents, not the whole kit again, saves a lot of money.

Edited November 11, 2012 by jedimasterben

[metrokat]

I've seen them start to bleach from that, not browning out. Browning (to me, anyways) has always meant too little light or too much phosphate, neither of which are problems for you. :/

 

 

What did all your levels test to? And another thing I really like about Red Sea is that you can purchase just the reagents, not the whole kit again, saves a lot of money.

 

Alk 8.4

Ca 450

Mag 1400

[metrokat]

Pitchur time!

 

Star in Xenia

 

Here's Emerald, looking anything but.

 

Purdy Nasuto

 

PE that's a mile long. Green Millepora

 

Is this is a Tenuis or whatever? Some type of acro.

 

New purchase, an orange morph of the watermelon/eagle eye

Edited November 11, 2012 by metrokat

[metrokat]

Picture dumps ar enever complete without progression shots.

 

ORA Spongodes.

Feb (it's that nearly dead brown piece in the front center)

 

Sept

 

Today

[jedimasterben]

Alk 8.4

Ca 450

Mag 1400

Good! Now to just keep it there! Has your alk still been dropping so much more than calcium?

 

PE that's a mile long. Green Millepora

I got one just like it.

[metrokat]

Good! Now to just keep it there! Has your alk still been dropping so much more than calcium?

Ya.

 

I have a foto in this months contest yay!

Crab love

[ZephNYC]

WHAT THE FAOK IS WRONG WITH YOU! YOU'RE PUTTiNG NITRATES IN THE SPS REEF?

LOCK THE DAMN DOOR I'M.COMING OVER TO BEAT YOU!

 

Come over, Im due for a spanking. Yea I did, I increased the entire system to 4 ppm for Dr. Macs clams, but now Im lowering it back down to 1 ppm, only becuase of the harder to keep NPS im working with. Im about to introduce the impossible Dendroneptheas and true flaurescent blue gorgonians. I think one of the breakthroughs this hobby will be seeing in the near future is the NEED for low amounts of nitrates. You would be amazed at how wrong some of your so called "experts" are. For example, one we all know very well. OMG he said it.

[jedimasterben]

If you beat him, take a video, please. And wear something nice.

[Deleted User 3]

Just use a clear shot class.

 

I dont own any, so i'd need to buy those too.

 

Picture dumps ar enever complete without progression shots.

 

ORA Spongodes.

Feb (it's that nearly dead brown piece in the front center)

 

Sept

 

Today

 

Awesome! I can't wait to get better lights so my corals will pop even more.

[Spirofucci]

Nice progression shots.......and glad to see all params are perfect!

[metrokat]

I dont own any, so i'd need to buy those too.

party store or dollar store, clear plastic party shot glasses. For probably $5 if that.

 

The extras also serve as food thawing cups, and cups for various things like measuring.

Edited November 12, 2012 by metrokat

[Veng]

Your picture dumps are always amazing.

 

And Kat, 4ppm is the same if you have a 1 gallon tank or 1,000 gallon tank. Now the rate at which it changes (suspetability to swings) will of course be different.

[metrokat]

Your picture dumps are always amazing.

 

And Kat, 4ppm is the same if you have a 1 gallon tank or 1,000 gallon tank. Now the rate at which it changes (suspetability to swings) will of course be different.

 

True. Zephs system is infinitely more stable than mine, plus he does daily water changes. Plus he's been trying to get nitrates up to even 1ppm for over a month. I would venture to say he might have had a freak rise, which may not have lasted very long. He has a super clean system. Of course you would never know that if you looked at his sandbed.

[ZephNYC]

Your picture dumps are always amazing.

 

And Kat, 4ppm is the same if you have a 1 gallon tank or 1,000 gallon tank. Now the rate at which it changes (suspetability to swings) will of course be different.

 

Im getting slack for my theories on nitrates. Hey they laughed at Einstein also when he first spoke about the theory of relativity!!!! Hey I do not claim to be a scientist...or even all that smart..LOL. But I do have experience with marine tanks for well over 30 years and my losses have persuaded me to take a different approach. Im going to go into detail on my own thread later tonight but in a nutshell, here is my theory, based primarily on the long term keeping of tridacnid clams.

First of all, just because we measure zero nitrates in a natural reef does NOT mean our tanks are better off without nitrates. I dont want to hear this. Our tanks are nothing like a natural reef and are missing hundreds of natural food sources that are found in over abundance on ALL natural reefs. It is common knowledge that if you take a healthy Tridacnid and put it in a cycled aquarium, with no other VERTEBRATES it will starve and die even under high power or natural sunlight. Everybody agrees with this. But then they turn around and say " Clams dont need to be fed, they can live off light. Talk about a contradiction!

THe entire problem relies around nitrogen. You see, living organisms, including humans, have the ability to convert proteins into carbohydrates, We can consume nothing but protein because we have the ability to cleave the all important NITROGEN molecules off, which leaves us with a carbon based energy form. Shwarzennegger Used to eat 100% protein diets, knowing his body would simply convert this food type to the exact amount of carbs required for his metabolism. But if we eat only carbohydrates we will never get the nitrogen we need and our muscles and organs will eventually die.

 

In short, the principal end product of photosynthesis is carbohydrates. Clams are good at getting enough of that from sunlight. But I do not believe they will receive needed amounts of nitrogen. Plant nurseries will tell you they need to feed their plants because sunlight is simply not enough for ALL required nutrients. So...where will our clams get the much needed nitrogen source in our aquariums ? Fish waste mostly. What is the end result of fish waste ? Nitrates. Nitrates are your primary source of nitrogen in our aquariums, and your clams need it.

More later....<poof>

[metrokat]

Based on conversation with Ben, I thought it might be important to list out my electrical connections exclusively for my tank.

 

I have a 4-outlet wall socket which controls

-RSM control panel

-1 Doser

-2 power strips

 

RSM control panel 1 main connection controls 6 things

-2 Vortechs

-Stock T5s and moonlights with cooling fans

-Heater

-2 Eheim filter pumps

 

Power Strip #1 controls

-Wifi

-3 LEDs

-Apex Jr which controls 3 things

--Actinics

--Fuge light

--Fuge Fan

 

Power Strip #2 controls

-Skimmer

-Sump pump

-Phosban reactor

-1 dosers

-ATO

 

[flampton]

Im getting slack for my theories on nitrates. Hey they laughed at Einstein also when he first spoke about the theory of relativity!!!! Hey I do not claim to be a scientist...or even all that smart..LOL. But I do have experience with marine tanks for well over 30 years and my losses have persuaded me to take a different approach. Im going to go into detail on my own thread later tonight but in a nutshell, here is my theory, based primarily on the long term keeping of tridacnid clams.

First of all, just because we measure zero nitrates in a natural reef does NOT mean our tanks are better off without nitrates. I dont want to hear this. Our tanks are nothing like a natural reef and are missing hundreds of natural food sources that are found in over abundance on ALL natural reefs. It is common knowledge that if you take a healthy Tridacnid and put it in a cycled aquarium, with no other VERTEBRATES it will starve and die even under high power or natural sunlight. Everybody agrees with this. But then they turn around and say " Clams dont need to be fed, they can live off light. Talk about a contradiction!

THe entire problem relies around nitrogen. You see, living organisms, including humans, have the ability to convert proteins into carbohydrates, We can consume nothing but protein because we have the ability to cleave the all important NITROGEN molecules off, which leaves us with a carbon based energy form. Shwarzennegger Used to eat 100% protein diets, knowing his body would simply convert this food type to the exact amount of carbs required for his metabolism. But if we eat only carbohydrates we will never get the nitrogen we need and our muscles and organs will eventually die.

 

In short, the principal end product of photosynthesis is carbohydrates. Clams are good at getting enough of that from sunlight. But I do not believe they will receive needed amounts of nitrogen. Plant nurseries will tell you they need to feed their plants because sunlight is simply not enough for ALL required nutrients. So...where will our clams get the much needed nitrogen source in our aquariums ? Fish waste mostly. What is the end result of fish waste ? Nitrates. Nitrates are your primary source of nitrogen in our aquariums, and your clams need it.

More later....<poof>

Okay I need to clear up some of this as I am a scientist.

The Arnold thing is impossible unless he was on a PSMF as humans have a protein ceiling of around ~40%. If you consume above this threshold you'll undergo a sickness call Rabbit starvation. This has to do with the nitrogen content of protein and urea poisoning. read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

 

Anyways Zeph I think there is better sources of nitrogen for your tank. I'll hit up your thread after you make your big statement with my own thoughts on nutrition for your clams and now your NPS.

 

btw I see what you did there Zeph, drumming up views for your own thread by posting on Kat's page. Interesting trick ha ha.

 

edit: Arnold would never have undergone a PSMF unless he was cutting (no he is not emo, )

Edited November 12, 2012 by flampton