Walker's 35g - Home of the Great Zeo Experiment

[Walker]

BRS pumps being piped in:

 

 

Solution containers. I saw the big sippy cups at a local grocery store and I thought it was perfect. They seal at the top to reduce evap, and I can run the tubes straight down the straws. These contain about 400mL of 2-part.

 

Yes, this is an all-HOB aquarium. Thicket of pipes at the back just got thicker:

 

 

Overall it was pretty straightforward. I did a 10-minute test and the BRS dosers were pretty much right on the button at 1.1mL/min. This should help stabilize my params and encourage even more coral growth.

[Walker]

Monthly update time!

 

So far the Zeo experiment has been a success. Corals are growing much faster than usual, and colouration has definitely improved. There has been a bit more algae growth, but I have been fighting back successfully with increased vinegar dosing ( from 1 mL a day to 15 mL a day). Yes, a 15x increase in dosage, plus constant usage of BRS GFO. Zeo seems to be very concentrated and this is required to keep my system from getting too much algae.

 

Otherwise, all fishes are happy and fat.

 

Tailspot playing peekaboo:

 

In other news, I just added BRS dosers which hopefully will help me keep up with the increased growth (and stabilize parameters for more growth). I am dosing what I feel is a staggering 20mL/day of ESV, which corresponds to a 10ppm drop per day, and > 1dKH of alk... and it's only increasing. My Apex will now divide the dose into 12 applications every 2 hours.

Just a one month comparison in Zeo:

 

Green slimer:

to:

 

I am particularly impressed with the pink prostata:

to:

[Reef Fever]

holy coralline batman!

[Walker]

Last one for the day, Cali tort growth:

to:

[Walker]

Bird of paradise:

to:

And of course, FTS:

[markalot]

Very very nice.

[Walker]

Seems like quite the shame to give the bird of paradise a haircut, but I'm going to need to in the next few weeks I think. With the increased growth from zeo additives it's really close to encroaching on the yellow SPS behind it, the hammer nearby, and the purple bonsai on the neighboring rock.

[Reef Fever]

just let it grow and cut if you see warfare

[Walker]

just let it grow and cut if you see warfare

I figure I have about a month's worth of growth before they touch. I'll adopt a wait-and-see approach, but I think the yellow tort is going to get the short end of the stick if I let them fight.

 

On another note, I started an experiment to see if I can encourage my Cali tort to branch from the bottom (as opposed to the top which it is doing now). I scarred a couple of promising stubby branches with my coral cutters, hoping to see new growth from them. Only time will tell if it's successful.

[Lalani]

Wow, nice coralline growth. Great tank

[Walker]

Wow, nice coralline growth. Great tank

Thank you for the praise .

 

As I have mentioned before, I have an ongoing battle with red bubble algae. This algae annoys me because of its tenacity - rip it out and it will show up in five other places. It does grow slowly though, so I've been able to at least keep up with it. I was thinking to myself a week ago, "Self, you use vinegar to dose the tank with carbon. it's SLIGHTLY caustic... maybe it will work like a safer version of peroxide if you syringe it right on the bubbles."

 

I give you, treatment test results after 1 day:

 

It flushed bright red after a few hours, and the bubbles eventually die off after about a week or so.

 

I use 15mL per day of vinegar, I figure if I treat one spot per day I can severely curtail its spread. I've tested it on red wire algae as well (my other nemesis) and it's not as sensitive to it unless the spot is right on. However, red wire is controlled better by ULNS anyway, which is the other effect of vinegar.

[Roshan8768]

Nice, looking good. I saw your avatar and decided to pick up a tailspot blenny for my tank!

[Walker]

Nice, looking good. I saw your avatar and decided to pick up a tailspot blenny for my tank!

Sweet. Welcome to the TSB club .

[Walker]

I don't think AALPS is doing anything for my SPS OR LPS, so I've switched over to AAHC. Hoping it can darken my green slimer and my montis.

[Walker]

Some more fragging! I fragged one branch of the toadstool coral and one of the bird of paradise (was getting too close to a tricolor bonsai). I also made an accidental (bump!) frag of the firetruck monti.

 

 

Also, a peek at how much growth my acros have been having. Pink prostata on October 7, right before starting Zeo:

to now:

 

Even more impressive if I shoot from the side:

[Walker]

Tank's humming along nicely. Everything seems to have stabilized under faux-Zeo and carbon dosing. I still have annoying algae patches but that's easily taken care of with some vinegar dosing. I'm contemplating on whether or not to (gasp) sell off a couple of my euphyllias and start moving towards an SPS-dominated tank. It's kinda fun to see how fast SPS grows . I do so love my duncan though.

 

It would also be nice to have a wrasse but with an open top I can see it carpet surf within days.

 

Again, new shot of the pink prostata. Even over just a week, you can really see the growth:

 

Cali tort now has multiple growth tips at the top:

 

Green slimer and BOP happily growing along:

 

I think these green birdsnest frags are about ready for the trip to the LFS again:

And of course, FTS:

[Roshan8768]

Make a mesh top!! It's easy and cost $10 at HD

[Walker]

Make a mesh top!! It's easy and cost $10 at HD

I did make a mesh top. Unfortunately with the way HOB stuff works there's significant gaps around the skimmer and filter tubes - enough that I wouldn't trust it to keep a wrasse in.

[Walker]

Just a small update - I found a local reefer that has some rarer acros, so I got a small frag of Red Diablo from him. It takes the place of my pink rescue coral, which is now residing next to the hammers. He says it is a fast grower and very hardy, so hopefully I can post some progression shots in the next few months!

 

[Walker]

Just reposting a dissertation on feeding for posterity:

-------------------

I wouldn't say too much. I would say it is a lot, yes. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in proportion, I feed way more than the average reefer. To top it off, I use zeovit products to dirty up the water even more. To compensate, I use an overpowered skimmer, vinegar dosing, GFO, carbon, and purigen. Heck, I've considered setting up a biopellet reactor or going full zeo to drive nutrients even lower.

 

Why do I overfeed instead of restricting caloric/nutrient intake and make it easier on the maintenance regimen? Personal observation and reading up various blogs/posts about reef tanks that I admire.

 

First off, I had to move my fish to a hospital tank a year ago to combat ich. They recovered after 7 weeks of hyposalinity but I noticed that the fish were markedly more active and grew visibly because I kept up with a 2x a day feeding during the hypo stay. Conversely, my display tank (which had lain fallow) looked worse with minimal feedings. In fact, even when I put back the fish, I had an STN event that killed a few corals. I experimented a bit and figured out that I could arrest that STN by feeding more. In fact, the more I fed the faster the corals grew. And of course, the fish were appreciative of the food.

 

In reading up on a lot of aquarium blogs and posts, I found that the owners of the tanks I gravitated towards had some things in common. They overskimmed, they had serious nutrient export regimens, and they overfed. A lot. The idea is that the tank should simulate in some way the constant feeding that happens in the wild, and also to simulate the food/nutrient surge that happens at night in the ocean.

 

This way is not the only way to run a reef aquarium; in fact, I would say that it is probably one of the more work-intensive ones (although I don't mind the 1-1.5 hour/week time investment including water changes). However, it works for me and my tank, my corals are growing like crazy, and the fish are fat. I haven't lost a coral since I started overfeeding - in fact, there is an millipora in my tank that has recovered from STN, from literally 1-2 polyps. A wild acro that browned out and I thought that was on its way out has recovered and now has nice blue growth.

 

Anyway, sorry for the dissertation, but this is something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about .

[albertthiel]

Just reposting a dissertation on feeding for posterity:

-------------------

I wouldn't say too much. I would say it is a lot, yes. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in proportion, I feed way more than the average reefer. To top it off, I use zeovit products to dirty up the water even more. To compensate, I use an overpowered skimmer, vinegar dosing, GFO, carbon, and purigen. Heck, I've considered setting up a biopellet reactor or going full zeo to drive nutrients even lower.

 

Why do I overfeed instead of restricting caloric/nutrient intake and make it easier on the maintenance regimen? Personal observation and reading up various blogs/posts about reef tanks that I admire.

 

First off, I had to move my fish to a hospital tank a year ago to combat ich. They recovered after 7 weeks of hyposalinity but I noticed that the fish were markedly more active and grew visibly because I kept up with a 2x a day feeding during the hypo stay. Conversely, my display tank (which had lain fallow) looked worse with minimal feedings. In fact, even when I put back the fish, I had an STN event that killed a few corals. I experimented a bit and figured out that I could arrest that STN by feeding more. In fact, the more I fed the faster the corals grew. And of course, the fish were appreciative of the food.

 

In reading up on a lot of aquarium blogs and posts, I found that the owners of the tanks I gravitated towards had some things in common. They overskimmed, they had serious nutrient export regimens, and they overfed. A lot. The idea is that the tank should simulate in some way the constant feeding that happens in the wild, and also to simulate the food/nutrient surge that happens at night in the ocean.

 

This way is not the only way to run a reef aquarium; in fact, I would say that it is probably one of the more work-intensive ones (although I don't mind the 1-1.5 hour/week time investment including water changes). However, it works for me and my tank, my corals are growing like crazy, and the fish are fat. I haven't lost a coral since I started overfeeding - in fact, there is an millipora in my tank that has recovered from STN, from literally 1-2 polyps. A wild acro that browned out and I thought that was on its way out has recovered and now has nice blue growth.

 

Anyway, sorry for the dissertation, but this is something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about .

 

Thanks for sharing your experience

[Walker]

Small mid-month update: I have noticed a number of small flatworms wandering around the glass the past few weeks. I suspect I've always had them but in smaller numbers, as I haven't added any extra LR and the only coral I've added in the last few months has been a straight-up frag without a mount. In any case, I've noticed that they are growing in number so I have decided to try Flatworm Exit. I was a bit nervous using it but I bit the bullet and applied a standard dose (1 drop per gallon) in the tank. The flatworms disappeared within 30 minutes (no idea where they went as there are no floating corpses), and hopefully it will stay that way. The toadstool was pissed for about that amount of time, and the SPS are still pissed 2 hours later. I will change carbon later today and double-up on the carbon to absorb any toxins and the Flatworm Exit. So far so good.

 

In other news, I also got a TDS meter to use with a used RO/DI filter I acquired. So far, I've been using the API tapwater filter, which I don't think really does much of anything. On the plus side though, Vancouver water is very very good so I haven't encountered any issues. The TDS meter supports that claim - 15TDS straight from tap. Water through the RO/DI unit is 4TDS (I suspect lower though as the water has been sitting around for a while), so I think most of the components are shot. I'll flush the RO membrane and see if it improves a bit. I'm just hoping I can replace everything but the RO membrane and be good to go.

[Walker]

I've also fragged my bird of paradise from the back to prevent it from encroaching on a yellow tort, and cut one of the branches from the green slimer as I didn't like the way it was growing (towards the back).

 

Trimmed green slimer:

 

Trimmed birdsnest:

 

The frags:

[Roshan8768]

Get the Yellow Coris Wrasse!! It as well as other wrasses that sleep in the sandbed are less likely to jump... I think flasher/fairy wrasses are probably the worst candidates. It'll take care of any pests that you have as well... mine is always cruising the rock work.

 

I have a screen top, but there are quite a few gaps along the back of the tank. Whenever this fish is startled, it shoots for the sand bed... not the top. I vote you get a cool wrasse... it'll take care of any coral eating pests, as well as add to your bio-load making it easier for you to keep your tank dirty.

 

You can always try a leopard wrasee...

[Walker]

Everyone including SPS are now calm and collected after replacing the carbon with 3x the usual amount. Looks like we're in the clear.

 

Roshan, I've been very very tempted to get a yellow coris for a while now. Of all the wrasses I've looked it, it looks like the best candidate. My tank is fairly peaceful so it might work. I might break down and try one in the new year.

 

Either that or do a tank rebuild so I can actually have a screen top .