Nualgi additive review and testing...

[xiaoxiy]

The more I hear about it, the less I want to use my trial order....

[tibbsy07]

They seem to keep harping on the "bio-available nano particles" as some sort of replacement for having to keep stable parameters, or at least that's how I read it.

 

That added to my forum question about kalk:

 

 

I think I might be the first person to take a more scientific approach to the product so far.

The art is in the science for me. Don't get all hand-wavy, nuagli. If it works, prove it and tell me WHY is works. Tiki, I'm really interested to see how it works for you. I think you should try it on your 25g. I also think you should stick to your standard tank maintenance. I'm disliking their "Do ONLY what we tell you to do" mentality.

 

I did find one entry on the forum titled alk, calc, mag and the OP states he has a calc reactor and their response was to keep using the calc reactor and try to ween yourself off it if you can. It also has a video of a 20 gallon saltwater tank with some rock and 2 anenomes. I'm losing interest by the minute here.

 

It would just about have to contain pure lye to do so in those concentrations & be bottled in borosilicate to ensure safe containment. And include a tersely-worded MSDS for safe handling.

 

I'm just not getting it... the product appears to bind up nutrients by provoking a diatom bloom - but that implies you need to have a hearty clean-up crew to eat it. Yes, corals would probably love the food, but not if they're covered completely by diatoms. Or are the individuals representing the company giving advice that's more along the lines of fish-only-live-rock setups, where chemistry just doesn't have the same urgency about it? The FAQ implies that you should not be dosing ANYTHING while using this product.

 

No bones about it... I WANT something like this to exist & work, I mean, who wouldn't want a simple, safe product you use a just a few of drops a week or so to fix everything?

Exactly this. To increase your dKh, pH etc with a 1ml/30gallons a week, you need almost lab-grade chemicals, which requires a whole other world of considerations - not to mention safety issues. Does this product produce a weekly diatom bloom, I wonder? It would sort of have to, but if you miscalculate your dose, you could end up with a diatom tank very quickly, which isn't the worst thing ever - but for mature and established tanks, why risk changing anything? Nuisance algae can be gotten rid of in many other ways. This seems preventative, but at the risk of actually being detrimental. I do want this to be true, though. It would be really nice to have a simple solution in a single bottle!

[Islandoftiki]

There aren't any panacea products in this hobby that magically do everything without some level of physical work, complication, or attention to many details, and that's not what I was expecting this product to be either. I was hoping it would be a simple way to boost the existing work I already do to maintain low levels of algae in this tank. If it gave me a 5% improvement over what I already was getting without a lot of hassle, then it would be a winner in my book. However, if I have to shut off my dosing pump and take the kalk out of my ATO and just let things go and hope the nano-particles will keep my hundreds (thousands?) of dollars worth of corals from becoming stressed and unhappy (or worse), then the risk is too high, IMO.

 

Again, I may just give this a go in my 25 gallon tank since that tank doesn't need any dosing anyhow. It might be a good thing for that tank.

[Islandoftiki]

Here:

 

http://reefbuilders.com/2009/10/30/silica-dosing-reef-blasphemy-or-a-new-form-of-nutrient-export/

[tibbsy07]

I already have enough tank experiments planned that I will never get to, Tiki...

[metrokat]

We'll hello from 30,000 feet in the air somewhere over the country. Boy there is NO WAY I am shutting off my all and calcium dozers. My tank uses about 1 dkh a day. I have high end acroporas that are sensitive to alk and calc swings. Heck I just finished praying the STN would stop after my recent alk swing. You've all seen my tank, I can't just stop or wean myself off of the building blocks of my sticks. That is pretty strange. I think these guys should say their product is for new tanks or FOWLR or something. It can't be the one stop shop for every kind of reef out there.

[xiaoxiy]

We'll hello from 30,000 feet in the air somewhere over the country. Boy there is NO WAY I am shutting off my all and calcium dozers. My tank uses about 1 dkh a day. I have high end acroporas that are sensitive to alk and calc swings. Heck I just finished praying the STN would stop after my recent alk swing. You've all seen my tank, I can't just stop or wean myself off of the building blocks of my sticks. That is pretty strange. I think these guys should say their product is for new tanks or FOWLR or something. It can't be the one stop shop for every kind of reef out there.

Yeah, it's really weird they're advising people to stop dosing.

 

P.S. don't text and fly!

[metrokat]

I'm going to read Randy Holmes Farleys silica article again.

[Islandoftiki]

If nothing else, this has made me think that silica isn't the evil thing we've been lead to believe it is.

[xiaoxiy]

Agreed. I wonder how effective it really is in "boosting" the food chain though.

[metrokat]

If nothing else, this has made me think that silica isn't the evil thing we've been lead to believe it is.

No, that is not right. Silica is evil. SOLUBLE silica is not.

[Islandoftiki]

No, that is not right. Silica is evil. SOLUBLE silica is not.

 

Sorry, that's what I meant. Indeed they are two different things

[xiaoxiy]

Wtf. My sample just arrived. How the hell did they ship it so fast...

[natalia_la_loca]

Mine just arrived too. Kinda scared to use it.

[Nanofreak79]

I think they're more or less saying that poor feeding and husbandry practices can still outcompete anything that Nualgi can do for you.

 

I'm going to request another batch of Nualgi for my 25 gallon that that I forgot to change the GFO in a while back and the phosphates got up to around .9. There are a few sections of hair algae now that my tuxedo urchin seems to be ignoring. That tank would be a good test bed for a slightly dirty tank that I think most average people have from time to time.

 

So basically it's like gfo? I mean if it's so spectacular, you should be able to continue your daily feelings, weekly water changes and see an improvement. Sounds like there setting expectations low, as to not let reefers expect any good outcome if any.

[xiaoxiy]

First dose tomorrow. Time to do a my weekly W/C in prep! I wonder if this is a good idea, as I'm already getting a diatom bloom from my tank being so new.

[Acielot]

I guess I should be expecting my sample soon.

 

Maybe this could actually be a pretty cool additive.

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, let's do a reset here and start over with a different tank that I'm not quite as obsessive about. A tank that gets nothing but weekly water changes. One that is not demanding and was designed to be just that... non-demanding. This tank hasn't gotten a lot of press lately as my O. Scyllarus mantis shrimp has become so personable and interactive that my G. ternatensis tank has kinda taken a back seat to it. Nevertheless, the G. Ternatensis tank is still going well, but has had a few issues as of late. The dragon's breath macro algae broke loose from it's mooring and got stuck behind the main rockwork where it seemed to be hanging out and doing fine, but one day decided to melt and vanish, which released a bunch of phosphates into the tank and caused a hair algae outbreak. Most of that has been manually removed, but some remains, and the phosphates are still a little high despite regular changes of the phosphate media.

 

So... Here are the specs:

 

The tank volume is 25 gallons, with about 20 gallons of actual water volume once you account for live rock, sand and equipment.

 

Alk: 7.0

Calc: 440

Mag: 1620

Phos: 0.06

Nitrate: 5ppm

SG: 1.025

 

Inhabitants:

 

Yellow Clown Goby

Azure Damsel

Clown Fish

G. Ternatensis Mantis Shrimp

Tuxedo urchin

Miscellaneous hermit crabs, and snails that for some reason, this mantis does not eat.

A lot of mushroom corals, tons of blue clove polyps, some nasty euphyllia and one token aiptasia(Trust me, I have some experience with aiptasia... this one won't get out of hand)

Oh... and I almost forgot, because the mushroom corals don't like a lot of flow, this tank ALWAYS has cyano. ChemiClean has been an every other month maintenance thing.

 

Filtration:

Filter pad, carbon, rowaphos, purigen, Tunze 9002 skimmer.

 

 

Full tank shot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, there's a bit of hair algae going on. Nothing insurmountable, but it does need some attending to. I did a 20% water change last night and will start with the first dose of Nualgi tomorrow morning as the lights come on for best effect.

 

By the way, the one (and only) dose of Nualgi in the 30 gallon tank has yielded a small diatom bloom which seems to have brought a bunch of small amphipods to the sand bed to feed. This doesn't seem like a bad thing if you don't mind the look of a small diatom patch in your tank. The diatoms are not hurting anything on the empty patch of sand bed where they reside. I should note that the corals do seem pretty happy and their colors have deepened a little bit. This is an entirely subjective observation, but an observation nonetheless.

[MikeTR]

I agree with getting back on track and that tank looks like the perfect candidate tiki. So I'm going to completely ignore the fact that this is supposed to replace 2 part dosing and continue my dosing regimen as norm, keeping a closer eye on alk & calc levels, and strictly treat this product for what it is, a soluble silica base for diatoms to grow on with some added trace elements bound to a particle size suitable for SPS and zooplankton to consume, with the presumption it will out compete other forms of algaes and cyanobacteria.

[Islandoftiki]

I agree with getting back on track and that tank looks like the perfect candidate tiki. So I'm going to completely ignore the fact that this is supposed to replace 2 part dosing and continue my dosing regimen as norm, keeping a closer eye on alk & calc levels, and strictly treat this product for what it is, a soluble silica base for diatoms to grow on with some added trace elements bound to a particle size suitable for SPS and zooplankton to consume, with the presumption it will out compete other forms of algaes and cyanobacteria.

 

Note: In the past couple minutes, I made a few updates to my original post and added in filtration and inhabitants to my notes.

 

Now, this makes me want to start a separate topic about soluble silicate dosing. This whole thing has me intrigued.

[xiaoxiy]

If those amphipods actually do end up eating the diatoms & have a population bloom too, .

 

In theory, that diatom bloom should disappear as predator populations also bloom.

 

EDIT: Dosed my first dose today!

[Islandoftiki]

My dose just went in. I'll post updates tonight.

[MikeTR]

Mine should probably be in the mailbox today. Sunday's are the only days I can dose when I'll be home with 4 hours of lighting after the fact.

[Chew_Magna]

Got mine yesterday. There is surprisingly less in the bottle than I expected. Haven't used it yet, trying to get un-lazy and do some actual maintenance on the tank before I give it a go.

[Islandoftiki]

Update -- Day one

 

Ok, so last night we went to happy hour, so I didn't post my update yesterday. Here it is today... There was no visible change in anything that I could see; not that I was expecting anything this soon.