xiaoxiy Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Second dose after water change: Tank still hasn't crashed yet. Corals are still happy. Still a dusting of diatoms on my rocks and sand. 3 Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Tiki that does look better... Quote Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted April 3, 2014 Author Share Posted April 3, 2014 Tiki that does look better... Yeah, there's a noticeable difference in the reduction of cyano. This tank always has some cyano due to the lower flow. If I add more flow, most of the mushrooms will drop off of the rocks and accumulate in the back corner of the tank. It seems like every day there's a small imperceptible improvement. The sand bed is looking slightly cleaner, the hair algae is a little less overall. I haven't had to clean the acrylic since I started the treatment, but I had cleaned it really thoroughly before starting so I could get good pictures. The skimmate from the skimmer looks a little wetter than average, but the Tunze 9002 always skims a little wet anyhow. On my 30 gallon tank, I only ever dosed it once, and since then, I've had diatoms in the sand bed. I haven't been removing them, just stirring the surface to break them up and disperse them around. The corals always show a nice feeding response when stirring the sand. The glass has been getting really cloudy with diatoms, have to clean them off daily. 2 Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I look forward to seeing more reports Quote Link to comment
AWillroth Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 My tank is slowly doing better with his, too. My gha is completely gone. Hard saying how it's affecting the cyano, yet. Quote Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Wow, some serious diatom growth on the glass in the 30 gallon tank. That's only two days without cleaning. Super quick and easy to clean off with a magnetic cleaner, but wow. The inhabitants and corals look awesome. I suspect my mantis has been displeased with the poor quality viewing of the living room through the cloudy glass. Quote Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Ok... Back to the 25 gallon tank that is actually getting the Nualgi treatment long-term. I'll be doing a water change tomorrow, but thought I'd to an extensive panel of tests tonight since I had a few minutes to do it... SG: 1.026 Alk: 7.3 (Red Sea Coral Pro kit) Calc: 500 Seemed high, so I tested it twice. It's 500, like it or not. (New-ish Red Sea Coral Pro kit) Nitrate: 2.5 to 5 ppm (Elos kit) Phos: 1.61??? WTF? Really? Tested with Hanna low range phosphate tester. I'm not buying it. This is one of those situations where I always tell people not to panic. Something probably went wrong with the test. Test again. Second test: .02 ppm. And again. Third test .03 ppm. Ok, so let's call it .02 to .03 ish. That's a reasonable number. Still haven't needed to clean the acrylic. No really noticeable changes in tank appearance. Mushroom corals and euphyllia look happy. Quote Link to comment
Acielot Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 My trial hits a week tomorrow evening. My pH has been low (7.6-7.8) and a single coral bleached but nothing has happened that can be attributed to the Nualgi dosing. Maybe a bit more time before any appreciable changes happen. Quote Link to comment
Mariaface Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I hit a week yesterday morning, and did get the increased diatom growth. My pods seem to be coming out more (snacking, I'm sure), and from the ones I can see, about half are carrying eggs. I think one or two new zoanthid polyps came up (common type, but still accelerated growth compared to before), and one of my ricordeas split (it had been in the splitting shape for about a month, but finally finished its decision). The hammer coral frag's taken up that signature flat end to its tentacles, too. It used to just have rounded edges. I suppose this means the corals are pretty happy about the addition... The bubble algae in my tank has been slowly but surely going translucent from top to bottom and then dying off, which is also nice. And the turbos are taking care of the rest of the algae in the tank, save for a bit of what looks like a type of caulerpa that must not be very appetizing. 2 Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 My diatoms don't seem to be going away. Daaaaaaugh, everything's brown now. 1 Quote Link to comment
MikeTR Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 My diatoms don't seem to be going away. Daaaaaaugh, everything's brown now. did you just set your tank up like a month ago? It's about that time to get the diatom bloom anyway. I dosed again last night as I didn't see anything goin on with the cyano. If anything it's worse. Coral colors were a bit more impressive or maybe I just had too much to drink? Anyways, I put in the other dose last night to kinda boost things into action. Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 did you just set your tank up like a month ago? It's about that time to get the diatom bloom anyway. I dosed again last night as I didn't see anything goin on with the cyano. If anything it's worse. Coral colors were a bit more impressive or maybe I just had too much to drink? Anyways, I put in another dose last night to kinda boost things into action. Two months ago. Had my first diatom bloom about 2-3 weeks ago. Lets say Nualgi seems to have extended it. On a side note, I think my coral colors are looking better too! (Although something pissed off one of my ricordea and acans today). Quote Link to comment
hypostatic Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Wellllll you're feeding it Silicon, which the diatoms need to grow/multiply. I'm glad that people are recording their experiences with the product here, so there's a nice sample size Quote Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 You should see the diatom bloom in my 30 gallon tank. Cleaning the glass twice daily. Hasn't hurt anything. I think a lot of them are coming out in the skimmer, so... nutrient export. 1 Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You should see the diatom bloom in my 30 gallon tank. Cleaning the glass twice daily. Hasn't hurt anything. I think a lot of them are coming out in the skimmer, so... nutrient export. I know.... I have diatoms floating on the surface of my water... LOL Quote Link to comment
rolyat113 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Day 4 Algae bloom is picking up. Hair algae has been getting worse, and the bryopsis is sneaking back into the picture. Got what I believe is a blue spotted watchmen goby today, as well as a shipment from saltcritters.com. Trying to decide whether to dose again today or wait and just do it weekly. Tomorrow is my weekly water change day, when I will change about 2 gallons. All coral looks happy and snails are definitely happy with this new algae bloom. http://s159.photobucket.com/user/rolyat150/media/DSC_0010.jpg.html'> I need to work on my FTS skills. I have a Nikon D40, but the pictures just aren't impressing me at all. It would probably help if I had a tripod, and a little bit better than stock lens. Quote Link to comment
rolyat113 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 http://s159.photobucket.com/user/rolyat150/media/DSC_0013.jpg.html'> This one is a little better. I haven't scrubbed the acrylic at all since I added nualgi, so that may be part of my issue. I turned down the iso to it's lowest setting which helped a little. I left a light on behind me which caused a weird artifact. Quote Link to comment
Mariaface Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 This is what my frag rack looks like towards the end of the afternoon (it's usually all clean again in the morning, after the nighttime critters have had a chance to feast on the diatoms): 1 Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Diatoms: Check. Nitrates: Now Undetectable. (From 10ppm on Wednesday). Quote Link to comment
Chew_Magna Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Finally got around to doing my first dose last night. I'll be doing mine weekly. Quote Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 Diatoms: Check. Nitrates: Now Undetectable. (From 10ppm on Wednesday). Really? Nitrates down that much? What brand test kit are you using? Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 Really? Nitrates down that much? What brand test kit are you using? Api. It's coming out as bright yellow with no orange tint at all. Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Is anyone else having an issue with Alk after dosing Nualgi? My alk use to be relatively stable throughout the week, but now it drops from 10-11dkH at the beginning of the week (after WC) down to 5-6 dKH by the end of the week. Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Animals and algae can use carbonate in place of carbon dioxide if they need to, possibly the diatom growth has caused this to happen. Quote Link to comment
Acielot Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 No alk issues here. Its a steady 10-11 throught the week. My pH however has been ridiculously low at 7.2. My tank is looking much clearer of algae as of the last two days and the birds of paradise is really fluffy. Still no diatom bloom though from dosing 1.3ml weekly. I guess it`s working? Quote Link to comment
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