Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)

[markalot]

Interesting- this is good reading - it will be good to see where you end up with two part. How much do you evaporate a day on your system?

 

Only about a gallon, since I have glass lids. I run a fan over an open sump to help increase it.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Only about a gallon, since I have glass lids. I run a fan over an open sump to help increase it.

 

So I've only briefly read up on vinegar- have you seen a benefit of reduced algae growth or coral color- sorry- I am not up to speed at all

[markalot]

So I've only briefly read up on vinegar- have you seen a benefit of reduced algae growth or coral color- sorry- I am not up to speed at all

 

Nah, while vinegar can be used as a carbon source I'm using it to increase the potency of Kalk. It will also be a carbon source, and I had a small bacterial bloom after adding it, but some Microbacter took care of it. I am feeding heavily so hopefully it won't reduce anything too much. I like dirty tanks, I think they have better coral colors. My fish take care of the algae.

 

As a straight carbon source you can use vinegar, or the more potent vodka, to increase bacteria and skimmate to help reduce nitrates and to some extent phosphate. Usually nitrates drop to near 0 first so there are some who actually dose nitrate in order to reduce phosphate.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Thanks for the info- I am about through 2weeks of testing twice everyday and dosing twice a day- think I got it my dosing down- your taking it to another level

[markalot]

5 days since I fragged the stylo. It's healing like a tree.

 

[metrokat]

I thought I had posted a response but I don't see it. The blue polyps on the Katropora look fabulous, what an interesting color development. I love this picture you took of it.

[markalot]

I thought I had posted a response but I don't see it. The blue polyps on the Katropora look fabulous, what an interesting color development. I love this picture you took of it.

 

You did, in the Katropora thread. Thanks again though, it's a very pretty coral and by far the best looking in the tank.

[latteslave]

Alk at that level is not alarming but the increase day over day is... Usually it settles in with two part and hits a middle ground. Wonder if the kalk is truly adding that much. your tank looks awesome and that Katropora is a sweet looking coral.

[markalot]

It appears to be all Kalk. I dropped a mere .2 yesterday with no dosing so I added a quart of water to my topoff container to see if I can effect the drop. I must have been mixing it wrong before, that plus the fact vinegar not only increases the saturation by 50% but also removed the problem with over-mixing.

[markalot]

... I mean look at this thing. LOOK AT IT.

 

 

Looks like something out of Harry Potter. The good news is the ballast is supposed to be a good one, so I'll probably take it apart for parts and DIY something.

 

Alk down to 9.9 and falling slowly without dosing. I filled my topoff with another concentrated mix of Kalk to slow down the drop a bit.

 

Latest FTS

 

 

[NorthGaHillbilly]

... I mean look at this thing. LOOK AT IT.

 

 

Looks like something out of Harry Potter. The good news is the ballast is supposed to be a good one, so I'll probably take it apart for parts and DIY something.

 

Alk down to 9.9 and falling slowly without dosing. I filled my topoff with another concentrated mix of Kalk to slow down the drop a bit.

 

Latest FTS

 

 

what size tank is the smaller one again?

[markalot]

what size tank is the smaller one again?

 

29 gallon.

[metrokat]

Wow that's a nice.... cauldron....

[NorthGaHillbilly]

Wow that's a nice.... cauldron....

That's being remedied

[TheKleinReef]

that slimer is BEGGING for attention. I vote you give it some!

[Polarcollision]

What really bothers me is the requirement to bump up saturation just to get it to look like my eyes see the tank. I don't know if this is a problem with the Nikon RAW files, or what. The pics look great when I view them on the Nikon LCD after taking them but are washed out when I view the RAW file.

 

Does Nikon have picture styles? If I forget and leave the landscape picture style on, blues and greens are over exaggerated. Portrait makes it bad in other ways. So I wonder if using the basic picture style would help.

 

Ran tests ...

 

Alk 9.6 -- this has been slowly creeping up from 9.1 over a week ago and my goal is 8.5 so I reduced the daily dose another 5ml for both 2 parts. I measured 9.3 yesterday but that's probably a testing or timing issue.

 

Calcium 450 -- I always dose equal two parts so I let this drift where it wants.

 

Magnesium ~ 1650 - woops I guess I'll stop adding it weekly and let it drift down.

 

I've also started adding 25ml/gallon of vinegar to my topoff Kalk mixture to increase the potency and save me $$ and this might be the reason Alk is rising.

 

Is it hard to keep alk and ca stable with kalk in topoff? I'm not sure evap is consistent season to season/week to week but I'm considering switching from 2 part and adding potassium iodide to the mix if levels are easy enough to maintain.

 

How's Strontium?

 

What does strontium do for coral?

 

Tank is looking really good, especially the katapora colors. Nice shots lately!

[markalot]

that slimer is BEGGING for attention. I vote you give it some!

 

I've lowered the slimer to a spot behind some of the other SPS and it's encrusted over everything down there and is still growing up. I'm trying to trim it so it will hit the top of the water, but it would rather spread out and try and shade other corals. You can see a frag on the sandbed in front I need to deal with.

 

 

That's being remedied

 

I can't wait!

 

 

 

Does Nikon have picture styles? If I forget and leave the landscape picture style on, blues and greens are over exaggerated. Portrait makes it bad in other ways. So I wonder if using the basic picture style would help.

 

 

Is it hard to keep alk and ca stable with kalk in topoff? I'm not sure evap is consistent season to season/week to week but I'm considering switching from 2 part and adding potassium iodide to the mix if levels are easy enough to maintain.

 

 

What does strontium do for coral?

 

Tank is looking really good, especially the katapora colors. Nice shots lately!

 

In RAW mode all styles are ignored, you get exactly what the camera sensor sees. I suspect most cameras automatically apply correction to make up for any sensor deficiencies.

 

As far as topoff, I do a timed topoff instead of float base, so if evaporation varies my sump level will change. It's pretty consistent, enough so that I never have to change the dosing. My topoff runs 20 seconds every 5 minutes. I think what happened with Kalk is the added vinegar not only increased the potency but fixed an issue I was having with over-mixing the Kalk. If you over mix too much falls out of solution and you end up with a weak mix.

 

It appears I will still have to dose two part, but on the order of 10 to 20ml a day rather than the 90ml I was doing. $$$$

[metrokat]

From the water testing service i use:

 

Scientific evidence indicates that some organisms need strontium. Certain gastropods, cephalopods, and radiolaria, for example, require strontium. Finally, anecdotal evidence from a number of advanced aquarists suggests that strontium that is substantially below natural levels is detrimental to the growth of corals that many aquarists maintain.

[jedimasterben]

As far as topoff, I do a timed topoff instead of float base, so if evaporation varies my sump level will change. It's pretty consistent, enough so that I never have to change the dosing. My topoff runs 20 seconds every 5 minutes. I think what happened with Kalk is the added vinegar not only increased the potency but fixed an issue I was having with over-mixing the Kalk. If you over mix too much falls out of solution and you end up with a weak mix.

 

It appears I will still have to dose two part, but on the order of 10 to 20ml a day rather than the 90ml I was doing. $$$$

Dayum! How much total kalk are you dosing?

[markalot]

Dayum! How much total kalk are you dosing?

 

3 teaspoons per gallon of RO/DI + 45ml vinegar. Not sure how much gets added to the tank but it's around a gallon a day evaporation, maybe a little less. I should probably measure the output from the topoff doser.

[jedimasterben]

3 teaspoons per gallon of RO/DI + 45ml vinegar. Not sure how much gets added to the tank but it's around a gallon a day evaporation, maybe a little less. I should probably measure the output from the topoff doser.

That's at 100% saturation per gallon, and adding one gallon to 140 gallon total volume raises calcium by 6.27ppm and alk by 15.77ppm.

 

If you were using BRS supplements at 90mL per day, you were adding ~6.7ppm of calcium and ~16.2ppm of alk. So really close!

[markalot]

That's at 100% saturation per gallon, and adding one gallon to 140 gallon total volume raises calcium by 6.27ppm and alk by 15.77ppm.

 

If you were using BRS supplements at 90mL per day, you were adding ~6.7ppm of calcium and ~16.2ppm of alk. So really close!

 

Hot damn, thanks for the info. I am using C-Balance but probably close to BRS. It appears I am losing .2 or .3 Alk a day, which is also close to these numbers.

[Polarcollision]

 

I've lowered the slimer to a spot behind some of the other SPS and it's encrusted over everything down there and is still growing up. I'm trying to trim it so it will hit the top of the water, but it would rather spread out and try and shade other corals. You can see a frag on the sandbed in front I need to deal with.

 

 

 

I can't wait!

 

 

 

In RAW mode all styles are ignored, you get exactly what the camera sensor sees. I suspect most cameras automatically apply correction to make up for any sensor deficiencies.

 

As far as topoff, I do a timed topoff instead of float base, so if evaporation varies my sump level will change. It's pretty consistent, enough so that I never have to change the dosing. My topoff runs 20 seconds every 5 minutes. I think what happened with Kalk is the added vinegar not only increased the potency but fixed an issue I was having with over-mixing the Kalk. If you over mix too much falls out of solution and you end up with a weak mix.

 

It appears I will still have to dose two part, but on the order of 10 to 20ml a day rather than the 90ml I was doing. $$$$

 

I believed picture styles don't affect RAW for 6 years. Then one day I noticed the picture style had changed from what I normally use. I switched it back and took the exact same shot, same conditions. Back in my RAW processing software, I switched the first image back to my typical picture style. They should look identical since I'm only changing the processing algorithm. Except they were not identical. Same thing happens with white balance selections. Shoot in Shade, switch to Auto WB and shoot the same image. Then change both images to auto or shade in the raw software. The images never match exactly.

 

Cool, I'll look into dosing concentrated kalk on a timer and then just let the ATO fill in as needed. Apparently 2-part can cause ion imbalances if you go without water changes too long, which I'm prone to do. Still fine tuning my less is more reefer ways.

[markalot]

I believed picture styles don't affect RAW for 6 years. Then one day I noticed the picture style had changed from what I normally use. I switched it back and took the exact same shot, same conditions. Back in my RAW processing software, I switched the first image back to my typical picture style. They should look identical since I'm only changing the processing algorithm. Except they were not identical. Same thing happens with white balance selections. Shoot in Shade, switch to Auto WB and shoot the same image. Then change both images to auto or shade in the raw software. The images never match exactly.

 

Cool, I'll look into dosing concentrated kalk on a timer and then just let the ATO fill in as needed. Apparently 2-part can cause ion imbalances if you go without water changes too long, which I'm prone to do. Still fine tuning my less is more reefer ways.

 

That's interesting. I'm using RAWTherapee and I have the option to use Camera settings or default. I'll have to mess around with the different modes and see what changes.

 

Don't forget adding vinegar will be adding a carbon source, so you will be carbon dosing. I feed heavy enough I', hoping it doesn't matter.

[markalot]

My Phoenix 14K bulbs arrived today and I put one in the cauldron. I've now seen the blue ... the blue my LED's can't replicate. This might have been mistake. Once I get a better light I will be running the 14K over the little 29. I wonder how much pain I'll have to endure to replace my LED's over the 150 with halide? I need to talk myself out of this insanity.