Reefer 350

[HarryPotter]

13 minutes ago, markalot said:

I have a feeling I will part with my new Pink Lemonade for the same reason.  I'll give it a good long time but it seems very sensitive to minor Alk swings, losing color quickly.  I don't play that game.  It's still a small frag so it might just be unhealthy ... or not fully healthy yet.  

 

My colony was always brown with green tips; I dunno. I sold it for a bit over $400, which I thought was a great offer. Of course then I ordered new bulbs ($200), so that diluted it a bit 😂

[JavaJacketOC]

53 minutes ago, markalot said:

I have a feeling I will part with my new Pink Lemonade for the same reason.  I'll give it a good long time but it seems very sensitive to minor Alk swings, losing color quickly.  I don't play that game.  It's still a small frag so it might just be unhealthy ... or not fully healthy yet.  

How does it lose color? The base browns, the polyps or both?

 

I picked up a couple frags of it from a local reefer and it's doing extremely well for me...I don't think it's the prettiest pink lemonade I've seen but it has retained the nice pale yellow color with burgundy polyps it had when it was in the previous owners tank.

[markalot]

Just now, JavaJacketOC said:

How does it lose color? The base browns, the polyps or both?

 

I picked up a couple frags of it from a local reefer and it's doing extremely well for me...I don't think it's the prettiest pink lemonade I've seen but it has retained the nice pale yellow color with burgundy polyps it had when it was in the previous owners tank.

 

When fully colored it should be a knockout, but when unhappy will be pale and still have some color but just meh.  My Red Robin is like this as well, super nice red for about 30 days of the 2 years I've grown it.  If you're good and can keep things rock solid stable you'll be rewarded, but personally I'm not that good and not fussed with rock solid stability.  I run very low Alk which grows acros just fine, and colors up most of them without issue.  I will occasionally drop Alk to the low 6's and quickly raise it to near 7.  Some acros don't show any issues with this, some lose color but otherwise remain healthy.   I tend to toss the sensitive ones.  :)  

[ninjamyst]

My tyree pink lemonade came from a local reefer and still keeping the nice color so far.  I have it very high in the tank right underneath the Kessil.

[Cannedfish]

Harry I need you to be more careless and accidentally break off a piece of that yellow efflo already... 😂

[HarryPotter]

On 1/10/2019 at 5:40 PM, markalot said:

  Some acros don't show any issues with this, some lose color but otherwise remain healthy.   I tend to toss the sensitive ones.  🙂

 

That was the story with my colony. Fantastic growth- it became huge in 2 years. But always brown with light green tips. 

 

Frag to this in 2 years:

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

And an alk update, to those that are following the battle: @teenyreef, @patback, @YHSublime @JavaJacketOC, @micoastreefing @markalot

 

It's impossible. I am dosing 100ml of each part of B-ionic per day, and cannot keep up, it always drops to around 6. Then I manually add 40ml to bring it to 7, but by the next day, even with dosing, it will be down again to ~6.5, then ~6.1, etc.  It does not appear to be precipitating. 

 

I am at a bit of a loss. I have confirmed my testing is accurate, Hanna and Salifert agree. Nothing is precipitating. My magnesium is fine at 1320, and calcium @450. 

 

Do I just keep on dosing? This makes me uncomfortable; I feel like at one point I am going to wake up to a white tank. 100ml of b-ionic means my tank is using over 2dkh per day.... which may or may not be possible? 

 

Corals look happy. But I want a stable alkalinity of 7. Do I need a calcium reactor? I have the room here.... 

[DaveFason]

@HarryPotter - My old 35g tank consumed ~ 75-80 a day in its prime. With the amount of light and corals you have it honestly makes sense. 

 

A reactor of sorts could make things much easier and possibly even less expensive in the long run. 

 

Have you had time to test the tank in the morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and then ~1-2 hour or two after lights are out? 

 

-Dave

[HarryPotter]

5 minutes ago, DaveFason said:

@HarryPotter - My old 35g tank consumed ~ 75-80 a day in its prime. With the amount of light and corals you have it honestly makes sense. 

  

A reactor of sorts could make things much easier and possibly even less expensive in the long run. 

 

Have you had time to test the tank in the morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and then ~1-2 hour or two after lights are out? 

 

-Dave

 

Hmm okay... thanks. I was just worrying that I am reaching dangerous point, but I guess if a 35g consumes that much, then this much isn't bad. My tank used to consume ~35 a day a few months ago. This consumption correlates with the Orphek bars and more water changes.... 

[markalot]

I'm close to 200 again without the slimer.  You could try spacing out the dosing of both parts a bit more, not sure how your soder works but each of my units is 5 minutes after the previous.  I use 1 and 3 for Alk and Calcium for a 10 minute spread.  I've thought about going longer but I have a large pump in the first sump chamber that does a good job super mixing the water in there so I feel like 10 minutes should be plenty of time.  

 

After raising my dosing again and again I'm finally stable at 7.2 or so.  I have bigger containers on order so i don't have to refill as often.  

 

If cost is an issue I suggest BRS two part in pre-measured packages.  A lot cheaper than the commercial mixtures but you also need to worry about traces from time to time.  B-ionic has extra stuff in it's calcium part.    NOTE:  B-Ionic is weak sauce compared to BRS and C-Balance, you need more of it to raise Alk and Calcium.  This makes it more expensive than the others.  You can see the difference via this calculator:  http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[JavaJacketOC]

2 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

And an alk update, to those that are following the battle: @teenyreef, @patback, @YHSublime @JavaJacketOC, @micoastreefing @markalot

 

It's impossible. I am dosing 100ml of each part of B-ionic per day, and cannot keep up, it always drops to around 6. Then I manually add 40ml to bring it to 7, but by the next day, even with dosing, it will be down again to ~6.5, then ~6.1, etc.  It does not appear to be precipitating. 

 

I am at a bit of a loss. I have confirmed my testing is accurate, Hanna and Salifert agree. Nothing is precipitating. My magnesium is fine at 1320, and calcium @450. 

 

Do I just keep on dosing? This makes me uncomfortable; I feel like at one point I am going to wake up to a white tank. 100ml of b-ionic means my tank is using over 2dkh per day.... which may or may not be possible? 

 

Corals look happy. But I want a stable alkalinity of 7. Do I need a calcium reactor? I have the room here.... 

 

You have a lot of big colonies in there...it doesn't surprise me that you're gong through that much 2 part. I may not be caught up on your thread, are you using a Kalkwasser reactor as well? Might be a worthwhile option to aid in stability if not. The one I just set up in only being used with my ATO and it's actually performing pretty well for an inexpensive item. The magnetic stirrers and timed dosers are what you would probably want though.

 

Can't comment on the Calcium reactor but could be a good option...whole new gadget to figure out how to use though...I've watched a few videos on them and they seem like a last resort IMO but you may feel different.

 

 

[Andreww]

Harry, a calcium reactor for a high consumption tank is probably the best idea in the long run.

WWC uses them on all their tanks. Once you get it dialed in , with a simple turn of a knob to the feed pump you’ll be able to make all the adjustments needed. 

I think it’s a great idea especially since you have the space.

Just get a quality 2 stage regulator and a 5lb or 20lb Co2 tank depending on space, and don’t skimp on quality when it comes to the reactor and it should serve you well for years.

 

[HarryPotter]

10 minutes ago, JavaJacketOC said:

 

You have a lot of big colonies in there...it doesn't surprise me that you're gong through that much 2 part. I may not be caught up on your thread, are you using a Kalkwasser reactor as well? Might be a worthwhile option to aid in stability if not. The one I just set up in only being used with my ATO and it's actually performing pretty well for an inexpensive item. The magnetic stirrers and timed dosers are what you would probably want though.

 

 Can't comment on the Calcium reactor but could be a good option...whole new gadget to figure out how to use though...I've watched a few videos on them and they seem like a last resort IMO but you may feel different.

  

 

 

I was alarmed at the rapid increase in consumption, going from 35 ml/day to 100 ml/day in a matter of a month or so. But coral growth is insane, every single thing has white growth tips. So this might be "normal" and I was panicking for nothing.... I assumed that dosing more than a ml/gallon was absurd. Perhaps thats normal for a well developed reef

[patback]

2 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

 

I was alarmed at the rapid increase in consumption, going from 35 ml/day to 100 ml/day in a matter of a month or so. But coral growth is insane, every single thing has white growth tips. So this might be "normal" and I was panicking for nothing.... I assumed that dosing more than a ml/gallon was absurd. Perhaps thats normal for a well developed reef

Maybe you should downsize some of your colonies again....

 

 

 

 

😉

[A Little Blue]

54 minutes ago, patback said:

Maybe you should downsize some of your colonies again....

 

 

 

 

😉

I agree. Seems like an easy solution to lower 2part consumption. 😏

[mitten_reef]

I’m still clumsily navigating my way through the alk stability myself, I wish I could offer any possible solutions. But I like @patback‘s suggestion. 😄

[teenyreef]

@markalot is right as usual. I was freaked out when I switched from Seachem Reef Fusion to ATI Essentials and my dosing quadrupled. I thought I was getting ready to crash my tank until I found out the concentration is different. And now ATI has Essentials Pro, which is five times the concentration of the old stuff.

 

So between the huge rapidly growing colonies, and less concentrated dosing solution, it all makes sense to me.

 

I ran a Calcium reactor for a while on the 30g frag tank, mostly as an exercise in learning how to set it up and run it. I can definitely see the appeal in larger tanks just to avoid constantly refilling dosing containers. But it was a pain to get running and set properly. And then every time I got it dialed in, I'd run out of CO2 a few months later and it would all get out of whack again.

 

With the experience I have now, I think I could get it dialed in pretty quick and keep it running. It was just a bit of a learning curve.

[YHSublime]

14 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

And an alk update, to those that are following the battle: @teenyreef, @patback, @YHSublime @JavaJacketOC, @micoastreefing @markalot

 

It's impossible. I am dosing 100ml of each part of B-ionic per day, and cannot keep up, it always drops to around 6. Then I manually add 40ml to bring it to 7, but by the next day, even with dosing, it will be down again to ~6.5, then ~6.1, etc.  It does not appear to be precipitating. 

 

I am at a bit of a loss. I have confirmed my testing is accurate, Hanna and Salifert agree. Nothing is precipitating. My magnesium is fine at 1320, and calcium @450. 

 

Do I just keep on dosing? This makes me uncomfortable; I feel like at one point I am going to wake up to a white tank. 100ml of b-ionic means my tank is using over 2dkh per day.... which may or may not be possible? 

 

Corals look happy. But I want a stable alkalinity of 7. Do I need a calcium reactor? I have the room here.... 

 

I would swap to a CARX if you can afford it. Expensive up front, with a bit of a learning curve, but I think it'll save you a lot of headaches. I use ESV bc my tank is super tiny, and honestly, there's not a lot of consumption right now (about 15ml a day of each, give or take 30 gallons of water.) I also like that it takes care of the mag, but that's the lazy reefer in me.  Alternatively, like markalot mentioned, you could use the BRS 2 part, which would be considerably cheaper. You can always mix up 5 gallons of each solution at a time if you have the space.  

[teenyreef]

Oh, also, just as a data point, my 40g is up to about 60ml/day of the ATI Essentials. I'm very glad they are changing over to the more concentrated solution.

[jedimasterben]

Use the money from selling that Reefer 350 to buy good stuff. Unfortunately it looks like Avast doesn't make their calcium reactors anymore, they were one of the best from what I could tell back then. Aquariumplants Carbondoser is probably the best and easiest CO2 regulator you can buy, but of course it will cost you.

[HarryPotter]

On 1/1/2019 at 12:27 AM, HarryPotter said:

Happy new year nano-reefers! Here’s to stable tanks and happy sticks in 2019! 😂

 

 

Holy shit that’s 2 weeks!!!! @markalot I guess the consumption may be real after all! 

[mitten_reef]

9 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Holy shit that’s 2 weeks!!!! @markalot I guess the consumption may be real after all! 

what is it?  It has the look of a high-end color stick, but hard to tell with the neutral light in the shot.

 

That is ridiculous growth for 2 wks.  how much flow do you have, relative to display volume?  I get fluffy polyps only on the pieces near my powerheads, I need to up my flow.

[HarryPotter]

6 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

what is it?  It has the look of a high-end color stick, but hard to tell with the neutral light in the shot.

 

That is ridiculous growth for 2 wks.  how much flow do you have, relative to display volume?  I get fluffy polyps only on the pieces near my powerheads, I need to up my flow.

 

I think 90x display volume? 

 

Heres how they would sell it online, with orange filter 😂

 

So so in reality it’s somewhere between those two in person. I’ll try to grab a photo today of it.

 

[mitten_reef]

Just now, HarryPotter said:

 

I think 90x display volume? 

 

Heres how they would sell it online, with orange filter 😂

 

HAHA, damn Harry! that's a big chunk of OP you got there, or is it? (that was also my guess from the neutral light, btw)   I must have missed it when you picked that up.  

[HarryPotter]

7 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

HAHA, damn Harry! that's a big chunk of OP you got there, or is it? (that was also my guess from the neutral light, btw)   I must have missed it when you picked that up.  

 

Not new at all, I got it from a tiny piece. I just checked my IMGUR and I see this from ~7 months ago. But I was burning my corals until 3 months ago lol.

 

It was $60 at ReefaPalooza back in April