Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

Aquaforest


davy jones

Recommended Posts

steady hands, at least 1/100 shutter speed, camera needs to be perpendicular to whatever you are shooting to avoid water distortion

I dont think my cell phone has those settings :lol::lol:

Link to comment
  • Replies 66
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I dont think my cell phone has those settings :lol::lol:

lol, first step: get a legit camera.

 

jk, i have seen some amazing reef tank pics from cell phones. most rules still apply. most cell phone camera still allow you to adjust white balance or choose Shady / Cloudy for the setting.

Link to comment

Another tip - turn off circulation pumps for your photo shoot. Ripples on the water's surface play havoc with auto-anything on most digital cameras.

Link to comment

Since starting the program I have brought my nitrates from 20ppm down to 0-2ppm.

My phosphates have dropped from .3ppm down to .08ppm.

I will say that my corals are coloring up the best I have ever seen them now.

That could also be a byproduct of how much I am now feeding the tank in order to keep nitrates up though. :D

Link to comment

With np pro, is it helping with organics, lowering algae issues?

Its lowered my nitrates pretty rapidly mixed with waterchanges and nopox dosing. I do firmly believe it is helping this issue although i have 0 algea in the tank to tell if it is reducing it or not

 

Since starting the program I have brought my nitrates from 20ppm down to 0-2ppm.

My phosphates have dropped from .3ppm down to .08ppm.

I will say that my corals are coloring up the best I have ever seen them now.

That could also be a byproduct of how much I am now feeding the tank in order to keep nitrates up though. :D

I am going to very quickly have to start doubling up on feeding at this rate! Ill likely spot feed all of the lps corals and anemones as well as broadcast feed for the fish. Are you using the AF coral food?

 

Kat and Mark always say to feed a lot while exporting nutrient efficiently. seems like you are on the right track!

 

This just remained me to dose AF Vitality and Energy....

I do better when i dose in the AM before work, usually the pm gets busy for me and i forget, so i took that part out of the equation :)

Link to comment

I don't use the AF food.

I use the red sea reef energy A & B, as well as acropower.

Gotcha.

 

I have the Red sea stuff as well as the AF food, and after my nutrients come down enough to warrant feeding that kind of thing ill likely use the af food only because i dont have to go to the fridge to get a bottle of stuff lol

 

 

 

On another note i noticed that almost all the frags on my frag rack have increased encrusting growth exponentially, in the last week they have encrusted more than they have in the month and a half prior.

 

Either they are happy with the lower nutrients (most likely the case) or aquaforest is doing its job and making things happy (im gonna vote the other direction just cause im a skeptic, however if it keeps up like this ill continue to use the product and reccomend it to people lol)

Link to comment

Changed my AF dosing a bit.

Every morning i dose 3 drops of -np pro and pro bio s.
Every other morning i alternate dosing of 2 and 3 drops of everything else.

I.e. Monday 3 drops Build, vitality, amino, energy, -np pro, pro bio s.
Tuesday 3 drops -np pro, pro bio s
Wednesday 2 drops build, vitality, amino, energy, 3 drops -np pro, pro bio s.
Etc..

My reason for this is the directions say 1 drop per 27 gallons, and i have a 65 gallon system. i could probably easily get by with 2 drops every day but im just trying stuff out cause why not.

Moved mp10 from right side to right back wall facing forward, added tunze powerhead to left back wall blowing behind the main structure to remove the deadspot left there. Trying to get my hands on a used mp40qd to replace the mp10 on the right side of the tank so i have 2 mp40's on the system. At that point i am going to adopt Mr aquarist of the year's methodology of flow, 2 equal pumps opposite of eachother on 8 hour cycles. Left for 8 hours, right for 8 hours and both for 8 hours.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Long overdue update. Havent had a chance to test water lately, but will try to do that tonight and post numbers tomorrow.
Nopox dosing has been offline for 1.5 weeks, I want to see if the -np pro and pro bio s can keep nutrients down on its own or not. (skimmer still running of course)
I am noticing slight color shifting in some of my coral. And it appears improved health even in some of them.
All of the frags i took from coral in the tank are encrusting and growing even which is nice. The purple stylo frag has completely encrusted the plug, and looks to be sprouting a second branch at the tip.
Out of the 5 montipora frags i put in the tank around the frag swap 1 Made it, and is colored and looks like even beginning to attach to the rock. I have 2 others that are 95% dead but there is still colored tissue so im keeping them in there to see if they make a recovery.


20170108_161136_zpss1hihbem.jpg

Cali tort. Good colors, and looks to be growing both new sprouts and growing over the frag plug. I even see some PE on this one from time to time.

20170108_171211_zpsh0yd1ht5.jpg

Ric's and yumas doing well. The green mushrooms in the shade arent doing too hot, its tough to find the right amount of light for them in this tank. In the open is too much and shaded is not enough.. Tricky little buggers.

20170108_171228_zpsjhjynnij.jpg

Frag rack. Here you can see the struggling Montipora. Like i said there are bits and pieces of living tissue. I am not holding my breath but i dont need those spots in the frag rack for anything right now so ill let them see if they can pull through. There is also a damaged Duncan that i put up there. Seems to have stopped the dying but unsure if it will recover. The duncan right next to it however has grown 3 new heads in about a month and a half so thats nice. the 4 branch frag next to the Monti is the BC Spainbow i got from the mystery box. Tissue looks very healthy, colors are changing almost weekly and its starting to encrust over the glue. The greenish stick across from it i cut off from one of the corals in the tank about 2 months ago and all the encrusting growth happened in teh last 3 weeks.

20170108_171241_zpsbxcwqovy.jpg

Hard to get a good picture but this is supposed to be a pink lemonade. Not sure that it is but thats what it was sold to me as. It is however finally changing from green to a more yellowish color. Lots of encrusting growth here as well, i might however break off the main piece and move it since he keeps getting stung by that anemone.

20170108_171218_zpsoaay9tpa.jpg
Right side

20170108_171215_zpsnjj8akzp.jpg
Center

20170108_171205_zpsinuvdbjz.jpg

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Which product do you find works better for nitrates.

 

The aquaforest or nopox?

 

My nitrates aren't super high about 10 in each tank a 15g and 10g.

 

Interested in getting a product to lower it a bit and control.

 

Do you need a skimmer and doser for either product?

Link to comment

Which product do you find works better for nitrates.

 

The aquaforest or nopox?

 

My nitrates aren't super high about 10 in each tank a 15g and 10g.

 

Interested in getting a product to lower it a bit and control.

 

Do you need a skimmer and doser for either prodj

 

Definitely nopox. Without question. But i believe they both serve a different purpose, as far as i can tell the aquaforest stuff is to maintain and slowly lower the nitrates and phosphates. With the nopox after a few days of dosing you will notice bacterial slime growing in your sump and on your glass and even on your rocks in some places, all of this working to reduce nutrients. 10ppm i wouldnt be concerned with too much, and i believe the issue comes into play when nitrates are out of balance with phosphates. As soon as i got phosphates up from 0 (even though nitrates were over 60ppm at the time) stuff instantly started looking better. Not sure why. Maybe its just my mind saying it helped but whatever lol As for bacteria dosing to lower nutrients a skimmer is for sure reccomended just for the oxygen in the water alone. The bacteria use it up quite quickly

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Tested everything one last time before leaving on vacation!

Alk ~8dkh
Cal ~415ppm
Mag ~1450ppm
Nitrates~5ppm
Phosphates ~.04ppm

So far this is my opinion of the products.

I like the salt, and will continue to use unless i get a bad batch. If i get a bad batch im going to switch to red sea blue bucket.

-NP Pro and Pro Bio S, in my tank doing reccomended dosages, it very slowly lowers nitrates and phosphates, or even just maintains them and keeps them from going up. Add waterchanges in the schedule and you will work your way down to 0 over the course of a couple months.

Coral A, V, B, E, Basically just the every other day additives. I did not notice much of a change when using this stuff. I did notice a change when i got my nitrates down and i think that is what i was seeing. Although my tank is not at the level they reccomend when using these products so maybe itll change. I am about 70% sure i wont purchase these again at this point.

I dont really use the other stuff they have available. All in all, im glad i tried the system, however i dont know that i will continue when i run out of products. IF i try another system after this it will probably be the red sea reef care program. I like their products and am using their additives to maintain cal and alk.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I am coming up to the end of my bottles of stuff. Here i am at an impasse. I like their salt, and have had no issues. I am seeing recovery of coral that was previously dying and starting to regrow over dead skeleton (purple stylo) But i have also lost a few corals and am seeing slight reccession. (duncans died while on vacation, and had 2 sps frags rtn while away.) Colors could be better and growth is minimal at best (dosing 3ml cal per day and 6ml Alk per day, which equates to about 6ppm calcium and .35dkh of alk consumed daily)

 

My options here are to buy the products again, this time in the regular sized bottles instead of tester bottles, for all 4 (coral a, e, b, v) will be around $100 from BRS, and at current dosages of 3 drops every other day will last me 2 years. (will expire before then likely) or i can up the dosages to 2-3 drops daily and they will last me roughly a year. Not bad.

 

Option 2 would be to switch to the red sea reef care program, so far every red sea product i have used has worked exactly as advertiesed, the tank is amazing, i use the reef foundation abc elements for dosing, nopox works without question and the reef energy products seem to do a good job as well. I already have the foundation elements so all i would need would be the carbon and color bottles, This will cost around $65, and at current uptake of calcium it will last me around 3.5 years. hopefully calcium uptake will increase and therefore last closer to 2.5 or so.

 

Aquaforest is more of a ULNS system if going full blown and i do not want to go ULNS, too close to crashing IMO. looking for less than 1ppm of n03 and less than .04ppm of p04. Alk around 7dkh. daily dosing.

 

RCP However calls for dkh of 12, cal of 450 and mag of 1360 for best growth, nitrates around3-5ppm and phosphates around .08ppm. This also scares me since 12dkh is very high. right now i am leaning towards this and doing something like dkh of around 9 or 10, cal around 440 and mag at 1360 since i cant get it any lower lol. This should be close to balanced.

Link to comment

RCP However calls for dkh of 12, cal of 450 and mag of 1360 for best growth, nitrates around3-5ppm and phosphates around .08ppm. This also scares me since 12dkh is very high. right now i am leaning towards this and doing something like dkh of around 9 or 10, cal around 440 and mag at 1360 since i cant get it any lower lol. This should be close to balanced.

 

FWIW. I have always used the RC Foundations stuff with RSCP Salt and been really happy with it. With the growth I am getting in such a small volume, I am having to dose a TON now. My alk consumption is close to 3.2dkh a day.

 

That said, a 500ml bottle isn't lasting long and they are getting pricey. I am going to continue to use RSCP but switch to BRS 2-part. My hope being that I get the trace elements that were included in the Foundations (Strontium) will still come through the RSCP salt.

 

Doubt that impacts or helps your decision but its another alternative.

Link to comment

 

FWIW. I have always used the RC Foundations stuff with RSCP Salt and been really happy with it. With the growth I am getting in such a small volume, I am having to dose a TON now. My alk consumption is close to 3.2dkh a day.

 

That said, a 500ml bottle isn't lasting long and they are getting pricey. I am going to continue to use RSCP but switch to BRS 2-part. My hope being that I get the trace elements that were included in the Foundations (Strontium) will still come through the RSCP salt.

 

Doubt that impacts or helps your decision but its another alternative.

That does help sway me towards RS, Li from SWE uses the RCP as well and does very well. I think i am going to order teh coral colors and switch over to raising my alk to about 10 or 11.

 

What do you keep yours at?

 

Also as for the 500ml bottles you can buy bulk dry versions of the product and mix with RO water to create your own. Much cheaper in the long run

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-kg-red-sea-reef-foundation-b-alk.htmlmakes 10l of solution ;)

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...