ridetheducati

A lot of sun light is coming through that window.

Since you asked, noon, November 24. Two inch frags, $30.

I did not finish cutting and mounting the other half of the coral because I ran out of glue. Task for tomorrow along with water change. The frags that you see above are at least 2 inches, mounting plugs are 1.25" diameter.

Preparing to frag the Miyagi Tort. Miyagi Tort Macro Water boarding coral in five gallon bucket. Operating Table Operation completed. Frags

For the record, phosphates (.03) are dropping while I maintain 2ppm Nitrate. A few more days and I should reach my target (.02). The skimmer was working overtime getting those nutrients out.

I tried to get a good pix, but it's difficult because the corals are towards the back. The Acro is beginning to table, did it do that in your tank? The Tort looks a lot like the Becker Tort.

Anytime. You might recognize two corals. A Becker Tort and an Acro (Green and Blue) that you described as losing color when moved.

I must clarify my post above with a little information about my personality. I am technical minded and demand performance, when possible I take advantage of opportunities to improve on performance. Some people like plug and play, I would rather improve, plug, and play.

I think you missed the point. The pump capabilities, such as LPH and water flow, must match/fit the characteristics of the skimmer body. For example, a Sicce PSK2500 (1100LPH/600gph) performs very well on an eight inch skimmer body four inch neck. Put that same pump on a four or 10 inch body and that skimmer will not perform very well. There are other factors that should be considered as well, but I do not what to totally derail the thread. When I evaluate skimmers I look at the following in this order: 1. LPH 2. GPH 3. Wattage 4. Skimmer body size 5. Neck diameter 6. Skimmer height 7. Pump reliability/parts availability 8. Cost With this information, I can adequately determine whether the skimmer is going to perform on a certain system. Rephase the question, what pump perform well on a 6, 8, 10, or 12 inch body.

I responded to your thread at CMAS as well. An excerpt from hobbyist "Evolved" wrasse notes.. "Labroides: I hesitate to even include this genus, as I big reservations against even buying them, let alone keeping them or recommending them for a reef tank. These are the “cleaner” wrasses, as in the wild they remove parasites and dead scales/tissue from other reef fish. My reservations against buying/keeping this genus are due to the following two reasons: they cannot be sustained long term in a closed system as a diet of prepared foods does not offer them the range of nutrition they require, and mostly the mere collection of this species impacts the overall health of a wild reef. There are a few success stories about keeping a cleaner wrasse long term, but for each success there are hundreds of failures. Please leave this fish in the ocean where it’s best suited. If the demand for sales of these species would cease, so would their wild collection."

That is the product. Not a heaping spoon, a level spoon. From the omniverse.

Dilute in one cup of RODI water. It dissolves very quickly, very little stirring required. From the omniverse.

That is the product I ues. From the omniverse.

I only had to dose three days before phosphates began to drop. Scheduled to test Phosphates today to make sure both nutrients are continuing to drop. If phosphates are going back up and nitrates are zero, I will start dosing nitrates again.

I use Spectracide Stump Remover from Home Depot. For my system, I use six grams to raise nitrates 2 ppm. Keep in mind, I have approximately 290g of actual water in my system. Six grams is basically one teaspoon. To maintain 5 ppm, I dose two teaspoons every day and test nitrates and phosphates. When phosphates begin to drop I stop dosing KNO3. I use Salifert Nitrate and Hanna Phosphate. For your system, start with (.5) grams and test. KNO3 is potent, DO NOT overdose.

Everything in reefkeeping has its strengths and weaknesses, including CaRx. There are methods available, to name a few, Kalk, CO2 scrubbers, improving surface agitation to combat low tank pH due to excessive CO2. Most hobbyist begin to chase numbers, which is a mistake. Low pH in a tank is only a problem when NOT using a CO2. I previously posted my old system (180g) consuming 3 dkh per day. The CaRx was running with 120 - 130 bubbles per minute at 60 ml, which is pushing a reactor very hard. The tank pH range was 7.8 - 8.0. I was not concerned with the low pH because the overall system was healthy and thriving.

As described above, it will depend on rate of consumption. Looking for a challenge, try maintaining a system that consumes 5 dkh per day with two part.

Depends on how quickly he ramps up the stocking. My system took 8 months and I stocked extremely slowly (snails pace). Also, my old system was consuming 3 dkh per day and that only took 2.5 years. In addition, clams are calcium hogs. I had a Derasa clam that started at the size of a quarter and 16 months later it was the size of a football.

Personally, I recommend CaRx for SPS dominated systems at 120g and up.

Marco, Let's look at the math. Considering a 500g system that consumes 1 meq/L alkalinity or 2.8 dkh and 20 ppm of calcium per day. This is a moderate to high coral load. My system currently consumes half this amount. Alk - option 1, dosing 34 oz of soda ash two part solution for maintenance, 34 x 14 days = 476 oz (4 gallons) option 2, doing 67 oz of sodium bicarbonate two part solution, 67 x 14 days = 938 oz (7.3 gallons) Ca - option 1, dosing 35 oz of two part solution, 34 x 14 days = 476 oz (4 gallons) option 2, dosing 70 oz of alternate calcium two part solution per day for maintenance, 70 x 14 days = 980 oz (7.5 gallons)

With Prodibio and a good skimmer, live rock is not required. Prodibio is a highly effective bacteria driven filtration system designed to manage nutrients. There are numerous products readily available to satisfy your goals.

KNO3 helps with maintaining K, but I reliy on my normal K dosing regimen. NANo3 would work but I have a pound of KNO3, which will last a lifetime. From the omniverse.

Vodka and vinegar mix are my carbon if choice. From the omniverse.

Not running bio pellets, however, I am carbon dosing. You are correct, KNO3 dosing is a procedure to correct a nitrate limited system.

Good and bad news. Bad news first. I had a senior moment and over dosed Calcium when my intentions were to increase Magnesium. Not sure what I was thinking, Mag flakes do not remotely look like Calcium Chloride powder. LOL. Calcium currently at 500 ppm, so I took the CaRX offline until Calcium drops to 420 ppm. Probably will take two weeks to drop 80 ppm. My system consumes approximately 2 dkh per day, so I will be manually dosing alk, which I hate. Good news. Five days ago, I started dosing KNO3 to raise Nitrates to 2 ppm and I am starting to see the Red and Pink colors on the Del Fuego and Red Planet get deep and rich. No color changes over Yellow, Green, Purple, or Blue.