Andre’s Full blown 300Gallon SPS Reeftank up within a week ;-)

[PSXerholic]

Forgive me for not reading every page of the thread. But based on some of the dates and pictures. You had a pretty quick turnaround. Going from all dry rock aquascape to acro sustaining in mere week/couple months. What did you do to get the tank mature enough so quickly to be able to avoid a year of abysmal growth and STN while sponges and microfauna build up. Even after a major rescape in a mature tank, I’m set back months on acropora health until things stabilize again. And that experience doesn’t seem to be unique to me. Happens to lots of people. What steps have you taken to avoid all that

Simply go through the thread since it contain more details and thought process!

However in short, I dosed plenty of biodigest and a shot of vodka prior the tank was filled, induced a bacteria bloom, got skimmer for aeration into the tank until filled and used strong UV while skimming. Used only dry rock for low bioload. Kept dosing Biodigest. Measured still no ammonia and no Nitrit, hence cycle hasn't started. Then I brought my Nitrate reactor back online and dosed again Biodigest, Nitrates and Ammonia chloride to feed the bacteria of the first and second part of the cycle and watched closely the nutrient levels and kept populating the bacteria. Second day I placed some Montis and Tenuis into the tank as canary. They made it through ;-) Tank behaved well, Nitrates dropped quite fast so after a week I brought all my remaining corals back in. I could have done it earlier but had to lower ALK a bit first.

So I measured ALK three times a day while bringing the Calcium reactor back online.
Some Corals had experienced TN already while in care of others due to certain circumstances and stress.
So this TN basically stopped mostly while ALK, CA,MG,K as well as No3 was stable.

The CARX was difficult to adjust and to keep ALK stable. Swings I did see immediately caused some minor progress on TN but stopped as soon the ALK level was stable again. I tried to do changes over days if possible on all possible parameters.

Only Dry Rock was used to avoid too much bioload from Liverock.
Only a few Liverock pieces came in with the Corals when I got them back into the tank.

Also I run continously a considered larger UV unit to manage bacteria blooms and pathogenic bacteria control.
Oh, yes.... I kept dosing Biodigest and after corals were in and Nitrates kept dropping, I stopped ammonia dosing.

Honestly one thing I should have avoided earlier was to allow the tank not to exceed 78 deg F !!!
Well I did do this later and installed some Cooling fans to use Evap cooling for the tank.
Cooler temps will reduce risk of pathogenic bacteria bloom hence reduced risk of coral infections/diseases as well help to prevent bacteria blooms.

I guess thats it!
Keeping everything as stable as possible and do changes slowly on Chemistry.
And use a good foundation of bacteria strains ;-)

-Andre

 

[PSXerholic]

Corals are mostly happy as much they can be, and recovering very well ;-)
However some SPS will have some months of recovery in front of them!

 

[bubbaque]

Is the only product you use of theirs is biodigest? Do you continue to use it and a carbon source? Do you turn off the UV when/if you dose the bacteria?

 

[KJoFan]

Also, how often were/are you dosing the Biodigest throughout this whole process?

 

[PSXerholic]

Is the only product you use of theirs is biodigest? Do you continue to use it and a carbon source? Do you turn off the UV when/if you dose the bacteria?

I only use Biodigest !!!
I dose it weekly or biweekly as a refreshment. Should turn off the UV and Skimmer, but don't due to laziness
Typically do it in the evening while feeding Oyster feast or SelconBoost which makes the skimmer not working at least.
The Nitrate reactor media has some carbon in it, and Nitrates go to not detectable if I do not dose a daily shot of Stump Remover. Hence no need for another carb source for bacteria.

I will continue to use Reef Energy soon which one part is loaded with carbs, but have to wait until my other cooling fan arrive since my tank goes up to 81F which is not desired at this point in time.
This higher temp and the carbs make my tank whitish a bit, means too many bacteria then.
Would not be a big problem, however I'm always concerned about pathogenic bacteria take advantage of this, since I have plenty of maricultured corals, as well we never figured out the reason for the TN the corals experienced while in care during the time I did the house repairs and tank built.
So I assume the TN was one of thousands of possible coral diseases ;Nurse caused by pathogens.
Things we never will see with our eyes

 

[PSXerholic]

Also, how often were/are you dosing the Biodigest throughout this whole process?

Hmmm.... every other day like 2-3 ampules the first 1,5weeks, the initial shot was about 10 ampules.
I used a large box of 32 ampules and have maybe 5 or 6 left at the moment.

 

[KJoFan]

Hmmm.... every other day like 2-3 ampules the first 1,5weeks, the initial shot was about 10 ampules.
I used a large box of 32 ampules and have maybe 5 or 6 left at the moment.

Do you plan to continue using it regularly from here on?

 

[PSXerholic]

Do you plan to continue using it regularly from here on?

Yes, biweekly at least. Do this always to refresh the bacteria strains to keep a good and balanced bacterial diversity ;-)

I got this out of "Andre's Reef Guide Part 1", lol. Great guy IMO ;Hilarious

 

[KJoFan]

Yes, biweekly at least. Do this always to refresh the bacteria strains to keep a good and balanced bacterial diversity ;-)

I got this out of "Andre's Reef Guide Part 1", lol. Great guy IMO ;Hilarious

I just got my new tank going a few weeks ago and have dosed one vial of Biodigest so far about a week ago when I added my clownfish pair. Maybe I should have used more than one vial and/or more frequently.

 

[PSXerholic]

I just got my new tank going a few weeks ago and have dosed one vial of Biodigest so far about a week ago when I added my clownfish pair. Maybe I should have used more than one vial and/or more frequently.

With Biodigest only I have not experienced issues of blooming with 2-3x of the recommended dosage.

 

[olaggie01]

I got the 1" ID silicone tubing from BRS.

It's a bit more wiggly as I thought to be honest.
But the results are great if you see as in my case, if you do the combo of Piping and flex tubes.
I love the fact that I do not hear any noise from pumps and waterflow due to vibrations.

Thanks. What do you mean “wiggly”?

 

[PSXerholic]

Thanks. What do you mean “wiggly”?

Wobbly! A bit too soft.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Another nice Houston tank.

 

[RUNVS]

I just got my new tank going a few weeks ago and have dosed one vial of Biodigest so far about a week ago when I added my clownfish pair. Maybe I should have used more than one vial and/or more frequently.

Over a year ago I restarted my Reef Tank and I used the Bio Digest except I put all the ampules in at once the same day i filled the tank, I put 2 clownfish in the next and small mimic tank and 2 Lyretail anthias in the next day, SPS in about a week later and have yet to lose any fish or the initial corals that I added to the tank, I only used Dry Rock and Live sand. I must say in my experience the Bio Digest did wonders and cycled my tank in such a short amount of time as it advertises.

 

[PSXerholic]

Over a year ago I restarted my Reef Tank and I used the Bio Digest except I put all the ampules in at once the same day i filled the tank, I put 2 clownfish in the next and small mimic tank and 2 Lyretail anthias in the next day, SPS in about a week later and have yet to lose any fish or the initial corals that I added to the tank, I only used Dry Rock and Live sand. I must say in my experience the Bio Digest did wonders and cycled my tank in such a short amount of time as it advertises.

Yes, I had best results with this product on fresh tanks or problem tanks to get the bacterial diversity back to normal ;-)
Bit more costly than others, but worth every cent.

 

[KJoFan]

This makes me want to go pour more vials of my Biodigest in my tank that has nothing but my clown pair in it.

 

[PSXerholic]

This makes me want to go pour more vials of my Biodigest in my tank that has nothing but my clown pair in it.

Nothing wrong with it, if you see any Cyano or Dinos !!! May go away after ;-)

 

[bubbaque]

Do you believe dosing this bacteria helps keep dinos or cyano away? What if you currently have those issues. Would you think it helps get rid of it?

 

[ReeferBean]

Awesome work.

 

[PSXerholic]

Ok, it was time to get my temperature down. So I spent my evening to built a 4x 120rpm low noise fan.
They run separated on 2 power supplies for temp control with even less fluctuation.
Haven't programmed it yet. Just running in Chiller mode for now.

So temp dropped nicely now from 81 down to 78 with ease ;-)