Greybeard's Wide, Shallow Peninsula
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Greybeard
2500 Club Member
Coral show in St. Louis this weekend. If there's anyone from SLASH around here, nice job, folks. Good turnout, some very nice stuff on hand.
Picked up a 5" favites colony, a bit of blue staghorn, a nice little candelabra gorgonian, a well encrusted plug of meteor shower cyphastrea, and a healthy looking little wall hammer.
Picked up a 5" favites colony, a bit of blue staghorn, a nice little candelabra gorgonian, a well encrusted plug of meteor shower cyphastrea, and a healthy looking little wall hammer.
OP
OP
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
On other matters... regarding my moving away from Triton and trying to make things a bit more stable...
Did my weekly testing last night.
Alk 9 dkh
Calc 450
Mg 1350
NO3 3
And... those are _exactly_ the same test results I've had for the last 4 weeks running.
When I left Triton, I went to straight Kalkwasser, in a Tunze 'calcium dispenser', in combination with my ATO. This is the 2nd time I've tried to use this contraption... it appears dead simple, in concept, but in reality, it's very tough to work with. You're using the ATO, so dosing quantity depends entirely on evaporation. Strength of the solution is either (A) fully saturated, all the time, with undissolved kalk paste in the bottom, or (B) rapidly decreasing, as it's diluted further with each use. If you mix to less than full saturation, you basically have to do so every day, and by the end of the day, you're adding straight water again. Add in the fact that the anti back flow valve that is supposed to keep kalk from running back into your ATO reservoir... well, didn't. I guess I'm done with this thing.
Anyway, 5 weeks ago, I bought a 2 gallon kit from ESV and hooked it up with my doser. I used B-Ionic many years ago, it had always worked well for me. Well, I'm here to say, it still does. Since getting the dose right, it's been rock solid. I went with ESV because they make some attempt at trace elements. I was unhappy with BRS's Calc/Alk when I was using it in my cube.
Anyone using Red Sea's Calc/Alk + Colors? I'm not moving away from my refugeum, would be uninterested in their carbon dosing, but their Calc/Alk and Colors system appears to be well thought out...
Oh well, I'm B-Ionic for a while, anyway. We'll see how this holds up over time.
Did my weekly testing last night.
Alk 9 dkh
Calc 450
Mg 1350
NO3 3
And... those are _exactly_ the same test results I've had for the last 4 weeks running.
When I left Triton, I went to straight Kalkwasser, in a Tunze 'calcium dispenser', in combination with my ATO. This is the 2nd time I've tried to use this contraption... it appears dead simple, in concept, but in reality, it's very tough to work with. You're using the ATO, so dosing quantity depends entirely on evaporation. Strength of the solution is either (A) fully saturated, all the time, with undissolved kalk paste in the bottom, or (B) rapidly decreasing, as it's diluted further with each use. If you mix to less than full saturation, you basically have to do so every day, and by the end of the day, you're adding straight water again. Add in the fact that the anti back flow valve that is supposed to keep kalk from running back into your ATO reservoir... well, didn't. I guess I'm done with this thing.
Anyway, 5 weeks ago, I bought a 2 gallon kit from ESV and hooked it up with my doser. I used B-Ionic many years ago, it had always worked well for me. Well, I'm here to say, it still does. Since getting the dose right, it's been rock solid. I went with ESV because they make some attempt at trace elements. I was unhappy with BRS's Calc/Alk when I was using it in my cube.
Anyone using Red Sea's Calc/Alk + Colors? I'm not moving away from my refugeum, would be uninterested in their carbon dosing, but their Calc/Alk and Colors system appears to be well thought out...
Oh well, I'm B-Ionic for a while, anyway. We'll see how this holds up over time.
Looking good with the book shelves, Like the look of oak too, nice contrast with the black steel. Sounds like you have surplus ply, you could use that to rap the face then edg band that, just thinking.
Now If you really want to blow the budget, Sliding Barn Doors with those black hammered rollers and hardware would look SWEET with the Oak and steel.
Now If you really want to blow the budget, Sliding Barn Doors with those black hammered rollers and hardware would look SWEET with the Oak and steel.
HolisticBear
Valuable Member
I struggled with kalk in my ATO on my AIO last year for the reasons you mentioned.
In the most recent BRS ULM talk, they mentioned dosing a fixed amount of fully saturated kalk solution separate from the ATO. That eliminates two variables, they are using a Avast Marine Kalk Stirrer. I'm interested to see how that works out for them.
You can use Red Sea's ABCD colors with most Alk/Ca solutions. I think BRS has a video on how to use it with their 2 part. I ran their ABC+ powder with Colors CD. I really liked the product, but left it because I was tired of manual dosing and it can't be easily automated.
In the most recent BRS ULM talk, they mentioned dosing a fixed amount of fully saturated kalk solution separate from the ATO. That eliminates two variables, they are using a Avast Marine Kalk Stirrer. I'm interested to see how that works out for them.
You can use Red Sea's ABCD colors with most Alk/Ca solutions. I think BRS has a video on how to use it with their 2 part. I ran their ABC+ powder with Colors CD. I really liked the product, but left it because I was tired of manual dosing and it can't be easily automated.
OP
OP
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
Oops... well, that'd be a problem. If I can't automate it, then it's not going to work for me.
That was one of several reasons I was so hopeful about the Triton system. So easy to automate. Just didn't work out.
Oh well. B-Ionic, with bi-weekly water changes (I'm using Fritz RPM salt. So far, it's mixing up just where I want it.), seems to be the ticket. I've got water changes to the point where they're fairly simple at this point. Originally, I didn't have a decent mixing station set up... Triton, remember, so I wasn't planning to do much in the way of water changes... Anyway, I do now.
HolisticBear
Valuable Member
I should have been clearer. You can't automate the ABC+ powder. You can certainly automate their Alk/Mg/Ca/A/B/C/D products, but that is seven dosing heads. Some people simply automate the first 3, and then manually dose weekly the A/B/C/D colors. The Colors include instructions on how to calculate the right amount if you use a different Alk/Cal, so you might be able to match with ESV.
Important, the Red Sea Alk/Ca/Mg are not equal dosing products, you dose each one separately to your needs.
I switched to Triton Other Methods but I consider it basically interchangeable with Fauna Marin's 3 part, AF's 3 part, or others balanced 3 part solutions.
OP
OP
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
Cabinets completed over the weekend, tried to get a decent overall shot... different lighting conditions make it tough to get a good shot. I'm happy with it, in any case.
Since my initial design, following the Christmas crash of my cube system in January 2017... 15 months. Oh well, that's why they call it a hobby, right?
Since my initial design, following the Christmas crash of my cube system in January 2017... 15 months. Oh well, that's why they call it a hobby, right?
TUSI
2500 Club Member
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Reef Of The Month
Photo of the Month
Reef Squad Emeritus
My Tank Thread
Looks awesome .really cool looking tank,
Setup of my dreams. Just perfect.
Reef, books, bar = all I need.
Reef, books, bar = all I need.
najer
Valuable Member
Anything you are looking for in particular?
OP
OP
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
Want a clam, or two... Squamosa, deresa, crocea... I'm not big on maximas.
Plan to pick up a few starter plugs of various zoa colors. I've got orange and peach, but would like to have a few more.
Perhaps some LPS. Plate or tongue, maybe a bubble coral, green wall hammer or some other euphyllia. Just have to see what they've got.
If they've got some good looking Ricordia, I wouldn't be adverse to a few of those, either.
Probably no SPS this trip. I'm not having great luck with SPS at this point. Not sure why. I'm not overly worried about it, everything else appears to be doing great. SPS (I've tried some basic staghorn acros and monitpora cap) are either RTN in the first day or two, or just holding on. That's OK, I like softies and LPS just as well.
I've got a large green polyp toadstool mushroom on it's way, from a friend. Maybe a few purple hairy mushrooms, too.
Plan to pick up a few starter plugs of various zoa colors. I've got orange and peach, but would like to have a few more.
Perhaps some LPS. Plate or tongue, maybe a bubble coral, green wall hammer or some other euphyllia. Just have to see what they've got.
If they've got some good looking Ricordia, I wouldn't be adverse to a few of those, either.
Probably no SPS this trip. I'm not having great luck with SPS at this point. Not sure why. I'm not overly worried about it, everything else appears to be doing great. SPS (I've tried some basic staghorn acros and monitpora cap) are either RTN in the first day or two, or just holding on. That's OK, I like softies and LPS just as well.
I've got a large green polyp toadstool mushroom on it's way, from a friend. Maybe a few purple hairy mushrooms, too.
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