Keeping Filtration Simple.

Bruttall

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So over the last year I have gone thru some interesting changes in my system. I have gotten away from mechanical filtration entirely. No socks, floss, or sponges of any kind in my filter. Just a skimmer to export nutrients. My water quality/clarity has never been better, my fish looks like they are suspended in air inside my display. Every week I do a Coral Snow treatment. I got the recipe from these forums, it's pretty easy to use and I do not think you can overdose with it. Here is the recipe,

For 500ML of solution, add 10 level tablespoons of powder to roughly 425-450ML of RO/DI water.
Shake the bottle up, and let it sit for two hours. After which, it will be ready to use.
Now, I don’t believe that you can overdose with this product, but a good recommended dose is 5ml per 50gl of aquarium volume.
Be sure to shake up the bottle prior to each use as the powder can settle.

The Mix

Take your measured solution of Coral Snow and add it to a small container.

A plastic or glass cup will suffice.
Next, add 10 drops of Microbacter7 per 5ML of Coral Snow.
Allow 5 minutes for the solution to sit and then dose into your aquarium.
Note that Coral Snow will cloud your aquarium for at least two hours. Filter socks and Protein Skimmer(s) should be left on.

Application

I use a DIY mixture of Calcium Carbonate to clarify the water. The solution acts as a flocculant, helping to export tiny free floating matter.

Now, you could just stop right there, and use this solution simply for water clarity, but, you would be missing out on some of the greatest benefits that the complete formula has to offer.

Combining the Coral Snow with bacteria has an outsized effect on undesirable things such as Cyano slime.

To get the full effect, you’re going to want to take a turkey baster and manually remove or blow off all cyano and other desirable organisms off of the rockwork and sand.

If you’re able to, run some filter socks in the sump to help capture any large free floating waste.

Now, your going to want to add the Coral Snow solution in a cup and then add the bacteria. You can go a little on the bacteria, slightly more than the manufacturers recommendation.

Allow the solution to sit for five minutes and then administer it to the aquarium.

For the full effect, I will turn off the main system pump and allow the solution to have time to coat the surfaces of the aquarium. Generally, I will let process play out for an hour before turning on my main pump and filtration.

After the hour is up, the main pump is turned on, filter socks setup, and skimmer turned on. The skimmer is going to play a key roll here in helping to remove the particles that have bonded to the coral snow.

Enhancing Coral Snow to Feed Corals

After some weeks, and the system is clean and clear you can then move on to some more advanced methods and mixtures.

I like to add bacteria, Zeofood, and Selcon to my mix.

The Coral Snow will help to distribute the nutrition directly to the corals. When dosed correctly, you should see a feeding response from corals, especially SPS who will extend feeding tentacles.

Now, not all corals will immediately go into feeding mode during the day. It will take some time but eventually they will be conditioned to do so. All things considered, the feeding mix has done very to aid with growth of corals in my system.


Here is a picture of my sump, as you can see, no floss or socks of any kind. Tank will be 1 yr old next month.

20240317_054420[1].jpg


And my DT!
mar13.jpg


Anyone else using this method and seeing success? Thoughts or comments, questions?

Happy Reefing!
 

Nano_Man

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I have been doing the same every week my water has never been cleaner. What I have found is my skimmer is now producing nothing. I’ve had no ill effects to anything. This is just my experience using calcium carbonate
 

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