New Tank Dosing Plan

[Old Glory]

When starting my tank and gathering equipment I wanted to cycle my rock while I waited for my tank to come in. I put 120 lbs of dryrock in a 100 gallon tub and added a bottle of Bio-Spira. Then I started dosing MB7 and Seachem Stability for two months to establish a bioculture. I ghost fed to feed the bacteria. I also used Dr. Tim's when I started the tank itself. Tank has been running for three weeks.

My plan to get the tank through the break in period is to dose carbon and bacteria. Currently I am dosing (roughly 120 gallons of water volume):
MB7 1 capful a week
NoPox Daily 8 ml
Biodigest every 15 days
Vibrant Every two weeks
I also use GFO and Activated Carbon in a BRS two canister reactor

Was planning to do this for the first six months watching the tank and backing off when necessary.

I am getting a bit of a bacteria bloom some film on the glass and the water is a touch cloudy.

My numbers are:
Alk 8.4
Calcium 450
PH 7.79
Phos .04
Nitrate 4+
Ammo 0

Current Fish:
1 Small Hippo Tang (from prior tank added just when tank was set up)
6 line wrasse (from prior tank added just when tank was set up)
3 Small Yellow Tangs (in quarantine for 4 weeks)
2 Clowns (in quarantine for 4 weeks)
Purple Dottyback (in quarantine for 4 weeks)

Corals:
4 heads of zoa
2 small octospawns
1 small frogspawn
6 heads Acan

Fish and coral are doing well.

Comments?

 

[jeff williams]

When starting my tank and gathering equipment I wanted to cycle my rock while I waited for my tank to come in. I put 120 lbs of dryrock in a 100 gallon tub and added a bottle of Bio-Spira. Then I started dosing MB7 and Seachem Stability for two months to establish a bioculture. I ghost fed to feed the bacteria. I also used Dr. Tim's when I started the tank itself. Tank has been running for three weeks.

My plan to get the tank through the break in period is to dose carbon and bacteria. Currently I am dosing (roughly 120 gallons of water volume):
MB7 1 capful a week
NoPox Daily 8 ml
Biodigest every 15 days
Vibrant Every two weeks
I also use GFO and Activated Carbon in a BRS two canister reactor

Was planning to do this for the first six months watching the tank and backing off when necessary.

I am getting a bit of a bacteria bloom some film on the glass and the water is a touch cloudy.

My numbers are:
Alk 8.4
Calcium 450
PH 7.79
Phos .04
Nitrate 4+
Ammo 0

Current Fish:
1 Small Hippo Tang (from prior tank added just when tank was set up)
6 line wrasse (from prior tank added just when tank was set up)
3 Small Yellow Tangs (in quarantine for 4 weeks)
2 Clowns (in quarantine for 4 weeks)
Purple Dottyback (in quarantine for 4 weeks)

Corals:
4 heads of zoa
2 small octospawns
1 small frogspawn
6 heads Acan

Fish and coral are doing well.

Comments?

Imo I would back off the chemicals and bacteria a bit you don't need to keep adding nitrifying bacteria and the tank is so new I don't think its nessacary to use biodigest. However I'm betting if you cut back on some product your bacterial bloom with go away

 

[Scott.h]

At this point the system should be mature enough you should be able to run it without any chemicals. Your bio load is tiny. I'd feed the fish accordingly and back off on everything and see what happens. Chemicals in my experience has always caused other problems eventually. Not saying they aren't tools that can be used when needed but you shouldn't need them.

 

[Old Glory]

I think I am over compensating for my last tank. It built up nutrients and looked like crap at the end.

 

[Scott.h]

I think I am over compensating for my last tank. It built up nutrients and looked like crap at the end.

I did the same thing. I spend more time dosing and testing now to make sure nutrients are detectable then I do worrying about how high my other tanks nutrients are.

 

[jeff williams]

Just a good WC schedule will work wonders. What I do is keep a journal on my tanks and I've been doing a 10-15 gallon WC every other week and testing nitrate my. nitrate level has been staying around 5-10 ppm once it starts to increase I'll increase my WC volume or frequency

 

[Scott.h]

Adiqiate filtration, be it equipment, water volume, or a proper fuge is the best solution over anything, including water changes. Utilize icp testing to get your trace elements where they need to be and leave it alone. Not only does this create the perfect environment but a very stable one, hence no water changes. Once established it creates a big savings in salt and water too, plus time saved in effort doing the changes. But nore of that can happen without the right filtration first.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Adiqiate filtration, be it equipment, water volume, or a proper fuge is the best solution over anything, including water changes. Utilize icp testing to get your trace elements where they need to be and leave it alone. Not only does this create the perfect environment but a very stable one, hence no water changes. Once established it creates a big savings in salt and water too, plus time saved in effort doing the changes. But nore of that can happen without the right filtration first.

That method works great (albeit potentially expensive) for things that need to be added. Not so great for things that accumulate in the water.

 

[Scott.h]

That method works great (albeit potentially expensive) for things that need to be added. Not so great for things that accumulate in the water.

It's not really all that bad if you already have dosing pumps. Each trace bottle is roughly 30 bucks, but some of those 100 ml bottles only require a few mls, obviously depending on the specifics of what's being absorbed. So they do last awhile if the water isn't being changed out.

My Guinea pig tank is too soon to show long term success or problems, but short term (10 months) I've had to eliminate (in order) gfo, carbon, water changes, and for the last few weeks even dumping my skimmate back into the water column 2x a day. (Using the skimmer keeps ph elevated a bit more). Long term if I get a detritus build up and increasing nutrients I may have to go after it. With bare bottom it's easy to see dead spots in flow. And if some other contaminants get in obviously I'll have to address it. What would be a potential contaminant? I'm assuming you are referring to pollutants that may come from mg and such? I'd like to your thoughts on specific potential problems. At this point I keep a glass lid on, and even try to refrain from putting my hands in the water.

As for now Im seeing the best health, growth, and coloration I've had in the last 15 years I've dabbled in the hobby, and spending less time testing and working on it. I really hope it stays that way.

 

[jeff williams]

It's not really all that bad if you already have dosing pumps. Each trace bottle is roughly 30 bucks, but some of those 100 ml bottles only require a few mls, obviously depending on the specifics of what's being absorbed. So they do last awhile if the water isn't being changed out.

My Guinea pig tank is too soon to show long term success or problems, but short term (10 months) I've had to eliminate (in order) gfo, carbon, water changes, and for the last few weeks even dumping my skimmate back into the water column 2x a day. (Using the skimmer keeps ph elevated a bit more). Long term if I get a detritus build up and increasing nutrients I may have to go after it. With bare bottom it's easy to see dead spots in flow. And if some other contaminants get in obviously I'll have to address it. What would be a potential contaminant? I'm assuming you are referring to pollutants that may come from mg and such? At this point I keep a glass lid on, and even try to refrain from putting my hands in the water.

As for now Im seeing the best health, growth, and coloration I've had in the last 15 years I've dabbled in the hobby, and spending less time testing and working on it. I really hope it stays that way.

This is interesting you've seen a large enough drop in phosphate to eliminate gfo? Or are you testing the system to actually see if gfo is needed? Also what reason are you dumping the skim mate back in the tank for ? Just curious as to weather this is a test or what benefits you have seen from doing this

 

[Scott.h]

This is interesting you've seen a large enough drop in phosphate to eliminate gfo? Or are you testing the system to actually see if gfo is needed? Also what reason are you dumping the skim mate back in the tank for ? Just curious as to weather this is a test or what benefits you have seen from doing this

Honestly it's been a whole other learning curve then what I was used to. Because of my past, with this build I focused hard on filtration. (This is my third currently running tank, each about 100 gal twv). Not only have I not used gfo in many months, but every two or three days I ADD liquid phosphate to keep it to .01. Yes, I use the Hanna ultra low phosphorus to test a few times a week. Because this is the first tank actually dealing with these types of issues, I've actually had to learn the other side of it.. what happens when you try to deal with a stripped nutrient system and having to actually dose N and P. Also the problems with dosing and balancing those. It's fun. Gives me something else to mess with. I love to keep learning.