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LOL, I figured that might be a bit much. Thank you!It's morning here so I won't attempt to check your maths! Beautiful tank by the way!
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LOL, I figured that might be a bit much. Thank you!It's morning here so I won't attempt to check your maths! Beautiful tank by the way!
I performed my final dip. It has been more than 2 months since the last time I saw a flat worm, and nearly 3 months since I started the dipping process. I inspected each frag under magnification during the past two dips to ensure saw no evidence of bite marks or tissue damage. I decided it's time to put everything back in it's place.
I did realize about 6 weeks into this process that I was using double the recommended amount for the concentration of the dips. Somehow, I miscalculated the volume of melafix to add. Despite this, I'm happy to report I didn't lose any coral. Although colors suffered, many of the corals have continued to grow.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm happy to be done with the flat worms for now and hopefully forever. Much nicer to look at the tank now, and I'm excited to see things grow in.Whew. Finally made it through all 10 pages. An excellent build thread!
Glad you made it through the AEFW process OK. I am about 2 months into my second round with them. Luckily (I guess) they are only in my frag system. Still, dipping a dozen racks every weekend is not a lot of fun. I began with Melafix but switched after a few things browned out. Now a fan of potassium chloride. Last weekend was the first time NO WORMS were detected. I am now falling back to dipping every 2 weeks.
As to adding the CaRx I will share my experience there too. My 2-part consumption (frag system again) was approaching 250ml a day of ESV of each part. I bought an ACR reactor and ran it WITH the APEX DOS and gradually dialing the doser down and reactor up. Within a few weeks I had dialed the DOS down to negligible amounts.
The ACR runs with a relatively high pH compared to other units. I was using a blend of my own skeleton and ReBorn which melt easily. Still, my pH ranges dropped about .2 to 7.80-8.10. I added a scrubber to the skimmer and got modest improvement even with a recirculating install.
So I waved in a Reef Octo 250 kalk stirrer to very good effect. I am trying now to minimize the work to manage it. My APEX pushes about 2.2 liters for RODI through it each day/night. Mostly at night, of course.
Agree it is best to let everyone settle down before next changes.
A link to the KCl I use is below. 1 tablespoon per gallon is recommended but I have done stronger accidentally without issue. Mixes clear. It does not stun AEFW, it kills them dead dead dead. In fact the only downside is that it makes them shrivel up and seemingly dissolve, which makes it hard to get a body count. If you don't see them early, you might not realize you have any worms. Which could be a problem.
When you do bring on the CaRx, I really feel like you will need to dose kalkwasser. I broke my CaRx so am back to 2Part ESV but now dosing less than half of what I did prior to kalk: 110ml each part.
I use APEX DOS to push RODI into the stirrer. I run 3 different intervals with different rates and still tinkering with the intervals. If the house is tightly closed, I dose almost 3 liters a day. When house/basement is "open" only about 2200ml. ALK and Ca have been remarkably stable day to day and intra day. Kalk is old school I know, but I better understand now why it remains popular. I would not so this via ATO; way to volatile. Besides, APEX makes it too easy to dial.
System volume is 300G but really only 240 or so of water. Sumps alone are 108G with a lot of rock in them.
With APEX DOS, you just input the time window and the total amount and it does the portions/frequency. The "night" interval is broken into two intervals only because Fusion doesn't deal well with crossing over the 24:00 hour mark.Thanks, I haven't used kalk before, so I didn't have a great sense of the volumes. Your system volume is very similar, so at least gives me a little bit of an idea. Obviously other variables to account for. I'm going to look into this a bit further.
What are the intervals and rates you're tinkering with? Do they correspond to the light cycle? I suspect you're correct regarding dosing kalkwasser when I bring the calcium reactor online. The pH in the Deltec runs low from what I understand. I would consider doing this proactively, but seems like a lot of variables to account for. Still something I'm considering and will think about timing further.
Thanks, this is great info. I hadn't considered adding kalk in intervals like this. This may very well be a common practice, just something I haven't looked into, but I really like the idea. I forsee a kalk stirrer and another DOS in the near future for the system!With APEX DOS, you just input the time window and the total amount and it does the portions/frequency. The "night" interval is broken into two intervals only because Fusion doesn't deal well with crossing over the 24:00 hour mark.
I suppose I could some day write some logic into an outlet to peg pH at a certain level, but I too am new to kalkwasser and prefer to keep it simple until I have a good feel for that impact on dkh and salinity first. Also, the concentration (saturation) of the solution wanes over time. I need a feel for that aspect as well.
Being new, I started MUCH lower than 2-3 liters; I began around 200ml which did nothing.
Ur welcome. I would never consider giving up my DOS for 2-Part. It will remain installed and running at least something through it always.Thanks, this is great info. I hadn't considered adding kalk in intervals like this. This may very well be a common practice, just something I haven't looked into, but I really like the idea. I forsee a kalk stirrer and another DOS in the near future for the system!
Thanks for reading. It's been a fun project so far. I'm happy to have coral back on the rock work. It's nice to have things looking more natural again.I have really enjoyed reading through your thread! I really liked all of the thought and details you incorporated in this fantastic build. What an awesome tank!
I am very envious of your leopard wrasses, still mainly about the potters.
Choati is out and about swimming today and most importantly has started to eat. Took a couple brine shrimp earlier. Still clearly getting adjusted, but looks healthy and the other fish are leaving him alone. Hawkfish was a little territorial yesterday, but that has calmed down today.