Some of my Acro Collection

[Perry]

Thanks Perry, your thread finally gave me the inspiration to finish up my write up. I've had so many people ask why this, why that, I figured I'd finally compose a write up that I can easily point people towards.

Allan,
Thanks for taking the time to put a ton of observations, thoughts, and experiences to documentation. It can be somewhat overwhelming trying to put it all down, where it flows. You did this well! We use very similar products, and also run our systems similarly. Crazy! I have been using FWS for 17 years, on every reef, and swear by it. I used the Phols Extra, and Extra Special, but given my food is rich in aminos, my salts have aminos, and I dose AF Coral Boost weekly too, which is Calcium Carbonate Snow with aminos added. That said, it is a food and treated as such. Might have to give Fauna Marin Min S a go... Great work discussing bio-media, some think it's purpose is only nutrient/nitrate control, when in reality, it simply mimicks live rock adding copius areas for bacteria homing, as well as micro life to proliferate. I have had dusters, worms, micro stars, and many other life forms imbedded in the media. I prefer Siporax above all, it is likely the most porous media available, pumice is good too. Look into AF's Life Source----Fiji extracted mud, and AF Life Bio Fil, pumice with pre-imbedded bacteria, probiotic strains. These products will also add in diveristy, likely more beneficial for newer systems... Anyway, keep up the great work brother!

 

[coral reeftank]

Allan,
Thanks for taking the time to put a ton of observations, thoughts, and experiences to documentation. It can be somewhat overwhelming trying to put it all down, where it flows. You did this well! We use very similar products, and also run our systems similarly. Crazy! I have been using FWS for 17 years, on every reef, and swear by it. I used the Phols Extra, and Extra Special, but given my food is rich in aminos, my salts have aminos, and I dose AF Coral Boost weekly too, which is Calcium Carbonate Snow with aminos added. That said, it is a food and treated as such. Might have to give Fauna Marin Min S a go... Great work discussing bio-media, some think it's purpose is only nutrient/nitrate control, when in reality, it simply mimicks live rock adding copius areas for bacteria homing, as well as micro life to proliferate. I have had dusters, worms, micro stars, and many other life forms imbedded in the media. I prefer Siporax above all, it is likely the most porous media available, pumice is good too. Look into AF's Life Source----Fiji extracted mud, and AF Life Bio Fil, pumice with pre-imbedded bacteria, probiotic strains. These products will also add in diveristy, likely more beneficial for newer systems... Anyway, keep up the great work brother!

Preciate it Perry!

It was very cool to how we both converged down similar reefing methodologies. I am lucky to have several independent systems to experiment with and am always reading new literature in the hopes of intellectual breakthroughs.

Aminos seem to be in many products now, and are essentially just free form protein building blocks. Assuming that you offer a nutritious and diverse feed, I think that aminos would already exist in the water. Especially at my higher nutrient levels I’ve noticed a less drastic improvement in coloration with established corals, but among new/stressed/recovering corals the additional amino supplementation is extremely helpful.

Flatworm Stop is literally Acropora steroids, I’ve been using it since 2012 when I first started getting into high end sticks and I’ve always had a bottle on hand. I wish they sold larger volumes tbh. This might just be a fever dream of mine, but I remember on the bottle saying that you could administer twice the dosage for good effect. However, it doesn’t say that anymore. If there is any singular supplement I could recommend to any acro keeper it’s the KZ flatworm stop.

I’ll look into the AF stuff, not too well versed in their philosophy but I would not mind trying new products!

I wonder what the fecundity rate for these probiotic bacteria strains are, or if some of them reproduce at all.
It would be so awesome to run some long-term test on reef microbiomes to determine healthy equilibrium points and if they are reproducible. It would also be cool to see how our human intervention and the products we dose affect the microbiome. This really delves into the realm of theoretical ecology, but if armed with a proper dataset I think I could piece something together. If the last 4 years of my life taught me anything, then I can definitely analyze data lol.
I think that once this area is explored there will be a new era of reefkeeping.

 

[lubeck]

Excellent write up. I started using flatworm stop back in February and have noticed great results in the thickness of the skin of sps. I think I was reading Perry’s thread. Love the stuff

 

[coral reeftank]

Excellent write up. I started using flatworm stop back in February and have noticed great results in the thickness of the skin of sps. I think I was reading Perry’s thread. Love the stuff

It’s definitely worth it. I believe some other people found that the active ingredient was wormwood. I wonder if just dosing that alone would make the tissue more plump.

 

[coral reeftank]

Just a note for anyone curious, here is a snapshot of how my system consumes nitrates and phosphates

In a 140 gallon display with
2 Yellow Tang
Achilles Tang
Black Tang Hybrid
Purple Tang
2 Choati Leopards
2 Blue Star Leopards
2 Pink Streak Wrasse
Neon Goby
6 Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Allen's Damsel
Yellow Wrasse

The nitrate was 40.1 ppm and phosphate was .57 ppm on 7/12
Today (7/18) these values are 29.3 ppm nitrate and .45 ppm phosphate
Besides regularly feeding the fish every day.
Last night I administered a heavy feeding to my system consisting of 3 heaping chemiclean scoops reef roids, 5 ml Min S, 3 heaping chemiclean scoops coral sprint, 1 cap pohls xtra special, 10 ml ME aminos, 1 cap Amin and 1 spoon zeozym. So I suspect my values were lower before this feeding.
I have not performed a water change yet, and have dosed all my fauna Marin and KZ products twice before last night's feeding.

As you can see, the nitrate consumption in the system is quite rapid. I suspect this is from the usage of bacteria products, along with the corals. I can easily see this system bottoming out of nitrates in two weeks time if I did not feed like a mad man. This established reef can process a ridiculous amount of food!

Looking back, issues relating to my full zeovit system related to inconsistent feeding. I wasn't testing nitrates and phosphates, and I just assumed that I fed "enough". I think my fish would explode if I fed what I think is "enough" now lol.
This goes back to the boom and bust cycles that our aquariums exhibit. During those brief moments where I was feeding the tank, sure I was overloading the system with food, but for how long would the water column stay saturated? and then what about for the intervals between feedings? That's why I've switched over to this extremely heavy feeding plan I now run and it seems like I'll have to make it extremer if my system keeps this pace of consumption! The acros are loving it

 

[Troylee]

Just a note for anyone curious, here is a snapshot of how my system consumes nitrates and phosphates

In a 140 gallon display with
2 Yellow Tang
Achilles Tang
Black Tang Hybrid
Purple Tang
2 Choati Leopards
2 Blue Star Leopards
2 Pink Streak Wrasse
Neon Goby
6 Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Allen's Damsel
Yellow Wrasse

The nitrate was 40.1 ppm and phosphate was .57 ppm on 7/12
Today (7/18) these values are 29.3 ppm nitrate and .45 ppm phosphate
Besides regularly feeding the fish every day.
Last night I administered a heavy feeding to my system consisting of 3 heaping chemiclean scoops reef roids, 5 ml Min S, 3 heaping chemiclean scoops coral sprint, 1 cap pohls xtra special, 10 ml ME aminos, 1 cap Amin and 1 spoon zeozym. So I suspect my values were lower before this feeding.
I have not performed a water change yet, and have dosed all my fauna Marin and KZ products twice before last night's feeding.

As you can see, the nitrate consumption in the system is quite rapid. I suspect this is from the usage of bacteria products, along with the corals. I can easily see this system bottoming out of nitrates in two weeks time if I did not feed like a mad man. This established reef can process a ridiculous amount of food!

Looking back, issues relating to my full zeovit system related to inconsistent feeding. I wasn't testing nitrates and phosphates, and I just assumed that I fed "enough". I think my fish would explode if I fed what I think is "enough" now lol.
This goes back to the boom and bust cycles that our aquariums exhibit. During those brief moments where I was feeding the tank, sure I was overloading the system with food, but for how long would the water column stay saturated? and then what about for the intervals between feedings? That's why I've switched over to this extremely heavy feeding plan I now run and it seems like I'll have to make it extremer if my system keeps this pace of consumption! The acros are loving it

That’s the path I’ve always been on just changing my carbon sources and going the zeo route now for my first time.. really curious how it works and if I have luck with it! If not back to what I know! Vodka/mb7 haha

 

[coral reeftank]

That’s the path I’ve always been on just changing my carbon sources and going the zeo route now for my first time.. really curious how it works and if I have luck with it! If not back to what I know! Vodka/mb7 haha

Just be sure to take zeo slow, and to have a bank of nitrates and phosphates so you don't bottom out

 

[Troylee]

Just be sure to take zeo slow, and to have a bank of nitrates and phosphates so you don't bottom out

For sure! I’m relying on my 25 fish “7 decent size tangs” and heavy feeding to help lol.. so far so good with just carbon dosing but only a couple days into the zeo routine.

 

[coral reeftank]

For sure! I’m relying on my 25 fish “7 decent size tangs” and heavy feeding to help lol.. so far so good with just carbon dosing but only a couple days into the zeo routine.

the zeo will pick up fast, once there's a large population of that zeo bacteria in there you'll just be throwing in fish food nonstop lol

 

[Troylee]

the zeo will pick up fast, once there's a large population of that zeo bacteria in there you'll just be throwing in fish food nonstop lol

Before zeo i was and still am feeding 4 to 5 times a day plus 2 sheets of nori to keep the tang aggression down… pellets in the am, pellets around noon, flakes a hour later then 4 cubes of frozen.. maybe pellets again cause I can’t observe my tank without being harassed!! Haha..

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

golden eyes is a true killer!
any idea how to boost PH when dosing just 2 part?

Use Soda Ash (sodium carbonate) instead of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). It drastically increases ph if using 2 part

 

[TinyFish]

RR Orange Passion

RR ASIA Wolverine

RR Excalibur

RR Pink Floyd

RR Pretty in Pink

What does RR mean?

 

[Sweet Reef Corals]

It’s definitely worth it. I believe some other people found that the active ingredient was wormwood. I wonder if just dosing that alone would make the tissue more plump.

I really don’t like adding things to the tank to help acros. That has never turned out well for me. But….you guys have really got me close to pulling the trigger on using it. Charlie’sFrags has been a long time proponent of it too

 

[xmjxflipx]

Just a note for anyone curious, here is a snapshot of how my system consumes nitrates and phosphates

In a 140 gallon display with
2 Yellow Tang
Achilles Tang
Black Tang Hybrid
Purple Tang
2 Choati Leopards
2 Blue Star Leopards
2 Pink Streak Wrasse
Neon Goby
6 Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Allen's Damsel
Yellow Wrasse

The nitrate was 40.1 ppm and phosphate was .57 ppm on 7/12
Today (7/18) these values are 29.3 ppm nitrate and .45 ppm phosphate
Besides regularly feeding the fish every day.
Last night I administered a heavy feeding to my system consisting of 3 heaping chemiclean scoops reef roids, 5 ml Min S, 3 heaping chemiclean scoops coral sprint, 1 cap pohls xtra special, 10 ml ME aminos, 1 cap Amin and 1 spoon zeozym. So I suspect my values were lower before this feeding.
I have not performed a water change yet, and have dosed all my fauna Marin and KZ products twice before last night's feeding.

As you can see, the nitrate consumption in the system is quite rapid. I suspect this is from the usage of bacteria products, along with the corals. I can easily see this system bottoming out of nitrates in two weeks time if I did not feed like a mad man. This established reef can process a ridiculous amount of food!

Looking back, issues relating to my full zeovit system related to inconsistent feeding. I wasn't testing nitrates and phosphates, and I just assumed that I fed "enough". I think my fish would explode if I fed what I think is "enough" now lol.
This goes back to the boom and bust cycles that our aquariums exhibit. During those brief moments where I was feeding the tank, sure I was overloading the system with food, but for how long would the water column stay saturated? and then what about for the intervals between feedings? That's why I've switched over to this extremely heavy feeding plan I now run and it seems like I'll have to make it extremer if my system keeps this pace of consumption! The acros are loving it

What is the purpose of using chemiclean when dosing products in your system?

 

[coral reeftank]

What does RR mean?

In this specific case, Reef Raft

What is the purpose of using chemiclean when dosing products in your system?

Not chemiclean, i used the spoon included with chemiclean. It’s a nice little scooper and I have extra lying around.
But besides that, adding chemi-clean has stopped certain rtn events for me in the past. When all water parameters appear perfect, and only certain corals rtn it is often a sign of infection. I’ve had colonies with their skin peeling and flying off stop dying mid treatment. It really is amazing, it’s like the coral glued its skin back to the skeleton.

 

[jp_75]

Do you guys get algae forming on acropora branches ? One side only… Not enough flow?

 

[coral reeftank]

Do you guys get algae forming on acropora branches ? One side only… Not enough flow?

Gotta see a picture, but if the coral has receded from that area the algae may grow there.
I’ve had acros get too much flow and they recede since they can’t handle being blasted.

 

[jp_75]

Across from acro is powerhead. It probably 12 inches away and on Reef crest 65%

 

[coral reeftank]

Across from acro is powerhead. It probably 12 inches away and on Reef crest 65%

Seems like the coral receded from those spots and some opportunistic algae grow. That’s normal. You can always try and scrape that area.

 

[jp_75]

I did it one time and algae comes back. Thought it could be not enough flow…