Some of my Acro Collection

[Charlie the Reefer]

This is an SBB Mango Tango 45-1hr after concotion


Procedures:
Baby bottle sterilizer for 1000mL container and magnetic stirrer
Microwave 700mL RODI 2min
Pour RODI
Add 25g RSCP
Mix, let cool to 90^F
Add 1tsp reef roids
Add 1tsp ocean nutrition reef pulse
4 Capfuls aquavitro fuel
2 drops Aquaforest NP pro
3 Capfuls microbacter7
5g Calcium Carbonate
Mix for 5min
Place on heating pad set at 87^F
Aerate with airpump on a "low" setting with intentions of not enough air to create a boil/foam.
Place in refrigerator after 14hrs or so.

2ND recipe:
Same as above, replace microbacter7 with 1 vial biodigest

Observations:
Over the past 4 weeks I've noticed more coral with greater feeding response. Corals that have been exhibiting a feeding response appear to be exhibiting a stronger feeding response. Po4 remains lower than I prefer at .04 however nitrate has moved up from 2-5 to 10.
Both bacterias foster slight cyano growth, biodigest concotion greater amounts of cyano, in my tank.

- Growth tips appear to be less wirey on milli
- Coral as a whole has growth tips including existing coralites
- "Burnt tips" have reduced - new growth is quicker to skin
- Rate of growth appears to be higher end of above average
- PE during the day is best I've had, PE at night is extreme, for my tank.
- LPS and Zoas appear to be healthier and growing faster but less observant on that note

Below are a few short time frame pics to illustrate slight observable growth.

May 1 - present (scraper scalped the top)

May 6 - Present

May 1 - Present

May 1 - Present

Excellent documentation!

 

[Reefahholic]

 

[drawman]

I’m a fan and the corals seem to love it. Scoped it last night and it’s alive. Video on Facebook.

Looks so much like skimmate.

This is an SBB Mango Tango 45-1hr after concotion


Procedures:
Baby bottle sterilizer for 1000mL container and magnetic stirrer
Microwave 700mL RODI 2min
Pour RODI
Add 25g RSCP
Mix, let cool to 90^F
Add 1tsp reef roids
Add 1tsp ocean nutrition reef pulse
4 Capfuls aquavitro fuel
2 drops Aquaforest NP pro
3 Capfuls microbacter7
5g Calcium Carbonate
Mix for 5min
Place on heating pad set at 87^F
Aerate with airpump on a "low" setting with intentions of not enough air to create a boil/foam.
Place in refrigerator after 14hrs or so.

2ND recipe:
Same as above, replace microbacter7 with 1 vial biodigest

Observations:
Over the past 4 weeks I've noticed more coral with greater feeding response. Corals that have been exhibiting a feeding response appear to be exhibiting a stronger feeding response. Po4 remains lower than I prefer at .04 however nitrate has moved up from 2-5 to 10.
Both bacterias foster slight cyano growth, biodigest concotion greater amounts of cyano, in my tank.

- Growth tips appear to be less wirey on milli
- Coral as a whole has growth tips including existing coralites
- "Burnt tips" have reduced - new growth is quicker to skin
- Rate of growth appears to be higher end of above average
- PE during the day is best I've had, PE at night is extreme, for my tank.
- LPS and Zoas appear to be healthier and growing faster but less observant on that note

Below are a few short time frame pics to illustrate slight observable growth.

May 1 - present (scraper scalped the top)

May 6 - Present

May 1 - Present

May 1 - Present

Looks great! What magnetic stirrer are you using? I was just thinking this morning how that would be a good solution for this.

 

[ReeferZ1227]

Looks so much like skimmate.

Looks great! What magnetic stirrer are you using? I was just thinking this morning how that would be a good solution for this.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B072K24X5P?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I bought a 40mm stir bar for it as well. Nothing to compare it to but no issues

 

[coral reeftank]

Glad to hear everyone is having success with my version and their own adaptations!!!

I got mine last weekend, have done 3 feedings - definite improvements in polyp extension... however i've been struggling to keep my phosphates up to begin with lately and this hasn't helped with that so i'm trying to get phosphates back up...

Remember, our phosphate test kits can only measure certain forms of phosphate and not all forms that exist in our aquariums. In my opinion as long as you know you’re adding sufficient feed and observe healthy corals the nitrate and phosphate levels are irrelevant. Remember these tests are meant to measure “excess” so as long as they are measurable and your corals look good then in my opinion you are fine.
Remember the goal of the concoction is to emulate the rich, yet low nitrate and phosphate levels found in natural sea water.

Everything seems to like it/ have improvements but my two gonis have been off since starting it and one has been closed since sometime after the initial dose. Not sure what's up with them and may be unrelated. (I tried dipping one after a couple days of being closed with no improvements).

I would guess that this might be due to other factors, all of my gonis have responded very well to the doses and have really expanded.

Is anything annoying the goni? Sometimes there can be weird critters in the skeleton.

 

[penguinexdeus]

Glad to hear everyone is having success with my version and their own adaptations!!!

Remember, our phosphate test kits can only measure certain forms of phosphate and not all forms that exist in our aquariums. In my opinion as long as you know you’re adding sufficient feed and observe healthy corals the nitrate and phosphate levels are irrelevant. Remember these tests are meant to measure “excess” so as long as they are measurable and your corals look good then in my opinion you are fine.
Remember the goal of the concoction is to emulate the rich, yet low nitrate and phosphate levels found in natural sea water.

I would guess that this might be due to other factors, all of my gonis have responded very well to the doses and have really expanded.

Is anything annoying the goni? Sometimes there can be weird critters in the skeleton.

Thanks. Did a few different dips and didn’t see anything come off Goni… going to be looking into it some more this weekend. Started as just the one being upset then a day or two ago the one next to it… a third elsewhere is fine… they’ve been happy for a long time but might try another dip and moving them around temporarily

 

[Reefahholic]

Tonight’s number trending after yesterday’s dosing of 1 gram. I did start a new Alk reagent bottle, so the new number was 0.5-0.6 dKH lower than the old. So alk remains unchanged tonight. I tested both new and old LOT numbers yesterday. NO3 is down slightly and PO4 is up slightly.

 

[Reefahholic]

5/18 numbers. Not a significant impact on nutrients if dosing 1g daily. I’m happy with it, corals love it. Goni gets drunk. A few more days of testing and I’ll start to bring my nutrients back down. They got really low so I dosed them up and had my carbon dosing off for a day.

 

[stephanjupillat]

So I just bought the 40g container of v3 and can’t wait to start using it. Having spent the past 4 plus hours or so reading from page 60 or so, it was a lot of info.

I’ve always believed in a bacteria driven system and have been dosing what I thought was considered that. Nopox daily to keep nutrients down and dosing probiotics weekly. Fish poop as coral food. Bacteria consume all that stuff and feed it to the coral.

However I don’t think it’s really worked the way I want and my corals look nothing like the thousands of awesome acro Allan and has.

This way to gut load the bacteria before adding them to the tank is genius and I know it’s a game changer. Especially with a shelf stable version.

I do have a few questions though. If I was to run my system with the same goals as Allan:

1. Are people seeing nutrient reductions at 1gram per 100gal? And would they be reduced further if more is used? Meaning more times per week.

2. I dose nopox and run UV 24 7. Even though it sounds counterproductive I don’t remember seeing any difference is how much no3 and po4 was lowered whether UV was on vs off. And I know Allan doesn’t use UV. However, is it recommended to maybe shut off UV when dosing V3 for an hour, or maybe not running UV 24 7 when using V3? Everyone recommends if you do UV to do 24 7, for water clarity and reduced algae, but I now think it may sterilize everything way too much. Thoughts?

3. Allan recommends dosing flatworm stop. Still recommend? Half strength? Full? Isn’t that mostly iodine or iodide?

4. I don’t think v3 contains zeozym. Still recommend dosing separately?

5. Anyone also dosing additional probiotics into their tank while still using this? Like AF Bio S, probio, zeobak. If I remember correctly Af and zeobak are dailies, probio is weekly or biweekly.

Thanks!

 

[ReeferZ1227]

So I just bought the 40g container of v3 and can’t wait to start using it. Having spent the past 4 plus hours or so reading from page 60 or so, it was a lot of info.

I’ve always believed in a bacteria driven system and have been dosing what I thought was considered that. Nopox daily to keep nutrients down and dosing probiotics weekly. Fish poop as coral food. Bacteria consume all that stuff and feed it to the coral.

However I don’t think it’s really worked the way I want and my corals look nothing like the thousands of awesome acro Allan and has.

This way to gut load the bacteria before adding them to the tank is genius and I know it’s a game changer. Especially with a shelf stable version.

I do have a few questions though. If I was to run my system with the same goals as Allan:

1. Are people seeing nutrient reductions at 1gram per 100gal? And would they be reduced further if more is used? Meaning more times per week.

2. I dose nopox and run UV 24 7. Even though it sounds counterproductive I don’t remember seeing any difference is how much no3 and po4 was lowered whether UV was on vs off. And I know Allan doesn’t use UV. However, is it recommended to maybe shut off UV when dosing V3 for an hour, or maybe not running UV 24 7 when using V3? Everyone recommends if you do UV to do 24 7, for water clarity and reduced algae, but I now think it may sterilize everything way too much. Thoughts?

3. Allan recommends dosing flatworm stop. Still recommend? Half strength? Full? Isn’t that mostly iodine or iodide?

4. I don’t think v3 contains zeozym. Still recommend dosing separately?

5. Anyone also dosing additional probiotics into their tank while still using this? Like AF Bio S, probio, zeobak. If I remember correctly Af and zeobak are dailies, probio is weekly or biweekly.

Thanks!

I cut my tank off FWS and coral boost. My concotion contains no kz products. I don't dose carbon or other bacteria. My nutes are mostly maintaining. My buddy bought v3 from Allan were going to compare results of his systems response, but I have no info to offer on v3

If your acros aren't "looking good" and parameters seem good, I strongly recommend inspecting for bugs and ICP for a baseline if you haven't.

 

[stephanjupillat]

I cut my tank off FWS and coral boost. My concotion contains no kz products. I don't dose carbon or other bacteria. My nutes are mostly maintaining. My buddy bought v3 from Allan were going to compare results of his systems response, but I have no info to offer on v3

If your acros aren't "looking good" and parameters seem good, I strongly recommend inspecting for bugs and ICP for a baseline if you haven't.

Thanks. Can’t wait to hear the difference results!

FWS?

I run full moonshiners program so traces are good, plus their aminos and carbx. ICPs every 4 weeks. Acro look good, but something’s missing. They grow, but having limited knowledge on Acro, I believe they could be much better.

After reading a thread on here for “phosphates and acropora” I have determined I am most likely phosphorous limited. So let my po4 loose and rise to where it wanted. I have graphs showing daily alk consumption where it was .05 to .1 compared to what it is now, .16 to .19 and my alk is 50% higher now. Only increased this for a week but noticed 2 weeks ago when my po4 jumped up to this level my alk increased drastically. Like everyone here we are told .1 max, so i reacted and lowered them back down. Doing so brought alk consumption back down.

I use kh keeper and test every 2 hours, and dose Randy’s sodium hydroxide 2 part throughout the day. The doser corrects the 2 part dosage depending on the alk level so it’s constantly around 8.3 to 8.5. Going from 200ml to 300ml in a day is very significant and puzzled me for a while when everything else was the same.

No bugs

But I do dose 35ml of nopox into 280g, 10gal daily water changes, full size algae scrubber all to keep nutrients at 15 and .18. Nopox is being overdosed and having issues with pink snot in sump so have to lower it more soon. Allan dumps a lot of carbon into his tanks but I don’t recall him use nopox. So wondering if I should let my numbers rise also, and try multiple other bacteria and carbons instead of relying primarily on nopox. Feeding gut loaded bacteria with extra carbon and bacteria, I’m hoping, will allow me to wean off nopox.

Sorry for in-depth info but wanted to provide as much info to get best answer back.

 

[ReeferZ1227]

Thanks. Can’t wait to hear the difference results!

FWS?

I run full moonshiners program so traces are good, plus their aminos and carbx. ICPs every 4 weeks. Acro look good, but something’s missing. They grow, but having limited knowledge on Acro, I believe they could be much better.

After reading a thread on here for “phosphates and acropora” I have determined I am most likely phosphorous limited. So let my po4 loose and rise to where it wanted. I have graphs showing daily alk consumption where it was .05 to .1 compared to what it is now, .16 to .19 and my alk is 50% higher now. Only increased this for a week but noticed 2 weeks ago when my po4 jumped up to this level my alk increased drastically. Like everyone here we are told .1 max, so i reacted and lowered them back down. Doing so brought alk consumption back down.

I use kh keeper and test every 2 hours, and dose Randy’s sodium hydroxide 2 part throughout the day. The doser corrects the 2 part dosage depending on the alk level so it’s constantly around 8.3 to 8.5. Going from 200ml to 300ml in a day is very significant and puzzled me for a while when everything else was the same.

No bugs

But I do dose 35ml of nopox into 280g, 10gal daily water changes, full size algae scrubber all to keep nutrients at 15 and .18. Nopox is being overdosed and having issues with pink snot in sump so have to lower it more soon. Allan dumps a lot of carbon into his tanks but I don’t recall him use nopox. So wondering if I should let my numbers rise also, and try multiple other bacteria and carbons instead of relying primarily on nopox. Feeding gut loaded bacteria with extra carbon and bacteria, I’m hoping, will allow me to wean off nopox.

Sorry for in-depth info but wanted to provide as much info to get best answer back.

I'm a novice at best, and a noob with bacteria based systems, but I believe I run a successful tank. My po4 has been sub .05, I prefer .1 but I will say that my tanks done pretty good just "letting it be"

FWS = kz flat worm stop.

Allan indicates having bacteria and usable food for the coral is most important, not so much the residuals we test for, he even stated that 2 or 3 pages back.

In short you could mix his concotion up and add a phosphate heavy food like roids to take advantage of his concotion plus increase residuals, he mentioned that like 6-8 pages back.

Keep in mind coral isn't the only thing consuming alk, did you visually observe happier coral? What about an increase of pH when po4 increased?

I dose half my daily dkh in kalk and half from AFR. I dose ammonium bicarbonate for Nitrate. Feed live phyto daily. 100mL/day my concotion variant sometimes more. I'm still experimenting to see what works best but I will say my tanks never looked better than now.

Last, my tank has never had a positive response to nopox, I flat out do not carbon dose, however I have heard AFR may provide some carbon, but haven't investigated.

 

[stephanjupillat]

I'm a novice at best, and a noob with bacteria based systems, but I believe I run a successful tank. My po4 has been sub .05, I prefer .1 but I will say that my tanks done pretty good just "letting it be"

FWS = kz flat worm stop.

Allan indicates having bacteria and usable food for the coral is most important, not so much the residuals we test for, he even stated that 2 or 3 pages back.

In short you could mix his concotion up and add a phosphate heavy food like roids to take advantage of his concotion plus increase residuals, he mentioned that like 6-8 pages back.

Keep in mind coral isn't the only thing consuming alk, did you visually observe happier coral? What about an increase of pH when po4 increased?

I dose half my daily dkh in kalk and half from AFR. I dose ammonium bicarbonate for Nitrate. Feed live phyto daily. 100mL/day my concotion variant sometimes more. I'm still experimenting to see what works best but I will say my tanks never looked better than now.

Last, my tank has never had a positive response to nopox, I flat out do not carbon dose, however I have heard AFR may provide some carbon, but haven't investigated.

I’ve used AFR on a smaller 60 gallon before. It requires certain bacteria to break down the alk and calcium. Don’t think it’s a carbon source at all. Good stuff but I was running a sulfur denitrator at the time and that consumes alk at a much higher rate so changed to another 2 part.

Still a novice myself. But Acro definitely seem happier on days where alk consumption is higher. Today will be another 300ml day so I entered that in below graph. That’s only 1.5dkh in 280 gal. 60 plus frags so not consuming much yet.

Yeah I hate using nopox also. But it is technically bacteria dosing, just nothing compared to the concoction.

No change to ph or anything else. Just po4.

 

[coral reeftank]

Had a wonderful weekend at Aquashella in Dallas, it was great meeting a lot of people, OGs, and reconnecting with old friends! If anyone has plans for the one in Chicago, I might just be there!

I am not a fan of NOPOX, for carbon dosing I like vinegar or vodka. My systems get daily feedings of phyto, my concoction and rod's frozen. I also dose traces in according to my ICPs, relying primarily on these products for a baseline
KZ FWS
KZ Coral Booster
Tropic Marin Trace A
Tropic Marin Trace K

These 4 products I like because they are nice multi supplements. I also have individual elements on stand by if need. I've adopted the Oceamo MS tests and will be using them in conjunction to optimize trace values.

 

[ReeferZ1227]

Had a wonderful weekend at Aquashella in Dallas, it was great meeting a lot of people, OGs, and reconnecting with old friends! If anyone has plans for the one in Chicago, I might just be there!

I am not a fan of NOPOX, for carbon dosing I like vinegar or vodka. My systems get daily feedings of phyto, my concoction and rod's frozen. I also dose traces in according to my ICPs, relying primarily on these products for a baseline
KZ FWS
KZ Coral Booster
Tropic Marin Trace A
Tropic Marin Trace K

These 4 products I like because they are nice multi supplements. I also have individual elements on stand by if need. I've adopted the Oceamo MS tests and will be using them in conjunction to optimize trace values.

I may have to resume FWS and KZ but honestly tank seems to be responding better to just the concotion than it ever did to FWS and coral boost.

I am getting some slight cyano, any thoughts on that? On a positive, note I've bumped up the quantity of food and am seeing a stable po4 at about .06-.07

 

[coral reeftank]

I may have to resume FWS and KZ but honestly tank seems to be responding better to just the concotion than it ever did to FWS and coral boost.

I am getting some slight cyano, any thoughts on that? On a positive, note I've bumped up the quantity of food and am seeing a stable po4 at about .06-.07

FWS and Coral boosters are primarily trace elements, if you have those pegged, then you won't see the benefit. These products emerged in an era of reefkeeping where trace elements were much more poorly understood. Many people did not use trace elements, so their corals were oftentimes deficient.

In my video, I had brought up abiotic and biotic factors. Factors such as water quality, trace element availability, etc are the abiotic factors that many people tend to hyperfocus on. In my opinion this left a large void, and many forgot about the biotic factors of our reefs and how important the dynamics of this interplay are in the grand scheme of a keeping captive ecosystems. It really is amazing the results you can achieve you reach a happy marriage of both!

If the Cyano is slight, just try and manually remove it and increase the flow to minimize deadspots or detritus. I haven't had cyano reappear in my systems where I've been using the concoction consistently. Whereas, my anemone tank, which I don't use the concoction on, got it's seasonal cyano bloom again. This could be very coincidental though.
Overall, the systems that I routinely use the concoction on are very clean, and the surfaces and sandbed remain pristine.

 

[ReeferZ1227]

FWS and Coral boosters are primarily trace elements, if you have those pegged, then you won't see the benefit. These products emerged in an era of reefkeeping where trace elements were much more poorly understood. Many people did not use trace elements, so their corals were oftentimes deficient.

In my video, I had brought up abiotic and biotic factors. Factors such as water quality, trace element availability, etc are the abiotic factors that many people tend to hyperfocus on. In my opinion this left a large void, and many forgot about the biotic factors of our reefs and how important the dynamics of this interplay are in the grand scheme of a keeping captive ecosystems. It really is amazing the results you can achieve you reach a happy marriage of both!

If the Cyano is slight, just try and manually remove it and increase the flow to minimize deadspots or detritus. I haven't had cyano reappear in my systems where I've been using the concoction consistently. Whereas, my anemone tank, which I don't use the concoction on, got it's seasonal cyano bloom again. This could be very coincidental though.
Overall, the systems that I routinely use the concoction on are very clean, and the surfaces and sandbed remain pristine.

Good write up and information.

I have the nitrite checker to test iodine but have been slacking. I'm going to check that out this evening. I'm also doing more frequent ICP recently.

It's possible it's related to the ammonium dosing, I was debating taking that offline to see if it's that or concotion.

I am currently just doing manual removal, I have about 90x flow per mobius (9-10k/hr 6ft 125), I'll start ripping torches If I go up i think haha.

Appreciate your insight. Continued positive growth/PE/consumption on my end.

 

[coral reeftank]

A quick aside on tank productivity.

In order for us to grow corals, we have to be able to grow a lot of other things and support their functions too!

In the past, I believe there was an over emphasis on “Cleanliness”. Whether it was water clarity, glass films, etc, people tended to take actions to preserve these qualities. However, I’ve always thought that such actions were quite counter productive.

There are many indicators of overall system productivity and experienced reefers can use these signals to gather more information from their systems. I.E glass film productivity

This film was accumulated after 2 weeks. These types of films serve as a great visual indicator of the system’s health. By monitoring and tracking the rate of growth, you can get a rough estimate about the nutrient availability in the system. These films also serve as a great renewable food source for your fish and corals. All my inhabitants follow the scraper blade for easy food when I do my routine maintenance.

People also tend to not feed their reefs enough. Wild reefs are constantly saturated with food and microorganisms, while at the same time low in residual nutrient levels. It’s our job as reefers to emulate these conditions in order to optimize our inhabitants health.

How much frozen food I feed per day, in addition to a few pinches of pellets, a sheet of nori and my concoction. In my eyes, we should be striving to be able to input as much feed into our systems as possible while maintaining low residual test values. Try and view your system through the lens of a nutritionist, our systems should be able to stay lean and not exist in a state of excess or depletion.

The best route to achieve these goals in my opinion is through natural uptake, and not other means like carbon or gfo. I’ve found these tools to be too aggressive and can deplete trace elements. This leads to RTN. Instead, I’ve pivoted to utilizing zeolites and refugiums as I find that these methods impact my systems much more gradually. If I am to run carbon, it is only about 1 tbsp per 75 gallons, just enough to polish the water slightly and become exhausted.

For a better understanding and perhaps interesting viewpoints on agriculture, I would highly recommend reading the works of Masanobu Fukuoka. Many analogies and parallels can be made, and I think that this mantra of reefing may help simplify this overly complex and beautiful hobby of ours.

Happy Reefing!

 

[keoreef]

Received V3 concoction from Allan and have been using it daily for a little over 2 weeks now. Here's my experience so far.

System information:​

• 60gal(display+sump)
• Majority acros with a few gonis. few montis, and one Holy Grail Micromussa
• Running UV and skimmer 24/7
• Alk hovers around 8-8.4
• Cal hovers around 420-425
• Don't test Mag
• Phos around 0.08-0.12
• Nitrates around 15-20
• Running on Reef Moonshiners and 2 Part(ESV)
• No water changes
• The tank has been setup since February, with some large, established live rock I got from a friend + new Marco shelf rock. I've had acros in since March. I was hasty, but didn't end up losing anything thanks to the established rock seeding the new rock really fast.
• Tank is bare bottom(edit)

Here are my observations:​

Day 1- Day 3 of using the V3 concoction 20% of acros had feeder polyps out(almost looks like stringy snot compared to normal polyps) during feeding. Normal PE looked better than ever when i fed. As far as the quantity used, I dipped the end of a plastic knife and pulled it out without scooping. Mixed that amount into the morning feeding and dumped everything in. Holy Grail micromussa reacted by puffing up quite a bit. No negative issues with my Gonis in the first 3 days.

Day 4- Present day of using the V3 concoction 70-80% of acros have feeder polyps out during feeding. Normal PE looks much better all of the time, not just when i feed. Alk consumption increased by about 0.02 dKH, but that could also be the moonshine and some new frags/mini colonies i've added. Phosphate dipped down from 0.12 to 0.05 overnight on day 4 and i've had to increase feedings to keep phosphate around 0.09(the sweet spot for my tank). I've kept the frozen food quantities the same but have had to nearly double all liquid and powdered coral feeds(oyster feast, phyto feast, reef roids, benereef, picoplankton, EasySPS Evo gel). The sudden drop in phosphate caused one smooth skin acro frag to RTN and 2 of my 5 goniopora to close up, 1 of them eventually dying off completely. The other goni is semi open now that I have started feeding more. Colors on ALL corals are a lot more vibrant after starting the concoction. My skimmer is pulling out twice as much as it was before.

Moving forward, i want to only feed V3 every other day so I can stop feeding so much. Not sure I want to do that just yet because everything in my tank seems to be enjoying the additional feeding.

I'll try to post an update here and there as i continue using the concoction.

 

[coral reeftank]

Received V3 concoction from Allan and have been using it daily for a little over 2 weeks now. Here's my experience so far.

System information:​

• 60gal(display+sump)
• Majority acros with a few gonis. few montis, and one Holy Grail Micromussa
• Running UV and skimmer 24/7
• Alk hovers around 8-8.4
• Cal hovers around 420-425
• Don't test Mag
• Phos around 0.08-0.12
• Nitrates around 15-20
• Running on Reef Moonshiners and 2 Part(ESV)
• No water changes
• The tank has been setup since February, with some large, established live rock I got from a friend + new Marco shelf rock. I've had acros in since March. I was hasty, but didn't end up losing anything thanks to the established rock seeding the new rock really fast.
• Tank is bare bottom(edit)

Here are my observations:​

Day 1- Day 3 of using the V3 concoction 20% of acros had feeder polyps out(almost looks like stringy snot compared to normal polyps) during feeding. Normal PE looked better than ever when i fed. As far as the quantity used, I dipped the end of a plastic knife and pulled it out without scooping. Mixed that amount into the morning feeding and dumped everything in. Holy Grail micromussa reacted by puffing up quite a bit. No negative issues with my Gonis in the first 3 days.

Day 4- Present day of using the V3 concoction 70-80% of acros have feeder polyps out during feeding. Normal PE looks much better all of the time, not just when i feed. Alk consumption increased by about 0.02 dKH, but that could also be the moonshine and some new frags/mini colonies i've added. Phosphate dipped down from 0.12 to 0.05 overnight on day 4 and i've had to increase feedings to keep phosphate around 0.09(the sweet spot for my tank). I've kept the frozen food quantities the same but have had to nearly double all liquid and powdered coral feeds(oyster feast, phyto feast, reef roids, benereef, picoplankton, EasySPS Evo gel). The sudden drop in phosphate caused one smooth skin acro frag to RTN and 2 of my 5 goniopora to close up, 1 of them eventually dying off completely. The other goni is semi open now that I have started feeding more. Colors on ALL corals are a lot more vibrant after starting the concoction. My skimmer is pulling out twice as much as it was before.

Moving forward, i want to only feed V3 every other day so I can stop feeding so much. Not sure I want to do that just yet because everything in my tank seems to be enjoying the additional feeding.

I'll try to post an update here and there as i continue using the concoction.

Glad to hear overall things are doing good! Sorry to hear about the losses, what do you think could have caused the sudden phosphate drop? Do you think that due to the greater coral feeding response on day 4, the corals could've stripped the water too fast? Do you use Gfo or carbon?

I like to mix my portion of the concoction with my daily fish feed for the tanks and feed the systems throughout the day. This way, there is always something in the water