Why cant u keep sps?

[SeaDweller]

My carbon doser. I fill it twice a day (7am and 7pm) and it takes 8-10 hours to drip out.

Is that standard big box store alum window frame? Any issues with it, i.e leaching into the tank?

 

[justingraham]

The benefits from carbon dosing are not just nutrient reduction, good thing to keep in mind.

Please explain

 

[Daddy-o]

Is that standard big box store alum window frame? Any issues with it, i.e leaching into the tank?

No issues, I dont think it even gets wet the way it sits on the 55 plex. Only about 2 inches of it are directly above water.
Cheers! Mark

 

[anon9896]

Well first and for most im not a scientist or marine biologist my theory base only on my experience and observation on my reef tank. I just want to help those that have problems keeping sps. In this discussion please keep it positive and dont make it to “i know better than u or led is better than halide “. We are not here to discuss equipment or brand.
Now lets me start out what i have seen so far. I have successful sps tank in 2008 and now i just start my tank again for 2.5years. U can read more here

Build Thread - 360g zeovit staghorn dominate reef tank

Do you think the halide just doesn’t show the colors as well as the LEDs, or do the colors physically change once you switch? (Currently running a 150w MH)

www.reef2reef.com

Most of the threads that have problems seem to have a common denominator i will cone back to this. But all the questions regarding the problem tank are
1)Whats your parameters
2)what kind of light/light schedule?
3)what kind of pump and flow?
4)keep alk, ca and mag stable
5) ICP test
6)nitrate/phosphate level
7)water change
8)feeding
9)copper/iron over dose aka magnet rust
10)salt

Ok lets presume u can fix all of these but still your tank don’t do well. What can cause that?
Well lets go back to the common denominators. All tank nowadays start with dry/dead rock aka not from the ocean. Live rock can be misunderstood, a piece of rock in my mature tank i can call it live rock but its not because i start just like everyone else with dry rock. Years ago we actually get live rock from the ocean which carry multiple strain of beneficial bacteria then we kept it in our tank for a year or more which create a nice population of bacteria for the corals especially sps.
Now we all start from dry rock and we started the cycle then start adding corals in after 6 mons. Presumption your tank parameters are good also everything else , your frags will be nice and growing for a few months then all of a sudden start to look bad then die normally around 9 mons to a year. This too me is an indication thats your tank dont have multiple bacteria strain which corals need. Probably u didnt add any additional bacteria to your tank and im not talking about carbon bacteria to reduce phosphate or nitrate.
Further more we buy only frags nowadays which different from before when we bought colonies. Wild colonies from the ocean carry those beneficial bacteria which can populate in your tank. I run zeovit which is a system heavily base on bacteria but there are many others system which offer the same.
So to end my thoughts the biggest change that i have seen is the lacking of beneficial bacteria which can cause your reef tank not capable to sustain a healthy sps.
I hope that i can help in anyway getting your tank better and healthier and with healthy tank make the hobby more enjoyable and grow

Anthony

Totally agree , mychorizes awith plants are a great exemple of the benefits of two organisms in symbiosis. We have many of those in our aquariums and not seeing them doesnt mean they are not as necessary as the ones we see.

 

[SeaDweller]

Please explain

the extra bacterial growth as a food source (my guess)

 

[justingraham]

the extra bacterial growth as a food source

I do not think that would be a good source for corals do you? Is there a vodka distillery dumping vodka into the great barrier reef? Or is it just the natural ecosystem?

 

[SeaDweller]

I do not think that would be a good source for corals do you? Is there a vodka distillery dumping vodka into the great barrier reef? Or is it just the natural ecosystem?

Dayam, if there is a distillery doing that, I'm swimming there for days!

I don't know, but that's the point of this thread. I think Lou Ekus talked about carbon dosing not just as a means to reduce N and P in tanks, but was beneficial for the added bacteria (with PO4 in it) which corals uptake...

 

[ScottB]

Wow. I leave this thread for a couple days and you've all run amuck having too many laughs.

Back to work. All of you.

I have to go dump a bucket of chum in my frag tank.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Other small life forms in the tank benifit from the carbon and bacteria grown by it, especially sponges, which are really good for our tanks. Sponges clean water really well, turn your pumps off and squirt some aminos or something with color next to one and watch it suck up the colored water.
I have been dosing vodka and or vinegar for a long time and underneath all my rocks is a number of different types of sponge and in large numbers. Some rocks are stuck together completely with it. If I had never used a carbon source they would be mostly bare with a few sponge colonies mixed in at most.
The carbon benefits everything since it boosts bacteria there is more for the tiny stuff to eat and in turn the larger stuff have more to eat and so on. Personally I don’t buy the idea that the phosphate the bacteria has eaten benifits the corals that “feed” on them in our tanks all that much, at least not enough for us to see any difference. It sounds good and might sell product well though. I don’t really think bacteria is a big food source for acropora in our tanks either. At least I don’t believe the corals are constantly chowing down on bacteria, they might take some in but how much who knows? I could be wrong but really every tank has bacteria in the water column so making a bigger population probably doesn’t really affect the corals all that much.

I hope the people buying these zeovit products to help their tank get on track know they are carbon dosing with it and understand it before they start. OP’s advice is good, start slow.

 

[justingraham]

I have never carbon doses in my life and I have some of the nicest sponges I have ever seen in a reef tank

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Well since you have never carbon dosed you don’t know what they would look like if you did :)

 

[SeaDweller]

Well since you have never carbon dosed you don’t know what they would look like if you did :)

Good point, @justingraham , rebuttal?

 

[justingraham]

I have sponges bigger Then what most people call colonies these days
ur right tho I don’t know because I havnt carbon dosed
I just know most peoples tanks I have seen in person or pictures on here don’t have the amount of sponges I have and the people that come and buy frags off me always want some of mine that they always seem to kill while they follow people telling them to dump stuff in their tank to make their corals grow faster and better
It’s usually when people stop messing with their tank they get the success they want
This whole I can’t grow corals because I don’t have live rock fad or because I don’t dose certain products will soon be gone and another new fad will come in much like a couple years ago it was because phosphates were to high they need to be zero oh yeah then it was led lights for awhile also
What it really is is people listening how to grow coral from people who can’t grow corals sure some are just bad luck as I’m sure people are going to tell me about how Mike P’s tank didn’t do anything and he wrote an article about it but for every good hobbyist who has trouble with growing corals in a new tank I can list two to three others who have had success it’s just that people don’t want to put in the time to look and listen to their tank they rather find a secret recipe to make it easier

 

[Mr Cheezy]

Any one tried faunamarins Bacto Reef Balls?

Im giving my zeobak a break and trying the bacto balls.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have sponges bigger Then what most people call colonies these days
ur right tho I don’t know because I havnt carbon dosed
I just know most peoples tanks I have seen in person or pictures on here don’t have the amount of sponges I have and the people that come and buy frags off me always want some of mine that they always seem to kill while they follow people telling them to dump stuff in their tank to make their corals grow faster and better
It’s usually when people stop messing with their tank they get the success they want
This whole I can’t grow corals because I don’t have live rock fad or because I don’t dose certain products will soon be gone and another new fad will come in much like a couple years ago it was because phosphates were to high they need to be zero oh yeah then it was led lights for awhile also
What it really is is people listening how to grow coral from people who can’t grow corals sure some are just bad luck as I’m sure people are going to tell me about how Mike P’s tank didn’t do anything and he wrote an article about it but for every good hobbyist who has trouble with growing corals in a new tank I can list two to three others who have had success it’s just that people don’t want to put in the time to look and listen to their tank they rather find a secret recipe to make it easier

I think if your feeding a lot of good frozen type food then you can have a really good sponge population without a carbon source. If your feeding just a few pellets to just a few fish I doubt sponges will flourish. If your feeding a carbon source then sponges will do great no matter what ime. Add great feeding on top of that and it’s even better.
I agree that there are always fads in the hobby and often they are proven to not be much of a key when in time the basics stay the only main thing you need to keep nice corals.

 

[justingraham]

I think if your feeding a lot of good frozen type food then you can have a really good sponge population without a carbon source. If your feeding just a few pellets to just a few fish I doubt sponges will flourish. If your feeding a carbon source then sponges will do great no matter what ime. Add great feeding on top of that and it’s even better.
I agree that there are always fads in the hobby and often they are proven to not be much of a key when in time the basics stay the only main thing you need to keep nice corals.

Feed Lrs multiple times daily

 

[Graffiti Spot]

That’s good stuff. I have been going against my advice and feeding pellets for a while. I mix in frozen sometimes when I get time to think about it but I have always seen better results with frozen being fed. Especially for the color of the fish that are in breeding condition.

 

[minus9]

I've been feeding LRS and NLS pellets, but just added TDO Chromaboost to the combo and really like the TDO, the fish go nuts over it. It's fun to watch them all dash around chasing the TDO, especially my flashers. Good stuff.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I've been feeding LRS and NLS pellets, but just added TDO Chromaboost to the combo and really like the TDO, the fish go nuts over it. It's fun to watch them all dash around chasing the TDO, especially my flashers. Good stuff.

Great feedback. Thanks so much for adding TDO to the diet of your animals. We really appreciate it!

Best,
Chad

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Well it’s been 2 months for this thread now so has anyone noticed significant improvement by switching to zeoVit?? Challenges?? Losses??