Video of my tank progress, 400 display mixed reef
- Thread starter ducati335i
- Start date
- Location
- massapequa long island
dam bro i really need to come see it
- Location
- lindenhurst,ny
Looks good bro good luck you make me want to get an Achilles tang
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Thanks guys! I really wish I would have done 2 Achilles.. They are not difficult fish, they just need to be qt'd first a d they eat nori right away
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
Congrats man everything looks great
- Location
- port jefferson, ny
Looks even better in person. Good job man.
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Thanks guys! Yes, a lot of growth! I'll take another vid soon, maybe more pix.. I don't keep the LEDs on a high percentage either.. I know this sounds crazy, but for my particular tank the carbon dosing made a day and night difference...
The only problem I'm having is buying way too many corals
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
I'm glad things are working currently for your tank with the carbon dosing and I don't mean to be a kill joy but I think this is worth a read and something to consider and wish you nothing but the best my friendI know this sounds crazy, but for my particular tank the carbon dosing made a day and night difference...
The only problem I'm having is buying way too many corals
The funny thing with bacteria is while we love it, to much of a good thing can sometimes be bad. Bacteria are a fundamental part of the phosphate cycle and as such are directly proportional to food and carbon supply.
More you have running around the tank means the more food they have eaten and are holding, the problem arises when the population peaks and some starve due to a shortage. Now you have a lot of little corpses decaying and releasing that food they contain in essence. This is kind of the driving force for any method that boosts bacteria populations and backs it up with a great skimmer to try to remove lots of the bodies before the dead start piling up.
Vodka dosing, Biopellets, even Algae feed bacteria populations. Their presence, if you will increases the total bacteria population, the sudden surge in population is akin to what wood stock was like say 4 hours into the show....munchies! So they eat a bunch of crap, then the vending machines run low on Doritos and next thing ya know you have a bunch of starving and dying hippy bacteria on your lawn!
Now what is detritus? Detritus is some food left overs, but the far vast majority of it is well dead bacteria. You fed the tank they partied and now you have dead hippy bacteria on your lawn. We call this "bacterial flock" sometimes. Which is okay bacteria in a sense are cannibals and eat their kin as they decompose.
So you in a way have more nutrients tied up in the tank and more exchange of organic and inorganic phosphates occurring in large volume and more frequently. So if your bacteria "boosting" method falls behind or not enough goes in, you get a release of nutrients back into the tank. Or if the food supply instead of carbon supply diminishes you get a boost in released nutrients. Since your maintaining higher populations your have more ready to be released if you stop the methods or there is a interuption ect. (usually algae appears to a degree or just a increase in detritus)
Its kind of a self fulfilling product. You start using it and the second you stop your tank looks worse, which makes you want to use the product again... But actually when you stop you end up seeing the results of the nutrients you were avoiding. The hens come home to roost, and the dead bacteria hippies are piling up.
Just something to consider I love bacteria and what its doing for us but recently I've started to realize their not always a great thing lol
(Invic)
- Location
- smithtown, long island
I'm glad things are working currently for your tank with the carbon dosing and I don't mean to be a kill joy but I think this is worth a read and something to consider and wish you nothing but the best my friend
The funny thing with bacteria is while we love it, to much of a good thing can sometimes be bad. Bacteria are a fundamental part of the phosphate cycle and as such are directly proportional to food and carbon supply.
More you have running around the tank means the more food they have eaten and are holding, the problem arises when the population peaks and some starve due to a shortage. Now you have a lot of little corpses decaying and releasing that food they contain in essence. This is kind of the driving force for any method that boosts bacteria populations and backs it up with a great skimmer to try to remove lots of the bodies before the dead start piling up.
Vodka dosing, Biopellets, even Algae feed bacteria populations. Their presence, if you will increases the total bacteria population, the sudden surge in population is akin to what wood stock was like say 4 hours into the show....munchies! So they eat a bunch of crap, then the vending machines run low on Doritos and next thing ya know you have a bunch of starving and dying hippy bacteria on your lawn!
Now what is detritus? Detritus is some food left overs, but the far vast majority of it is well dead bacteria. You fed the tank they partied and now you have dead hippy bacteria on your lawn. We call this "bacterial flock" sometimes. Which is okay bacteria in a sense are cannibals and eat their kin as they decompose.
So you in a way have more nutrients tied up in the tank and more exchange of organic and inorganic phosphates occurring in large volume and more frequently. So if your bacteria "boosting" method falls behind or not enough goes in, you get a release of nutrients back into the tank. Or if the food supply instead of carbon supply diminishes you get a boost in released nutrients. Since your maintaining higher populations your have more ready to be released if you stop the methods or there is a interuption ect. (usually algae appears to a degree or just a increase in detritus)
Its kind of a self fulfilling product. You start using it and the second you stop your tank looks worse, which makes you want to use the product again... But actually when you stop you end up seeing the results of the nutrients you were avoiding. The hens come home to roost, and the dead bacteria hippies are piling up.
Just something to consider I love bacteria and what its doing for us but recently I've started to realize their not always a great thing lol
(Invic)
I hear ya brother.. I know.. I dose minimally, 40ml a day now.. I'm still doing research.. How long would this take to go bad? All the great tanks I've seen do some sort of carbon dosing.. I really hope I don't run into an issue... I do keep reading up to avoid mistakes.. You have to come by and check it out when you can, I'm really enjoying it all now..
You are getting me paranoid now! Ahh!!
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
Hard to say but it makes you think as long as you keep feeding all the new hippies unfortunately eventualy your not going to be able to provid enough Doritos
and the hippies are going to die :frown:
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Hard to say but it makes you think as long as you keep feeding all the new hippies unfortunately eventualy your not going to be able to provid enough Doritos
Even if /when they die, is it enough to do any damage? And what about all the other tanks that have been dosing for yrs? There has to b a way somehow
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
Well I would think with alot of dead bacteria would lead to phosphates wich would be food for algie :splitspin
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
Most did it for years untill they realized the Ca binding issue. P continues to bind to the Ca structures and benthic bacteria are not allowing the rock to self-cleanse (ie bacteria removing P from the rock as a byproduct of bacteria looking for carbon, but since carbon is free elsewhere, they stop working on the rock). Once that little nugget settled in, it was game over for carbon dosing.
(Doc)
- Location
- smithtown, long island
idk, i did a lot of reading all night.. I feed a lot, i dose carbon minimally in my tank at 40 ml every day, sometimes i skip a day.. I dont think i will every have nearly enough to cause a problem w my large fish, relatively heavy feeding and weekly or every other week 25 gallon water changes.. I only like to test for alk more than anything. Im pretty good at "seeing" what my tank needs... I dont think i could ever achieve a great mixed coral reef w the amount of fish i have and the way i feed.. I tried feeding them less and it just seemed wrong imo for the fish.. Plus even with spending tons of money on gfo, changing it constantly, feeding very little and doing bi weekly water changes nothing worked.. I actually did a combo of this for 3 yrs!!! but when i finally started dosing, within 3 days i had corals start coming back from the "dead" that showed no sign of life for months.. One was "dead" and looked like rock for over a yr...
So i'll keep this posted and take my chances.. I love keeping lots of fish anf feeding a lot while keep a beautiful reef. I was on the verge of doing lps only cause of my frustration.. my sps grows like crazy as well as all my other corals.. I am 10X more worried of other issues such as my dosers going bad, a bad salt batch, etc (all the stupid things that could happen, actually always paranoid about that)..
So if from the vinegar dosing i run into a problem that kills my tank, lps it will be.. (and my lps didnt even look plump before the carbon dosing) in my two other tanks my lps thrive w no skimmer.
so we will see what happens.. my theory for my particular tank is that it needs part carbon dosing,.,, I also believe you cant over due carbon dosing,., you need the right balance.. As long as it has some, its good to go(along w feeding etc, bioload)
hopefully im right! thanks for the heads up. I do agree on what you said after reading numerous sources.,, But I also read numerous sources showing success for years,,
I compare this to dieting.. everyone wants a diet to lose weight,, it only work s for a little time... the reason, every single body is different and the diets are just a start/sample.. then from there its fine tuning to get down to perfection and very little body fat... same with our tanks.. you really have to know them and understand how they work.. cause just like dieting every tank/body is different:beer:
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
Best of luck my friend! I sincerely hope you have found the magic bullet for your tanks setup.
It definitely sounds like you put the time and recherch? in and not making a decision based on a whim so that is reassuring with such a beautiful tank as you have.
Keep me posted and Ill hit you up soon I would love to come back over and have a look see
It definitely sounds like you put the time and recherch? in and not making a decision based on a whim so that is reassuring with such a beautiful tank as you have.
Keep me posted and Ill hit you up soon I would love to come back over and have a look see
- Location
- Suffolk county, NY
Awesome tank dude, I could of stared at it for a few more hours lol.
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Best of luck my friend! I sincerely hope you have found the magic bullet for your tanks setup.
It definitely sounds like you put the time and recherch? in and not making a decision based on a whim so that is reassuring with such a beautiful tank as you have.
Keep me posted and Ill hit you up soon I would love to come back over and have a look see
Anytime man, I really hope it turns out well too.. I'm def no scientist, ugh.. I need your camera skills as well.. I still need to wrap the furniture around the stand and hide wires!
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Thanks man!
- Location
- Deer Park,Long Island,11729
No problem just let me know when your ready
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
