A
Anonymous
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I would put that post in the top 3 that has helped me the most and I understood all of it.
Thank you very much,
Teddy
Thank you very much,
Teddy
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Well I sure appriciate the feedback guys, you I know I love to type it if people love to read it...
I dose my picos in a little bit different manner than larger nano setups. Acid binding of ALK components is particularly pronounced in sub-gallon designs, so on that note I add C_Balance (one set lasting a year or more) 3 cc's of calcium on Mon, Wed, Fri and ALK (bottle B) 4 cc's Tues, Thurs and some Sundays if I'm at home. I use an insulin syringe to dose the components through the access hole drilled into the custom lid.THis is sufficent ion balance to meet the calcification requirements of any coral that can physically fit into the tank. I use this method to keep SPS in the pico reef design. Wait till I post some update pics of the system currently, it's the most densely stocked pico reef to date.
More fine balance: any of these above-stated doses, given in the afternoon, can kill the system and cause immediate tissue peeling of the stony corals. Dosing must be done in the morning before the photosynthetic peak of the system at hand. I have done this before and its devastating! pH of the system is highest in the afternoon and evening, so adding anything that boosts pH is immediate grounds for overdosing and system mortality. Dosing larger nanos in the afternoon is more likely to cause precipitation events and maybe not immediate death--this phenomena is more pronounced in sub gallon ecosystems.
I dose my picos in a little bit different manner than larger nano setups. Acid binding of ALK components is particularly pronounced in sub-gallon designs, so on that note I add C_Balance (one set lasting a year or more) 3 cc's of calcium on Mon, Wed, Fri and ALK (bottle B) 4 cc's Tues, Thurs and some Sundays if I'm at home. I use an insulin syringe to dose the components through the access hole drilled into the custom lid.THis is sufficent ion balance to meet the calcification requirements of any coral that can physically fit into the tank. I use this method to keep SPS in the pico reef design. Wait till I post some update pics of the system currently, it's the most densely stocked pico reef to date.
More fine balance: any of these above-stated doses, given in the afternoon, can kill the system and cause immediate tissue peeling of the stony corals. Dosing must be done in the morning before the photosynthetic peak of the system at hand. I have done this before and its devastating! pH of the system is highest in the afternoon and evening, so adding anything that boosts pH is immediate grounds for overdosing and system mortality. Dosing larger nanos in the afternoon is more likely to cause precipitation events and maybe not immediate death--this phenomena is more pronounced in sub gallon ecosystems.
Thanks Eduardo, I've taken tons of pix with my cheap little Kodak digital cam and only a few of them come out bright and clear...that happened to be one of them.
The circulation in that vase/bowl pictured with the Euphyllias is merely an airstone--that was my very first nano reef attempt and it lived for 2yrs+ until a terrible heat spike/ac failure in my house stressed it to all get out. It bloomed with red algae at that point, presumably fueled by mass sandbed dieout, and was just unsightly from there on out. I trashed it last year and will build an even better one soon. That was one of the major design shifts I implemented from that point on, no more deep sandbeds in nanos where I am aiming for dense coral stocking levels.
SPS grew well in this pico, kept several kinds for long periods and was even able to frag a few acro colonies from it (like the brown ones seen in that picture). They didn't hold an amazing color up under 2 nine-watt pc's, but they did plate over the original glue plug and send up new growths so that is nano life as far as I'm concerned. I was pleased to have growth and asexual reproduction in these tricky corals even though I had to trade off heat and light intensity for color variation.
The circulation in that vase/bowl pictured with the Euphyllias is merely an airstone--that was my very first nano reef attempt and it lived for 2yrs+ until a terrible heat spike/ac failure in my house stressed it to all get out. It bloomed with red algae at that point, presumably fueled by mass sandbed dieout, and was just unsightly from there on out. I trashed it last year and will build an even better one soon. That was one of the major design shifts I implemented from that point on, no more deep sandbeds in nanos where I am aiming for dense coral stocking levels.
SPS grew well in this pico, kept several kinds for long periods and was even able to frag a few acro colonies from it (like the brown ones seen in that picture). They didn't hold an amazing color up under 2 nine-watt pc's, but they did plate over the original glue plug and send up new growths so that is nano life as far as I'm concerned. I was pleased to have growth and asexual reproduction in these tricky corals even though I had to trade off heat and light intensity for color variation.
The funny thing is at that time I never knew micro-bubbles were undesirable! I actually liked them and thought their smallness added yet another interesting shape to the overall effect.
I had never read internet chat boards about nanos at that point nor had any help from local fish store employees (who might have told me about the micro-bubbles). The reef bowl was set up for quite some time when I sought out dosing ideas for the tiny system... hence my travels to RC and eventually this site. Since then I have never been against micro-bubbles because they never seemed to affect my corals adversely. Recalling the recent issue of Coral debuting these pico systems driven by air, apparently someone else agrees! I also think coral-only systems might be a little less agitated by MB's, I have read and heard several times that these tiny bubbles bother fish so that could be a cause for concern. I had also read about certain LPS catching these bubbles under their tissues, but have never had that happen in my system. I had quite a laminar-flow effect that kept the bubbles in the upper portion of the tank, they didn't disperse all that much throughout the water column. Appreciate the interest in the systems Eduardo!
I had never read internet chat boards about nanos at that point nor had any help from local fish store employees (who might have told me about the micro-bubbles). The reef bowl was set up for quite some time when I sought out dosing ideas for the tiny system... hence my travels to RC and eventually this site. Since then I have never been against micro-bubbles because they never seemed to affect my corals adversely. Recalling the recent issue of Coral debuting these pico systems driven by air, apparently someone else agrees! I also think coral-only systems might be a little less agitated by MB's, I have read and heard several times that these tiny bubbles bother fish so that could be a cause for concern. I had also read about certain LPS catching these bubbles under their tissues, but have never had that happen in my system. I had quite a laminar-flow effect that kept the bubbles in the upper portion of the tank, they didn't disperse all that much throughout the water column. Appreciate the interest in the systems Eduardo!
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