Live Rock

[Louie3]

I want to know any quick and easy ways to speed up coraline growth. Here's my system

55G aquarium, 2-3 inch sand bed, (2) pegiun 350 Bio-Wheels w/ 8 carbon packs, (2) mj 1200, (1) mj 400, Berlin Air Lift protien skimmer, 15lbs of live rock, lighting (3) 48" flourescent light 1 actinic, 1 white, 1 yellow, (1) 150w MH ( industrial )

Inhabitiants
(2) false preculas
(2) damsels ( black, and yellow belly )
(1) six line wrasse
(1) convict tang
(10-15) hermits
(10-15) snails
3 diferent types of zoos ( green buttons (35p), and 2(150p) unkown species )

water is changed every friday, never tested for calcium or anything only basics ( Nitrite, nitrate, ph, amonia ) I use Oceanic salt mix to hopefully maintain every thing at a correct place.
temp: 77-83

if i forgot anything please tell me.

THANK YOU MAAST 8)

[Ping]

We really need to test our systems. Ca and Alk measurements need to be taken and dosing needs to be accomplished to reach the desired levels. However, with that said, many in our hobby dose two part additives such as ESV (B-ionic). Most report excellent results with this product. The starting dose is an excellent place to start. If I am correct your system is new and will be going through many changes in supplemental demands. If you are not testing for Ca and Alk, "I" would not dose above the starting dosages until your system is at least 6 months old.

[Louie3]

sorry i forgot to add something very important my aquarium is at least 2.5 years old

[gjuarez]

Louie, for now, water changes should do good. The only thing is that Oceanic is very high in calcium and low in alkalinity. I would doze a little bit of alkalinity but only if you have a test kit. Desired levels of alk are 9-10 dkh and calcium around 420-480. If you can consistently keep those two levels something around that range then you should start coraline algae starting to explode. Make sure to scrape and scrub the coralline algae off your rocks so it can release some spores and spread easier. Like mentioned earlier, B ionic is a great two part additive that should help boost your alk and cal levels. Before you start dozing, get a test kit.

[Louie3]

ok, is there a different salt that i can mix with oceanic to even out the cal,alk

[gjuarez]

Yes, you can mix it with Instant Ocean. Instant ocean has higher alk levels and calcium is a little low. Try a mix of 50/50 and see how that works for you.

[Louie3]

ill try that

[Louie3]

thanks alot jerry

[gjuarez]

no problem, glad I can help you somehow.

[GaryP]

I have seen a lot of people get into trouble using Oceanic salt in small tanks with low calcium demand. I think its fine in the larger tanks with rapidly growing SPS where the salt acts as a supplement. Howver, if coraline algae growth is the only thing that is going to be using calcium, you may want to consider one of the other reef salts like Reef Crystals or the new Seachem salt.

If the calcium level gets to high, then your system will be out of balance and you will find it very hard to get your alkalinity up. If either alkalinity or calcium gets to high, then adding a supplement of the other component can cause precipitation of calcium carbonate. I'm not sure if mixing the salts is the answer either. Give it a try, but I think you may find that you will get precipitation of calcium carbonate in your water change mixing container. Let us know about that. I'd like to know if it works.

Here's one other thing. While calcification by corals and coraline algae gives you the majority of the calcium demand in your system, there are a lot of other things that deplete the alkalinity. Bacteria is the major thing. Besides just building one of the nutrients for calcification, alkalinity is also the majot part of how pH is regulated in the system (buffering). As bacteria digest waste, they produce acids. These acids are neutralized by the alkalinity present in the water. As they do this, the alkalinity is depleted. For this reason, monitoring and supplementing alkalinity between water changes is a major thing, even in small systems that don't normally require supplements besides water changes.

[demodiki]

Previously, I had 60 lbs of bare, gray base rock. I added 10 pounds of LR that was covered in coralline. Four months later, I can't tell the base rock from the LR that I bought. My calcium isn't very high, either. I use IO salt.

[matt]

You only have 15 lbs of rock in a 55? 15 lbs is only a couple of pieces. You need some more, and you should get some that is covered in coralline algae. Also, never testing for calcium and alkalinity in a 2.5 year old tank means that either you don't understand one of the basic aspects of reefkeeping or you're VERY confident ;)

What kind of light is the mh? You say industrial, does that mean it's a yellow single end bulb? If so, get rid of it and find a good 10k or higher reef bulb. A great DE bulb is the phoenix 14K, I'm not sure if they make a 150W. For sure geisemann makes one.

Dripping KW might be a really good thing for you to do, and it seems to stimulate coralline growth. But really, testing for nitrogen compounds in a mature tank but not for calcium and alk is focusing on the wrong water parameters. Test your calcium, add some turbo calc or dow flake to get it to about 400, then test your alk, add baking soda to get it to around dkh 9-10, then you can probably use KW to maintain it at those levels, but you'll no doubt have to use some baking soda from time to time to keep the alkalinity up. If you want to buy expensive buffer instead of baking soda be my guest, but unless you have a real ph problem baking soda will be fine. For KW you can use pickling lime. Since you live out in the country, I assume you can't just stroll down to a reefkeeping store, but you should be able to find dowflake, baking soda, and pickling lime in your area, and that's all you need to use. The test kits you'll have to order (get salifert!), best online place I know is premium aquatics but fin-addict sells those kits locally and they'd probably be happy to mail them to you.

Most important, learn about calcium and carbonate usage. While MAAST is a great place to ask some questions and meet other reefkeepers, maybe you should actually buy a book (sorry to spend your money!) that clearly explains the photsynthesis/calcification process and how it affects your water in a basic manner. Ron Shimek's "The Coral Reef Aquarium" does that, and there are many others. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but having an actual book in your hands might inspire you to learn these fundamentals in a better way rather than just reading posts. Good luck!

[Ping]

I mix 3 parts Oceanic w/ 2parts IO for water changes. I purchased alot of Oceanic when it went on sale in town and had another bucket given to me. I stir the solution w/ a drywall mud paddle attached to a 1/2 electric drill. I place a maxi-jet 1200 in the bucket overnight so the solution reaches saturation. Works well for me. I usually dose the holmes-Farley home made additives and drip Kalk. When I am busy/lazy or out of town ESV products go in. No precipitation problems in the bucket or tanks. All systems have good coral and coraline growth. I still have to watch my Alk closely. I will be out of Oceanic soon and will only be using IO in the future. This will be in an attempt to stabilize my Alk levels.

[Louie3]

thanks for the info guys! I copied it and saved it on WORD :shades so once i buy the test kits i cand experiment with stuff in another setup and then move it onto my show, i'm going to try out the 50/50 of oceanic and instant ocean. if that doesnt work out im going to shift to the new seachem reef salt, i was checking out the salifert test kits and they are not cheap.i was thinking on going with aquarium pharmicuticles test kits.
ca test kit, 6.49
and then red sea alk test kit 7.50
instead of paying 37.00 for the salifet

[matt]

Whatever, but if you can't trust the kit, what good is it? I've seen cheap test kits be way off. Save yourself a headache and get the Salifert kits; you only have to buy them once or twice over the course of a few years.