FarmerTy

I always look for a cheaper DIY route of doing things. I actually modified a TLF 150 reactor and used that for biopellets on my old tank. Worked like a charm. For my current tank, I just traded someone for a TLF 550 and removed the bottom grate and cut slits in the tubing and viola... biopellets tumbling.

Don't lie to yourself Pham! You have 3 frag tanks!

I'm a big fan of carbon dosing... it helps me maintain near zero nitrates without any additional work... at least with biopellets. With vodka dosing, it's a lot of work. I'd recommend lowering your alk to 7.0-8.0 range though before biopellets. I'd read what we were discussing in Sascha's thread about biopellets before you begin. Just to see if it's for you. You will need to get a reactor and figure out how to plumb it into your skimmer either directly or at least have the eflluent in the same chamber of the sump. Honestly, you'd probably be in the same boat as Sascha as both skimmers are running close to max on your current systems and an upgrade may be in order. So, something to think about cost-wise... ideally you'll need a biopellet reactor... but also a skimmer upgrade may be ideal as well.

As much as I hate it, cyano I can deal with. Green hair algae on the other hand...In my old tank when I was fighting dinos at one point, I almost tried to introduce cyano to the tank to out compete it. It was the lesser of two evils.

Behold! The glory of a purple velveety cyano sandbed! [emoji30]

I've never met an acro I couldn't remove. Honestly though, if you're in danger of losing a colony, I'd snap it off the rock and superglue anywhere that is receding back. If it's stuck in the tank, you could always try the Lugol's method Timfish was experimenting with. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/32631-shower-thoughts-on-phosphate/page-4

Isopod?

Forever. It'll grow back over the superglue.

Superglue is your best friend when SPS are involved. Dropped your colony on the floor and it smashed into a million bits? Just superglue it back together and it'll grow over the glue. Got STN and want to stop it? Just superglue the portion STNing and a little bit of the flesh above it and it'll usually stop it. I've had about roughly a 60-70% success rate when I do this... granted the offending condition was removed. Of course the frag gluing with superglue is obvious but I'll mention just to be thorough.

Probably have more free time and be less obsessed with your tank? [emoji12]

Duncans

On recent discussion of how doctored and perfect some professional tank photos are, I thought it would be fun for us reefers to seek out the ugliest pictures we can muster from our tanks. I'm talking scummy floating bacteria infested skimmate... cyano covered sandbeds, aiptasia covered rocks, sponges taken over coral, detritus covered sumps, hair algae strands waving in the water column... you get my drift! I think it also helps to see that tanks aren't always so perfect and pristine all the time as the pictures we sometimes post can allude to. I know when I was first starting out, it was intimidating to see all these gorgeous tanks and then look back at my GHA farm and wonder what I was doing wrong. Really, most of the time... it was just a function of the tank maturing. Anyways, I hope people jump on board with the idea and post up your reef tank uglies! I know I can't wait until my lights turn on this evening... because of the non-existent DI resin the last two months, my cyano and turf algae took off! It truly is a sight when the lights first come on but then burns off under the 400-watt halides within an hr or two.

Bump!

Bpb brings up a great.point I forgot to mention, ramping up is ideal, and also don't ever use the recommended amount. They grossly over estimate how much is needed in a system. I find it best to almost halve their recommended levels of the manufacturers.

My adds to your summary: -biopellets are made of a solid carbon polymer -bacteria stick to the pellets and use it as a carbon source (our tanks are usually carbon limited) -they consume a lot of nitrates, and a much smaller proportion of phosphates, plus the carbon from the biopellets to grow -as they tumble in the reactor, they are sloughed off the pellets and washed out the effluent of the reactor -ideally the effluent is plumbed directly to the skimmer so no bacteria makes it into the system or but some people also just put the effluent in the skimmer chamber of the sump and have had good results -you just top off the media... I do it roughly every 6 months. One package of biopellets usually lasts me like 3 years! Understand that it's heavily skewed to remove nitrates and that you'll still probably end up needing to run GFO with it... despite some manufactures claims that it'll keep your phosphates as low as you want it too, IME. Also, as it is ramping up with bacteria in the first 4 weeks of operation, don't be surprised if your corals look really ticked off. They are adjusting to the nutrient level drop. All my SPS looked ticked and some almost always STNed in the initial but as long as you're diligent and superglue any parts that are STNing and assist them in making it through the initial adjustment period to biopellets, you shouldn't have a problem after that. Also, keep your alk typically lower, around 8 dKh or lower. If you get above that, you tend to have issues with SPS. My old 125-gallon ran off biopellets, GFO, and an oversized skimmer. If I had any input to your system... I think you may need to start looking for a more robust skimmer if you plan to implement biopellets. Your skimmer will get the job done but a higher rated one will do a better job. Hope it helps!

What was the alk on that bad boy by the way? We near 8 dKh yet?

Huzzah! You've turned the corner! Well, kind of... you did call the purple stylophora a pocillipora so I will be docking points for that but otherwise... that's really awesome!

You know, there's no adaptors blowing up here in the north Austin if you guys want to get in on the awesome side of town! [emoji2]

How are the non-SPS corals doing? Zoas and LPS happier?

That was pretty cool of Jake to hook you up with tester pieces. So everything has been pretty steady as far as parameters go? You have the dosers dialed in?

My tanks always look perfect and there's never algae, cyano, or coraline algae anywhere it's not supposed to be. [emoji12] For pictures, I even comb my polyps in the same direction and make sure to put bow ties on all my fishes prior to pictures. Just act natural guys... we don't want this to look staged. Loosen up Mr. Emperor... you look so stiff and unnatural.

If your tank blows up... I will remove all record of this thread and deny everything! [emoji86]

I was gushing like a little school girl at a Taylor Swift concert when I was over there this week... AMAZING!

Yeah, just aim to not dose more than 100 ppm/day of Mg. If more is needed, spread it over a couple of days.

Yes, any change from one day to another is a good indication of usage. Mg generally only needs to be dosed on a monthly basis... it's uptake is slower than Ca and alk.