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Joe's Reef Journey

Today I cleaned in and out of all 4 sides of the tank and took some pictures with manual photo mode in Samsung Galaxy note 20. A yellow filter (not orange) was used.
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Really just stunning. Well done! I still can’t believe how large and bouncy your bounce mushroom is.
Thank you! The tank is looking great after dosing NO3 (1.5ppm) and PO4 (0.015ppm) every day and also testing ALK, NO3, and PO4 2 - 3 times a week.
 
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Awesome reef and I love that you are getting it done with a canister filter.

Curious if you are using an ATO?

Yes, I use Kamoer X1 dosing pumps. The tubings are bent by heat so that they can hook behind the tank.
Left - Alk, Middle - Water, Right - Calcium
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Flexible tubings to the pumps inside the cabinet.
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5G water reservoir slides out with many tiny plastic wheels.
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As you can see in this photo the tubings are barely visible.
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Today I got rid of the sandbed. Seems like The Og bounce is shrunken a little but other than that I am pretty happy with the fact that my tank will run cleaner.

I have been testing ALK, NO3, PO4 almost every other day for a few months, and here are my findings so far:
1 Maintaining Alk is easy as long as you test water 1 - 2 times a week. Dosing adjustment came a long way, it is now so much easier thanks to a smartphone app.
2 NO3 and PO4 become zero so often that some of the corals were becoming paler in color.
3 Adjusting po4 and no3 dosage every time after testing water is not fun.
3 Decided to feed instead of dosing and corals are reacting much positively (vs dosing). Read a write-up from a tropic marine guy that NO3 from feeding is better than dosing.
4 Next challenge: Feeding the exact same amount every day to stabilize po4 and no3 as much as possible. Probably not 100% possible but I would want the po4 to be around 0.02 to 0.05 and no3 to be around 3 - 7.
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Here is my maintenance schedule:

Everyday
0.5ml (or 10 drops) of MB7 and Vibrant
0.5ml (or 10 drops) of PO4
Do not dose NO3 yet.
The exact amount of flake food
Check temp

Wed
Feed to Cynarina and bounce and lord
Feed one frozen cube
Test alk, no3, po4
Check temp

Weekend
Test alk, CA, mg, no3, po4
Test PH at night
10% water change (Blow live rock)
Rinse pre-filter
Reef roids
Fill top off the reservoir
Check temp and salinity

End of every month
Clean all 4 glass panels
Replace carbon
Rinse the entire bio-media thoroughly
Clean the intake
Clean the wavemaker
Check 2 part level
Check any tear on the dosing pump tubing
Check TDS
 
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Very easy to raise phosphate with feeding of fish and corals. Should not need to dose it.
Why add vibrant every day?
Agreed, I think I was worrying too much about high no3 and po4 by overfeeding and trying to nail the exact numbers which is an exhausting way of reef keeping. :)

Reason for Vibrant every day:
1 I use Vibrant because I already have both Vibrant and MB7. I like the fact that I am adding more bacteria strains.
2 Weekly dosing fluctuates my po4 and no3 level. I want more stability. I use glass bottles with droppers which makes the dosing quick and easy.
3 I don't have a skimmer so I want additional nutrient export to compensate for that.
3 Bacteria is a good source of coral food.
 
Agreed, I think I was worrying too much about high no3 and po4 by overfeeding and trying to nail the exact numbers which is an exhausting way of reef keeping. :)

Reason for Vibrant every day:
1 I use Vibrant because I already have both Vibrant and MB7. I like the fact that I am adding more bacteria strains.
2 Weekly dosing fluctuates my po4 and no3 level. I want more stability. I use glass bottles with droppers which makes the dosing quick and easy.
3 I don't have a skimmer so I want additional nutrient export to compensate for that.
3 Bacteria is a good source of coral food.
I think you might want to look into what vibrant actually is…
 
I think you might want to look into what vibrant actually is…
Good idea!!

Here is what I found: The main ingredient in Vibrant is a cultured bacteria blend at 95% of the content. Other ingredients include 1% Amino Acids (Aspartic Acid), .05% Vinegar, and 3.5% RO/DI water. Vibrant does not publish what types of bacteria cultures are included in their solution.

Pls let me know if you have different info or review. :) I think my dosage is less than what the instruction says but I think I should consider lowering it as PO4 and NO3 are on the lower side.
 
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Good idea!!

Here is what I found: The main ingredient in Vibrant is a cultured bacteria blend at 95% of the content. Other ingredients include 1% Amino Acids (Aspartic Acid), .05% Vinegar, and 3.5% RO/DI water. Vibrant does not publish what types of bacteria cultures are included in their solution.

Pls let me know if you have different info or review. :) I think my dosage is less than what the instruction says but I think I should consider lowering it as PO4 and NO3 are on the lower side.
There is a couple peer review threads of it from pretty recent on R2R. They’re well done. I believe it has come out to be mostly an Algicide
 
There is a couple peer review threads of it from pretty recent on R2R. They’re well done. I believe it has come out to be mostly an Algicide
Thanks so much for sharing, it is lots of info to take in. Just to make sure, I think I will stop using it for now and see if there are any improvements in the coloration and health of the corals.

 
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