Cali Kid Corals

Alex’s IM 150 EXT

Darkxerox said:
I switched to freeze dried whole foods (mysis and calanus) and small sized flakes (I smash them up a bit) instead of pellets and I've noticed less clumping on/in the plank. Large flakes had issues too. I think it has to do with how less dense foods distribute better in the drum given how the thin fins inside mix things. Others can chime in if they're seeing the same. The cannonball attachment does help with moisture and overall gunk (when I forget to use it there's an obvious difference).
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That is interesting. I do like the TDO pellets as I think these are of higher quality than only one or two types of individual food items, but not sure if true or not. I have the cannonball attachment, did not know it had an impact.

Darkxerox said:
What's your skimmate look like and how much are you pulling every day? I'm still shocked with how having a properly sized skimmer helps me out now.
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I love the skimmer topic, it is such an underrated tool. It really depends, but often not a lot. With some of the changes, it removes 1 cup per week or slightly more. I think it has something with the ozone and the fact I am using dual mechanical filtration, which I want to get rid off (3d print solution).

This is what I recorded a week ago:

P.S.: I showed this video to Claude S, who is obsessed with skimmer performance (prefers external skimmers though), and he thought it was looking pretty good, but suggested I turn it up further.

Darkxerox said:
But rock die off is probably a huge factor. Switching to live phyto (maybe a higher quality one like tisochrysis) might help slightly too, as it will continue to metabolize until it's eaten or skimmed out.
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Yes, the dry phyto seems very concentrated. I actually only try to use it up since I had so much of it and it was rather expensive, and then switch back to live phyto afterwards. This is what I have been using:
 
Shopping @under_water_ninja today:
  • One additional cleaner shrimp for the IM 150.
  • 10 additional BB snails for the IM 150.
  • A couple of peppermint for the nano tank
  • Mysis PE, and rods food until LRS is in stock again.
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I remember reading this on telegrahams channel, that if the Hydros temp probe is not working, all the heater connected to them will stop working too. I have been cleaning the probe for a few hours in sulfamic acid and only noticed this a bit later that it turned the heater off - audio signal though that the temp probe was removed.

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Alexander1312 said:
Shopping @under_water_ninja today:
  • One additional cleaner shrimp for the IM 150.
  • 10 additional BB snails for the IM 150.
  • A couple of peppermint for the nano tank
  • Mysis PE, and rods food until LRS is in stock again.
View attachment 68085
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Let me know if you have this issue with the PE mysis. My last batch was really annoying with how it peeled, even when only exposing one row at a time:

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MarcosD said:
Do you have a brand you like?
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I switched to this which seems to have made my miserable fragging life a bit easier:

Polyplab Premium Frag Glue grenade pack 25 x 4 gram Singles | Premium Aquatics

Aquarium & Fish Supplies Superstore. Guaranteed Low Prices. Free Shipping for qualified orders. Aquarium supply for your aquarium fish, saltwater aquariums, freshwater aquariums and ponds. The best aquarium lighting, protein skimmers, aquarium chillers, calcium reactors, aquarium pumps for fish...
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I finally made some progress on my elevated nitrate and phophate levels in both tanks (see nano for details).

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I am not a fan of GFO or lanthanum chloride, due to what their respective downsides are (all methods have downsides, and I recognize both are very effective).

Carbon dosing seems most appealing to me despite the negative impact on PH, and that it might also grow unwanted bacteria.

I have been using Elimi NP from Tropic Marin aka their version of carbon dosing with a slowly increasing dosage over several weeks, and for the past week 5 ml daily for my estimated 550 litre net water volume (which is more than what they recommend as the max). I also tried to optimize my skimming, and performed larger weekly water changes.

While I was initially frustrated with the effect - it seemed to hold nutrient level around the same amount every week for weeks - it finally kicked in and pushed phosphate down a lot. However, Nitrate has remained now relatively higher but this is easier to address than phosphate.

For Nitrate, Prodbio did the job for me in the past and I will use this now weekly until it is balanced again. Unfortunately, it looks like this company went out out business - I still have a larger number of vials. If anyone has a recommendation for a substitute, I would be interested.
 
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Nitrate as you said is the easiest to remove. Can supplement with a little vodka dosing. The dosing that Lou said TM used is some algae based carbohydrate that doesn't cause bad bacterial growth (would like to see pre and post aquabiomics data) but at least it's working for you.
 
Darkxerox said:
Nitrate as you said is the easiest to remove. Can supplement with a little vodka dosing. The dosing that Lou said TM used is some algae based carbohydrate that doesn't cause bad bacterial growth (would like to see pre and post aquabiomics data) but at least it's working for you.
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The only ingredient they state on the ElimiNP bottle is polyalocohols. So I always wonder if this is another vastly overpriced product such as the Polyplab potassium dip. But as you said, they claim it is not the same as simple carbon dosing, and it would not have the same side effect.

Looks like the product is on the market for 10 years, so maybe it has it does have its own magic regarding nutrient reduction, and is worth its price. I know folks often do not like it because it does not show results instantly (such as GFO and LC), and I also thought for a while that it’s effects were too weak, but it looks like it is about finding the right amount (without triggering a bacterial bloom, which I had in the nano tank to some extent).

I am thinking now about dosing it automatically, but it would need to be in a diluted form, which might have its own downsides.
 
Weekends are pretty busy recently with the normal stuff plus getting both tanks ready for 17 days vacation overseas from June 2 onwards.

ATO container size has been an issue for me since my <20 gallon ATO container will only last 14 days or potentially less.

So I did now a 'dry-run' of the temporary setup with the Hydros ATO and 16 gallon Brute container as backup.

To make this work, I used the following:

- Hydros triple sensor
- Hydros ATO pump
- 9 feet extension cable for the sense port
- 9 feet extension cable for the drive port
- 16 gallon Brute

Worked very well, and I might replace the RedSea ATO in this tank and the (annyoing) Tunze ATO in my nano tank with the Hydros ATO going forward.

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