CaribSea aragaMIGHT?

[dkelly]

When I was picking up items at brian01's place, he mentioned that he used CaribSea aragaMIGHT instead of a calcium reactor or kalkwasser. His tanks were in the GARF style. Anyone here using aragaMIGHT?

 

[wbholwell]

How much sps did he have?

 

[flyingarmy]

He mostly had softies....

 

[jessezm]

It does not seem like a very efficient way of introducing calcium and carbonate into a system IMHO. I'm sure it works for systems with low calcium demands, but in a tank that uses more calcium, I'd want a more sure-fire way to introduce calcium/carbonate in more readily usable forms. This product seems to rely on passive dissolution into the water of finely ground aragonite. That's why you can't overdose. But in a high pH environment, I wouldn't rely on it to dissolve fast enough to keep pace with calcium and alk demands. Maybe an expert can chime in?

 

[dkelly]

According to brian's FS post:

Corals: Large blue Acropora millipora or similar (~12" across), large yellow Acropora millipora or similar (~8" across), two deep green acropora of unknown parentage, green pavona with several daughter colonies surrounding it (main colony ~4"), frogspawn with about 5-6 heads, several types of mushrooms (mostly green stripe), many types of zoos and palys, green stars, brown-green anthelia, brown toadstool leather, and likely a few things I've forgotten about.

 

[cameron]

This is from a study on the substance... I considered running it in my sump for a while just to help stabalize params:

Recommended Uses for Calcium Carbonate

Here are the ways that I recommend using such products:

If you are using a calcium carbonate/CO2 reactor, and have not yet made the leap to using limewater to help raise the pH, why not use CaCO3-saturated water as evaporation replacement? However you replace evaporated water, let the freshwater sit in contact with CaCO3 prior to adding it to the tank. If you have a big reservoir that you use, all the better. Just put some Southdown aragonite sand (or other product) on the bottom when you fill it up, and away you go….It won’t raise the pH nearly as much as limewater, but may be simpler and less expensive, and is likely better than nothing.

If you are using any additive other than limewater (which itself uses most or all of the evaporation replacement water) you can incorporate this material into the evaporation replacement. If you are using baking soda for alkalinity supplementation, this method may help raise the pH (should that be needed). If you are using expensive two part balanced additives or two part separate additives, you will end up using less of them. If it is sand that you use with the evaporation replacement water, then the net effect will likely be lower costs over time as you use slightly less of the additives. Of course, because of the limited potency of this method, we are talking about a 2-10 percent reduction in the use of these other additives, but in a large tank that may be significant to some people.

In a tank with a low calcification rate, such as one with few corals or with mostly slow-growing corals, you might even get away with this method alone. The cost associated with even the commercial products will be fairly low, and using Southdown sand will be almost nonexistent. Still, it may be adequate to maintain pH, alkalinity, and calcium in such situations. Moreover, it will never (or almost never) become unbalanced the way separate additions of calcium and alkalinity might become over time.

In each of these applications, it behooves you to permit atmospheric CO2 to enter the system (exactly the opposite of a limewater setup). Aerating the container with a bubbler would be optimal as that will also bring in fresh, CO2-laden air, and will keep the CaCO3 mixing a bit. Just leaving it open to the air is better than keeping it closed (unless, of course, you have pets or kids that might consider taking a dip in it!).

Source Article:

 

[brian01]

I had a mixed tank, sps, lps, and softies. The sps you can see in the pics on my site grew from single pinkie sized frags in 26 months, and once I lifted them out of there it was clear they were even bigger than the measurements I had on the site. I rarely tested, but when I did my params were as good as anyones. All I ever added were Aragamight, occasional Mg, and iodine about every 4 months. 25% water changes every 2 months. What I did though was keep fans on the water, so I went through up to 3 gallons of top up water a day. Aragamight dissolved in the top up water.

http://gimli.gsu.edu/brian/reef1/">http://gimli.gsu.edu/brian/reef1/</a>


Maybe you could do better with a reactor, but I can't imagine it would be by too much. And maybe if I had more sps I would have had too much load. But results speak for themselves and this method is ZERO hassle.

 

[cameron]

I certainly like the fact that is a balanced additive compared to kalkwasser. If you OD this stuff, it just sits on the bottom until needed. Again, I have seriously considered throwing some in my top off and letting it work its magic.