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Hi, my name is Jeff. My family and I live in Columbus. I just recently got back into the saltwater hobby after a short break. Currently in have a BC14 display tank, I'm building a frag tank, and am working on a second display BC14 which I have removed the rear wall, chambers, and the rim and hood. My tank is currently running a led system that I built off of a DIM4 controller. It has a total of 20 leds that cover the entire light spectrum more or less. I am new to SPS coral and so far they are thriving to say the least. I feed heavy, and stay out of the tank as much as possible. I found out really quickly with my first tank that the less you can touch it, the better off it is. So with that, here are just a few pics.

Sorry for the low quality phone pics... nothing like actually seeing it in person.


These are some cheap zoas I bought... this pic is under the factory Biocube PC lighting. Mundane at best...
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This is after about a month under my new led setup... hardly recognizable when compared to the pic above.
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This is a free frag I got from my LFS... It's looking like Lokani to me. What do you think?
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This was the tank at the very end of September when I started it...
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And this is a current pic... any frag plugs will be gone as soon as my frag tank is completed.
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This is my beautiful birdsnest that is growing like crazy. I wish my camera would capture the true colors on this thing.
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Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

Edit: Also, my two Clownfish are Mocha Clowns and are absolutely stunning in color. I've never seen such smooth color transitions on anything ever!
 
Good looking tank man! Are you running any other equipment? Dosing?
 
JDWells;917706 wrote: Good looking tank man! Are you running any other equipment? Dosing?
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No other equipment, and the only thing that I guess you could say that I dose is Purple Up.

I feed 1.5-2ml of PhytoFeast and OysterFeast each two to three times at day. I also feed a small amount of MysisFeast once a day and Instant Ocean Marine Chips twice a day.

The algae on the back wall is all dead and gone now.
 
stacy22;917781 wrote: Ditch the Purple Up and save your money.
Click to expand...

Do you have a reason as to why?

I've always thought it was a great product with really good results. That has been my experience with the product. It also helps replenish iodine and calcium inbetween water changes. My tank has not been running but for for 2½ to 3 months and already my live rock has gone from no coraline algae, to having quite a bit and continually increasing. I had issues with nuisance algae until I added macro algae in the middle rear chamber. Now it has killed the nuisance algae and coraline algae is growing on the rear wall instead.

Not that I think it would be impossible, but I don't think I would've had such quick growth in coraline algae without the use of this product. Besides, I only dose 1ml once every other day. At this rate the bottle lasts me a very long time.
 
The following is from Randy Holmes-Farley, one of the best known reef chemists in the country...

(The AragaMilk by Caribsea in the linked article below is basically the same ingredients as Purple Up (according to CaribSea). When RHF wrote the article originally Purple Up was not being marketed and sold yet...)

<span style="color: blue">"I do not recommend it for most people.

It is not a useful calcium and alkalinity supplement. The main ingredient, the fine aragonite, cannot dissolve in seawater and is wasted, as I showed here:

Calcium Carbonate as a Supplement
</span>http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/july2002/chem.htm"><span style="color: blue">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...y2002/chem.htm</span></a>

<span style="color: blue">Other ingredients may or may not be useful.

It disappoints me that so many companies continue to push products with the main or only ingredient being fine aragonite (sand). Either they are ignorant of seawater chemistry, or they don't care that the product doesn't work as described.

I would back off such assertions if any company selling any of these sorts of products could show a single thriving and growing SPS type of tank that could be maintained long term using any dose of Purple Up as the only source of calcium and alkalinity. I do not believe that any well known RC member has ever claimed to have done that either.

The particles of calcium carbonate in Purple up and other products may be so small that they can stay suspended in solution. If they do, they will dissolve during the very low pH part of an alkalinity test, and give a falsely high alkalinity. Calcium kits might also be fooled.

In any case, they will not dissolve in seawater. Some portion of them may dissolve as they get into low pH areas, like deep in a sand bed, just as calcium carbonate sand itself will.
But the water column of a reef aquarium is supersaturated with calcium carbonate, precluding dissolution.

FWIW, I have debated these issues with company reps (like Kent) online here, without ever having them provide any evidence that their product (in that case, Liquid Reactor) is any different than adding fine sand.
</span>
 
^ Very interesting. Thank you for posting that. I've never heard this before.

I have a bottle of Kent Iodine and Brightwell Calcion. I guess I'll be dosing these instead of PU from now on...

Any thoughts on these products?

Also, if the PU doesn't work as advertised, then why are my calcium, dkh, iodine, strontium, and magnesium readings staying consistent? I'm not saying anyone is wrong here. I just know there area million different theories and ways to go about keeping a SW aquarium.
 
Water changes alone will keep you pretty consistent in #'s until frags turn into colonies. Are you testing for Iodine? I wouldn't dose anything you can't test for.
 
Ringo®;917802 wrote: Water changes alone will keep you pretty consistent in #'s until frags turn into colonies. Are you testing for Iodine? I wouldn't dose anything you can't test for.
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I agree. Regular water changes with a decent quality salt will help keep water chemistry fairly constant.

Iodine is a trace element needed by algae and invertebrates including coral. If your iodine level is 0.06ppm then your tank closely matches the ocean. High quality salt and algae-containing foods contribute to the iodine levels in our tanks.

As Ringo said, best practice is to only dose what you are testing for. I would add...only dose what is needed.
 
As for as dosing Iodine, I rely on the Purple Up to do that. It advertises that it does, and like I said, it stays consistent.

Edit: Sorry, yes I do test for iodine.
 
keep up the good work man. slow and steady :) keep things simple and you'll have a full gown reef soon
 
SnowManSnow;917819 wrote: keep up the good work man. slow and steady :) keep things simple and you'll have a full gown reef soon
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I'm trying to get this frag tank going so I can get rid of those unsightly plugs in the display tank.
 
those plugs will grow into colonies the size of a newborn with patience ) I say leave um :)
 
SnowManSnow;917867 wrote: those plugs will grow into colonies the size of a newborn with patience ) I say leave um :)
Click to expand...

Judging by the size of the colonies in your tank, I'd say you know from experience. :wow2:
 
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