Quote:
Originally Posted by Scotty freddy
Wow Bulent! Tank is looking awesome buddy, keep doing whatever your doing coz it's working!  |
Thank you Scotty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefmutt
wow... this guy biggles is everywhere.... there's no escaping his bff business...
he's trying to make lifelong friends everywhere he goes but he's really just annoying everybody!!  |
I like empirical research. I won't be surprised if "BFC" is widely cited in the mainstream reef literature in the future
. However, Biggles' metric may require some fine tuning as poo contribution to a reef tank and its frequency vary from one species to another. I think Sahin has already made a similar comment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefmutt
Bulent, i just read your whole thread.. Very nice system and beautiful big colonies.
I love your reasoned and methodical approach to reef husbandry..
I'm glad you have beaten your cyano problem.
I've always loosely shot for the redfield ratio of 16 to 1 for n to p ratio.. ten to one is certainly in the ball park.. having said that, using biopellets, cheato fuge and remote dsb, i have a 1ppm nitrate and .o6 p which is a pretty good ratio and i still have a bit of cyano.
Interestingly, when i was at 4ppm n and .13 p, I had no cyano whatsoever...
i will be following your experiences with interest.
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Thank you for your kind words and taking time to read my rambling.
Unfortunately, to my disappointment cyanobacteria made a comeback a few months after writing my cyano post last year and never left ever since. Having failed on my methodology, I have turned my attention to proprietary products that claim to tackle cyanobacteria, such as KZ coral snow and KZ zeobak/cyano clean. Although they have not eradicated cyano, they have reduced the frequency of its reappearance after its removal from sand bed and/or rocks.
A lot of fellow reefers like you report that cyano are linked to nitrate/phosphate (im)balance. I am increasingly interested in this observation as I have noticed that since I started to use Tropic Marine NP bacto balance at the end of February this year, cyano have significantly reduced and have been confined to certain sections of sand bed and a few rocks. They are not spreading anymore. This product aims to reduce both nitrates and phosphates in a balanced way while maintaining them at low levels, so that corals do not get stressed. For a very long time, I measured zero ppm or very close to zero ppm nitrates (Salifert). Nowadays, I am getting 0.2 ppm or slightly higher while phosphate readings (Elos/Rowa Merck) are up to 0.015 mg/l in P terms (almost close to Redfield ratio) from zero-0.008 ppm. While this is happening, coral coloration has also improved. By adding more fish (read this as increasing "BFC"), I am likely to increase nitrate/phosphate readings further while maintaining their balance. As a result, I am expecting that coral coloration will continue to improve and cyano will decrease further. Watch this space ...
Sorry I have rambled again
