My home SPS reef [175G/800l]

[BigJohnny]

Hey Pavel,

Can you please tell me what range of PAR your tank is from bottom to top, and where you think the best average PAR is to accommodate growth and color in acropora. I know it varies but I'm curious as there are many different thoughts on this. Also do you start all frags at the bottom and then move up, or do some other sort of light acclimation?

[paszembe]

@BigJohnny - I don't have a PAR meter so can't help you with the readings - but taking into account that I have 28 T5 bulbs over my tank I assume my PAR is quite high.
Since my tank is 65cm tall I place my acros starting 10cm above the bottom up to about half of the tank (my LR is rather low). Lower regions are occupied by some deep water acros ..red dragon, granulosa, echinata or any that forms a thin table like milleaporas etc.
Upper regions are reserved for a more light and flow demanding frags.
If I get a frag from a healthy high light /low nutrients tank and the tissue of the frag is light I put it on the spot whrere I finally want, but if the coral is dark/brown I put it first at the bottom of my tank to give it time to adjust to my light&water to avoid stressing it too much. After a week or two (rather 2) if the coral is doing well I move it to a final destination.
regards
Pawel

[paszembe]

I've made a few more photos today.
Hope you enjoy
Pawel

[paszembe]

two more

[Denadai]

Amazing as always

[mhucasey]

Those corals are stunning!!!!! This one in particular:


Please let us know any tips you have for using the Aquaforest system, and any issues you come up against. I will be giving the system a go and many others here are interested as well. Thanks!

[glaukos]

Oh my God
Welldone pawel and thank you so much for sharing man!

Awesome pics and amazing corals!You have some serious photo skills!
Are you using aquaforest too?
We should open a thread with AF tanks guys

[Moser]

Another Aquaforest tank?

Pawel, what volume of zeolites do you use V what is recommended… do you use less? How did you decide?

Thanks
Mo

[BigJohnny]

Originally Posted by paszembe

@BigJohnny - I don't have a PAR meter so can't help you with the readings - but taking into account that I have 28 T5 bulbs over my tank I assume my PAR is quite high.
Since my tank is 65cm tall I place my acros starting 10cm above the bottom up to about half of the tank (my LR is rather low). Lower regions are occupied by some deep water acros ..red dragon, granulosa, echinata or any that forms a thin table like milleaporas etc.
Upper regions are reserved for a more light and flow demanding frags.
If I get a frag from a healthy high light /low nutrients tank and the tissue of the frag is light I put it on the spot whrere I finally want, but if the coral is dark/brown I put it first at the bottom of my tank to give it time to adjust to my light&water to avoid stressing it too much. After a week or two (rather 2) if the coral is doing well I move it to a final destination.
regards
Pawel

Thanks ! It seems to be working for you so I will try your method.

[paszembe]

Originally Posted by Denadai

Amazing as always

Thanks, I just try to do my best.

Originally Posted by BigJohnny

Thanks ! It seems to be working for you so I will try your method.

You are welcome. I hope it will work for you too. I'm generally very careful with giving advices about the others tanks, products and methods because every tank can is different and something that works good for me is not necessarily going to work for the others.

Originally Posted by mhucasey

Those corals are stunning!!!!! This one in particular:

Please let us know any tips you have for using the Aquaforest system, and any issues you come up against. I will be giving the system a go and many others here are interested as well. Thanks!

Thank you
I suppose that's a. granulosa. I personally call this acropora "buffalo horns" because of the shape of the frag
I haven't got any issues while switching so it's hard for me to give any tips. Maybe this is because I was moving from a similar bacteria based system (zeovit) so I was just switching one KZ product to similar Aqauforest one - eg. KZ stones to AF stones, FM GAC to AF GAC, ZS3 to Np pro, etc. The only important thing that comes to my mind is that in case if your system is not so called ULNS at the moment you should take things really slow. For example if you hadn't used GAC in your system before - take a half a dose at start. Exact thing with zeo stones etc. Starting only with the salt for a month or two before introducing any other products looks safe in my opinion. I often see that reefers like to use the whole method and products at once instead of slow introducing one after another - and this is not related to any specific vendor.

Originally Posted by glaukos

Oh my God
Welldone pawel and thank you so much for sharing man!

Awesome pics and amazing corals!You have some serious photo skills!
Are you using aquaforest too?
We should open a thread with AF tanks guys

Originally Posted by Moser

Another Aquaforest tank?

Pawel, what volume of zeolites do you use V what is recommended… do you use less? How did you decide?

Thanks
Mo

Yes, most of the products I use at the moment are from Aquaforest (salt,GAC,carbon, zeo stones, foods, bacteria etc).
I'm using 2l of zeo stones (instead of 3l of KZ the I used to have) for my 1400l tank in a KZ reactor - I just wanted rather be safe than sorry while switching from KZ stones.Both my No3 (salifert) and Po4 (hanna) are not detectable so I don't see a point in increasing the volume of stones at the moment

Best regards
Pawel

[Tokyoyankee]

Beautiful tank. Big fan of your thread and aquaforest products. From. My understanding, you're able to run zero mix in a standard reactor like a TLF reactor correct?

[szajda_m]

Originally Posted by Tokyoyankee

Beautiful tank. Big fan of your thread and aquaforest products. From. My understanding, you're able to run zero mix in a standard reactor like a TLF reactor correct?

No, you should use zeo dedicated filter which will allow you shaking the media in it. I belief that Paweł is using KZ zeo filter.

[paszembe]

Yes, I'm using a KZ reactor.
Below you will find a today's pic of my sump


btw. I've got myself a nice canopy so finally I can watch my tank without being blinded by my ATI fixtures.

[biggles]

Really stunning colors mate, very inspiring stuff

[paszembe]

Thanks biggles.
Since I'm geting old and lazy only 3 shots this weekend..

[mhucasey]

Ooooooooh elegance coral! It's a beauty!

[tripdad]

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5685/...93083cf0_b.jpg
Nice colors on all of your corals, I like the contrast in this one from today. Well done!

[MichaelW]

The kz reactor has the zeomix but what are you running in the other or is that you calcium reactor? Not dosing component 1+ , 2+, 3+? Awesome colors and pictures. I have the AIO pellets I was thinking about running soon.... But these aquaforest tanks look amazing. Did you change Just to try, or was there something you didn't like about AIO

[paszembe]

Behind the KZ filter there is a calcium reactor with knopp media. I used to have AIO - it was ok, really good results - but the AIO are in my opinion only the way of reducing NO3 + Po4 - not a complete system with coral food, supplements etc.
Later on I wanted to try something different so I moved to Zeovit - still good results and a complete system with foods etc..
Finally when I moved to a bigger tank I found that it's a little too expensive for me so I've found a way to cut some corners (not sure if it's the right expression - what I mean is to save some extra money) and I moved to Aquaforest system - great results (just my opinion of course) and a loooot cheaper + I have all products available at my LFS 500m away from my kids school - I can step by at the shop before of after picking them up after classes and get whatever I need at the moment without shipping costs

[glaukos]

Ahhhh,i envy you so much for being able to keep and abro colored like that pawel
Welldone,amazing!

I was going to ask you if you found AF products/method,cheaper compared to zeovit but you already mentioned it,regarding a bigger tank.
Would you say it's relatively cheaper for smaller tanks too?(Zeovit compared to AF.)

[Vanoble]

Hi Pawel,
thanks for nice fts,can I show them with my guys in China,is it OK?just in forum,not for business purpose...

[paszembe]

Originally Posted by glaukos

Would you say it's relatively cheaper for smaller tanks too?(Zeovit compared to AF.)

The bigger the tank is the more you will save but even in smaller tanks it's a lot cheaper IMO. Here in Poland 20kg of RBS costs 290 pln while 22kg of AF Reef is for 177 pln.

Originally Posted by Vanoble

Hi Pawel,
thanks for nice fts,can I show them with my guys in China,is it OK?just in forum,not for business purpose...

Sure, no problem at all.
You can find most of my photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90529978@N06/
Pawel

[PederP]

Great tank, corals and camera skills

[reefmutt]

That abro... Wow.
Stunning shots as usual.
Sorry if you've answered this recently..
What camera and lens do you use mostly?

[paszembe]

Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272NII)
with Nikon D5100

ƒ/16.0
90.0 mm
1/160
500 ISO