Prodibio Review(Conclusion)

PoonTang · #1 07-13-2010, 07:41 PM

Well it would seem that I have been chosen by our Canreef sponsor Aqua Digital to do the Probio Reef Kit Review. Yay me! To all you people that applied to Aqua Digital but didnt win, dont feel bad, it just means that your tank is not as screwed up as mine.

A little history:
Here is a current FTS

The System is 120 G display with a modified Oceanic#3 sump, Reeflo Dart Return, ASM G1X skimmer that is heavily modified with my own intake design, meshweel, drilled air venturi, etc. more can be seen in my tank thread
http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57551
I run a Neptune Apex Controller, 2 k4 korillas for circulation, and my lighting is a Aqualight pro 2x 250w running Phoenix 14k bulbs. TLF reactors in the sump, 1 with 1c carbon and 1 with 500ml biobeads.

Here is my skimmer in action with about 18 hours skimmate production.

My bioload consists of Kole Tang, Purple Tang, Powder Blue Tang, Clownfish Pair, Lawnmower Blennie, McKoskers Flasher Wrasse, Coral Beauty, Cleaner Wrasse, Orange Spot Watchman Goby, Yellow Clown Goby.
Cleanup crew consists of about 8 turbo and astrea snails, 4 nassarius snails, Sand Sifting Starfish and a Tiger Tail Cuke.
Corals: Various Acro's, Milli's, Montis, (more on these later) 1 Hammer and 1 frogspawn, 1 ricordia, 1 chalice, Porites, Stylo, Bird Nest, Pocillopora, and probably a few others i cant remember or dont know the name of.

My current Parameters are:
PO4 .09ppm Hanna Checker
Nitrate 5ppm Salifert
Alk 10 API
Cal 420 Salifert
Mag 1250 Seachem
Temp 78 to 81 as is controled by my Apex with the Lights/Heater/ Fans
pH 8.1- 8.3
My pH is on the higher side because all of my topup's are done with Kalkwasser.

Weekly waterchanges are between 10 and 20% recently and all of my levels are checked and adjusted using Randy's 2 part recipie 2 with supplies from Little Silver Max.

Issues: Well I really dont have rampant algae problems or anything like that, just a little on the sandbed and the green dust on the glass that need to be cleaned about every 3 days. But what I do have is some corals with virtually non existant PE. All of my Acros, Milli's , Prostratas have no PE and the colours are terrible. Growth is pretty good and all of the corals are growing great bases. Montis, Stylos, etc all seem to be fine and have good PE.
I have tried everything from Red Bug Treatment, massive WC (hence the 20% weekly) lowering levels, raising levels, coral frenzy, stray voltage, you name it. Nothing is working except the WC did help the colours out a little perhaps but not the PE to any extent.
So here we sit today, perhaps it is a nutrient issue and hopefully the Probio Reef Kit can help out. I will be doing weekly doses of 1 vial of strontium and bi-weekly doses of 1 vial each of Biodigest, Bioptim, Iodine and report back weekly here. Once my Levels are down i will begin dosing the Reefbooster vials.

Here is the Reef Kit

Here are some of the most affected corals for reference:
This is supposed to be an Ultimate Prostrada. Nothing ultimate about it, bad colour and no pollyps.

Here is a 2 tone acro that I got from Marie. It is supposed to be a vibrant purple with BIG lime green pollyps. See any Pollyps?

This is supposed to be a Marshall island tricolour: Looks pretty uni-colour to me

This one is supposed to be yellow with bright blue tips

A blue Milli believe it or not

A rose milli

So that basically sums it up and this review should last for about 3 months. Hopefully we can see some real changes for the better. Like I said i will be posting updates about every week or so and feel free to ask any questions.

Lance · #2 07-13-2010, 10:34 PM

Hey Darren have you looked into water movement. All your params seem fine. I wasn't getting very good PE in the corner tank until I added a PH and moved another. Overnight, a big difference. Just a though anyway.