Dude really liked to hear about your microphone cause I could tell right away that you had a quality Mike phone so definitely good money spent. Congratulations on the promotion dude. Hell yeah you work for that. You deserve it. Great perspective on Reef Builders and intriguing. well flowing conversation. Not an easy thing to do!
@@ttown918 Because hype. And Aperture is pretty good at generating that. But by any logical measure, Radions are not worth the cost, when compared to the field.
@@nueok No stomach for tearing into my Nero control boxes to make that work. Not for now, anyway. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll try it. I’ve actually connected my return pump to it since this video.
@@kalamazoo_reefer actually you wouldn’t rip anything out. You’re basically replacing the power supply(brick) of the Nero. Replacing the brick with a 12v to 24v booster cable. Similar to what Ecotech sells for their vectors pumps. The EcoFlow river pro can power just the power heads in an event of a power outage, probably last hours and hours. And the other EcoFlow river you have can power you ac stuff. Just an thought:)
Nero should be plug and play long as you can find the proper barrel plug sizes and adapters. The power supply is doing an AC to DC power conversion so efficiency is lost. Also the EcoFlow is doing a DC to AC, so lots of current being switched back and forth causing tons of losses. When you turn on the AC plug on the EcoFlow, it needs to convert the DC to AC.
I see Ryan Batchellor as the #1 contributor to the success of people entering and progressing in the hobby, which hopefully, countered the impact of the two "Tanked" clowns who made it look too easy. Tanked probably contributed to the greatest demand and death rate for fish and corals in the world. How many times did they say "adding this stuff instantly cycles the tank"? Ryan's videos were based on his personal structured research in various areas. BRS is on a slide downward. BRS bought out the competition (Marine Depot) , then shut it down. During the COVID period of reefkeeping growth, Bertram/Aperture tried cornering the market with several equipment manufacturers, along with BRS. Now things have slowed down considerably, and Aperture is in big trouble financially. With the face of BRS leaving, it could be the nail in the coffin for Aperture.
I've never had much coralline growth, but I've always had beautiful reef tanks. I've mad the decision to paint my new aqua scape purple. I think that would be really cool
Reef builders is cool, I suggested that they have a tech segment because life support is a big factor, 90% of the questions if you work as a retail associate are not biome related though I get that’s where the current trend is going and it is important to hold companies accountable.. in the past the “product reviews” lack important info, power consumption, maintenance, capabilities, tech specs, that would allow budget minded buyers (the vast majority) to appropriately select equipment and use it properly… Remy said it’s an interesting idea, no dice yet.. just my two cents.. we need to be holding the tech creators accountable too not just biome product manufacturers
I’m pretty confident that they’ll get back into the gear side of the hobby eventually. As a total gearhead, I’d love to see that kind of content. Totally hear ya.
Congrats on your faculty appointment! That is great news for you and your family. I just went up in rank from assistant to associate professor…wasn’t fun and very all consuming to get there…but can breathe a little bit now. Wishing you success this year on your podcast as well; really enjoy it and the topics you cover!
You know, it makes sense to me that you’re a teacher. Lol. I absolutely get that “vibe” from you, as the kids would say 😂 Many thanks, my friend. It was a long road to get to this point. Really slowed myself down by deviating into the private sector for a few years, but doing that confirmed that I was destined for teaching. Just a vastly better fit for me in all ways. Keep up your content, I watch it all. We’re representing the reefer-teachers!
@@kalamazoo_reefer I must confess, I am 100% on the research track, so don’t teach, but do guest lecture sometimes. I unfortunately don’t possess your qualities…It would likely take me 2-3 times longer to build out some worthy curriculum for sure!
Thats very intereresting. I always suspected about a bad correlation between aminos and dinos specifically, since there are many reefers stating that the start of amino dosing triggered dino outbreaks. This was particularlly about the red sea ab+ but now im starting to think that the whole amino acid insertion can lead to many other bad outbreaks, not only dinos. Great video. First one i see covering this topic.
Thanks, friend! Yeah, the companies of the reefkeeping hobby just want people to keep buying bottles of juice. That’s their whole angle. So just because corals happen to use amino acids, the companies go: “Great, let’s encourage reefkeepers to buy bottles of aminos and dump them in their tanks, more cash for us.” People don’t know the science. So they buy the bottles, trying to help their animals. In reality, corals get plenty of aminos, even from us feeding our fish, so we’re excessively flooding our systems with aminos by dosing them out of bottles, and very likely fueling more bad guys than we are helping the good guys. I respect the science above all else, and this is what the science is indicating.
Congratulations on the faculty position! That’s awesome! The adjunct thing sounds like it would be terrifying. As a nurse I’ve never had to worry about availability of work and it’s something I definitely appreciate after hearing about your situation. Microphone sounds good btw!
Thanks Trevor! Man, it has been a long time coming. I was starting to really stress about getting enough classes to pay the bills. Now things should be much more stable. And glad the mic worked well!
I don’t think Jake was a dick I think he was just a smart reefer If you owned a dog (coral) and someone asked what kind it was I would think you could have told them
He was absolutely a brilliant reefkeeper. However, if someone told me they owned a weener dog, I wouldn’t correct them and say: “Don’t you mean a Canis Lupus Familiaris?” That’s more what I’m talking about. He was not a bad person or anything of the sort, it was just who he was, his natural personality, and he owned it instead of trying to temper it.
I agreed with @kalamazoo_reefer that Jake could be a dick. On time he called out my YT post for disagreeing with him without really providing evidence to contradict me. I don't mind that he called me out, but he definitely didn't like to have a conversation - it was his way or you were wrong.
@@cesarjuarez2066 You’ll never keep all carbon addition out of your tank, I don’t think, just because you’ve got to feed the animals, especially if you’ve got fish. But yes, I try to reduce all carbon sources contributing to dissolved organic carbon levels in my reef tank.
I enjoyed listening to this episode on Spotify during my drives, thank you! I also thought Remy and the RB crew are doing a fantastic job right now, and I have been enjoying their pods, videos & in-depth contents. 👍👍
@@michaelho1671 I subscribe to the science, not to experience. The actual science shows that adding additional aminos to your tank is likely not that beneficial to the animals, but highly beneficial to pathogenic “bad guys” in the microbiome. Of course, with great reefkeeping practice, you can keep visible negative impacts of significant extra amino acid dosing at bay. This creates a sort of falsehood, where you’re attributing success to amino acid dosing that you should really just be attributing to your good coral husbandry. At least, this is my take on the whole thing, after listening to leading scientific minds in the hobby.
I think people fail to realize that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. What’s in fish food? Mostly protein. What’s in protein? Amino Acids. Therefore, everyone is dosing amino acids if they are feeding their tank. Adding a specific bottle of amino acids just isn’t necessary. A 9th grade biology class refresher would do this hobby wonders and save people a lot of money.
@@TrevorHiller Right. You’re putting them into your tank all the time. Dumping way more than needed into the tank just isn’t needed. Some lesson in there about “too much of anything isn’t good” or something, you know?
Just picked up the 512w River 2 Max one for my reef tank...will run the entire tank 3 × Ai Prime lights, heater, 3× DC Pumps for 5 hours and if i just run the essentials the dc return pump and 1x wavemake its good for 48+ hours
Breakdown of aminos contribute to DOC. Other things can also contribute toward high DOC. Conditions of high DOC, coupled with an abiotic stress event (such as pH swing, Alk Spike, Temp Spike, loss of flow etc.) create conditions where a pathogenic bacteria can take over and cause dysbiosis and ultimately disease. Not pathogenic bacteria preferentially take up aminos compared to good bacteria. You are by your own admission a heavy feeder. All that uneaten food... breaks down into aminos. Aminos in the fish poop too. Ammonia can be a coral food source without the carbon that contributes to DOC. NH2/3 vs NH2/3-R-CH2-COOH But no one has shared data on the effect that ammonia dosing has on the microbiome. At least not publicly, unless its been shared privately in a private old boys club just like the vendors at the end of a trade show. If you're in the cool club you get to see the data early. If not, tough. And so if there is no data, this for me comes down to a lack of critical thought. You stopped aminos, because data shows (in truth suggests) aminos are (in truth probably) taken up preferentially by bad bacteria (in truth a leading contributor of DOCm that can be utilized by potentially bad bacteria). And this comes from leading minds in the field. Ok cool. So is there data to show that ammonia doesn't do the same? Side issue, what happens if you accidentally overdose ammonia, what realtime test do you have that could pick that up, and what is your e-plan for if that happens? Surely a more holistic and safer approach would be feeding life foods (pods, phyto, etc) to the system, that could provide nutrition to the corals without any of the risks? Without the data on ammonia, this is the same level of logic as setting your lights without a PAR meter. Especially as you refuse to test DOC or your biome. You're eyeballing it. And I know you don't do that with your lights. You're also eyeballing that there is no negative effect of removing aminos BTW. I actually doubt there would be a negative effect of removing aminos but you don't know. Maybe in your system the good bacteria have adapted to an abundance of nutrition in the water and now you're disrupting that. You'll never know because you don't have biomics data. In a video you said if you sense something going bad... well we've got reef jesus, this must make you reef Obi Wan Kenobi sensing issues. Previously Jake was on the pedestal correct. Now you're putting others on the same pedestal. The hobby has a whole has a real problem with deifying people. It comes from how uninformed the hobbyist community is on the whole. This is something companies have taken advantage of, see MB7 and lacto bacillus... Just my two cen... dollars worth - you're doing things with your tank to deliberately influence a factor that you could, but won't test for. Closing your eyes, and hoping for the best. As i said the other day - good luck
You’re not off about ammonium bicarbonate. That’s fair for sure. However, I don’t refuse to test. You’re personally aware I’ll be able to do that soon enough, with my income shift in a few weeks. Yeah, I probably jumped the gun trying ammonia without the deep testing. I am human. I get excited and want to try new stuff too. As for deifying, I’m not. I would argue that the utter lack of choice of individuals who are actually qualified to speak about the matters being discussed here, kind of forces common reefers like myself (read: no formal science education) to just try their best to find the most legitimate voices speaking on these complex matters within the hobby. I listen to Bouwma, Salem, Eli. I don’t really know of many others who are putting their voice out into the public reefing sphere, and are not trying to sell magic juice in bottles, who I could look to for guidance.
@@kalamazoo_reefer Ammonia dosing data - The only standout changes i see in Bouwma's data is the decrease in flavobacteriaceae (green) and an increase in vibrio (magenta). From AB website: Flavobacteriaceae levels are highest in waters with the highest levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). These levels are also positively associated with ammonia, indicating a general overall association with high nutrient levels. This seems contrary to the Bouwma data. I don't know why . The Flavobacteriaceae are found at higher levels in algal-dominated reefs, and lower levels in healthy coral-dominated habitats Vibrio according to Salem is the family of bad guys. Yes coral growth went crazy, but that data looks like it has expanded the population of potentially pathogenic bacteria. So maybe actually priming for disaster if an abiotic stress event comes along. Be cool to test that but I wouldn't ask any reefer to do that. The notes on the AB site say, it is not advised to promote this population, probably due to their pathogenic potential.
FWIW, Mack from Mack's dino support group has stated that Amino's are suspected food source for Dinos. Lou Ekus has mentioned on several occasions that the Tropic Marin research has found in the literature that corals eat bacteria, so the latest experiments from Allen Vo via-a-vis gut loaded pro-biotic bacteria is an ideal food source for corals and benefecial bacterial colony to compete with pests.
Ha, well thank you. I stumble my way through reefkeeping explanations, I feel like. I’m much smoother teaching my particular subject matter in front of a group of young people 🤣😂
Just my experience with AF I think I mentioned it before. When I switched from IO to AF my ORP went from 290 down to 180. the corals looked dull until I finished the 200G box two months later and went back to IO, ORP went back up and my corals color came back. Hopefully your ORP keeps climbing.
I’ve been watching in secrecy for years researching, waiting, for the right time to start my tank (currently going through an extended whole house renovation) and Julian’s salt is definitely what everyone should be using.
Everytime I’ve dosed aminos I’ve had issues. Feeding my fish, never had an issue. I’ve had issues with IO reef crystals as well, the formula says “vitamins” might be amino related. Switched back to Red Sea CP no issues yet again. Could be circumstantial but I feel the extra organics or whatever fuel all my headaches rather than just feeding my fish and staying in my lane lol. Acros look the same as amino dosing- with patience so I don’t see the point.
What a bummer. Wish you hadn’t told me 🤣😂 But maybe it’s better, as now I’ll never know the kind of pain you’re going through right now on the price shift!
You get what you pay for with salt, I’m a tropic Marin guy myself just because it stores for a month or more well. And that is a nice box that adds to the overall cost.
a question i have is how do i set up a salt water reef tank do i need things to keep the coral alive because i want to set up a reef tank of my own in a 55 gal
I am targeting a “no aminos” goal, so had to shift off AF because they arbitrarily add aminos, but I think IO might also free of added aminos. I was poking around and couldn’t find reference to aminos in IO. Might be a good alternate option for me.
@@kalamazoo_reefer I don’t know what “no aminos” goal means. You just don’t want it in your salt? Or you want to add it yourself and have more control? I usually dose acropower once my tanks somewhat matures. Excerpt from a Jake Adams Reefbuilders article “Simply put, amino acids in corals fall under three categories: those that stony corals can synthesize all of which they require, those which stonies can synthesize in part and those which they cannot synthesize at all.” Which leads me to believe they need it but they can produce most of what they need.
@@ReefingwithO I have come to believe that recent research, which indicates that arbitrarily adding amino acid supplementation does more to fuel pathogenic “bad guys” than it does to improve coral health, is likely correct. It’s not that adding aminos hurts corals, it’s that it helps these bad organisms more than it helps the corals themselves. So I’m looking to not add any aminos, if at all possible. On the amino front, I believe Jake was wrong. The guy was a great reefkeeper, and knew surface science, but did not seem to know a considerable amount about certain (key word: certain) aspects of deeper science surrounding our animals. I’m not trying to high horse here, either. I am not claiming I can understand any of that deeper science. I look to people with science credentials in the areas of reef-centric science Jake didn’t deeply know, who can speak on what fuels the “bad guys” and the “good guys” and the corals themselves, for guidance.
@@kalamazoo_reefer You had me until the Jake diss he wasn't a surface scientist "he studied marine science in college doing independent research on the relationship between coral photosynthesis and water flow. That doesn't sound like a surface scientist to me - If you gonna call Jake a surface scientist and say his knowledge was lacking in certain areas - I think you need to need to come with more than that. Don't start with a scientific topic, say you are not a scientist and don't understand it and then in the same paragraph try to discredit the work of someone who studied it.
@kalamazoo_reefer Than at the tidal garden uses reef crystal's . The salt seems to have good perimeters. Don't know if it would be cheaper to use I .O . Regular & add the alk & stuff ?
Something you and Jim do differently, I use regular io like he does, why don't you? It does have lots of brown stuff so I'm guessing that's the reason most people don't like it, what salt does Salem use?
Unsure what Salem uses. I am very purposefully seeking salt that does not add amino acids to the tank. I don’t look down on cheaper salt at all. I’ve always used cheap salt if possible. But purging aminos is a critical goal of mine.
i was looking at accurasea but it's literally quadruple (yes, 4x) the price of AF. i've been looking for an alternative after i burn through my bags, too.
Could your Micro Biome be unbalanced in the tank between good and bad bacteria? If having amino acids in the salt feeding all the bacteria in the tank, it should in theory feed the good bacteria just as much, which should keep the bad bacteria at bay. Although Im not sure what the ratio of good vs bad bacteria should be in a healthy reef environment.
@@BurntSquirrel It’s my understanding that this is not quite how it works. Bad bacteria, like any bad actor in the microbiome, are adept at utilizing a litany of substances to grow and thrive, whereas the good actors have a pretty strict set of needs that are much more narrow. So it’s not as simple as “all of it is eating and growing at the same pace,” despite that seeming like the logical thought. Also, I believe the bad bacteria has the potential to proliferate faster. But I’m no expert. I am broad-strokes regurgitating what I think. I always look to actual experts in this for answers. The conclusion of those experts is that amino acids are a bad call. So I’m trying to get rid of them.
@@kalamazoo_reefer Looks like I'm going to need to do some research. I'm curious about the growth rates in good vs bad bacteria, and the conditions in which the growth rates differ. 👍👍👍👍👍👍
