I always think water changes are like this, you know when you sit on a plane for 10 hrs and they recycle the air, I can breathe but the air does not feel fresh. When I step out the plane you get that blast of fresh air, it's still air but it feels so much better than the air on the plane, that's what I imagine a water change feels like for my reef inhabitants.
Lou is AWESOME! He has always taken the time to help me out and get me back on track over the years and has always provided solid advice and explanations. Tropic Marin puts out top quality reefing products, but Lou's customer service and reefing knowledge is beyond compare.
Lou is a great guy. I met him at farmers frag market in CT, and sat through is presentation, very informative. Also asked him several questions, and had all the answers and explained everything well.
Great conversation. Mr. Ekus is always a fantastic and insightful source to listen too. I particularly enjoyed the contrast between industry practices and hobby practice. We as general hobbyist's can learn so much from the coral farms who share their information; places like WWC, Tidal Gardens, and ACI are frequent examples that do a great job of communicating positive information to us in the general hobby. Yet, there are nuanced difference which matter. As Mr. Ekus said here, "it's not just one thing. you have to look at the full picture".
Lou took the time to answer all of my questions regarding NP-Bacto Balance, A- and K+ and I had a lot of questions for him regarding the products. It shows that he cares about the hobbyists and the reefing industry.
Big fan of Lou, he convinced me to adopt carbon dosing very early, and his hypothesis on it making nutrients more available to coral via bacteria, anecdotally, appears to be absolutely true.
On the subject of “Probably not the salt”. I agree 100%. I had a major diatom outbreak in my 3200L reef. I ran through my list of possible causes, made slow adjustments and it just was not getting better. I sent water samples off to an acquaintance that works in a marine facility and the diatom was identified and my tanks water was found to be extremely high in silicates (no surprise), Ro water samples was apparently “Fine”. I was told it was mostly likely a bad batch of salt and high concentrations of Si in the supplements. I have been using Tropic Marin for YEARS and I refused to believe I had a bad batch because I had been using the same batch salt (multiple boxes) for months prior to the issue starting. I continued to battle for another 4 months, I literally tried everything and nothing helped. Long story short, I eventually sent off ICPs for the tank and the RO. Results were, Si was getting through into my RO even though the TDS meter was reading 0 after DI. Turns out the booster pumps on my 800GPD Ro machine had been slowly deteriorating over the months and this caused the Si to get into my RO. You may wonder why I didn’t send off an ICP in the first place. I live in South Africa, the only ICP we have access to is AquaForest and we had to wait months for the new supply of test kits to arrive in the country. Sucks being 3rd world!
I love these Ted talks with Ryan and any of his guests. Really bright individuals pioneering for us to all be successful in the hobby. Much love BRS and guests!
This video is AMAZING. I am trying to get into the hobby, and finding information sometimes could be misleading. This video is DENSE, SO many topics, so much information. I watched it as if it was only 10 minutes! Thanks a LOT for all this content folks.
This has to be the best reefing video I have watched in a long time. Awesome stuff and thanks to you both and the team. So much insightful information. It’s really good to get other industry experts opinions to help broaden knowledge. Thanks again.
@53:00 youre 100% - recent trip to reefs in Samoa - and that is exaclty what it is like. Phases of particulates, cloudy water and rough waves - and the fish and coral would love it! P.S the coral growth was crazy, and the reef was full of huge colonies, but, there was algae also. I think in the display we dont like algae, which is why a fuge is excellent. It grows what we need, but out of sight.
Wow Lou is the Man! I juj my take completely based on what he said on a other podcasts. His takes on carbon dosing were game changing for me and the explanation of calcium formate was too.
B-Ionic 2 part was developed in the early 90’s to solve the ionic imbalance problem caused by using just calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate/carbonate. After calcium and alkalinity are extracted from solution for calcification, the remaining residual ions match an artificial seawater mix, not just sodium chloride. Careful selection of ingredients allows this to be accomplished with 2 parts, instead of 3. This has all been explained on the product label for the last 25 years.
With regards to the ICP before and after - I'd also recommend taking full display photos with every ICP test. This will help you put a visual on it as you test.
I've learned, in my 25 to 30 years of saltwater and reefing, it's a complicated hobby that takes knowledge and research. Most people that keep saltwater, think a water change once every 3 months is all they need or no water change at all. A saltwater coral system is a complicated chemistry bowl of water that is constantly changing based on chemical elements in the water, lighting, etc. It takes perseverance and actual studying/experimenting to obtain results that are sustainable. Reefing is like asking the majority of the population to help building the rocket engines for the next visit to the moon. They'll try, but they're just not capable of understanding the amount of precise calculating and measurements that it will take to actually launch into orbit while simultaneously projecting where you want to land on the moon.
Really enjoyed this video. Found Lou very experienced, intelligent and insightful. Learned a lot and could sense his passion just like the passion I sense from the BRS crew!
Also - love the pulse concept. For the past few months, I’ve been blowing off my rocks every couple days and scraping the algae off the glass daily and always felt that the corals must be benefitting from the particulates. Glad to hear science supports it!
I agree with never running a tank without uv! The positives far outweigh any negatives in my experience. 5 years ago i couldn't keep any fish alive long term. I added a uv and have had 1000 times better results! I have a Caribbean surgeon from right after the uv was added doing great. I also have a Caribbean blue tang that is almost 2 years old as well.
Holistic UV is the next stage of exploration. The older hobbyists running Halides and heavy T5s rarely faced the problems we are facing today (BJD, RTN, CBD, etc) at least, not to the degree that it's being seen now. What is being alluded to by certain figures in the community lately is the lack of UV spectrum in LED products, which we only recently had affordable technology to detect. UV is what halides and T5 had enough of, not by design, to stave off biological culprits from existing on the coral bodies. Some of these aren't free floating in the water column so UV filtration had no impact. We should be seeing a boom in UV lighting products to complete the economical UV water treatment products.
So we have the great Salt Lake here in Utah, it makes sodium chloride. We are a landlocked state salt is the collection of minerals that do not get diluted so not all my friends.
This is old, but being a scuba diver from the Caribbean and reefer ( novice) you guys forgot to mention one thing. In the wild, you will never see a display like we have in our tanks. Corals have groups that stick together. 6 different locations on the same tiny island will display different corals because parameters change every few miles of ocean. What I’m trying to say is what we are doing is something that is not natural, so it will always be a struggle when mixing corals from different regions and parts of the world, a struggle that makes the hobby what it is.
Heck yeah, every time I have a question Lou always has answers such a knowledgeable person. I do need to get alittle producty and ask why the big bio-magnesium isn't available anymore?
I run only macroalgae tanks, mostly without a skimmer. My PH is around 8,3 alcalinity 7.7, calcium 390, magnesium 1390 and in tank i can grow coraline algae. I would go with the coraline gets outcompeted or it's the full spectrum freshwater lights. But i can grow other calcificating algaes for example halimeda.
Love that guy. I literally just saw the thumbnail picture with his face on it and started watching 😂 I didn’t even read the title. I already knew it was gonna be a good convo 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Really need his Email great guy! I can't get the All for Reef to stop gelling in my doser and making back pressure. So I went back to using the ATI Pro that also has trace elements and so far has not separated in my containers. I would really like to know the difference other than one vs 2 things to dose. Great video always learning!!
That’s so odd that people think it’s whatever they put in the tank last. My first thought would be “ok what issue have I been unaware of so long that it’s become this big of an issue?”
The speed of the correction is directly correlated to the speed with which you created the problem. If you rapidly created the problem, fix it rapidly. If you slowly created the problem, fix it slowly.
I worked in the Medical industry. When you get a bad batch of chemicals out in the customers hands you get phone calls from all over the world and they will all have the same batch number. You know very quickly. Thank god it does not happen often.
Thank you excellent advise and guidance With uv you said don’t use toys what brands do you recommend (I’m in New Zealand ) so buying electrical items is not an option ( have got other bits from you )
Would it be safe to say if a problem occurs very quickly as apposed to gradually getting worse and going unnoticed for a long period. Should be fixed quickly as the coral and other inhabitants will be adjusting from the good to the bad. Where as the alternative should be done slowly as is occurred over a prolonged period.
Ocean salt is a lot more complex than most people understand. I think the talking point in here on sodium chloride is amateur and is just the very tip of the iceberg. Everyone should know that evaporated sea water reconstituted does not equal seawater! When you reconstitute you do not get the same ions. That’s why are salt mixes are “Synthetic “, it is a very different chemical process to do this than the billions of years that oceans took to develop there salinity.
I don't like to use the word "synthetic" when describing aquarium salts. "Synthetic literally means "made by chemical synthisis to imitate a natural product". The compnenents of aquarium salts are, for the most part, not made by chemical synthisis. I much prefer the term "man made" to describe these products. As far as these points being "just the very tip of the icebrg" may relate to the fact that this is a descussion for hobbyists, not chemists. There is also a time constraint when doing videos like this. So we cover what we can, in a way that is hopefully helpful and undersgtandable by the average hobbyist. There may be "techincally" scientific inaccuracies, but in principle the concepts are valid. i don't believe either Ryan or I ever say that reconstituted evaporated sea salt results in something equal to sea water. In fact, that is part of the points we are making! I hope this clears up some of the misunderstandings!
I think he's right about UV and Carbon, but I have to run UV 24/7 because I have ich present in the tank and it's not feasible for me to get rid of it.
I stared my tank with Red Sea coral pro used it for 8 months swapped to tropic marine pro . Been using tropic pro for over 4 months my DKH is kept at 11 to 10.5 with tropic marine salt with weekly water change. pretty sure it’s Red Sea the cause of not letting my dkh drop . Witch doesn’t seem normal on tank full of coral
Around the 20 minute mark… as they were talking about contamination and water changes… I do not agree. I have to say if the bucket you used for a 10 gallon water change continues to have a contaminant, then it can slowly build up more and more contamination being added during your water change as no one really sells a 10 gallon mix…. I have done multiple icp tests about this when I have had contaminated salts and icp not everyone test for the same contaminates so it can still go undetected.cesium come in the dirty magnesium!
Maybe you could me me understand why my Zoas are growing soooo sooo tall???? Lol they’re open and doing well. They grew fast and even split a new one but they’re all soooo soooo sooo tall. Please help
I know a lot of people like to run carbon on their systems 24/7. I, personally, am not a huge fan of that. If you water is looking a little "yellow", then running some carbon is a great way to polish it up and make it super clear. Also, if you have run any kind of medications in the tank, carbon will help to clear it out. But there is really no absolute "need" it run it 24/7 in a well running, healthy reef system. Also, I am a fan of letting your corals take those organics out of the water rather than the carbon.
@@louekus thanks a lot Lou! Btw I love the TM hydrometer , use it exactly as you said on the last video , if the number on the digital looks strange I use the hydrometer , and calibrate the digital regularly using the hydrometer
I AGUED with reef bum and reef dudes live, one of my tanks run regularly at anywhere between 18.0 and 15.00 dhk. I took the water test live.... they said there's no way my corals are thriving. lol I have live shots and a live feed.
Are we really saying sodium chloride can only come from the ocean? I feel like any chemist would disagree… also, sodium chloride is not “salt”, it is a type of salt among many salts
In my personal experience, that "part c" of the balling method addition to 2 part causes more problems than solves anything. Skimmers tend to selectively uptake NaCl dropping the salinity "naturally" without removing the NaCl free "salts". RedSea did some studies on this specific mechanism. A 100% equivalent water change once per year over a number of weeks (5 to 6) does more to equalize everything than any "part C Addition" ever will. Again, this is from personal experience over the past 10 years of a 30 year reefing journey and a discussion or two a few years ago with the RedSea chemists via our local rep.
Completely missed the opportunity to bring it full circle. Number 11. It’s the exact same as the explanation for part c of the balling method. Water change is adding, not supplementing.
Still not accepting responsibility for wiping out tanks with the muddy batch of turkish salt his company put out.even though they closed the factory down which you dont do if theres really no issue.
A lot of times when changing water, people don't understand their deep sandbed will poison their tank. If they Stir it all up, I had a friend. Water change 20% messed with this entire sand and rock, stirring it all up and poisoned and killed all of his fish. He said the same thing. It's a water or the salt that I put in it. I said no, you just disturb the entire bio system.
