There's a 2 part dosing product in the UK called Reef Zlements pH Plus that seems to have sodium hydroxide in it. I can't tell you if it's actually sodium hydroxide (I have asked), but it's something that significantly increases pH.
It does - I found a MSDS sheet from them when googling that says it contains this. As a tangent, I wonder how they get away with selling such a potentially dangerous chemical without having to say what it is on the bottle! Used for a while and love it, 8.3-8.5 all the time.
@so_so_reef hydroxide is used in alot of reefing products. When diluted for reefing. It's not dangerous. The only one that is dangerous no matter how you much dilute it is potassium hydroxide. This can melt flesh.
before i clicked on this, i thought "there's no way i'm going to listen to 52 minutes of this, maybe i'll just listen to a few minutes to see what they are saying". Here i am an hour later wishing it wasn't over. seriously great conversation guys! I love the content!
I’m such a fan of Than the man I only shop from Tidal Gardens online I mean that’s a lie I’ve gone elsewhere for stuff they don’t have but I prefer TG!
I'm so happy Tropic Marin made their All for Reef into a more affordable powder mix. Its safe, extremely effective, and affordable if you don’t have a big system.
I tore my 180 down a year ago when I moved. I dosed kalk in my auto top off but I still had to supplement alk (mixed reef). I dosed a mix of baking soda and washing soda. When I sold my stock to forest lake pets they were blown away by my corals. I used the brs calculator, thanks guys.
The claim ozone eliminates odor. I experience the opposite! Makes the tank smell like skimmate (even when the skimmer is clean). Am i doing something wrong? Do I need to run it more? Ozone breaks down organics so it makes sense it would smell like waste.. Thanks for all the great content! Love watching both of your channels 🍻
I'm setting up a new tank right now. It's been almost 20 years since i had my tank. I havent fallen out of the hobby. Ive been following along this whole time. I will definitely be using kalkwazer
I have been using sodium hydroxide for several years. It gives you the ability to control to a specific pH. I don't think it's as hazardous as many people think. Just be aware of what you are doing.
Been using the sodium hydroxide 2-part + kalkwasser (each in about 50% of the alkalinity). Super good. But also pretty dangerous... It's amazing how hot it gets when mixing. It is super basic, at ~14 pH. I've also heard of lower quality dosers actually melting from the high pH solition 😅. If you give it a go, be careful! It is REALLY good, though.
Kalkwasser is very cool but you need a metric ton of it because the solubility of calcium hydroxide is so low. That's the only reason I don't use it. But I'm constantly re-evaluating the situation xD. There are UVC LEDs but they are for professional use and they are indeed stupendously expensive and very rarely to be found on the consumer market.
My best tanks have all had two things in common...they used Metal Halides with 12-14k bulbs and I dripped Kalk for all make up water. If Metal Halides were more available I would ditch my Kessils and go back to Halides.
Perhaps the inefficiency of the energy in the form of heat being radiated off of the metal halides was the reason for their success. The sun radiates heat naturally and for corals like acros live in shallow water. Perhaps this might be the missing benefit halides have over LED’s for photosynthesis energy.
On the metal halide topic, what if we were to shoot leds straight up into a specialized reflector in order to get the same coverage and angles of light that we see with halides and t5s?
I had trouble with smooth maricultured acros and peroxide. Other than that it was magic. I also used Baer and iodine. Multi-spectrum antibiotics for nems.i sold literally hundreds of bubbletips.
Biomics testing before and after Ozone use would be a very telling piece to shed light on the potential issues of sterilizing the tank or perhaps put that rumor to rest!
The only reason halides are going away is because BRS constantly tells us that LED is better. Go look at all of the TOTM systems on reefcentral from back before LED was even an option. Then you tell me which grows coral better. Honestly, it isn't even debatebale. For sps dominant systems specifically, LED still doesn't have the horsepower to compete with lighting systems from 20 years ago. LED will make acros look good, though.
Mimic tang would have ich on a cycle, replaced UV bulb and it hasnt shown ich sense. Have a Emperor/Pentair 25w I run at 100-110 GPH. On my 180g so I can be a little underrated but if you can get a full turn over in 2 hours of less it certainly helps. Yes if buying now id get the 40w but whomever says the 25w wont work up to 200g its simply not true it just may not be as effective.
Ok just finished the UV section. Couple of talking points. 1. It sounded like BRS and Than both said UV is good if you have the budget. Please detail the downsides if any. It feels like you eluded to some downsides and didn't really flesh that out. 2. You talked about the brs160 but in this video didn't say whether or not it's actually running UV. Sorry, I am sure you have talked about the 160 enough times but does it run UV? 3. I am an electrician, I also worked at as a rep for a lighting company for 5 years, and I want to let you know that the limitations of UV from LED lights is not even close to being solved. The problem is $$$. It will probably come eventually but it needs to be profitable and for the most part it isn't. IF it happens any time soon expect to pay hugeeeee amounts for it. There's no other way. Also throughout this whole discussion I'm looking at the 160 and I love it. That's my goal ❤
The cons of UV are the initial expense, plumbing it (the connections should face up, and the bulb should be accessible and easy to replace), the electricity to run it, and having to dial in the flow.
LEDs do not produce uv light halides produce a lot and guess what so does the sun you don’t get better than how nature does it and the closer you get to that the better.
The entire thing was basically one massive heatsink right? I think i remember when these came out, but LED's weren't really "proven" yet. And the diodes weren't as strong as they are today. I think "cree LED" was kinda the gold standard for the 3W high output diodes and then LEDs really took off. My first LED light was from Reef Breeders (back when they were still relatively unknown, affordable, wholesale option directly imported from China) and they were fantastic. I'm currently using RedSea LED and i really miss the red/pink colors
If you actually are set on getting MH gear for your reef tank, also get the ballasts, capacitor and ignitors to match. Its stupidly expensive but the bulbs alone won't do you any good.
Give me a 1000W Metal Halide light set up with a 50W power bill and I would be sold. The "quality" of light out of a MH light is different from the LED. I'm not sure what it was, and I'm not an engineer or a scientist, but they just look better in my opinion.
UV is great. I have 2 return pumps and a UV on both (2x 25 watt). Better for all your water to go through the UV. I use smaller high output units that are much cheaper than those giant, overpriced, units. Philips replacement bulbs. Your bacteria is in rock and sand. That's not a problem.
@@dans3344 I use the TMC V2 Vecton 600 25 watt. Though I think it's been replaced by the Vecton 850 25 watt. I've only found 1 retailer in the US that sells them online. Mostly sold in Europe.
It depends, of course. For most tanks, kalkwasser is the best choice, but if your tank is SPS dominated or full of clams, and has a higher demand for Ca and alk, then the calcium reactor is the better choice. Even then, calcium reactors lower pH, so you might still want to use some kalk to raise the pH...
I would never recommend sodium hydroxide! I work in a brewery, it's what we use in a healthy concentration to clean our systems. It is DANGEROUS! It's not safe for someone to use at home.
Been using it for a couple years now, it's really not that scary. Just use it responsibly and store in a sealed container out of reach of children. It's no different than having a bottle of drain cleaner at home.
Same handling precaution recommendations as many household chemicals, wearing gloves, goggles and your brain mitigates most of the risk. I do recommend people reference plastic container and tubing compatibility as the higher pH is rough on storage containers. HDPE buckets and PE tubing is safe to use with it.
The "climate science" doesnt take into account, volcanoes. Theyve been erupting more than normal underwater, but arent added to any of the climate models. Why?
Guys, I am a grower look up spider farmer. Light timer, you can control your lights by a digital timer. Turning it down percentages. However many times you would like...... And I am going to be trying a Mars. Hydro 400 W LED grow light. Set up on a reef tank to see how it works with the spider farmer. Digital light percentage it's controller to be able to control the percent of light being emitted so I can simulate A full day cycle... Like I do with my plants.
