Let’s Try Something New in My Reef Tank: $50 Worth of Dirt!
Reef tank 6 years ago 10,014 views
I don’t get a lot of time to tune in to live streams and recently in what little chance I have had to listen, the talk has been of Miracle Mud. This stuff has been around for a couple of decades and there must be something to it because it has inspired some knock-offs in recent years. EcoSystem Miracle Mud is the “real thing” and after hearing rave reviews recently, I decided to try some. I’m looking for polyp extension in my acros. They’re colourful, healthy, and growing.....but I’ve seen very little polyp extension, which means they can’t augment photosynthesis by actively feeding. So I figure if I can get those polyps out and waving, it’ll just be healthier for the corals. This stuff is expensive - $300+ to stock my system with the recommended amount! AND it’s recommended to swap out 50% of it annually! Yikes. So, let’s see how far I get with the small amount I bought to try it. This is one of those cases where you can’t find out how it will do in your tank unless you try it, but you have to spend the $$ to try it and what if it doesn’t work? 🤔 Product links: EcoSystem Miracle Mud: US: http://amzn.to/2lInzhR Canada: https://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-store/Miracle-Mud-Marine-5-pounds.html Thin filter pads: US: http://amzn.to/2A8kMUp Canada: http://amzn.to/2CIOguR Intro/outro music: “Surfacing” written and performed by Dave Lembo, used with permission. Check out his channel, Dave’s Nano Tanks, here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Davelembo. To hear the whole track, here’s Dave’s video that includes it in the second half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HYcFdc4-s&t=310s - enjoy! Hypnothis by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100634 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ I am a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Leng would like to email you if you would like. :)
10. comment for Let’s Try Something New in My Reef Tank: $50 Worth of Dirt!
I would recommend that you Test your po4 and see exactly where they are at. Use a small amount of phosguard at most for 4-5 days not to shock your system. Test to see if they lower from your first initial test. If you see a reduction add a little more then what you first did. Keep following this process till you get them low enough to then introduce gfo to stabilize the system. It’s a slow process but it works. Least for me
please watch his video on reef roid feeding it may assist in the health and polyp extension of you corals.
20. comment for Let’s Try Something New in My Reef Tank: $50 Worth of Dirt!
MM makes sense as a stable alternative supply, since leaching is not affected by changes in dosing, and there’s almost no chance of overdosing. The only way to increase its impact, as far as I can see, would be to stir it up and even then I don’t think you’d get overdosing.
It’s interesting stuff. It’s been in for ten days now, and I’ve been seeing some growth on my digis, which had previously stalled. But is it good enough to spend a couple hundred dollars and then find space for it? Not sure yet....
Looking forward to updates here
I'm not sure if it made a huge difference, but i'm tempted to buy a bit more (thanks to an xmas gift card for my LFS) and add it WITH a basket this time!!
Or I could just buy a very pretty tricolour hammer coral I've had my eye on for a few months. :p
The food grade thing's a good point, i'm not sure how they grade things that contain live foods tbh. Worth looking into though.
Those containers would work, if they don’t deflect under the weight and shifting of the sand. They’d have to be decent quality and thickness I think. And you’d have to make sure they’re food grade for long-term sitting in salt water loaded with organics.
I think a good way would be the containers you get crickets etc in, then just rack those into the sump, holes for flow and easy to get out?
I left the shop with nothing, not even any feeder shrimp as the shop appears to be run by an idiot. (And the other pretty coral has gone up in price by 20 quid!!)
And yeah, I guess you’re supposed to put the stuff in right at the beginning but honestly, if I did that I’d still use baskets of some type to manage the annual 50% replacement so as to minimize the shit storm when the stuff is disturbed. I’m planning to put the other 2.5lbs in this weekend, so I’ll see what that does. Thanks for watching, and I wish you a healthy and prosperous new year. Not just saying that, I hope 2018 is a good one for you.
I’m planning on adding the other 2.5lbs of the MM this weekend, see what that does. Beyond that though, space is very limited, though I could probably fit more on the bottom, under the algae scrubber.
30. comment for Let’s Try Something New in My Reef Tank: $50 Worth of Dirt!
Should give you enough to google for more info, if you’re interested.
On a basic level, I think it’s that I’m reluctant to put all my eggs in one basket - relying on one single solution could be a problem if that solution fails for some reason. I find it interesting how all these things work together, and I enjoy the challenge of finding the balance. If my algae scrubber pump dies and it’s out of commission for a few days, I’ve still got chaeto, NoPox, and MM to help handle the load, and I can temporarily reduce feeding. I guess it’s super-redundancy....
.22 isn't that bad if a little high, I think you can probably increase your nopox dosage. I dose 10ml in a system of comparable size 112g display 29g sump. This causes my nitrates to be a little too low, they are just barely detectable but phosphate is only 0.07 and I'm not really growing much algae (algae in fuge is just for creatures I barely light it or remove any).
Why do you consider gfo a last resort? it seems to be easier and cheaper then some other methods you are using. Just curious about your system. Watching videos of complete systems are so much more in depth then looking at them on build threads on forums..
If my algae scrubber is offline for more than a day, I start to get algae growing in the sand. The chaeto grows rampantly, and is a very deep green. My skimmer body grows algae to where I have to clean it once a month. So there’s plenty of export to go around yet still leave that 5ppm of nitrate circulating in the water.
The matrix is there to house bacteria for filtration - none of it is in low-flow areas where low enough oxygen levels could exist to allow any degree of denitrification to develop. I’ve added these components slowly, one at a time, and then monitored parameters closely until I’ve seen how things develop. And I’m still very much learning how all this stuff works together, while being ready to scale back if I see negative effects. If the phosphate levels don’t drop to .03-.07ppm over the next few months, I may consider using GFO, but that would be a last resort. I will never run biopellets.
It may be that the miracle mud will ultimately replace the NoPox, or I might reduce the light period in the algae scrubber, it’ll be interesting seeing how those things develop and balance out.
My main reason for trying the MM is to hopefully supply the minute amounts of trace elements that are really hard to provide accurately and consistently. Leaching is the best way to make them available to the corals on an ongoing basis - much less likely to make a dosing error. And now, I get to see whether it actually makes any appreciable difference.