There have been a few changes since I rebooted my shallow reef but by far the biggest one for me was moving away from Zeovit, a method that I love and have had extremely great success with in the past, to something far more natural.
Enter the Pax Bellum ARID N18
So much green!
To me, the Pax Bellum ARID macro algae reactor really is a piece of engineering perfection, it checks all the boxes for me. It's beautiful, and yes, this is not important in day to day tank health but what can I say, I like well-designed products. However, most importantly, it does what it is built to do, it grows algae (like a beast) and keeps nutrients in check. My NO3 and PO4 are consistently in check without the need for any chemicals.
All in all, the tank is doing really well. All the corals are happy, and the fish are fat. The growth of my corals is not as rapid as in my previous tank, however, the overall colouration is really good. That said; Many of the corals are in their encrusting phase, which sometimes seems to go on forever. Growing an Acropora dominant aquarium from small frags truly is a test in patience, haha. But it's one that I feel is totally worth it ultimately when you've raised a colony from a small frag.
Perhaps I can make some tweaks to nutrient input and export and see how that effects growth. I'm currently running the ARID for 10 hours a day, perhaps if I bumped that to 12 hours and fed more heavily growth would improve. Certainly worth a try.
If anyone reading this has any thoughts or input on this topic, I'd love to hear from you.
by Shaun Lombard for ReefHacks.
Are you using a macro algae reactor?