!!!7000+ POUNDS OF GLASS!! YOU GUYS UP FOR A BUILD OR WHAT??

[Battlecorals]

I have read through this thread a couple time and pick up different things along the way . One thing that comes to mind is what your maintanece schedule looks like.
What do you do for physical nutrient removal? And how often

Hi there, thanks a lot for taking time read through this one! Great question as well. I am still a water change guy, and have been doing about 200 gallons once a month. Other than that, I have always relied on my Skimmer to do the heavy lifting, and it's my primary means of filtration for sure. I should add that i do run pretty nutrient rich in all of my systems measuring 20+ nitrate at least and higher in some cases.

please let me know if you have any other questions at all.

Thanks again

Adam

 

[Acro maniac]

The rock you keep in the "reef flat", what do you, if any maintenance to keep the detritus from saturating it? Are there any settling points in that tank for detritus or is it just not a concern?
Do you have a sand bed anywhere in your system?
With no3 that high where are your po4 levels?
Sorry for the 20 questions, I'm trying to identify a lack in my own system. I also thought this information would be useful to others as well.
Thanks, Ryan

 

[Battlecorals]

The rock you keep in the "reef flat", what do you, if any maintenance to keep the detritus from saturating it? Are there any settling points in that tank for detritus or is it just not a concern?
Do you have a sand bed anywhere in your system?
With no3 that high where are your po4 levels?
Sorry for the 20 questions, I'm trying to identify a lack in my own system. I also thought this information would be useful to others as well.
Thanks, Ryan

HI there,

Another great question. and please don't hesitate to ask me anything. always more than happy to share. Normally I rely on lots of hermits and snails for that sort of thing, with help from plenty flow, but I've been struggling to get more snails and such for the new system. lol. Been working on it for a couple months now. My invert supplier down in FL got hit by the hurricane, and that set it back further. All the Dry rock in the main has been looking much bette, but it went through a pretty bad ugly stage for a few months earlier on.

I had lots of alage on the rock and on my glass after a few months, and that really pulled a lot of nutrients out of the system. Phos pretty much bottomed out compared to the back up system where 90% of the old rock went. In there nutrients are much higher by comparison , and the coral looks better than ever. Ultimately the old rock proved to be tremendously more stable than the new and that helped the back up system get a good hold pretty quickly, where the main had to endure a few more processes while the rock has been maturing in there. The good news is that it's over the hump now for sure and things are leveling off nicely now.

Here's a shot of my latest ICP test for the back up and main below. Phos is down a little in the backup now, and up since then in the main.

 

[Acro maniac]

Wow thanks for posting your icp result.
Your P and Po4 levels are higher then mine. Here's mine icp results

I really thought the P and po4 where my issues.
I guess I'm back to chasing ghosts, trying to figure out what's crashing my system.
Thanks, Ryan
Sorry to hijack your thread with my issues.

 

[bif24701]

HI there,

Another great question. and please don't hesitate to ask me anything. always more than happy to share. Normally I rely on lots of hermits and snails for that sort of thing, with help from plenty flow, but I've been struggling to get more snails and such for the new system. lol. Been working on it for a couple months now. My invert supplier down in FL got hit by the hurricane, and that set it back further. All the Dry rock in the main has been looking much bette, but it went through a pretty bad ugly stage for a few months earlier on.

I had lots of alage on the rock and on my glass after a few months, and that really pulled a lot of nutrients out of the system. Phos pretty much bottomed out compared to the back up system where 90% of the old rock went. In there nutrients are much higher by comparison , and the coral looks better than ever. Ultimately the old rock proved to be tremendously more stable than the new and that helped the back up system get a good hold pretty quickly, where the main had to endure a few more processes while the rock has been maturing in there. The good news is that it's over the hump now for sure and things are leveling off nicely now.

Here's a shot of my latest ICP test for the back up and main below. Phos is down a little in the backup now, and up since then in the main.

Did you have to add any PO4 in the main when it bottomed out? If my PO4 or NO3 bottoms out or close to it I start to see significant color lose and palling. You said your Nitrates are kept ~20ppm is that by design or where the system stays? I have to add potassium nitrate once or twice a month to maintain just 5 ppm. I am a heavy feeder but my filtration is efficient. I also have a rigorous water changes about 2-3 a month at ~30%.

 

[Acro maniac]

Yes, the benifets of living in Florida.
My wife grabbed these blue legs for me last week.

Maybe we could work something out in the future.

 

[Battlecorals]

Wow thanks for posting your icp result.
Your P and Po4 levels are higher then mine. Here's mine icp results

I really thought the P and po4 where my issues.
I guess I'm back to chasing ghosts, trying to figure out what's crashing my system.
Thanks, Ryan
Sorry to hijack your thread with my issues.

No not at all man Im glad you posted. Thats really what this is all about if you ask me. what kinds of issues are you having?

 

[Acro maniac]

No not at all man Im glad you posted. Thats really what this is all about if you ask me. what kinds of issues are you having?

Across tips burnt, montis bleaching and birdnest polyp bailout, but
I really would not want to derail your build thread with my issues. If you want you could pm me any questions.

 

[bubbaque]

Adam, did you ever dose nitrate or phosphate in the system as it was maturing or just let it do it's thing?

 

[Battlecorals]

Adam, did you ever dose nitrate or phosphate in the system as it was maturing or just let it do it's thing?

Hi Raul, I did dose nitrate a bit at first when levels were extra low but I haven't dosed any in a while now. Just been feeding real heavy. I have a few rabbits that have doubled in size since they got in there. These things are getting big! Like the biggest fish I've ever had big lol.

 

[Battlecorals]

So I came up with a way to fill up my SW reservoir better and faster. The issue I had, was that I could only fill at 45 gallon increments, only after the freshwater reservoir cycled the DI completely. This worked, but was not very efficient and would be a problem if I needed water in a hurry.


The solution, was to take an old dual DI unit I had here, as well as an old booster pump, and gravity feed the uncycled freshwater as it's filling the aerated reservoir in the attic, down into the pump and through a second set of DI. If you're following me.

I adjusted the flow rate with a needle valve on the outlet of the DI to match the fill up rate of the attic tank, so it stays pretty constant up there. The great news is that with the 400gpd filter I can make 200 gallons in a day easy, which is about all I ever uses at once. It's all on "manual" meaning I need to open up a valve and plug in the booster, as well as shut it down when I'm full.

will be very interested to see how long these cartridges last.

 

[dragon99]

Have you considered separate cation/anion resins? You could recharge them on your own. Then you could burn thru all the anion resin you want (because of CO2) for very little cost.

 

[Battlecorals]

Have you considered separate cation/anion resins? You could recharge them on your own. Then you could burn thru all the anion resin you want (because of CO2) for very little cost.

Im not familiar with the recharge process, but id be interested to read anything you may have to throw at me

 

[dragon99]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-09/nftt/index.php
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1144161

That article shows using mixed, but cation/anion separate instead of mixed bed would simplify the process. Obviously using lye and muriatic acid has some safety concerns, but nothing too crazy.

 

[Battlecorals]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-09/nftt/index.php
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1144161

That article shows using mixed, but cation/anion separate instead of mixed bed would simplify the process. Obviously using lye and muriatic acid has some safety concerns, but nothing too crazy.

hey very cool of you. thank you. I am going to have to research this one for sure

 

[dragon99]

This BRS video is what sparked my interest in it. Good discussion too.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i...mixed-bed-di-resin-brstv-investigates.330516/

 

[Battlecorals]

Though I might give this one boost today. Have had a couple new revelations this last week mainly about PH, as a recent thread of mine accidentally opened up a discussion about low PH. I thought I'd experiment with De-gassing my Calcium reactor effluent and see if there was any change at all.

So I took an old phos ban reactor, drilled a hole and added a drain tube. The effluent runs to the bottom of the chamber and is aerated with small air stone on it's way up and out of the reactor.
There has been a slight, and I mean slight rise in PH since I did this earlier this week, but not so significant really. Was more interested in seeing if there is much of an impact on overall tank Ph due to lower reactor effluent Ph. So far, in my case I'd say not so much.

Also, finally settled on a Deltec 4080 Internal as my main machine

I absolutely love this skimmer!!

 

[gcrawford]

So, does your cal rx effluent run in a constant stream? I have to drip to keep the PH low enough in the rx.

 

[Rakie]

That skimmer cup looks like a poop volcano. It's oddly beautiful... Us reefers are a strange bunch

 

[Abhishek]

So Adam , in my limited past experience , 2 things necessary for degassing chamber to make a difference :-

1. Larger longer chamber preferably 24 inch so that the effluent stays long enough inside the chamber

2. Use of smaller media of something like ARM which helps further I believe

Lastly , when the effluent drips in the sump , you can have an airstone powered by a powerful pump which might help .

Regards,
Abhishek