Andre’s Full blown 300Gallon SPS Reeftank up within a week ;-)

[PSXerholic]

Sad to see so many didn't make it. You should reuse them in the calcrx.

Yes I could, but won't.
I just yesterday cleaned the CARX and will post the story later.
Like to keep the CARX media to be consistent and clean ;-)
@jfox Jason Fox for example mentioned that in his statements, that he seems to pay a lot of attention to his CARX and keeps refilling rather more often then sloppy once in a while.

But in theory this can be done.

 

[PSXerholic]

Nice to see your tank up and running again. Can't believe Harvey caused you this much work!

Do you have a pump running behind the rock work? Wondering what keeps detritus from collecting.

Glad to see the clam made it too!

I have a total of 4 wavemakers in the tank. Once a day I put them in long wave full blast mode which swirls everything up.
As of today all manual.
Later when the APEX is back in, the wavemakers running on a pre programmed schedule with custom program that change flow patterns throughout the day and will keep it clean then.
Full blasts are then done multiple times during the day ;-)

 

[PSXerholic]

Here a quick update before anyone thinks the tank did crash or something ;-)
Nah, just been busy and started to coral hunting.

Also I’m working on the calcium reactor stabilization while getting Alk down to 8-8.5 somewhere.
That is achieved since today but now I need to dial in this beast of a calcium reactor pretty tricky to run it on this tank while calcium consumption is pretty low still.
Some corals start to adjust and color up as well starting to grow while others seem to be in hibernation mode.

Really nice to see the first few beauties to color up nicely.
That keeps the motivation up, lol.

The WD frags I made since the colony started to heavily RTN prior I got it back mostly did not make it.
Fortunately I could keep a bigger branched frag and two more sticks of the WD alive. I will report this coral as a growth example I plan to periodically update on its progress.

I did last weekend a complete cleaning of the calcium reactor, washed the media inside etc. and made plenty of pictures I will share here maybe this weekend.

 

[PSXerholic]

By the way, the rocks started to green up and have a very thin layer of algae buildup which is expected and desired.

I also had to lift up my magnesium level quite aggressively.

 

[PSXerholic]

Last weekend actually I did take my Calcium reactor apart for cleaning and rinsing the media. Since I don't know really how it was operated during the time it was out of the house while supporting my corals in a LFS. Anyways, a clean fresh start doesn't hurt !!!

ALK was still high so a day off the tank was ok to bring down ALK a bit faster back to 8-8.5.





Basically you take the a few buckets with plenty of water in each and in multiple stages you just grab a hand full and drop in into the next bucket........
As on the picture, water in the last bucket was pretty clear.
That is the best and quickest way to clean sand, media etc.



Here the final results. Fresh and clean CARX and second chamber.

 

[PSXerholic]

Equipment as installed right now and operating the tank.
Pretty basic for now. An APEX just monitors Temp, and both PH of the tank and the CARX.
PH is pretty good between 8.1 and 8.3 after calibration.
Also I put the RODI and Top Off system in temporarily.

The entire stand is taped with tarp/foil to keep the Stand enclosed from ambient to keep PH up, and reducing the consumption of Co2 scrubbing media!!!



Skimmer is running pretty darn good, taking a lot of gunk out.
Nitrates are running into not detectable if I'm not dosing Nitrates.
At the moment I'm targeting No3 in the 2-3ppm range to avoid Algae outbreaks, basically following my Redfield ratio table.

 

[bubbaque]

Can you explain the wrapping the stand to help with PH?

 

[Wrangy]

Nice! Looking good mate and I'll be stealing that wash method for sure!

 

[CNDReef]

Can you explain the wrapping the stand to help with PH?

Wrapped to keep co2 out to use less co2 scrubbing media

 

[bubbaque]

Wrapped to keep co2 out to use less co2 scrubbing media

I mean how does he do it. Wouldn't you need to wrap the whole tank as gas exchange would happen at the water surface.

 

[CNDReef]

Aaa
Valid point, but if he doesn’t have surface agitation there won’t be much gas exchange on the tank.

 

[PSXerholic]

Lol, pretty easy solution.
Has nothing to do with the water surface gas exchange which is pretty small compared to what the skimmer does.
The Skimmer I use is a 2 Pump twin turbo skimmer which draws in tons of air from the surrounding of the Phosban reactor where the co2 scrubbing media is in.

Problem I always ran into was that the air in the house has high co2 contents and the scrubber basically will last about 2 days until exhausted.
With the stand enclosed, the only air is coming from the overflows and gaps in the stand. However, running the C02 media inside the enclosed stand, the skimmer blows the co2 scrubbed air back into the stand through the skimmer cup and sucks and scrub it again !!!!!!.
So the co2 level inside the stand is pretty low compared to co2 level outside the stand.
To maintain that low level, I keep the stand wrapped and tight as best as possible.

Hope that explains it.
Keep in mind the re-use of already scrubbed air makes the scrubbing lasting almost 1,5 to 2 weeks.

 

[FarmerTy]

Most people will tell you all you need is a Calcium Reactor and you won't need to worry anymore about Calcium levels, just very very occasional.

That's not true in heavy loaded systems. The reactor will be used to maintain ALK only. Thats the driving parameter.
Calcium typically should only be corrected once in a while.
In my case I had to correct weekly from CA of 400 back up to 425/430.
In order to keep the CA more stable I additionally will have to dose some Calcium chloride through a dosing pump!

Well I have to say, if you get in the growth kickstart, then these corals consume a heck of a lot, and it seems to me that TLF Reborn is a very good and my preferred media, but is not as calcium loaded as some more synthetic calcium media.
Long story short, just having a Calcium reactor, doesn't mean a worry free life, some people won't admit that if their tank is thriving.
Talking to good friends with heavy SPS loaded system, tell me the same issue.

Hope that helps ;-)

Been running CaRXs for 6 years now, never had that issue Andre. I even helped answer some of your CaRX questions when you switched. Something else is going on sir.

Perhaps some type of precipitation on your pumps or elsewhere in the system. You got me, I'm not a chemist but I can verify for a fact at least in my system, my Ca and Alk are almost exactly matched for usage. I've rarely ever had to correct anything once both are in the right ranges (we're talking maybe once every couple years).

 

[bubbaque]

Lol, pretty easy solution.
Has nothing to do with the water surface gas exchange which is pretty small compared to what the skimmer does.
The Skimmer I use is a 2 Pump twin turbo skimmer which draws in tons of air from the surrounding of the Phosban reactor where the co2 scrubbing media is in.

Problem I always ran into was that the air in the house has high co2 contents and the scrubber basically will last about 2 days until exhausted.
With the stand enclosed, the only air is coming from the overflows and gaps in the stand. However, running the C02 media inside the enclosed stand, the skimmer blows the co2 scrubbed air back into the stand through the skimmer cup and sucks and scrub it again !!!!!!.
So the co2 level inside the stand is pretty low compared to co2 level outside the stand.
To maintain that low level, I keep the stand wrapped and tight as best as possible.

Hope that explains it.
Keep in mind the re-use of already scrubbed air makes the scrubbing lasting almost 1,5 to 2 weeks.

I use a skimmer that has a hose connected to the outside, my ph still fluctuates .1 - .2 if I open the windows in my home so I believe the tank surface agitation does actually affect the tank ph quit a bit.

The co2 media will last much longer if you add some humidity to it. Having the intake line go into one of the skimmer lid holes will extend the media life a tremendous amount. I think sealing up the stand keeps the humidity in it, which is what is actually making the media last longer. Thoughts?

 

[PSXerholic]

I use a skimmer that has a hose connected to the outside, my ph still fluctuates .1 - .2 if I open the windows in my home so I believe the tank surface agitation does actually affect the tank ph quit a bit.

The co2 media will last much longer if you add some humidity to it. Having the intake line go into one of the skimmer lid holes will extend the media life a tremendous amount. I think sealing up the stand keeps the humidity in it, which is what is actually making the media last longer. Thoughts?

Yes, the humidity in the stand then helps to make the media lasting longer a bit.
Here are some Co2 readings from a commercial Co2 meter. Consideration of high tolerances the readings gave at least a pretty good picture and indication.
CO2 levels I measured in one scenario:
900-1000 inside House/Room
650 Outside
120 Inside stand
5-20 Outlet Co2 scrubber (depending on airflow)

I'm in Houston and most time of the year Co2 is pretty high already outside.

-Andre

 

[PSXerholic]

Been running CaRXs for 6 years now, never had that issue Andre. I even helped answer some of your CaRX questions when you switched. Something else is going on sir.

Perhaps some type of precipitation on your pumps or elsewhere in the system. You got me, I'm not a chemist but I can verify for a fact at least in my system, my Ca and Alk are almost exactly matched for usage. I've rarely ever had to correct anything once both are in the right ranges (we're talking maybe once every couple years).

Hey Ty, guess your tank system is running and looking breathtaking by now ;-)
Your tank is well balanced stocked from what I did see. Means loaded but not overloaded.

When I was talking to some guys in the U.K, Aus and here in the US. a few confirmed that they had the same issue.
In some cases the use of Aragonite media plays a big role. Natural media are seem to be even more problematic.

Good advise from UK was actually to mix products like Lazarus into the reactor to reduce the amount of dosing of Calcium Chloride.
Talking to Reef Chemists from Brightwell about this subject, they just simply referred me to the user description of the Brightwell Reactor media since this is a normal characteristic in heavy loaded Reef Aquaria and the use of additional Calcium Chloride addition is described on their media which I never noticed before.

So right now I won't have this issue, but it likely may come back as soon the tank has been grown out more.
When it's back, I will mention it here again.
Since I'm going to dose anyways a few elements, I will be prepped for Calcium Chloride.

 

[marvelousone]

Great thread. Following.

 

[PSXerholic]

All right, won on auctions quite a lot of Corals.........
Purchased a ORA Pearlberry frag and got confirmation from @Battlecorals for the missing pieces I needed and really miss ;-)

So all good.

 

[bubbaque]

New corals are always exciting. What did you get from Adam?

 

[PSXerholic]

New corals are always exciting. What did you get from Adam?

I needed a new piece of the Reef Ready Grape Juice ;-)