OP
OP
Who else got affected by the Tonga Sandstorm yesterday afternoon?
Andre’s Full blown 300Gallon SPS Reeftank up within a week ;-)
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Who else got affected by the Tonga Sandstorm yesterday afternoon?
OP
OP
Here the situation this morning after lights turned on...…………
Love the view with the sand ;-)
OP
OP
Lol, Dang right, really does!
Sold a couple Gold Torches and the guys who showed up this weekend, not for the first time, were amazed about the difference it makes.
I love the sand, just were hesitating since the tank will have to move once more to put sand in prior the move.
Anyways since this will still take a while until the move, I did miss the view and wanted it back until then ;-)
@Wrangy
Sold a couple Gold Torches and the guys who showed up this weekend, not for the first time, were amazed about the difference it makes.
I love the sand, just were hesitating since the tank will have to move once more to put sand in prior the move.
Anyways since this will still take a while until the move, I did miss the view and wanted it back until then ;-)
@Wrangy
Wrangy
Valuable Member
That's a problem for future you to worry about haha for now just enjoy!
OP
OP
ExactlyThat's a problem for future you to worry about haha for now just enjoy!
OP
OP
Few things that make me believe a substrate is better.Very nice not a bb fan, tank wise!
First I like the optics and contrast.
However, a Bare bottom tank need in my opinion to stay clean!
No detritus or dirt accumulation. If you see Jason Fox DT which is bare bottom, he keeps it clean a lot and siphon out the dirt.
Sand and bottom contains at the end all the Pathogens and parasites which are living down there and you got to remove the debris and dirt once in a while otherwise the pumps are stirring it up and blow it everywhere on the corals makes infections and diseases easier to attack. I noticed this in my case likely as well.
Since I'm not doing WC's anymore I won't like to siphon out the dirt hence I think the sand is necessary to give all the bad guys a home. People experience a lot of times when a pump falls off and the sand is disturbed quite heavily they deal with fish and coral diseases afterwards. Just supporting this theory, and since we can't do a lot to prevent diseases from coming into our tanks, I hope this will take care of this issue ;-)
Will see if that really makes a difference from now on.
Not really have a huge problem, but I noticed once in a while some infections in certain corals when they got in contact with floating debris that was stirred up by the wavemaker.
Reason is that I have my flow pattern randomly changing and sometimes I simply turned them on Blast mode to get the dirt out of the tank through the roller filter.
I noticed clearer water after the sand is in now which also supports this theory.
OP
OP
The Nitrate reactor is actually simply a 4L Vibe Reactor,because of the large diameter and potential vibe in case it starts clogging.
It's filled with XL NP Pellets. Flow going through this reactor is not much but not less. Like 300-500gph.
Mulm and bacteria in that reactor usually reduce No3 quite harsh down to zero if enough mulm is in there. It does greatly reduce No3 with the bacteria species in there, but not working that good for Po4 reduction. The mix of bacteria in that reactor seems more to consume No3 as a food source rather than Po4.
Hence if I run the reactor in a way that more Nitrates will be consumed, it brings then down the Po4 reduction to an acceptable level, with the disadvantage of very low nitrates.
Po4 management is a pain in the bun. In my experience, the best way is to find a nutrient reduction method that manages primarily the Po4 to the desired levels, and then I dose Nitrates if needed.
In my 300, so far, after I installed the Roller mat, I ran the system to clean and fed the reactor from the main return pump, with the result that the reactor were kind of starving and my No3 raised slowly. I recently changed that and feed the No3 reactor now straight from the Herbie overflow. Since then I can see the Mulm starts to accumulate again and the No3 goes slowly down too.
So Nitrates in form of Sodium or Potassium Nitrate I dose only as needed, usually in the Redfield ratio to Po4.
Concerning light, the purple seems to do a good job in respect to optics and spectrum needed to activate the fluorescent proteins.
I recommend to read up all the articles from Dana Riddle on this subject. Quite a lot of scientific stuff, which most of will take a while to be understood while reading, but you will get the point.
You have to have certain spectrums in the light to activate certain fluorescent proteins on the corals. Easy said, lol, but this effect is achieved by many parameter such as elements and vitamins etc.
Fishnugget
Active Member
Nice tank PSX, I understand you like to run UV and in a post I saw you mentioned the Clarisea makes your water clearer. I am getting ready to replumb my 57Watt Aqua UV sterilizer to help with water clarity and algae (I have a bubble algae bloom). I just wanted to know your thoughts on the UV sterilizer route, that is if you still think its worth the effort even after adding a roller mat type device. I have read from everyone how the roller mat device make the water clearer. Is this true? Does the roller mat take water clarity to another level the UV sterilizer cant? Thanks!
marvelousone
Well-Known Member
Looks beautiful. Water looks super clear.
Here the situation this morning after lights turned on...…………
Love the view with the sand ;-)
Thanks for your good explanation Andre! For XL NP Pellets you mean the reduce biopellets? It's a continuous carbon source right?
So, you are using that to maintin low the phosphates but with disadvantage that it reduce the nitrate to 0, dosing it you maintain the nitrate in ratio with phosphates. Right?
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OP
OP
Well, clarity of a UV is a different animal! You get the haze out of the water usually caused by white bacteria and stuff like that.
The Filtermat does not polish as much as a 100 micron felt sock!
However the use of both in my case at least makes a good team and water is pristine with still floating particles in the water.
When I added the sand back in, that also brought in clarity of the water since the dirt on the floor is not going to be stirred up anymore by the wavemaker.
OP
OP
THX, so far it really is nice and clear.
Like the appearance much better, so much more contrast to the corals now.
OP
OP
Yes it's a continuous carbon source, no daily dosages anymore ;-)
And also yes, I use as much as pellets is needed to keep Po4 low in desired ranges and if Nitrates go to low, I work with Nitrate dosing ;-)
scuzy
Well-Known Member
Hi Andre,
Question for you on your carx. Are you getting 22-32dkh from your effluent? I'm having issues getting my effluent dkh up it's been hovering at 15dkh. I have turn down the pH in reactor to 6.35 not sure why it's not melting the media. Using reborn media.
Question for you on your carx. Are you getting 22-32dkh from your effluent? I'm having issues getting my effluent dkh up it's been hovering at 15dkh. I have turn down the pH in reactor to 6.35 not sure why it's not melting the media. Using reborn media.
OP
OP
Here is the Nitrate reactor (Pellet reactor) in action.
The Mulm built up inside is desired and is what gets nutrients down.
Best performance I saw when the No3 input vs output measured a delta of 1.5-2ppm Nitrate.
OP
OP
Well, I can get the ALK in the effluent up to 28-30 max @ internal PH of 6.40-6.45, but the effluent is then not sufficient anymore to feed the ALK demand of the tank. And as well a second chamber, which is fed with the low PH effluent which also strips a bit of ALK out of the second chamber until PH inside the chamber is consumed and comes out with a higher PH as out of the reactor itself. The second chamber gives you a bit of ALK too if your CARX is on the border. The problem I see with REBORN is that it's real coral and has less ALK available as comparable pure calcium media!!!!
Means pure calcium media would provide more ALK and CA, but unfortunately less other trace elements that are going to be released out of the reborn media. Hope it makes sense to you.
If you can't get enough ALK out of the reactor, go with another chamber, if still issues you can use a mix of reborn and pure calcium media, then only pure calcium media and if that brings you at a point for the need of even more ALK, then you also could use the DASTACO calcium reactor media which is even more effective than other pure calcium media.
I like the fact of reborn releasing a lot of traces as part of the media since the supplementation of traces is more stable.
However, Reborn only won't replenish completely the trace demand of a thriving tank from my experience at least.
OP
OP
Here is a picture of the temporary CARX setup with second chamber and a 3rd degassing chamber which is fed with C02 scrubbed air, bringing the effluent back to PH of 8
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