Armetas Reef Total 850 liter (Europe)

[naecO rM]

I saw that you use sponge before return pump compartment. Are you using still it?
I think if you use the sponge and clean her only once a month you will get some nitrates from it.

 

[armetas]

I saw that you use sponge before return pump compartment. Are you using still it?
I think if you use the sponge and clean her only once a month you will get some nitrates from it.

I've used to, but got tired of cleaning it so not using anymore same with the socks - too lazy to clean them

 

[armetas]

Some new additions

 

[armetas]

Today is the day when I can say - no more water changes manually! Finally I've managed to build automatic water change system. What I need to do now - is only add some water and salt into container each week (for now - later it will be each month).

So tank is far from the place where water is stored so I needed to place two RO water hoses between tank and technical room. I've needed 2 x 12 meters of hose, few holes and we are done.

Equipment needed in order to have automatic water changes:

1. Tunze metering pump x 2
2. Eheim heater 125 w
3. Water container 55 liters
4. 12 DC 1A power supplies x 2
5. Magnetic water valve 220v x 2
6. Tunze 6025 for the flow in water container
7. Scales to measure salt
8. 12 meters of electric wire in order to control metering pump from ReefAngel

So as you understand system is quite simple and everything is programmed with ReefAngel.

Process how it works:

• At 10 am Tunze metering pump turns on in aquarium and pushes 3 liters of water to the drainage
• After that another Tunze metering pump pushes 3 liters of water from Water container to Aquarium
• Same applies at 6 pm, so there are 2 changes during the day. Total amount changed during the day - 6 liters, per week - 42 liters, per month - 180 liters
• In order to measure amount of water that is pushed out and in - ReefAngel used: pumps turns on based on accuracy based on time (including seconds) and water level add-on (where water level is calculated by the pressure and in percentage)
• Magnetic water valves prevents of self water running out or into the tank
• Water container contains heater and pump in order to ensure temperature and constant flow and moving water
• Aquaforest Reef Salt is used

In future there are plans to have bigger water container (from 55 liters currently to 220 liters)

 

[naecO rM]

Cool!
How do you know about 6 litres?
How long time takes to pump water up for 6 litres?
Do you have any high differences between barrel with salt water and supm?

 

[armetas]

Cool!
How do you know about 6 litres?
How long time takes to pump water up for 6 litres?
Do you have any high differences between barrel with salt water and supm?

I've run some test first with the timer (fx how much it takes to push 1 liter) + ReefAngel has Multi Channel water level controller which measures water level by pressure and with percentage. So I know how many % is 6 liters.

At the moment I'm doing 2 changes per day. 2 x 3 liters = 6 liters. To pump 3 liters it takes about 8 minutes. So in total per day pump works about 16 minutes.

Yes I have height differences between barrel and sump - it is about 25 centimeters - this is why it takes less time to take water from sump rather than pump it to the sump

 

[armetas]

My ZOA collection:

 

[armetas]

Newest addition - Ricordea Yuma Red:

 

[armetas]

Some crazy polyp extension:

 

[wowkingjames]

Beautiful set up!

 

[Raptor3084]

Beautiful reef tank!

 

[armetas]

Some other corals

 

[armetas]

 

[armetas]

It's time for the fishes to show off:

 

[revhtree]

It's time for the fishes to show off:

Spectacular!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great!!

 

[armetas]

Some Acroporas:

 

[armetas]

Ok it is time to make conclusions on nutrients battle that I had for almost a year.
So since last spring I had issues with PO4, it was always between 0,12-0,22 ppm.
I'm running a refugium and it deals with NO3 really great, issue is only in PO4.
I've tried a lot of things in order to keep it lower:

• Rowa phos - helped just for a while
• PO4x4 - great PO4 absorber (even better than Rowa), but it is quite expensive to change it every two weeks
• Vodka - cheap, good thing, just causes quite a lot of cyano and does not reduce po4 so good
• Aquaforest Pro Bio S & Aquaforest NP Pro - it can replace vodka, but the amount are quite big and it becomes quite expensive - and still PO4 reduction is not so good
• KZ ZeoBak & KZ ZeoStart3 - same as Aquaforest Pro Bios S and NP Pro - just more expensive
• Different brands of PO4 absorbers - helped just for a while

So due to these experiments I've lost some corals (not one, not two, but there was quite a lot - most of them RTN'ed or STN'ed).

On January (this year) I've decided to go more natural way - if no3 is almost not detectable and I have PO4 that is unwanted - lets add NO3 and try to lower the PO4. So I've started to dose KNO3 and keep NO3 about 1-2 ppm (not more than 5) and it started to work - PO4 was 0.09 - 0.12 (not more). But still I wanted it to be even lower.
Starting from March (this year) I've decided to try RedSea Nopox (just last experiment before to decide leave how it is). And voila - now I have stable PO4 and NO3 (still dosing KNO3 to keep up them from zero). PO4 now is in range 0.03 - 0.07 and NO3 - 0.5 - 1.

So nutrient issue was a pain in this hobby till I found working solution to it.

By the way in previous tanks different methods worked well - but with this it is a different story. You know each tank is a different one and you need to find a best way how to manage it.

 

[armetas]

And finally full tank photos:

 

[armetas]