Best Growth Strategy

[HardyG]

Thanks for this information!

I can provide some pics when I get home from work this afternoon. I currently have a few bigger pieces under my racks that may should be reduced to enhance flow.. hmmm

I do weekly water changes mostly closer to 5 gallons just because it’s easier doing my full bucket instead of determining where half is. In the future I may just buy some 2.5-3g buckets and do that.

I currently test Po4 and No3 twice a week because I am a few weeks on the good side of a Dino outbreak and am a little paranoid because my nitrates get pretty low (may be a sign I need to feed more?). I threw in some GFO last week because my Po4 went up from .07-.14 after dosing just a minimal amount of reef roids. Maybe I need to go even less and eliminate the new life spectrum pellets I’m using every so often.

I would love to get to a point where I don’t have to test phosphates anymore, but after my Dino outbreak, it will be a while of solid tests and stability before I can get to a point where I don’t test that. That’s the goal though!

So this is a small frag tank from the looks.
What are you feeding the pellets to?
Live or dead rock in the tank?
I don't feed the corals I feed the fish. In small systems it does not take much dry food to drive up po4.
I have never tested no3 or po4 in my nano. Maybe I will today just to see where they are after 5 months.

Here is the current setup right after feeding. I am trying to figure out if my rocks being this big is actually blocking flow and smaller fist size pieces of rock under the racks would be more beneficial

 

[X-37B]

Here is the current setup right after feeding. I am trying to figure out if my rocks being this big is actually blocking flow and smaller fist size pieces of rock under the racks would be more beneficial

I would not worry about the big rock and adding more under the rack is fine. If that's all the rock your using then just spread them out and flow will be fine.
The way it sits is fine also.

 

[HardyG]

I would not worry about the big rock and adding more under the rack is fine. If that's all the rock your using then just spread them out and flow will be fine.
The way it sits is fine also.

I may break the rocks in half so that the water also goes over the top of them as well.

How often do you change carbon out and do you run any filter floss? I usually toss some in after a water change then remove after a day or 2, but are the benefits to it always being in there? Any negatives? Can it really mess with trace elements like I read?

 

[X-37B]

I may break the rocks in half so that the water also goes over the top of them as well.

How often do you change carbon out and do you run any filter floss? I usually toss some in after a water change then remove after a day or 2, but are the benefits to it always being in there? Any negatives? Can it really mess with trace elements like I read?

Right now I run 2 of the chemipure blue nano's.
I tie it the bottom of the cup.
I run carbon 24/7.
I change it once a month.
I also use rox at times.
Floss is changed every 4-5 days.
Floss, carbon, and 2g water change every 2 weeks are my only means of export.
I also add dsr ez trace to my ato reservoir in all systems.

 

[HardyG]

Right now I run 2 of the chemipure blue nano's.
I tie it the bottom of the cup.
I run carbon 24/7.
I change it once a month.
I also use rox at times.
Floss is changed every 4-5 days.
Floss, carbon, and 2g water change every 2 weeks are my only means of export.
I also add dsr ez trace to my ato reservoir in all systems.

I thought Rox was carbon? Am I missing something?

curious to hear more about your experience with DSR and how you came about using that in your Ato reservoir.

 

[BonnieB]

For me it was when I upped my magnesium to 1440. Now I had to get a bigger tank because of the growth!

 

[HardyG]

For me it was when I upped my magnesium to 1440. Now I had to get a bigger tank because of the growth!

Did you do this with additives or a new salt?

 

[BonnieB]

I added a little of Red Sea’s magnesium at a time, slowly, to bring it up. My euphyllia garden and my Duncan and acans just keep sprouting head after head!!

 

[X-37B]

I thought Rox was carbon? Am I missing something?

curious to hear more about your experience with DSR and how you came about using that in your Ato reservoir.

I use rox at times in place of chemipure.

I followed Glenn Fong who developed the DSR line when I setup my 120. The plan was a no water change system.
I went 18 months then started 10% and now do 5% wc across all system once a month.
So my 150 uses 2.5 g's a day of ro/di. Ez-trace. 0.5.to 6ml max.per 100 liters.
150 is 600 liters. I started at 0.5 ml. I currently dose 2.5ml.per gallon of ro/di.
I use it to keep magnesium and
potassium in range and can test for those. It also keeps the other 4 element in range by icp.
Last one a few weeks ago showed all of these in range.

 

[HardyG]

I use rox at times in place of chemipure.

Still a bit confused on this. So when you say you are rubbing carbon 100% of the time what are you running? I was thinking that rox was carbon? You only use rox in certain scenarios?

I followed Glenn Fong who developed the DSR line when I setup my 120. The plan was a no water change system.
I went 18 months then started 10% and now do 5% wc across all system once a month.
So my 150 uses 2.5 g's a day of ro/di. Ez-trace. 0.5.to 6ml max.per 100 liters.
150 is 600 liters. I started at 0.5 ml. I currently dose 2.5ml.per gallon of ro/di.
I use it to keep magnesium and
potassium in range and can test for those. It also keeps the other 4 element in range by icp.
Last one a few weeks ago showed all of these in range.

Very cool. I am going to look into this more as well!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Still a bit confused on this. So when you say you are rubbing carbon 100% of the time what are you running? I was thinking that rox was carbon? You only use rox in certain scenarios?

Very cool. I am going to look into this more as well!

FWIW, I use ROX 0.8 granular activated carbon in reasonably small amounts 24/7 and I replace it each time I clean my skimmer, which is about every 2 weeks.

 

[HardyG]

Still a bit confused on this. So when you say you are rubbing carbon 100% of the time what are you running? I was thinking that rox was carbon? You only use rox in certain scenarios?

Very cool. I am going to look into this more as well!

FWIW, I use ROX 0.8 granular activated carbon in reasonably small amounts 24/7 and I replace it each time I clean my skimmer, which is about every 2 weeks.

Gotcha. Thats what I have on hand as well. I guess a little goes a long way with this stuff? Especially in a nano?

 

[Reef Wizard]

No, not all polymers are the same.

Some, like proteins or biopellets can be broken down and metabolized, and that is the reasonable basis for the nitrate and phosphate reduction claim: it’s basically organic carbon dosing.

Others, such as Brute cans, polyethylene trash bags, car tires, and acrylic aquaria will sit there and do almost nothing. Ion exchange resins as in a di will just sit there as the loosely attached ions come and go.

While I do not k ow exactly what polymers are in Chemipure blue, they likely bind organics like Purigen does.

I have a follow up question for this since each polymer is different and have likely different results. Which biopellets would be more prone to reducing phosphates vs nitrates. Some brands say they just remove nitrates while some say they reduce both Nitrates and phosphates. I assume ALL brands of biopellets will reduce mostly nitrates with some percentage of phosphates.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a follow up question for this since each polymer is different and have likely different results. Which biopellets would be more prone to reducing phosphates vs nitrates. Some brands say they just remove nitrates while some say they reduce both Nitrates and phosphates. I assume ALL brands of biopellets will reduce mostly nitrates with some percentage of phosphates.

Most biopellets are the same polymer: polyhydroxybutyric acid.

I suspect the claim differences do not reflect real differences.

 

[Reef Wizard]

Most biopellets are the same polymer: polyhydroxybutyric acid.

I suspect the claim differences do not reflect real differences.

I was reading this article https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/understanding-bio-pellets.138237/

Bio-pellets are made up from only two base polymers, poly-3-hydro butyrate (P3HB) and 3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate (P3HBV), both of which are polyesters. A more stable decrease in phosphates has been reported with (P3HBV).

Have you found this to be true or is P3HBV not something widely available?

EDIT: How does PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates) play into these other two?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I was reading this article https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/understanding-bio-pellets.138237/

Bio-pellets are made up from only two base polymers, poly-3-hydro butyrate (P3HB) and 3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate (P3HBV), both of which are polyesters. A more stable decrease in phosphates has been reported with (P3HBV).

Have you found this to be true or is P3HBV not something widely available?

EDIT: How does PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates) play into these other two?

I think the phosphate claim makes no sense and I would not believe it.

The first polymer is a typo. It is polyhydroxybutyrate. Hydrobutyrate is not a thing. It’s the polymer I mentioned. It is a natural material that some bacteria use to store energy (like we store it as fat).

The copolymer you mentioned is a similar natural storage material.

Both of these polymers are polyhydroxyalkankoates, which is a big class of mostly unnatural materials that would not be useful in this context.

 

[Reef Wizard]

I think the phosphate claim makes no sense and I would not believe it.

The first polymer is a typo. It is polyhydroxybutyrate. Hydrobutyrate is not a thing. It’s the polymer I mentioned. It is a natural material that some bacteria use to store energy (like we store it as fat).

The copolymer you mentioned is a similar natural storage material.

Both of these polymers are polyhydroxyalkankoates, which is a big class of mostly unnatural materials that would not be useful in this context.

Thanks for clarification