After a crazy 6 months and multiple huge tank swings that knocked out livestock, I decided to concentrate on a setup that will produce as much stability in the main tank as possible. The display is an old use bio cube 14 with stand. Tank lid was deleted and added in AI Prime 16HD. Tank ended up losing the AIO filtration setup, and switched to an external overflow into a 10 gal homemade sump. Recently lost the refugium with red ogo, and started in with the algae scrubber in its place. I was not able to get the refugium to keep up with my nitrate removal and had spiked it just shy of about 50ppm. After the first 2 weeks of running the scrubber, I am seeing considerable algae growth and a lowering of nitrate to 26.2. I like this approach to nitrate and phosphate reduction. It's on a 12 hour reverse cycle right now, but will probably get reduced once I get my nitrates back in line. Carbon and a small UV filter finish out what I am currently using for filtration. I am also hoping my Pod population starts to thrive in the sump and algae scrubber, as I am feeding my only fish in the tank, my Mandarin. Also recently introduced the dosing pump to the equation. 2 channels are doing auto water changes throughout the day, amounting to a 10% water change weekly. 1 channel is adding small amounts of kalkwasser. And the final channel I use to clear bubbles from the overflow siphon tube. I would love to be in a bigger tank, but this is apartment living. So I figure, if I can keep this small of a system stable, larger should be less of a struggle. As of this post, the lights were not on yet, so I will post more pics of the DT as they wind up. Here are my current tank parameters as of the new setup:
Ph: 8.2
Alkilinity: 8.9 (Working on getting this up to 9.5 target slowly)
Temp: 79.9F
Salinity: 33ppt (Working on getting this to 35ppt target slowly)
Nitrate: 26.2 (5-10 Target)
Phosphate: .01
Magnesium: 1280
Calcium: 470
Total water volume is 25gal.
