JaysLittleOcean Piece of the Reef.

[JaysLittleOcean]

After discovering what was causing the high temperature in my aquarium the next step is get to a desired temperature and maintain that temperature as best as possible. Currently the Apex Aqua Controller configuration for the outlets that my Eheim 300 watt heaters are plug into are set to monitor the temperature probe and either turn on at 77.00 degree Fahrenheit & turn off at 78.00 degrees Fahrenheit. After letting this run for about 1 day I started to see a nice trend created by the Apex Aqua Controller. It appears that I have a variance of 1.1 to 1.2 degrees. So I made additional adjustment to the outlet setting to decrease the variance to at minimum 0.5 degrees and also hit a average temperature of 77 degrees this morning. So I will let this run for about 1 day and see what the results are.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

I apologize for not providing updates sooner. I have started a new job and have been very busy. But I wanted to report that my cycle finished completely in just under 2 weeks after adding the Ammonium Chloride and the Frytz Zyme 9. And I have added some of my first inhabitants. One of which I have included below. My 1 inch long Maxima Clam.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

So I was hoping someone would be able to give me a little advice because I found this weird. It looks like the inside of the vinyl tubing where the saltwater makes contact is being discolored? Is this normal? You can clearly see areas that have little to no contact with saltwater since they remain clear. I purchased this tubing at The Home Depot. Wondering if I have to rip it all out and order some aquarium specific tubing?


(This is an area of little to no saltwater because of the restricted flow. But you can clearly see the tubing remains clear.)

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

So I have started keeping a log of my water parameters and also have decided to not add any additional livestock or corals to my main display aquarium because it would be more beneficially for me to start another aquarium specifically for the purpose of quarantine and eventually fragging. But please see below for my water parameters.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

So I have started keeping a log of my water parameters and also have decided to not add any additional livestock or corals to my main display aquarium because it would be more beneficially for me to start another aquarium specifically for the purpose of quarantine and eventually fragging. But please see below for my water parameters.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

So I took some time to sit in front of my aquarium as things has been running quite nicely and I really haven't done anything except a water change recently and all my parameters looks great. My wife comes down stairs and asks me what's wrong? I say nothing. She says common you have that look when your not fully satisfied with something. I replied that I love tinkering with the aquarium, its like a constantly changing puzzle. But this puzzle is almost complete and.... She stops me and says you want a bigger aquarium. I said yes this aquarium is beautiful but its not my dream aquarium. I was hoping for something around the 500 - 700 gallon display with maybe 1,000 gallons total system size and something I built from the ground up. But I also don't want to tear this one down just yet because it has so much potential. She said, why don't you do both. Plan for the 1,000 gallon plus system. Take your time, and make it exactly the way you want and play with this one in the time being. I love this woman and this is one of the many reasons I married her. So this aquarium build will continue but I am also going to mix in plans for a 1,000 gallon system!

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Well let me start right off at saying I have never done this before and I could purchase an aquarium manufactured by a professional aquarium company but I don't want to do that. I want to build everything from scratch and have the pleasure (or misery if it bursts a seem) of saying that this was something I built from the ground up. So with that being said who on within the community has every built an aquarium? I have always preferred glass aquariums but in this case I am also considering acrylic. Any thoughts or suggestions. I'm looking to go 60 inches wide x 60 inches deep x 24 inches tall. That should give me roughly 374 gallons in the display alone.

Full Thread Can Be Found Below:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/looking-to-build-my-first-large-aquarium.206178/

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Water Qiality Test from the Past Week.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Here are some photographs of my happy fish.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

So within a few weeks I noticed a very significant drop in the calcium levels within my water. The readings were almost 60 ppm apart. Well most of my rock are covered in spots of green, ,maroon and pink coralline algae that seems to be developing at an extremely fast rate. I mean its literally over all the rocks. All I can say is I'm happy! I took one photograph with the flash... you can see the corallin algae more like that.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Over the past few water test I notice that my nitrates have been a steady 10. This I might be able to contribute to the daily feedings of a whole cube of Frozen Mysis and the filter socks catching all that food when some of it goes down the overflow. I'm also not a huge believer in massive water changes. So I decided to give Deltec's NFP509 Nitrate Filter a try. The premise is simple. What full of Nitrate and Phosphate is slowly run through the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter. This slow flow creates an area of very low oxygen which provide a place for the anaerobic bacteria that feed on the Nitrate and Phopsphate to populate. Combine that with a carbon food source (Vodka) and out comes nitrate free water. I just started the process to begin the population anaerobic bacteria growth. So the main feed pump has been turned off and only the re-circulating pump is running. I will also be providing the bacteria with the food a mixture of 8 oz RO/DI water and 2 oz of vodka injected into the reactor with 4 ml twice per day for the next few days. So I will keep everyone posted on how this goes.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

View The Original Thread Here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/deltec-nfp509-nitrate-filter.206858/

I have been religiously testing my aquarium water every week without fail. And I have noticed that my nitrates after my cycle have been constantly at 20 ppm for the past few weeks. I can attribute this most likely to the daily feedings of frozen fish food and my filter socks. I'm also not the biggest fan of doing large water changes but that is a completely separate topic. So I need to find a way to reduce my nitrates without using exhaustive media that needs to be replaced frequently as my work schedule would not allow for such things. The answer that I may have found might just be the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter. In a nutshell this little piece of equipment provides a place for the anaerobic bacteria that is responsible for utilizing nitrate and phosphates (from my reading) as part of their food source along with a carbon based fluid (1 part Vodka, 3 parts RO/DI) as their food. The result a Nitrate and Phosphate removing group of bacteria that can put a smile on my face. So lets see if this thing actually works.










Assembly of the unit was simple It consist of just attaching the included Aquabee recirculation pump to the platform at the top of the body and connecting the water exit fitting. There is an included Probe Port that will allow you to install an ORP from your manufacturer of choice. This is an absolutely necessity in my opinion as it will allow you monitor the oxygen level present within the water inside the chamber.
















You can bring water in from your aquarium sump to the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate filter in a variety of methods. Besides the pump you will find two tubes (one with a built in check valve, which is used to feed the reactor with your nitrate fluid). The other is used to allow water from your aquarium to be injected into the reaction chamber fed by the recirculation pump. In my opinion their should have been a check valve here as well as I will elaborate on later on.




I choose to feed mine initially using a Deltec Peristaltic Pump but eventually discovered that the slow rate of feed would hinder operation once the bacteria colony grew and my water flow level raised to accommodate this growth.








I installed the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter underneath my aquarium stand next to my sump and connected all the fittings.










I went through the entire recommended process of starting the culture. Which involved adding water from your sump and then shutting off the feed pump to the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter to isolate the water to bring the oxygen level down over the course of three days. During this time the recirculation pump is still running and you will be adding a dosage of nitrate fluid (1 part Vokda and 3 part RO/DO Water) twice per day and this is based on your device size so mine was 4 ml of Nitrate Fluid twice a day. During this process I monitored my oxygen level drop from 200 to 64. You will continue doing this until the 3rd evening at which you will turn on the feed pump and adjust the flow to 1 drop every 3 second from the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter. You will continue this every three days slightly adjusting flow and the nitrate fluid used while you measure both the nitrate level from the effluent and the aquarium itself. The idea is to get to a flow where your aquarium nitrate is zero and the effluent is zero and stay feeding that amount of nitrate fluid.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

View The Original Thread Here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/deltec-nfp509-nitrate-filter.206858/#post-2366252

I began the process of bringing the anaerobic bacteria culture online as directed in the Deltec Manual. The Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter feed pump was to be turned off for a period of 3 days to isolate the water within the reaction chamber from the rest of the system. The internal re-circulation pump is still functional but this process allows the oxygen within the water to decrease and provide the ideal environment for the bacteria to grow. I was originally using the Deltec Peristaltic Pump to feed the reactor, but soon discovered that I could not not control the level of flow and determined that to be a huge problem. I also was not able to locate another aquarium grade peristaltic pump that could meet the future demands on the flow of water through the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter due to the tubing on the injection port. Well sometimes you just have to go back to simple. I decided to pick up a Tom's Aqualifter Diaphragm dosing pump and using a control valve I'm able to regulate the proper flow of aquarium water thought the filter. Note, that the tubing on included on the Deltec aquarium water feed port is slightly larger than standard airline tubing which gave me a nice surprise and dosed my 3 day oxygen deprived water with tons of air and left my with a nice cleanup because the check valve I used to initially feed the pump just fell out. I solved this problem by removing the tubing that came with the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter and heated up some regular airline tubing and connecting it that way. The fit is tight and it definitely wont come off again without a fight.

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Deltec has a few different methods in which the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter can be operated. I was originally going with the manual method where I would be responsible for not only dosing the Nitrate Fluid (1 Part Vodka, 3 Parts RO/DI Water) twice a day but also manually adjusting the flow of aquarium water into and out of the reaction chamber. This was done using a standard syringe and it was time consuming. Every morning and every evening I would measure the fluid out, inject the fluid, clean the syringe,put the nitrate fluid away and close up the stand. So with the fact that I work about 20 hours a day most days I needed a better option. So I went with the recommended semi-automatic method where the fluid is feed into the reactor using a dosing pump. I didn't own a dosing pump ad there were many on the market to choose from. So I did some research and visited a local reef ship in Connecticut and purchased the Jebao DP-4 Automatic Doser for this purpose. Now I normally go for the best money can buy. But in all honesty I also don't like throwing away money for no reason as well. And I couldn't pass up the great reviews and accuracy that this dosing system received. So far I have not been disappointed with it and I will create another post to review it alone. Deltec Recommends that the doses in manual mode be administered twice a day. but now with an auto dosing system in semi-automatic mode if is recommended to spread the dosing amount per day within 4 doses for a more stable environment for the bacteria. I am now currently dosing 2 ml of Nitrate Fluid every 6 hours for a total of 8 ml of Nitrate Fluid a day and I couldn't have done it without my doser!

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

View The Original Thread Here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/deltec-nfp509-nitrate-filter.206858/#post-2366252

A day has passed since I started the feed pump to the reactor and allowed the effluent from the Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter to flow back into the aquarium at a rate of 1 drip every 3 seconds. I used my nitrate liquid test kit to measure both the levels of nitrate from the effluent and the water from the display. Honestly I was shocked to see that the Effluent was the brightest yellow I have every tested. The display obviously still shows nitrates being detected at 10 ppm. Unfortunately, this is attributed to the fact that I added a Tiger Tail Cucumber to my aquarium and died after acclimation. I however was only able to removed half of the body. The other half is wedged inside the base of the rocks. But back to the main topic. The Deltec NFP509 Nitrate Filter works... and works well! I am also monitoring the reactor with my Neptune Systems Apex Controller. As long as my ORP level reads 0 then were good to go!

 

[NicksMixedReef]

Now time to move to a more accurate nitrate test! Looking good

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Now time to move to a more accurate nitrate test! Looking good

Thanks. Maybe once this one runs out. If this thing keeps working I might not have a need for a more accurate test. [emoji2]

 

[NicksMixedReef]

I haven't tested for nitrates in... 2ish years lol I'm sure you'll get to that point as well

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

I haven't tested for nitrates in... 2ish years lol I'm sure you'll get to that point as well

I dont know. I am way too OCD for that.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

I know it has been a few weeks since I have been able to post something. But I just wanted to ensure everyone that the aquarium is doing well. Here is a tank shot during the evening hours of the reef.