Lasses Dream Build

[ReefGeezer]

Nope - its a traditional Swedish Christmas ham. It is first boiled and then grilled with breadcrumbs in the oven. It is often eaten with mustard on a slice of wort bread. As long as I know we have always make it on the evening before Christmas eve and we always eat it warm on a slice of wort bread this evening. After this - its always served as a cold dish on the Swedish Christmas smorgasbord (julbord).

Lutefisk (swedish lutfisk) its another Swedish/Norwegian tradition and in Sweden we use Molva Molva (common ling). In our family - its only my wife that love that dish.

Sincerely Lasse

Cool. My wife's grandparents on her mother's side were first generation Swedish immigrants. Lulefisk and some sort of potato sausage were standard Christmas fare when they were alive. The Ham sounds much better! Hope you had a great Christmas.

 

[Lasse]

I have run my new Maxi 2.2 doser for almost a month now. I use one of the heads as my top off. It works as expected and after a couple of weeks with little tear an wear it have a rather low sound profile too.

I have also get my two Versia streamers too - and for the moment I have them temporary connected and placed in the tank. The new pump program is rather easy to work with and you can alter the way the streamers works during the day

Sincerely Lasse

 

[jsker]

I have run my new Maxi 2.2 doser for almost a month now. I use one of the heads as my top off. It works as expected and after a couple of weeks with little tear an wear it have a rather low sound profile too.

I have also get my two Versia streamers too - and for the moment I have them temporary connected and placed in the tank. The new pump program is rather easy to work with and you can alter the way the streamers works during the day

Sincerely Lasse

Good day Lasse

Mine still sits in the box, I will soon open the Maxi 2.2 up and give it a try. Is the new Maxi quieter than the old Maxi?

 

[Lasse]

Good day Lasse

Mine still sits in the box, I will soon open the Maxi 2.2 up and give it a try. Is the new Maxi quieter than the old Maxi?

You may need to update it to the latest version of Firmware - in my case ext_V144. With the first FW:s it stuck sometimes and I had to use a lot of Vaseline grease around the tube.

The first weeks it still stucks for less than a second now and than but that´s gone now. You will hear when its stuck :) You may hear a low sound when its running normally but I think its lower compared with the old model.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[jsker]

You may need to update it to the latest version of Firmware - in my case ext_V144. With the first FW:s it stuck sometimes and I had to use a lot of Vaseline grease around the tube.

The first weeks it still stucks for less than a second now and than but that´s gone now. You will hear when its stuck :) You may hear a low sound when its running normally but I think its lower compared with the old model.

Sincerely Lasse

I had a conversation with a member, that was having an issue with on of the head sticking also. Thank you for the suggestion of updating the Firmware. I suggested to try a firmware update and I think the update solved their sticking issue also.

I am really liking the Mitras lights.

Thank you Lasse :)

 

[Lasse]

I am really liking the Mitras lights.

I run the Mitra 2 bars and I think that it would be the last GHL equipment I want to get rid off- IMO - they are the perfect light which combines the best of T5 fluorescent tubes with the best of LED lighting. It is only LED, but the construction (without lenses) means that the light image is similar to what you get from T5 light tubes

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Swede's Reef]

Så var det jul igen och räven raskar över isen

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And a video



Sincerely Lasse

God Jul och Gott Nytt Ar! A bit late... I miss Svensk Jul Skinka..... :)

 

[Cthulukelele]

New video



Sincerely Lasse

Such a gorgeous tank

 

[Lasse]

Probably everyone has something that is more of a nightmare than a dream when it comes to the aquarium hobby. For me it's high potassium levels. In 2015, my then aquarium completely crashed after being up and running for more than 6 years. It started with a massive fish kill - just like that. At this time ICP tests started showing up and mine showed very high potassium levels - over 600 mg/L

Now last fall I had some fish that died quickly and inexplicably. My last ICP - MS now showed much higher levels of potassium compared to before in this aquarium - where I was around 430 mg/L. I had 513 mg/L this time. Not as high as 7 years ago but high enough to worry me.

I have run this aquarium without major water changes for nearly 5 years now and the aquarium have run for more than 6.5 years. These 5 years without WC have meant that I have received a composition of my water that is more or less perfect, this with the help of ICP analyzes and the addition of individual substances. However, my high value of potassium requires water changes and from experience I know that pretty much any dry salt on the market can mess it up very much - especially as I would need massive water changes to bring the potassium value down.

However - it shows up that Oceamo in Austria has developed a concentrated and ICP-MS controlled salt solution that have zero Ca, alkalinity and potassium. Perfect because I live in Europe- Its a system that beside the basic salt it also content Ca. alk and potassium additives. It is a liquid but it is concentrated - 5 L will give 50 L salt solution. Oceamo corrector is the name of the system. This means that I need only to do smaller WC in order to bring potassium concentrations down and this with a solution that should have perfect levels of other compounds. My goal is to bring it down to around 400 mg/L

I have now done my first change of 40 L and will in the coming week change 30 L more and after that send in a new ICP analyse. After the first change - it should be around 445 mg/L and after the second - around 400 mg/L


Beside high level of potassium - this test show a rise in tin that I never have had before - rather high also. We will see if this will be confirmed in the next test

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Hey Lasse.

Quick question. Can you summarize your current DSB backyard refugium operation technicals? I've read through the first 15 and last 5 or so pages and thought I'd ask if you are still operating as in the beginning--12L of water down under the DSB daily w/ 4L carbon/skimmate dosing I think?

I'm in the planning stages of a build that will include a 125gal remote refugium with DSB and/or Jaubert plenum. Currently planning through questions of depth and grain size as well as water movement--pushing water through the sand/gravel, leaving under gravel water stagnant and isolated or flowing water through the plenum (down one tube and out the other).

At 12L per day on a roughly 100 gal system (80 tank 16 sump I think) you were pushing roughly 3% of your water volume through your DSB per day. Is it achieving what you hoped? Have you changed your approach?

Will continue to scan through your thread as I have time too. Thanks!

 

[Lasse]

Hi

I run it with skimate for around half a year. afterwards - I have run it together with ethanol in different ways. Most of the time managed by my redox potential in the plenum. It works well for a long time but half a year ago NO3 starts to rise connected with disappearing of some fish - they died in the tank. Lately i have run it with a steady flow and steady addition of ethanol. It seems like s going down again - but I´m not sure

Below my measurements of NO3 - mostly done by diluted water and Hanna low NO3 checker. The las two measurements is done with the Hanna NO3 checker High range

2020 - 2022

Red marking - an experiment wit bokashi down into the plenum - not a success :) But properly run of the filter fixed it fast

MyGHL seems to be down for the moment Will come back with other graphs later

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

During this high nitrate event back in 2021 - I run nearly 40 ml 8 % Ethanol per day - but it bring it down rather fast

Last year

It seems to work rather well - but I still need an external carbon source in order to do the jobb. However - I maybe will test the skimmate again - instead of an external carbon source

My lab reports of NO3 during this time (Oceamo LAB Austria) shows that - in spite of that values not are exact - that the trends is the same

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

Here is a little about how effective it is if you run it a little bit harder. Red marking 6, 12 and 18 refer to the amount of 8% ethanol per day added into the plenum. I do not really knows the figures around 1/1 2023 - not measurements. However a Oceamo test shows around 38 mg/L 18/1

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

Today´s measurement

I have a lowering rate of around 4mg/NO3 a day - rather effective I would say. I have to go down with the addition of ethanol from 18 ml of 8 % a day to 9 ml a day. I will also lower the flow with around 25 %

its not only caused by denitrifikation - I have change 5 L water a day and its respond to around 0.07 mg/day

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

During these days I have done some WC in order to bring down my high potassium concentration - 513 mg/L

First a larger WC in order to bring down the concentration to below 450 mg/L - after that 6 more ( 5L each) the following days to 406 mg/L

Oceamo has an calculator for its correction system - it tells you all you want. My first of 40 L and target on 447 mg/L Its like follews

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After this - I want to change 5 L a day down to 406 mg/L

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Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

Today - last correction WC - will send in a test tomorrow. Nitrate is still going down - today 2.9 mg/L I will only dose ethanol (9 ml) once a week and see whats happens - flow through the system will be the same

@Clarkjw2002 I hope you got some information from my latest post - IMO - it works well with a remote reversed underground/DSB filter if you are able to dose organic carbon in the plenum or into the ingoing water. In order to seed it - injection with skimmate is a good idea

For the moment - I´m pushing much more than 12 L a day - is more like 1000 - 2000 L a day. It seems to work well too


Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

I did zeroed the dosage of ethanol yesterday and today I read 7.8 mg/l NO3 compared with yesterdays 2.9 mg/L - its a raise of 4.9 mg/L in one day - If I back calculate the feeding yesterday - there is around 3.2 - 3.6 mg/L that I can´t explain if I do not calculate with a rather high internal NH4 production - at least around 1 ppm NH4 or maybe over. This may be a little embarrassing for people that love to stress that NH4/NH3 is no problem for a mature aquarium, hence optimal nitrification is not a demand. However - I´ll start to dose ethanol again - 18 ml / day and see whats happens tomorrow

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Thanks for all the details Lasse. I'm leaning towards utilizing this method instead of Paul B's fully oxygenated reverse undergravel filter. My main goal was to intentionally set up an anoxic zone to complete the N cycle while hopefully avoiding an old tank syndrome in 10-12 yrs.

Brandon 429's writings on rip clean have been helpful as well. Since my deep sand bed will be remote it likely will not contain much of a fish bioload, which will hopefully help prevent the reduction of pore space in the top sand layer over time.

So you are pushing more like 1000 or more Liters per day down into the plenum and up through the sand? Those flow rates are about 2-3 times your system volume per day. My main worry was either clogging the sand and creating too large an anoxic zone (because of the smaller grain top layer) or pushing too much and preventing the establishment of any anoxic zone.

The carbon dosing is what I hadn't even considered doing but it seems to be an essential limiting factor in the completion of the denitrification process, at least when not using a sulfur denitrator.

Wondering if maybe a correlation can be made between amount of carbon needed per mg/L nitrate to be eliminated but suspect that would be highly system dependent.

 

[Lasse]

Importance of organic carbon in denitrification. The metabolisms of these heterotrophs use NO3 as electron acceptor and DOC as an electron donner. The DOC (in my case ethanol) do not basically serve as a growth factor in denitrification - it has its own role in the metabolism and ends up as carbon dioxide too. The staples is ethanol doses

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

I change the DOC amont last evening from 18 ml/day to 9 ml/day (18*0,5 ml)

Today I read 4.2 mg/L - a concentration I can prefer. Let it be that way for a while. I did a test with Hanna low range NO3 and get 4.44 - rather close to the 4.2 from the high range checker

Sincerely Lasse