Last Call Before Tearing Down Tank

RELLIK-REEF · Feb 21, 2019

incloud design said:
Dangerous hobby we have here!

[emoji1] [emoji1] yeah and I'm on wood floors now....

Crustaceon · Feb 21, 2019

I have a 32 gallon trashcan in the garage for RO. One night I started to fill it and forgot to turn it off hours later. Good thing my garage floor isn’t level because I ended up with a small pristine creek in my driveway.

incloud design · Feb 21, 2019

I have overall 340 gallons being pumped through my entire house so if things ever go bad they are going to be real bad, lol.

RELLIK-REEF · Feb 21, 2019

incloud design said:
I have overall 340 gallons being pumped through my entire house so if things ever go bad they are going to be real bad, lol.

I'm pushing the 500gal mark all together 3 tanks

KenO · Feb 21, 2019

It’s a long read, but look at this thread on R2R. He has a method for testing to make sure it is cyano. If it is he has a treatment protocol using H2O. Trust me it works.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/

incloud design · Feb 22, 2019

Quick question to anyone good with math. My system due to not having water until now has risen in salinity to .029 so i need to bring it back down during my water change. I'm trying to figure out what salinity to make my new water at to bring it back to .025 with a 25% water change of 340 gallons. Anyone?

Crustaceon · Feb 22, 2019

Just gradually add RO water to the tank. It will safely lower the salinity.

I have to be the first one to ask this...Do you have a system/procedure that compensates for daily tank evaporation or are you keeping you tank’s water level at a certain mark just through water changes?

Martin Kuhn · Feb 22, 2019

incloud design said:
Quick question to anyone good with math. My system due to not having water until now has risen in salinity to .029 so i need to bring it back down during my water change. I'm trying to figure out what salinity to make my new water at to bring it back to .025 with a 25% water change of 340 gallons. Anyone?

For a waterchange with 25% of 340 gal the quantity of salt to add to 85 gal freshwater is about 225 oz salt mixture
(Assuming you use a typical salt mix as reef crystals) to lower your tanks SG level from 1,029 to 1,025 [-] after the wc

incloud design · Feb 22, 2019

Crustaceon said:
Just gradually add RO water to the tank. It will safely lower the salinity.

I have to be the first one to ask this...Do you have a system/procedure that compensates for daily tank evaporation or are you keeping you tank’s water level at a certain mark just through water changes?

I have a completely automated water change system built and have a routine down. When I started this thread I was fighting a Cyano Outbreak. I've resolved it with help on here and have gotten past the Cyano. I've never had a problem with adjusting salinity because it stays stable at 1.026 at all times. Right now I have had my ATO off and losing water for a few days due to maintenance and didn't have mix on hand until now. I've now made a batch of water that is at this time 1.021 and 75 gallons. I'm trying to figure out what salinity to make my mix to add to 1.029 to even it back out to 1.026.

Martin Kuhn · Feb 22, 2019

If your salinity came up just because you did not add again the evaporated water (ATO), than you have just to refill the evaporated water with RODI of course.
Spread this over several doses as the salinity difference is quite something.

incloud design · Feb 22, 2019

Martin Kuhn said:
If your salinity came up just because you did not add again the evaporated water (ATO), than you have just to refill the evaporated water with RODI of course.
Spread this over several doses as the salinity difference is quite something.

I could do that but my intention is to drain my sump like I normally do and do a 75 gallon water change. Only difference is I'll only be draining about this time due to the water loss. I'm going to mix the water to 1.023 and do my water change. It can't get lower than a safe level and will hopefully bring it close to my normal range of 1.026.

Crustaceon · Feb 22, 2019

My concern would be exporting nutrients and being right back in the cyano boat again because I can guarantee everyone has cyano in their tank whether it’s visible or not and regardless of how much the tank was treated to eradicate it. Too many things we add to our tanks (food, water, hands in the tank) brings cyanobacteria with it. Also, ideally we do water changes for three reasons: Exporting excess nutrients/contaminants, adding alk/cal/mg for low demand tanks or replenishing trace elements (rarely needed). I personally don’t recommend doing things to our tanks that are not necessary as our best intentions to keep pristine water can actually become detrimental. This is why we test and make corrections based on the results. I look at water changes like dosing and feeding the tank. If my alk/cal/mg is good, I’m not going to add more to the tank and if my fish are well fed, i’m not going to give them more food. If my nutrients levels are where I want them to be, I’m not going to remove them. I’ll watch their consumption rate over the course of a week and make regular adjustments according to that. If it were me, I would correct the salinity issue with RO, let the nitrate levels rise and watch the scrubber take off and balance it out. Not trying to harsh or anything, just giving my honest opinion.

incloud design · Feb 22, 2019

Crustaceon said:
My concern would be exporting nutrients and being right back in the cyano boat again because I can guarantee everyone has cyano in their tank whether it’s visible or not and regardless of how much the tank was treated to eradicate it. Too many things we add to our tanks (food, water, hands in the tank) brings cyanobacteria with it. Also, ideally we do water changes for three reasons: Exporting excess nutrients/contaminants, adding alk/cal/mg for low demand tanks or replenishing trace elements (rarely needed). I personally don’t recommend doing things to our tanks that are not necessary as our best intentions to keep pristine water can actually become detrimental. This is why we test and make corrections based on the results. I look at water changes like dosing and feeding the tank. If my alk/cal/mg is good, I’m not going to add more to the tank and if my fish are well fed, i’m not going to give them more food. If my nutrients levels are where I want them to be, I’m not going to remove them. I’ll watch their consumption rate over the course of a week and make regular adjustments according to that. If it were me, I would correct the salinity issue with RO, let the nitrate levels rise and watch the scrubber take off and balance it out. Not trying to harsh or anything, just giving my honest opinion.

I'm back in order now. I got my water change done, salinity back to 1.026, sump topped off, ATO back in the loop, ATS back in the loop, Mag9 in sump, N03 at about 20ppm, P03 barely detectable but feeding more, no sign of Cyano as of yet and all livestock is happy. So now I'm going to leave it alone and test period. I wish I could get a picture of how my tank really looks but they never come out close to accurate.

Crustaceon · Feb 22, 2019

The scrubber should take off pretty fast with those numbers.

incloud design · Feb 22, 2019

Crustaceon said:
The scrubber should take off pretty fast with those numbers.

I hope so I'm looking to have a stable 5ppm.

Hermie · Feb 22, 2019

I would dump in like 3+ bottles of Tigger pods

RELLIK-REEF · Feb 22, 2019

If you want pods I've found this place to be great. I'm sure others know places to but I've had good luck and lots of pods everytime I've ordered from them. https://craftbrewcopepods.com/

Crustaceon · Feb 22, 2019

NotASpammerDude said:
I would dump in like 3+ bottles of Tigger pods

Oh heck yeah. It cracks me up every time I clean my screen. So many critters bail out into the bucket carrying the screen before I get to the sink. It’s a pod factory as is and I couldn’t imagine how many more I would have if I seeded my tank. There’s a mandarin dragonet in my future for sure.

incloud design · Feb 23, 2019

Just shoot me and get it over with. Tank looked great for a day, algae already starting to grow in my ATS, and bam red hairs all over everything again. It's back and spreading quickly so after all I've done and all your help I'm back to square one. Something in my system is causing it and it just makes no sense at this point. Other than thriving on Chemi-Clean to band-aid the problem I see no way of stopping it. Guess let nature take its course and hopefully something will survive in the end.

RELLIK-REEF · Feb 23, 2019

incloud design said:
Just shoot me and get it over with. Tank looked great for a day, algae already starting to grow in my ATS, and bam red hairs all over everything again. It's back and spreading quickly so after all I've done and all your help I'm back to square one. Something in my system is causing it and it just makes no sense at this point. Other than thriving on Chemi-Clean to band-aid the problem I see no way of stopping it. Guess let nature take its course and hopefully something will survive in the end.

Throw a monster CUC in there along with a bunch of pods. Couldn't hurt