Mike's Red Sea Reefer 525 XL build

[najer]

Last pair of T5s about to go off evening, a whole 600 ml alone of green skim removed, skimming a bit wet due to the air bubbler,, I am going to say the perky side of fine!

 

[mta_morrow]

Last pair of T5s about to go off evening, a whole 600 ml alone of green skim removed, skimming a bit wet due to the air bubbler,, I am going to say the perky side of fine!

Sounds like your skimmer is working hard for you! I think you’ve rounded third base and heading home!

 

[najer]

Sounds like your skimmer is working hard for you! I think you’ve rounded third base and heading home!

Is there a rum shack at third base, I am getting tired and thirsty?!

 

[mta_morrow]

Is there a rum shack at third base, I am getting tired and thirsty?!

There are rum shacks here in downtown Savannah. But I am doing peach sangrias with my beautiful wife!

 

[najer]

There are rum shacks here in downtown Savannah. But I am doing peach sangrias with my beautiful wife!

Enjoy!

 

[Crabby48]

Nice to see the skimmer working hard, this is 48 hours, just emptied, 600 ml and yes it is bright green hence the yellow water!
We got this!

Bottle and sell as phytoplankton to get more coral

 

[mta_morrow]

Tested today

NO3. 32
PO4 .18

im stumped. I was really expecting to see a drop.
Anyway, dosed another 5ml of LC.
going to set up reactor w rowaphos this week and another 40 gallon WC.

the couple pieces of SPS I have are browned out. Everything else is just fine and no algae issues. Sponges are growing like crazy!

 

[Fudsey]

Right there with you Mike.... Sponges everywhere and sps struggling of dead.... Oh ya, my NO3 is up there too.

 

[mta_morrow]

Ok. Dosed 5 ml LC again on Monday.
Just tested this morning

NO3 50ish. Still can bring this down.

PO4 is down to .128 this is at the high end of where I would like it to be. But I’m glad it’s there.

Alk is 8.5. That’s fine.

So how do I get my nitrates down? I can do WC’s. Or blast with NoPox. I’m dosing 24 ml per day now of homemade NoPox.

Thoughts?

 

[najer]

I would do a water change.
*insert pause whilst people fall about laughing because I said it!*
Test before, w/c and test an hour after.
This gives you an idea of how effective the w/c was and gives you a fresh datum for your nitrates.
I don't understand nopox so can't help.

 

[mta_morrow]

I would do a water change.
*insert pause whilst people fall about laughing because I said it!*
Test before, w/c and test an hour after.
This gives you an idea of how effective the w/c was and gives you a fresh datum for your nitrates.
I don't understand nopox so can't help.

Thanks Simon. That’s the direction I was leaning.
I know it was hard for you to say WC! I’m proud of you for saying it!

NoPox is just carbon dosing. I have been dosing it to maintain Nitrates since day 1. I like a lot of fish and feed them well so it’s simple to dose as a supplement to control nitrates along w the skimmer and matrix.

It has worked so well for 20 months but this spike threw me for a loop!

 

[najer]

I know it was hard for you to say WC! I’m proud of you for saying it!

I washed my mouth out with vodka after I typed it!

 

[mta_morrow]

Ok, so I know that based on my last 40 gallon wc, roughly 30% water volume, my nitrates dropped 30%ish.

So, for the sake of learning more about carbon dosing, I’m going to go that route.

I upped the daily dose to 40ml, 20ml twice per day. I also gave the tank a 30ml shot as well.

I expect nitrates to drop as they are supposed too! I feel with nitrates at 60 and as often as I am testing they will not bottom out before I can catch it.

I have been increasing my dosing over weeks so this should not be a shock or create a bacteria bloom.

If it does, well then, I learned something!

 

[Fudsey]

I washed my mouth out with vodka after I typed it!

That's the proper way to carbon dose

 

[Fudsey]

Mike I know you have shared your nopox before but care to again? I really need to start using something.

 

[najer]

So when you dose this people, what does your skimmer do?

 

[mta_morrow]

Mike I know you have shared your nopox before but care to again? I really need to start using something.

Here ya go Keith. I double everything that’s on the jug and make 1 big batch at a time. This is the Randy Holmes Farley approved recipe. Let me know if and when you want to start dosing and I will share what I learned during dosing startup

 

[mta_morrow]

So when you dose this people, what does your skimmer do?

I skim a bit wetter because of carbon dosing as that is how you remove most of the bacteria then. Really does nothing with the skimmer, as in it don’t go crazy or anything. Foam production increases dramatically, but no overflowing.

 

[Fudsey]

Have you ever tested it using a doser to spread the dosing out?

 

[mta_morrow]

Have you ever tested it using a doser to spread the dosing out?

pretty much everyone just doses all at once. I have, however, started dosing 2x per day about 2 weeks ago. Its really just bacteria steroids and other than stripping nitrates completely, there is no effect on anything.