My reef-pi build freshwater style!

[Bigtrout]

Woohoo check out this ph graph since switching out the bad power supply.

 

[crusso1993]

Dialed in!

 

[Bigtrout]

Yes heres what it should look like...the little blip on the right is a water change...

The other thing I noticed was the cable modem getting no retransmits or uncorrectable packets. Its plugged into the same 20amp circuit as the aquarium. That faulty power supply was affecting everything, it must have been feeding some bad harmonics back onto the AC mains. It still will run the light but im tossing it. Have another 8amp coming to replace its twin on the other light.

 

[Bigtrout]

Check this out...ph is in direct correlation with lighting levels but lagged by about 2 hours. Thats because daytime the plants use co2 lowering ph. As light decreases co2 levels rise and the water gets slightly more acidic...neat. Looks like about a ph swings about .25 between day and night.

 

[Ranjib]

Check this out...ph is in direct correlation with lighting levels but lagged by about 2 hours. Thats because daytime the plants use co2 lowering ph. As light decreases co2 levels rise and the water gets slightly more acidic...neat. Looks like about a ph swings about .25 between day and night.

thats super cool

 

[Ranjib]

Yes heres what it should look like...the little blip on the right is a water change...

The other thing I noticed was the cable modem getting no retransmits or uncorrectable packets. Its plugged into the same 20amp circuit as the aquarium. That faulty power supply was affecting everything, it must have been feeding some bad harmonics back onto the AC mains. It still will run the light but im tossing it. Have another 8amp coming to replace its twin on the other light.

fascinating. the bad power supply was impacting in many ways.

 

[Bigtrout]

fascinating. the bad power supply was impacting in many ways.

Yes it may be something to look for when i2c, and one wire act up as well, i had been getting the occasional spike or below zero reading on the temp sensors...once every few days...so far so good...
I tore apart the offending supply, it had a decently engineered circuit, but poor components made for poor implementation. It was rated at 4 amps but should have only been rated for 2 amps with the components they used.

Im glad I bought a second 8 amp rated supply.

 

[Bigtrout]

thats super cool

2 days of good ph readings, consistently following the lighting graph...very enlightening!

 

[Bigtrout]

Been busy but wanted to give an update.

I havent built anything new, but wanted to share how reef pi has helped my aquarium. Now that the pH probe has been running awhile, and I have been able to graph pH trends. I began to notice something. Plants using co2 can cause quite a pH swing in a softwater tank. Some days the pH has swung as much as .4 ph units, from 6.7 to 7.1. This is because during the day, the plants were using every bit of co2 available in the tank. Not good for the fish at all. Besides the ph swing, that also lets algae take over if not addressed. Algae is much more efficient at using co2 when levels are low, so basically for a few hours a day, the plants starve, or they switch to carbonates and use what little buffer I have in my soft water, which worsens the ph swing.

How do I solve this?
1. Start injecting co2. This is a good option once reef-pi lets me control a solenoid to turn co2 onnand off to counter the ph swing, but co2 means expensive equipment.
2. Cut down on light intensity. I tried this but get slower growth but still got a large ph swing, and the plants at the bottom of the tank suffer.
3 Cut the photoperiod. This is ok but who wants to see a dark tank half the time.
4. Add buffers to the water. There are two buffer families used to do this...phosphate buffers which cause algae blooms, or carbonate buffers which raise tank pH and hardness. I keep softwater fish and dont want to buy and add more chemicals to the water, as it comes from my spigot my water is 6.8ph and 2 to 3 degrees KH, Perfect water for angels and tetras that i keep. The other thing about carbonate buffers is they work better with injected co2.
5 More water changes to replenish the KH levels naturally....uggh once a week 30 percent change is enough for me.

Then i did some research on...a daily siesta. This is 2 split photoperiods with a 4 hour rest with no light for the plants. This lets the plants grow, use co2 then they get a nap, where they quit using co2 for 4 hours. The fish still breathe, and the natural organics still break down in the tank to replenish the co2 levels. Then the plants get a second photoperiod with renewed co2 levels.

This approach made sense but I was a bit skeptical. Well because I can graph whats happening with accuracy now, I decided to try it. I am skeptical no more. I had been lighting with 12 hours of light and getting ph swings of .4.
I decided to try 2 5 hour lighting periods with a 4 hour break between, and the results have been astounding! The biggest result: ph swing now only .15 ph units. Even with co2 you will not ever get this to be perfect, but .15 swing is a great result. The plants are growing just as fast if not faster than they were. I am getting better plant color, my red amazon swords are turning deep red again! The tank is cleaner and clearer. The night crew, plecos, corys and malaysian trumpet snails come out during the siesta and clean the tank...they get two "nights" now. Algae growth has stopped and the black brush algae is slowly dying off. The fish are more active, the siesta doesnt seem to have adversly affected them. And last but not least. With two lighting periods, I can see my fish in the morning before work, and again in the evening. The siesta happens when no one is home.

Without a reef pi id have never noticed the ph trends with enough data points or accuracy to be able to see what was going on in the tank, but now with the automation and graphing it lets me do, I have a healthier tank!!!

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I have a ph swing of 1.1. From 8.2 to 7.1. I am only using light for 10 hrs and it is at peak for only 4 hrs.

I was planning co2 but maybe I’ll try a siesta first.

I watch my salt tank too. In that tank the swing is about 0.1

 

[Ranjib]

Been busy but wanted to give an update.

I havent built anything new, but wanted to share how reef pi has helped my aquarium. Now that the pH probe has been running awhile, and I have been able to graph pH trends. I began to notice something. Plants using co2 can cause quite a pH swing in a softwater tank. Some days the pH has swung as much as .4 ph units, from 6.7 to 7.1. This is because during the day, the plants were using every bit of co2 available in the tank. Not good for the fish at all. Besides the ph swing, that also lets algae take over if not addressed. Algae is much more efficient at using co2 when levels are low, so basically for a few hours a day, the plants starve, or they switch to carbonates and use what little buffer I have in my soft water, which worsens the ph swing.

How do I solve this?
1. Start injecting co2. This is a good option once reef-pi lets me control a solenoid to turn co2 onnand off to counter the ph swing, but co2 means expensive equipment.
2. Cut down on light intensity. I tried this but get slower growth but still got a large ph swing, and the plants at the bottom of the tank suffer.
3 Cut the photoperiod. This is ok but who wants to see a dark tank half the time.
4. Add buffers to the water. There are two buffer families used to do this...phosphate buffers which cause algae blooms, or carbonate buffers which raise tank pH and hardness. I keep softwater fish and dont want to buy and add more chemicals to the water, as it comes from my spigot my water is 6.8ph and 2 to 3 degrees KH, Perfect water for angels and tetras that i keep. The other thing about carbonate buffers is they work better with injected co2.
5 More water changes to replenish the KH levels naturally....uggh once a week 30 percent change is enough for me.

Then i did some research on...a daily siesta. This is 2 split photoperiods with a 4 hour rest with no light for the plants. This lets the plants grow, use co2 then they get a nap, where they quit using co2 for 4 hours. The fish still breathe, and the natural organics still break down in the tank to replenish the co2 levels. Then the plants get a second photoperiod with renewed co2 levels.

This approach made sense but I was a bit skeptical. Well because I can graph whats happening with accuracy now, I decided to try it. I am skeptical no more. I had been lighting with 12 hours of light and getting ph swings of .4.
I decided to try 2 5 hour lighting periods with a 4 hour break between, and the results have been astounding! The biggest result: ph swing now only .15 ph units. Even with co2 you will not ever get this to be perfect, but .15 swing is a great result. The plants are growing just as fast if not faster than they were. I am getting better plant color, my red amazon swords are turning deep red again! The tank is cleaner and clearer. The night crew, plecos, corys and malaysian trumpet snails come out during the siesta and clean the tank...they get two "nights" now. Algae growth has stopped and the black brush algae is slowly dying off. The fish are more active, the siesta doesnt seem to have adversly affected them. And last but not least. With two lighting periods, I can see my fish in the morning before work, and again in the evening. The siesta happens when no one is home.

Without a reef pi id have never noticed the ph trends with enough data points or accuracy to be able to see what was going on in the tank, but now with the automation and graphing it lets me do, I have a healthier tank!!!

Wow. Super informative. I have around 0.5 ph swing in my reef tanks. I wonder if I should try something similar, I’m not sure if that much swing is expected or normal

 

[Bigtrout]

I have a ph swing of 1.1. From 8.2 to 7.1. I am only using light for 10 hrs and it is at peak for only 4 hrs.

I was planning co2 but maybe I’ll try a siesta first.

I watch my salt tank too. In that tank the swing is about 0.1

Give it a try, it seems to be working much better all around so far.

 

[Bigtrout]

Wow. Super informative. I have around 0.5 ph swing in my reef tanks. I wonder if I should try something similar, I’m not sure if that much swing is expected or normal

Im not sure if corals work the exact same way, but i have read about reefers doing the same thing with split photoperiods.

 

[Bigtrout]

Reef-pi update: working smoothly on 3.0 alpha, may try to do a complete reconfiguration and update to 3.0 beta. A direct update seems to throw weird errors into the mix.

Tank update: Plants still growing like mad, i could probably start selling extras back to the LFS once every 2 weeks. Angels are getting great size and have paired off and some have tried spawning but other fish in the tank pick off the eggs at night.
I do have one problem that seemed like it happened overnight. The dreaded Black Beard algae has appeared. It literally covered all the driftwood in a week. It didnt spread anwhere else which is strange. Its not on the plants or gravel just the driftwood. It looks kinda neat so as long as it stays put...i will let it play out.

 

[Ranjib]

Reef-pi update: working smoothly on 3.0 alpha, may try to do a complete reconfiguration and update to 3.0 beta. A direct update seems to throw weird errors into the mix.

Tank update: Plants still growing like mad, i could probably start selling extras back to the LFS once every 2 weeks. Angels are getting great size and have paired off and some have tried spawning but other fish in the tank pick off the eggs at night.
I do have one problem that seemed like it happened overnight. The dreaded Black Beard algae has appeared. It literally covered all the driftwood in a week. It didnt spread anwhere else which is strange. Its not on the plants or gravel just the driftwood. It looks kinda neat so as long as it stays put...i will let it play out.

Snails wont eat that algae ? Or there’s no other natural means to address them ? We have green hair algae and bryopsis which are dreaded nuisance algae for reefers

 

[Bigtrout]

Snails wont eat that algae ? Or there’s no other natural means to address them ? We have green hair algae and bryopsis which are dreaded nuisance algae for reefers

No snails wont touch it...its a scourge in freshwater. The only fish that will eat it are a true siamese flying fox which are hard to come by and often misidentified.
Since its only on the driftwood and nowhere else I assume there may be something in the wood that may be aiding it. I could remove the wood and try boiling water to kill it.

 

[oreo54]

No snails wont touch it...its a scourge in freshwater. The only fish that will eat it are a true siamese flying fox which are hard to come by and often misidentified.

Though chemical, Gluteraldehyde treatments work fine though there are a few "sensitive" things like Vals and Discus..
Thing is it really only takes a few treatments and glut breaks down in like 48hours or less.. so no "residue".

Some things will eat dead BBA, not living BBA..

NOTE: No idea about SW use of glut.

 

[Bigtrout]

Though chemical, Gluteraldehyde treatments work fine though there are a few "sensitive" things like Vals and Discus..
Thing is it really only takes a few treatments and glut breaks down in like 48hours or less.. so no "residue".

Some things will eat dead BBA, not living BBA..

NOTE: No idea about SW use of glut.

Thanks, Ive read about glut. But guess what I have a beautiful jungle of...you got it, its Vals that I collected from a river and have been going in this tank for 5 plus years. It would be easier to remove the wood...boil it and scrub it than to remove the vals treat with glut and replant.

I have also read that peroxide nails it too and dissapates to water and o2, maybe dip the wood in a peroxide solution for a few days in a dark spot...then scrub the wood.

Like I said it is not spreading to any plant leaves or tank sides...its like the wood has something that it needs.

It kinda looks ok on the wood as long as it stays that way. People tie java moss towood to make it look like this BBA

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Thanks for the update. I’m still watching.

my tank is going well. I had an outbreak of hair algae. I finally added co2 about 2 weeks and the hair algae disappeared.

salt tank is stable as always. One Toby puffer swimming around. Reef pi on 3.0 alpha is stable too. I’m going to skip the 3.0 beta update and wait for the next release.

 

[Bigtrout]

Reef pi update:
Aquarium still doing well.

Reef pi 3.0 release has been super stable and I have noticed memory usage has really stabilised. Reef pi 3.0 must have some good coders!

Mrs. Santa is bringing me a few things this year:
With the help of my saltwater buddy while I was in Japan, she ordered some stuff so that I can install my sump. She must be sick of the diy 40 breeder sump sitting in the spare bedroom.

Id rather drill my 75 but thats not feasible because its very established and Id rather not start over with the plants. So for xmas she ordered me an eshoppes pf-1200 hob overflow and a Jebao DCP-6500 return pump.

My saltwater friend says because I only need to turn over 500 gph thru the sump that I set up the pf-1200 in a herbie configuration with one overflow drain as a full siphon with a gate valve for tuning and the other as an emergency drain. Because I dont need the full 1200gph, to only use one U tube in the hob overflow so flow clears all bubbles.

Does this sound like a good plan?

The pf-1200 has 2 1 inch bulkheads so drain size will be 1", but will 1 inch be ok for my return line from the return pump?