New Swiss 1900 liter (500G) Build

[Laith]

Put your roll of used fleece into a bucket. Get the free end of the fleece and staple to a used toilet roll. jam the toilet roll onto your power drill chuck and drill away on max speed and tell us if it works.

I made a device to use my drill to unwind. When my fleece is used up, It leaves me an empty cardboard tube. I attach the free end to that, and use my drill to wind it back up. Takes a minute. I took a 2x4 and mounted pvc spindles to that for the full and empty roll to spin on.

I'll give that a try! Thanks!

i just put the roll onto a wooden spoon, and spin it into the dusbin, it only takes a few minutes and the roll is 65m long

The roll lasts around 3 months so no big problem.

Problem is the Royal Exclusive rollermat used fleece holder is not a hollow tube that I can stick a wooden spoon into...

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

I used to have these snails in my tank, I believe they are called dove snails..anyway they soon disappeared after adding a niger trigger ...as they are nocturnal he would be “awake” before lights on to pick them all off the glass, he ate the whole population in about 2 weeks haha

 

[328 reef]

At one point there was the option of building a fish room on the other side of the wall where the tank will be and having the new tank flush with the wall. But this option turned out to be inconvenient and difficult to implement due to the space available outside the wall and zoning issues etc.

So everything supporting the tank will be in the stand, including a frag tank (probably part of the sump) and a fresh SW mixing station for automatic water changes.

The original idea was a tank of 250cm x 80cm x 90cm (length x width front to back x height) and looked like this:

With this design the plan was to have a coast to coast overflow running the length of the back of the tank:

The overflow weir would have been 10cm wide so the total width from the wall would have been 90cm. After laying out the dimensions on the floor and lots of discussions with my wife, we decided that the whole think would be too wide and too disproportionate for the room, sticking out into the room too much.

Therefore:

And in order to have the tank as wide as possible, the overflow has moved to one end:

I wanted to avoid having an overflow on one end of a long tank as I'm worried about scum building up on the surface at the end opposite the overflow. Perhaps a Gyre at the far end to push surface water towards the overflow?

I'm also not sure that 17cm is deep enough for the weir. The overflow will be a Bean Animal design with three pipes of 40mm dimensions. I will have two 32mm returns, each on a Red Dragon 8m3 DC pump, returning water at each end of the tank.

72x18x24 overflow on end, wavemaker on other end.

 

[Laith]

I used to have these snails in my tank, I believe they are called dove snails..anyway they soon disappeared after adding a niger trigger ...as they are nocturnal he would be “awake” before lights on to pick them all off the glass, he ate the whole population in about 2 weeks haha

I have a Bluethroat Trigger but I'm not sure it eats the snails... or maybe it does and there would be many more if I didn't have it!

 

[Laith]

72x18x24 overflow on end, wavemaker on other end.

Yes, I ended up installing two Gyre FX350s on the end opposite the overflow, as high as I could. They work wonders keeping the surface spotless.

 

[Laith]

I send off two water samples every three months for ICP testing, one from the tank and one from my RO/DI top up tank.

One thing that kept niggling at me was that the ICP test of the tank water constantly came back with a salinity of 38ppt. I'm pretty sure this is due to evaporation of the sample by the time they test the salinity of it. My Hanna digital refractometer usually shows 1.026 - 1.027 and when I test it with RO/DI water it shows 1.000.

But just to have the best reference possible, I purchased this which arrived a week or so ago:

From Fauna Marin. The graduated cylinder makes it easy to measure. The only downside is the hydrometer is calibrated at 25C so you need to adjust the result up or down by 0.00035 for every 1C your test sample varies from 25C (up for temps above 25C and down for temps below 25C).

When I tested my tank water, my Hanna was showing 1.027. The Fauna Marin hydrometer after temp adjustment gave me 1.0273. Close enough.

A bit on the high side but nothing to worry about: I've adjusted my AWC to take out more water than it is replenishing with fresh saltwater, 16.5l a day out and 10l a day in. This will slowly bring it down.

At least I know that the Hanna is more or less showing correct numbers. I'll use the hydrometer from time to time to double check.

38ppt by the way is 1.0286 at 25C...

 

[Laith]

A bit of feedback on the Tunze Macro Algae reactor.

First observation: this reactor grows chaeto well. The amount of chaeto I started out with initially on the 6th of January was only 25g, a bit smaller than a tennis ball (all I could get a hold of when I installed the reactor). Over three weeks later it is now loosely filling the reactor which measures 31 x 25 x 43 cm. Absolutely no die off, just healthy chaeto all the way through.

For the first two weeks or so the chaeto was spinning in the reactor due to the current from the pump. Then I think it got too big to spin easily but this doesn't seem to have any negative consequence to the growth, at least so far. The two LED strips on either side of the reactor provide enough light to the entire chaeto mass...

As a reminder, my NO3 was at 22.67 and PO4 at 0.356 the day I installed the reactor. Ten days later NO3 was 23.04 and PO4 at 0.35. The positive is that after ten days the PO4 and NO3 did not really increase that much. But they didn't come down either. I attribute this to the small amount of chaeto I started with; the larger the mass of chaeto, the more uptake per day...

In order to help the chaeto do its job, I decided to lower the PO4 with LC over several days to 0.086.

The first five days after lowering it to 0.086 the PO4 increased by .013 per day. Then the rate of increase started dropping and the past four days it has increased by only 0.002 per day, or almost six times less. I assume that this is because the chaeto has grown to a mass that is uptaking more and more phosphate.

Nitrate has stayed steady at between 21 and 23ppm...

Keep in mind that I have continued the same feeding regimen to the tank as I was doing before installing the reactor.

I'll do another update on the results in a couple of weeks.

 

[Laith]

I forgot to mention the changes to pH since installing the reactor.

Previously, my pH would vary between 7.9 at night and peak at 8.2 during the day. Now, with what I estimate to be the reactor half full of chaeto, it doesn't dip below 8.0 and peaks at just under 8.3 during the day. I thought that a refugium would flatten the swings but maybe I was mistaken... or there isn't yet a sufficient volume of chaeto. I'm satisfied though with the fact that both ends of the swing are higher!

Reactor lights are on for 14 hours on an opposite schedule to lights, overlapping by an hour at each end: DT lights start ramping up at noon and are off by midnight while the reactor lights are on from 23.00 (11pm) to 13.00 (1 pm).

The reactor pump is left on 24 hours a day.

 

[Laith]

Time for an update and some thoughts on the algae reactor.

First, a correction regarding the pH numbers I gave in the last post. I thought that the numbers seemed a bit high, especially given that it was winter time, house closed up and four people living in the house plus three dogs etc. So CO2 levels should be up which means pH in the tank usually lower.

After some head scratching, I finally decided to double check. I used a pH meter and that showed pH levels much lower. Then I realized I hadn't calibrated my GHL pH meter since May of 2020. I had ordered fresh calibration liquids in December so I calibrated.

Now my levels fluctuate between 7.8 and about 8.05.

Does this mean that my pH levels before installing the algae reactor were even lower? I think yes because even though the calibration was off there was an increase in measured pH.

Lesson learned: calibrate pH meter at least every six months, at least in my system.

I'm still puzzled as to why there is not a lower variation between the lows and highs given that the reactor is running when the DT lights are off... I think it's because the reactor is still not at top performance yet which I will explain in my next post...

 

[Laith]

So, yes, I need to revisit having the skimmer draw air from outside to try to raise my pH levels. I'd rather try that than take on the ongoing cost of CO2 scrubbers though I may try that as a first step to validate that the CO2 levels in the house is what is driving the pH of the tank down.

I'd like to get the pH to consistently above 8 and hopefully peak at 8.2 or 8.3.

I'll continue the update over the next days...

 

[najer]

I am a smoker but live alone, my skimmer air line is connected to outside air, no idea what my ph is.

 

[Laith]

Back to the algae reactor.

First observation is that this reactor grows chaeto extremely well. There are no dead spots in the chaeto, even when it begins filling the reactor body to the top. After a month it seemed that the chaeto had taken up all the space in the reactor so I pulled the mass of chaeto out thinking that it would need rotating or turning over in order to grow evenly and not have any dead areas but all of it was a healthy deep green. I attribute this to the way the light strips shine into the reactor from top to bottom on each side of the reactor.

This was 40 days after I first installed the reactor with a ball of chaeto that was smaller than a tennis ball. Thinking it was time to harvest some of it, I removed about half of the chaeto.

 

[Laith]

More observations and comments about the algae reactor that I'm going to throw out here. I'm having a bit of difficulty connecting the dots on these observations so comments/inputs are welcome...

1. The Nitrates have consistently remained between 20-25ppm, so basically the same as before installing the reactor.

2. The Phosphate levels still go up, though at a slower rate than before installing the reactor. I've been regularly using LC to keep the PO4 levels at around 0.05-0.08.

3. Before installing the reactor, I was starting to get a carpet of GHA on the back glass of the DT, covering about 20% of the right side. No GHA anywhere else in the tank at all and the only other visible algae is the dusting on the glass which I'm still cleaning every two to three days.

4. The first time I opened the reactor (about three weeks after installation), there was GHA growing on the inside of the lid and some on the sides of the inside of the reactor.

5. As of now, the carpet of GHA that was on the back wall of the tank has basically melted away... and no GHA grows in the reactor at all. ;Happy

6. I'm pretty sure that the harvest of chaeto that I did 40 days after installation was both too much and too early. Since then I only removed about 20% of the chaeto after another 40 days. I think that the volume of chaeto that can grow and stay healthy in the reactor is much larger than I had assumed. I'm going to leave it to get much thicker in there.

I think that the last point (6) is why I haven't really seen a decrease in Nitrates (though no increase either). It could also explain why though Phosphates are increasing at a slower rate, they are still increasing and not decreasing or staying stable.

The Phosphate numbers could also be acting the way they are because PO4 is leaching from the rockwork/gravel after several months of absorption...

Point 5 is really interesting though. Why is the GHA melting away? Is it because the chaeto is outcompeting the GHA for nutrients? It is interesting that the GHA growth in the reactor disappeared as soon as the volume of chaeto reached a certain amount...

Another thought I had was that the GHA melting away was because I brought the PO4 level down from 0.3 before the reactor installation to 0.05-0.08 now. But then again, the chaeto is growing like crazy; wouldn't the chaeto be affected in the same way as the GHA?

I also remember reading somewhere that higher DOC levels can increase GHA (and other undesirable algae) growth. And that chaeto reduces DOC levels. I'm not sure my recollection of this is exact, so again, insights into this as well would be interesting.

A long post, hopefully everyone reading it is still awake . But like I said, I can't quite connect all the dots so hopefully feedback may clarify my thinking!

 

[Laith]

Another thing that has happened is that the carbonate uptake has increased quite a bit since the installation of the reactor. From 456ml a day to 576ml a day. And I need to increase it more as the KH level is stable at 7.6 and I'd like it at 8...

Is this also because the chaeto is lowering DOC levels?

I remember now that I did a Triton DOC test sometime last year. Maybe I'll do another one now and see if there is a difference.

Existing corals are all growing very well. However, a couple of new SPS I put into the tank recently are just languishing with one or two that didn't make it. Not sure what to make of this, maybe they weren't good health to begin with and need more time to recover.

 

[Laith]

Another thought regarding the stable NO3 levels and the slight daily increase in PO4 levels:

As the GHA is melting away (and the remainder being eaten by my tangs and angelfish) NO3 and PO4 must be being released back into the water column.

Now that more or less all the GHA is gone, it will be interesting to see what the numbers show.

 

[najer]

Another thought regarding the stable NO3 levels and the slight daily increase in PO4 levels:

As the GHA is melting away (and the remainder being eaten by my tangs and angelfish) NO3 and PO4 must be being released back into the water column.

Now that more or less all the GHA is gone, it will be interesting to see what the numbers show.

This, if it lets go it will release the nutrients back into the tank in some form, if I see sketchy looking bits of macro algae I drop it into the display for the tangs and fox face.

 

[Laith]

Another change that I've been trying is regarding my use of my carbon reactor. Normally I fill it with about 500g of carbon and replace it every month.

Having read quite a bit about carbon actually not being able to adsorb anything after about a week of use (or less), I've been increasing the frequency of carbon replacement to every two weeks but only using 250g each time.

The idea is that perhaps adsorption will continue for longer periods during the month. Difficult to actually test though.

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

I run my carbon for the first week of every month.. not noticed any difference from when I was replacing it monthly ( but leaving it there all month)

 

[Laith]

I run my carbon for the first week of every month.. not noticed any difference from when I was replacing it monthly ( but leaving it there all month)

Yes, it's difficult to test.

I'm hoping by doing it this new way I get perhaps up to two weeks of adsorption during a month instead of one.

I guess one way to test is the white bucket test to test the clarity of the water at different times but I still have things on my tank to do list that date from last summer!

 

[Laith]

150kg of salt! This should last me about eight months...

I prefer the 10kg boxes to the larger buckets for two reasons:

- Much easier to store boxes; the same amount of salt in buckets would need a lot more space.
- My fresh saltwater tank needs about 9.3kg of salt to get to 1.026 SG. It's easier to just remove 700g of salt from the box and pour the remainder in.