New Swiss 1900 liter (500G) Build

[Laith]

The Macro Algae reactor is slowly starting to do its thing. Nitrates are slowly coming down and the rate of increase in PO4 is decreasing.

If the trend continues, then it confirms something that I have been suspecting since I installed the reactor: it takes time for the chaeto to grow to enough of a size to start having in impact. Plus the die off of the GHA that I had on a part of the back wall of the DT must have been adding Nitrates and PO4 to the system. That GHA has basically disappeared now.

Two days ago I harvested about 20-25% of the chaeto in the reactor and this is what it looked like. The laptop is a 13" laptop for size comparison. The chaeto in the reactor was getting quite dense but no die off at all that I could tell from lack of room or light...

 

[Laith]

20 rolls of fleece for my RE Vlies rollermat. It's more economical to order quantity from RE (you get volume discounts), and it's much cheaper to ship 20 then 2 shipments of 10...

They've also stopped making 50m rolls for some reason. These are 35m rolls. A 50m roll normally lasts me about three to four weeks.

 

[Laith]

I've also started dosing iron to the tank, mainly to make sure that lack of iron is not a limiting factor for the growth of the chaeto in the algae reactor. I started with a commercial reef product from Aquaforest but then decided to find cheaper alternatives.

After some online research, I saw that Fergon iron supplement tablets containing Ferrous Gluconate were one alternative so I ordered some. But when I received them I saw that they had other ingredients as well as some type of colorants. Though I have not heard of any negative issues related to using these to dose iron in reef tanks, I decided to look for something more pure.

Hence:

I like that it lists "Other Ingredients: None"

And they ship internationally. 100g will last a long long time (I'm currently dosing 0.001ppm Fe every three days)!

 

[Laith]

I had an overpopulation of asterina starfish in my system.

As a rough estimate, I would say I had several hundred of these starfish covering the back wall of the DT in the mornings before the lights came on. I also noticed them in the nooks and crannys of the rock in the tank. I don't think they were doing any harm but they were unsightly and I suspect they were the cause of my rollermat jamming from time to time by getting caught between the fleece and the roller bars the fleece feeds through.

So I went and purchased a harlequin shrimp to take care of the problem. Tiny little guy, not more than 2cm or so long (less than an inch).

The morning after I introduced the harelquin shrimp, when I looked at the tank (this was before the DT lights are on) I noticed that the asterina starfish, instead of being on the back wall of the tank, were now one the side and front pane of the tank. I'd never seen them like that so I wonder if it was because the back wall of the tank is not cleaned and the shrimp can climb up the coraline algae developing there and get to the starfish? The side and front of the tank are much smoother as they are regularly cleaned so...

I'm now puzzled. It has been about ten days since I introduced the harlequin. I haven't seen him once since then. But the visible population of the asterinas has reduced by at least 90%! I haven't seen a molt of the harlequin either. Either the harlequin is one amazing predator or both him and the asterina starfish both disappeared for some strange reason!

If the harlequin has eaten that much of the asterina population in such a short period of time, I'm amazed. Also puzzled that I haven't seen him...

To anybody that has a harlequin shrimp, is what I've described normal behaviour, both in terms of the amount of starfish disappearing and the fact that I haven't once seen the shrimp?

I keep imagining there is now a 50cm sized harlequin shrimp somewhere in the tank!

 

[Laith]

On another subject...

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, after calibrating my pH probe my pH is showing to be between 7.8 and 8.1 or so over any 24 hour period. To raise the pH I was thinking of getting a CO2 scrubber hooked up to my skimmer and/or having the skimmer draw air from outside.

Then the other day I realized that the dosing requirements for both alkalinity and Calcium are continuously increasing (I'm using the Balling Light system for those). I'm now dosing more than 760ml of Carbonate and 144ml of Calcium every day. That's the equivalent of about 1.5KH and 10ppm of Calcium. And with the current growth rate of my corals (mainly SPS with some LPS) this can only continue to increase. Which means a requirement for more frequent topping up the Carbonate liquid container (holds 22 liters) and the Calcium container (holds 5 liters).

Stay tuned for an idea I'm thinking of implementing to help solve both of the above...

 

[najer]

I had an overpopulation of asterina starfish in my system.

As a rough estimate, I would say I had several hundred of these starfish covering the back wall of the DT in the mornings before the lights came on. I also noticed them in the nooks and crannys of the rock in the tank. I don't think they were doing any harm but they were unsightly and I suspect they were the cause of my rollermat jamming from time to time by getting caught between the fleece and the roller bars the fleece feeds through.

So I went and purchased a harlequin shrimp to take care of the problem. Tiny little guy, not more than 2cm or so long (less than an inch).

The morning after I introduced the harelquin shrimp, when I looked at the tank (this was before the DT lights are on) I noticed that the asterina starfish, instead of being on the back wall of the tank, were now one the side and front pane of the tank. I'd never seen them like that so I wonder if it was because the back wall of the tank is not cleaned and the shrimp can climb up the coraline algae developing there and get to the starfish? The side and front of the tank are much smoother as they are regularly cleaned so...

I'm now puzzled. It has been about ten days since I introduced the harlequin. I haven't seen him once since then. But the visible population of the asterinas has reduced by at least 90%! I haven't seen a molt of the harlequin either. Either the harlequin is one amazing predator or both him and the asterina starfish both disappeared for some strange reason!

If the harlequin has eaten that much of the asterina population in such a short period of time, I'm amazed. Also puzzled that I haven't seen him...

To anybody that has a harlequin shrimp, is what I've described normal behaviour, both in terms of the amount of starfish disappearing and the fact that I haven't once seen the shrimp?

I keep imagining there is now a 50cm sized harlequin shrimp somewhere in the tank!

Sounds normal to me and I have had a few, all returned to my lfs alive once they had done their job, IME you will know when it is hungry as you will see it more often again.

 

[Laith]

I have this from back when I first started needing to add Carbonate and Calcium to my previous smaller tank:

It's a simple Kalkwasser "reactor".

So my solution is to add Kalkwasser to the tank. This will do two things (hopefully):

- Raise the pH
- Reduce the carbonate and calcium dosing requirements

But I won't be using the Kalkwasser by adding it to the ATO. It will use RO/DI water from the ATO tank but dosed separately.

Depending on the time of year, my evaporation rate is between about 12 to 19 liters per day. The plan is to hook up a dosing pump to the kalkwasser reactor so that it doses 10 liters of kalkwasser per day (spread out over the day).

This will add the equivalent (for saturated kalkwasser) of about 5ppm of Calcium and 0.7KH of alkalinity to the tank over the day while at the same time raising the pH of the tank.

At the same time it will cut in half (more or less) the required dosing amounts of Carbonate and Calcium solution per day. Currently the KHD can help me adjust the Carbonate dosing requirement and I'll change the Calcium dosing manually with regular testing. When the ION Director arrives (they start shipping at the end of May!), it can automatically adjust Calcium dosing as well since it tests Ca .

So that is the theory behind the plan. I'm sure others have done similar and any inputs would be welcome.

The only thing I need to keep in mind is that the Fauna Marin Balling Light method of dosing also adds trace elements in both the Calcium and carbonate solutions. My idea will proportionately reduce the amount of trace elements being added to the system.

But I don't see why I can't just for example double the amount of trace elements I put in the solutions when I mix them up?

Am I missing something? ;Bookworm

 

[Laith]

Sounds normal to me and I have had a few, all returned to my lfs alive once they had done their job, IME you will know when it is hungry as you will see it more often again.

Makes sense that I'll probably see it more often once it's hungry again...

How did you catch them in the tank? It would be a chore in my tank if it doesn't want to be caught...

 

[najer]

Makes sense that I'll probably see it more often once it's hungry again...

How did you catch them in the tank? It would be a chore in my tank if it doesn't want to be caught...

I used a net but they are very fast if they want to be.

 

[Laith]

I had a bit of time to take some quick shots of the tank today... quick iPhone shots, didn't have time to get the DSLR out and process pictures!

FTS:

The LPS corner:

 

[Laith]

Various coral shots...

Home of the eight Chromis, haven't lost one since I got them in June of last year:

This I've already cut away a good sized amount of, at least a large dinner plate's worth:

 

[Laith]

 

[Laith]

View down the length of the tank, the chalice in the foreground is getting huge as well:

Frags that I've prepared scattered around the bottom of the tank. I still plan to have a frag tank as part of the sump. I have the light (a Hydra 52 HD that I still have). Just need to get on and do it. I don't like have frags inside the DT like this!

You can see the broken parts of the green plating monti dinner sized chunk that I removed.

My local LFS is very interested in taking all these frags off of me. Hopefully it will help a lot with offsetting the cost of this tank! ;Happy

 

[Laith]

And finally, a video (I'm still not good at these but...):

 

[Laith]

Maybe I'm the only one who hasn't realized this :

I run two DI canisters on my RO/DI unit, one feeding into the other. As soon as the output water of the first one shows anything other than 0 TDS I move the second canister in its place and refill the "old" canister with fresh DI and it becomes the second canister.

I also run a booster pump on the unit to increase output.

Today my TO container started automatically refilling (I could hear the booster pump going). I checked the TDS coming out of the first canister and it was showing a TDS of 1. Out came the fresh DI resin container. But first I wanted to double check that my inline TDS meter was showing a correct reading. So I turned off the booster pump and ran the output water from the first canister into a glass and measured it with my handheld TDS meter. It showed 0 TDS .

I checked the inline TDS meter and it was also showing 0 TDS.

I thought "ok, the TDS of 1 reading I first saw must have been some type of glitch".

Plugged the booster pump back in and after about 15 - 30 seconds the inline TDS meter switched from 0 to 1 TDS! Keeping the booster pump on, I checked the output with my handheld TDS meter and it also showed a TDS of 1 ;Meh.

Unplugged the booster pump. 15 seconds or so later the output water was back to 0 TDS.

I've left the booster pump unplugged now for about an hour and the TDS is still showing 0.

If you think about it, all of this makes sense: as the DI resin is depleted, water has less contact time with the remaining active DI resin. If you increase the speed of the water flowing through the partially depleted DI resin, the still active DI resin has less contact time with the water and therefore can't remove all the TDS.

At least that's my theory. I'm going to play around with this a bit as it may save costs on DI resin. I don't mind slower output when filling my TO container, the faster output was more for filling the fresh saltwater container for my AWC so that it would minimize the time the AWC was off. But in the end does it make that much of a difference? My fresh saltwater tank takes about 14 hours to fill with the booster pump on... even if the AWC is off for longer, let's say 24 hours to allow the fill, I don't see how that could have any negative impact on the system.

;Happy

 

[Laith]

If after only several hours without the booster pump the TDS shows a reading of 1 then it's probably not worth any potential gain in savings on DI resin. But if I can get one or two hundred extra liters out of the system then...

 

[Laith]

Well, forget my theory... or at least any benefits related to it. After about two hours running without the booster pump the TDS went back up to 1.

Nice while it lasted! ;Joyful

 

[Lasse]

Depending on the time of year, my evaporation rate is between about 12 to 19 liters per day. The plan is to hook up a dosing pump to the kalkwasser reactor so that it doses 10 liters of kalkwasser per day (spread out over the day).

This will add the equivalent (for saturated kalkwasser) of about 5ppm of Calcium and 0.7KH of alkalinity to the tank over the day while at the same time raising the pH of the tank.

At the same time it will cut in half (more or less) the required dosing amounts of Carbonate and Calcium solution per day. Currently the KHD can help me adjust the Carbonate dosing requirement and I'll change the Calcium dosing manually with regular testing. When the ION Director arrives (they start shipping at the end of May!), it can automatically adjust Calcium dosing as well since it tests Ca .

With some tricks with your profilux - you can make it to dose kalkwasser during the night and balling during day. If you do so - you will equal out your pH

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Laith]

With some tricks with your profilux - you can make it to dose kalkwasser during the night and balling during day. If you do so - you will equal out your pH

Sincerely Lasse

This is an interesting idea. Tell me more... please! ;Bookworm

 

[Lasse]

Do you have a P4? Update to next latest or latest firmware - you will have access to 32 pumps with that FW. you need at least FW 7.24. It works with 16 pumps also if you have some that you do not use. In my example - let us say that we have pump 14, 15 and 16 free. You use pump 1 to Balling calcium; pump 2 for alkalinity and 5 for your kalkwasser,

Let us say that you chose to dose Kalkwasser between 21:00 and 9:00 and you want to dose 10 L during that time

We start to program pump 16 (it will be a virtual pump) You need a real pump to and you need one that give you at least 80 ml/min. it exclude Doser 2 but Maxi would manage it. Start to calibrate the pump you want to use - let us say that it will give 80 ml minute. automatic dosing 144 dosing/day (it means every 10 minutes) 416 ml - it means near 20 L for a full day but you should only run this for a half day- The amount - in my example 416 ml depends of the pumps capacity - with the capacity the pump have (ml/min) you should calculate how much you must dose 144 times a day to come as close to 20 000 ml as possible - thats the figure you should put into rate per dosing. Remember - the dose period is only 10 minutes and the pump need to rest at least half the time

We have create ca virtual pump. Now we should create a timer - ex timer 10

Now we create a PL - I chose gate 32

Now we knit this to a virtual socket - I chose 62

Now , the dose pumps - in my example dose pump 5

The same flowrate as in the virtual pump - in my case 80 ml/min Mark record dosage and make it to react to the switch channel you chose in the step just before - in my case 64 - red circle

​

If you have a Maxi doser connected to dose pump 5 - you do not need to do more with this - if you use a non GHL dose pump (or whatever pump) - got the the switch channel for this (I chose switch channel 6) and knit it to dose 5. It must be a real switch and you connect your pump to this outlet

Now will your kalkwasser pump work between 21:00 to 09:00 and dose your 10 L during that time in 10 minutes cycles

Next step - calculate your calcium amount during 12 hours - dubble that and calculate how much you need to dose every ten minutes in order to get that total amount (the dubble you want) during 24 hours. Create a new virtual pump (pump 15 as an example in the same way you create virtual dose pump 16 above. Make a new PL with dose pump 15 and timer 10 but make timer 10 inverted

Go further with the other steps as above

Now for your alkalinity - do exact as above for the calcium but use dose pump 2. Do not forget the inverted timer 10.

If you discover that it is to long or to short you run your kalkwasser pump - just adjust your timer 10 - the other two will automatically adjust themselves in running time because the are allowed to run during the time when timer 10 is not active

I hope you understand my explanations - if anything is unclear - feel free to ask

Sincerely Lasse