Perry's 90 Gallon SCA Acro Upgrade

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That is great news Perry!! Can't wait to see the corals take off. Is your skimmer still turned off?

Josh, still running the skimmer, as it's pulling in fresh air into the system from outside. I am really going to focus on running this system as easy as possible. Kalkwasser is cheap solution to ionic balance, but, worth every penny as it relates to ph. By dosing fully saturated Kalkwasser on a doser, there is really no concern until I supercede evaporation daily. Once that happens, I will move to 2 part in addition to Kalkwasser. Sorry, long-winded answer to skimmer is that it's also critical to my ph plan. Despite skimmer running, I only absorbed .02 in P04 yesterday, very little movement, with skimmer on. So, looks like N03 and P04 are settling a bit.
Cheers :)
 
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Beast!!!
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Looks like all this attention to pH is really paying off Perry!
Hey Tim,
Every morning testing alk, and watching it fall from yesterday at 7.4dkh, to 6.92dkh this am. That was after bumping kalkwasser by 40ml. This morning, I bumped it to 220ml per day, and take a look in rhe morning. Keep in mind that I replaced a Coral + bulb with a Hamilton 6500k bulb, I think this is also kicking growth into gear!
I have a suspicion that my system is going to eventually out use kalkwasser versus evaporation, when that happens, I am ready to automate 2 part. I really love what I am seeing from kalkwasser, I believe it's the secret sauce to a healthy reef. Should have always used it, lol :)
 
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@Scott B.
3 days in a row sitting at .11ppm to .12ppm on P04. Safe to say that I am balancing, I have not put one drop of phosphorus into the tank for several days. Now, with a decent water change this weekend, I suspect that I can lower my values slighty, then maintain from there on out, based on fish feeding. Nitrates at 5ppm, so that's a perfect number, thinking the biome is settling. As I am seeing hazy green and a daily swipe of the glass required, the corals just loving the nutrient availability. Seems this algae is starving dinos, I can't spot them anywhere in the tank, suffice to say bye bye to them....lol
 

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@Scott B.
3 days in a row sitting at .11ppm to .12ppm on P04. Safe to say that I am balancing, I have not put one drop of phosphorus into the tank for several days. Now, with a decent water change this weekend, I suspect that I can lower my values slighty, then maintain from there on out, based on fish feeding. Nitrates at 5ppm, so that's a perfect number, thinking the biome is settling. As I am seeing hazy green and a daily swipe of the glass required, the corals just loving the nutrient availability. Seems this algae is starving dinos, I can't spot them anywhere in the tank, suffice to say bye bye to them....lol
Excellent update on nutrients. I am keeping heavy in/out. Now and then, my PO4 will creep up (>.17) and I will knock it back to .1 with some lanthanum chloride. It is so much easier to control the dosing versus GFO.

Following your kalk experience as well. I hooked up a nice stirrer to a DOS head and was dialing for a while, supplementing my CaRx. But I blew up my CaRx (literally) and returned to ESV 2-part.

But I began getting these odd interactions between Kalk and Ca that would cause my skimmer to overflow. So my million dollar stirrer is just sitting there now. Until I figure out how to solve for that.
 
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Excellent update on nutrients. I am keeping heavy in/out. Now and then, my PO4 will creep up (>.17) and I will knock it back to .1 with some lanthanum chloride. It is so much easier to control the dosing versus GFO.

Following your kalk experience as well. I hooked up a nice stirrer to a DOS head and was dialing for a while, supplementing my CaRx. But I blew up my CaRx (literally) and returned to ESV 2-part.

But I began getting these odd interactions between Kalk and Ca that would cause my skimmer to overflow. So my million dollar stirrer is just sitting there now. Until I figure out how to solve for that.
Hey Scott, I use ESV too, so when I get to the point where I need it, I will pay close attention to the skimmer. Are you using 2 tspn per gallon/ full saturation? Also, are you using more kalkwasser than your daily evaporation? Reason I ask, is that at this point, you should see 8.3ph consistent. There, carbonic acid full releases, and very little of the extra should be required. (CARX/ 2part). I cannot attest, but am using fully saturated kalk, and nowhere near matching my daily evaporation. I hit 8.0 right now, with my current kalkwasser dose, and drawing fresh air. It's slowly creeping up, not much, but a pinch a day :)
 

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Hey Scott, I use ESV too, so when I get to the point where I need it, I will pay close attention to the skimmer. Are you using 2 tspn per gallon/ full saturation? Also, are you using more kalkwasser than your daily evaporation? Reason I ask, is that at this point, you should see 8.3ph consistent. There, carbonic acid full releases, and very little of the extra should be required. (CARX/ 2part). I cannot attest, but am using fully saturated kalk, and nowhere near matching my daily evaporation. I hit 8.0 right now, with my current kalkwasser dose, and drawing fresh air. It's slowly creeping up, not much, but a pinch a day :)
I've been ESV 2-part for several years but it got a little silly at some point with dosing 1/2 liter a day over the two systems. Leaves you with a lot of buckets over time. Why I went with the calcium reactor. Which I broke the other day.

I am new to the Kalk game. Could use some pH boost and taking the load off of my ESV dosing. But after 2 bubble floods I had to shut down the kalk stirrer. Just another thing to figure out.




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I've been ESV 2-part for several years but it got a little silly at some point with dosing 1/2 liter a day over the two systems. Leaves you with a lot of buckets over time. Why I went with the calcium reactor. Which I broke the other day.

I am new to the Kalk game. Could use some pH boost and taking the load off of my ESV dosing. But after 2 bubble floods I had to shut down the kalk stirrer. Just another thing to figure out.




IMG-4302.jpg
I'm also a member of the ESV club but I don't play that hard!
 

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I'm also a member of the ESV club but I don't play that hard!
TBH I have had my best acro growth with ESV only when I really think about it. Intuitively, a calcium reactor seems better balanced but just not sure about the tradeoff that the CO2 dosing adds. That is why the kalk stirrer and CaRx combo seemed attractive. Still aiming for that someday. More to learn.
 
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Alrighty,
Haven't documented P04 or tested since past Thursday, where I was at .12ppm, this morning, I figured time to test, .09ppm. So it seems that I am still in a good place, likely fish load and feeding is going to keep me in good shape :)
Now, I described a recent growth boom, and have been steady adding more kalkwasser daily. Yesterday at 250ml, I still tested lower than previous day, with a 50ml bump. With alk down to 6.2dkh, I decided to bump the kalkwasser dose up by 100ml, with a 30ml shot of esv alk. I waited, then tested about 15 minutes later, and the 30ml shot brought me up to 6.94dkh, so tomorrow mornings test will hopefully be around the same. This 30ml shot boosted ph from 7.7 to 7.9 shortly after. With running a spot of nutrients, I am going to allow it to slowly rise to 7.8-8.2dkh over a period of a week or so. I think I will need to get kalkwasser dose to 1000ml per day before I match top off, maybe more like 2000ml daily. So, glad I ordered new doser heads, lol.
 
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TBH I have had my best acro growth with ESV only when I really think about it. Intuitively, a calcium reactor seems better balanced but just not sure about the tradeoff that the CO2 dosing adds. That is why the kalk stirrer and CaRx combo seemed attractive. Still aiming for that someday. More to learn.

I have always liked the ESV 3 part system, I have a small bottle of TM AFR, but would blow through that before I could find a sweet spot. It would be a lot easier to just convert over, but I will use it to make adjustments, until the day comes when kalkwasser can't keep up. Scott, probably a doser head nightmare for you automating ESV, what, like 500ml of 2 part a day for your reef?
Edit: saw your usage above, and that could get expensive if your not trimming and selling regularly, lol :)
 
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Well....
That darn P04 bottomed out again! N03 2.5PPM... Hmmm...
It appears that the system, with skimmer only, and 12 fish, that I will still need to dose phosphorus, good thing I did order 2 more 500ml bottles, lol ;)
Still some funk on the reef, nothing worth getting disturbed, but given my VERY low nutrients, and still a rather new system, it seems that I will need to continue daily testing, ughh, thought the system was getting to the point where fish feeding would be enough, well...
Added a CBB yesterday, and it's active, but hasn't eaten frozen yet, some picking, but mostly just cruising the tank. Hopefully it will settle and begin feeding, a beautiful fish, but hit or miss sometimes, fingers crossed :)
 

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Well....
That darn P04 bottomed out again! N03 2.5PPM... Hmmm...
It appears that the system, with skimmer only, and 12 fish, that I will still need to dose phosphorus, good thing I did order 2 more 500ml bottles, lol ;)
Still some funk on the reef, nothing worth getting disturbed, but given my VERY low nutrients, and still a rather new system, it seems that I will need to continue daily testing, ughh, thought the system was getting to the point where fish feeding would be enough, well...
Added a CBB yesterday, and it's active, but hasn't eaten frozen yet, some picking, but mostly just cruising the tank. Hopefully it will settle and begin feeding, a beautiful fish, but hit or miss sometimes, fingers crossed :)
I may have written this somewhere here already, but back when I last depleted PO4 (and got dinos) I went through a couple liters of DIY phos. The rock just kept binding it as fast as I could dump it in. Then one day all the sump rock was loaded up and haven't dosed since then. And yes, testing Hanna ever day was a pain. Hated that.

Nitrates was easy to over boost, but also easy to knock down with a little vodka and some bacteria.

Is the "funk" any kind of hair algae?
 
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I may have written this somewhere here already, but back when I last depleted PO4 (and got dinos) I went through a couple liters of DIY phos. The rock just kept binding it as fast as I could dump it in. Then one day all the sump rock was loaded up and haven't dosed since then. And yes, testing Hanna ever day was a pain. Hated that.

Nitrates was easy to over boost, but also easy to knock down with a little vodka and some bacteria.

Is the "funk" any kind of hair algae?

No hair, I have bubble, but it's not growing, but stringies...don't want to say it out loud, but brown... Again, it's my fault for assuming P04 was present, but yeah, monitoring this closely, as I could easily face another "D" issue, not spelling, or speaking it out loud ;) Nothing alarming, mainly on plastics and glass. But....you never know, keeping nutrients will be quite important, as will be the testing.
 
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And, worth mentioning, that my CUC is pretty large, in fact, probably going to move that massive longspine urchin back to the DT, as it's destroying my mangrove lagoon fuge, lol. So I have worms, pods, limpets, cucumbers, conchs, Mexican Red legs, blue legs, Mexican tubos, brittle star, pistol/goby paired, atreas, Nassarius, dwarf ceriths, regular ceriths, stomatellas, pods, mysis, 4 or 5 emeralds, 10 peppermint shrimp, and likely several more I have forgotten. Overkill, possibly, but a proper CUC is important in my reefing game :)
 

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