Renton's Evolution from 200 to 440 gallons

[HunterW]

Wow...a tank of my dreams.

 

[Renton777]

Chemiclean: Just a note to keep track...... I am running a dose of Chemiclean. It seems that every six months or so that I start to get a build up of red slime. It seems to bother some zoas and certain mushrooms if I let it go too long. So now, when I start to see it I run Chemiclean. I have probably used it 4 or 5 times over the past 3 years. This time I probably waited a bit longer then usual.

I will let it run for 48 hours do a 50 gallon water change and run some carbon. I will then do another 50 gallon water change two days later.

 

[Renton777]

100 Gallons of saltwater ready to go!

And 40 gallons of fresh water, refilling the tank! New water station working great so far.

 

[Renton777]

Since I no longer need my 55 gallon barrel to mix and hold saltwater, I changed that over to a Kalkwasser reservoir. I used to run kalk on my first tank but have not used it in several years. I mixed up a fully saturated solution and plan to start off with dosing a gallon of it a day to the tank using a Litermeter and see where that takes me.

Speaking of Kalk, I mixed up some kalk paste to take out some mojano's that have been popping up. Melted about a dozen of those little jerks.

Lastly, my equipment room is really starting to look like serious reefing business.....I love it (not so sure about my wife ).

I did once again tell my wife of my tank upgrade plan. I told her since I posted it on my Reef2Reef thread and discussed it live on a Tidal Gardens live stream there was no turning back

 

[Renton777]

I have been watching pH closely as when I was able to raise it with a CO2 scrubber it was clear Alk demand picked up, leading to me to conclude corals were growing faster. I haven't changed the CO2 scrubber media for a while now and it became apparent once we shut the windows and have been running the AC that I needed to to that. After getting ph between 8.1 and 8.3 throughout the day/night, I am now only getting to 7.9 to 8.1 with the windows shut. I changed the CO2 scrubber media last evening.

Well, changing the CO2 scrubber media showed an imediate impact on ph.

You can see where I changed it last evening, indicated by the blue mark. Looking back over the previsous days you can see that the ph declines over night, but immediately after changing the CO2 scrubber media you can see the ph climb all night and then continued to rise during the day as it normally would.

I also have done a couple Alk tests that show Alk declining a bit over the previous few tests but its still a bit earlier to show if the increased ph has increased Alk demand. I will follow up!

 

[YHSublime]

Dang. This is not the research I was hoping to see, but it makes a lot of sense. I don't test my PH, but I imagine it is low, especially as I have a trio of dogs that don't do well in the heat, so we've been running the AC windows shut for months now. I'm always shocked that I have so much SPS, but such a slow uptick in consumption.

Maybe you discussed it already, but wouldn't it have been easier to just run your skimmer air tube outside? I'm researching c02 scrubbers atm, but don't have much play room.

 

[Renton777]

Dang. This is not the research I was hoping to see, but it makes a lot of sense. I don't test my PH, but I imagine it is low, especially as I have a trio of dogs that don't do well in the heat, so we've been running the AC windows shut for months now. I'm always shocked that I have so much SPS, but such a slow uptick in consumption.

Maybe you discussed it already, but wouldn't it have been easier to just run your skimmer air tube outside? I'm researching c02 scrubbers atm, but don't have much play room.

The CO2 scrubber was much easier to deal with then trying to deal with my wife when I punched a hole in the house.....but I may do that once I setup new tanks.

 

[bubbaque]

Nathan do you ever watch any of the BRS videos? They put out a video a couple weeks ago where they had test tanks setup with one at a constant ph of 7.8 and another with it constant at 8.3. The tank with the ph at 8.3 had a 30% increase in grow compared to the tank with a ph of 7.8. I’m sure that growth increase only gets higher the bigger the colonies get also.

 

[Renton777]

Nathan do you ever watch any of the BRS videos? They put out a video a couple weeks ago where they had test tanks setup with one at a constant ph of 7.8 and another with it constant at 8.3. The tank with the ph at 8.3 had a 30% increase in grow compared to the tank with a ph of 7.8. I’m sure that growth increase only gets higher the bigger the colonies get also.

Yes I do, and I did see that video. I am also going to be making another change down the road. Right now I use SODIUM BICARBONATE from BRS for my Alk, I am going to switch that to Soda Ash in a month or two as that results in a higher ph from dosing.

 

[bubbaque]

How many mls of alk do you dose a day? How often are you needing to refill your container?

 

[Renton777]

I am doing somewhere around 240ml per day of the sodium bicarbonate solution. I use a 5 gallon bucket so I refill it about once every 2 months. I still have a few more batches worth of sodium bicarbonate.

With the soda ash solution I believe it will be 120ml per day. I just placed an order for a bucket of it from BRS.

I think I can actually make a batch using some soda ash and some sodium bicarbonate, I have to look into that a bit more, but that way I could still use all the dry mix I still have.

Edit: Actually, its down to more like 180ml per day now that I am running Kalk as well...I forgot about that.

 

[bubbaque]

Any reason you never went with a calcium reactor?

 

[Renton777]

Any reason you never went with a calcium reactor?

Basically I have just always dosed and am comfortable doing so. I like being able to tweak the dosage from anywhere via my apex. For instance I will be adjusting my dosing schedule in just a couple mins from my office

 

[Renton777]

Here is an updated ph graph

And here is my latest Alk graph. As soon as ph went up, Alk started getting soaked up at a faster rate. I will be adjusting my dosing schedule help keep up with the higher demand!

 

[Rockmp]

I may have missed it but what are you monitoring your Alk with?

 

[Renton777]

I may have missed it but what are you monitoring your Alk with?

The Alkatronic. I have had it for over a year and love it!

 

[Albertastorm]

Wow Great Job! Those are some incredible pictures...may i ask what you took them with?

 

[Renton777]

Wow Great Job! Those are some incredible pictures...may i ask what you took them with?

Thanks, those were with a Nikon D90

 

[Albertastorm]

Thanks, those were with a Nikon D90

Any special filters or settings?

 

[Renton777]

I either shoot the tanks on the action setting (running man) or the "S" setting the prioritizes shutter speed. I then use adobe lightroom to adjust white balance and exposure