Ryshark’s 120-Gallon Acropora Tank

[ScottB]

I haven’t even tested for Nitrates yet. I don’t know if I will get a false reading with the nitrites being so high. I do have Nyos amd Samifert kits ready.

I finally broke down and bought the Hanna HR Nitrate. I've used both Salifert and NYOS for years. Observations:
a) Much less noise and a much tighter range week to week. Intuitively this makes me feel better. I know what import/export levers I am pulling.
b) LOWER values on average.
c) A number is a number. A color varies based on the eyeball used.

Obviously no rush. Just a measurable >0 number is all we really need anyway. I just feel like the directional precision of the Hanna is superior.

Happy reefing!

 

[ryshark]

I finally broke down and bought the Hanna HR Nitrate. I've used both Salifert and NYOS for years. Observations:
a) Much less noise and a much tighter range week to week. Intuitively this makes me feel better. I know what import/export levers I am pulling.
b) LOWER values on average.
c) A number is a number. A color varies based on the eyeball used.

Obviously no rush. Just a measurable >0 number is all we really need anyway. I just feel like the directional precision of the Hanna is superior.

Happy reefing!

I have the Hanna ALK (love it) and Hanna PO4 (hate the powder foil pouches). The Hanna Nitrate would be nice for all the reasons you mentioned above, but after watching a video of all the steps and multiple foil powder packs, I decided to pass. Pass for now, eventually I will break down too, when I have a tank full of highend acros.

I'm about to dose 200% the original recommended dosage of XLM right now. 100% from each of my remaining 2-bottles.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I have the Hanna ALK (love it) and Hanna PO4 (hate the powder foil pouches). The Hanna Nitrate would be nice for all the reasons you mentioned above, but after watching a video of all the steps and multiple foil powder packs, I decided to pass. Pass for now, eventually I will break down too, when I have a tank full of highend acros.

I'm about to dose 200% the original recommended dosage of XLM right now. 100% from each of my remaining 2-bottles.

The new Hanna high range no3 is 1 packet. Mix for 2 minutes and set the timer for 7 minutes. That’s it. It’s awesome

 

[ryshark]

The new Hanna high range no3 is 1 packet. Mix for 2 minutes and set the timer for 7 minutes. That’s it. It’s awesome

Nice! I’ll definitely get that. Sounds like a huge improvement.

 

[JCOLE]

Nice! I’ll definitely get that. Sounds like a huge improvement.

I agree! It's great. I have the low range one also and I hated it. Way too many steps and room for error. The high range is so easy. I can test both no3 and po4 in under 10 min and no more guessing at colors. Definitely worth it!

 

[ScottB]

I can't believe we are 4 pages into the thread, and the tank hasn't even cycled yet!

You should tag Brandon429 into the thread. He would be all over this cycle, driving you nuts.

 

[ryshark]

I can't believe we are 4 pages into the thread, and the tank hasn't even cycled yet!

You should tag Brandon429 into the thread. He would be all over this cycle, driving you nuts.

I can’t wait until I can start posting pictures of frags. Cycle stuff is boring.

I read some of his stuff, it’s lengthy, emphasis on “some”. In a nutshell he says nitrite is harmless so the rocks are cycled and add a fish now.
I dosed 8-caps of XLM last night in a Brute. We’ll see what happens.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I can’t wait until I can start posting pictures of frags. Cycle stuff is boring.

I read some of his stuff, it’s lengthy, emphasis on “some”. In a nutshell he says nitrite is harmless so the rocks are cycled and add a fish now.
I dosed 8-caps of XLM last night in a Brute. We’ll see what happens.

Not familiar with his material but my back up scrap system got nuked when an urchin sliced through a wavemaker power cord. All the corals slimed and were dead when I woke up. 29g biocube looked like clam chowder. Couldn’t see anything. So I had to do a complete reboot. Trashed all the corals, rock and bio media. 100% water change and new bio media. Pair of clowns and banghais cardinals, a chromis, aiptasia eating file fish, and a huge royal gramma all survived. I just added prime everyday for a week to neutralize the ammonia. Montis in a week later.

 

[ryshark]

Not familiar with his material but my back up scrap system got nuked when an urchin sliced through a wavemaker power cord. All the corals slimed and were dead when I woke up. 29g biocube looked like clam chowder. Couldn’t see anything. So I had to do a complete reboot. Trashed all the corals, rock and bio media. 100% water change and new bio media. Pair of clowns and banghais cardinals, a chromis, aiptasia eating file fish, and a huge royal gramma all survived. I just added prime everyday for a week to neutralize the ammonia. Montis in a week later.

Man sorry to hear that, I’m just glad it was your backup scrap system because I’m very familiar with that you have in the main system!

That clam chowder must have stunk pretty bad, in more ways than one. I’m glad your fish survived it.
What did you use for rocks and bio-media in the reboot? Any idea how high your nitrite got while neutralizing the ammonia?

 

[ScottB]

Not familiar with his material but my back up scrap system got nuked when an urchin sliced through a wavemaker power cord. All the corals slimed and were dead when I woke up. 29g biocube looked like clam chowder. Couldn’t see anything. So I had to do a complete reboot. Trashed all the corals, rock and bio media. 100% water change and new bio media. Pair of clowns and banghais cardinals, a chromis, aiptasia eating file fish, and a huge royal gramma all survived. I just added prime everyday for a week to neutralize the ammonia. Montis in a week later.

Ugh. The smell of SPS death. Only thing worse is a snail. But snails are cheap to replace.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Ugh. The smell of SPS death. Only thing worse is a snail. But snails are cheap to replace.

Worst smell I’ve ever experienced relating to this hobby. My house stunk for 3 days. The wife already hates the tanks without the stench….

 

[ryshark]

I got a couple new things for my sump in the rebuild. Part of my problem before the rebuild was me trying to do low/no maintenance with the exception of water changes every other week.

I found what I think will be an easy way to get good mechanical filtration without having to hassle with filter socks like I used to years ago with my successful sps tank.

I got this hang on sump cup holder which I plan to put pads in the cup. I bought 12” x 20-feet roll of filter pads I can cut, and it pencils out to be about 22-cents per pad. I’ll be able to reach in and pull the pad out without messing with the drain pipe at all and simply throw the pad(s) in the trash.

Since I’m going bare bottom I also got this Bio-Brick which I plan to soak in MicroBacter CLEAN and put in the refugium chamber of my sump for more biologic filtration.

I’ve now dosed 375ml of XLM start into 16-gallons of water. About 14x recommended dosage, that’s supposed to be enough XLM for probably about 225 gallons. My Nitrite is still 5ppm at over a month out.

 

[ryshark]

I've tested Marco rock for the presence of stored PO4 and found none in a bucket of NSW with flow after 3 weeks. Do you intend to saturate that rock with a touch of phosphate or no?

I was just reading a FAQ on the Fritz Turbo website and someone had a similar issue with cycle stall and high nitrite. The response mentioned that bacteria needs PO4 and this can happen when there is no PO4. At that point, I remembered this post from @ScottB quoted above.
Maybe this has been my issue the entire time, since the new bottle dropped ammonia to 0.
I was thinking I would get a quick 7-day cycle by following the XLM instructions, and totally forgot about this comment quoted above.....
Honestly, I may not have fully understood that maybe ScottB was saying that i NEED some PO4 in there in order for my cycle to complete. I thought he was referring to phosphate after my tank was up and running, in order to keep acros alive.
With that said, I just put in a nice sized pinch of flake food and a nice sized pinch of pellets.

 

[ScottB]

I was just reading a FAQ on the Fritz Turbo website and someone had a similar issue with cycle stall and high nitrite. The response mentioned that bacteria needs PO4 and this can happen when there is no PO4. At that point, I remembered this post from @ScottB quoted above.
Maybe this has been my issue the entire time, since the new bottle dropped ammonia to 0.
I was thinking I would get a quick 7-day cycle by following the XLM instructions, and totally forgot about this comment quoted above.....
Honestly, I may not have fully understood that maybe ScottB was saying that i NEED some PO4 in there in order for my cycle to complete. I thought he was referring to phosphate after my tank was up and running, in order to keep acros alive.
With that said, I just put in a nice sized pinch of flake food and a nice sized pinch of pellets.

I'll be honest and admit that I hadn't thought of PO4 limits to a cycle, but it does make sense now that I think about it.

The bacterial processing of the two nutrients don't function well in the absence of one or the other nutrient. I see this all the time in the dinoflagellate threads. I always advise dosing up PO4 first. If your system is nitrate limited, but you have some PO4, dosing nitrates will zero out PO4. The bacterial colony suddenly explodes. It works in both directions.

 

[ryshark]

Day-55 of Start XLM cycle. I've been adding fish food about once per week.
Nitrite = 1ppm, so it is finally coming down!

Honestly, if my tank was 100% ready to rock (pun intended), I would have aquascaped and added fish already even with the nitrites, as they would probably be fine for hardy clowns, etc. Once I get the rocks in the tank and I test stable parameters, in range, I'm going to start moving quick with this tank.

I was watching an IG post from Ryan @ BRS where he setup many new tanks in differents way and then had the bacteria cultures tested professionally. So far the tank which started with dry "dead" sand, marco dry rock and corals added right away, had the best and most diversity of beneficial bacteria. Even more so than tanks which they started with live rock and/or live sand. Pretty interestng, I'm looking forward to when that BRStv Investigates video comes out on YT with the full results.

 

[ryshark]

Plumbing about done. Nitrite = 0.25
Next I plan to scrub the tank with pure vinegar to:
1. Kill off any remains of whatever algae/bacteria I had in there before. Assuming it’s not already dead from being dry for 2-months. I’m not sure how the science works on that.
2. Clean the tank and sump.

Then I will fill it with tap water. I REALLY hope there are no leaks. From there drain and refill with RODI. My RODI units works slow when it’s cold out so this may take a few days doing 1x 5-gallon jug at a time. I plan to mix the salt in the display then add my rocks and aquascape. I’m hoping the rocks will displace just about the right amount of water to fill my sump.

 

[FullSend]

Are you going to leave the tank dry for any amount of time? I could be wrong but I think 24 hours dry will do more for you than the vinegar.

 

[ryshark]

Are you going to leave the tank dry for any amount of time? I could be wrong but I think 24 hours dry will do more for you than the vinegar.

It was dry for like 2-months, I hope you’re right and that did the trick!

I just filled it with tap water. I did my return plumbing different this time and it is now WAY more powerful. Stupid me had the loc-lines angled up when I first turned the pump on and water shot out of the tank across the room onto the couch and floor. I think my Fluval SP4 may be too powerful now, since my overflow is super noisy and used to be quiet. Eventually I need to either downgrade to a weaker pump, upgrade to a DC pump, or maybe I should just add a ball valve into the plumbing, after I drain the tap water.

 

[FullSend]

Whoops! I missed that part then

 

[ryshark]

I’m freaking out a little, but I can be reactionary at times. I just posted this in the chemistry forum. What do you think?
I just filled my entire tank with RODI water it took almost 48-hours. I wanted to avoid all the 5-gallon jugs needed, so I extend my RODI tubing 25-feet, in order to do this I bought this ice maker kit thinking it’s food grade and the push connect coupler is plastic so I should be fine. When I finished and took the coupler off I realized it had a tiny metal tube inside it. I freaked out hoping it was plastic and took some pliers and ripped it out. Definitely metal and probably brass. I also dumped in 100-gallons worth of saltmix before discovering this. Here is the link to what I bought and a picture of the metal tube that was inside of the push to connect fitting. Now I’m paranoid I have metal/copper in the water. Thoughts?

Everbilt 1/4 in. COMP x 1/4 in. COMP x 25 ft. Push-to-Connect Poly Ice Maker Installation Kit 7252-25-14-PTC-EB - The Home Depot

This Everbilt icemaker kit comes complete with everything you need to make the installation job a breeze. This appliance connector features durable polyethylene tubing, push-to-connect fittings and a self-tapping saddle valve. The push-to-connect fittings are universal and have a captive sleeve...

www.homedepot.com