Suggestions for Ai Nero 3 placement

[Stort]

I’m finally adding a wavemaker to my Innovative Marine peninsula 14 gallon. I’m having trouble figuring out where to place it in the tank however, and wanted the advice from more experienced folks. My scape is somewhat limiting as it I’d like the powerhead to be on the back wall where it’s less visible but I basically have a walls of rock in the way. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

[kizzy89]

I seen a trick where you put it in and turn it on then use bubbles to see how to the flow is and move until it's perfect. On the same note someone used fish food to do the same thing also so various ways will work. Hopefully this helps some. Also watch how it blows corals around and tweak it from there. Maybe someone else has a better way but i hope this helps some.

 

[exnisstech]

I seen a trick where you put it in and turn it on then use bubbles to see how to the flow is and move until it's perfect. On the same note someone used fish food to do the same thing also so various ways will work. Hopefully this helps some. Also watch how it blows corals around and tweak it from there. Maybe someone else has a better way but i hope this helps some.

That's pretty much what I do. I use a little diy coral snow sometimes. It's always trial and error for me to get flow dialed in.

The snow recipe is in the post below.

So Korallen Zucht's Zeovit product line has been around for a while. It contains many products, but one that finds usefulness outside of the ultra low nutrient setups is Coral Snow. In addition, the claims that KZ makes about it are not completely absurd and actually lie in the science of it. They claim it is a 'calcium-magnesium carbonate mix' (aka MgCO₃ and CaCO₃). When dried, it looks like an off-white confectioners sugar, extremely fine ground powder.

It is essentially a calcite chalk. Yes, the same stuff that teachers used to write on chalkboards with, that is bought for pennies and sold in RO/DI at nearly $120 per liter.

Despite being expensive, it does have its benefits. Organics adhere to its surface, as do particulates, acting as a flocculent, being easily removed via protein skimming or small micron mechanical filtration. This leads to unparalleled water clarity.

Thankfully there is a cheaper way to get that same clarifying effect. You can purchase food grade calcium carbonate powder, minimum 97% purity, for around $9 per pound, less if you order more (but that's not really necessary).

It comes as a very fine powder. You will want to mix it with water before dosing. The amount of KZ product in each mL (after it is very well-shaken to thoroughly mix) is 0.4g. This is a bit less than 1/8 teaspoon, and this is good for roughly 100 liters aquarium volume (25 gallons). You can either just put the dry powder into a small container and mix right there, or you can create a stock solution.

For a 250mL solution, use 5 level tablespoons (roughly 115 grams) of CaCO₃ powder and add roughly 230mL of RO/DI water. This should mix right about 250mL. The powder will NOT dissolve, it will stay suspended in the water. Will look like this when you're done.

Mix thoroughly before dosing, and dose 1mL per 100L volume (25 gallons) whenever you feel like. No harm in doing it daily, twice a day, once a week, etc, as it gets removed from the water column. It won't raise your pH, calcium, or alkalinity, as the powder will not dissolve in a reef aquarium, the pH is too high. You can even double, triple the dose without consequence. Your tank will look like this (or actually a bit cloudier, as this is roughly an hour post-dose) for a few hours, then will clear up with much higher clarity than before.

Happy reefing!

 

[kizzy89]

@exnisstech thanks for posting that, i might just have to try that myself, seems like a 2 birds 1 stone kinda thing. Very helpful 10/10 would recommend lol

 

[Boehmtown]

I like just under the return, on the back panel towards the top , I like a long pulse, like 5 seconds on 5 off. Or a quick pulse that makes a slight wave

 

[Stort]

I like just under the return, on the back panel towards the top , I like a long pulse, like 5 seconds on 5 off. Or a quick pulse that makes a slight wave

I’ll give that a try tomorrow, I really wanted it under the overflow to have flow going down both sides of the aquarium but it conflicts with the media caddy and doesn’t fit unfortunately. How do you have your return nozzle oriented so that all the flow isn’t coming out of one side?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would also suggest to try to find a way to get some surface agitation happening

 

[Boehmtown]

I’ll give that a try tomorrow, I really wanted it under the overflow to have flow going down both sides of the aquarium but it conflicts with the media caddy and doesn’t fit unfortunately. How do you have your return nozzle oriented so that all the flow isn’t coming out of one side?

One sides fine on that tank.