Swedish fish - behind the scenes rebuilding a public aquarium

[Lowell Lemon]

Merry Christmas to all the staff and leaders at the best public aquarium on R2R! My your new year be excellent!

 

[crusso1993]

Wishing good tidings to you and the whole school at the aquarium!

 

[Fudsey]

Merry Christmas Sallstrom and all at the aquarium ! !

 

[christian321uy]

merry christmas to everyone!

 

[Sallstrom]

I know many of you like pumps so here’s a short post on how we restored/upgraded a Deltec skimmer (SC 3070 internal I think is the name of the skimmer).
First I ordered new DC pumps directly from Deltec, and asked for pumps that would fit in their skimmer. The old pumps were AC and we want to switch over to DC pumps.
It turned out that we still needed to rebuild the outlet(after the pumps, in the skimmer), but it just took some pvc glue and 5 minutes of work.
The pumps look very much like a another well known brand...
The air tubes had to be extended a bit too.

Next we needed to fix a new way to control the water level inside the skimmer, because we broke the old screw thing that was on the skimmer outlet.
I tried a very inexpensive method, and it worked out fine

A pvc pipe with a 45 degree ending to put inside the outlet pipe.

The outlet “fully opened “

The outlet closed(but not 100%). Just turned the pvc pipe 180 degrees.

 

[Gp!]

Running both Triton Core7 and calcium reactors on both systems, to balance CO2 and pH.

What is the trick to finding the right balance when you add carx to the mix with Triton's method? Do you just handle X% of your demand with Trition and the rest with the calcium reactor? Or do you base it around a particular trace element and judge correct dosage around depletion rate from several ICP tests? Can't quite wrap my head around equilibrium

 

[Sallstrom]

What is the trick to finding the right balance when you add carx to the mix with Triton's method? Do you just handle X% of your demand with Trition and the rest with the calcium reactor? Or do you base it around a particular trace element and judge correct dosage around depletion rate from several ICP tests? Can't quite wrap my head around equilibrium

In these temporary tanks we started with only Core7. When we closed our old tanks we also installed calcium rectors. What we did in this case was to just start them up, lower Core7, and meassure KH a lot. As a security we have a GHL KH Director which we could switch between the two coral systems just to give us an idea if the doses was too high or low.
After a while we sat Core7 to a fixed number(about 40 or 50% of the original dose when we only used Core7), and only change the reactors if we needed to get the KH up. So yes, Core7 takes care of about 50% of the demend at the moment.

We've used Calcium reactors and Triton ICP tests for five years or more, so we know that the reactors do a good job adding most of the elements. Core7 does the same job, but without the CO2.
Now we do the same as before, we fix the numbers that need adjusting with Triton supplements after getting the results from the ICP tests. But what I've seen from the first months with these new systems, we don't need to add a lot.

There are a couple of reasons why we run the tanks this way. One is to add CO2 and get a pH somewhere "in the middle", instead of very high or low. Another one is to lower the consumption of Core7.

Let me know if I there's anything more you would like to know!

 

[Gp!]

Let me know if I there's anything more you would like to know!

Haha I could pick your brain for days.

We've used Calcium reactors and Triton ICP tests for five years or more, so we know that the reactors do a good job adding most of the elements. Core7 does the same job, but without the CO2.
Now we do the same as before, we fix the numbers that need adjusting with Triton supplements after getting the results from the ICP tests. But what I've seen from the first months with these new systems, we don't need to add a lot.

There are a couple of reasons why we run the tanks this way. One is to add CO2 and get a pH somewhere "in the middle", instead of very high or low. Another one is to lower the consumption of Core7.

Invaluable information =) Thanks for sharing. It seems like the best of both worlds - awesome to know it is!

 

[Brew12]

We've used Calcium reactors and Triton ICP tests for five years or more, so we know that the reactors do a good job adding most of the elements.

I've always thought calcium reactors add most trace elements but I've had some people tell me they add very little and that most trace elements are in the coral flesh and polyps. So you do feel that many of them are captured in the coral skeletons?

 

[Sallstrom]

I've always thought calcium reactors add most trace elements but I've had some people tell me they add very little and that most trace elements are in the coral flesh and polyps. So you do feel that many of them are captured in the coral skeletons?

Sorry, what I meant was macro elements. So from what I've seen Ca, Mg, B, Sr, K, and perhaps some more macro elemets are added from a calcium reactor(like P ). Not always in a perfect match to the demand from the tank in question. In the long run we had to add CaCl now and then for example, and a lot of B.
And running with only Core7 we had to add a lot of Sr.

So I think you need to do ICP tests(at Triton of course ) regulary to figure out how the demand is in your tank. I adjusted the Core7 2 dosing yesterday because Ca started to raise in one of our coral systems. We have a large part of that system for soft corals, so the demand isn't the same as the other more stony coral dominated.

And I guess you could get different results with different types of calcium reactor media. We use mostly large coral gravel.

Trace elements we dose seperately. Sorry for a long answer..

 

[Brew12]

Sorry, what I meant was macro elements. So from what I've seen Ca, Mg, B, Sr, K, and perhaps some more macro elemets are added from a calcium reactor(like P ). Not always in a perfect match to the demand from the tank in question. In the long run we had to add CaCl now and then for example, and a lot of B.
And running with only Core7 we had to add a lot of Sr.

So I think you need to do ICP tests(at Triton of course ) regulary to figure out how the demand is in your tank. I adjusted the Core7 2 dosing yesterday because Ca started to raise in one of our coral systems. We have a large part of that system for soft corals, so the demand isn't the same as the other more stony coral dominated.

And I guess you could get different results with different types of calcium reactor media. We use mostly large coral gravel.

Trace elements we dose seperately. Sorry for a long answer..

I would have considered B, Sr, K and I to be trace elements. Not sure if that is scientifically correct or if there is even a clear delineation between what is a trace and what is a macro element.

I keep meaning to bring a chunk of dead coral in to the lab at work and running it under an electron scanning microscope. That way I can definitively see what exactly gets trapped in a coral skeleton.

 

[Sallstrom]

I would have considered B, Sr, K and I to be trace elements. Not sure if that is scientifically correct or if there is even a clear delineation between what is a trace and what is a macro element.

I keep meaning to bring a chunk of dead coral in to the lab at work and running it under an electron scanning microscope. That way I can definitively see what exactly gets trapped in a coral skeleton.

Here are a quote from a Stanford lecture I just found:
"Trace Elements – Those elements that do not contribute to the salinity. All elements are present in concentrations less than 1mg kg-1"

http://ocean.stanford.edu/courses/bomc/chem/lecture_05.pdf

Yes, do that! That would be really cool to see. I know there are some old papers on that, but do it anyway!

 

[Brew12]

Here are a quote from a Stanford lecture I just found:
"Trace Elements – Those elements that do not contribute to the salinity. All elements are present in concentrations less than 1mg kg-1"

http://ocean.stanford.edu/courses/bomc/chem/lecture_05.pdf

Yes, do that! That would be really cool to see. I know there are some old papers on that, but do it anyway!

So the definition of trace elements in sea water would also apply when used to describe trace elements in coral?

 

[Sallstrom]

So the definition of trace elements in sea water would also apply when used to describe trace elements in coral?

Sorry for the late answer. I don’t know

 

[Sallstrom]

Haha I could pick your brain for days.




Invaluable information =) Thanks for sharing. It seems like the best of both worlds - awesome to know it is!

For example.
Here’s our Triton additives for corrections for January. The coral systems are about 4000L each.

On this list is not Mn and Fe which we add daily.

 

[teller]

For example.
Here’s our Triton additives for corrections for January. The coral systems are about 4000L each.

On this list is not Mn and Fe which we add daily.

Hi.
May I ask which Mn and Fe aditives do you use? DIY?
And at what concentrations you daily dose each in ppb?
Thanks.

 

[crusso1993]

Hi.
May I ask which Mn and Fe aditives do you use? DIY?
And at what concentrations you daily dose each in ppb?
Thanks.

Knowing that @Sallstrom is a crazy Swede and also knowing he hangs out with crazier Swede @Lasse , I'm inclined to think he just throws a few chunks of this into his sumps!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I would have considered B, Sr, K and I to be trace elements. Not sure if that is scientifically correct or if there is even a clear delineation between what is a trace and what is a macro element.

I keep meaning to bring a chunk of dead coral in to the lab at work and running it under an electron scanning microscope. That way I can definitively see what exactly gets trapped in a coral skeleton.

Would a spectrometer help, also? With coral skeleton. ....

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I

Knowing that @Sallstrom is a crazy Swede and also knowing he hangs out with crazier Swede @Lasse , I'm inclined to think he just throws a few chunks of this into his sumps!

Looks like chunk of iron. Or fossilized dino doo doo.....

 

[Sallstrom]

Hi.
May I ask which Mn and Fe aditives do you use? DIY?
And at what concentrations you daily dose each in ppb?
Thanks.

We use Triton's addetives for Fe and Mn, so I don't know the concentration. We follow Tritons instructions for dosage, but have adjusted them a bit after years of use.
At the moments we dose Mn 8 ml/day and Fe 2ml/day, in each coral system.