The Island Reef
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PmRg
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MrsBugmaster
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Very nice set up!
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My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
Looking great
Well it has been a while since I posted an update of the system :/ mea culpa.
Maybe lack of time and dedication, but it's ok I got something nice to show. I know it's not just me that love a nice piece of equipment ahah
So here it is FINALLY the calcium reactor, installed in the 1st of March and since then the transition from Core7 to Ca reactor is done, and I'm now on my "new method" Core7 + Calcoum reactor.
What did I do ?
Added pH expantion module for the Profilux 4
GHL pH probe
GHL Doser Maxi (to feed the calcium reactor) yes.
GHL Solenoid
Co2 bottle a.K.A. fire extinguisher ahah
CaribSea ARM Coarse media
Vertex Calcium Reactor
How is it working?
Profilx is maintaining a pH inside the reactor between ~6.48 e ~6.6
The doser Maxi at the moment is dosing 650ml 48x per day this gives me a 1,3L/h of water flowing trough the reactor, if I need to raise the dKh I'll just raise this dose and if I need to reduce the dKh I'll reduce it.
Core7 came down from 50ml/day to 12ml/day it will stay this way since it seems to be the ideal dosage to maintain a stable pH inside the tank ( Ca Rx pH acid vs Core7 pH basic).
dKh is stable at a value of 7 dKh controlled by the KH Director, a very important piece of the puzzle that gave me a lot of peace of mind throughout the change over.
The system is now 100% automated the only thing I can't control is the co2 cubble count (but that's alright) ahah
Finally some photos of the sump area plus some news that will come up in future updates
.
Espectacular! (That means awesome for the non Portuguese speaking crowd [emoji4]).
I tried the switch to CaRX about 8months ago and failed miserably! My pH crashed to lows of 7,4, my acros really did not like it. I started adding kalk in the ATO, brought the refugium back online in an inverted photoperiod but still I was getting pH as low as 7,65 during the night and a max of 7,8.
Also, the reactor was self fed (not possible to connect to a dosing pump) so as the line clogged over the period of two weeks the effluent rate would go down so my Alk would swing (no KH Director [emoji13])
Went back to dosing (this time the new ARO essentials pro which only requires two heads and no mixing) and everything rebounded.
Questions:
1- HOW did you get your hands on the Vertex ? I could not find it in any of the usual European online stores!
2- what is tour effluent Alk? I used the same media and for the life of me I could not get it above 17dKH, even with the reactor pH set to 6.0 on the Profilux [emoji33] (likely due to the fact that the media volume of my reactor was just 1,85L which i believe it is clearly insufficient for a 180g tank that was consuming 1,5dK per day). This in turn also likely explained the huge impact in the tanks pH.
3- are you dosing Triton at night only yo smooth out the pH impact?
Obrigado [emoji4]
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PmRg
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Olá VJV
glad to find a Portuguese around here ahah
I spent a lot of time thinking about the system I wanted... first I LOVED the DasTaCo but had a loss of remote contol and that's what I didn't want to compromise, then I really liked the Pacific Sun PRO with that digital dosing pump (same DasTaCo concept but half the price ahah and better looks) but same problem loss of control :/
The old Deltec approched was too outdated for me, can't be buying something designed 15years ago ( or something like that) ahah
Your pH problems might be due to clogged self fed reactor also something it does not work :/ heard too many problems with this and I needed something SOLID.
So in order for me to have the full remote control I wanted ( yes I switched from Core7 to the Ca Rx sitting in my work office over myGHL ) I'm not joking LOL, I needed a new well designed reactor that would work with a feed pump and a pH probe. I think your problem was a small reactor as well with poor control over pH vs water passing trough the reactor (just a guess).
Questions:
1- I waited a LOTTTTTttttt something like 4-5 months but I really wanted the this one since it's kinda like the only good option around atm. contact www.fragariodonorte.pt and they will sort you out.
2- effluent Alk... no idea I dont need to measure it don't worry about it... use the right media with a reactor for the size of your tank 1.87L is less than I use for 450L system. So good reactor for your system volume and worry about volume of water passing by the reactor... atm I have 2 l/h , use a GOOD media like CaribSea ARM coarse maintain a pH of ~6.5 inside the Rx and work with the water passing inside the Rx
to raise and lower your dKh also a reactor with a second chamber like mine I think it makes a difference not sure but just go for it to keep it safe (second chamber "stabilizes" the pH)3- atm I'm doing Triton 24h haven't even tried dosing just during the night but it's a good experience
abraço
Pedro
Thanks! The other interesting idea I have toyed around with is setting different pH levels in the reactor for night and day. Say 7.0 at night and 6.5 during the day? This would lower night pH impact as well as dose less concentrated solution at night when corals are not consuming. Probably stabilize night/day Alk swings [emoji4].
Also interesting your choice of feed pump. Typically people use continuous dosing pumps such as the kamoer. I guess you prefer the controllability of the Doser Maxi but I wonder how long will the pump heads last dosing 48.000ml a day....?
Also interesting your choice of feed pump. Typically people use continuous dosing pumps such as the kamoer. I guess you prefer the controllability of the Doser Maxi but I wonder how long will the pump heads last dosing 48.000ml a day....?
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PmRg
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no problem, I wont mess with the pH inside the reactor... never
best pH for the media is 6.5 and that's it.I needed control so the Maxi was the "control" ahah yes 48k ml per day... let the ball roll ahah if this dosen't work I'll have to sacrifice the control and go for that Kamoer option... errrr please nooooo.
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PmRg
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Good night reefers,
Finally a FTS I know, I know...
Like you can see the layout changed a lot, things were getting too close to each other lost some corals due to some mistakes BUT what a learning process this has been, understand the elements gave me a new light over reef keeping and having done more than 20 ICP tests along the life of this tank has helped me a LOT and gave me a lot of experience how the elements vs corals "behave", anyway the tank is almost 5 years old and things are changing like over saturated sand and dirty rocks (I think this is normal) I want to do something about it but my latest N-DOC test from the 1st of april was near "perfect" so I'll hold.
Just FYI the difference I got from KHD vs N-DOC was 0,2 dKh I think I can live with that ahah
We can see that my problem is the TOC total organic carbon, and for this I will be raising BioBase ULNS (as per Triton instructions) let's see what happens... see you in 3months ... maybe !? lol
.
Finally a FTS I know, I know...
Like you can see the layout changed a lot, things were getting too close to each other lost some corals due to some mistakes BUT what a learning process this has been, understand the elements gave me a new light over reef keeping and having done more than 20 ICP tests along the life of this tank has helped me a LOT and gave me a lot of experience how the elements vs corals "behave", anyway the tank is almost 5 years old and things are changing like over saturated sand and dirty rocks (I think this is normal) I want to do something about it but my latest N-DOC test from the 1st of april was near "perfect" so I'll hold.
Just FYI the difference I got from KHD vs N-DOC was 0,2 dKh
I think I can live with that ahah
We can see that my problem is the TOC total organic carbon, and for this I will be raising BioBase ULNS (as per Triton instructions) let's see what happens... see you in 3months ... maybe !? lol
.
OP
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PmRg
Active Member
Amazing as always [emoji4]!
My tank always read zero NO3 (and PO4) but I knew I must have had high levels of organic matter because I had to clean my glass almost every day and rocks were dirty.
Algae also grew here and there but no matter what I could not get a chaetomorpha based refugium to work.
Again, it seemed to indicate that although NO3 was low, some form of organic compounds were present. My N-DOC results were also pristine.
Started dosing VIBRANT once a week as well as NO3 (from ATI) and in about 6 weeks the tank is amazingly clean!!! Algae growing on the sandbed is gone, rocks are clean and i now clean the glass once a week. I am sold on this thing [emoji4]. Just an idea.
My tank always read zero NO3 (and PO4) but I knew I must have had high levels of organic matter because I had to clean my glass almost every day and rocks were dirty.
Algae also grew here and there but no matter what I could not get a chaetomorpha based refugium to work.
Again, it seemed to indicate that although NO3 was low, some form of organic compounds were present. My N-DOC results were also pristine.
Started dosing VIBRANT once a week as well as NO3 (from ATI) and in about 6 weeks the tank is amazingly clean!!! Algae growing on the sandbed is gone, rocks are clean and i now clean the glass once a week. I am sold on this thing [emoji4]. Just an idea.
iron_mike_gt
Active Member
Nice!
iron_mike_gt
Active Member
Nice!
The Reef Dork
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Can I ask whst camera you use?
OP
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PmRg
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I bet that 80mm macro prime is in your shopping cart... or perhaps the 16mm prime that can almost do Macro [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
That is the problem with the Fuji X system: so many great lenses you always have the next purchase on your shopping cart
That is the problem with the Fuji X system: so many great lenses you always have the next purchase on your shopping cart
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