109 gal Reef Savvy SPS

Tahitian Blue Maxima 2" long. Purchased Oct 2013.
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JBJ Arctica 1/4HP Chiller Wanted

JBJ Arctica 1/4HP Chiller Wanted

Would ya'll mind letting me know if happen you come across a used JBJ Arctica 1/4HP Chiller for sale?

Down here in Florida it gets pretty hot in the summer. Central A/C keeps the temp in the tank down to 81-82 degrees but sometimes we are away and it would be nice to not have to run the central A/C unit all the time just for the tank. Plus I'd like to keep the temp at 78 next summer.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/jbj-arctica-chiller-1-4-hp.html

Thanks!
 
Chris I have been reading Glenn's thread and I have some questions. Does the iron bring down the PO4 or the sodium nitrate.
 
Newbie Aquarist said:
I have to get there and see the great progress. I've missed a lot.
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Yeah Wayne, no doubt. We need to plan to have you and Melanie over for dinner next week.

jdantunes said:
Nice clam!
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glaukos said:
Amaaaaazing clams!!
I absolutely love the 2nd!
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Thanks and thanks! Oddly enough both pictures are of the same clam taken about at the same time and with the same exact camera settings. No photoshoping at all between the two pictures. The only difference is that one picture is a top down shot and the other is taken from a side angle through the glass. I was surprised at the difference the angle makes in the pictures. Even just looking down with the naked eye and gradually moving to a side view, I can see a dramatic difference.
chgries said:
Chris I have been reading Glenn's thread and I have some questions. Does the iron bring down the PO4 or the sodium nitrate.
Click to expand...

I am following Glenns DSR methods and I now dose both to get fantastic results. By adding Nitrate alone, I was getting good results with PO7 level that dropped to around 0.08. When I bought a Hanna Iron checker, I noticed that my iron levels read 0.00ppm even with 10% weekly water changes so I started adding liquid iron in combination with the nitrate. It isn't much iron but is just enough to get the tank back to natural salt water levels of 0.06ppm. Iron and nitrate together helped to drop PO4 to around 0.03 even with an increase of feeding. The corals also benefit with more intense greens due to the iron. Its an inexpensive supplement with many benefits.

Iron does seem to deplete from my system quickly and that must be due to all the bacteria absorption. I'm using brightwell aquatics liquid iron currently but recently ordered iron citrate from Glenn and will start dosing that instead when it arrives next week.

When I learned that Zeovit stones leach iron, that made complete sense because why else would anyone need to replace them, right? Iron is a key ingredient used with the Zeovit method but like Glenn, I too have stopped changing out the Zeovit stones. Also like Glenn, I still run them in a Zeoreactor because the reactor and stones help to grow more bacteria.


shih87 said:
Nice. Nothing better than seeing SPS grow in your own tank!!!
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Thank you!. I look forward to one day having colonies as colorful and mature as yours. That will be a while though since your are growing out of your tank!
 
chgries said:
Do you dose nitrate because your nitrate is naturally low.
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In short, yes. I dose PO4, NO3 and iron but since they are in the proper ratios with each other, they are effectively in balance.

The original redfield ratio is in play here (carbon, po4, and nitrate in balance). The tank is supplemented with extra carbon (vinegar) and extra PO4 (lots of food daily / 4-5 feedings) so bacteria multiply quickly and absorb all three (carbon,PO4, and NO3). The skimmer goes crazy pulling out all the extra bacteria and phytoplankton being produced and test results show that PO4 and NO3 stay very close to zero because the tank chemistry is in balance (similar to NSW).

If I stop dosing nitrate, the tank chemistry falls out of balance (nitrate limited) and the way you can tell is pretty simple. NO3 drops to zero and soon after, skimmate production drops in half. A few days later, PO4 begins to accumulate and test results start to climb above 0.08. Excess carbon sometimes shows itself as a haze up of build up on the glass or you get bit of a cyano outbreak from the excess of both PO4 and carbon. These are unnatural salt water conditions and the water is effectively out of balance.


In more recent years since the time when Redfield came up with his hypothesis (1934), scientists have learned that iron is also of great importance in the production of bacteria and phytoplankton. The bacteria are consuming iron along with everything else. If iron gets depleted, then the bacteria and phyto population becomes limited by that. Now scientists have what they call the extended Redfield ratio, which includes iron in the equation. I have a Hannah iron checker and I water changes and food additions cannot keep my iron at NSW levels so I dose some inexpensive iron and doing so proves to be very effective for PO4 control.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfield_ratio
Extended Redfield ratio

Some feel that there are other elements, such as potassium, sulfur, zinc, copper, andiron are also important in the ocean chemistry. In particular, iron (Fe) was considered of great importance as early biological oceanographers hypothesized that iron may also be a limiting factor for primary production in the ocean. As a result an extended Redfield ratio was developed to include this as part of this balance. This new stoichiometric ratio states that the ratio should be 106 C:16 N:1 P:0.1-0.001 Fe. The variation in iron is the result of “…iron contamination on ships and in labs is large and difficult to control. No one has been able to beat this nearly insuperable combination of difficulties.” (Broecker and Peng (1982)). It is this contamination that resulted in early evidence suggesting that iron concentrations were high and not a limiting factor in marine primary production.
 
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yeah.... good thinking Chris !
near sunken ships there seems to be a real bloom of life...

ReefKeeper64 said:
In short, yes. I dose PO4, NO3 and iron but since they are in the proper ratios with each other, they are effectively in balance.

The original redfield ratio is in play here (carbon, po4, and nitrate in balance). The tank is supplemented with extra carbon (vinegar) and extra PO4 (lots of food daily / 4-5 feedings) so bacteria multiply quickly and absorb all three (carbon,PO4, and NO3). The skimmer goes crazy pulling out all the extra bacteria and phytoplankton being produced and test results show that PO4 and NO3 stay very close to zero because the tank chemistry is in balance (similar to NSW).

If I stop dosing nitrate, the tank chemistry falls out of balance (nitrate limited) and the way you can tell is pretty simple. NO3 drops to zero and soon after, skimmate production drops in half. A few days later, PO4 begins to accumulate and test results start to climb above 0.08. Excess carbon sometimes shows itself as a haze up of build up on the glass or you get bit of a cyano outbreak from the excess of both PO4 and carbon. These are unnatural salt water conditions and the water is effectively out of balance.


In more recent years since the time when Redfield came up with his hypothesis (1934), scientists have learned that iron is also of great importance in the production of bacteria and phytoplankton. The bacteria are consuming iron along with everything else. If iron gets depleted, then the bacteria and phyto population becomes limited by that. Now scientists have what they call the extended Redfield ratio, which includes iron in the equation. I have a Hannah iron checker and I water changes and food additions cannot keep my iron at NSW levels so I dose some inexpensive iron and doing so proves to be very effective for PO4 control.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfield_ratio
Extended Redfield ratio

Some feel that there are other elements, such as potassium, sulfur, zinc, copper, andiron are also important in the ocean chemistry. In particular, iron (Fe) was considered of great importance as early biological oceanographers hypothesized that iron may also be a limiting factor for primary production in the ocean. As a result an extended Redfield ratio was developed to include this as part of this balance. This new stoichiometric ratio states that the ratio should be 106 C:16 N:1 P:0.1-0.001 Fe. The variation in iron is the result of “…iron contamination on ships and in labs is large and difficult to control. No one has been able to beat this nearly insuperable combination of difficulties.” (Broecker and Peng (1982)). It is this contamination that resulted in early evidence suggesting that iron concentrations were high and not a limiting factor in marine primary production.
Click to expand...
 
Johnyman said:
Hi Chris, what type of phosphate chemical salt do you use to raise PO4?

Thanks.
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Usually fish food is all that I need to add to keep PO4 in balance. I do have some Brightwell Aquatics NeoPhos (liquid PO4) that I've used only once when my nitrates were high and PO4 had dropped to zero in spite of heavy feeding. I only selected that particular brand because it was on the shelves at my LFS.
 
Hi folks, We found our dream home and we're moving. I bought a new home and will be moving the tank to the new place in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
 
ReefKeeper64 said:
Hi folks, We found our dream home and we're moving. I bought a new home and will be moving the tank to the new place in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
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Congrats!... You got to keep us posted about your moving and new tank. My new house ready is around Sept. 2014, and I definitely want to learn from your tank new or moving experience.
 
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