Joe Kelley
Active member
Nice! :spin1:
Seriously awesome growth!!
ARID E18 reactor (Phosphate Control!!!)
- Thread starter maxxII
- Start date
pecan2phat
Active member
You would adjust the photoperiod vs the flow rate.
It sounds like it is challenging to just use photoperiod alone to maintain a low level of NO3 without dosing NO3 or maybe even PO4.
I guess what I am trying to figure out if I don't want to have 0 NO3 and 0 PO4; Can I also slow down flow rate besides photoperiod to try to have a low yet measurable level of NO3 and PO4 without dosing?
Thanks!
paal
New member
Joined the club! 
Unfortunately, I received the N24 reactor many weeks later than expected, so the cheato I had ordered ahead of time and placed in my dark overflow box did not look good when I threw it in the ARID.
After 17 days however, two fist-sized slimy cheato clumps had turned into this:
The stuff I threw away:
Unfortunately, I received the N24 reactor many weeks later than expected, so the cheato I had ordered ahead of time and placed in my dark overflow box did not look good when I threw it in the ARID.
After 17 days however, two fist-sized slimy cheato clumps had turned into this:
The stuff I threw away:
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ReefKeeper64
Wanna be a reefkeeper
I'm still waiting for my numbers to drop. I am getting growth, just seems slow. I rinsed and re spread what algae was in each chamber, both were about half full. A few more days and it will be two weeks, I'll take things apart and re rinse. Is everyone waiting for the chambers to fill before removing any cheato? I have been dosing the iron supplement for the past 3 weeks. Cheato doesn't seem brittle, but I will check boron levels and see if I need to supplement that as well. My biggest complaint so far is the cleaning and rest ringing of the algae is a little pita. I have been having issues with my right hand arm, so I volunteered my wife for this.
Does anyone know what this is all about? "My biggest complaint so far is the cleaning and rest ringing of the algae is a little pita"?? I'm guessing that the pax-bellum instructions state that you have to squeeze and rinse the cheato periodically? This seems odd.
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paal
New member
I threw away a lot more than the recommended 2/3 when I did my first chaeto harvest.
Yesterday, 12 days later, the reactor was almost full again
Although maybe still not the recommended amount, I kept more algae this time, so I will probably do my next harvest after a week
More random ARID-stoke: :fun4:
Yesterday, 12 days later, the reactor was almost full again
Although maybe still not the recommended amount, I kept more algae this time, so I will probably do my next harvest after a week
More random ARID-stoke: :fun4:
ReefKeeper64
Wanna be a reefkeeper
Looking good!
saltwaterpicaso
New member
so is everyone still using there reactors and if so or not why
I’m interested in why everyone is stripping all nitrate and phosphate, only to add it back in. Is it too difficult to dial it back so that there is some nitrate and phosphate in the system? It looks very impressive to me. The pics of Chaetomorpha growth is amazing. But, just seems like overkill if you have to dose nutrients back in after you just exported them.
paal
New member
Still run mine (N24). Works great.
I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.
At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.
At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
Still run mine (N24). Works great.
I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.
At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
This seems like the perfect balance. I guess you need to have a good feel for your tank to do this.
paal
New member
I dunno… For me this has been pretty straight forward (after I learned the importance of avoiding 0/0 values )
I guess it becomes a bit harder if nitrates and phosphates are depleted in such a manner that only one of them deviates from your desired set-point. I guess this is typically when people would resort to dosing. From what I have read, algae reactors generally consume nitrates faster than phosphates (in relation to our desired values), and as a result, nitrate dosing is the most common solution. My reactor even came with a bottle of nitrates for this very reason, but I have not been required to use it yet.
Maybe I am just lucky to get that “perfect” NO3/PO4 removal ratio in my system, but I really do not think it would be hard to figure out how much nitrate to dose if nutrient levels would start to become unbalanced.
)I guess it becomes a bit harder if nitrates and phosphates are depleted in such a manner that only one of them deviates from your desired set-point. I guess this is typically when people would resort to dosing. From what I have read, algae reactors generally consume nitrates faster than phosphates (in relation to our desired values), and as a result, nitrate dosing is the most common solution. My reactor even came with a bottle of nitrates for this very reason, but I have not been required to use it yet.
Maybe I am just lucky to get that “perfect” NO3/PO4 removal ratio in my system, but I really do not think it would be hard to figure out how much nitrate to dose if nutrient levels would start to become unbalanced.
Big E
Premium Member
Still run mine (N24). Works great.
I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.
At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
Do you run a skimmer or just the reactor?
What's your livestock load?
Explain the photo-period........what's the duration now and how much do you have to change it to see the test numbers change.
paal
New member
Hi Ed,
Above info is a bit simplified. Let me try to be more specific:
Tanks is 40x30x20, roughly 100gallon.
4 chromis
2 percula clowns
2 flame hawkfish
2 pseudochromis fridmani
1 coris wrasse
1 fairy wrasse
1 filefish
1 purple tang
I have always been using a skimmer, and ever since I had a dino outbreak I have also used a 55W UV sterilizer. Outbreak was a little over a year ago, and it was when my nutrients dropped all the way to zero. At least the nitrates did (do not have a PO4 reading from that time) I assume this is what caused the dino outbreak, though I cannot say for sure.
I should add that I only measure nitrates myself (like I mentioned; every 2(lol not really)-4 weeks or so.) I submit water samples to aquaforest/marinlab for ICP-testing roughly 4 times/year, and that is where I get my PO4 readings. (I use salifert for both NO3 and PO4, so my own PO4 readings are useless / always "œ0" / I don't bother doing them anymore. I should of course have gotten a Hanna checker or some other way to correctly measure PO4, but I am lazy and my current "œsystem" works for now at least Even the Salifert NO3 is a bit hard to read correctly I think, but at least it gives a rough estimate.
So"¦ I simply adjust my reactor based on the NO3 alone, and so far both NO3 and PO4 stay within "œok" levels.
Again, I am lazy, and don't write down my own measurements but I just logged in and checked my last 4 PO4-values from marinlab: (oldest reading is just over 1 year old) 0,0041 "“ 0,0151 "“ 0,0480 "“ 0,0240.
My NO3 readings in the last year have typically been in the 5-10 range. Never lower than 5, a few times maybe 20ish. (marinlab does not measure NO3, so I have no official data from them unfortunately. Would be neat to see the exact correlation.
When I said I adjust the photo-period of the reactor, that was a small lie said in order to keep things short and easy to understand
My lights are on for 12 hours every night and have been so for about a year. My current method of adjusting the nutrient export is simply harvesting and cleaning the reactor more frequently. I have it in series with the UV unit, so I actually have too little flow through the reactor for it to work optimally. But I really don't require optimal, so all is good The problem though is that the low flow causes some detritus and "œgoo" to build up inside the unit. If I wait too long between each harvest I can clearly see that some of the cheato does not look perfect. (Note to self: clean the unit/measure NO3 TODAY )
So, when NO3 is on the higher side (10+) I simply have more focus on keeping the thing cleaner/harvesting more often. (roughly 2x/month vs 1x)
The ideal solution would probably be to have a dedicated pump for the reactor with higher flow. This would make for a healthier algae/less work when servicing the unit. Photo-period could then be adjusted in order to control export levels.
I have been planning to do this for quite some time, but I keep saying "œnext weekend" (as with SO many other things"¦)
The change is not required though: Everything is working perfectly fine the way it is, but it would make the overall maintenance easier.
Overall I guess I have a bit of a messy approach. Perhaps I should be more proactive. I used to do 10% weekly water changes super consistently, but lately that has been more like 10% monthly. This summer/autumn I waited close to 6 months. No major issues though, so"¦
Also, cabinet/sump used to be pristine wrt cabling etc.. the last year or so it's gotten messy. I guess when things are working well I get more lazy"¦?
6ish month old tank pic / 1+ year old sump pic (before UV and some more vortechs etc...)
Above info is a bit simplified. Let me try to be more specific:
Tanks is 40x30x20, roughly 100gallon.
4 chromis
2 percula clowns
2 flame hawkfish
2 pseudochromis fridmani
1 coris wrasse
1 fairy wrasse
1 filefish
1 purple tang
I have always been using a skimmer, and ever since I had a dino outbreak I have also used a 55W UV sterilizer. Outbreak was a little over a year ago, and it was when my nutrients dropped all the way to zero. At least the nitrates did (do not have a PO4 reading from that time) I assume this is what caused the dino outbreak, though I cannot say for sure.
I should add that I only measure nitrates myself (like I mentioned; every 2(lol not really)-4 weeks or so.) I submit water samples to aquaforest/marinlab for ICP-testing roughly 4 times/year, and that is where I get my PO4 readings. (I use salifert for both NO3 and PO4, so my own PO4 readings are useless / always "œ0" / I don't bother doing them anymore. I should of course have gotten a Hanna checker or some other way to correctly measure PO4, but I am lazy and my current "œsystem" works for now at least
Even the Salifert NO3 is a bit hard to read correctly I think, but at least it gives a rough estimate.So"¦ I simply adjust my reactor based on the NO3 alone, and so far both NO3 and PO4 stay within "œok" levels.
Again, I am lazy, and don't write down my own measurements but I just logged in and checked my last 4 PO4-values from marinlab: (oldest reading is just over 1 year old) 0,0041 "“ 0,0151 "“ 0,0480 "“ 0,0240.
My NO3 readings in the last year have typically been in the 5-10 range. Never lower than 5, a few times maybe 20ish. (marinlab does not measure NO3, so I have no official data from them unfortunately. Would be neat to see the exact correlation.
When I said I adjust the photo-period of the reactor, that was a small lie said in order to keep things short and easy to understand
My lights are on for 12 hours every night and have been so for about a year. My current method of adjusting the nutrient export is simply harvesting and cleaning the reactor more frequently. I have it in series with the UV unit, so I actually have too little flow through the reactor for it to work optimally. But I really don't require optimal, so all is good
The problem though is that the low flow causes some detritus and "œgoo" to build up inside the unit. If I wait too long between each harvest I can clearly see that some of the cheato does not look perfect. (Note to self: clean the unit/measure NO3 TODAY ) So, when NO3 is on the higher side (10+) I simply have more focus on keeping the thing cleaner/harvesting more often. (roughly 2x/month vs 1x)
The ideal solution would probably be to have a dedicated pump for the reactor with higher flow. This would make for a healthier algae/less work when servicing the unit. Photo-period could then be adjusted in order to control export levels.
I have been planning to do this for quite some time, but I keep saying "œnext weekend" (as with SO many other things"¦)
The change is not required though: Everything is working perfectly fine the way it is, but it would make the overall maintenance easier.
Overall I guess I have a bit of a messy approach. Perhaps I should be more proactive. I used to do 10% weekly water changes super consistently, but lately that has been more like 10% monthly. This summer/autumn I waited close to 6 months. No major issues though, so"¦
Also, cabinet/sump used to be pristine wrt cabling etc.. the last year or so it's gotten messy. I guess when things are working well I get more lazy"¦?
6ish month old tank pic / 1+ year old sump pic (before UV and some more vortechs etc...)
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