ARID E18 reactor (Phosphate Control!!!)

[JB NY]

You only have 73 GPH in the reactor? Tristan wants me to have 500-600 in mine? As hard as I push it I can only get about 460.

 

[maxxII]

Personally I do not think that 0.00 PO4 will hurt you, there is very little phosphate in the reef. Obviously there is trace amounts or nothing would be growing but I would look at other things for problems with the corals.

A lot of times when you clean up the water quality dramatically the corals can suffer short term as the try an acclimate to the new conditions in the tank. I think that might be what is happening.

Well I'm at a loss then as to what's causing the losses. I've been scared to try new frags since I lost everything else...

I literally only have 3 montipora left, and none of them particularily happy. Most of my LPS have been doing ok, but lately my wall hammer is looking bad... So I'm pretty concerned. I'd like to see 0.01-0.02 ppm PO4 ideally...

I'll look into a cheap tester frag to see what happens...

You only have 73 GPH in the reactor? Tristan wants me to have 500-600 in mine? As hard as I push it I can only get about 460.

I didnt realize that was what my flow rate through the reactor was until I tested it last night. But according to my math skills, I was pushing 72 gallons per hour through the reactor and I've since dialed it back to 30 gph. Hoping that helps.

 

[SantaMonica]

Any way that something copper could have fallen in?

 

[maxxII]

Any way that something copper could have fallen in?

No.

I still have 3 Heteractis magnifica anemones, and a small Heteractis crispa anemone in the system as well as a large Derasa clam, some zoanthids, a small wall hammer, a small colony of Blastomussa Wellsi, a small colony of Blastomussa merlatti, and trachephylia frag. All of this is in addition to a small frag of Monti Cap, a small frag of Monti spongeodes, and a small frag of superman monti, plus numerous small snails, mini brittle stars, pods etc. Corals dont look happy, and I lost all SPS frags except for the monti's, but everything else is still fine.

No copper in the system.

 

[maxxII]

Update

11-10-15

I intended to change one thing at a time. However, this did not happen as I wanted.
Tristan saw my previous post about slowing flow through the reactor. He said NOT to do that. Tristan told me to open the flow to wide open in the reactor.

While buying new salt for the QT tank,(quartet of lyre tailed anthias in a 55 gallon QT) I saw some freshwater planted tank supplements.
Specifically aquavitro activate, which is a concentrated source of phosphorus.

I bought it intending to use it and see what would happen.
The instructions on my bottle, (different than the instructions on the website) state to dose 7 mls per 250 gallons to raise PO4 by 0.15 mg/L or ppm.

I dosed 7 mls 11-01-2015. PO4 tested at 0.14 ppm via Hanna 96713 approximately two hours later.

On 11-02-2015 approximately 24 hours after adding 7mls of activate, PO4 tested out at 0.00 ppm. I added an additional 7 mls of activate.

No testing done on 11-03-2015 due to late night at work.

On 11-04-2015 at 1am, (had just gotten home from that late night at work), I dosed 7mls of activate a 3rd time.

On 11-04-2015 at 430 pm I contacted Tristan and asked him about his thoughts on dosing PO4 into the tank with the intent of keeping levels where desired. I figured if I'm already dosing NO3, dosing PO4 shouldnt be a big deal either, right. Besides, we dose Calcium and magnesium into our tanks, right?

I know, it would have been smarter to ask before doing, vs doing it after....I wasnt being smart.

Tristan replied that he didnt think that was a good idea. He sent me a link to a study about PO4 uptake in coastal waters in Hawaii, (organic vs inorganic PO4 ...phytoplankton and bacteria were studied. Short version is that inorgantic/orthophosphates were preferred by bacteria - Link to PDF.

He also asked me to do a 20% water change and wait a week to see what happened.

The skimmer has been offline, (cleaned and removed from the sump entirely) since 10-21-2015.

I did a 40 gallon water change on 11-05-2015. I used Instant Ocean salt mix for the water change, and the freshly mixed IO showed 0.00 ppm PO4.

On 11-05-2015 at approx 8 pm, PO4 tested at 0.06 ppm.

It's only been 5 days since the water change and here are the system parameters as of 30 minutes ago:

DKH - 8.75 (Salifert)
Ca - 405 ppm (Salifert)
Mg - 1440 ppm (Salifert)
NO3 - Between 2.5-5 ppm (Salifert)
PO4 - 0.04 ppm (Hanna 96713)
Salinity 1.025 via refractometer.

activate was only dosed three times, 7mls each time on 11-01-2015, 11-02-2015, and 11-04-2015.

Corals now look "happier".

I goofed in adding the activate before bouncing it off of Tristan. My thought process was that activate was designed for freshwater plants, and would most likely consist of organic PO4 vs inorganic, although I honestly dont know.

I am however, very happy to have some PO4 in the system.

Ideally, I'll be able to dial down the NO3 & PO4 to 2.5 ppm and 0.02 ppm respectively.

I need to wait longer before doing anything else to ensure my PO4 levels are not just a short term rise, before they fall off the map again.

I'm also not sure how rapid the changes I made in this time frame will show up...IE, is the rise in PO4 due to the skimmer being taken off line, me adding activate to the tank 3 times, the water change, or a combination of all three?

There are some very smart people here who can certainly offer their insights on this....which is why I'm posting this here, even though I end up looking like a neurotic impatient freakshow.

 

[Adamc1303]

I threw my reactor back online. I'm running it in conjunction with my fuge. Are you guys running them on a reverse light cycle or 24/7?
Let's see how she does!

 

[JB NY]

Reverse light cycle. Don't run it 24/7, the cheato (like most algae) need a resting cycle. minimum of 6 hours. So 18 hours on 6 off.

 

[Relativity]

Could you give me the link to where you bought this

 

[maxxII]

http://pax-bellum.com/

Call them.

 

[bawalitt]

where did you guys purchase your reactors.
thx

 

[Volcano1]

Sent PM, have one on order, should have next week.

 

[biecacka]

Looking forward to more reviews of this product. It looks very interesting, I emailed him about a small unit.

Corey

 

[maxxII]

where did you guys purchase your reactors.
thx

I sent Pax-Bellum an email and purchased through them.


I've been running mine since April and after some dialing in, I could not be happier.

 

[gotfrogs]

I got my ARID 30 set up and installed last weekend. Here is a video showing off the plumbing to my 280 gallon reef. I tested my nitrate and phosphates and both read zero (Salifert and Hanna low range phosphate meter) so I am a little unsure how well the cheto is going to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGWM-NthRYs

 

[JB NY]

Are you running any other forms for Nitrate or phosphate removal? if you are you should stop and let the ARID be the sole means of getting rid of N and P.

 

[gotfrogs]

Joe - it is a new tank that had only been running for a few months. The only other filtration is a skimmer, carbon and filter socks changed weekly.

 

[JB NY]

Nice, I think you will be impressed by how well it works.

 

[Volcano1]

My C-30 has been running about 1.5 weeks. Cheato is growing, seems like water may be a little clearer. My pre ARID numbers were PO4 .35, NO3. 15.
Numbers today PO4. .38. NO3 20
I pulled my bio pellet reactor and had a skimmer issue for a day or two.
Hoping numbers come down when I harvest cheato. Waiting for chamber to fill up first.

 

[Volcano1]

And I'm do for water change.

 

[JB NY]

I found that opening up the chamber and removing some cheato every 10-14 days gave me the best growth, also 18 hours of light. I think 3-4 weeks and then you will start to see some things happening.