drummereef
Team RC
drummereef's 180g in-wall build
- Thread starter drummereef
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drummereef
Team RC
UPDATE:
FTS for August 2011
FTS for August 2011
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drummereef
Team RC
UPDATE:
Been doing a little experimenting the last couple days (what's new).
Since my NO3 was sticking around 20ppm and frequent water changes are not an option with the looming Dino issue I figured it was time to take action to get the Nitrates down. For the last 3 days I've been dosing 30ml Vinegar. NO3 has gone from 20ppm to 15ppm since starting. No other changes to the system were done. Quite impressed with the dosing regimen so far. I'm going to continue to dose to see how far I can get them down. I've been dosing shortly after the lights come on as there is a slight (~.04) dip in pH, but it's temporary and bounces back within 10 minutes or so. So far so good!
Been doing a little experimenting the last couple days (what's new).
Since my NO3 was sticking around 20ppm and frequent water changes are not an option with the looming Dino issue I figured it was time to take action to get the Nitrates down. For the last 3 days I've been dosing 30ml Vinegar. NO3 has gone from 20ppm to 15ppm since starting. No other changes to the system were done. Quite impressed with the dosing regimen so far. I'm going to continue to dose to see how far I can get them down. I've been dosing shortly after the lights come on as there is a slight (~.04) dip in pH, but it's temporary and bounces back within 10 minutes or so. So far so good! 
Taqpol
New member
Same! I might have to take more drastic actions about my nitrate problem.
aquaph8
Love The Fish
I was using vinegar in my last tank too. Its cheap, I didn't have the cyano issues I had with vodka and its weaker that vodka so you can ramp up the dosage slower if you prefer. Glad it working for you Brett. Keep a close eye on it when you start getting to the 0 range, I took it too far once and a couple of my sps colonies pretty much just melted overnight.
drummereef
Team RC
Pretty much the reasons aquaph8 stated above. Seems like Vinegar, from my research, is easier to control with less negative side effects. Users like Randy Holmes Farley and HighlandReefer in the Chem forum have had great results and have avoided the red slime / cyano outbreaks that many Vodka users get. Besides Kalk I'm not currently dosing anything other than Vinegar right now.
See above.
But it's working great so far. Thanks for the heads up aquaph8. I'll keep an eye on my frags for sure.
drummereef
Team RC
I will feed Oyster-Feast and Roti-Feast occasionally but I haven't the last few weeks just to try and curb the Nitrates. Once I get them down a bit more I'll probably start feeding smaller particle foods more often.
Interesting, and your corals have stayed colored? (sps mainly) I run biopellets and I back a dumptruck of food into my tank everyday. I feed 3-4 decent portions of Rod's Food or another frozen food everyday and my liquid diet (roti, oyster, fuel, brightwell restor,dt's phyto, cyclopeeze, nutramar ova) about 5 times a week. Needless to say my fish are fat and my SPS look like shag carpets. And my nitrates are 0 on Salifert NO blue tint whatsoever and phosphate is 3 ppb on a Hanna Checker. My theory is that the biopellets NEED alot of food, not just allow you to put in alot of food.
edit: Guess I get page 135?
edit: Guess I get page 135?
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drummereef
Team RC
Indeed. I've been saying that for quite a while now in my thread. I ran Bio Pellets for about 9 months. I feed a lot of Rod's, Oyster and Roti Feast, along with some frozen Cyclop-eeze and some flakes. My nutrient levels were 0's while running them. Most people that have problems with Bio Pellet system don't feed enough IMO. They basically starve their corals. You can reduce the amount of Bio Pellets you run if you ever decide to cut back on feeding. I experimented with that concept for a couple months with good results. I cut back to a 1/4th of what the recommended amount was for my system and maintained 000 nutrients across the board. I pulled the Bio Pellets simply because I thought my system was "too" clean and was allowing the Dinos to grow in excess. While this is partly true, now that my NO3 is ~15ppm I'm not sure it really matters either way. The Dinos will grow regardless... at least in my case.
For the most part my corals have good color. A couple of them have browned out a bit with the excess NO3 but not too bad.
Indeed. I've been saying that for quite a while now in my thread. I ran Bio Pellets for about 9 months. I feed a lot of Rod's, Oyster and Roti Feast, along with some frozen Cyclop-eeze and some flakes. My nutrient levels were 0's while running them. Most people that have problems with Bio Pellet system don't feed enough IMO. They basically starve their corals. You can reduce the amount of Bio Pellets you run if you ever decide to cut back on feeding. I experimented with that concept for a couple months with good results. I cut back to a 1/4th of what the recommended amount was for my system and maintained 000 nutrients across the board. I pulled the Bio Pellets simply because I thought my system was "too" clean and was allowing the Dinos to grow in excess. While this is partly true, now that my NO3 is ~15ppm I'm not sure it really matters either way. The Dinos will grow regardless... at least in my case.
For the most part my corals have good color. A couple of them have browned out a bit with the excess NO3 but not too bad.
Glad I'm not the only crazy one with a dump truck next to my freezer :celeb1:
I'm also running below the recommended amount. I'm at about 135g of actual water volume, and I'm only using 350ml (now probably less) of EcoBak. But I'm putting alot more than 100gph through it, they look like they're in a cyclone.
drummereef
Team RC
:thumbsup: Not that you want to change anything since it sounds like things are going good but watch the flow rates through the EcoBak over time. You might be sloughing off quite a bit of bacteria back to the display which could cause an issue over the long term. The idea is to allow the skimmer to collect as much dead or mobile bacteria from the reactor as possible. Just something to keep an eye on...
Drummereef
Just got done reading through most of your thread. Definitely one of the fullest detailed and step by step threads I've seen. I recently joined here after being with another forum for a while trying to find something different. Anyways, I will definitely be saving this thread for ideas in the future. Great looking setup you have there. Have you had anymore problems with the marcorocks? Leaching anything that is.. I remember somewhere in this long thread about a discussion of that ha.
Just got done reading through most of your thread. Definitely one of the fullest detailed and step by step threads I've seen. I recently joined here after being with another forum for a while trying to find something different. Anyways, I will definitely be saving this thread for ideas in the future. Great looking setup you have there. Have you had anymore problems with the marcorocks? Leaching anything that is.. I remember somewhere in this long thread about a discussion of that ha.
:thumbsup: Not that you want to change anything since it sounds like things are going good but watch the flow rates through the EcoBak over time. You might be sloughing off quite a bit of bacteria back to the display which could cause an issue over the long term. The idea is to allow the skimmer to collect as much dead or mobile bacteria from the reactor as possible. Just something to keep an eye on...
Here's my solution to that
No bacteria misses the skimmer :bum:
Oops forgot the other pictures that explain a bit more
Credit to Melev at Reef Addicts for the pics, but you get the idea of how mine is setup
drummereef
Team RC
Thanks for reading through the thread egator89.
No other issues except the Dinos. What's funny is I never had a green hair algae issue or really any other nuisance algaes except the large cyano bloom early on. Now that the rock has colored up with coralline it seems fairly stable. Could have been all the bacteria dosing I was doing that kept the rest of the algae blooms at bay, I don't really know. But as of today the rock is doing good. Here's my solution to that
No bacteria misses the skimmer :bum:
Credit to Melev at Reef Addicts for the pics, but you get the idea of how mine is setup
Perfect! :thumbsup: I wanted to try that with my bio pellet setup but never got around to it before I took them offline. I would guess it comes down to skimmer efficiency with it plumbed that way.
canyousee
New member
Brett I know you do not work for WM yet you seem to know more about them than I do,I have noticed on their web site they no longer have any info about their NP that you were using.When I go to the two web sites they recommend to buy their products they do not carry the ECObac pellets.I have called and left many messages at WM and have emailed them no response? Do you know if they have stopped making the ECOBAC pellets? I wanted to try them because you used them and I am following your lead for most of my new set up. Thanks for all the help. Mike
drummereef
Team RC
As far I am aware they are still available. I see the same promo for them on the WM website that has been there since their release. The WM site doesn't provide much info about the pellets though, just a picture and some general info. Wish I could provide more info for you but that's all I know at this point.
