homer1475's Biocube 29 Build Thread

[ReefWreak]

30ml a day is probably way too much. More likely 5-10ml per day at this point? For reference, I'm using 22ml per day and have mostly medium growing sps colonies.

Yes you can dose 2 part as individual parts. I used to usually dose them independently, and even once I had the consistent dosers, in the beginning I was changing alk and calc levels independently.

The last few months, my levels have stabilized a bit, and I'm dosing equal amounts of calcium and alkalinity.

Also I too tend to get low pH, floating around 7.5 at night and 7.9 during the day. Adding kalk to top off and having consistent 2 part dosing has helped with that.

One thing I have to say is that shooting up your pH or fluctuating your alkalinity like you're doing may stress out and brown out your corals. I saw a dramatic improvement when I went to consistent doses split up to be twice a day consistently instead of once a day when I walked by the tank, or every morning.

 

[homer1475]

Ok after doing A LOT of reading, I'm going to test daily for a week and see whats up.

So far after a couple days I'm noticing a .8dkh drop daily. My WC brought the alk up to 8.4 and its been slowly but steadily dropping by .8dkh daily.

Now that I'm down to 6.8 it's stayed roughly there for the last 2 days. I wonder if this is the bottom and the corals just stop consuming it with it this low? Also with my ALK being this low, my PH hasn't budged past 7.66 during the day, and dropping as low as 7.23 at night.

Again mag and calk are normal levels and within acceptable ranges, if not slightly high(1450 and 480 respectively).

I have 2 BRS 1.1 dosers ready to go when I need them, thinking I'll get the dosing setup after next week, for now I'll just keep monitoring and getting a better Idea on how much of each of the big 3 is getting used daily.

 

[ReefWreak]

Good plan. I've never been a fan of daily testing though, it's just time and resource consuming, and you probably shouldn't see the needle move too much within a day (or it may move inconsistently between a few days).

I'd probably test every 3 days, or even every week like I've been doing, and start at a known reasonable dose (say 10mL/part/day) and see how after a week of the dosing your tank is doing. I'm still in that process, and it just reset last week after changing out the dosing containers. My alk is down to 6.1 and not climbing back up, so I'm going to have to increase doses and test weekly. I also have water change water that has been brewing for 3 weeks now, and I just haven't had the time to commit.

Also, something to consider (and why I like having a sand bed), is that aragonaite technically dissolves around a pH of 7.3, so you may be adding calcium and alkalinity through sand dissolution. Or your pH probe is off. Or both or neither. Hard to say. But that's one of the reasons that I like a sand bed, buffering capacity, not just for calcium and alkalinity, but for nutrients as well, particularly phosphates (though they will dissolve back into the water column if the sand is dissolved, so double-edged sword).

 

[homer1475]

Totally agree on the daily testing, I typically test once a week right before a WC, and sometimes(If I have the time), I'll test just after just to see what the difference the WC did.

I'm only testing ALK daily for this week just to get a baseline of where I should start my dosing. The other 2 I'm doing every third day, and they havent budged. SO I'm going to start just dosing ALK.

Went to the LFS today just to have a look around, as they had a huge coral sale over the weekend and were suppose to have some new acans. My wife saw a warpaint goby she HAD TO HAVE!!!!!(I'll admit he is pretty cool looking) Tried explaining to her about our already HUGE bioload, but alas, happy wife happy life, and car ride home(2 1/2 hours wouldn't have been fun). Luckily he's just a wee little guy, and will stay that way, and won't be a huge impact on my bioload.

He's currently in bucket one of TTM, and I'll treat with prazi during this time. I not going to QT him as he's been in my LFS store tank for over a year and is super healthy. I wasn't going to do TTM, but its too simple not to, and at least I know I won't be bringing ich back into my DT.

 

[ReefWreak]

You reminded me that when I am dialing that stuff in, I generally only test alk to get that stabilized and dose alk and calcium at equal proportions, then I see over time how they're faring and adjust if the CA needs more or less. CA precipitation event isn't too big a deal.

 

[homer1475]

So should I be dosing CA also? Even though that is staying relatively high?

This idea of adding chemicals to my tank for corals is all new to me, and there is so many different opinions you read, it can get super confusing.

I may switch to BRS 2 part. The randys recipe is easy, but I'm finding it hard to locate some of the chemicals for CA and MAG. The ALK part is super simple(baking soda if PH is high, baked baking soda if PH is low, added to a gallon of RO/DI).

 

[soulpatch]

the BRS 2 part is too easy to not use it IMHO. Price is right too.

 

[ReefWreak]

I use the BRS, mainly because of the question of the purity of dowflake/peladow. Agreed the baking soda is super simple. I'm not convinced that BRS is not dowflake/peladow, but I have to imagine they have their reputation riding on the purity and quality of it, so even if it is those, they're checking the purity of the batches.

You would generally dose calcium and alkalinity in equal proportions at the same time, though I've found that for one reason or another I usually end up dosing more alkalinity than calcium.

If you haven't read randy's original article, it's a good read and sets a solid foundation of understanding.

 

[homer1475]

I already have 2 BRS dosing pumps, but their huge and take up a lot of space in my cabinet, and I'm finding they are not very reliable in their exact dosing amounts which really surprises me(sometimes I get 3ml, other times I get anywhere from 2.8 to 3.2ml). Thats a half a ML difference which is a huge when dosing. Also could be because they were used when I bought them, just not feeling real happy with them.

So I went on the hunt for something a little more reliable, but around the same price point. I ended up on ebay where I found a jebao dp3 with a dosing container, hose bracket, and bracket for holding the actual doser, for about 120$, or just the dp3 for about 80$.

3 dosing heads and a container for about the same price as 2 BRS 1.1ML pumps. The only issue I see with these pumps is you have to program them through their own interface, nothing programmed in the apex(not exactly sure how I feel about that, as the apex programming interface is super simple).

Anyone have any experience with these dosing pumps? Everything I've read has good reviews, very accurate, and simple to setup. I'm curious as to what the longevity is? I have a feeling like their PH, they are really reliable, and have a decent amount of longevity.

 

[homer1475]

Just got to thinking this morning........

Since I'm going to start dosing 2 part, and already having a very high Kalk and MAG(470 and 1440 respectively), would it hurt anything to use regular IO?

My thinking is with IORC it already has a high KALK and MAG, negating the need to dose those chemicals right now and they don't seem to be dropping any(they do drop slightly, but are brought right back up after a WC). With regular IO those levels are fairly low, which initially would drop my levels back down to reasonable levels. I then could start dosing said chemicals.

I know quite a few people around here use regular IO just for that reason, I just don't know if I should dose up the WC, or just keep dosing the tank.

 

[soulpatch]

Outside of the dos really no unit is apex controlled. I just got the Pacific sun kore 5th doser which cost me around 350.

I am also going to get dosing containers that have sensors to connect to apex so I can power down the doses or send an alert.

I think with something as critical as a doser where a mistake can be catastrophic that spending more on quality is worthwhile investment

 

[homer1475]

Yeah but I just can't justify 500$ on a kore 5th, saw one in the forums for 350 with a container BNIB, but even that is way overpriced IMHO......

And yes I realize no unit is Apex controlled, but most are just plug in and they run. Allowing for the apex to turn them on and off, effectively controlling the dosing.

 

[soulpatch]

Not controlling the doser though as it only controls power. So the reliability of the controller is critical

 

[homer1475]

Not controlling the doser though as it only controls power. So the reliability of the controller is critical

Agreed, but the reliability of an APEX isn't an issue, we all know how reliable they are, Considering just about anyone in this hobby for very long, ends up with one and they run for years.

 

[homer1475]

Maybe if I had a bigger tank, I could justify the price of a kore 5th. But right now, all I need is a small reliable doser with 3 heads. I could honestly get away with hand dosing such small amounts, but having it automated takes the weight off my mind(OMG did I dose the tank today? or did I already do it?) of trying to remember to do it.

I was assuming jabeo's PH reliability, their doser would be just as reliable.

 

[soulpatch]

Agreed, but the reliability of an APEX isn't an issue, we all know how reliable they are, Considering just about anyone in this hobby for very long, ends up with one and they run for years.

I meant the doser controller...

 

[ReefWreak]

Re: io vs iorc, I'd stick with iorc. It's cheaper to pay for the extra alk and CA in the salt than it is to dose it up to spec after the fact. I've been pleasantly surprised with iorc and it's what I'm running on this tank. Whenever I get around to water changes though...

There is a big thread with a lot of experiences and impressions about the jebao doser on reefcentral. I have it bookmarked but I'm on tapatalk right now, so tonight or something I'll drop the link in here so you can check it out.

I think the bottom line is that almost every brand doser EXCEPT the Neptune DOS is effectively the same pumps and maybe slightly different controller, but they're likely all from the same Chinese factory, so stick with the cheap jebao. Pretty solid track record.

To make you feel better about 2 part dosing in general, someone brought up the good point that alk and calcium will precipitate if overdosed, versus vodka has the potential to cause significantly more problems. Made me feel more comfortable about 2 part dosing (or less comfortable about vodka dosing... Not sure which... Maybe both....).

 

[homer1475]

Well it seems my cobalt neo-therm heater died a couple days ago in the off position. Never noticed as my apex never alerted me of an issue. I did have it set to not alert me until the tank dropped below 76, which it never has(changed programming now). I just happened to be looking at the fusion page and noticed a wild fluctuation in my temp, 76.4 up to 81, hich is really weird as my tank never gets hotter then 77.5 and never lower then 77.

This is the only part about living in the sticks I hate, absolutely no LFS near me that I can buy a decent heater at, always have to order off the net. The LFS I normally go to have crappy marineland that are so large they don't fit in the cube. Could go to petco or pet smart, but they all sell marineland too.

Think I might go with a finnex titanium heater, fairly cheap and I know finnex has an awesome reputation for reliability and durability. I've never used a heater that doesn't have a temperature controller attached to it, so this should be interesting none the less.

This is the one I'm looking at, kind of like the idea of it being totally controlled by the apex. Unless my apex fails, this unit can never get left on or off.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/finnex-deluxe-titanium-heating-tube.html

 

[rattler]

Oi!! Nineteen pages all caught up to your thread. Thank you for taking the time to keep this journal up to date. I am in the process of resurrecting my 29 Bio-cube with mods. This really helps to motivate me in the right dirction to go in.
Cheers!
Geoff

 

[homer1475]

Wow you read all 19 pages....

If you have any questions feel free to ask away. This place is has a wealth of knowledgeable people that are more then happy to see you succeed.