JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system

Laurence, I'm glad things are getting back on track for you.

Based on your other posts, I thought that your nitrates were sky high (100+) perhaps. You said they are 10ppm above. That isn't that bad.

My reef has an average nitrate level of 7. The one I worry about more is phosphate. Last test was between .25 and .5, so I put some new media in the reactor to bring it down again.

Maybe you can get replacement parts from SpectraPure to get your system to work like a MaxCap in the coming months. I would contact them directly and explain your situation, especially since you don't have the new unit yet.
 
And they have a MAXCap upgrade also. FWIU It really just utilizes dual resins that compliment each other and supposedly reduce resin use...Not sure I buy all that though. :rolleyes:
 
As long as I can get an upgrade kit for it, I'll be happy.

Marc, 10ppm nitrate just feels bad for me but I guess it isn't disastrous. The Phosphate level is also around 10ppm if I read it right so that is pretty disastrous.
 
Does anyone remember a thread about this awesome setup where they had this water change system which was two plastic tanks side by side. One would be constantly running with the system and the other would be closed off. They'd fill it up with RODI, mix in the salt and the water change was simple as turning the valve off on the running tank and on the valve on the new mix tank. Thought that was pretty neat. I think it Kathy or something?
 
If your PO4 is 10, you've got a huge problem on your hands. If it gets over 2.0, your rock is super saturated and it takes months to leach back out. My reef was up to 3.0 back in 2005, but by the end of that year (6 months with every product out there) I got it down to 0.

Nitrates of 10 are okay. Water changes will remove it, if you do them frequently and don't have anything adding more nitrates (bioballs, filter socks, filter sponges, etc).

I know you were complaining about microbubbles a long time ago, but I think the configuration (compartmentalization) of the sump is the reason for that. I never did like that layout.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10477876#post10477876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NexDog
Does anyone remember a thread about this awesome setup where they had this water change system which was two plastic tanks side by side. One would be constantly running with the system and the other would be closed off. They'd fill it up with RODI, mix in the salt and the water change was simple as turning the valve off on the running tank and on the valve on the new mix tank. Thought that was pretty neat. I think it Kathy or something?
Click to expand...

Could you be thinking of weatherson's thread? Even if you're not, he has a very cool water change and top off arrangement.
 
Nopes, definitely not Weathersons. This tank was larger and I remember they had to reinforce the floor before the tank went in. Due to subsidence there were spaces in the foundations so they drilled loads of holes in the concrete pad and pumped new concrete in. And they had this nice ramp and walkway up to tank level in the tank room. Ring any bells?
 
If you have a phosphate reading of 10, I can't believe that all the corals aren't dead...maybe you should do a test with a different test kit to make sure.
 
I kind of summed it up in Asnatlas' thread yesaterday:

"Last year I couldn't fix my temp issues without opening the access doors and keeping the air con on in my office 24/7. This resulted in lots of mildew in my office and wallpaper peeling etc. And I designed the system to be enclosed! Never been able to fix the microbubbles. RODI system never pumped out 50GPD and when the weather started cooling down last winter it trickled out at maybe 10GPD. So barely enough to top-off and not enough for water changes. Then my lights started breaking, more expense, nitrates rising, bought a denitrator, didn't work, more expense. The Vortechs simply fell apart. Are we seeing a trend here?

So issues combined with expense started to make me resent the tank. The last thing I did was around last November which was installing an industrial extractor fan and ducting to canopy and made a duct box over the ballasts. Of course this cost more money. So I didn't order a new RODI unit or cartridges. I just didn't do any water changes. And in the end it didn't put out enough to cover top-off so I used tap water. I cleaned the tank every two months, fed the fish, did the bare minimum and now with PO4 and NO3 off the chart only a hammer and mushrooms are surviving."
 
OMG sorry to hear that. i know this hobby isnt cheap and always having to spend a good chuck of money getting it back on track.
 
Few updates:

Not sure if I mentioned that I switched to 20k Radiums. I really like the colour but it's still not quite what I'm looking for. It's more purple than blue but still closer to what I want than the 14k Hamiltons. If anyone has experience with Radiums and moved to a bluer bulb, please let me know. Maybe the 20k Ushio?

I hooked the Vortechs up and one is running very nicely. The other one unfortunately is not. :( I keep finding the controller completely dead (no green light, no red light, no light at all). I have to diconnect/reconnect the adapter to get it going again. Even then I'm not getting the flow like the other one, it rattles a bit and runs quite hot because of that.

The SpectraPure RODI unit should arrive tomorrow. Also has a big bucket of Phosban. At the moment I'm just running two TLF phosphate reactors and I'm not sure it will be enough to reduce my phosphate problem - thoughts? I also heard that the media needs to be changed often when PO4 is high so how often should I be changing the media out? I am thinking about getting a Deltec fluidized reactor rated at 600g but it's another $700 that I'd like to avoid spending.

My local LFS had a small Copperband Butterfly and Banggai Cardinals and all were eating voraciously. After waiting 5 days I went back and all were in good health and eating so I brought the CBB and 3 Banggais home. The CBB eats frozen brine and mysid and dried krill and other granular food so I have high hopes this time around. Have them in quarantine at the moment. I got 3 Banggais in the hope that there is a pair. I'm aware that one may die.

So have a lot of water changes in my immediate future. Also going to be cleaning skimmer and pumps with vinegar this week. Heat is well under control now too. As well as turning off the extractor fan at night I plugged teh big Sequence 1000 into the reverse day/night times that runs two of the Halides. So the pump runs when the lights go out which drops temp by .5C during the day and hopefully will assist my electricity bill. :)

We are getting solar panels installed at the end of the month. We are getting a nice deal which includes switching out the water tank/boiler for a more economical one. The whole thing is expensive (50k approx) but over 15 years and with the saving on electricity per month our monthly bill won't be anymore expensive - and then after 15 years the electricity bill will be halved so it makes alot of sense. Also the panels can feed 3000W of power into the house if the power goes out which is certainly a nice plus. With my generators and panels I can run the whole system and pretty much anything else in the house (but not all at the same time).

So what I need from you guys is phosphate removal advice. :)
 
wow, productive weekend. Good luck with the CBB and nice move on the solar panels. Have considered them myself but the startup cost is still to high. Do you get credit from your power company in japan for the extra power your solar panels will supply during the day? My understand is that if you contribute to the power grid here in the US, they credit your account for the extra power you produce.

I am going to use a deltec reactor with ROWAphos. I have used it in the past and think its a very good product.
 
sorry to hear about your SPS problems, you could always shift over to a fish only tank, maybe with a few easy softies, until you get the motivation up to pursue SPS again.

Good luck and stick with it.
 
I hear you being frustrated. Mine was also a bunch of things that added up to a problem. Thats why I'm in the middle of breaking down my system and re-doing it. Good luck.
 
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