LaCl Reactor

My friend uses 3.066 so I'm going to use that :0)

Didn't get the level tested last night :( Will do it later today and the reactor is still off. I did feed twice yesterday so the PO4 should be up when I test. Plus, I dropped a Ric behind my rocks and couldn't get it so I moved half my rockwork...stirred up a lot of the sand.

I posted in the Reef Chem forum but didn't get any responses so maybe someone here can help :0) I'm getting about 45 lbs of Pukani rock this afternoon from BRS. I want to treat it with SeaKlear before I cycle it. Anyone know how I should do it besides treating it in a separate tub? How much to use? Can I use tapwater? Get some flow in there? How often to test? When to do a WC? Things like that :0)
 
Tested this afternoon. .07 so turning the reactor on again. Will dose 15 secs every 8 minutes and hopefully I will get the results we have all been so patiently waiting for :0)

I put the Pukani in a Brute can and filled it about three-fourths full of tap water. Powerhead and maybe 1 1/2 tsps SeaKlear were added. Hopefully this will work and not take forever!
 
terri_ann said:
Tested this afternoon. .07 so turning the reactor on again. Will dose 15 secs every 8 minutes and hopefully I will get the results we have all been so patiently waiting for :0)

I put the Pukani in a Brute can and filled it about three-fourths full of tap water. Powerhead and maybe 1 1/2 tsps SeaKlear were added. Hopefully this will work and not take forever!
Click to expand...

Soaking your rock in tap water is counter productive in my mind. Tap water contains all kinds of minerals and other stuff such as metals, chlorine, possible chloramines, copper etc, that you don't want in your reef tank and your new rock will absorb those things and could leach them back out into your tank water. While chlorine will dissipate from a good drying, the other stuff won't.

Dosing LaCl to the water will help remove PO4 (assuming there is any in your rocks or tap water) provided you are removing the pericpitate via a filter sock or mechanical means, I'd still be concerned about the tap water. Especially not knowing how bad your tap water is. My tap water here is absolutely horrible and I would never use it for anything going directly into my reef tank.

If it were me, I'd use RO water at the very minimum and more than likely RODI. You may well be fine with tap water, but I personally would NEVER use tap water in a reef tank, let alone to cure rocks that were going into one. Then again, I've always used live rock and never worried about curing rocks in fresh water.
 
Thanks Slief for the info. We have great water...best tasting in the US according to the national award our water company received. Anyway, I will change it out. I't my understanding that the SK will remove the PO and settle out on the bottom and on the rocks. I just couldn't find how much to use or if tap water was okay :( I'm not trying to cycle it at this point as I will use a tank to do that. Anyway, thanks again!
 
terri_ann said:
Thanks Slief for the info. We have great water...best tasting in the US according to the national award our water company received. Anyway, I will change it out. I't my understanding that the SK will remove the PO and settle out on the bottom and on the rocks. I just couldn't find how much to use or if tap water was okay :( I'm not trying to cycle it at this point as I will use a tank to do that. Anyway, thanks again!
Click to expand...

Just because it tastes great, doesn't mean it's ideal for reef tank water but I know you know that! That said, your water is certainly much better quality than my local water but you do have copper and other things in your water and while it may be minute, it is not good for a reef system. Copper in particular can embed itself into the rocks and takes a long time to go away.

Here is your water quality report. Like I said, it's much better than my local water but there are still things in your water that are not good for a reef and can embed themselves into your new rock. While I don't think there is enough to be concerned about, I tend to err on the side of caution. Maybe somebody else with more knowledge on municipal water quality can chime in on the numbers in your water quality report.
http://www.marshalltownwater.com/2013ccr.pdf


Any idea what the TDS is in your tap water?? I'm just curious as mine hits 600 sometimes but is typically closer to 475. It's pretty bad by most peoples standards. I'm just wondering what "much better" municiple water quality looks like on a TDS meter and from the report above, your water appears to be pretty good.
 
slief said:
Just because it tastes great, doesn't mean it's ideal for reef tank water but I know you know that! That said, your water is certainly much better quality than my local water but you do have copper and other things in your water and while it may be minute, it is not good for a reef system. Copper in particular can embed itself into the rocks and takes a long time to go away.

Here is your water quality report. Like I said, it's much better than my local water but there are still things in your water that are not good for a reef and can embed themselves into your new rock. While I don't think there is enough to be concerned about, I tend to err on the side of caution. Maybe somebody else with more knowledge on municipal water quality can chime in on the numbers in your water quality report.
http://www.marshalltownwater.com/2013ccr.pdf
I'll check and let you know!

Any idea what the TDS is in your tap water?? I'm just curious as mine hits 600 sometimes but is typically closer to 475. It's pretty bad by most peoples standards. I'm just wondering what "much better" municiple water quality looks like on a TDS meter and from the report above, your water appears to be pretty good.
Click to expand...
 
JSimpson said:
If you are doing water changes, I would just use that for treating the Pukani. I did exactly that a few months ago.
Click to expand...

Thanks Joe! I have to fill my Brute for topoff so I might as well use RO/DI then...no biggie :twitch: How did you do yours' Joe? Did you cycle at the same time? How often did you test, when did you do WC's and were they 100% changes?
 
Last edited:
terri_ann said:
TDS is 178 Slief...straight from the tap.
Click to expand...

Dayum!! Wish I could say the same. My RODI cartridges would last a lot longer! The one thing that is interesting is that your water company doesn't mention Nitrates, Nitrites and many other things that are included on my local water companies report.

If you look at my report, they list or test for a lot of other things that are very relevant to our tanks. In comparing the test results between yours and mine, it leaves me curious as to why so much information is omitted on your report. Even if it were a bunch of 0's you would think your water district would publish that.

Here is my report.. Kind of alarming to know all the different things that could be in tap water regardless of the minute qty. Funny though I prefer tap water and have no seconds thoughts about drinking straight from the faucet. On the other hand, I'd never use it on my tank let alone rinse the fish food in it.
http://www.ci.simi-valley.ca.us/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6122
 
A long time ago I tested the tap water for ammonia, nitrites, NO3, PO4 and silicates. Can't remember what they were... I'll look at yours and who knows, maybe I'll get a wild hair and call the water company?!
 
terri_ann said:
Thanks Joe! I have to fill my Brute for topoff so I might as well use RO/DI then...no biggie :twitch: How did you do yours' Joe? Did you cycle at the same time? How often did you test, when did you do WC's and were they 100% changes?
Click to expand...

I bought 40lbs of Pukani rock to swap out with some of my existing live rock in the display tank. I removed about 20lbs of the old LR from the tank (some of which was originally dry base rock), and put into vats with the Pukani. I then did a 25 gallon water change, and the 25 gallons removed from the tank were put into the vats. I kept the vats covered, with powerheads, adding 5ml Phosfree (similar to SeaKlear) each day. The only phosphate test kit I had at that time was API, which seemed worthless as it always read zero, so I didn't bother to test the cooking vats. I did weekly water changes on the display tank, each time emptying the vats and refilling with the water removed from the display tank. Continued for 6 weeks, then started gradually moving rocks from the vats into the display and slowly removing some of the old rock from the display at the same time. I ended up swapping out rock over about a three or four week period, leaving about half the old LR in the display tank, plus the 40 lbs Pukani.

I have been dosing 1ml SeaKlear, dripping into the overflow which empties into a 5 micron sock, weekly since then. My phosphates (now using Hanna ULR phosphorous checker) are consistently 0.05 +/- .01.
 
I still have not had time to change my carbon and floss yet, but I just took a quick phosphate reading before I started moving more damn boxes today. I'm please to say that it is .09. Basically NO change since my last reading that I took 2 months ago. Yep, im slacking!

I have been so busy right now, I hadn't realized that so much time has passed since my last floss change! I will try and get to changing it out in the next few days.


With fully metered and automated feedings of twice a day, my maintenance dose seems to be this: OSC 000:00/000:15/003:30 Then ON

Of course I do screw the results up a bit with random and frequent nori and cubes of meaty goods whenever I feel like my fish are begging.
 
Last edited:
Hey Joe, thanks for the info on how you did your Pukani :0) I plan to do the swapping also :0)

My fish are always begging Insomniac! So are the dogs and cats!! I beg for corals! lol
Just don't hurt yourself lifting all those boxes! :0)
 
terri_ann said:
.06 so it dropped almost .01 in 24 hrs :0) {.0735-.0643= .009} Maybe at the maintenance dose Worm?!!
Click to expand...

Wait 2 days and test. Sounds like you are very close.

For me, I like to be on a slight climb, but I have found that I will usually drop at a slow rate and then kind of level off. I suspect that the reason that I level off is because my rocks and sand start leeching phosphates back into the water when the levels get low enough. Much like rodi water removes lots of impurities from glass vials (containers).
 
I tested Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday the results were WAY high...I had stirred up the sandbed moving rocks so I repeated the test yesterday. .07 so I will test again later today. I have a new shipment of corals coming next week so I've been working in the DT. It's going to be a bit of a mess until I get the 45lbs of Pukani de-phos'd and the rock cycled :/ I'm not going to be on much for awhile as my schedule is really busy but I will continue to check in and report results :0) Hopefully no problems or anxiety! lol

I almost forgot! I was hearing a strange noise tonight and finally figured out what it was! The water wasn't flowing out of the drain tube so it must have stopped sometime tonight. It wasn't clogged but I'm guessing the sediment filter is getting dirty and restricted the little flow that I had running. Adjusted it and everything seems fine now :) Do you guys adjust the flow as the floss gets dirty? Maybe I didn't have enough flow so that's why I'm asking.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

E
Red Sea weir overflow
Replies
9
Views
288
griss
griss
V
AQUAVIM 155g Corner 1/4 Cylinder Glass Reef-Ready Aquarium Set, Lifereef Sump, Skimmer, Refugium, Reactors, Mag Pumps, 15g IM Glass ATO container +
Replies
0
Views
230
ViolentA79
V
V
AQUAVIM 155g Corner 1/4 Cylinder Glass Reef-Ready Aquarium Set, Lifereef Sump, Skimmer, Refugium, Reactors, Mag Pumps, 15g IM Glass ATO container +
Replies
0
Views
172
ViolentA79
V
K
Carbon Dosing causes STN/RTN?
Replies
13
Views
3K
Timfish
Timfish
S
Novice Aquarist - Sump & Equipment Questions
Replies
9
Views
332
wvned
wvned
Back
Top