slavetonet
New member
lol.. Not you too.
I have been dosing those for over a year+ now.
People used to call me all sorts of names when I was doing it.
It might a the new wave of reefing soon? :frog:
Matrix (and siporax) questions, to keep from derailing Sahin's thread.....
- Thread starter pstank1
- Start date
lol.. Not you too.
I have been dosing those for over a year+ now.
People used to call me all sorts of names when I was doing it.
It might a the new wave of reefing soon? :frog:
slin1977
New member
Hahaha, I kinda think that this is a graduation ceremony in a way.
I've wanted to make this purchase for a couple of years, since I've stopped carbon dosing three months ago my dosing habit requires the above to maintain.:thumbsup:
Happyschneider
New member
I'm thinking about building a frame and have some nylon thread going from left to right so that I could have the siporax hanging in that contraption. It would allow me to keep them further apart than in the crate making it even easier to clean away detritus and keep flow going along all the outer surfaces. The way I u der stand it, the denitrification comes from inside the material rather than packing them close together and therefore generating the anaerobic conditions, correct?
Anything speaking against it? Apart from more space used which I do not mind.
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Anything speaking against it? Apart from more space used which I do not mind.
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fessoclown
Dis-Membered
That's a fantastic idea!
POst some pics of your build!
I friend of mine strung his on airline tube but didn't think to suspend it...
You got me thinking....
my eggcrate boxes kinda suck. All the time I spent stacking the Siporax is now moot as with shaking (for cleaning) they have scrambled in the box because a single piece will push through the squares of the eggcrate.
Happyschneider
New member
Will do. Am trying to get some spare acrylic rods from the local acryl manufacturer around the corner today.
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brandon0350
New member
I have 4l of Matrix in a zeo reactor on a 40g system. How much flow should I be running through it?
cham
New member
So here's a curve ball. I have a BB 120 SPS tank and a 40g BB plumbed in frag tank. I struggle with undetectable N03, so much so that I've had to dose it in the past.
Since running GFO the N03 has been able to stay at 2ppm without dosing KNO3 since I'm running bio pellets and dosing MB7, I'm guessing that I'm P04 limited now so that's why my N03 is staying detectable.
So my question is, I'd like to be able to feed more because my corals look washed out. I've turned to Siporax as an additional filter medium because while I have some live rock in my tank it's limited and of the non porus type, very dense and no holes in it. So I'm looking to the Siporax media for it's filtering capacity, but I don't want it to strip my N03 that I've worked hard to get up, lol.
Am I taking the wrong approach?
Since running GFO the N03 has been able to stay at 2ppm without dosing KNO3 since I'm running bio pellets and dosing MB7, I'm guessing that I'm P04 limited now so that's why my N03 is staying detectable.
So my question is, I'd like to be able to feed more because my corals look washed out. I've turned to Siporax as an additional filter medium because while I have some live rock in my tank it's limited and of the non porus type, very dense and no holes in it. So I'm looking to the Siporax media for it's filtering capacity, but I don't want it to strip my N03 that I've worked hard to get up, lol.
Am I taking the wrong approach?
cham
New member
I fight algae in my plumbed frag tank (doesn't have a CUC) and nusience cyano in the DT and such, I know my nutrients are elevated. I'd like to have something that will give more filtration capacity
From what you've already stated it sounds like your bio load is low and you don't have enough fish. Can you please provide a list of your fish?
cham
New member
All fish are large for their size since I've had them all for about 8 years
1- Chromis
2- Clowns
1- PBT
1- Hippo
1- Yellow Tang
I'd like to add more fish but the wife is terrified of fish (long story) so it's hard enough keeping the ones I have. Trying to increase feedings so the ones I do have are just really fat, lol
I am just starting the AF system so that comes with everyother day feeding of aminos, coral food and their full line of Build, Coral V & Coral E. So there is some increase on those.
I do WC weekly, typically 10%. Have bio pellets, GFO and GAC. I wasn't running the GFO but I got a bad GHA outbreak and ran it to get that under control.
Reefvet
New member
Something different is going on :idea:
Alfred Redfield based his 1934 paper on water samples he took in his travels through the worlds oceans. His conclusion initially was based on the presumption (empirical) that plankton balanced the resulting atomic ratio of N
in seawater to their presumptive metabolic average as they consume and compete with each other. He later changed his opinion as to the cause and wrote further papers based on the results he'd observed at a time when the research methods to substantiate his findings simply weren't available. Fundamentally his research stands today though the 1:16 ratio is now considered more of a general average.What we're observing with Siporax in a reef tank is simply the efficiency of more diverse and dense bacteria populations resulting in more complete breakdown of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. before less complete transformation (digestion) occurs through other organisms that would excrete phosphates.
Yeah that's a very low fish count. To put it into perspective I have a 40 gallon and have the following:
3 Chromis
2 Clowns
1 6-line wrasse
2 Cardinals
1 Hippo Tang
1 Chalk Bass
My nitrates range from 2-5 and my phosphates are always 0.02. With this bioload I'm able to keep my nitrates above two and keep my phosphates detectable. I think if you keep such a low bioload it will result in low nitrates and high phosphates from over feeding.
maxpc99
New member
Hey Guys, I have read through this column and some great advice here. I am currently running a large matrix reactor, but I am looking to remove pumps from my system and really like what I am reading about Siporax. I found a 10L bucket on ebay for $200 that I am going to buy. I have 2 questions...
1) How many liters would you recommend? My system consists of a 150G DT, 70G FT and 100 gal sump (320g total).
2) Where in my sump do you suggest?
- Water enters the sump in a very small chamber - goes under and over to next
- 2nd chamber is large and has a drip plate with a lot of room underneath. Flow to the next chamber is under/over.
- 3rd chamber is Protein skimmer (no room here). flow to next chamber is under/over
- last chamber is return pump.
It would be the 2nd or last chamber. In both cases the water is coming over the baffle.
Thanks for your help and all the good info!
1) How many liters would you recommend? My system consists of a 150G DT, 70G FT and 100 gal sump (320g total).
2) Where in my sump do you suggest?
- Water enters the sump in a very small chamber - goes under and over to next
- 2nd chamber is large and has a drip plate with a lot of room underneath. Flow to the next chamber is under/over.
- 3rd chamber is Protein skimmer (no room here). flow to next chamber is under/over
- last chamber is return pump.
It would be the 2nd or last chamber. In both cases the water is coming over the baffle.
Thanks for your help and all the good info!
blackthunda77
New member
My impromptu matrix reactor. Anything wrong with this idea?
I don't think it's fair to give advice without showing the results you've gotten yourself....so here are pictures of my system. The center portion of my sump is filled with 2 liters of matrix, siporax and live rock. The water has to go through this section to get to the return pump.
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watchguy123
New member
Something different is going on :idea:
Alfred Redfield based his 1934 paper on water samples he took in his travels through the worlds oceans. His conclusion initially was based on the presumption (empirical) that plankton balanced the resulting atomic ratio of N
What we're observing with Siporax in a reef tank is simply the efficiency of more diverse and dense bacteria populations resulting in more complete breakdown of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. before less complete transformation (digestion) occurs through other organisms that would excrete phosphates.
So in regards to the last sentence, I understand denitrifying bacteria will breakdown nitrates into Nitrogen gas which will escape the tank and enter the atmosphere. But what about phosphates. How specifically do the bacteria affect it.
In terms of phosphates: I understand chaeto absorbs phosphate into its cell structure and then we harvest the chaeto and remove it with its incorporated phosphates. Additionally, I also understand that skimmers will remove organic phosphates from the tank water before the organic phosphates break down into inorganic phosphate.
But what do bacteria colonizing siporax do with phosphates? How do they remove it from the reef tank? Do the dead bacteria growing in the pores of siporax get skimmed out so that the phosphate they have bound in their cells walls is removed? In other words, analogous to what takes place in carbon dosed system, the bacteria ultimately get skimmed out, removing phosphates from the reef via the phosphate bound in their cell membranes. I apologize if my biology and biochemistry questions are too simple; I just never quite grasped what role siporax plays in phosphate reduction.
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Mike de Leon
New member
My impromptu matrix reactor. Anything wrong with this idea?
I am running my Siporax in a canister now for about six weeks. The corals seem very happy...
blackthunda77
New member
Are you running flow through it with a pump or just sitting in your sump passively?
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