Media Reactors overkill for Nano Reefs?

[Kayvon77]

Hey guys,

So I'm pretty new to the world of Nano Reefs. I have a 29g BioCube that is lightly stocked and has been running for almost a month now. I am wondering if the use of a media reactor, for example for phosphate and nitrate removal, etc., is really necessary if I just keep up with the water change and filter maintenances? I seem to read a lot of threads about people installing media reactors for these small systems.

I do have a pretty good water chemistry (at least I think), and the only thing that I'm battling with is keeping the phosphates and Nitrates low in the ideal ranges, but I'm thinking with time and regular water changes that should correct itself given the bio load and the newness of the tank. I also want to keep the use of additives and chemical use as well as daily maintenance to the bare minimum.

So, having said that, I would love to hear your critique or take on my thought process there and if anyone has any experiences to share for a nano cube without Media Reactors for PO4 and N3 control. I'm still a novice at this so I may be just naive about what it takes to keep a healthy nano reef thriving, but please enlighten me with your invaluable wisdom

Here's my current set-up, water chemistry, and live stock inventory. Let me know what your think?
Coralife Protein Skimmer
InTank media basket fitted with Chemipure Elite and RowaPhos in its second and third chambers.
Heater
Stock lighting, pump, etc.

PH 8.0
Alk 9 dKH
Cal 380
Temp 79-81
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20ppm

Livestock:
Assortment of snails and hermit crabs (my clean-up crew)
Brittle Star
Sandsifting Starfish
Three Chromies
One Fire Shrimp

Thanks guys. Look forward to your responses.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Kayvon77]

Whoops! Forgot to include my coral collection, duh....
Few Zoas
GSP
And a few beginner whatcha-Ma-call it corals!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ReefWreak]

You're already running chemipure and rowaphos... In my opinion, you're already overdoing it.

I would say water changes, and maybe swapping out your skimmer for a better one. I highly recommend the AquaticLife 115.

20ppm nitrate isn't the end of the world, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY YOUR TANK HAS ONLY BEEN RUNNING A MONTH. You should see dramatic changes in the look and water quality pretty often the first 3 months. 6 months in, it'll stabilize and you can start worrying about things like media reactors.

Unfortunately your tank is probably too small for a sandsifting starfish, unless you mean a smaller brittle star. A true starfish will most likely starve

Why do you want to add more nitrate and phosphate removing to your system? Are you having algae problems?

I only am running a skimmer and some marinepure right now. I think the best filtration is high flow, skimming, and water changes. No media baskets, or even media stuff (other than the marinepure block) for me. Check out my build thread.

I would expect blooms of various sorts for the first 3 months, with almost nothing to do about them.

 

[jiminy_crime]

I would argue that running GFO now right out of the gate is exactly what he should do. Because parameters can escalate quickly in a smaller tank---this justifies the usage of GFO right out of the gate. He will soon have an explosion of hair algae or some variant of that and nothing will address this better than a GFO reactor. If he doesn't, he will be using a Phosphate sponge a month or two from now and blackouts for days only to be installing GFO anyway. Why not get ahead of it. ChemiPure is unnecessary in my opinion until he sees Cyano if he ever does.

He does have softies, hardy ones at that, and unless he gets into more complicated corals such as SPS or even certain LPS, he could totally get by on just water changes. For me, having a GFO running just makes life easier but that may not be what he is looking to do.

There are 100s of ways to skin a cat...just have to decide what works for you. I have seen beautiful nanos that are very basic with no reactors...but the reactor definitely provides some room for error in tank husbandry.

I have had a few nanos over the last decade and have tried them all different ways..and I prefer to use a reactor and carbon dose for nitrates. Just depends how involved and elaborate you want this to be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ReefWreak]

There are 100s of ways to skin a cat...just have to decide what works for you. I have seen beautiful nanos that are very basic with no reactors...but the reactor definitely provides some room for error in tank husbandry.

I have had a few nanos over the last decade and have tried them all different ways..and I prefer to use a reactor and carbon dose for nitrates. Just depends how involved and elaborate you want this to be.

I generally agree. I prefer skimming and carbon dosing to phosphate media, and haven't used GFO yet in my tank, though I did have macro algae growing for a while as well. 100s of ways to do it.

I would still recommend upgrading the skimmer, and if you want to get rid of nitrates and phosphates at once, take a look into carbon dosing (vodka) to reduce these. When I dose vodka, I see a difference within 2-3 days usually, my corals start to lighten in color and the algae on the glass goes away.

 

[Kayvon77]

You're already running chemipure and rowaphos... In my opinion, you're already overdoing it.

I would say water changes, and maybe swapping out your skimmer for a better one. I highly recommend the AquaticLife 115.

20ppm nitrate isn't the end of the world, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY YOUR TANK HAS ONLY BEEN RUNNING A MONTH. You should see dramatic changes in the look and water quality pretty often the first 3 months. 6 months in, it'll stabilize and you can start worrying about things like media reactors.

Unfortunately your tank is probably too small for a sandsifting starfish, unless you mean a smaller brittle star. A true starfish will most likely starve

Why do you want to add more nitrate and phosphate removing to your system? Are you having algae problems?

I only am running a skimmer and some marinepure right now. I think the best filtration is high flow, skimming, and water changes. No media baskets, or even media stuff (other than the marinepure block) for me. Check out my build thread.

I would expect blooms of various sorts for the first 3 months, with almost nothing to do about them.

Wow! Thx for the pointer. Yeah, I think the more I obsess about the levels the worst it gets. Now I have phosphates 0.25, based on a Hanna test. My Nitrates have dropped to 10, and I haven't done a thing. Weird.

I like your approach, ok then. I'll just sit back, relax, and let the algae show begin [emoji16]

 

[Kayvon77]

I would argue that running GFO now right out of the gate is exactly what he should do. Because parameters can escalate quickly in a smaller tank---this justifies the usage of GFO right out of the gate. He will soon have an explosion of hair algae or some variant of that and nothing will address this better than a GFO reactor. If he doesn't, he will be using a Phosphate sponge a month or two from now and blackouts for days only to be installing GFO anyway. Why not get ahead of it. ChemiPure is unnecessary in my opinion until he sees Cyano if he ever does.

He does have softies, hardy ones at that, and unless he gets into more complicated corals such as SPS or even certain LPS, he could totally get by on just water changes. For me, having a GFO running just makes life easier but that may not be what he is looking to do.

There are 100s of ways to skin a cat...just have to decide what works for you. I have seen beautiful nanos that are very basic with no reactors...but the reactor definitely provides some room for error in tank husbandry.

I have had a few nanos over the last decade and have tried them all different ways..and I prefer to use a reactor and carbon dose for nitrates. Just depends how involved and elaborate you want this to be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the valuable advice. So, if I just not use any phosphate media I can mitigate the Phosphate situation by just doing water changes? Would it be ok if my Phosphates have been consistently between .10 and .25?

I have thought about doing carbon dosing. What kind of carbon dosing would you recommend? Vodka or Vinegar, or how about this product from Red Sea called Po4No3? I hear about it around here a lot.

Thanks again for sharing your experience. Hope one day I can be as insightful and helpful as you guys on here.

 

[Kayvon77]

I generally agree. I prefer skimming and carbon dosing to phosphate media, and haven't used GFO yet in my tank, though I did have macro algae growing for a while as well. 100s of ways to do it.



I would still recommend upgrading the skimmer, and if you want to get rid of nitrates and phosphates at once, take a look into carbon dosing (vodka) to reduce these. When I dose vodka, I see a difference within 2-3 days usually, my corals start to lighten in color and the algae on the glass goes away.

Thanks. What kind of vodka should I buy? Absolute? Belvedere? Bacardi? .. Maybe I can do shots with my aquarium? One for you, one for me, one for you , one for me... Hey, this is going to be a fun hobby!!!

 

[homer1475]

While I mostly agree with Reefwreak(we usually do for the most part), I would just add that decent carbon in a reactor will greatly improve your water clarity(everyone wants crystal clear water), and help with any chemical warfare between softies. BRS did a video a while back showing what exactly and how fast carbon in a reactor clears up dying pigments in the water. While you are running phosphate removal media, it doesn't work anywhere near as good as it does in a reactor. The BRS mini is a great sized reactor for this size tank and its designed to run carbon and GFO mixed in the same reactor.

If you go the carbon dosing method, get a better skimmer and make sure you do a lot of reading up on it. You can most certainly mess up your tank by adding to much. Most people use the cheapest vodka they can find.

I myself used NoPox(basically Vodka and Vinegar mixed with some propitiatory ingredients), and while it did work, I hated the bacterial blooms I got from it.

 

[ReefWreak]

If you go the carbon dosing method, get a better skimmer and make sure you do a lot of reading up on it. You can most certainly mess up your tank by adding to much. Most people use the cheapest vodka they can find.

I myself used NoPox(basically Vodka and Vinegar mixed with some propitiatory ingredients), and while it did work, I hated the bacterial blooms I got from it.

Gotta have the skimmer #1 before doing anything carbon related (vodka, sugar, vinegar, VSV, NoPoX) because otherwise you're just blooming bacteria to eat up the nitrate and phosphates, and not removing them, so the nutrients just go back into the tank.

I think I'm using Georgi (I have used Popov in the past). I go for the 1.75 liter plastic bottles that are only good for hunch punch or whatever your regional college affiliates call it (fruit juice, cheap vodka or grain alcohol, and a lot of packets of koolade). If you would drink it, drink it, if you'd never drink it, use it for the fish

You must start slowly though. Every time I re-start vodka dosing, start with 1mL AND IT IS TOO MUCH AND IT HURTS MY CORALS AND THEY START DYING. They're currently still receding at the base from starting vodka up a month or two ago. There is a good article in reefkeeping magazine on carbon dosing. If you're interested, read that IN IT'S ENTIRETY before starting dosing. I followed and participated in the original thread, and still re-read the article and the thread before starting (even though I still dosed too much).

But all of this still assumes you are having an undesirable algae problem. The relative level of nitrate and phosphate don't really matter that much if you aren't getting algae outbreaks. Most of the SPS guys are now shooting for 5-10ppm of nitrate and 0.03-0.10 for phosphate to get their corals darker in color. I still recommend newbies shoot for 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate, and work your way up from there, minimizing algae, as you advance in the hobby. As nice as the super-nice SPS tanks are, if you look at any of their amazingly beautiful pictures, and notice the fringes of the picture what their rocks look like, most of the time they're covered in bubble algae or other forms of algae that are growing like crazy from the high nutrient tanks.

Even this SPS farm out of Australia have said that they basically have a number of racks with coral on them, and then every other surface of their growout tanks is covered in thick algae from all of the nutrients.

 

[j_mazzy]

What about doing a Algae scrubber instead, and run the skimmer less often?

 

[Kayvon77]

Ok so if I was gonna go the Reactor route, what would you recommend for someone with a BIoCube 29g, the BRS standard sized reactors, or the MimiMax All-in-one?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[homer1475]

The BRS mini is the perfect size for the biocube. 1/2C of carbon and a 1/4C of GFO is the perfect amount, once you get your nutrients in order. With that being said, the mini is designed to run GAC and GFO together, or just GAC. It is not long enough to run just GFO and have it tumble properly. When you run GAC and GFO together, you pack it in tight, so not being able to tumble the GFO isn't an issue.

 

[Kayvon77]

The BRS mini is the perfect size for the biocube. 1/2C of carbon and a 1/4C of GFO is the perfect amount, once you get your nutrients in order. With that being said, the mini is designed to run GAC and GFO together, or just GAC. It is not long enough to run just GFO and have it tumble properly. When you run GAC and GFO together, you pack it in tight, so not being able to tumble the GFO isn't an issue.

Thx! Sounds like mini may be the way to go. Do you know if I can do bio-pellets and GAC at the same time?

 

[scallywags]

Not to highjack your thread, but would the two little fishes phosban reactor be able to rock carbon/GFO mix?