Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[Wrangy]

Colour and growth is cracking! Tank is looking spot on Matt!

 

[Pife]

Why the spare? I pull the water through both reactors with just one peristaltic pump. The only downside is there is more gas buildup in the Calcium reactor so I need to bleed it a bit more often. Today I had 5ppm nitrates out of the whole thing while the tank is over 50.

I've not completely dialed in the reactor yet. I'm pumping 80 ml per minute through my CA reactor and just thought that sounded like a lot of flow for my denitrator. I'll know when I get home from camping those weekend.

 

[K.C.]

I don't worry much about Nitrates, perhaps I could have been clearer about that. I prefer keeping Nitrates closer to 5ppm because I had excellent color and growth at that level....

That makes complete sense. I guess I still follow the 'If it's not broken..' train of thought.

Beware of Thales as a model as well. I was impressed by the weird kind of mojo he had brewing in his tank but as you can see in that post, it eventually caught up with him in a round of serious RTN and then he had a total wipeout of all his acros. He is trying to clean his tank up now with automatic daily water changes.

I think if you read closely you'll see he attributed that to a raise in salinity which occurred over a period of time. Just proof that this hobby is one where you can't take your eyes off the ball, IMO

Sorry for all that rumble too

Hey we all ramble on at times but did you have to give away the M&Ms secret ! :facepalm:

 

[Reefvet]

That bottle of liquid polymer. It seems like it is just Polyacrylamide based polymers. Maybe I am wrong here? :wildone:
Similar to the waste water treatment plant would use.

No, that's not what -NP Pro is.

Polyacrylamide based polymers have a much higher viscosity and wouldn't go into solution in NSW or ASW.

Everything is looking great Matt !

 

[markalot]

Did Mike really say Pepsi? Coke would work much better, Pepsi is crap. :spin2:

I'll leave this here since nitrates were discussed.

My nasuta

... and then after lowering nitrates down to 5.

It did put on a growth spurt but I liked the first color better.

 

[glaukos]

Mark i thought coke would make me look bad
After all you can never tell which coke somebody means lol
Agree with your pepsi comment,prefer to drink water...eeewww

I'm at no3 25 now(not on purpose) myself but far away from your colors
The thing i find strange,at least for my sad self,is that i'm not so anxious/eager to get them down as i was,regarding no3,5-10 years ago.

 

[Myka]

I'll leave this here since nitrates were discussed.

My nasuta


It did put on a growth spurt but I liked the first color better.

Me too! :lolspin: That happens though - anytime you make significant changes 99% will look better, but there will always be that one that looked better before. I have one like that too - an orange Mille that is now bland green after AF. :uhoh3:

I'm looking at your nasuta and comparing it to the nasuta conversation in my tank thread, and yours looks nothing like the coral in discussion. How has yours been ID'ed?

 

[markalot]

Me too! :lolspin: That happens though - anytime you make significant changes 99% will look better, but there will always be that one that looked better before. I have one like that too - an orange Mille that is now bland green after AF. :uhoh3:

I'm looking at your nasuta and comparing it to the nasuta conversation in my tank thread, and yours looks nothing like the coral in discussion. How has yours been ID'ed?

Pure guesswork and based on a sketchy id from Divers Den where the original owner got it from someone who bought it from them. I'm sure the ID is solid. subulata is the other guess. Somehow these folks got a picture of it (Katropora is the nickname of this piece).

https://www.reefpeeps.com/identification/katropora-acropora.36/

 

[Pife]

What ph do you run your calcium reactor at? What media are you using? How many ml per minute?

 

[2una]

I don't know what the cause of the nitrates is other than the obvious- I have a lot of fish, I feed a lot, and the SPS tank has almost no biological filtration of its own. I have siporax and matrix in the sump but they haven't done much of anything other than take up space. I siphoned out a ton of detritus out of the SPS tank today so that will help I'm sure.

Hi Matt, been tagging along thru your thread for awhile,awesome thread & tank!
Just as a compare re your nitrates i'm 170G tank,24 fish,feed 6 cubes/day & keeping my No3 at 1-2.5ppm just dosing nightly 2drop/2drop then next night 2drop/1drop ProBioS/NPPro.....Main diff is i probably have close to 200lb of LR & 6L of matrix onboard....maybe that's of use for your thinking

 

[gregkn73]

I don't know what the cause of the nitrates is other than the obvious- I have a lot of fish, I feed a lot, and the SPS tank has almost no biological filtration of its own. I have siporax and matrix in the sump but they haven't done much of anything other than take up space. I siphoned out a ton of detritus out of the SPS tank today so that will help I'm sure.

Matt do you ever consider the siporax and matrix as the cause of high nitrates? Maybe to much flow through them?

 

[glaukos]

Matt do you ever consider the siporax and matrix as the cause of high nitrates? Maybe to much flow through them?

There is absolutely no sense in that suggestion!!!
How on earth would too much flow(as you said) through siporax or matric CAUSE high nitrates or EVEN assist their rise!

The only downside(if so) with high flow through these materials,would POSSIBLY be not allow them(not give them-bacteria-enough time) to "process" water which passes through them.

High flow would also not allow detritus-uneaten food-etc build up between the material-s, so not even in that way would ,siporax or matrix CAUSE or be responsible ,for nitrates.
It's totally a different thing not allowing it to work properly and another to CAUSE nitrates.

From what i've read you're using matrix or something,i would love to see you tank and your personal results with it's use.
You seem to be an experienced reefer and i'd love to see and learn some things from YOUR tank:thumbsup:

 

[joshky]

Colors, health, and growth are looking great Matt. You'll figure out your nitrates I'm sure, it looks good as is so don't stress too much.

 

[SkullV]

Matt, have you checked your nitrates with any kit other than the Salifert? There is a lot of chatter that the newer "color cards" that salifert has been sending out read 20+ppm high. They haven't made an official statement that I can find yet, but I am also finding that my nitrates are ~25 on a Salifert kit. I have zero algae at all in my tank and also have good SPS coloration, so I'm thinking test kit error is the culprit.

Also started up with Aquaforest Salt, Coral V, and Coral E. Excited to see what happens over the next month or so!

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, hope you come up for air at work soon..
Hang in bud!!

 

[glaukos]

Ahhh the things we are forced to do in order to keep our tanks running
Like matt said,hang in there:beer:

 

[Myka]

Pure guesswork and based on a sketchy id from Divers Den where the original owner got it from someone who bought it from them. I'm sure the ID is solid. subulata is the other guess. Somehow these folks got a picture of it (Katropora is the nickname of this piece).

https://www.reefpeeps.com/identification/katropora-acropora.36/

:lol: Whatever it is, it is nice! It does look like subulata in that photo, but what do I know? Hahaha!

There is absolutely no sense in that suggestion!!!
How on earth would too much flow(as you said) through siporax or matric CAUSE high nitrates or EVEN assist their rise!

Mike, you post comes across rather strong! :eek2: I could see how there could be some question that Siporax or Matrix could be nitrate factories the same way as Bioballs and many ceramic medias are known to be. If Siporax is running aerobic instead of anaerobic I could see them being nitrate factories as there would be such a population of nitrifying bacteria that they could convert ammonia to nitrate so quickly that there is no chance for the mechanical filtration (such as skimmer) to filter it out. I think Greg's question has as least some validity in theory.

Matt, have you checked your nitrates with any kit other than the Salifert? There is a lot of chatter that the newer "color cards" that salifert has been sending out read 20+ppm high.

I have a Salifert Nitrate kit with the new color chart and it seems to be accurate to me. I've checked it against Red Sea Pro, and it reads very similar. I have also been able to get an "undetectable" reading and readings around 1 ppm. The new color chart compared to the old color chart looks exactly the same to me, just laid out differently.

 

[glaukos]

Mike, you post comes across rather strong! :eek2: I could see how there could be some question that Siporax or Matrix could be nitrate factories the same way as Bioballs and many ceramic medias are known to be. If Siporax is running aerobic instead of anaerobic I could see them being nitrate factories as there would be such a population of nitrifying bacteria that they could convert ammonia to nitrate so quickly that there is no chance for the mechanical filtration (such as skimmer) to filter it out. I think Greg's question has as least some validity in theory.

Mindy,all of this time i've been here,only a couple of my posts came strong and they involved only two specific persons,with the same origin too.
I do not consider my self a reef guru/teacher/preacher/pioneer/divinity,so i never go into all the trouble/fuss, of participating in "reef fights/wars" in order to claim or prove something of the above.
And why do that since every tank and hobbyist is different,fact that makes those "fights",vain and meaningless,at least in my eyes.
What works for me maybe won't for you and vise versa,there are many roads that lead to rome,etc...
So maybe there are things you don't know,which fuelled that reaction.
So please allow me to ask you as kindly and politely possible,not to judge or criticize my posts,in that way.
On the other hand i'd love or even urge you to do that,when they involve our hobby and my opinions/thoughts.
Thanks:thumbsup:

As far as siporax...
I'd prefer to discuss that in the appropriate thread but i felt a bit cornered,so i'll derail matt's thread one(more) single time.

My humble opinion(and exp but i'll get to that later) is that high/too much flow will simply make it another available surface(like rock,sand,etc) for the bacteria to colonize.
And to be honest how much flow is considered to be too much?After all my argument was against the statement that HIGH/TOO MUCH FLOW through siporax CAN CAUSE NITRATES.
As high flow,i consider everything that's beyond what the brand suggests.
I do not belong to the people that had success with siporax and no3 reduction but others had.Almost all of them have placed them in rather high flow areas(almost every sump nowdays has a lot of flow)...especially when the company's suggestions about flow are taken under consideration/comparison(Their moderate high flow rate is only 400l/h).
And even in that case(4-5-6.000 l/h),they saw good results regarding no3 reduction.Some didn't but they also did not notice no3 rise.

But i really don't like(hate to be honest) to rest my cases in other people's exp's so here is mine.
I have mine right bellow where the water from the main tank overflows in the sump.Flow is 5000l/h more or less.
So it's positioned to the place that water flows the fastest.

(sorry matt for placing one of my pics in your thread but i'm a firm believer of "pics or it never happened" )

For as long i was using biopellets i had zero no3.
That's a level i no longer wanted so i removed them and also added sand in my previously BB tank.
Tank has very little rock and minimal approach in general,so all those changes led to cyano and no3 rise.
No3 went up to 25 in a couple of weeks(maybe more).
Not having enough room in the sump i wanted to maximise the space(for bacteria) and used siporax(4 lt +,- ) to make up for the lack of available surface.
Cyano went away but no3 stayed at the exact number (25) all of these months.
Absolutely no rise,like all the other fellas with high flow through it.
In the last few weeks it's dropping to 10 but i think/guess that's a result related mostly to AF routines i recently started.

After all sera has some do and don't info.High flow was never mentioned as a no3 factor but only as reason for the material not to work properly or at it's fullest,regarding the removal of ammonia and NOx.
And probably maybe that is why you can't really overdose/overdo siporax.
I think that if they could produce no3,they would at least warn as.Even in theory.

Because based on that theory someone could say that the higher the flow,the more No3 we would get.Plus would 4 litres of siporax with high flow produce double amount of NO3,compared to only 2 litres?

Tbh i also can not relate siporax with skimmer in any way.
To a carbon source yes but not with siporax.

Yes i agree that in some ways(no need to discuss further,a lot of info here and there) siporax can help or even cause(?) no3 but HIGH FLOW THROUGH IT (sorry for the caps i just want to pin point where my objections are) is not a reason...

With all that rumbling i simply want to substantiate my claims,mindy.Not to prove you wrong,"reef fight club" you or change your way of thinking...just to show you where a base my thought's and exp:beer:

After all,the claims which where made,where based in a theory/hunch and theory is soooo different in action/reality.

I don't know if it's necessary but please matt accept my apologies for that offtopic discussion.

 

[Myka]

With all that rumbling i simply want to substantiate my claims,mindy.Not to prove you wrong,"reef fight club" you or change your way of thinking...just to show you where a base my thought's and exp:beer:

After all,the claims which where made,where based in a theory/hunch and theory is soooo different in action/reality.

Mike, your PM was a lot nicer than this post. Now you have a rather strong, long-winded post directed at me. :sad1: I will reply in PM.

I will say though that not one place did I say I agreed that the Siporax may be a cause of high nitrate - I did say in theory that I understand where Greg's question came from and figured the question has validity. I think you're reading something in my post that was not there. There is nothing for you to "prove wrong".

 

[glaukos]

Totally and absolutely nothing "at you" buddy:love2::love2::beer:
How could i?Nowhere indeed you claimed that.In my mind i thought it was clear.
Sorry if my post gave you that impression....it's directed 100% to a certain direction
PM'ed