Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
wheelman76
New member
If I had a bigger sump to have the proper placement, they might work for me, but the nitrate increase seemed to accelerate when I moved them to the first chamber. Before that I had them in a canister filter but it was a pain to maintain. I guess Ill save them for if I upgrade the sump someday.[/QUOTE]
What would you consider the proper placement ? If you could build a brand new sump and wanted to use siporax , where would you place it ?
When you say that your nitrates increased when you moved the siporax to the first chamber , do you think that is because they received to much flow which is less than ideal to encourage the growth of denitrifying bacteria ?
What would you consider the proper placement ? If you could build a brand new sump and wanted to use siporax , where would you place it ?
When you say that your nitrates increased when you moved the siporax to the first chamber , do you think that is because they received to much flow which is less than ideal to encourage the growth of denitrifying bacteria ?
FloformAustria
New member
sorry to read about your AEFW... really sucks...
hope you can dip all the infected acros and get it under controll!
good luck
Flo
hope you can dip all the infected acros and get it under controll!
good luck
Flo
nemodan
New member
Hey Matt, nice to see you posting again.
There is nothing I can add to all the previous comments from expert Reefers. I am sure that with your expertise, patient and way of handling tank issues, all will be solved on a short time.
As you know I have 4 Media Reactors, big size, full of Matrix. I have added another one this week with 2 liters of siporax. Total 5 reactors. Am I crazy ? ...... yes
3 weeks ago my phosphate was at 0.25 ppm and No3 at 50 ppm. I wanted to commit suicide. Why these levels suddenly ? In April/May they were normal.
My actions: reduced food to half and emptied the 4 media reactors with Matrix in buckets with salt water. Washed the stones and returned it to the reactors. This was 2 weeks ago.
I plan to measure again today P & N and will let you know.
I believe also that the big amount of coral tissue dying have released a lot of P & N. Could be I was feeding too much also and with corals dying nutrients where not used as before.
Well....the constant battle in this hobby ... trying to replicate nature in a glass box.
All the best !!!!
Daniel
There is nothing I can add to all the previous comments from expert Reefers. I am sure that with your expertise, patient and way of handling tank issues, all will be solved on a short time.
As you know I have 4 Media Reactors, big size, full of Matrix. I have added another one this week with 2 liters of siporax. Total 5 reactors. Am I crazy ? ...... yes
3 weeks ago my phosphate was at 0.25 ppm and No3 at 50 ppm. I wanted to commit suicide. Why these levels suddenly ? In April/May they were normal.
My actions: reduced food to half and emptied the 4 media reactors with Matrix in buckets with salt water. Washed the stones and returned it to the reactors. This was 2 weeks ago.
I plan to measure again today P & N and will let you know.
I believe also that the big amount of coral tissue dying have released a lot of P & N. Could be I was feeding too much also and with corals dying nutrients where not used as before.
Well....the constant battle in this hobby
... trying to replicate nature in a glass box. All the best !!!!
Daniel
milsaltnewbie07
New member
Dang Matt that sucks man big time. I hope you can beat those bastards. As far as nitrates, what do you think is keeping them so high?
Diesel3443
AEFW Distructor
Damn, good to hear its not that huge of an issue.
Im actually going through my own issues right now, thin tissue, ect. which maybe due to too much metals.
Im actually going through my own issues right now, thin tissue, ect. which maybe due to too much metals.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I feel like I just revealed I have cancer:uhoh2: Everyone, not to worry. Not one coral has died in the tank from flatworms. there were a few with bites that have recovered 100%, and i can easily remove and reattach any coral in the tank for dipping, its going to be fine, really. Thanks for the support though!
What would you consider the proper placement ? If you could build a brand new sump and wanted to use siporax , where would you place it ?
When you say that your nitrates increased when you moved the siporax to the first chamber , do you think that is because they received to much flow which is less than ideal to encourage the growth of denitrifying bacteria ?[/QUOTE]
If I was designing from scratch there would be a box midway through the simp, where water flowed over the box - minimal active movement of water through the media. Debora has her sump set up like this.
As for the why, i suspect too much highly aerated water hitting the media if the media is indeed to blame. I pulled it out last night. In any event, it certainly wasn't appearing to reduce Nitrates at all, so it seems pointless to keep an ineffective product in the sump.
One interesting thought I had was what if the media and its bacterial population is short-circuiting the bacteria that I am trying to cultivate with AF? After pulling all that media out last night, PE on the corals this morning was noticeably better than it has been in a while. I tested nitrate for a baseline and it was lower than a few days ago as well. Ill keep observing and documenting and maybe some conclusions can be reached.
Hey Matt, nice to see you posting again.
There is nothing I can add to all the previous comments from expert Reefers. I am sure that with your expertise, patient and way of handling tank issues, all will be solved on a short time.
As you know I have 4 Media Reactors, big size, full of Matrix. I have added another one this week with 2 liters of siporax. Total 5 reactors. Am I crazy ? ...... yes
3 weeks ago my phosphate was at 0.25 ppm and No3 at 50 ppm. I wanted to commit suicide. Why these levels suddenly ? In April/May they were normal.
My actions: reduced food to half and emptied the 4 media reactors with Matrix in buckets with salt water. Washed the stones and returned it to the reactors. This was 2 weeks ago.
I plan to measure again today P & N and will let you know.
I believe also that the big amount of coral tissue dying have released a lot of P & N. Could be I was feeding too much also and with corals dying nutrients where not used as before.
Well....the constant battle in this hobby
All the best !!!!
Daniel
Nice to see you too Daniel! What I take from reading that is the Siporax is not doing its job- you shouldn't be seeing those kind of Nitrate values with that much media. It's supposed to be plug and play, but obviously its not and adding more might not be what is needed.
I learned a lot about denitrification with my implementation of the sulfur denitrator.
Your normal process goes Ammonia-Nitrite-Nitrate.
If you are denitrating, the Nitrate is converted to Nitrite, but then it must be converted to Nitric Oxide and then carried one step further to strip the rest of the oxygen and end up with O2 and N2. If it gets interrupted, the Nitrite or nitric oxide just goes back down the nitrification pathway and goes back to Nitrate - essentially wasting energy with no real benefit.
If the media can't get the whole pathway accomplished before oxygen is encountered, all you get is nitrate out of the process.
Back off the flow through Phosphate minus and zeolites, reduce Micro E and Iodine if you are seeing thin tissue. Try half on all those and see if there is improvement in a few days.
wheelman76
New member
Thanks for the reply and I look forward to hearing if your nitrates drop even more after pulling the siporax. Also interested to see if the better polyp extensions continues after pulling it out. One thing that just popped into my head was maybe pulling out the siporax disturbed a little detritus as well as shed some of the bacteria (both food for the sps) which would explain the increase in polyp extension.
glaukos
New member
So let me get this straight matt bud,you're taking out matrix and sipo because they do nothing regarding no3 reduction or because they assist them rise?
And you got lower no3 results only within a couple of days,being "sipo-matrix-free"?
Really nothing wrong with that.I'd do the same if i wasn't worried about cyano coming back,i'm just wondering about the reason.
And you got lower no3 results only within a couple of days,being "sipo-matrix-free"?
Really nothing wrong with that.I'd do the same if i wasn't worried about cyano coming back,i'm just wondering about the reason.
chercm
New member
thin tissues ? how to identify that ?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I was taking them out mainly because they weren't doing anything and I was curious what would happen if I did. I only took the matrix out last night. However, I did measure nitrate this morning and then again this evening. The results are very interesting. I'll measure for a few days to see if there is a real trend occurring.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
When I pulled the matrix there was a detritus snowstorm, which cleared up after a couple hours, that could be it- however the PE is still there tonight. It could be that the NP Pro is not feeding the bacteria in the stones and is instead feeding bacteria that can become waterborne more easily. Nothing certain at this stage.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
The edge of the tissue at the base will be very blended to the underlying skeleton, the tissue looks like colored skeleton rather than a soft skin on top of the skeleton. Healthy tissue forms a distinctive ridge at the edge and looks plump and smooth.
Reefvet
New member
-NP Pro will support the Probiotic S strains of bacteria so they can out compete established bacteria and break down DOCs in the water column.
While dosing -NP Pro is carbon dosing it's not going to have the same effect as using vinegar or vodka.
Matrix and Siporax are intended to be used after a pre-filter of some sort, filter sock, mechanical mesh etc.. Putting them in the first sump chamber won't typically work very well.
Here's a photo of the Siporax section of an AF sump in Poland. Unfortunately I've only seen their sumps in Poland. I've been tempted to bring one back with me because they're extremely well designed.
Attachments
Matt as always excellent colours. I am waiting anxiously your observations, of matrix removal.
Can you please explain me, how can one carbon source, as NP pro, could selectively feed just some strains of bacteria ,as Probiotic S, and not the other established bacteria in our tanks?
Can you please explain me, how can one carbon source, as NP pro, could selectively feed just some strains of bacteria ,as Probiotic S, and not the other established bacteria in our tanks?
reefmutt
Active member
Looking really good, Matt!
You are still running the de nitrater, right?
Curious to see where n goes with the siporax out..
Way back when I was researching Carbon dosing, I seem to recall reading that each type of carbon used, whether it was vodka or vinegar or whatever, each supported different strains of bacteria... I really don't know if this is true or not.. But if so, it can be assumed that the np pro also supports specific strains.. But I am also curious about np pro's ability to support the strains contained in pro bio s..
