Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
markalot
...
Looking really good Matt.
I need to bug you with a few more questions.
Are you liking the AIO biopellets? I'm seriously considering switching back to only carbon dosing. I've been having a time with my Avast recirculating reactor. Flow had reduced itself to a trickle which is why I needed to supplement NOPOX to get my nitrates down. I've got the flow back up but these pellets are making a mess in the skimmer and the skimmer section. I'm considering either going to standard pellets or going back to all carbon dosing and automating it along with nitrate dosing.
I'm really not sure how AIO can help except to possibly reduce the quantity of nitrate dosing to reduce phosphates.
Thanks again.
I need to bug you with a few more questions.
Are you liking the AIO biopellets? I'm seriously considering switching back to only carbon dosing. I've been having a time with my Avast recirculating reactor. Flow had reduced itself to a trickle which is why I needed to supplement NOPOX to get my nitrates down. I've got the flow back up but these pellets are making a mess in the skimmer and the skimmer section. I'm considering either going to standard pellets or going back to all carbon dosing and automating it along with nitrate dosing.
I'm really not sure how AIO can help except to possibly reduce the quantity of nitrate dosing to reduce phosphates.
Thanks again.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I have been using the AIO since last September/October or so, and for me they are the simplest and most effective system I have used. I did reduce the amount of pellets some, to about 3/4 of a liter, but that was mainly because this new tank set up is way more efficient than I thought it would be.
I also found out last night that the skimmer supply pump(Tunze Silence) has been running full on. With that much flow into the skimmer, it has been stripping the water too much - I've been blaming the pellets as the cause of that. It is set back to 50% like its supposed to be. Ill see how that impacts things.
The tanks are very clean, no visible algae other than some patches of cyano on the sand in the flubber tank, Coraline algae, and the normal green or brown sheen that forms on glass after a couple of days. I've been feeding 3 or four times a day, adding aminos, and dosing after dark occasionally.
What is clogging up your reactor? Is the inlet line open or is there some kind of strainer on it? My home-built reactor uses 1/2" inlet and outlet lines, I know a lot of recirculating reactors use 3/8" rigid tubing.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Oh and could you elaborate on the mess that they are making? I direct the flow of the reactor directly into an tee that is on the inlet to my skimmer supply pump. If you are getting a lot of particulates out of the reactor you may be pulverizing the pellets.
markalot
...
I may be, but the design of this reactor requires me to tumble them fairly hard to get enough outflow. Luna reported he runs his AIO output into a sock to collect the GFO fines, I figured this was par for the course with these.
I am being forced to re-design this reactor myself or abandon it. Someone (Gorgok) in the equipment forum was nice enough to draw up what they though was an improvement to the design.
The original design has the limiter on the input, and the output is unlimited and connects just above the pump, meaning a lot of the output never touches the reactor body. The modified design above ensures all water passes through the body once before being allowed to leave.
Can you, or have you, videos your tumble rate?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Yes that original retrofit design is terrible! If it was me I'd drill out that small bleed fitting on the top plate and install a barbed fitting there. That would be my outflow.
Lunar uses a sock but it's to catch wayward pellets. If it's creating fine brown powder, the pellets are getting tumbled too hard.
Lunar uses a sock but it's to catch wayward pellets. If it's creating fine brown powder, the pellets are getting tumbled too hard.
markalot
...
Thanks Matt, much appreciated!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks Matt.
Mine are tumbling a bit slower so I'm dazed and confused.
If I put the output into a filter sock the sock clogs with brown fines within 2 days, so I'm not sure what is going on.
I would not be surprised if you were clogging the sock with bacteria more than the fines, but it seems that the design of the pellet reactor is pounding the pellets too much, though I'm not sure how. I direct my outflow to the inlet of my skimmer, so maybe I have the same fines and they are just skimmed out.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
So I got my Potassium test kit from the Czech store "Coral-shop". I love the shop fisherman mascot: http://www.coral-shop.com/shop.php?level=2&cat=99
It is a top-notch test kit:
A total of 5 reagents are used but its very straightforward and easy.
Directions are in multiple languages, and fully illustrated. The test kit is accurate to 8ppm and has a hard color change exactly like the discontinued Salifert test kit. My potassium tested a bit high(454ppm) but that isn't too surprising as I had been blind dosing with no decent test kit available.
It is a top-notch test kit:
A total of 5 reagents are used but its very straightforward and easy.
Directions are in multiple languages, and fully illustrated. The test kit is accurate to 8ppm and has a hard color change exactly like the discontinued Salifert test kit. My potassium tested a bit high(454ppm) but that isn't too surprising as I had been blind dosing with no decent test kit available.
biggles
Premium Member
Okay after seeing the new Potassium kit we have to use i've decided to guess my K levels from this point on Matt. I reckon it would be easier to set up a meth lab than work out how to use that chemistry set mate - the fisherman mascot even looks like he's been cooking without a mask on............. 
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I think that if you can handle an Alk test you can handle this one. You add one mL of reagent 1, add 1 ml of reagent 2, wait 5 min, add one drop of the colored reagent, then you are ready to tiitrate. You dump in 1 ml of reagent 4 then tiitrate using reagen 5 immediately. There is a sharp color change when you hit the endpoint.
I'm with you on the fisherman though. Can you imagine Ecotech using a pic like that on their website?
I'm with you on the fisherman though
. Can you imagine Ecotech using a pic like that on their website?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Update:
On the 2nd I discovered that my skimmer supply pump was running full speed even though the control cable was visibly in place. It turns out it wasn't pushed all the way in. Basically my skimmer has been getting way more tank water than I intended. Since the skimmer is a monster, it has been scrubbing that water clean - too clean.
I plugged in the control cable, zip-tied it in place, and set the pump to 50%. The next day I saw changes - a bit more green on the bottom of the bare bottom tank, more PE, in general hints of things looking healthier. Now its been several days and the difference is unmistakeable - corals are producing tissue at the bases, colors are improving, and things just seem much more "right".
The skimmer has been stripping the water of something - probably DOCs or bacteria, as the Nitrate values haven't shifted, phosphate still tests zero. I saw something like this a couple of years ago when i had all the tank overflow water pass through the skimmer - it stripped too much of something. At that time, no algae grew even with phosphate as high as 0.2!
I checked my Calcium and alkalinity numbers last night and they both were a bit low after being very stable for a few weeks - 6.8 and 380ppm. I bumped up the Calcium and increased the dosing of both parts to try to keep Alk at 7 and Calcium at between 400 and 420.
On the 2nd I discovered that my skimmer supply pump was running full speed even though the control cable was visibly in place. It turns out it wasn't pushed all the way in. Basically my skimmer has been getting way more tank water than I intended. Since the skimmer is a monster, it has been scrubbing that water clean - too clean.
I plugged in the control cable, zip-tied it in place, and set the pump to 50%. The next day I saw changes - a bit more green on the bottom of the bare bottom tank, more PE, in general hints of things looking healthier. Now its been several days and the difference is unmistakeable - corals are producing tissue at the bases, colors are improving, and things just seem much more "right".
The skimmer has been stripping the water of something - probably DOCs or bacteria, as the Nitrate values haven't shifted, phosphate still tests zero. I saw something like this a couple of years ago when i had all the tank overflow water pass through the skimmer - it stripped too much of something. At that time, no algae grew even with phosphate as high as 0.2!
I checked my Calcium and alkalinity numbers last night and they both were a bit low after being very stable for a few weeks - 6.8 and 380ppm. I bumped up the Calcium and increased the dosing of both parts to try to keep Alk at 7 and Calcium at between 400 and 420.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Interesting about the something ... it's always something.
Sorry, best I could do. I appreciate the update and detail, really helps trying to fine tune my own observations.
If something I post helps, even a bit, then its worth it. Plus it gives me somewhere to talk about the reef. The wife loves the reef, but not so much that she wants to hear about skimmers and nitrate levels and such:lol:
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I added some new fish to the group today, and I hopefully will be getting a leopard wrasse or two on Tuesday. I have been wanting some wrasses in the SPS tank but It is bare bottom. Lots of people suggested a container of sand but I didn't want something out of place in there. I ended up coming up with a reptile water dish made to look like stone:Q
And I got three Huchtii Anthias - after the "Goldfish comment" story from Biggles, I can't look at orange Anthias the same way again.
And a red Dragonette:
That brings my BFC up to 1.43 Biggles!:hb2::wavehand:
I also got a sweet blue tipped stag horn Acropora:
And I got three Huchtii Anthias - after the "Goldfish comment" story from Biggles, I can't look at orange Anthias the same way again.
And a red Dragonette:
That brings my BFC up to 1.43 Biggles!:hb2::wavehand:
I also got a sweet blue tipped stag horn Acropora:
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