My 1300 gallon addiction: A Miami reef build story.
- Thread starter DannyDJD
- Start date
So I tested last night and the parameters are:
Phosphates - what's looks to be slightly less than 0.03 (an improvement)
Nitrates - 25ppm
Alkalinity - 7.3 (dosed 250ml Alk which testing tonight should reveal what that accomplished) I plan on programming Bubble Magus tonight based on rough estimates)
PH - 8.1
Calcium - 450ppm
Salinity - between 1.024 and 1.025 (probably going to add a 50 gallon bag of SeaChem reef salt tonight to boost a bit)
I totally forgot to test Magnesium but I will retest everything tonight.
If I decide to stay with Rowaphos/GFO for the time being until I decide on a Lanthanum Chloride dosing protocol, I think 1.75-2L of media will put me right around an undetectable level of phosphate...
Phosphates - what's looks to be slightly less than 0.03 (an improvement)
Nitrates - 25ppm
Alkalinity - 7.3 (dosed 250ml Alk which testing tonight should reveal what that accomplished) I plan on programming Bubble Magus tonight based on rough estimates)
PH - 8.1
Calcium - 450ppm
Salinity - between 1.024 and 1.025 (probably going to add a 50 gallon bag of SeaChem reef salt tonight to boost a bit)
I totally forgot to test Magnesium but I will retest everything tonight.
If I decide to stay with Rowaphos/GFO for the time being until I decide on a Lanthanum Chloride dosing protocol, I think 1.75-2L of media will put me right around an undetectable level of phosphate...
My plan was/is to mix it with RODI water (probably a couple of gallons worth) overnight until it's concentrated but thoroughly mixed, and then slowly over the course of a few hours, pour that mix into the sump...probably over the filter floss to catch any remaining larger unmixed particulates. That way the concentrated mix can dilute more before hitting the main display. No good?
woodnaquanut
Active member
NO GOOD!
Salt mixes won't mix in a concentrated form. New insoluble compounds will be formed and won't ever dissolve.
You always want to mix the salt in the final volume of water at normal concentrations.
deaclauderdale
Lover of Fishies
My understanding is that you can mix water at a higher salinity and gradually raise the salinity in the tank over time rather than trying to fix it in one swoop.
woodnaquanut
Active member
It's at ~1.024 now, right?
How are you testing? Is the test calibrated?
You could just do WCs with slightly higher new water. 1.027 or so should raise it slowly, but raise it. After a few WC you'll be there.
Maybe a few smaller frequent water changes would be the simple less invasive method of gradually increasing salinity. It is around 1.024, so says my refractomerer...which I believe to be calibrated ok.
Buffing glass??? Peter Diaz from Vivid Clear Glass/Great Ocean Aquariums buffed out the entire tank and even though I thought there weren't too many scratches to start with, it made a WORLD of a difference. The clarity of the perfectly buffed out low iron glass is insane. PM me if you want his contact info.
Buffing glass??? Peter Diaz from Vivid Clear Glass/Great Ocean Aquariums buffed out the entire tank and even though I thought there weren't too many scratches to start with, it made a WORLD of a difference. The clarity of the perfectly buffed out low iron glass is insane. PM me if you want his contact info.
McPuff
New member
This would be my suggestion as well. Just use saltwater as your top off water until you reach the desired alkalinity.
So Peter and I spent some time adding blue mesh (I forget the exact name but it's now being sold on BRS) to the sump area, in particular between some weirs and surrounding the hammerhead return inlet, in an attempt to reduce micro bubbles in the display. It was successful in the sense that we probably reduced the visible amount by more than half, but we both think the large amount of flow via the drains/returns, along with the two waveline DC12000 closed loops, needs to valved back a bit. Adding more blue mesh to the external overflow and possibly raising the water level in the overflow (to avoid the now 6+ inch drop) will help...we'll see.
On the parameters front, I added another 0.5L of Rowaphos to the reactor and am hoping that (2L total) will be what brings my phosphates down to non-detectable. I've added more of the corals I had in the previous system, to include some that had been hurting in my previous system and with the tank transition. I'll post some pics of those corals tomorrow. Calcium is steady at 450, and magnesium was a bit low at 1190. I dosed another 200ml of alkalinity as I've been dosing and testing to see how to best program the doser. On Thursday it was at 7.3, at which time I dosed 300ml. Two days passed and it was at 8.2. I will test tomorrow to see what the 200ml I added today did, and begin dialing it in for a daily dose soon. My goal is to keep it consistently at 9-10dkh.
Now, back to organizing the fish room...More pics to come!
On the parameters front, I added another 0.5L of Rowaphos to the reactor and am hoping that (2L total) will be what brings my phosphates down to non-detectable. I've added more of the corals I had in the previous system, to include some that had been hurting in my previous system and with the tank transition. I'll post some pics of those corals tomorrow. Calcium is steady at 450, and magnesium was a bit low at 1190. I dosed another 200ml of alkalinity as I've been dosing and testing to see how to best program the doser. On Thursday it was at 7.3, at which time I dosed 300ml. Two days passed and it was at 8.2. I will test tomorrow to see what the 200ml I added today did, and begin dialing it in for a daily dose soon. My goal is to keep it consistently at 9-10dkh.
Now, back to organizing the fish room...More pics to come!
Relientkiid
New member
Would really love to see some more full tank shots 
SS_Sean
New member
That's what I'm dosing... better than running through a lot of GFO...:thumbsup:
