My 280g Custom upgrade.....

Dustin1300 said:
How did you bring down the phosphates and nitrates?
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Instead of doing large water changes I have been doing smaller changes (20g-30g) while focussing on cleaning up the sand bed and blasting sediment out of the rocks. I was really neglectful with the sand bed and after seeing what came out of the tank, I would want to die if I had to live in there. I also increased the flow and added another 1hr to the photo period on the scrubber. I dont think those changes would have had an immediate impact on the numbers so I am leaning towards the removal of the detritus and water changes. I ordered the micron filter socks and they should arrive tomorrow or thursday. I will administer a 1l course of LC with a 1.5ml of LC to 1l of rodi solution over the weekend.

Rotknee said:
Steve, have you given any thought to solid carbon dosing? Given all the changes to your system now may be a time to give it a shot? I'm a big fan of the Warner Marine ecoBAK pellets. They keep my P04 at 0 (Hanna) and Nitrates are undetectable as well. I feed probably way more than I should and parameters stay in the desirable range.

Anyway, glad to hear you are fighting the good fight and sounds like you are having fun again.

Stay Up!:thumbsup:
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Rodney, did you get your new lights yet??? I havent really given pellets too much consideration yet but have done some minor reading about using pellets.
 
No lights yet. GHL won't be shipping to people who ordered in the first round until the 3rd week of this month. 3reef has a good read on biopellets where Warner comments directly. Good background info.
 
SPotter said:
Instead of doing large water changes I have been doing smaller changes (20g-30g) while focussing on cleaning up the sand bed and blasting sediment out of the rocks. I was really neglectful with the sand bed and after seeing what came out of the tank, I would want to die if I had to live in there.
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Hey Steve! You would die if you lived in an aquarium!

I am glad that you are back at it with renewed energy. When I did my water change this week, I also blasted some of my rock towers to get some cyano off them. I did a couple things different this time when I cleaned my tank which you might find helpful.

I connected a 30" piece of 3/4" PVC via a hose to an old mag-drive. I attached an elbow and another 3" piece of PVC and added a loc-line flare nozzle. The pressure from the mag-drive just blew the cyano and crud off the rocks. It worked amazingly well. I then added a longer hose to my gravel vacuum and recycled the water (capturing the waste) through a filter sock in my sump.

Good luck with everything! Can't wait to see updated photos.
 
danfeig said:
Hey Steve! You would die if you lived in an aquarium!

I am glad that you are back at it with renewed energy. When I did my water change this week, I also blasted some of my rock towers to get some cyano off them. I did a couple things different this time when I cleaned my tank which you might find helpful.

I connected a 30" piece of 3/4" PVC via a hose to an old mag-drive. I attached an elbow and another 3" piece of PVC and added a loc-line flare nozzle. The pressure from the mag-drive just blew the cyano and crud off the rocks. It worked amazingly well. I then added a longer hose to my gravel vacuum and recycled the water (capturing the waste) through a filter sock in my sump.

Good luck with everything! Can't wait to see updated photos.
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Thats a great tool you created!!! I was thinking about ways I could vacuum while recirculating the water back into the system. Thanks for the idea!!!
 
Rotknee said:
No lights yet. GHL won't be shipping to people who ordered in the first round until the 3rd week of this month. 3reef has a good read on biopellets where Warner comments directly. Good background info.
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Thanks for the link Rodney. I started reading it and its definitely an interesting thread.
 
Newbie Aquarist said:
I see now. I must have overlooked that post. What did you mean in the last sentence about the LC?
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LC is lanthanum chloride found in products like phosfree and seaklear. take a look at the link to a thread in post #713 by dustin. I used phosfree when I was cooking the pukani rock from brs.

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IMO, detritus in the tank is not the cause of rising N and P. I have read in many places that you really shouldn't touch/siphon the gravel/sand bed, just leave it alone or at best, just siphon the very surface. I've read about blowing off the rocks and running filter socks to catch it, using vortechs, etc, but I don't do either on the 2 reef tanks I take care of and haven't for years and I don't have any N and P problems attributable to not doing those things. One tank has always been very low N and low P, the other is my personal tank which I test a few things on and even then the N and P are not out of control.

Steve, you may want to pay attention to the Algae Scrubber Basics thread. Srusso came up with a pretty good theory for increasing scrubber efficiency, tested it on his tank, and had immediate results. I'm going to be doing the same ASAP...
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
IMO, detritus in the tank is not the cause of rising N and P. I have read in many places that you really shouldn't touch/siphon the gravel/sand bed, just leave it alone or at best, just siphon the very surface. I've read about blowing off the rocks and running filter socks to catch it, using vortechs, etc, but I don't do either on the 2 reef tanks I take care of and haven't for years and I don't have any N and P problems attributable to not doing those things. One tank has always been very low N and low P, the other is my personal tank which I test a few things on and even then the N and P are not out of control.

Steve, you may want to pay attention to the Algae Scrubber Basics thread. Srusso came up with a pretty good theory for increasing scrubber efficiency, tested it on his tank, and had immediate results. I'm going to be doing the same ASAP...
Click to expand...

I just looked and he hasnt posted the document yet. whats he doing?
 
He's still working on it. I just don't want to spoil it for him. It may or may not apply to everyone, depending on husbandry. But it certainly explains something for some of us.
 
IMO having no dead spots what so ever in the tank is key. If the detritus doesn't get a chance to settle anywhere in the display tank before it makes it into the overflow box and either gets caught in a filer sock or skimmed out it will ensure no N and P.
 
SURVIVING SPS PICTURES AND GENERAL UPDATES

So not too much going on but I have seen improvement in the tank and how the remaining sps are doing.

2012-09-12170952.jpg


2012-09-12171011.jpg


This one is showing several new chutes coming out of the base

2012-09-12170928.jpg


This setosa was almost white 3 weeks ago with no pe and thats all changed now

2012-09-12171002.jpg


This guy was totally white at one point but I decided to leave some of the skeletons in the tank just in case there was some tissue left on them. Its not a big frag but hopefully with time it will be

2012-09-12170936.jpg


NEW ADDITIOIN

I picked this up for $10 from a guy that just wanted to get it out of his tank because it was too big. Its been in my tank for a week and showing signs of growth.

2012-09-08210230-1.jpg


Water quality updates....

Nitrates are down to 2 using a salifert kit. I am still having issues getting accurate po4 readings. The hanna ulr checker has been all over the place with readings from .05 to .10 while the salifert kit is showing less than .03. Salifert kit doesnt read anything below .03 so I know I have po4 just dont know the exact level. I did discover that my 10ml line on my Hanna cuvettes is not actually 10ml...its more like 9.2ml and Ive seen posts in their forum about others stating the same thing. I also read that the po4 reagents will stain the glass over time which could also throw the reading off. Im pretty good about cleaning the cuvettes but they are a little over a year old so Im going to order some new ones today.

Fish are all fat and healthy, so I am trying to figure out my next addition to the tank.
 
Steve, I notice the same thing right off the bat with the Hanna cuvettes w/r to the 10mL line. I fill with a 5mL syringe and ignore the line.

For reference, I have always tested Alk with Salifert, and I get consistent readings. I bought the Hanna Checker Alk (same cuvettes) and tested the alk on that with the same 2x 5mL fill technique on 2 different tanks and cross checked with Salifert and came to nearly the precisely identical result. So my conclusion is to ignore the line and use a graduated syringe and your reading will be accurate.

W/R to the Hanna Checker Phosphate, here's my test procedure (forgive me if I posted this before, but this is also for anyone else)

1) open packet and pour contents onto creased index card
2) fill vial, wipe w/cleaning cloth, insert, calibrate checker
3) when calibrated, pour contents into vial, rock for 2 mins, wipe, insert vial
4) press and hold button to initiate timer
5) set kitchen timer for 3 minutes
6) check result

I then immediately clean the cuvette by running hot water into it and shaking it a few times, empty, fill, shake, repeat x10 or x15, then rinse with RO. In doing this (over a year of use) I have only alternated between the 2 original vials and have noticed no staining, and switching to a brand new vial had no differing effect. I think if you have P>1.0 and are testing weekly you might see some staining, it starts to turn really blue.

Oh crud I just read that you are using the ulr checker. Well I think the same procedure applies. So I'll post this anyways instead of considering the typing wasted time :)
 
Floyd, I never thought to measure the accuracy of the cuvettes until I read a few threads on it last night and sure enough the ones I use in my phosphorous kit were off but the ones in my alk checker were exactly 10ml.
 
That's interesting on the 10mL and guess I'll just use the syringe now too and see if mine is off! I found the Phosphate Hana Checker to be inaccurate and the ULR is much more accurate for me.

One think that's helped me is to make sure I empty all the reagent. I shake up the reagent in packet, get all powder into one corner of packet, take scissors and cut off two sides, and then roll the packet so it all empties out. This method has worked well and the reagent powder is always gone for me. I'm trying to find a video the way in which I starting using the reagent that way....

Just found it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e_EOWAkLTc
 
I saw that video this morning too and will try that method. I did order some new cuvettes also.

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