My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics

[slief]

Thanks guys! The new fish are all doing really well. I love that new 6 line and I am especially glad all my wrasses seem to be getting along great. My little 6 line follows the new one all over the tank which is kind of interesting. The big one could care less about it which is just as well too.

I decided to do my semi annual Po4 testing and not surprisingly, my Po4 leves are high.
I was kind of expecting a somewhat high reading given that I have a bit of cyano in a few spots. Not a big deal. I've learned it's Just par for course The results were about .14 ppm according to my Hanna ULR Phosphorus tester which is fairly close to where I was expecting them to be. I'm not surprised given my excessive feeding habits, the age of my system and also the fact that I haven't changed GFO in a few months.

That said, this is nothing out of the norm for my tank and every 6 or so months I do my routine LaCl dose. As such, it's time to drop the Po4 levels. I setup my trusty IV bag with a liter of RODI and 5ml of LaCl. I dose at a rate of 1 drop per second into a 10 micron sock. I've been using this method for a few years now with great result and absolutely no issues with my fish or the water clouding. I have my dosing process and amount down to a science. This process will take about 6 to 7 hours to complete during which time I continually monitor the tank for the any signs of clouding and the fish for any signs of heavy breathing while also watching my filter socks for signs of them backing up. When they begin to back up, I swap the sock for a fresh 10 micron sock. As I said, I've used this process for the last 3-4 years and never once had any signs of water clouding or any signs of distress on my fish, corals or anemones.

This treatment should drop my Po4 level down by about .06 - .07ppm. My expected target is around .07 - .08 ppm Po4.. I may do another half dose in a day or two depending the results as I usually try to get it to .04 -.05ppm over 2 days. My water volume has increased by about 30 gallons since my last dosing so the above target is a guesstimate based on my inceased volume and my experience using this formula. Will update later once I'm done with the treatment and do another Po4 test..

The tools..

Dosing straight into the 10 micron sock with good flow from the tank.

 

[pmrossetti]

The coralline almost looks like coins on the bottom

 

[slief]

The coralline almost looks like coins on the bottom

I've got little coraline mountains that have formed on the bottom and thick plates that have lengthend my rocks. The stuff grows like weeds in my tank. The bottom is nearly completely covered.

My LaCl dosing finished up at 7PM yesterday. Exactly 8 hours to dose the 1 liter mixture. End results appear to be about .06 according to the test I just ran. I will run another test a bit later to confirm.

On an unrelated note that I failed to mention yesterday. My cowfish was lost yesterday. This happened before my LaCl dose. Earlier last week his color looked pale. He wasn't eating as much as he normally does ether. The last few days his appetite decreased. He ate the night before but not much. Not sure what happened. He looked fine when I found him with no signs of distress but when I woke up yesterday he was acting weird which worried me.

Given that I have had several of these cowfish over the years and seen similar instances, I am not sure if I will get another. I absolutely love them but they are a pain and very needy when it comes to hand feeding because they can't compete for food with the bigger fish. My life would be easier without one, that is for sure. Still it's tough because I've had this one for over a year now and he as personality plus. I may have to get anther one. We will see.

 

[maroun.c]

Sorry about the Tamarins, tough ones to keep alive but amazing to have if one gets lucky with a good specimen.
Love all the additions.
One comment abuot the LaCl dosing, do you see any side effects to the rather sudden drop from 0.14 to 0.6? I'd check the levels in a couple o f days after the dosing as what I'm getting after a PO4 drop is that rocks or sand will leach to normalize their content with surrounding water content which means a rapid drop of PO4 followed by a rather quick raise of PO4 due to leaching which ends up ticking some corals in the tank

 

[slief]

Sorry about the Tamarins, tough ones to keep alive but amazing to have if one gets lucky with a good specimen.
Love all the additions.
One comment abuot the LaCl dosing, do you see any side effects to the rather sudden drop from 0.14 to 0.6? I'd check the levels in a couple o f days after the dosing as what I'm getting after a PO4 drop is that rocks or sand will leach to normalize their content with surrounding water content which means a rapid drop of PO4 followed by a rather quick raise of PO4 due to leaching which ends up ticking some corals in the tank

I've been using this method for a number of years now without any issues. My Po4 levels will remain low and slowly rise over the course of months. In a couple days there will be little to no change despite embedded Po4 leaching out of the rocks. I've verified this a number of times.

The only side effect I see after the drop is my anemones are a bit ticked off for a couple days following and don't open as much as they normally do. I've come to expect that. It's not a big deal though as they always rebound within a couple days. Everything else is just fine. My softies don't seem to notice it at all. Just the two RBTA's remain a bit smaller.

 

[pmrossetti]

Sorry about your cowfish Scott.
Seems like a great tank for him.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

I agree. Sorry for your loss.

 

[805reef]

How do you like the Kessils after having them running for a while now? I am thinking of upgrading my tank, thinking of a 80x36x24... and I think I might go with Kessils on it.

 

[slief]

How do you like the Kessils after having them running for a while now? I am thinking of upgrading my tank, thinking of a 80x36x24... and I think I might go with Kessils on it.

I love them! My corals and anemones seem to love them too. I like the control via my Apex, I love the shimmer, I like their compact form factor which in conjunction with my mounting setup allows me to aim them where I need the light most and they have great output.

 

[slief]

Sorry about your cowfish Scott.
Seems like a great tank for him.

I agree. Sorry for your loss.

Thanks guys! It's par for course in his hobby. I miss him but I don't think I will be adding another cowfish any time soon. Feeding is easier without having to worry about him getting enough food and not worrying about him picking at corals if he's not full enough.


On an unrelated note.. I picked up a Geo 818 Calcium reactor today from a local forum member. The thing is huge!! I will be adding that to my system in the next week or so. My Goal is to improve calcium and Alk levels. My coraline growth is dropping my Ca levels. I ran a test this weekend and they were at 350 which is kind of low. My alk was 9 which is decent enough.

I need to get my Co2 tanks refilled. I've had a couple 30 gallon Co2 tanks that I have had many years as I had a calcium reactor several years ago. My plan is to feed this thing with a Cole Parmer Masterflex dosing pump so I am working on getting one of those as well. In the past I ran them via a manifold or small pump and controlled the effluent via the needle valve but I don't like dealing with fluctuations caused my changes in flow so I will use the Masterflex to control the flow instead which should prove to be much more consistent and reliable.

 

[slief]

This thing is much bigger than the Knop HD Calcium Reactors that I ran years back.. Now i just need the dosing pump and Co2 refills.

 

[biecacka]

Great looking skimmer buddy!!!

Corey

 

[pmrossetti]

WOW, Quite a reactor Scott!!!

 

[slief]

Great looking skimmer buddy!!!

Corey

:beer:

WOW, Quite a reactor Scott!!!

Thanks! It should be going in Thursday provided that the Cole Parmer medical pump that I will be using to feed the reactor arrives by then.

In the mean time, I am finally getting around to installing the Royal Exclusiv/Bubble King RD3 Speedy pump in place of my Dart Gold recirculation pump. The RD3 will be controlled via my Apex and and it will have a ramp up and ramp down profile. Not sure that the ramp up and ramp down will be usefull though as I can't ramp it up and down fast enough to really sync with my Tunze's. If nothing else, it will give me the added benifit of controlling the flow through my UV unit since my UV is plumbed inline on the recirculation pump. This new pump has a bit less flow than the Dart it's replacing but given the way my recirculation lines are plumbed, the Dart is already restricted. This pump will reduce my power consumption by about 100 watts while also reducing a substantial amount of heat transfer. Hopefully that doesn't create an issue with my temps during the winter. I guess I will find out soon enough. In the summer it will be a welcome benifit.


The swap will be done in a little bit. I will keep my Dart Gold that this new pump is replacing as the backup pump and sell my standard dart backup pump. Below are couple photos of the new pump sitting next to my backup standard Dart recirc pump. Clearly the Dart dwarfs it. The new pump is plumbed so that it can be swapped in and out in a moments notice.

It's replacing the pump on the left.

 

[worm5406]

What about power draw for the other pump? What is it rated for?

 

[slief]

What about power draw for the other pump? What is it rated for?

The Reeflo Dart Gold is rated at 170 watts. The new pump is 80 watts... According to my Apex, that E8 want from 4.4 amps to 3.7 amps. A total reduction .7 amps or 77 watts. It's silent and runs cold. The Dart was comparatively hot. I'm sure my summertime temps should be reduced a bit. The flow is noticeably less. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Granted this pump was used for blowing out under the rocks which it still will do. Just maybe not with as much force. I will have to observe things tomorrow. When I got the pump in, my Tunzes were in dusk/dawn mode which is a very mellow surge. As such, flow was already compromised when I got the pump fired up and couldn't come to a conclusion as to whether it will be enough flow for my liking.

 

[Raul-7]

Nice upgrade!

And great job and polishing the acrylic, looks brand new.

 

[Klaus Jansen]

Hi Scott,

nice Setup ... i think the DC-RD3-Speedy 230 Watt/20.000 Liter(5400 gallons) pump was the right powerful Pump for you . We show it by Reefapalooza in Orlando to the public...
The new Pump coming with 10 Volt connection to Apex and W-Lan on the PCB-Card....

best regards ... Klaus

 

[slief]

Hi Scott,

nice Setup ... i think the DC-RD3-Speedy 230 Watt/20.000 Liter(5400 gallons) pump was the right powerful Pump for you . We show it by Reefapalooza in Orlando to the public...
The new Pump coming with 10 Volt connection to Apex and W-Lan on the PCB-Card....

best regards ... Klaus

Thanks for the heads up Klaus! I did set this one up on my Apex. I was able to get a 0-10v controller for it although I am not sure I will be able to take advantage of that feature as I need all the flow I can get. Your 230 watt unit would be the ideal pump for my system. Hopefully one of those will be in my future!

 

[dave.m]

Just a thought on your calcium reactor (meaning you can totally disregard this if you like), for safety's sake I prefer the twin-reactor type so that there is so much less chance of too low pH water going back into the system. You might consider adding a second reactor of calcium media for the effluent to flow through before going back to the sump - just in case. Like chicken soup, "it can't hoit."

Dave.M