spyro
Member
I have approsimately 500 gallons of total water volume in my system. My display tank is 300 gallons, frag tank is 30 gallons and refugium is 50 gallons, sump is 100 gallons.
I few weeks ago I purchased a Sander 200 mg/hr ozone generator and built a DIY ozone reactor. I ran the generator off of my Octopus 3000 controller via X10 that turns off both the air pump and the generator. I never reached the preset 350 mV set in my controller. I was running my ozone generator 24/7 at full strength, assuming that my controller would preclude a need to manually turn the generator off or adjust the output down to a lower level.
At first everything was great! My water quality improved dramatically, the hair algae and red cotton candy algae dissappeared and the corals colored up and all looked healthier than ever. During the first week or so I also reduced my photoperiod and moved my MH lamps from 6 inches above the tank to around 18 inches from the top of the tank.
Then around the end of the first week I noticed a little bleaching on one of my acros. So I further reduced the photoperiod and actually stopped running the 2 400 Watt MH bulbs and only ran the remaining 4 250 Watt bulbs. The bleaching continued and I got worried so I then began wondering if something else other than light was the culprit.
About day 8 I decided to clean and recalibrate my ORP probe (NOTE that this was done before ozone was introduced at the beginning of this journey). The ORP probe calibrated succesfully and I placed it back in the tank. The acros continued to bleach so I cleaned the probe again and calibrated it two days later. I also turned down the ozone to half of the max.. It was still tough to get the ORP to stay over 300 mV.
When I found that my acros continued to bleach, on day 11-12 I shut off the ozone generator completely. Then I looked a little more closely at my ORP probe and found that I could verify its performance using the calibration fluids (pH 4 and pH 7 mixed with Quinhydrone) The ORP for the pH 7 and pH 4 solutions were measured to be 340 and 356 respectively as opposed to the correct values of 86 and 263 mv.
My probe was bad even though it calibrated ok. I figured that my controller was not being shut off and that the ORP must have gone through the roof.....but never validated this to be the case.
Now, about 2 weeks later with a new calibrated ORP probe and no ozone, the ORP is around 350 mV at night and 330 mv during the day. My acros continue to bleach and no algae or cyano is growing. I do not even get green algae on the front of my tank. that previously had to be cleaned every 2 days. I figured that my tank is nutrient starved, so I measured the Phosphate level and got .03 ppm which means that there are nutrients in the water, right?
Meanwhile the acros continue to bleach, the LPS are ok, the Heteractis is fine, the Haddoni is fine, the clams are happy, and the fish have not shown any ill effects.
Any theories on why the acros continue to bleach or how to mitigate teh bleaching would be appreciated. Also, suggestion regarding any other parameters that I could measure to determine weather or not my tank is nutrient starved would be welcome. Any other sugestion would also be gladly appreciated.
I few weeks ago I purchased a Sander 200 mg/hr ozone generator and built a DIY ozone reactor. I ran the generator off of my Octopus 3000 controller via X10 that turns off both the air pump and the generator. I never reached the preset 350 mV set in my controller. I was running my ozone generator 24/7 at full strength, assuming that my controller would preclude a need to manually turn the generator off or adjust the output down to a lower level.
At first everything was great! My water quality improved dramatically, the hair algae and red cotton candy algae dissappeared and the corals colored up and all looked healthier than ever. During the first week or so I also reduced my photoperiod and moved my MH lamps from 6 inches above the tank to around 18 inches from the top of the tank.
Then around the end of the first week I noticed a little bleaching on one of my acros. So I further reduced the photoperiod and actually stopped running the 2 400 Watt MH bulbs and only ran the remaining 4 250 Watt bulbs. The bleaching continued and I got worried so I then began wondering if something else other than light was the culprit.
About day 8 I decided to clean and recalibrate my ORP probe (NOTE that this was done before ozone was introduced at the beginning of this journey). The ORP probe calibrated succesfully and I placed it back in the tank. The acros continued to bleach so I cleaned the probe again and calibrated it two days later. I also turned down the ozone to half of the max.. It was still tough to get the ORP to stay over 300 mV.
When I found that my acros continued to bleach, on day 11-12 I shut off the ozone generator completely. Then I looked a little more closely at my ORP probe and found that I could verify its performance using the calibration fluids (pH 4 and pH 7 mixed with Quinhydrone) The ORP for the pH 7 and pH 4 solutions were measured to be 340 and 356 respectively as opposed to the correct values of 86 and 263 mv.
My probe was bad even though it calibrated ok. I figured that my controller was not being shut off and that the ORP must have gone through the roof.....but never validated this to be the case.
Now, about 2 weeks later with a new calibrated ORP probe and no ozone, the ORP is around 350 mV at night and 330 mv during the day. My acros continue to bleach and no algae or cyano is growing. I do not even get green algae on the front of my tank. that previously had to be cleaned every 2 days. I figured that my tank is nutrient starved, so I measured the Phosphate level and got .03 ppm which means that there are nutrients in the water, right?
Meanwhile the acros continue to bleach, the LPS are ok, the Heteractis is fine, the Haddoni is fine, the clams are happy, and the fish have not shown any ill effects.
Any theories on why the acros continue to bleach or how to mitigate teh bleaching would be appreciated. Also, suggestion regarding any other parameters that I could measure to determine weather or not my tank is nutrient starved would be welcome. Any other sugestion would also be gladly appreciated.
