my rice experiment

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Update

Update

Well it's been a little over 60 hours since I brought my rice reactor online at 2:00pm est. 7-17-10. The haze in my water is pretty much undetectable. I haven't noticed a real decline in the algae on my glass. I have no cyno in my tank. All livestock appear normal, corals have same coloration, and polyp extention. All softies and lps show no changes. All filters feeders and clams normal. All water params nominal

SG 1.026
Ph 8.1 (normal for night)
Ammo 0
trites 0
trates 0 undetectible
PO4 0 undetectible
Mag 1380 +/- 5
Kh 9
Calc 440-460
Orp 287mV (320-340 normal)

Over all, my skimmer is the most active I have ever seen it however there is no coating on the surface of the water in my sump so I belive it is not overloaded. I have noticed a couple small pieces of rice in the reactor have broken, I believe it is from the very rapid tumble of the rice in my reactor and will continue to keep a close eye on this. Also the rice is begining to turn brown. I know that this experiment is very controversial and considered "out there", however I can only imagine the comments the first person to try vodka dosing heard. I would like to add that at the first sign of trouble I am prepared to take the rice reactor offline, do an emergency water change and run a reactor filled with activated carbon.
 
icycoral said:
Well it's been a little over 60 hours since I brought my rice reactor online at 2:00pm est. 7-17-10. The haze in my water is pretty much undetectable. I haven't noticed a real decline in the algae on my glass. I have no cyno in my tank. All livestock appear normal, corals have same coloration, and polyp extention. All softies and lps show no changes. All filters feeders and clams normal. All water params nominal

SG 1.026
Ph 8.1 (normal for night)
Ammo 0
trites 0
trates 0 undetectible
PO4 0 undetectible
Mag 1380 +/- 5
Kh 9
Calc 440-460
Orp 287mV (320-340 normal)

Over all, my skimmer is the most active I have ever seen it however there is no coating on the surface of the water in my sump so I belive it is not overloaded. I have noticed a couple small pieces of rice in the reactor have broken, I believe it is from the very rapid tumble of the rice in my reactor and will continue to keep a close eye on this. Also the rice is begining to turn brown. I know that this experiment is very controversial and considered "out there", however I can only imagine the comments the first person to try vodka dosing heard. I would like to add that at the first sign of trouble I am prepared to take the rice reactor offline, do an emergency water change and run a reactor filled with activated carbon.
Click to expand...


sounds like a good plan u have there, but I dont think u'll need it. :)
my rice has got a very slight tint of yellow, but not browning at all. regarding the rice breaking, I dont think my rice has broken, but that could also be because I'm using short grain vs ur long grain.
 
highlandreefer, as promised
c560e451.jpg


rice in a bottle of RO water. will let it sit for 24 hrs and test for no3 and po4 (if I can get a po4 kit soon).

icycoral, can you try the same as well?
 
the water in the bottle is a little hazy because I decided not to fully wash it, it was washed, but not a lot
I wanted to see if the rice dust has anything to do with the po4/no3
 
72 hour update

everything seems fine, other than the haze but there are few points that I've noted.

1.no3 is stable at aroun 2.5ppm, this is what my no3 was before this experiment.
2.po4 is also very close to zero, again this is the same as before the experiment. but the difference here is I'm no longer running GFO.
3.dino is ever so slightly less
4.cyno is growning, but at a very very slow rate, the last time I dosed vodka, cyno took over my trank in a day or two
5.fish are perfectly fine, corals are good. LPS like my candy cane are more extended than normal. torch and frogspawns are the same as before (they had good extension).
6.skimmer is still skimming like a champ, and its really starting to stink when I just open up the cabinet
7.all other parameters are normal and no real changes.
8.One major difference is that GHA on certain parts is turning brown and dieing off (only noted on my powerhead), other parts its getting loose from the rock and disappearing, and some parts its turning white and dieing.
9.my class is no longer getting coated with algae like before, its been 3 days and no issues with it. BUT I am getting a white film on the glass, I presume this is because of the bacterial bloom that I'm experiencing right now.
10. this is the second day of the haze, and I think its reached its peak and will go away within a day or two.
11. lastly, my chaeto is starting to show some brownish edges, I'm presuming that it is not getting enough nutrients.
 
I've decided to pull out some algae from trouble spots and see if it regrows back or I remain algae free, plus the nutrients will help my chaeto
:)
 
update
I havent pulled out the algae yet, but will do that either today or tomorrow.

I just cleaned the skimmer cup, and I think the skimmer cup should be cleaned every 12-15 hours or so at least for the first few days. even though my cup was not full, the skimmate was getting really dark and nasty and it smelled really bad.....so at this point I think its better to skim wet and clean cup often
 
quick update

my chaeto is definitely dieing since the edges are becoming brownish and starting to die off, I presume this is because there isnt enough nutrients for it to grow......definitely a good sign, although I would like to keep some chaeto for my pods to hide
 
kkil4life - I don't intend to say that the rice will not work or sound like a jerky nay-sayer.

As an alternative to biopellets, rice makes sense as a carbon source. I wanted to convey the idea that there could be unforseen variables with rice decomposition, since they are plant seeds and not uniformly homogenous plastic pellets. There are layers of membranes, cell walls, and various complex carbohydrates to contend with, versus a single mass of polymer.

And if this works long term, I may jump on the rice-wagon too. And like I said before, props to you, icycoral, and aurora for testing this out for the rest of us.
 
thebanker said:
kkil4life - I don't intend to say that the rice will not work or sound like a jerky nay-sayer.

As an alternative to biopellets, rice makes sense as a carbon source. I wanted to convey the idea that there could be unforseen variables with rice decomposition, since they are plant seeds and not uniformly homogenous plastic pellets. There are layers of membranes, cell walls, and various complex carbohydrates to contend with, versus a single mass of polymer.

And if this works long term, I may jump on the rice-wagon too. And like I said before, props to you, icycoral, and aurora for testing this out for the rest of us.
Click to expand...

banker, no offence taken. its always better to have everyones opinion.
like I said before, this experiment is to prove if rice is a sustainable source of carbon dosing to reduce N and P.
if it works, we'll call it "KkiLing N+P method", if it doesn't atleast all of us tried something new
:)
 
quick update
tank is getting cloudier, and I think this will last atleast a few more days
the skimmer chamber of the sump has a think film on top......looks like this is all the same as the bio-pellets
 
I turned the flow down in my reactor to push more thru my chiller as they run on the same pump.
this was completely unrelated and just done to increase efficiency of the chiller.
the rice is still tumbling, although now its more a gentle tumble.
will update more in the morning
 
Update

Update

Hi y'all here's an update on my experience with the rice reactor experiment. Well it's been about 80 hrs since I've brought my rice reactor online. Today I noticed a substantial decrease in the algae growth on my glass, next to nothing compared to the past few days. Skimmer is very active still pulling some pretty smelly skimmate(before this experiment it really didn't pull much). Still not seeing any coating on the surface of the water in my sump. My tank water is just about crystal clear again. The rice has not broken up anymore and has stayed the same color from yesterday. This morning I swear I noticed a sweet ricey smell coming from my tank (no joke). All water params still normal ph was a Little higher today 8.2-8.3 and orp 280mV. As for my tank inhabitants I noticed four disturbing things today. My basket starfish (which I absolutely loved) was in real bad shape this morning, it looked like it's legs were melting off. By the end of the day I moved it to another tank as a last ditch effort to save it, but I am sure this will be the last time I saw my basket star alive. Going to miss my friend very much :( . The other critter I lost was a stomatella snail. I think the losses were due to the high levels of bacteria that are probably present in my water. Also today I noticed my devils hand leather didn't have any polyp extention and my green milli had poor polyp extention. The leather may be getting ready to shed (I hope). And the millie which I nicknamed the wookie because it had the crazyist polyp extention I've seen I can't explain. All the other corals, snails, crabs, tube worms, shrimp, and clams seem fine. Actually a few corals are showing better polyp extension like my tri-color. Lps and softies appear normal also. If I experience any more loss of livestock (I really mean friends) I will be ending this experiment (sadly)

The basket star 2 months ago, I will miss him :sad2:
<a href="http://s810.photobucket.com/albums/zz24/Eb06260/?action=view&current=02543674.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz24/Eb06260/02543674.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>
The stomatella today, his name was speedy:
<a href="http://s810.photobucket.com/albums/zz24/Eb06260/?action=view&current=cf1b6a0b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz24/Eb06260/cf1b6a0b.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>
 
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hate loosing things in a tank you've had long enough to grow attached to...

hope theres no more troubles w/ this experiment as I'm looking forward to trying it myself.

From what I've read so far, I suspect rice is quite a bit more biologically available than the pellets so it may actually take quite a bit less. It seems at least 2 of the systems that have tried it at least visabely had dramatic nutrient system drops. I'm waiting for my salt to show up before I start mine. My system is about 100 gallons low right now as I ran out of salt filling the 300.
 
icycoral, u said that ur skimmer wasn't pulling much gunk out before this experiment.
I think ur tahnk maight have been oxygen deprived.
I think u need to add an extra airstone or powerhead with venturi in ur sump or something of that sort. in all carbon dosing, you need to have very good oxygenation.

I have approx 5000gph flow from my powerheads, plus my quietone 5000 return approx 1200gph, plus my skimmer, plus another powehead in the fuge, also my tank is open top.

I suggest u do something about flow ASAP.
 
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