did u try rice or bio-pellets?
my rice experiment
- Thread starter kkil4life
- Start date
- Status
did u try rice or bio-pellets?
quick update
water is clearing up and is just a little hazy, looks kind of like when kalk water settles down.
all tank inhabitants are doing good.
shrooms and leather are shows signs of low nutrients
hair algae and other algae are slowly truing brown adn comming loose and dieing
chaeto is definitely dieing
caulerpa is not doing too good either
skimmer is still pulling out some nasty gunk
po4 levels will be updated later today
on a side note, will be testing the po4 and no3 levels on my RO water with rice
glass does not have algae growing on it, infact theres a thin layer of bacteria growing on the glass
will update with pics in a bit
water is clearing up and is just a little hazy, looks kind of like when kalk water settles down.
all tank inhabitants are doing good.
shrooms and leather are shows signs of low nutrients
hair algae and other algae are slowly truing brown adn comming loose and dieing
chaeto is definitely dieing
caulerpa is not doing too good either
skimmer is still pulling out some nasty gunk
po4 levels will be updated later today
on a side note, will be testing the po4 and no3 levels on my RO water with rice
glass does not have algae growing on it, infact theres a thin layer of bacteria growing on the glass
will update with pics in a bit
exactly what I thought as well, and that why icycoral needs to increase flow
or provide additional areation
khaosinc
The cyborg reefer
I'm planning on playing with the rice, but I have a skimmer upgrade coming first, and at the moment I'm out of salt (already ordered) so its on hold until A couple other things are done first.
day 4 update
I'm glad to say that everything is good, no tank inhabitants showing any signs of stress or any form of reaction to the rice.
haze starting to clear up this morning
look at the gha dieing on the powerhead
another pic of the powehead
yesterdays pic of the corner
and todays pic of the corner
you can see that the dino is almost gone, but cyno was starting up. now even the cyno is dieing away
I'm glad to say that everything is good, no tank inhabitants showing any signs of stress or any form of reaction to the rice.
haze starting to clear up this morning
look at the gha dieing on the powerhead
another pic of the powehead
yesterdays pic of the corner
and todays pic of the corner
you can see that the dino is almost gone, but cyno was starting up. now even the cyno is dieing away
quick update
I've begun to clean my powehead and other areas which I know had gha and other algae to see if it grows again there or remains clean
my class is almost spotless with the exception of white bacteria film, but that should fade away in a day or two
my water is becoming much more clearer
skimmer is still going nuts, well not so much, but is still pulling out massive amount of skimmate, almost a cup every day
is anyone else planning on getting on the rice wagon?
I've begun to clean my powehead and other areas which I know had gha and other algae to see if it grows again there or remains clean
my class is almost spotless with the exception of white bacteria film, but that should fade away in a day or two
my water is becoming much more clearer
skimmer is still going nuts, well not so much, but is still pulling out massive amount of skimmate, almost a cup every day
is anyone else planning on getting on the rice wagon?
icycoral
I glue animals to rocks
I hear ya on the aeration but think I have enough flow and circulation. I have a 45 gal 25x18x25h tank w Mag7 return to tank with no tee offs to other equipment, two koralia evo 750 gph and two koralia 1's on a wavemaker, and a koralia 1 in sump. My tank is open top and to help with cooling i have a small fan blowing across the top of it. I do have a tiny powerhead with a venturi I can toss in my sump. I have an oxygen test kit I will try out today. Just going to keep a close eye on things today.
noahm
Active member
It is the bacterial blooms that can wipe out the oxygen supply temporarily, so flow is not necessarily a good judgement of O2, though it does help. As to the basket star, they are bound to dismantle themselves after 6-12 months in all but the most ideal situations. Probably just the stick that broke the camel (basket star's) back.
icycoral
I glue animals to rocks
Dismantle themselves??? I did not know about this I couldn't find too much info on them can you plz tell me more. It looked like it was literally falling apart like taking Legos apart. As for my leather that didn't open it looks shiney like it is going to shed. Still haven't figured out what happend to the stomatella snail but today there are snail eggs all over my glass so I'm think g my water quality isn't too bad. Will try out the oxygen test kit a bit later.
coralnut99
New member
Along for a ride on the rice wagon. Many thanks to the folks trying this and all the work that goes into documenting it for the rest of us. I'm more than a bit perplexed that the rice hasn't broken down yet. I guess the water temp. just isn't high enough to cause it to break down the way you would expect it to after cooking. Given the cloudiness and skimmer effect, it would seem there's lots to be learned about what the optimal amount of rice actually is.
true, but it wouldn't hurt to put in another powehead with venturi in the sump
since this is the first experiment on rice, we're not even checking for optimal quantity or which type of rice. we're just checking if it works.
update
the local reef guru (lbaldrey on RC) came over and was kind enough to bring his elos po4 kit to test the water.
as promised and as per highlandreefer, approx 1/2 of rice was put into about 300ml of RO water for over 24hrs. keep in mind, that I purposely didn't wash this rice very well as I wanted to see how much it can leach.
you can see in the pic that I made a mistake and compared it to the MARINE chart rather than the freshwater chart.
it showed up as 0.01 po4 in the marine chart which is equal to 0.1 in the freshwater chart.
This shows that the rice does leach po4, but its so little that it can be completely ignored
now for the goodie.......
po4 test of my tank water
it didn't even register the color.....that LOW
looking at my tank today the LPS are also showing a little stress due to dramatic decrease in nutrients, but I hope this should all be sorted in a day or two.
so lets hear your opinions guys........
the local reef guru (lbaldrey on RC) came over and was kind enough to bring his elos po4 kit to test the water.
as promised and as per highlandreefer, approx 1/2 of rice was put into about 300ml of RO water for over 24hrs. keep in mind, that I purposely didn't wash this rice very well as I wanted to see how much it can leach.
you can see in the pic that I made a mistake and compared it to the MARINE chart rather than the freshwater chart.
it showed up as 0.01 po4 in the marine chart which is equal to 0.1 in the freshwater chart.
This shows that the rice does leach po4, but its so little that it can be completely ignored
now for the goodie.......
po4 test of my tank water
it didn't even register the color.....that LOW
looking at my tank today the LPS are also showing a little stress due to dramatic decrease in nutrients, but I hope this should all be sorted in a day or two.
so lets hear your opinions guys........
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¤t=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¤t=cf1b6a0b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz24/Eb06260/cf1b6a0b.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos" /></a>
In all fairness. Those two guys are going to be your 2 pickiest residents. They may have cashed out simply because of the rapidity of the bio-chemical change. Basket stars, much like crinoids don't do well with sudden change. Stomatellas can behave the same way, though it's odd how many survive the brutality of LR shipments as hitchhikers, but crash when things change in the system. I've never quite been able to get my head around that one. It sucks either way.
DJ
DJ, I was reading the other thread where you have issues with the bio-pellets. are you going to give the rice a try?
I'm always on the lookout for something new, but to b quite honest I've only been doing the bp's for a few weeks, so I kind of want to give them a chance before moving on to the next project. I want a definitive yes or no that they're going to work in my set up before exercising other options. I'm thinking I should know something in the next couple of weeks after I finish adding the full 1 litre.
DJ
DJ
DJ, the rice seems to have taken effect well within the first few days, I dont think u need to wait like in the case of bio-pellets.
well hopefully this thread will have all the information that you need to help you and others make up their mind about rice.
btw guys, is there anything else that you would like me to look out for? or test for?
well hopefully this thread will have all the information that you need to help you and others make up their mind about rice.
btw guys, is there anything else that you would like me to look out for? or test for?
I'm still not really convinced that the 'rice reactor' has added anything beneficial to your reef tank.
The skimmate increase could be the result of the rice slowly breaking down and being pulled out through the skimmer.
The test kit reads only inorganic phosphate. Rice will have many times this in organic phosphate. I would worry that either it will breakdown down in the system eventually leading to a rise in inorganic phosphates over time.
The skimmate increase could be the result of the rice slowly breaking down and being pulled out through the skimmer.
The test kit reads only inorganic phosphate. Rice will have many times this in organic phosphate. I would worry that either it will breakdown down in the system eventually leading to a rise in inorganic phosphates over time.
- Status
