daveonbass
New member
it's a DAS EX1. I had to readjust the crap out of it. Wow.
my rice experiment
- Thread starter kkil4life
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daveonbass
New member
it's all fairly clear right now...but it's definitely skimming out something. Hopefully in a day or two it will turn into really good skimmate (nasty stuff).
fishoutawater
New member
After fighting nitrates for ever, and losing, macro not growing, corals browning, slow growth, bubble algae, red turf algae, why not? I added a half cup of white rice to my system tonight. I rinsed it well and put it in a nylon bag in my filter sock. My skimmer is having a good ole time of it, there was an almost immediate reaction.
I have never been able to get my trates below 20, I hope I have similiar good results like some others posting here.
I have never been able to get my trates below 20, I hope I have similiar good results like some others posting here.
icycoral
I glue animals to rocks
If your tank goes through the same bacterial bloom like kk's and mine your skimmer is gonna be pulling some of the nastiest stuff you've seen over the next few days. the bloom, if you get one, should only last a few days and will last longer if your tank has very high nutrient levels. It's very similar to what I've read about with bio pellets.
icycoral
I glue animals to rocks
One of my big issues was space I liked the effects macro algae made on my nutrients but I was very limited to how much I could grow. The rice reactor hangs on the outside of my sump and the pump only takes up a 3x2x2 space that's my reason
It will be nice to have more people to compare results with. welcome aboard!!
daveonbass
New member
I don't WANT a bloom...but it would be nice for a change to see something working. 
I just hope that eventually I can find out if my NO3 will go below 15ppm. But again...i am nervoud about a bloom.
I just hope that eventually I can find out if my NO3 will go below 15ppm. But again...i am nervoud about a bloom.welcome aboard the rice train.......choo choo...lol
your test should be interesting, especially since you tried the biopellets way first. so its bio-pellets vs rice for you, lets see which comes out on top.
daveonbass, did you make sure to wash the rice properly, and is the rice just slightly tumbling in the reactor?
since ur tank is similar sized to icycoral and he too used 1/2 cup to begin with, I think u should see similar results as him.
Please remember to watch the skimmer for the next few days. you will need to keep adjusting it to get the right amount of skimmate, not too dry not to wet for the first week at least.
keep us posted on ur results.
haha, told u so
dont worry its working, you'll be glad u went this route
please do post up ur results so that everyone can follow your progress as well.
thanks
this is good to hear.....
hopefully you will see more and more benefits of having a low nutrient system
daveonbass
New member
It's 4:30am here and I finally can sleep, the skimmer has started to chillax finally and isn't on the verge of overflowing so much. I hope my flow isn't too fast. Only someof the rice is tumbleing...its this darn TLF 550, it's not great at dispersing the flow. Lame.
but on a side note I am still using the NP pellets in my QT. It's a quick set up retrofit job so the flow is massive and they are tumbleing a lot now. Ironically I feel that now I may get the bacterai bloom from them since they are more agitated.
the rice however will be sweet if it out competes the QT. I'll laugh myself silly, since I've waited so long for them to "activate" and work....and the potential winner was rice sitting in my cabinet all along.
yes I rinsed the rice till it ran super clear...and so far to my amazement it is NOT soft. I guess it does take heat to do that. They are not breaking. And as stated the skimmer went nutz, but there is still zero cloudyness in the tank. I'm hopeing to be the first with no bloom from rice but still have it succede. (i don't remember anyone NOT having a bloom)
to be fair...my tank may have been seeded from something in the BP, but I really don't buy that...it never delivered on it's promises. And if I need more (or less) rice I can just grab some for free. I like this experiment. And I'm excited because I may be on a fronteering bandwagon. I never take those chances, but this tame the opportunity was to easy. And if it doesn't work I have little to lose.
thanks guys.
but on a side note I am still using the NP pellets in my QT. It's a quick set up retrofit job so the flow is massive and they are tumbleing a lot now. Ironically I feel that now I may get the bacterai bloom from them since they are more agitated.
the rice however will be sweet if it out competes the QT. I'll laugh myself silly, since I've waited so long for them to "activate" and work....and the potential winner was rice sitting in my cabinet all along.
yes I rinsed the rice till it ran super clear...and so far to my amazement it is NOT soft. I guess it does take heat to do that. They are not breaking. And as stated the skimmer went nutz, but there is still zero cloudyness in the tank. I'm hopeing to be the first with no bloom from rice but still have it succede. (i don't remember anyone NOT having a bloom)
to be fair...my tank may have been seeded from something in the BP, but I really don't buy that...it never delivered on it's promises. And if I need more (or less) rice I can just grab some for free. I like this experiment. And I'm excited because I may be on a fronteering bandwagon. I never take those chances, but this tame the opportunity was to easy. And if it doesn't work I have little to lose.
thanks guys.
icycoral, I forgot to ask you, how old is ur skimmer?
my skimmer was like that for the first month or so, everytime I feed or put my hand in the tank it loses its foam head. its not like that anymore. I think ur skimmer still needs to break in properly.
nothing u should be worried about.
infact my skimmer overflows everytime I turn the power on and off....lol
dave, just set you skimmer to the lowest u can (dry skim) and slowly increase it to skim more wet. you will definitely have to watch it for the first day or two. I think from day 3 or 4 you will notice a huge drop in your nitrate. since u have high nitrates and no nuisance algae, it'll be interesting to see how fast the rice pulls down the no3 for you.
btw, what test kits are you using?
keep us posted.
hhmmm, this is interesting.
I've been using kalk to dose my top-off everyday to maintain my calc and alk, and I used to dose 1.3L each day with my litermeter. calc was stable, but alk seemed to drop about 0.5 dhk or so. I just increased my topoff to 1.5L instead a few days ago and when I checked my alk it was 9.3 whereas it was usually on 8.2 to 8.7ish. I thought that I might have added baking soda and forgot about it. but now when I saw ur post, maybe the rice helps buffering alk as well?
the rice definitely does have magnesium and is released to the water.
so rice not only works as carbon dosing but also as alk and mag buffereing?
lol.....looks like we got an all in one winner here
others on the rice train, can you guys check this out as well?
would be realllll interesting
haha, my skimmate was smelling as bad as 3-4 day dry skimmate.
I just put a carbon bag on top of my skimmer lid
daveonbass
New member
I am anticipating all the smelly skimmate and color changes on my test kits...just never got to experience any of it using the other product. So far skimmate is still clearish. And my test kits are API. I know, not great for accuracy, but I was dealing with 160 NO3 once upon a time. As I stated over there, I'm more concerned with seeing "change" than accuracy. Once I see change I will buy an ellos kit for accuracy, and probably a hanna checker.
I'll check my alk and ca again...but they were still normal a day ago.
I'll check my alk and ca again...but they were still normal a day ago.
daveonbass
New member
ok as of right now...5:50am
sal...1.024
ph....7.78 (night time lows)
NO3...15ppm
PO4...0ppm
ca.....400ppm
alk....9°dkh
mag....(gonna have to get back to ya. Such a pain to test)
sal...1.024
ph....7.78 (night time lows)
NO3...15ppm
PO4...0ppm
ca.....400ppm
alk....9°dkh
mag....(gonna have to get back to ya. Such a pain to test)
daveonbass
New member
one last thing before I try to beat this insomnia.
what kind of cyno levels did any of you have before the rice? My nutrients are not a ulnc levels...but just before starting the rice, with the BP...my sand started getting a lot of cyno again. I kind of want to to use chem clean...but I would rather wait and see if the rice can knock it out by limiting it's food source.
what kind of cyno levels did any of you have before the rice? My nutrients are not a ulnc levels...but just before starting the rice, with the BP...my sand started getting a lot of cyno again. I kind of want to to use chem clean...but I would rather wait and see if the rice can knock it out by limiting it's food source.
dont use chemi-clean, you wont need to.
maybe in the first day or so you might see little more of the cyno, like I did. but in a few days the cyno will start turning brown and dieing.
I forgot to put an update on the cyno that I had, but just FYI its all gone and it has turned into dust
wait a few days and you'll see
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