lol......i was not even aware of this. but how come no one jumped on the rice train when this idea was put out?
definitely props to the dude
my rice experiment
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lol......i was not even aware of this. but how come no one jumped on the rice train when this idea was put out?
definitely props to the dude
simonskl, do let us know if u are continuing the rice and what ur current update on this is.
the more people trying this, the broader scenario for testing, the better results and definitely more ACCURATE data and numbers.
thanks
this is so true, some people using tap water with all the metals still have an awesome tank
http://theprodigalcube.blogspot.com/2009/10/prodigal-cube-october09-fts.html
this is a local reefer whose tank I personall saw and was amazed by it.....if ur reading this SPY.....amazing tank dude, cant wait to see ur upgrade.
I know spy has been using tap water from day 1, and hes got one of the best tanks here in Dubai. so I dont think the little minerals from rice should bother us.
daveonbass
New member
HAHA! It took me forever to figure out why you thing my rice is in a "bag". Sorry...that was a figure of speech...silly internet.
if you go back further to when I first started...u can see that I am using a TLF550, sponges removed, mesh added so they don't backwash, and powered by a QO3000. The effluent is what I supply my skimmer with, skimmer ONLY gets effluent water after it's passed through the rice reactor.
I'm on day 4. Checked this afternoon and NO3 is still 15ish. Nothing else has changed as far as params. Sadly so far this is just like the BP for me..with the exception of the rice actually producing great skimmate. Hopefuly more time is needed for real results.
and day 4 water is still crystal clear. No bacterial bloom.
the haze probably last me 8-10 days, now its pretty much clear, but thats because I'm having other issues with the skimmer being offline, sump turned off, no power etc etc......
simon, if ur going to be out of town and theres no one to look after ur tank, I definitely dont suggest u continue with the rice. since this is still in experimental stages, there are new things we are seeing and the tank needs to be tended to everyday. there is no real cause for concern with using rice, its just a preference to have the tank watched over when trying something new.
do let us know if u stopped or are still going ahead with the rice.
hey dez_2121, can u update us on ur tank status?
is the hair algae still there or can you see it dieing?
kkil4life, thanks for the welcome and I will be doing the translations
There are 3 guys on the "RICE TRAIN": COLT, NEWBIEREEF and KEKETITO I will start today.
NEWBIEREEF and COLT started on 23th, until yesterday all the params where almost the same but NEWBIEREEF has an issue today his rice has been changed color to yellow here is the pic:
The PO4 he started with 0.5 now it is 0.25 but on the other hand NO3 he stated between 5 to 10 after this yellow color change he tested again and now he has over 50ppm he made a water change and now he is on the 5 to 10 range again.
What do you think could happened? I asked if he had soak rice at least 24 hours and he told me that he only rinse the rice until the water was clear (with ro/di water) do you think this could be the issue?
having that sharp an increase in no3 could either mean that his test was either wrongly done or something like that.
for him to get his no3 from 50 down to 10 would require him to o almost 80% waterchange. did he do a 80% waterchange? if not then I think maybe he made a mistake in testing.
ask him to test again and let us know what the results are.
daveonbass
New member
I'm using sushi rice. No problems so far.
Yeah my rice turned a funky brown too but I'm still reading nothing for no3. Gotta luv this API test kit the colors for 5 and for 10 ppm look the same lol my new test kits should be here tomorrow. The new ones are redsea not the best but hopefully better than this
I think the rice turning brown could be with particular type of rice. there are many different types, japanese, indian, italian (these are the ones we use here and I dont even know what the other types are but presume every country has its own type). we would need to figure this out as well and what effects it has.
The figures presented seem reasonable to me. FWIW, there will be more copper and heavy metals added in a water change using the reef salts we have then what would be added in one normal amount of rice used in a reactor over the course of possibly several months. I would think these heavy metals in rice will not be released all at once too, which means quite a lower dose would be added per day. The same applies with most of the fish foods we use, as far as their heavy metal content, you can get considerably more heavy metals added in just a few feedings. The bacteria will remove a lot of heavy metals as well when consuming the rice, which will further reduce the heavy metals content, plus from studies the starch consumption by bacteria results in reductions of the total heavy metal content & are used to remove heavy metals in waste water.
Personally I don't see the concern with the heavy metals content of rice used over the coarse of several months, provided that this rice is soaked several time before it is used in an aquarium. I'm not sure exactly what may be applied to rice to meet USDA standards other then the vitamins. Your picture of what rice soaked in RODI water looked very cloudy and I would not want the contents of that cloud in my tank.
One hobbyists in one of the two threads simply rinsed the rice and then used it. The results were quite high nitrates. I don't like this and believe the rice really needs to be soaked well before use to help remove heavy metals and the vitamins added as well as any other impurities on the top layer of the rice. Personally, I would triple soak the rice in rodi water before use.
IIRC, salt mixes contain around 5 -20 ppb of copper when mixed to a salinity of 1.0264.
FWIW, it may be possible that using rice in a reef tank may actually help reduce the heavy metal content.
thank you for that cliff.
regarding the hobbyist who got high nitrates, I dont think rice has enough nitrates to shoot it up that high. either he didnt have enough flow and the rice became a detretius trap causing nitrates, or his testing was faulty.
I just read that post a while back, and its the guy from mexico. I've asked him to restest and see.
as far as nitrates are concerned, I dont think this was even a concern when we started this experiment, it was only po4 and silica that was a concer.
will look into this as well. but do you think its possible?
maybe ur bag is not in a high flow area or maybe the bag tras detretius. can you please recheck this and let us know.
remember it is VERY IMPORTANT to wash the rice THRoUGHLY and not just 1-2 times.
please do keep us updated so we can see why the nitrates increased. hopefully it was just a testing error or something.
thats what I used, I used japanese PLAIN rice. it was so hard to make the person understand that I wanted plain rice without flavour or any special stuff......just plain, just plain.....thats what I repeated at least 5-6 times to the storekeeper.....lol
tmz, everyone who posted in this thread with their comments or even concerns did it in the right spirit, but unfortunately I thought acrotrdco made an account just to bash on rice. if you look at all his posts, they are only on the rice threads.
I'm not the first one to see this......
nevertheless, I feel he has contributed a lot in bringing to light many important aspects of the risks involved and luckily all of them have been addressed. I'm not saying that using rice is risk free, we still dont know what the risks are.
again for those that felt I was being a bit harsh, please accept my sincere apologies, I didnt mean to come off that way
dez_2121
Member
I'm on day 2 i haven't noticed any die off but the good thing is no new growth ether so that's a plus.
i currently have more issues with my tank, that's the high DKH and the high Ca but i don't think they have to do with the algae bloom. I'm trying to get those under control but I'm not going to stop the rice experiment ether. even thinking about trying it with tap water ( but I'm a little worried about that one) I'll go and do some test now and try to get a video of my rice reactor.
I'm using the japanese PLAIN rice, I believe they had sticky rice as well, but communication between me and the store keeper was not too good and I really didnt understand what they said....lol
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