Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[biecacka]

Good looking tank jason. I will keep you updated here And in my build thread. I will eventually have a heavy load and need to feed more too. Now I have 21 fish or so in my 240 but that number will increase by 10-15 soon. I have just ordered 9 fish yesterday.
How long have you been dosing both?

Corey

 

[jason2459]

Thanks. I just started dosing both. I've used straight vinegar for several years and have kept PO4 and nitrates in check (under 5ppm nitrates and under .09 ppm phosphates) with out the need for GFO.

But the carbon dosing is just part of the equation but I believe a big part. Next is the skimmer which I believe is necessary if you do any kind of carbon dosing or bio pellet. It will aerate the water to help bring in oxygen that the bacteria consumes.

Also, inorganic nitrates and phosphates do not attach to the bubbles that are skimmed out but the bacteria consume those nutrients. Bacteria is an organic that attaches well to the bubble surface that when skimmed out then exports those nutrients that they consumed.

GAC is another good method to remove organic compounds (DOC) like bacteria before they degrade back into the water column and in the case of phosphates could bind to calcareous surfaces like rocks that later can leach out.

I'm also am a big fan of harvesting algae in some way. I used to grow macro algae like calurpa, ulva, and chaeto. Right now I'm really like an algae turf scrubber I bought from Turbos Aquatics. Algae is great for out tanks. It consumes not just nitrates and phosphates but other unwanted things like heavy metals and CO2. It's also a good food source for many various critters like copepods and amphipods.

Then the last piece to the puzzle is the water change. It comes down to exporting stuff we don't want and importing stuff we do want. I've never been a fan of hauling around buckets so I've always had some sort of way to make it very easy I started with a brute trash can with a mag 1800 pump to mix it up and a bunch of tubing to push water up to the tank from the basement. Then a tube to siphon the tank water to a drain. I'd do a 10% water change in under 5 minutes. It was great.

Last year I setup an automatic water change with a dual head stenner and then because of noise a spectrapure litermeter III and remote pump calibrated to remove and add around 1% of the water volume daily.

I feel they all work together very well. With the water changes the only other thing I do is add a very small amount Mg to the saltmix and kalk in my top off water. I haven't had to dose anything else.

Though I might try out dosing kalk separate from my top off water. I get pretty even evaporation through the day but do get more evaporation in the winter months and especially on days it snows. I don't think it's a big concern but I like to tinker and interested in seeing what happens to the SPS I do have if I were to dose kalk/limewater on a set time through the day the same amount all the time.

Again TMZ is an influence in doing that as well. Always learning and always open to knew things that at least fit my maintanence abilities and time.

 

[jason2459]

Also wanted to note the BTAs are again looking great. In fact my GBTA often shrivels up but I have not seen it do that the last three days since dosing both vodka and vinegar. Totally anecdotal but they all have been looking more full more consistently.

 

[jason2459]

The urchin is growing pretty quickly

 

[jason2459]

Well, I mentioned I was thinking about this and happen to run across the perfect RO/DI storage container and fits perfectly in the limited space I have in my basement sump room.

It's a Rubbermaid SlimJim. Holds 23g which should be plenty as I'll also be dosing limewater out of the 29g Rubbermaid tote I've been using for several years now. I just have to figure out the timing for that.

I washed it out with vinegar/water and rinsed thorughly with water again.

Just have to get some floats, switches, pump, and programming and its ready to go.

 

[jason2459]

Happy New Year!

I've about finished off the new ATO split from the standalone kalk/lime dosig. It's all running now. Only thing I have left to do is drill two holes near the bottom but waiting now for it to empty out which could be a while. One will be for the ATO is near empty switch sending me an alert. The second hole is for a viewing tube that attaches back to the top of the container. Gives a quick view with out having to open the top to see how full or near empty the container is. Didn't need it on my 29g tote as it was clear.

Far left tube is the quick view on how full the container is. Next to that is the water is full switch to send me an alert I can shut off the RO/DI water supply. Then the water line in to a float valve inside that will shutdown the water supply when full via ASO on the rodi unit. Last and far right tube is connected to a puml at the bottom pushing water into the sump for top off and controlled by many things. I'll post the Apex code after this.

The SlimJim does bow a little but not bad and the top or bottom is not deformed at all. About as much as my 29g tote does.

I started cleaning up the water supply and one of these days I'll organize all the wires strung around everywhere.

Far left is a free rodi line for me to use for anything with a valve toward its end. Next is the valve for the new rodi top off. Then the valve for the lime water reservoir. Last to the far right is the new saltmix brute valve. The bigger gray valve is the supply line in.

There's another not seen which is a line after the RO membranes and before the DI stages. I use it to flush the TDS creep before each use and for anything I just want RO water for.

Then there's also the waste water valves. One is for flushing and another is for tweaking the flow rate to keep water pressure at 80psi for optimal water flow rate.

 

[jason2459]

Here's the apex programming to start with and may change as I'm doing things a bit differently now and strategy is changing.

The Main pump program that sits at the bottom of the Slim Jim ATO container. It's a MJ1200 so don't want it running for more then a minute at a time which is more of a failsafe option slowing it down in case somethings gone wrong. For normal operation 1 minute should be plenty of time.
[ ATO_6_4 ] ( 6_4 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Up/Down Arrows
Logging: Enabled
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 015:00/001:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet vSumpLow_A6 = ON Then ON
If Outlet vSumpLow_A6 = OFF Then OFF
If Outlet vSumpHigh_A7 = ON Then OFF
If Outlet return_7_1 = OFF Then OFF
If Condx9 < 33.0 Then OFF
If FeedD 230 Then OFF

With the ATO pump being able to be more aggressive I have that Condx9 failsafe in there and if for some reason it is broken or not working I have another pump in my saltmix container that can kick in to help. Here's it's programming. whicih I don't want it kicking on if the salinity is to high EXCEPT if for some reason the ATO pump is broken. I'll get an ATO Failure alert and will be able to inspect anything before any real salinity drifting really happens. It would take a while for salinity to get into any kind of danger zone. This is why there's an ON after the condx9 tells the normal operation to shutdown.
[ NewSalt_6_7 ] ( 6_7 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Hourglass
Logging: Enabled
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 030:00/001:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet vSumpLow_A6 = ON Then ON
If Condx9 > 35.5 Then OFF
If Outlet vATOWarn_B8 = ON Then ON
If Outlet vSumpLow_A6 = OFF Then OFF
If Outlet vSumpHigh_A7 = ON Then OFF
If Outlet return_7_1 = OFF Then OFF
If NSE9_4 OPEN Then OFF
Defer 000:10 Then ON


And for the lime/kalk dosing via the old Rubbermaid 29g tote I'm going to have it run for 1 second every 10 minutes 24/7 to start with. It's on a spectrapure stand alone doser and kind of figured out the flow rate and how much that will put out and should be under what my ATO needs will be. I'll be monitoring the Apex Graphs to make sure and to also watch the pH.
[ Lime_7_3 ] ( 7_3 )
Program Type: Advanced
Display Icon: Hourglass
Logging: Enabled
Program:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
OSC 009:59/000:01/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet vPH_High_C7 = ON Then OFF

 

[jason2459]

I've been pleasantly surprised at the noticeable difference in my tank since switching over to the vinegar and vodka mixed based on TMZ's ratio and dosing.

Sand seems whiter,rock seems cleaner, and my anemones particularly the green one is constantly out and full. Could be coincidence but haven't seen my tank looking like this in a long time. It seems to have hit a good balance. I'll be cleaning the ATS screen tonight or tomorrow night and see how that's been doing.

Couple shots from earlier.

From above seeing the white white sand

Goniopora looking good

I hadn't had a good shot of this critter but love this little conch

 

[jason2459]

Looks like I've also got the limewater dosing timing about right the first time. I'll keep monitoring water levels and pH in case I need to adjust.

But water level has not raised very high and has still allowed my top off to run periodically. First time doing this separate but I think this seems just about perfect.

pH the past two days has also not had near as high of swings and still maintaining above 8.0. Again, I'm very happy with this.

Not going to high.

Lime/kalk dosing every 10 minutes for 1 second. And the ATO just RO/DI periodically running. pH spikes not as high.

 

[jason2459]

Had the chance and cleaned off the Turbo ATS screen. It was as expected heavy, overgrown with algae, some bacteria, and many critters crawling through it all.

Everything has its place now and all working together like a well oiled machine. But it certainly seems like as soon as my tank saw that Vodka it said you complete me.

I'll have to do a few tests tomorrow night. I was planning on doing at least a phosphate and Alk test by now but just haven't gotten to it. I suppose I could do it now but really don't want to get up to do it right now.

 

[jason2459]

Lime dosing looking great and ATO running as it should.

pH staying above 8 over night. Also, to note my CO2 scrubber's soda lime has been purple for a while now too. Wanted to see how the constant lime water dosing goes and will take it completely offline today and keep monitoring.

 

[jason2459]

I wasn't going to but then was and then wasn't. But I went ahead and did some testing tonight. I did disconnect the CO2 scrubber earlier tonight around 10pm.

Something I did last weekend and forgot to make note of is I calibrated the Apex salinity probe again and relocated where it was at. It would swing around quite a bit through out the day and I was hoping it was getting some interference. The past week its been really steady with some slight variations up and down here and there but nothing like it was. It would swing from 32 to 37 quite a bit before. The past week its swings are all with in 1ppt. Much better.

Salinity/Temp/pH via Apex

Salinity via veegee refractometer:
Just a hair under 35ppt.

API Alk: 10

API Calcium: 420

Salifert Mg: 1485

Salifert Nitrate: < .25

Hanna 736 ULR phosphorus: 3ppb or .009ppm phosphates.

 

[jason2459]

I definitely think the salinity probe was getting some interference.

This is much better. Staying with in 1ppt or less

 

[jason2459]

I was feeding my copperband tonight some hikari mysis and noticed that starfish was way up on the glass so I put a little mysis on it and it climbed all the way to the top and extended one of its arms out. I put a couple mysis on them and then noticed the rest of its body was making like a cup so I squirted some more in. It "cupped" up even more to not allow any of i t to get out. Pretty smart.

I always forget about that tiny mini max anemone I got when I got the bubble tips. It hasn't moved from this spot in a long time since it wandered around for a while when I first got it. It's grown a bit but darn near impossible for me to get a good shot with my lousy camera skills

And because I love the bubble tips

 

[biecacka]

What kind of starfish is that?

Corey

 

[jason2459]

What kind of starfish is that?

Corey

Common starfish from KP Aquatics. Supposed to be reef safe.

http://www.kpaquatics.com/product/common-starfish/

 

[jason2459]

My ATO has been kicking in plenty often so I'm going to double the lime dosing rate from 1s every 10 minutes to 1s every 5 minutes and see what happens.

 

[jason2459]

Picked up a couple new mixing jugs I saw at Walmart I instantly fell in love with. Big wide openings to easily poor stuff into with out a funnel, easy poor opening with the lid on, handle to easily shake/mix contents, and just a hair over 1 gallon mark at top.



Rubbermaid Mixer mate

Left one there I just mixed up some Mag Chloride/Sulfate with some RO/DI. And the right one I mixed up the rest of a bottle of vinegar I had with some vodka. So easy to measure and dump into them, close them up, and shake.

I'll still use this vinegar bottle for the dosing and use a funnel to poor into it.

The mag I just measure a small amount of it out and poor it into my new saltwater mixing brute.

I'm collecting Rubbermaid products all over the place now. 50g Rubbermaid Brute saltmix container, 29g Rubbermaid tote for limewater/kalk dosing, 23g Rubbermaid SlimJim for RODI ATO, 2x Rubbermaid MixerMate pitchers for mixing, I noticed tonight I have three funnels all Rubbermaid, use these little Rubbermaid tupperware like things to thaw out frozen foods with tank water in, and I remember something else the other day I was using said Rubbermaid on it but can't remember what it was.

 

[jason2459]

Noticed you can see that yellow tubing going into a white T and tubing and that is my CO2 scrubber disconnected since yesterday.

pH still didn't go bellow 8 and didn't think it would since the soda lime looked to have been exhausted.

I did bump up the lime dosing to what I thought was 1 second every 5 minutes but looks like I fat fingered it and has been dosing 1 second every 2 minutes all day.

But actually looks good there at that rate and the ATO has still been kicking in quite often. So, going to leave it for another day to see. I don't want to reduce the ATO rate to much as right now this time of year it does run a bit more often then transitional periods of fall and spring where the Heat or the AC doesn't run as much.

pH maxed out at 8.14 and started out the morning at 8.01 so there's plenty of room to bump the rate up even more but need to make sure to monitor alkalinity too.

 

[jason2459]

What the heck. Just did a quick calcium and Alk test. Super easy and quick.


API:
Calcium: 420
Alk: 10

No change from yesterday.