Scandinavian / Japanese Style Reef Tank

[Bello]

I understand. It does seem a bit pricey. I was using the handheld meter, but hardly ever used it and the tank suffered.

It would help to know the readings. If you decide to purchase one, get the inline dual meter, to read after RO unit, and after the DI unit. Helps a lot.

Just trying to help . Its really horrible to see effort like this go unrewarded.

 

[RichieWrasee]

Dear Rich,

Thanks for the feedback. I went on eBay and ordered it. Estimated time of delivery 8th of April. Is there something I have to be aware when performing the process?

Best regards,

:hmm2:
Dino

I did lots of research as I was seriously worried about what it could potentially do to my tank. I got mine from h20 aquatics in the uk.

I really backed off the water level to my skimmer and kept an eye on it for the first 12 hours. You just have to be prepared to empty the skimmer cup. From numerous reviews all over the web this seems to be the only issue.

When I did the second dose I was happy to leave the house and go out for most of the day.

Just follow the instructions. Simple as that. The instructions do say to stick an air pump in if you can as it can reduce oxygen and ph levels.

All I can say is that when I used it my fish, corals and 2 clams were perfectly fine.

I had no issues at all though and I have no cyano in my tank at all now. I did a half measure first but needed to follow up 48 hrs later.

Rich

 

[cbitsiaras]

A bottle of dr timms is at Decocean shop now, and the Prodibio is reserved, so u Can buy.
Coffee another time

Call me if u need help with dosing

Best of luck

Peder thank you so much for the present and pleasant surprise you had for us at Decocean. This can only be paid off with a Greek style dinner very soon. Both are in the tank as we speak and i cross my fingers that will do the magic. If the problem is lack of bacteria then I will not use the slime remover I ordered from eBay as it will kill the bacteria we desperately need. Will do a 10% water change now and let the bacteria work.

Do you recommend I clean the tank during this time? (cleaning the glass - blowing air on the slime to remove and level the sand)

Once again THANK YOU
:fish1:

Dino

 

[cbitsiaras]

I did lots of research as I was seriously worried about what it could potentially do to my tank. I got mine from h20 aquatics in the uk.

I really backed off the water level to my skimmer and kept an eye on it for the first 12 hours. You just have to be prepared to empty the skimmer cup. From numerous reviews all over the web this seems to be the only issue.

When I did the second dose I was happy to leave the house and go out for most of the day.

Just follow the instructions. Simple as that. The instructions do say to stick an air pump in if you can as it can reduce oxygen and ph levels.

All I can say is that when I used it my fish, corals and 2 clams were perfectly fine.

I had no issues at all though and I have no cyano in my tank at all now. I did a half measure first but needed to follow up 48 hrs later.

Rich

Thanks alot Rich for the feedback,

Although I ordered it I will not add it now as it will kill all the bacteria, also the ones I need. It will be good though for when i get the system established again.

I appreciate your feedback.

Dino

 

[Pederreefnerd]

Peder thank you so much for the present and pleasant surprise you had for us at Decocean. This can only be paid off with a Greek style dinner very soon. Both are in the tank as we speak and i cross my fingers that will do the magic. If the problem is lack of bacteria then I will not use the slime remover I ordered from eBay as it will kill the bacteria we desperately need. Will do a 10% water change now and let the bacteria work.

Do you recommend I clean the tank during this time? (cleaning the glass - blowing air on the slime to remove and level the sand)

Once again THANK YOU
:fish1:

Dino

Hi again Dino

I think the best thing would be if we talk tomorrow. I think we will make a better turnarround if we talk - easier on the phone. I need more detailed information about the tank.

I think u have my number already, or just send me a pm:fun4:

And I can probably also come to Copenhagen saturday, and look at it irl.

 

[swissbutcher]

Hi Dino,

I have in my tank the annually Cyano visit


What I try, is to siphon the cyano coat, trough a fiter bag filled with wad pad, a put the cleaned and filtered water back into the tank,

also I use the Prodibio Products as Room concureence to the cyano, normally I use Microbe lift, but you get this Bacs not in Russian:worried:

G'luck,

Martin

 

[cbitsiaras]

Hi Dino,

I have in my tank the annually Cyano visit


What I try, is to siphon the cyano coat, trough a fiter bag filled with wad pad, a put the cleaned and filtered water back into the tank,

also I use the Prodibio Products as Room concureence to the cyano, normally I use Microbe lift, but you get this Bacs not in Russian:worried:

G'luck,

Martin

We dont want such visitors Martin, right?

Thanks alot for your time and feedback. All the comments you guys have written in here has helped my comprehend more the nature of the problem.

Kind regards,
Dino

 

[SUPPOReefer]

Ciao Bello,
The TDS meter counts normal prices of 30-50 on m RODI. This drives me insane.

:mad2:

Dino, to make sure something didn't get lost in translation, your TDS is 30 to 50? If so, that is your problem. A RO/DI should be putting out 0 TDS water. Time to change, resin, prefilters, and membrane. Afterwards, conduct several large water changes and your issues should go away.

 

[cbitsiaras]

Dino, to make sure something didn't get lost in translation, your TDS is 30 to 50? If so, that is your problem. A RO/DI should be putting out 0 TDS water. Time to change, resin, prefilters, and membrane. Afterwards, conduct several large water changes and your issues should go away.

I just measure it now and is 42. Isnt it correct that RODI never gets as low as 0? The tap water in Copenhagen is 685.

Dino

 

[dave.m]

RO/DI product water should always be at 00 ppm TDS. You may want to investigate more pre-filtering in front of the RO/DI unit and change the filters you already have.

One problem I ran into with a particular RO/DI unit was that the one-way valve was faulty, resulting in the unit constantly back-flushing the membrane and forcing me to replace the membrane too often. You should only have to replace the membrane about once a year.

Some set-ups have too low a water pressure for the RO membrane to work well. Look for RO/DI units with a pressure gauge and pressure assist canister.

An additional issue you may care to investigate is pre-heating the water to about 20°C before it enters the RO/DI unit to improve the membrane's performance.

Dave.M

 

[WhiteShark1]

I just measure it now and is 42. Isnt it correct that RODI never gets as low as 0? The tap water in Copenhagen is 685.

Dino

Your TDS should be 0-5 if you are using an RO/DI unit (and personally I start changing filters whenever it gets above 1 or 2 tds). That may be what is causing at least part of your algae bloom (and potentially some other problems). If this is the case and your TDS is 30-50 you need to replace the filters (maybe not the RO filter itself as those last for quite a long time, but the other filters should be changed).

Not sure if anyone has said this yet (as I haven’t read every single post), but are you checking your temperature with at least 2 different sources? I only mention this because I had a partial crash in my 75 gallon tank and lost about 1/2 my corals several months ago. When the problems first started I spent about 2-3 months trying to figure out what the problem was and like you all my levels were relatively normal (Nitrates had elevated to about 5-10, and PH and dKH were slightly low, but nothing extreme). One day while working on my tank I felt that the water seemed warmer than usual. Turns out my digital thermometer had broken, when I replaced it I discovered my tank water was running at about 91 degrees (32.7C). I immediately started turning down my heaters and allowed the tank (and inhabitants) to slowly acclimate back to around 79 degrees (26.1C). The turn around in the tank was amazing and now everything is running smoothly again (still lost some good pieces of coral and maybe 1 or 2 fish, but thankfully it wasn’t a full crash).

Needless to say I now monitor my tank’s temperature at least 2 (sometimes 3) different ways.

I’m also no light expert (someone else can chime in here), but are you sure your LED’s are getting the proper penetration they need to be (this can also cause algae blooms). You seemed to have bought high quality lighting units so I doubt this could be an issue, but I’m just throwing ideas out there to help with the situation.

 

[biodegraded]

Dino, my mains water is +/- ~600 and my effluent out of the ro/di unit is 0 when filters and resins are good. I change them when around 2-3. And I'm not in an agracultural area like you are; a lot of your solids are likely phosphorous compounds whereas mine are mostly dolomite elements from the mountains I live in.

 

[cbitsiaras]

RO/DI product water should always be at 00 ppm TDS. You may want to investigate more pre-filtering in front of the RO/DI unit and change the filters you already have.

One problem I ran into with a particular RO/DI unit was that the one-way valve was faulty, resulting in the unit constantly back-flushing the membrane and forcing me to replace the membrane too often. You should only have to replace the membrane about once a year.

Some set-ups have too low a water pressure for the RO membrane to work well. Look for RO/DI units with a pressure gauge and pressure assist canister.

An additional issue you may care to investigate is pre-heating the water to about 20°C before it enters the RO/DI unit to improve the membrane's performance.

Dave.M

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. It seems that something is then going wrong with our RODI unit as the TDS numbers I am getting ranges from 30/50 and the more I read in the forum the more it seems that there must be something with the membrane of our unit.

I will dig more into it because it might be the source of some of the problems we are facing in the tank.

Dino

 

[cbitsiaras]

Your TDS should be 0-5 if you are using an RO/DI unit (and personally I start changing filters whenever it gets above 1 or 2 tds). That may be what is causing at least part of your algae bloom (and potentially some other problems). If this is the case and your TDS is 30-50 you need to replace the filters (maybe not the RO filter itself as those last for quite a long time, but the other filters should be changed).

Not sure if anyone has said this yet (as I haven't read every single post), but are you checking your temperature with at least 2 different sources? I only mention this because I had a partial crash in my 75 gallon tank and lost about 1/2 my corals several months ago. When the problems first started I spent about 2-3 months trying to figure out what the problem was and like you all my levels were relatively normal (Nitrates had elevated to about 5-10, and PH and dKH were slightly low, but nothing extreme). One day while working on my tank I felt that the water seemed warmer than usual. Turns out my digital thermometer had broken, when I replaced it I discovered my tank water was running at about 91 degrees (32.7C). I immediately started turning down my heaters and allowed the tank (and inhabitants) to slowly acclimate back to around 79 degrees (26.1C). The turn around in the tank was amazing and now everything is running smoothly again (still lost some good pieces of coral and maybe 1 or 2 fish, but thankfully it wasn't a full crash).

Needless to say I now monitor my tank's temperature at least 2 (sometimes 3) different ways.

I'm also no light expert (someone else can chime in here), but are you sure your LED's are getting the proper penetration they need to be (this can also cause algae blooms). You seemed to have bought high quality lighting units so I doubt this could be an issue, but I'm just throwing ideas out there to help with the situation.

Thanks alot for your reply.

We experienced the same crash in the old system during the summer time. We reached "volcanic" temperatures of 34C and surprisingly enough most of the corals survived only to find death in the more stable new tank :sad1: *ironic*
We are having 2 different ways of measuring the temperature and both are non digital. After the crash we had last summer I measure the temperature on a daily basis just to be on the safe side.

We hardly had the RODI unit 4 month now, is it normal that we need already now to change the membrane?


Once again thanks for the feedback.

Dino

 

[dave.m]

We hardly had the RODI unit 4 month now, is it normal that we need already now to change the membrane?

No, not at all. That's why I mentioned my little adventure with a junk one-way valve causing excessive back-flushing and pre-maturely aging the RO membrane. You should only have to replace the RO membrane once per year maximum. The RO membrane is the most expensive part of the RO/DI unit to replace.

Replace your other filters first to see if this brings your TDS down to 00. If not, replace the RO membrane. Time this to see how long it takes before the TDS starts climbing again. If it starts to fail in just a few months again I suspect you may find you have a faulty RO/DI unit.

Dave.M

 

[Bello]

Dino, this is the reason I suggested buying the Dual Inline TDS meter.

You measure once after the water leaves the membrane, and the second time around after it leaves the RO/DI unit finally. This way you will know if your membrane is exhausted or if the di cartridges are.

FWIW, I believe the tds in the water is the cause of all these problems.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

I have to agree with everyone above especially dave.m and Bello. I have been following your build quietly behind the scenes and I love your setup.

 

[WhiteShark1]

We hardly had the RODI unit 4 month now, is it normal that we need already now to change the membrane?


Once again thanks for the feedback.

Dino[/QUOTE]

This sounds like you got a bad unit/filters. I'd change the pre filters (not the RO membrane) and if that doesn't help see if you can actually take the unit back for a refund or a brand new unit because it should not have burnt out nearly this fast.

 

[cbitsiaras]

Hello everyone,

It has been some time since the last update and its time to let you know what has happened in the meantime.


OCEAN MOTION // STREAM
We finally changed the pump of the Ocean Motion. Ocean Motion is the stream system in our display tank with no visible pumps.



Saltwater is pumped into this rotating "octopus". In the heart of this "octopus" there is a 2 channel rotating cylinder. This way the water is pumped at different outlets at frequent intervals. The pump we used from the set up was a 6.000l/hr. Obviously the flow was not good and maybe this was one of the many reasons why we saw the "Valley of Death" in our tank. We have now changed to a 16.000l/hr which divided into the 2 channels give a flow of 8.000l/hr at each outlet at frequent intervals.

The positive is that the stream has increased substantially in the display tank and we can see that both fish and corals like it - The negative is that the sound has increased alot. Our friend Carsten (the guy that made the tank) found a good solution by replacing the foot of the pump and adding rubber foot but still there is a small sound. But no complains - so far so good.

BACTERIA
One more thing we started applying which we didnt is Bacteria. Peder from the forum was kind enough to give us some Dr. Timms Waste-Away. When this was finished we moved on with normal Bacteria and once a week bacteria food.

NUDIBRANCH
As if we didnt have enough issues we also got an outbreak of Zoanthids nudibranch. We were not able to use any chemical for it since we were lucking bacteria so what we did was manually to remove eggs and the nudibranch from the zoantias. We also diped them in CoralRX solution and it was INCREDIBLE the number of things getting off them. Now we no longer see any of the unwanted creatures.

It has now been approximately a month where we see stability in the system.

The measurements are:

T: 24c
Salinity: 1.0245
Alkalinity: 138
Calcium: 480
Mg: 1360
Potassium: 365
Phosphate: 0.05
NO2: 0
NO3: This was 1 for long - then 2 weeks ago went to 3 - then yesterday measurement showed 10. We apply 2ml of Vodka a day to control it to the minimum and we monitor it daily.

Below are some pictures from the good and the bad that is currently displayed in the tank:

PART A

 

[cbitsiaras]

PART B