Shapelock DIY N/P reducing Pellets or Nuking the tank...

[jason2459]

Day1 .29
Day3 .36
Day4 .22
Day5 .11

Sweet. I'll say Day3's reading can be thrown out or maybe even just averaged with day1's. Either way I can say the first week has definitely seen some drop in my PO4.

Nitrates were
Day1 0
Day3 5
Day4 5
Day5 a light 5

the nitrate test was definitely a very light 5 and that would coincide with my PO4 dropping as well. I think I can trust the trend more then the reading. :thumbsup:

Plus I can always trust my lieing eyes. Read my lips, no new cyano growth. There's a bit still there from before but nothing growing or new. The algae did grow a bit since starting but it did last time to I think as the cyano was dieing off.

 

[jason2459]

The Duncan looked about the same this morning but it normally looks shrunken when I get in the morning. So, hopefully it's opened up more by this evening. I don't expect it to be completely opened up though.

At some point last night my skimmer when nuts and overflowed. Luckly I flood proofed it and just overflowed back into itself and the tank.

 

[jason2459]

Duncan still looks unhappy. He's out a bit more tonight but still ticked off.

I noticed the algae looking different tonight. Not sure how to describe it other then it looked rougher and looked like it was pulling away from the rock. So, I went in to pull some out. What I did pull off pulled off very easy. There's still plenty there but this is a good sign.

 

[jason2459]

I was going to wait until this weekend sometime to take some readings but the torch wasn't looking to happy tonight.

Temp: 83.1
Salinity: 35ppt
pH: 8.23
ORP: 189
Nitrate: 0
PO4: 0.03!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :dance:

I'll take it again on Sunday and a few days after that again and see if that's another measurement that can be thrown out. We'll see over the next couple readings. But that's a major drop in just a week. Pretty freaking awesome with out using any gfo. Though that was a pretty quick drop and my LPS did not like it. Blasto still looks just fine but the torch and duncan do not look to hot.

Here's some pics from tonight. I did pull some(definitely not all) algae yesterday

Nice white gravel. 0 regrowth of cyano

Now to see if the algae keeps growing, stays as it is, or starts dieing off. I'll probably pull some again in a couple weeks.

 

[jason2459]

Had to look back to my results from the last time trying the shapelock. Looks like at about 5 days in my duncan was reacting and by 16 days in I had the haze on the glass and my PO4 was down to around 1.0 which back then was really good considering I had it WAY off the charts to start off with.

So, considering I started with much values I think it's performed just as well this time around in the gravel as it did originally in the canister filter. However, I was using GFO before and I believe I was using something like 1.5 cups and changing it out every two weeks.

Just in the past week I can say some positives of having it in the gravel is some nice food for the various pods. I do think I have a lot of flow in my tank though at ~3,000gph over all and not sure if I had less if I would have bacteria all over the place as well since the carbon source is right there in the tank. I think the flow is keeping the bacteria from building up on the surface and getting exported by either the skimmer or the mechanical filters. Skimmate has gotten a bit thicker.

 

[jason2459]

Took some parameters tonight. No kalk/ato today as I filled up the resivour and remixed this morning and have been letting it settle all day. It shows in the readings. pH was down, calcium was lower, and so was alk. Windows were open all day so I would have to guess the pH would be slightly lower if it wasn't for that too.

Temp. 82.2
Salinity: 35
pH: 8.12
ORP: 207
Cal.: 460
Alk: 9
Mg: 1380

Now for the important two for this thread:
Nitrate: 0
Phosphates:

Duncan and Torch still look really angry at me. Pods look super happy and are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I just have to imagine they are eating up the bacteria.

The skimmer went nuts at some point last night and today. Thanks goodness I don't have to worry about that anymore.

 

[jason2459]

Duncan is starting to look better. The Torch not so much. I'll get a PO4 reading tomorrow night. Getting a little salinity issue out of the way first.

 

[jason2459]

Duncan's still not 100% but better then it was and the torch is still mad but looking slightly better. Blasto isn't phased at all.

PO4: Still 0
Nitrate: 0

I think the algae has grown a bit but it looks like it's having a tough time doing it. Looks different. I think I can trust the nitrates are being reduced now to truely under 5 and the PO4 is at least at or under 0.04. I just don't trust nitrate test kits when there's algae growing. But seeing how it died off before it seems like it's going into that phase again.

 

[jason2459]

Here's a couple pictures of what I mean by looking different. Kind of a wispy look to it.

 

[thebanker]

My GHA looks like that too. I think it's dying.

 

[jason2459]

I think it's trying to give it's all to reach out and spread as much as it can. Looking back at my logs here my tank is pretty much going through the same stages as before. Great thing about these forums is it gives a great way to track what's going on. The algae did keep growing a bit but eventually started going away.

Everything is moving much faster this time however. Phosphates reduced in a week along with the cyano eliminated with in a week. Plus, nitrates reduced enough to effect the algae with in two weeks. That's pretty impressive. I almost feel like it has to do with it being in the gravel since I'm not using gfo, no refugium, or any macro algae at all. Same skimmer as before. Same feeding amount. Water change amount is actually less as I was doing 1-2 gallons a day and now I'm only doing 5 gallons a week. Granted the canister may not have been the best reactor but it did work in there.

I'm worse off more now in my removal of nutrients then before considering all that I'm not doing now that I was doing before. Crazy.

 

[jason2459]

Update pictures of the torch and duncan.

Torch still looking pretty flat but coming out now.

Duncan looking a bit better every day.

Nitrates and Phosphates still registering 0

I plan on doing some pulling next week around Wednesday and I will get shots again of the full tank just before pulling.

Looks like someone else is also getting higher ORP values in the Vertex pellets thread.

 

[jason2459]

Got a full set of readings tonight as tomorrow I'll be filling up the ATO and letting the kalk settle tomorrow. Plus, going to go do a water change after typing this out before I forget the numbers.

Temp: 84.1
Salinity: 35ppt
pH :8.31
ORP: 278

Cal.: 480
Alk: 9
Mag: 1380

Nitrate: 0
Phosphates: 0

It was an unusually warm day today and had all the windows open. Temp in the tank got up there too. I'm still skeptical about my salinity but going with Boomer on this and sticking with the VitalSine refract. I'm going to be picking up another one soon and we'll see how it compares.

Pellets are doing their jobs. Which kind of confuses me but I'm not complaining. What keeps confusing me about both times I've used these pellets is the dramatic drop in phosphates compared to detectable levels of Nitrates. Bacteria is supposed to be so much more efficient at consuming nitrates compared to phosphates but my ratio both times has been drastically one sided to the phosphate levels and both times the phosphates have been consumed very efficiently. Like I said I'm not complaining but just curious.

So, I can only gather that my nitrates in my system both times are much higher but consumed very rapidly by the algae in my system so as to not be detectable and the bacteria can easily out compete the algae. OR the bacteria in my system has the ability to consume a grater ration of phosphates. I've read there are some strains of bacteria that are fairly diverse and can adapt very well.

Makes me wonder if the bacteria in some peoples aquariums are not adept at consuming these pellets and takes a while for the bacteria that is to multiply and out compete all the others.

Such a crazy and very aggressive micro world out there.

 

[jason2459]

I pulled some algae tonight but still not all of it. Looking back at post 124 from about two weeks ago you can see there is still considerable algae growth going on but it is much weaker and does not look very healthy. In fact it is pulling off super easy in fact to easy. It's almost disintegrating in my fingers so the tank is a mess right now. So, we'll see what the algae growth is like over the next two weeks but I'll be pulling out my diatom filter this time to clean up behind the pulling.

My blenny and clowns are not happy with me and kept biting my hand as I was pulling. Clowns I didn't mind so much because I could see them coming but the blenny would come out of know where and freak me out.

post from two weeks ago the day after doing some pulling.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17789756&postcount=124



Pics from just before the pulling

close up of the worse spot on the right side

I'll take some pictures tomorrow to get an after pulling picture. I also ended up having to rescape a little as I had to move a few rocks to get at some algae and of course you can never put rocks back where they were.

 

[jason2459]

Here's the after algae pulling


Right side got rescaped a bit

Close up of where the worse area is

 

[jason2459]

Oh yeah, wanted to mention why I think my torch coral has been looking so down. I have been catching my dang clowns trying to be hosted by it. If I get a bigger tank I'm definitely going to be getting an anemone to host them.

 

[jason2459]

Algae is not growing back as fast or as thick. I'm going to be pulling some algae tonight so got some before pulling pictures again.

Here's that problem rock and shows it didn't grow back very well at all.

Clowns are still being a PIA and are trying to be hosted by anything they can now that their algae beds are dieing. They are not happy at all with me as they really loved sleeping and being hosted by the algae.

 

[jason2459]

Did some pulling last night but didn't spend as much time. Just about 20m and did a quick sweep through from left to right. As the weeks go on I look forward to spending less and less time pulling and eventually not at all. So, I'll probably cut down to about 10-15m of pulling in another two weeks.

I noticed another slight haze on the glass tonight. I'm thinking it's the bacteria gaining in population as the algae is being reduced. It may be a good thing that I had a large amount of algae. I wonder if I didn't have any or very little algae that I would have gotten a much larger algae bloom in the beginning of adding the pellets. So, if I didn't have a lot of algae I would probably add a small amount of pellets at first and every week maybe add a bit more.

Took some tests tonight:
Temp: 80.6
pH: 8.29
ORP: 289
Salinity: 35ppt

Nitrate: 0
PO4: 0

After pulling picks:

If you notice the corals are moved again. I'm hoping to discourage the clowns from trying to be hosted by them. They've never tryed to do this before but sure are trying now pretty aggressively.

 

[jason2459]

Been traveling a lot so it's been almost four weeks since the last pulling of algae. I went in this morning and got a lot out but not all. I feel though like I'm gaining the upper hand and kicking it's butt.

Here's some before pics I got:

You'll notice a lack of torch coral. I have no idea where's it's at. I moved some rocks around as well. I'm thinking it was the clowns trying to be hosted by it. I've been away and after comeing back from one of the trips it was gone.

Here's some after shots

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Here We Go

Here We Go

500 Gram pkg. arrived today and 1/2 are soaking in RO water overnight.
They'll be going in a stocking in 1 overflow box in a chamber under the filter floss.
They will get constant flow and detritus should be minimal.
I have not had Nitrates for quite sometime but PO4 is an ongoing battle.
Given the track records here, I am expecting a SLOW if anything reduction.
But worth the shot to see.
I run ozone 2 hours a day @ night and use Carbon & Phosban.
System is 220 Gallons overall. Tank is a 220 with sump & chaeto.
Water quality readings will be taken before addition and posted for all to see.