THE Tank Build By Aqua Digital

Michael,

Are you aiming for an ULNS? I know your using Prodibio.... My reason for asking is the high CA and ALK in Reef Cyrstals. Are you aiming for 7-8 dKH and 380-420 CA? Just curious... I'm trying Brightwell's NeoMarine and so far not impressed...

Cheers,
L3
 
Yes the high mineral content in RC does make it hard to run balling in a small tank, this is why I switched to TP Pro, but not impressed with immediate results.

I am running ULNS and the prodibio is the best I have seen for this, in the main due to the simplisty of dosing.

I keep my mineral params as follows

DKH - 7 - 7.5
Ca - 420 - 430
Mg - 1350 - 1400

After changing to TP pro my mV has crashed, I have Nitrate trace and my Mg crashed out :(

Unscheduled water change today before flying out for much of August!
 
I have no issues at all with any LPS only have 3 in the tank anyway.

My torch and hammer are thriving and now my Echino is out of the light is growing like crazy.

Things are real stable and the params are perfect for my tank.

Not an LPS fan really, more a stick man ;)
 
Its not about issues with LPS, its about success. You will do better to run it a bit higher.

I have several thousand LPS, just friendly advice for the newbie.
 
18 years in not quite the newbie ;)

As I said above its not an LPS tank, if it was of course yes the DKH would be slightly higher. I am having great success with my LPS, the hammer has got huge!

If I had my way the tank would have no LPS but my wife and our little daughter loves the movement of the Hammer and torch.

Its all about balancing the tank for all occupants, as everything is thriving no need to change what is not broke.

But thanks for the advise.
 
Then why constantly try out new products? If it wasn't broke why try a new salt?

Why go to a new ULNS system? Why change out your bm skimmer for a skimz?
 
Hi

Because the the whole build thread has been developed to show people different things in terms of equipment and concepts, the concepts being based around ULNS and balling, and I think this is why the whole thread has gained so much interest ;)

I chose to change the salt to show readers if there were differences, (save them spending their money to find out ;) ) not due to anything being broken and needing fixing.

Same with the skimmer, although this is on hold right now due to Skimz being very silent with the whole world at present ??

Of course there is a hobby element to the tank build thread, we all like reading about other peoples tanks, but basis of the build was to show what could be done with various modern and exciting systems and elements.
 
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Now completed the unscheduled water change (system probably was quite happy to receive it to be honest :) )

I will report back on the mV reading in 24 hours.

One thing Gareth pointed out when logged onto my system was the slightly low pH, although this never troubles me as stability is more important to a degree, I have noticed since the water change the pH rose back close to its pre TMC pro salt change out.

I am not saying TMC salt is bad, I just did not like the changes i saw in my system from switching, everyones system is different, what works for one may not always work for another. I also may not be being overly fair in the salt given the limited time of use, but with going away for such a long period i would rather opt for the devil you know I think in this case with the salt.

Interestingly, on doing a search on RC I found a very similar post in the SPS keepers forum, reporting near mirror image of my findings, Low mV and low Mg being the two key pointers.

If it was not for the worry in the mV crash I would see the salt as a good choice for balling users due to the low mineral content I have personally found and also read on other posts, but the mV reduction and sniff of nitrate is a bit of a red flag for me at present. When back fully online mid September I will give a more thorough evaluation.
 
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I have been using RC since day one and really like it... I do a 10% water change every week, and honostly dont see a change in ALK, CAL and MAG... but anything bigger then 10% per week is a risk when running ULNS, I tested RC last weekend, Cal 500, ALK 12 and Mag 1240..
 
I am all for trying out new products and you are correct, we as hobbyists love build threads big and small. Few threads have higher view counts than build threads.

So why not try running your alk just a little higher instead of just dismissing it, a large number of us from SPS, LPS, to azoo run our alk at 9-10.
 
Just for fun you should try the ESV salt, Aquabac's suggestion is a good one.

Sure there are 4 things to mix but its done in 15 minutes and the water is crystal clear. Food grade sodium chloride, calcium and bicarb are already liquids and put through a purification process that does something special(and I have no clue what it is). The mag is seperate so you can play with that a bit.

In a nutshell when we do shows we quite literally mix up ESV and RO on the spot and within 15-30 minutes(depending on temperature of water) we are putting livestock in it for display.

All corals are open and happy when we do this, its absolutely NON caustic after just 15 minutes.

Just look at Aquabacs tank, he uses it and feeds like crazy. Stunning animals, crystal clear water.

Just try it, a little mixing won't hurt you.
 
@ Todd - As we are showing here the balling method i would rather keep in line with Claudes (fauna marin) guideline to me for running balling in my system. The system is very dominant in SPS so raising the ALK will not really show anything I fear, so would rather keep to Claudes advise and keep the ALK at 7-7.5. If I was running a more mixed reef it might be worth documenting the bi-lateral changes. I also do not wish to keep changing the key parameters of the system as to avoid stresses. The salt change did enough of a change in my view for now ;) . I try to only evaluate things that will not overly effect the stability of the system.

ESV - I may try it at some point in the future, but do not want to change the tank too often for obvious reasons, and it does little to prove anything, so will re try TM pro for the next 4-6 months and report back.

@ Layer switch - I have done well with Reef Cyrstals in both FM and Prodibio, I can give a better naswer once I have run more thorough evaluation of the TMC pro ;)

DML08 - Yes i found the exact same results with RC, in a small volume of water and 10% water changes weekly I found I was dosing very little Ca if any so I stepped back to Bi weekly changes, even then i was only dosing about 5 ml a day of ca, this is what spurred me to try TMC salt.
 
Thanks Michael. Have a fun and safe trip to the UK. If your in the Lakenheath area, please stop by and have a pint at the Brewers Tap for me. Was stationed at RAF Lakenheath with the US Air Force for a number of years, flying the F-111F. Fond memories indeed...

Cheers,
L3
 
Lakenheath is a bit out East from where we will be, but I have been nearby a few times when visiting Sis.

I am looking forward to a proper curry! Mmmmmmmm :)
 
Ok an mV update

This all got me thinking and I dug out my research papers from when I developed a cold plate ozone unit in the UK. To do this I did a lot of research into Mv (ORP)

The ozone unit can still be purchased today by the way ;) But only in the UK.

Aqua_Digital_o-zone.jpg


Where was I? Oh yes Mv!

One thing of interest is the relationship of oxidants in water to the reading of ORP with a probe. (Ozone being one of the most powerful oxidants). For the probe to read it has to build an ion (molecule) field up around the element. Naturally this ion field will be unique to the compounds found in the water. And this is why new or calibrated ORP probes take a while to settle in.

So without getting too indpeth, my initial feeling for seeing a huge drop in the Mv when changing over to TMC pro is due to the ionic differences between the salts. What the differences are I have no clue, me no chemist ;) but it seems likely the connection is somewhere in this region.

Interesting text -

Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) is, simply put, an indication of a solution's ability to oxidize or reduce another solution. It is a ratio of oxidized species to reduced species in a solution containing both. Some commonly used oxidizers include chlorine, ozone, bromine, sodium hypochlorite, and hydrogen peroxide. Examples of reductants include sodium bisulfite (also known as sodium metabisulfite) and sulfur dioxide. The terms "ORP" and "Redox" are both commonly used and are interchangeable.

So in this case maybe there are less oxidents in TMC for example Bromine. Using Bromine as an example, IF RC has a higher level of Bromine there are more oxidants present and as such a higher mV would be sustained, which ever way I now am curious if TMC has less oxidents in it than RC, and is this the reason for the mV drop?!

The question then would be - Is it good to use a salt with a higher level of oxidants or a salt with a lower? Well i guess this depends on what the oxidants are??

Ok now getting into chemistry and where I stop typing!
 
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