Yoccm's 300G DD In Wall Build

[yoccm]

O.K. need to make a correction ..... My latest PO4 test was NOT accurate!!! I was just got a new box of reagent and tested back to back and got reading around .9 PPM both times :sad2:

So looks like the PO4 has not been declining. I am assuming at this point it is leeching out of the rock. I have not added anything to the tank so can't imagine where else it would be coming from. the big question for me is how long will this continue. I am going to try lantanum chloride and see if I can get a substantial drop and then see if it stabalizes or starts to rise again.

 

[yoccm]

In the mean time ... been busy gathering my plumbing supplies

Got my true union ball valves from BRS. Very happy with how solid they seem.

Also got my return pump - reeflo dart gold

Hoping to get started on it this weekend.

 

[fieldy132]

it is defo your rocks leaching phosphate,i made the mistake of chucking a couple of bits of reef bones in my system and my phos is now 2.5 and i have masses of cyano (really thick stuff) and hair algae......reactor is now chugging away happily!

your tank is going to look amazing,attention to detail is fab and i so love your scaping!

julie

 

[yoccm]

it is defo your rocks leaching phosphate,i made the mistake of chucking a couple of bits of reef bones in my system and my phos is now 2.5 and i have masses of cyano (really thick stuff) and hair algae......reactor is now chugging away happily!

your tank is going to look amazing,attention to detail is fab and i so love your scaping!

julie

Hi Julie - thanks for the kind words. I do think in the end I am going to be happier with the choice to go with dry rock but at the moment it is a bit frustrating! I agree it is coming from the rocks and as your experience demonstrates there can be a significant impact on PO4 from even a small amount of dry rock.

I just ordered some 10 micron filter socks that should be here by the end of the week which will let me test the Seakleer product. I will post results here once I try it out.

 

[salali]

Your tank looks great.

I just want to know how did your plumbing?

 

[Gienek]

what a great project

 

[d3hree]

Hi Chris
I have been real busy of late and just got caught up.
Sorry to hear about the p04. Lantanum chloride will get it right down but as you say you have to be carefull with it or you could have issues in the future. I was speaking with a curator of a public aquarium over here a few weeks ago. When he took the job of curator he inherited tanks with p04 of 8!..not 0.8 but 8!
He used lantanum chloride and within 2 weeks he was at 0.04 and was able to start adding corals.

 

[yoccm]

Hi Chris
I have been real busy of late and just got caught up.
Sorry to hear about the p04. Lantanum chloride will get it right down but as you say you have to be carefull with it or you could have issues in the future. I was speaking with a curator of a public aquarium over here a few weeks ago. When he took the job of curator he inherited tanks with p04 of 8!..not 0.8 but 8!
He used lantanum chloride and within 2 weeks he was at 0.04 and was able to start adding corals.

Hi D3hree - good to hear from you. Your experience is consistent with some of the research that I have done. I found numerous examples of Lanthanum chloride being used in public aquariums successfully. The challenge is scaling that back to a 300G system!!

I think the biggest risk is overdosing in a way the levels of the product remain in the water column after treatment. My plan is to get PO4 level below .2 and then switch to GFO to see if I can improve from there. I think if you get too low with Lanthanum you run the risk that the PO$ levels are too low to precipitate it out of the water.

Anxious to give it a try but in the mean time I am not running lights on the tank so no issues with algae or cyano at this point.

 

[yoccm]

Your tank looks great.

I just want to know how did your plumbing?

Thanks Salali - I haven't gotten to the plumbing yet :sad1:
I had too many honey do list items to get done this weekend!!!!
I am hoping to get it wrapped up by end of next weekend and will post pics. I have to say that plumbing makes me nervous ... never been my strong suite. So keep your fingers crossed and I hope to have some positive news to share soon.

what a great project

Thanks Gienek - been having fun with it!! Hoping to get some major items taken care of over the next several weeks so we can start to see some life in the tank!!!

 

[yoccm]

Just found out my 10 micron filter socks are on backorder so will be several weeks before I can test the Lanthanum chloride.:headwally:

 

[Cr0w]

Yoccm, Looking good m8..
I just placed my order on a 300DD from marineland. But I went with all 3sides starfire since it will be viewable from each side...

 

[Cr0w]

Just found out my 10 micron filter socks are on backorder so will be several weeks before I can test the Lanthanum chloride.:headwally:

Why not just buy them from a LFS?

 

[SPotter]

tagging along....excellent build!

 

[yoccm]

Why not just buy them from a LFS?

10 micron is medical/industrial grade. Typical LFS carries 200 micron socks. The precipitae from the lanthanum cholride would pass right thru a 100 or 200 micron sock and end up in the water column.

 

[yoccm]

tagging along....excellent build!

Thanks Steve and welcome to the thread!!!

 

[yoccm]

Yoccm, Looking good m8..
I just placed my order on a 300DD from marineland. But I went with all 3sides starfire since it will be viewable from each side...

Hey Crow - welcome to the 300DD club!!! I think you will be happy with it. I love the 36" depth ... really gives a nice visual perspective to the tank. I toyed with trying to have the tank stick out of the wall on at least one side so you could get a side view without going into the fish room but just couldn't make it fit in the room. I have seen pics of many tanks where you get some great side views of the scape and corals.

Good luck and hope to see a build thread on it!!!

 

[CRAZYFIZH]

I had the same problem with about 300 lbs of rock that i bought at one time and had to do massive water changes every week to get it under controle almost 100% water changes every week trust me i was temped to trow it away and start over but over the time span of about a month it started to drop and doing the same water changes over the next two month along with doesing like crazy i ended up with no problems in the end hope this helps.

 

[yoccm]

I had the same problem with about 300 lbs of rock that i bought at one time and had to do massive water changes every week to get it under controle almost 100% water changes every week trust me i was temped to trow it away and start over but over the time span of about a month it started to drop and doing the same water changes over the next two month along with doesing like crazy i ended up with no problems in the end hope this helps.

That's helpful to hear. I have about 250#s of rock - combo of pukani, tonga branch and shelf. When I put it in the tank I could see dead critters like urchins and starfish in some of the crevices so I know there was going to be alot of junk coming off the rock which is why I think it took 2 full months to cycle. I haven't done any water changes yet - waiting on the sump to get plumbed. Glad to hear the PO4 finally stopped leeching from the rock.

What kind of dosing did you do once the water changes brought your levels down?

 

[CRAZYFIZH]

I was doesing two part and mag
a little more that i should have been
one thing that i did when i was doing my water changes was shake the rock in the tank as i was takeing them out and vacuum the bottom but i had a bb tank i was amazed at what came off of the rock.

 

[prop-frags]

Chris, sorry to hear you are having issues with phosphate. We have a large amount of Marco rock (Pukani too) as well, but have not had any issues with leeching PO4. We did not soak ours in vinegar either - we just soaked and rinsed it in RO/DI water. I wonder if we were just lucky or if it has anything to do with the difference in how the rock was cured. We cured our Marco rock in a stock vat and added some of our live rock to jump start the process. We ran GAC as well as the skimmer and did weekly water changes on the vat (50% 1st week, 20-25% after that) , dosed Stability and Special Blend and added a small amount of food to feed the good bacteria and the pods that were in there.

We do run Rowaphos on our system, but that is because we have a fairly heavy bio-load with all of our well-fed fish.