Bubba's SPS Journey

DivingTheWorld · Feb 14, 2019

lbacha said:
How do you keep your media moist, I know they say put a teaspoon of water in the reactor but my humidity is crazy low in the aprt right now so I’m afraid that won’t work for long and I hear the media gets used up fast if you run really dry air through it.

I heard someone say they put the input hose into their skimmer cup to draw that air since it should be very moist. I’m considering this or creating a little reactor to put in the input that draws air through water first to add moisture to it.

Yeah, that's how Bubba does it. I learned from him and set up one the same way on my tank. It's ridiculous how long the media lasts set up this way. I'm at one month and I've only used up half the media! I'm running a standard BRS C02 reactor on about 89g total water volume.

lbacha · Feb 14, 2019

DivingTheWorld said:
Yeah, that's how Bubba does it. I learned from him and set up one the same way on my tank. It's ridiculous how long the media lasts set up this way. I'm at one month and I've only used up half the media! I'm running a standard BRS C02 reactor on about 89g total water volume.

Lol I probably read the skimmer thing here then. I have a really bad CO2 issue as I live above a busy bar and with winter here they run propane heaters and I have a gas furnace so a lot of CO2 being created. Right now if I don’t do anything my PH will drop to 7.55. Since I realized how low my ph has been getting I’ve been running my fuge 24/7 which has kept the low to about 7.7.

I’m assuming the CO2 media will be used up fast in this situation so anything I can do to prolong it will be a plus.

Good thing is once summer comes I can open up the big 16’ tall windows and get tons a fresh air in.

UWC · Feb 14, 2019

Another thing that works really well is to use a 3rd reactor or a container or bottle that is filled with water.

Skimmer head > water filled reactor > double co2 media reactor.

This really prolongs the life of the media

FarmerTy · Feb 14, 2019

I vote Bubba makes a video explaining how to set up a CO2 scrubber. Who's with me? [emoji16]

DivingTheWorld · Feb 14, 2019

lbacha said:
Lol I probably read the skimmer thing here then. I have a really bad CO2 issue as I live above a busy bar and with winter here they run propane heaters and I have a gas furnace so a lot of CO2 being created. Right now if I don’t do anything my PH will drop to 7.55. Since I realized how low my ph has been getting I’ve been running my fuge 24/7 which has kept the low to about 7.7.

I’m assuming the CO2 media will be used up fast in this situation so anything I can do to prolong it will be a plus.

Good thing is once summer comes I can open up the big 16’ tall windows and get tons a fresh air in.

I was dropping to about 7.65 overnight and now I don't drop to less than 8.0. Highs vary, but roughly around 8.3. Test every day when you first set it up though as your Alk/Cal consumption will explode. After a week or so, it calms down and levels out, but will end up quite a bit higher than pre-reactor.

bubbaque · Feb 14, 2019

I truly believe ph makes a difference. Over on Neptune’s YouTube page last month they put out a video with Richard Ross and I guess he works at some coral research place now and he said if there is one thing that can increase coral growth it’s a high ph.

I will make a quick video of how mine is setup when I get home.

bubbaque · Feb 14, 2019

I believe that’s also if your tank is doing well. If you are struggling to keep corals alive then I doubt ph is going to do anything for you.

lbacha · Feb 14, 2019

bubbaque said:
I believe that’s also if your tank is doing well. If you are struggling to keep corals alive then I doubt ph is going to do anything for you.

I agree completely with this. My tank had the coral growing fast and then winter cane and I buttoned up the place and growth has stopped. The corals actually look fine (maybe a little less polyp extension than I would like) but good colors just no growth. Since I turned my fuge in 24/7 a couple days ago my alk has started to drop (more consumption) and that is only getting my ph to about 7.95, with the scrubber I would expect even more. I was really confused as to why things weren’t growing as everything else was in great shape.

DivingTheWorld · Feb 14, 2019

IMO, it also makes a difference for certain "high maintenance" corals. I picked up a BC Snipers blue right around the time of the contest (just missed out on the contest) and it was doing well right up until we started closing up the house due to winter rains/cold. Ph dropped and the Snipers looked terrible for a couple months. I actually thought at one point it was a goner. I put the scrubber on and within a few weeks it started to turn around. It's encrusting again and showing great PE. I didn't notice a difference with my other acros other than (IMO) an increase in speed of growth. But for the Snipers, pH made a huge difference!

bubbaque · Feb 14, 2019

The video is a couple minutes long but if you want to see how I have it setup and me try to explain why it’s setup that way it’s in the video.

lbacha · Feb 14, 2019

bubbaque said:
The video is a couple minutes long but if you want to see how I have it setup and me try to explain why it’s setup that way it’s in the video.

Are you just using BRS media

litenyaup · Feb 14, 2019

Thanks for the explanation bubba!

bubbaque · Feb 14, 2019

lbacha said:
Are you just using BRS media

No their media is expensive. I buy it from here.
https://www.shopmedvet.com/product/soda-lime-5-gallon-JOR553B

drawman · Feb 14, 2019

bubbaque said:
Yes, ph is important to me. My tank exploded with growth when I raised my ph so I try and keep it as high as possible. I use a co2 scrubber and kalk to try and keep it high.

I don’t worry about the swing too much as there isn’t anything I can do about it. My ph swings from 7.95 to 8.38 on a daily basis.

Still using Kalk ey? In your topoff I assume?

bubbaque · Feb 14, 2019

drawman said:
Still using Kalk ey? In your topoff I assume?

still using it but not in my ato. I have a separate container that I use a pump on a timer to dose every 7 minutes.

drawman · Feb 14, 2019

bubbaque said:
still using it but not in my ato. I have a separate container that I use a pump on a timer to dose every 7 minutes.

Nice! Not a bad call so it doesn't seize up your ato pump.

lbacha · Feb 14, 2019

bubbaque said:
No their media is expensive. I buy it from here.
https://www.shopmedvet.com/product/soda-lime-5-gallon-JOR553B

I heard that was good stuff, so far my ph has gone up .1 in 3 hrs so I think this will do me some good. May have to get that as you are correct the BRS stuff is pricey