Mike's Red Sea Reefer 525 XL build

[mta_morrow]

Oh! Also removed the reactor. I seems a lot of GHA was growing AND dying in side of it. It stunk BAD! Have a feeling my nutrient rise came from that and the fact that the diamond spot goby cleaned the whole sand bed. We shall see!

 

[Brew12]

Tank update:

did a 49 gallon wc Thursday. After the WC
Alk is stable at 8
NO3 from 60+ to 45ish.
PO4 from .292 to .25

The Brightwell Phosphate-E (lanthanum chloride) arrived yesterday. I want to lower phosphates slowly so I used the dosing calculator to see how much I need to lower it .1. Then I used 50% of that. Also erred on the safe side for water volume.
for nitrates I upped my homemade NoPox dosing from 12 ml per day to 24 ml per day over the past 10 days.
full testing again on Monday.
have a good weekend everyone!

Good luck getting it stable!

My nitrate is fine, but I can't bring my PO4 down so I just ordered some of the Phosphate-E myself. I don't think I have enough flow through my GFO reactor to make enough of a difference.

 

[mta_morrow]

Good luck getting it stable!

My nitrate is fine, but I can't bring my PO4 down so I just ordered some of the Phosphate-E myself. I don't think I have enough flow through my GFO reactor to make enough of a difference.

I doing it slowly. 1 ml mixed in a large cup of rodi, then pour slowly into sock and straight into the skimmer. This was 1/2 of the recommended dose to drop it .1. Here is a calculator! I will post regular weekly results.

http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html

 

[RichtheReefer21]

My buddy is trying to talk me into LC to lower my po4 as well. I just did a carbon and gfo change and we shall see what happens on it's own first before I try to dose... I'm at .25 ish after a .45 spike 2 weeks ago.

Keep us updated indeed please.

 

[mta_morrow]

OK, nutrient update.

first off, as dumb as this sounds, I disked 5ml LC (Brightwell Phosphate-E), not 1 ml. I used a Red Sea dosing cup, the little side of it thinking it was 1 ml, but its 5.

I was way under dosing it to start, so off to testing I went this morning after realizing it last night.

All is well......whew!

PO4 was .22 last Thursday before I dosed 5ml, premixed in a cup of rod and added into my filter socks, then into the skimmer. Today, after 3 1/2 days, PO4 is at .175. A decrease of .05. I use the Hanna ULR phosphorus checker. So this works out to 1ml reduced PO4 by .01ppm. We will see if that ratio continues.

Now what I don't know is.....was it lower than that and is is climbing back up because I don't check it every day.

NO3 was 40ish last Thursday and today its 32ish using the Red Sea Pro nitrate. I increased the dose of NoPox from 12 to 24 3 days ago. I know it takes a week or so to start seeing changes as it takes some time for the bacteria to build up and start becoming effective.

I am going to leave PO4 alone until Sunday most likely. I will test everything Sunday again and determine what I will do for LC and NoPox. NO RUSH! Nice and slow. I want to bring them down together.

Targets are NO3 10-20, PO4 .08 - .12, Alk 7.8 - 8.0 (this is holding well).

BTW, I'm loving the coral box doser!

@Brew12 @RichtheReefer21

 

[Brew12]

Now what I don't know is.....was it lower than that and is is climbing back up because I don't check it every day.

Since phosphate exists in an equilibrium with your substrate, it has to be dropping and coming back up. Immediately after you add the LC the PO4 in your water is lower than in your rock/sand. Over the next 1 to 3 days PO4 from your substrate will be released into your water until a new equilibrium is established. This is why it takes a lot more phosphate remover to lower phosphate than to maintain it at a specific level.

 

[mta_morrow]

Since phosphate exists in an equilibrium with your substrate, it has to be dropping and coming back up. Immediately after you add the LC the PO4 in your water is lower than in your rock/sand. Over the next 1 to 3 days PO4 from your substrate will be released into your water until a new equilibrium is established. This is why it takes a lot more phosphate remover to lower phosphate than to maintain it at a specific level.

While I do understand this, here is what I don’t get. My PO4 was at .12 or lower, mostly lower, for 20 months. Nitrates less than 20 for 20 months. The over a 4 week period they blew up. I can understand if they had always been there and they equalize. But they weren’t always there?

I think 2 things happened. One, added the diamond spot goby and 20 months of untouched sand was totally plowed. And second, I think I had GHA growing and dying at the same time in my reactor experiment.

Prior to this, I sold my foxface and the larger trigger fish. My bio load is down for sure.

I’m anxious to test on Sunday and see where nutrients are again. No ill effects on the tank and no algae growing anywhere. This is a good learning experience!

 

[najer]

While I do understand this, here is what I don’t get. My PO4 was at .12 or lower, mostly lower, for 20 months. Nitrates less than 20 for 20 months. The over a 4 week period they blew up. I can understand if they had always been there and they equalize. But they weren’t always there?

I think 2 things happened. One, added the diamond spot goby and 20 months of untouched sand was totally plowed. And second, I think I had GHA growing and dying at the same time in my reactor experiment.

Prior to this, I sold my foxface and the larger trigger fish. My bio load is down for sure.

I’m anxious to test on Sunday and see where nutrients are again. No ill effects on the tank and no algae growing anywhere. This is a good learning experience!

With you, yes slowly, the twins appear to have bottomed out, I am changing carbon every 4 days, there were signs of happiness today!

 

[mta_morrow]

With you, yes slowly, the twins appear to have bottomed out, I am changing carbon every 4 days, there were signs of happiness today!

That’s great! That’s definitely a happy face!

 

[najer]

That’s great! That’s definitely a happy face!

We got this!

 

[revhtree]

An evening with the fishies!

Looking good!

 

[mta_morrow]

Added 5 ml LC today.
will test NO3 and PO4 tomorrow

 

[SPR1968]

On the phosphate issue, I can honestly say the best single thing I ever did with my tank is add rhowaphos in a reactor and run it 24/7 and change it regularly. It keeps phosphate locked down and avoids all sorts of issues.

i can actually tell when it’s ready to be changed. The level when I tested on Sunday showed 0.14 which for me is high, and I put that down to dry pellet food, so that’s been halved. But the tank looked just ‘dirty’ if I can put it like that, just dirty.

If you go down this route you do need to keep changing it regularly or it won’t work and will just come back up when is exhausted

The boys at DD, David Saxby, Stuart Bertram and Tony Rogers all use it and they are some of the ‘tank masters’. And there in the UK so there on speed dial in my times of need!! And I’ll no doubt be ringing them when I hook up the Deltec Twin Tech Calcium Reactor! Lol

 

[mta_morrow]

On the phosphate issue, I can honestly say the best single thing I ever did with my tank is add rhowaphos in a reactor and run it 24/7 and change it regularly. It keeps phosphate locked down and avoids all sorts of issues.

i can actually tell when it’s ready to be changed. The level when I tested on Sunday showed 0.14 which for me is high, and I put that down to dry pellet food, so that’s been halved. But the tank looked just ‘dirty’ if I can put it like that, just dirty.

If you go down this route you do need to keep changing it regularly or it won’t work and will just come back up when is exhausted

The boys at DD, David Saxby, Stuart Bertram and Tony Rogers all use it and they are some of the ‘tank masters’. And there in the UK so there on speed dial in my times of need!! And I’ll no doubt be ringing them when I hook up the Deltec Twin Tech Calcium Reactor! Lol

Thanks Shaun. I have use rowaphos in a media bag and it had performed great up until this spike. I plan on going back to it after I get this under control again.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Thanks for keeping the details rolling in mike. Appreciate the knowledge and experience sharing.

 

[SPR1968]

Thanks Shaun. I have use rowaphos in a media bag and it had performed great up until this spike. I plan on going back to it after I get this under control again.

If you can, it will work much much better lightly tumbling (sort of simmering) in a media reactor. Just in a media bag it won’t have anywhere near the desired performance.

I have for example the Deltec FR509 in the S650, and the FR512 for the new system and rhowaphos will be in from the very beginning to remove any silicates in the water as well as phosphate when it starts to form.

 

[mta_morrow]

If you can, it will work much much better lightly tumbling (sort of simmering) in a media reactor. Just in a media bag it won’t have anywhere near the desired performance.

I have for example the Deltec FR509 in the S650, and the FR512 for the new system and rhowaphos will be in from the very beginning to remove any silicates in the water as well as phosphate when it starts to form.

Thanks again Shaun. I have a reactor I can use. For these first 20 months of the tank the media bag has worked fine. But this quick spike had me lookin a different direction. Cost and less maintenance is what drove me to look at lanthanum chloride and the video below is what really sold me on it.
I still have some rowaphos and will give it a go in the reactor as soon as I get it down and stable around .1ish. But I have to say LC is cheap and super easy.

 

[mta_morrow]

Testing today. Results are in!

NO3. Was 32. Still 32. Started out at 60+. Had bumped up NoPox from 12 ml per day to 24 ml per day. Now bumped up to 30 ml per day dosing 15ml at 10 am and 10 pm. Skimmer is pulling it well as I get a full skimmer cup of “tea” per day.

PO4. Was .175 now .162 after another 5ml dose of LC. Started out at .28

So far the largest nitrate reduction came from a 40 gallon WC.

I’m expecting nitrates to make a quick drop soon. My experience with NoPox is it takes a week or 2 for the stuff to really kick in. Then when it does it works fast. That’s why you skim wet in order to pull out the bacteria that has consumed the nitrates. I can usually tell when it’s working hard as the bacteria likes to collect and grow on the mesh filter sock and the bubble trap sponge.

I will dose another 5 ml of LC Saturday or Sunday and then test again on Monday most likely.

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Sounds like ur back on track mike. Nice work.

 

[mta_morrow]

Sounds like ur back on track mike. Nice work.

Almost there and heading in the right direction! Cleaned glass today and removed a lot of bacteria film. I expect to see a big drop in nitrates next test!