Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

When I lived and worked in the Philadelphia area, sometimes they added so many chemicals to the water that it came out almost looking like milk. I bet the TDS was 5000 during the summer.

 

[Fishy888]

I noticed with all the experimenting that once I turned the ball valve on the product water line, then turned the faucet off the meter read 1 TDS. It read consistently at 6 or under when the water was flowing in the product line but when you heard the bubbles it would read in the middle to upper 20s. Perfect it isn’t but it’s a great unit and I’m going to get it to where it’s consistently reading 0 TDS.

I discarded a good 10 gallons of product water and made about 3 gallons more of product water for a top off. I’m pretty confident it’s at least as good as the RO water at the supermarket if not better.

You’ll be happy you did. Better waste water ratio, increased membrane performance and decreased DI usage.

I started researching what low pressure does to a RO/DI unit. The water bypasses the membrane which is to be expected. This means the DI resin is taking most of the TDS at the tap minus whatever TDS the pre filters pull out. Of course a booster pump helps this.

RO/DI systems in general are rated to produce 0 TDS when the water is at 50 to 65 PSI at the RO membrane and when the water temperature is at 77 degrees. If the water temperature drops into the 40s I believe it was, then a 75 GPD unit will produce about half that. That’s at 50 to 65 PSI. Booster pumps help that by pumping at a higher than normal rate. At 80 PSI with water temperature in the 40s the membrane will work like it would at the regular 50 to 65 PSI with water temperatures around 77 degrees. No damage to the membrane as a result. Just don’t run at 80 plus PSI with a water temperature of 77 degrees because that WILL blow the membrane.

just tilt unit for a minute with the fittings on membrane up , just to make sure not air stuck in membrane chamber
you'll see the bubbles if there is .

I'm going to do that tomorrow since I want to do a small water change. I read an article that suggested to rotate the unit In all directions while the system is under pressure to release the bubbles. That may be all I need to make the water come out of the product water line steadily without air bubbles.

The air bubbles were the one symptom NOT caused by pressure being too low.

For tonight I shut off the faucet but left the unit plugged into the faucet diverter. Once I start making the water for the water change I’ll tilt it and see if the bubbling stops. If not I’ll rotate it and see if that works. Either way the bubbles should stop and a steady stream should flow through the product water line and the outgoing TDS probe.

 

[Mschmidt]

This is one of those conversations where I feel bad for not testing tds. its early fish keeping trauma from fb and fw.

I’m making some RO water which rocks. My TDS meter fluctuates between 12 and 35 TDS for the output. I’m getting about 120 TDS out of the tap. I don’t know if the TDS out will settle down after a while or not. I’ve had the unit for a good month before I got it hooked up. Even though I took precautions to keep moisture in all the stages as best I could there could still be a break in period I suppose. I’m just making 5 gallons of RO/DI. tonight. If I don’t like the numbers after that I’ll have to replace the membrane. It’s still an improvement over 120 TDS but it’s hard knowing what the dissolved solids are. Since our water doesn’t have the metallic taste of city water I don’t think metals will be in the solids so I’ll probably use it and run a phosphate test in the morning. What do you think @Lost in the Sauce and anyone else? @EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal, @tbrown3589, @Stang67, @Mschmidt, @fishguy242, @sfin52? Hopefully I didn’t forget anyone. Besides we need a little craziness up in this thread.

Well I just went to check the TDS meter. It’s consistently reading 9 TDS now when water’s flowing. It’s improving. I’ve gotten about a gallon or so since it’s been running so things may be settling down.

I am probably no help here.

 

[Fishy888]

I really need a better camera at some point; but I saw one of my feather duster worms out so I snapped a picture.

It’s about 1/2” around. This picture doesn’t do it justice. There are several of these throughout the DT.

I made a 5 gallon batch of saltwater with my RO/DI unit. Speaking of which I get my pressure gauge tomorrow. Here’s to hoping my pressure is high enough. I’m going to get a booster pump for my RO/DI unit regardless of my water pressure. If the pressure is high enough I hope to be able to take care of a few other important things like replacing the RO membrane and an ATO system.

 

[Fishy888]

Even though my reef isn’t a TOTM exactly there’s so much life in there! It never ceases to amaze me. I took some pictures tonight of some of my corals and inverts. This tank will one day look much better. More coral, inverts, fish, and rocks are coming.



Here’s my halloween hermit who’s scraping up some dinner.

Here’s the new mushroom. It’s quite vibrant. My iPhone doesn’t do it justice.

Here’s a bristle worm and an asterina doing their thing.

My Xenia’s taking over the world and it looks good doing it.

My Kenya tree’s growing nicely. It’s about 3 or 4 times its original size.

The cabbage leather has grown 2 to 3 times its original size.

Last but not least are my Duncan’s. This picture shows the quickly growing baby polyps.

This picture shows the original 2 polyps and the first 2 baby polyps. When the next 2 finish coming in there’ll be 6 polyps altogether.

 

[Stang67]

Duncan's are great coral because they act like the "canary in the coal mine" they are great indicators.

 

[Fishy888]

I finally got to where I had to do a single half dose of phosphate-e last night. That dropped my phosphates by 0.04 ppm. I can tell it’s getting higher than my checker is reading. I have to clean the glass in the DT every other day and my rock has more algae than usual. Even though it’s nuisance algae I still need some algae on the rock to feed various creatures and I really don’t want to chase numbers. That’s why I only dropped the phosphates by 0.04.

Part of the increase in phosphates was because I harvested almost half of the algae in the sump. It stopped up the intake vents on the return pump because it was so thick. As a result my phosphates came up. After the first week it looked like normal in there. I was seeing some phosphates and everything was looking good. After that I noticed that my corals slowed down in growth. There were patches of lyngbya starting on my rock. The patches have become like the bristles on a paint brush now.

Clearly I harvested too much algae. Even with my new lighting I had detectable nutrients. There was almost no nuisance algae in the DT except on the front and sides. At that point I had to clean the glass every 3 to 5 days; and there wasn’t nearly as much algae even then on the glass (except for the back glass which I let algae grow on) as there is after 1 day now. The nuisance algae stayed in the sump however until I harvested a gallon worth from the sump. Once I got my scraper/putty knife (stainless and plastic) I also harvested the algae from the back glass and the sides which had algae for which I needed a scraper. Clearly I harvested too much algae over too short of a time period.

My goal now is to allow my hermits, one of whom killed one of my Mexican turbo snails for its shell, to graze on the rocks. The algae in the sump can grow enough to consume most, though not all, the phosphates and nitrates from the foods I’m feeding.

I will harvest much less algae than I did the last time but do it a bit more often for stability’s sake.

The surprise creature is likely coming before the weekend. It may well end up getting here today.

 

[Fishy888]

I came down this morning and looked at the DT and found that literally overnight. Most of the nuisance algae is gone, especially on that tops of the rocks. I forgot that I turned the flow up a couple of days ago. That was enough to scour the tops and to a lesser extent the sides of the rocks. Only in a few dead spots are rocks with algae on the tops of rocks. I could still go up one more speed which will eventually happen.

There’s still plenty of algae in the sump however so I still have a phosphate sink.

I’ll do a phosphate test today. I should get a more accurate reading since most of the rocks are exposed and can release enough phosphates to balance things out.

 

[crusso1993]

I came down this morning and looked at the DT and found that literally overnight. Most of the nuisance algae is gone, especially on that tops of the rocks. I forgot that I turned the flow up a couple of days ago. That was enough to scour the tops and to a lesser extent the sides of the rocks. Only in a few dead spots are rocks with algae on the tops of rocks. I could still go up one more speed which will eventually happen.

There’s still plenty of algae in the sump however so I still have a phosphate sink.

I’ll do a phosphate test today. I should get a more accurate reading since most of the rocks are exposed and can release enough phosphates to balance things out.

That section of your sump reminds of a time, when I was a kid, that I was so sick I threw up Pepto Bismol. It was not a pleasant experience.

 

[Fishy888]

That section of your stump reminds of a time, when I was a kid, that I was so sick I threw up Pepto Bismol. It was not a pleasant experience.

I take it that you threw up under a xenia tree?

 

[Fishy888]

I take it that you threw up under a xenia tree?

All jokes aside I have Viparspectra grow lights down there hence the pepto pink. I have some algae floating in there at the moment. I have Chaeto and some hair algae in there.

 

[Fishy888]

So tonight I tested my phosphates. I’m at 11 ppb phosphorus so 0.033 ppm phosphates. The algae in the sump is doing its job. I’m feeding fairly heavily though. I feed NLS pellets and my DIY frozen. I feed a cube worth of the frozen food and about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cube worth of pellets. I also target feed my duncans with frozen food. I might try feeding them pellets occasionally but that’s another story.

The duncans are on a tear growth wise. The newest baby polyps are coming in now and it looks like they’re laying down some calcium carbonate too. The mat looks like an off white color where the polyps are coming in. The coral as a whole is growing out from the top of the frag plug including the newest baby polyps. Just below them there are two more polyp buds (for lack of a better word). The mat’s purple there and is attached to the older skeletal branch that all the polyps are growing from. It’s going to be time soon to get the duncans off the frag plug and onto some rock.

As for the rest of the corals they look great. I had the chance to look at pictures taken when I first set up the cube. When I get some time I’ll post some before and after pictures.

The xenia has grown nicely. The cabbage leather has about doubled in size since September. The Kenya tree has grown a bit but not as dramatically as most of the other corals.

The green watermelon mushrooms are spreading and the baby mushrooms are growing although slowly. They weren’t growing at all until I installed the halide.

The baby red mushroom seems content. It opens nicely each day. It’s the size of a pinhead, perhaps slightly larger.

The iron oxide zoanthids I got a month or so ago have a baby polyp developing. They’re still their beautiful, rust red color.

The original GSP colony (what’s left of it) is doing ok. A few weeks ago I had a piece of the original colony that came loose most of the way from the frag plug. I pulled that piece off the rest of the way leaving some of the mat still on the frag plug. When I glued it to the rock I had chosen I pressed too hard on them. They disintegrated quickly. The small frags are rebounding though. I’m going to try gluing these pieces to a small rock. Instead of mashing them to get them to stick I’m going to apply the glue and rubber band the mat without damaging the stolons, thus killing the polyps. I’ll let it cure out of water for a minute or two then put it back.

The newer GSP colony which is on the rock with the green watermelon mushrooms is also doing ok. It died back quite a bit but it’s starting to regain its original territory.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Nemsplams

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Duncan's are great coral because they act like the "canary in the coal mine" they are great indicators.

A Duncan was my first coral. I Still have the 10 head skeleton. I'm going to grow a bunch of cyphastria over.

 

[tbrown]

A Duncan was my first coral. I Still have the 10 head skeleton. I'm going to grow a bunch of cyphastria over.

I always thought this would be cool. Candy Cane, Duncan, or Euphyllia skeleton with different Cyphastrea growing on each branch.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I always thought this would be cool. Candy Cane, Duncan, or Euphyllia skeleton with different Cyphastrea growing on each branch.

I've even got the corals bought to do it. Just haven't yet.

 

[Fishy888]

Nemsplams

That’s a beautiful tank all the way around.

 

[Fishy888]

As promised here are some before and after pics. This is what the cauliflower coral looked like in mid September.

I snapped this pic of it this afternoon.

This is the Kenya tree. Also from mid September.

This is from a few days ago.

Here are my duncans from mid September.

These are from a few hours ago. I included pictures of the coral as a whole, one of the first baby polyps, and one of the newest baby polyps coming in, respectively.

The new babies are underneath the larger original polyps.

Last but not least, the xenia in mid September.

This is from this afternoon. The top rock is the one in the before picture. I’ll try to find a before picture of the bottom rock of xenia also but there’s a big difference even s

I got most of these corals before mid September but that’s when I started the 90 gallon cube. I have to see if I can find older pictures of these corals.

I got the cabbage leather in July I believe and it was even smaller still.

The Kenya tree I got in July also I believe. It was smaller still when I got it.

In late August is when I got the duncans; so the before picture is representative of what they looked like when I got them. There were only the two polyps.

The xenia came before any of the others. I got them in May. They came on rock I got from an established tank. Up until I got the rocks with the xenia I was battling dinos. After 8 months of battling dinos and getting nowhere but broke the rocks finally broke the dinos’ backs. Within 24 hours all the dinos within an inch of the xenia rocks was obliterated. A few days later the sand bed was looking far better. The dino covered rocks were starting to clear, and the dinos were gone from rock and sand within two weeks of getting the rocks. I started feeding like crazy.

I’ll have to find the pictures of these corals from when I first got them. Once I do I’ll update this.

 

[Fishy888]

So maybe it’s a rite of passage (or not) but I just drank my first cup of RO/DI water. Not bad. I’m extremely certain I’m producing 0 TDS water. The meter still fluctuates due to air in the line despite my tilting it (I’ll have to try it again). Still when water flows properly I get 5 TDS. The water doesn’t taste or smell like… anything. As a result I’m pretty sure I have 0 TDS. There’s also barely any color in the very bottom of DI resin.

I harvested some algae and cleaned the glass tonight. I fed enough frozen food that my duncans caught some pieces. That’ll work. There’s a vermetid snail though that the duncans’ mat is growing around. I hope it doesn’t pose any problems. At least the most developed of the two new polyps is looking good. Both look good but the older of the two has some tentacles peeking out.

 

[Fishy888]

The much ballyhooed mystery creature is on the way and will be here shortly!