Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

[spsick]

Dude those levels are insane for what you’re feeding! Time to check the skimmer Venturi I bet it’s partially calcified and reducing your output.

especially with how much Kalk you’re dosing which binds up p04.

 

[reef junkie]

Dude those levels are insane for what you’re feeding! Time to check the skimmer Venturi I bet it’s partially calcified and reducing your output.

I also though that as well. I did check the skimmer and did not see anything that looked alarming. As for the feeding ive been adding a lot of reef chili a few times a week, along with 1 cube of mysis and the auto feeder of pellets. Might be over feeding. The one thing Ive been playing with is since adding recirculating Co2 scrubber the size of bubbles was greatly reduced. If I remove the scrubber the skimmer bubble get way larger almost instantly. Im thinking my skimmer since sized for the tank that maybe needs to be larger if running the scrubber.

 

[spsick]

Hmm yeah any resistance def impacts how much air is drawn. I have a CFM meter I got off Amazon to verify how my skimmer was impacting by pulling from outside. AC skimmers take less of a hit than DC for sure. What skimmer do you have?

couple food questions: Are you soaking/straining the mysis? It has a ton of crud in it, I soak in a little tank water and pour through a brine shrimp net before adding.

Do you have a feeding ring? A TON of pellets go straight down the overflow if not.

 

[reef junkie]

Hmm yeah any resistance def impacts how much air is drawn. I have a CFM meter I got off Amazon to verify how my skimmer was impacting by pulling from outside. AC skimmers take less of a hit than DC for sure. What skimmer do you have?

couple food questions: Are you soaking/straining the mysis? It has a ton of crud in it, I soak in a little tank water and pour through a brine shrimp net before adding.

Do you have a feeding ring? A TON of pellets go straight down the overflow if not.

Skimmer is a reef octopus 150. I need to make it routine to clean the neck weekly instead of when the collection cup is full. I could go 2 weeks before needing to empty or more. If I turn it up more it just skims way to wet and then keeps overflowing. But I think if I can make it routine to clean the neck and cup weekly regardless of full or not it should keep it a little more consistent and working better.

No to soaking mysis. I was in the begging when I was feeding it daily. Then switched to pellets and used mysis when wanted to target feed lps or treats for the fish. I’m very aware of the crud. Just have been too lazy and since I wasn’t using it daily figured what can it hurt . Might be time to start if and when I do use it.
Yes I use a feeding ring. And do 2 smaller feeding 9 hours apart to help with less food waste.

when I was using my old test kits the numbers would come back at zero. So i was feeding heavy. Then I started adding zoas and noticed them melting away. So though my nutrient were to high maybe. So i turned down the auto feeder amount. No that I can’t accurately test. Time to dial that in more.

 

[mrbill]

You may want to try one of Ryan's skimmer neck kits that reduces the dia of the skimmer tube. I did a mod on mine a while ago that does the same thing and it made a big difference with quantity and a dryer output.

 

[reef junkie]

You may want to try one of Ryan's skimmer neck kits that reduces the dia of the skimmer tube. I did a mod on mine a while ago that does the same thing and it made a big difference with quantity and a dryer output.

Are you also running a Co2 scrubber tied in with your skimmer? If I remove the scrubber I don’t have any issues with skimate. But the retricted air flow minimizes the bubble size.

 

[mrbill]

Are you also running a Co2 scrubber tied in with your skimmer? If I remove the scrubber I don’t have any issues with skimate. But the retricted air flow minimizes the bubble size.

I'm not running a Co2 scrubber. Maybe talk to Ryan, it seems to me that if you are restricting the air flow a smaller neck would work better.

 

[Jonty]

Or reduce the restriction, are you using too small a hose from the scrubber and two small adapter fitting into the scrubber?

 

[reef junkie]

Or reduce the restriction, are you using too small a hose from the scrubber and two small adapter fitting into the scrubber?

Maybe. It’s all I think 3/8 hoses. But maybe the hole in the 3d skimmer kit could be enlarged.


Received my ICP this morning. Man that such a cool test. Everything I thought was going on was confirmed. My evaporation was cut back due to the weather being warmer so I had to adjust my kalk dose Since I was adding in more then I was evaporating. So salinity was a little low. Magnesium was looking good, calcium was pretty high but I don't know what I can do about it. Phosphates were crazy high. Even higher than I was testing. So cutting back on the food has helped since I cut back some since after sending off the water test. Im planning to test this morning to see what changed over night. It might be time to either run a Fuge or grab a gfo reactor??? Would there be a better option? The other elements that were recommended im not sure really what those are or if its necessary?

 

[reef junkie]

 

[Pico bam]

How is the iodine level? When I sent in my first icp I had low iodine and potassium, sky high po4. Low salinity... and copper lol

 

[reef junkie]

How is the iodine level? When I sent in my first icp I had low iodine and potassium, sky high po4. Low salinity... and copper lol

Iodine 38.74. Looks to be in the green. My results were to run GFO and dose Zink, Mangan, and Barium. I don't even know what those 3 are LOL

 

[Pico bam]

Strange I thought it was common for icp tests, I use reef labs icp

 

[reef junkie]

Strange I thought it was common for icp tests, I use reef labs icp

I edited my response. I went back and looked and found it.

 

[Pico bam]

Iodine 38.74. Looks to be in the green. My results were to run GFO and dose Zink, Mangan, and Barium. I don't even know what those 3 are LOL

I've never heard of anyone dosing any of them. I wonder if it would make any difference at all

 

[reef junkie]

I've never heard of anyone dosing any of them. I wonder if it would make any difference at all

I don’t dont see a lot of info on it either even after asking Dr. Google, Well Phosphate seems to be my biggest issue at the moment. I hope the over feeding does the trick. I dont want to run GFO. A Fuge might be ok, but might reduce to to low nutrients and then thats a whole other problem LOL

 

[Varig]

Iodine 38.74. Looks to be in the green. My results were to run GFO and dose Zink, Mangan, and Barium. I don't even know what those 3 are LOL

So I don't know why, but they translate the actual results into English, but for whatever reason their suggestions they leave in German.

Zink = Zinc
Mangan = Manganese
Barium = Barium

I think those are all considered "trace elements," I know they're found in stuff like the Tropic Marin K+ and A- (all 3 of those are actually in the K+). But I doubt it's something to be concerned about.

Regarding phosphate, all I can tell you is that with it that high, you might find that it takes a LONG time to come down without using GFO. In my own case mine was that high and because so much got absorbed into the rocks it felt like it would never come down. I ran RowaPhos in a reactor and it would get depleted in 1 week (when people claim it should last 1 month) and barely even impact the levels of phosphate in the water. After changing the RowaPhos 4-5 times it finally started to come down, and now that I've got it down closer to 0.1ppm I turned off the reactor and it hasn't gone back up.

I guess the point is, do NOT make any changes super fast, your reef looks pretty happy at those levels. But if you think your phosphate is too high, then I'm guessing it might take more than just less feeding, at least to get it back under control.

Regarding the fuge, I run a small one on my tank (as it's all I have room for). The chaeto for sure grows well, but I see it impacting nitrate more than phosphate. I don't know if that is typical with chaeto or not. In my case I find that nitrates are the limiting factor, so I actually have to dose nitrates to keep it above zero, but then maybe that allows the chaeto to grow and suck up some phosphate? Not sure.

Your mileage may vary, but given how pretty your tank looks, I might also tend towards "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

[spsick]

Re: the trace elements, I wouldn’t take any action. I’d bet those came right back up with the big water change you did.

 

[reef junkie]

So I don't know why, but they translate the actual results into English, but for whatever reason their suggestions they leave in German.

Zink = Zinc
Mangan = Manganese
Barium = Barium

I think those are all considered "trace elements," I know they're found in stuff like the Tropic Marin K+ and A- (all 3 of those are actually in the K+). But I doubt it's something to be concerned about.

Regarding phosphate, all I can tell you is that with it that high, you might find that it takes a LONG time to come down without using GFO. In my own case mine was that high and because so much got absorbed into the rocks it felt like it would never come down. I ran RowaPhos in a reactor and it would get depleted in 1 week (when people claim it should last 1 month) and barely even impact the levels of phosphate in the water. After changing the RowaPhos 4-5 times it finally started to come down, and now that I've got it down closer to 0.1ppm I turned off the reactor and it hasn't gone back up.

I guess the point is, do NOT make any changes super fast, your reef looks pretty happy at those levels. But if you think your phosphate is too high, then I'm guessing it might take more than just less feeding, at least to get it back under control.

Regarding the fuge, I run a small one on my tank (as it's all I have room for). The chaeto for sure grows well, but I see it impacting nitrate more than phosphate. I don't know if that is typical with chaeto or not. In my case I find that nitrates are the limiting factor, so I actually have to dose nitrates to keep it above zero, but then maybe that allows the chaeto to grow and suck up some phosphate? Not sure.

Your mileage may vary, but given how pretty your tank looks, I might also tend towards "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Thanks. This all started because of my new added zoas keep melting away oh and because we are told to not chase numbers and ain’t no body gonna tell me what to do . I appreciate the feed back though. Helps to hear some other perspectives.
I can easily add some gfo in either a reactor or maybe toss some chemi pure blue in the sump. Think I have some around from my old tank still.

Re: the trace elements, I wouldn’t take any action. I’d bet those came right back up with the big water change you did.

Thanks. Even dosing all for reef is surprising to me that those element are low. But might just not be enough.

 

[reef junkie]

I had a 5.5 of chemi pure still so rinsed and tossed into the sump. Figured this would be a good start since I had it laying around.

I also reached out to fish of hex to see if the way the ins take is on the skimmer mod could be slowing down the air intake and if it would be advised to open that up.
Here is what the intake looks like. Guess not much air would be able to get in there