Martin's RSM C-130

[SPR]

Quick update:

My portable mini RO system (used for drinking water) has an output TDS of 015 compared to the 5ltrs of RO is just got from my LFS, that's coming out at 049! Seems like I need to be getting myself a proper RODI unit and just start making my own saltwater, I've got the pump and heater now. Incidentally, pumping the water back in was a breeze. Will not miss lugging 25ltr water containers up to refill lol.

Levels today were around the same as before, although Alk was down again to 4dkh. Might explain some unhappy corals, increase in RTA and odd spot or two of cyano. Ideally I need to get my dosing pumps rigged up, but considering I hope to be moving house soon, have decided against this and have set some reminders on my phone to manually dose in the meantime.

Struggling to give the tank the time it needs tbh, and that sucks!

Plus sides though; the trumpet is now about to split into 7 heads (was two when I got it), my green mushroom is almost double the size now and my blue mushrooms are popping up all over, SPS is growing well too.

Hi Martin

I would get yourself an RODI unit as once you have one and it's set up you won't have issues introducing nutrients into the tank which can cause all sorts of problems. The DI part removes the last bits of nutrient. I got mine from Osmotics.

They aren't that expensive really in comparison to other stuff we have to use. I have mine just set up outside on the floor connected to my outside tap with a hosepipe and although I will need to bring it in over winter I have a store of around 450 litres in 30litre containers so I shouldn't need to make much over winter hopefully. Temperature affects the output speed so I have made most over summer etc and will keep making it as I use it until first frosts when I'll need to bring it in so it doesn't split or something

 

[melvis]

Hi Shaun
Thanks for the reply. I was looking at one from Osmotics, the 50GPD model - seems a great price at just over £100, compared to those listed elsewhere. Glad to hear of others using them.

Might be able to install mine temporarily under kitchen sink but outside tap is definitely an idea. Wow, that's some store but then again, I guess it's needed with the 650.

Cheers

 

[SPR]

Hi Shaun
Thanks for the reply. I was looking at one from Osmotics, the 50GPD model - seems a great price at just over £100, compared to those listed elsewhere. Glad to hear of others using them.

Might be able to install mine temporarily under kitchen sink but outside tap is definitely an idea. Wow, that's some store but then again, I guess it's needed with the 650.

Cheers

I have the 100gpd with DI - they don't produce this much in the real world I have found. Mine takes around 4-5 hours to produce 25 litres at around 18-20'C or above and pressure of 50psi at the tap. When it's cold i usually leave over night as takes longer that's why I have built up a stock so I should be OK for the 10% weekly water changes over winter. Also gives me backup in the event of a catastrophe!

Make sure you get the one with DI as well if you want 0ppm

 

[melvis]

So, have been dosing Alk for past three days and have managed to raise this from 4dkh to 8dkh. Ideally I'd like to get this a fraction higher, say between 9-11 dkh.

Tested Sunday morning, results were:

• Salinity: 1.026
• Mag: 1230
• Alk: 4
• Cal: 350
• Nitrate: 5
• Phos: 0.02
• PH: 8.2

Tested just now:

• Salinity: 1.026-1.027
• Mag: 1170
• Alk: 8
• Cal: 320
• Nitrate: 5
• Phos: 0
• PH: 8.2

Am I right in thinking that the rise in Alk will cause a swing in Cal and Mag? If so, would it be wise to maybe dose Alk in the mornings (currently doing this before lights ramp up) and alternate Cal and Mag each day, in the evening?

Once I get to desired levels shown below, I'll be able to then daily test over the course of a week to see what my depletion rates are.

• Alk - 9-11dkh
• Cal - 420
• Mag - 1300

If you think these aren't right, please shout as I'm determined to get the levels sorted and then maintain.

Cyano appears to be going too! Still not convinced phosphates and nitrates are as low as they are coming out, my nemesis (RTA) is back in places. Once levels are right, I'll introduce a new CUC and Tux.

Cheers
Martin

 

[SPR]

I follow the Red Sea Reef Care program and for various reasons of stability etc the recommend dosing as follows with at least 10 mins intervals between each:
Mg
Alk
Ca

Also I believe they don't recommend 0 phosphate/nitrate On the accelerated growth program it's 1-2ppm nitrate and 0.1ppm phosphate. On the enhanced colouration it's around 0.25ppm nitrate and 0.02 phosphate. This is alll with a view to control this different levels of Zooxanthellae present in the corals.

I think I have read that if you drop to 0 or thereabouts you may get cyno problems as they don't need nitrate etc to breed but...

 

[melvis]

Thanks Shaun, I might have to take a look at that as stability has been an ongoing issue. I'll do some reading.

My trusted old LFS closed down in June but I've stayed in touch with the manager who used to run his own shop years ago. He just opened a new store of his own about 45 mins away from me so the missus suggested we took a drive out there to take a look and wish him well etc. He's done a cracking job and has hand picked some lovely specimens from cold water, tropical and of course, marine. A lovely purple tang, a stunning sailfin and a naso (if only I had a bigger tank lol). Some great corals too and when I get round to it, I'm going to frag my White Polyp and do some trades.

Hadn't planned on buying anything but as my levels have stabilised somewhat lately, I found myself leaving there with three new test kits (Alk, Nitrate and PH), some live mysis, a Mexican turbo, 4 turbos, 3 nasa's, a cleaner shrimp, a Tuxedo urchin and a beautiful Coral Beauty to replace the one I lost a while back.

Did a slow, 2 hour acclimation and lights are out right now but all appear to be looking good. The nasa's dived for cover immediately and the Mexican is on the move too. I'll put up some pics when lights are back on in the morning and I've given it a spruce up and WC. Thinking of rigging up the pump I've got to blow the detritus out from under the middle of my LR as it's getting bad and I can't reach it with the gravel vac thingy.

 

[Oxylebius]

Always make sure you Mg is where you want it first (before dosing Alk or Ca), as Mg affects both Ca and Alk. Once your Mg is where you want it, keep it there while you start to dose the other two.

 

[melvis]

Always make sure you Mg is where you want it first (before dosing Alk or Ca), as Mg affects both Ca and Alk. Once your Mg is where you want it, keep it there while you start to dose the other two.

Thanks Oxy, I keep forgetting that and needless to say, have been struggling again with levels of late. My Alk is apparently at 15dkh, Ca 290 and Mg 1170. Kinda explains it all really, Mg not doing it's job of refereeing the other two, hence the extremes. Going to dose some Mg later once it's dissolved.

My Stylopora seems to be suffering with the low Ca levels so glad I've spotted it now before things got worse.

Turns out there still is a crab in there!!!! Had noticed a few CUC shells lying about and thought they'd died naturally (although I suppose being eaten by a crab is natural), but then I spotted a shredded crab shell. Low and behold, moved the Golden Table (so it gets a bit more flow) and there it was...and it was massive! Tried grabbing it but it retreated under the LR. It's not a good one as it has black pincher claws, so it's got to come out.

Other than that, things are definitely looking better than they were and it's getting some love and attention of late.

 

[melvis]

Another massive gap in updating, life just gets in the way sometimes.

RTA taking over again so ordered some new CPE to switch it out earlier than usual but having read a lot of stuff over the web, I'm beginning to think that this could be leaching phosphates - hence the increased growth of RTA. I've said it before, but I hate this stuff with a passion!

Might experiment with just the purigen and phosnet and do a couple of bigger water changes. Innovative Marine do a nice media reactor that'll drop nicely into the rear chamber, so I'm thinking that if I do go back to running carbon etc, I'll use this and a bag of phosnet. These are combined in CPE and the carbon will typically exhaust quicker than the phosnet, so one is being thrown out before it's properly spent I guess. Then there's biopellets...yep, I've read way too much lol!

Adjusted lighting schedule slightly to see if that helps too and done some more reading on algae scrubbers - my god there's so many mixed opinions out there. The ones I've been looking at are US based so the cost of the unit, delivery and likely import charges potentially do not make it a worthy return on investment, especially if it doesn't work. If I could get what I wanted in the UK, I'd take a shot and see.

The crab is still in there so I've got to get that out, been a bit lazy on that front tbh but levels seem to be a bit more stable though, well, Alk is up anyway.

Finally ordered a RODI too, so hoping that will help with the water going into the tank. Got this from osmotics.co.uk for £95 with a few connectors. Gotta thank @SPR for the tip, cheers mate!

Will be attempting to blow the detritus out from under the LR again at next water change as this may also be adding to my nitrate and phosphate levels. These are showing as 0 but I don't buy it for one second. This won't cause a mini-cycle will it?

I've soaked my MP10 wet side in a 50/50 mixture of RO and white vinegar and it has cleaned up nicely. Will be tackling the return pump nozzle next then moving my way round all the components and pipes, giving them a soak and clean.

Once all of this is done and the war on the RTA is being won, I plan to finally re-aquascape everything so that I reduce dead spots and places for detritus to collect and maximise coral placement. The dosing pump will also make its way out of the loft and finally get rigged up. Only snag will be the wife giving birth in about 3 months...

 

[Pat24601]

I appreciate the update.

 

[melvis]

Cheers Pat. How are you doing mate? Still got the C250?

 

[melvis]

So I tested the water I'd mixed up and got the following results, this is using Red Sea Coral Pro and a RO machine (still waiting on my RODI to arrive).

Alk - 12.5 dkh
Nitrates - 10
Phosphates - 0
PH - 8.1
Mag - 1380
Calc - 460
Sg - 1.025

Annoyingly, salinity in the tank had dropped so I didn't do any tests prior to my water change as the figures would all be skewed. I stupidly still went ahead and done the water change but regretting that now. Have left the ATO off so will mix up some more saltwater and gradually top up with this to raise the salinity.

A few questions if I may...

Is the Alk reading a bit high for freshly mixed saltwater?
Would the nitrates be coming from the RO water?
Are the other levels about right?
Any ideas as to why salinity is dropping? Can't seem to see signs of excessive salt creep.

It has confirmed somewhat, that any phosphates are either being introduced via feeding (going to stop flake and see what difference that makes) or that it's leaching from the sand or LR.

Cheers

 

[Pat24601]

Cheers Pat. How are you doing mate? Still got the C250?

I do have, but probably for not much longer. Long story. Going well, though, just life changes.

Always glad to see your updates!

 

[melvis]

Seem to have an outbreak of baby snails, bit hard to ID at the mo but they are everywhere in the tank.

These are on what I affectionately now call my 'Red Turf Algae Garden'...you can keep your zoa gardens, this is the where it's at!!

 

[Pat24601]

Love it.

 

[SPR]

So I tested the water I'd mixed up and got the following results, this is using Red Sea Coral Pro and a RO machine (still waiting on my RODI to arrive).

Alk - 12.5 dkh
Nitrates - 10
Phosphates - 0
PH - 8.1
Mag - 1380
Calc - 460
Sg - 1.025

Annoyingly, salinity in the tank had dropped so I didn't do any tests prior to my water change as the figures would all be skewed. I stupidly still went ahead and done the water change but regretting that now. Have left the ATO off so will mix up some more saltwater and gradually top up with this to raise the salinity.

A few questions if I may...

Is the Alk reading a bit high for freshly mixed saltwater?
Would the nitrates be coming from the RO water?
Are the other levels about right?
Any ideas as to why salinity is dropping? Can't seem to see signs of excessive salt creep.

It has confirmed somewhat, that any phosphates are either being introduced via feeding (going to stop flake and see what difference that makes) or that it's leaching from the sand or LR.

Cheers

Hi Martin - sorry didn't spot this post..

If your using the Red Sea Coral Pro (i also use this) I believe the foundation elements are set at the high level in line with their accelerated growth parameters. If you have a look on their web site etc it tells you all about it. Don't know about the nitrate part but maybe might be from the current RO water if not 0 TDS or thereabouts.

I'm dosing the reef foundations normally, although I'm dropping back from accelerated growth to more 'normal' levels so have had to stop dosing apart from alk as the others lower. When I need my next batch of salt I may just go for the standard Red Sea Salt which has lower levels of everything so I can then top off as needed with the doser.

When you get the RODI going also get a TDS meter, I got mine off a well known auction site for about £5-6. You can get the same one from where you got the system from but I think they are a lot more for the same thing.

Also when you get a TDS reading over 0 or whatever you like, change the DI resin. I leave it till it gets to around 1-2 ish and then just change the DI. Think is last me around 3-4 months and I make quiet a lot of water.

On your phosphates may be worth looking into GFO. I had to start using Rowaphos in a reactor to bring mine down from 0.16 to the current levels which are around 0.02-0.04 as per Red Sea/Hanna checkers. I had a slow hair algea increase over months which seemed to follow the phosphate increase. The Hanna has an error of +/- 0.04 so.... I'm also dosing NoPox but it just didn't keep the phosphate in check so I'm experimenting a bit and so far it works.

The Rowaphos does exactly what it says on the tin and works very well and certainly in a reactor it's easy to use.

On the flakes I believe I have read somewhere that flake food can be high in Phosphate depending on brand etc. You've got to feed them something and what I've found and also been told by DD (Rhowaphos) is that you 'can feed your fishes not your algea' and I can now feed my fish twice as much or more as i did before introducing it without any affect on parameters. I mix a marine pellet/algea pellet together for one feed and also drop a cube of mysis/other frozen in for a second feed.

For the coral food I use Red Sea Reef Energy as it contains no phosphates I believe and I also add about 3 times a week a small amount of liquid phytoplankton as well for clams etc.

Anyway best wishes and hope this helps.

 

[melvis]

That's cool mate.

It's definitely the RO water I was using, wasn't DI and had a TDS of about 019. My new Osmotics RODI arrived yesterday so I'm going to rig that up today. I'm not too fussed that the levels are a bit higher, as I historically struggled with Alk levels of between 4 and 7, usually towards the lower end. 12 is higher than I'd like though so good idea re switching to their other product.

I've been running CPE, Purigen and of late, a bag of Phosnet to help with phosphates. My levels all come out low and I thought that was because of the red turf sucking it up, but now I think that may be my nitrates feeding it.

I've ditched feeding flake and am using rinsed in RO frozen mysis at present. I've got Reef Energy but haven't started that yet as I wanted to get everything else in check.

Thanks for the advice, I'll certainly bear that all in mind and will look at the Hanna checkers in more detail. I was looking at the Innovative Marine in tank reactor but heard mixed reviews. Although no point if my phosphates are as low in reality as the Salifert kits say.

I have posted a rather drastic plan to refresh everything in the General section and DaveK has kindly offered to give me some pointers - as I might be able to sort things without such drastic action.

 

[melvis]

Another long gap in updating but tbh, I was so disheartened with the red turf algae again, that I just couldn't face it. Cyano took hold again and it was really looking rough, so much so that I nearly put my drastic tank refresh plan into action. Thankfully, I didn't. Instead, I went lights out for a few days to help kill off the cyano and did some regular water changes to lower nutrients. It seems to look a lot better at the mo, albeit a crap picture. A guy who runs a great youtube channel has done some videos on filming/photographing reef tanks with a phone camera, I'll be following these tips in future.

The purple stylo has fallen over and the frag rack has dropped in this pic. I had some macro algae growing in front of the white polyp finger that has starved in pineapple of light, meaning I've lost the middle section. Might need to cut the sides off and replace it if it doesn't recover.

The golden table is going pale on one side, so I need to take a look at that too.

I've been sorting some bits out slowly, the first being replaced the knackered Red Sea surface cooling fans with some Gelid Silent PC fans. Pic is part way through replacing, was all soldered nicely in place and working like a charm.

Have a list of jobs that I haven't got round to yet, like replacing the hood trim and swapping out my DI resin, TDS has crept up to 1 so I'll let it hit 2 and then replace. The RODI unit that @SPR recommended has been absolutely excellent. Cheers mate.

Have ordered some Seachem Matrix and Phosguard as I intend to sort the nutrients out. Will probably just use the Matrix at first, with CPE and Purigen as that works well for me. Tried carbon but other than removing the yellow tinge, it seemed to coincide with the rise in cyano.

 

[melvis]

Very nearly left the hobby in the past month. Work has taken over and with an 8 month old daughter rivalling my 4 year old boy for attention, the tank sadly has fallen down the pecking order.

Some coral losses in quick succession caused me to lose heart and I took my eye off the ball with water changes and testing. Cyano took hold and it was beginning to look like a real eyesore and I couldn't walk past it without wanting to tear it down, or put a hammer through it lol.

That said, I decided to roll the dice once again. Spent a good 3 hours on the tank yesterday, having made up some water for a 20 litre water change, after finally changing out the DI resin. Removed all the dead coral, cleared the remains of snails and move the rocks around to give it all a really good scrape.

Big water change using a new syphon/vac thingy, bought to stop my female clown attacking the old one lol, and so I can clean the sand bed easier. All in all, looks a damn sight better than it did 48 hours ago that's for sure.

A load more water made up today for another 20 litre water change tomorrow. Decided that 3-4 large changes over a few days will bring nitrates down and freshen it all up. Test kits are out of date and I'm not venturing near my LFS as it's near a Christmas attraction that seems to attract all the idiots from far and wide. I know my nitrates and probably my phosphates are high, as my brain coral is receding slightly too.

Not sure if Seachem Matrix doing anything or whether I've got enough in there, so I think I'll go back to just using CPE and Purigen, with the occasional bag of Phosnet when that creeps up.

Really toying with the idea of asking an my old LFS if they could hold my rocks/remaining coral and fish until I can strip it down, clean and re-cycle - or whether I just bite the bullet and temporarily house them and then restructure and clean as I go. Just can't decide on this one. I know I hate the current look so something needs to be done - and I need more life in the tank. Royal Gramma hides all day now, Yellow Sulpher Goby (One-eye to his friends) hides under a rock at the front now, that he's build a nice sand wall in front off. The clowns, well, all they do is swim up and down in a column in the corner.

Seem to have - scrap that - seem to be winning the battle with red turf algae, my last urchin is going strong and I can't see any. Can't see him either tbh, he's got these little plants growing off of him now as well lol.

Still have that crab in there, can't seem to locate it anymore - but I know it's there as my Coral Beauty suddenly disappeared one night. Was swimming about all good during the day before and the evening and then doesn't come out in the morning. Gave it a couple of days and nothing - even accused (jokingly) the guy tiling my bathroom of stealing it! Gutted as I love that fish!

I'm planning on what corals I want next, getting the colours and balance right this time, not just buying nice things my LFS has in that week. Also need to change the lighting times as they are on way too much I think. Will save that for a separate post I think.

Anyway, back on the journey.

Happy Christmas to all those that celebrate it and for those that don't, enjoy the festive period! All the best in the new year. Happy reefing.

 

[Pat24601]

Congrats on the family! That’s what really matters.

I will say that I’m really happy with having done a tear down, clean out, and start over. I didn’t really have anything horrible going on with my tank, but like you there were a number of things I just wasn’t happy with. Obviously, there was more to it for me, but that’s chronicled elsewhere.

I’ve had a couple of false starts for reasons that shouldn’t matter to you, but it’s a lot of fun to start clean and try to do things like I want them now rather than live with decisions I made before.

I’m also going for lower maintenance, although I know that’s relative with a reef tank.

I basically took everything back to my LFS for store credit and started over. I’m not sure if that’s an option for you. I wasn’t even worried about the money.