Tank water treatment!

[Scooterman]

We spend lots of time preparing our water for our ritual changes but what do we do afterwards? Ok I know it is a big thing just getting the water processed, We use RO/DI filters, we clean our tubs with it even, then we fill it, add our beloved salt mix, check & recheck the salinity, with the proper Temp. We then run it over night or more with a power head & finally we even go as far as having to test it. So you do your water change but what or how do we process the water afterwards? Ok what is your routine, after your water is in your system, do you use carbon, how much, how long, UV, Phosphate sponge? What type of chemicals or mechanical filtration? I think after this thread my routine will change, I realize that I can change water every day but not necessary remove all the waste I intended by just vacuuming, I think a good canister filter will be my next purchase maybe, it will be part of my water treatment, inside I may have several extras like carbon etc but I think I'll have to do some though research first, also hoping this thread will bring out some of that real experience here for all of us to see and understand. It is funny how I've read this part over and over and still I'm falling short on these sorts of things, this is one reason why I have lots of good rock in my tank but not heavily loaded even after a year and this is only my second tank, my first tank was over loaded. I don't feel it right, on natures part to keep a full reef and still not have the best possible system, routine and stability I can offer. Developing a fully functional reef takes a series of processes, Water Treatment is as vital as any other, there is no one system more important than the other as beginners are often led to believe IMO.

[ReefLady]

I'm a lazy reefer, I'll admit it. We designed our system around being lazy.

Water treatment ... let's see. Carbon - I keep it on hand, but only run it in one of the following situations:

- Something dies
- Things look "wrong"
- I do some extensive fragging, especially of softies.

No canister or other mechanical filtration. No filter floss, poly-floss, etc. No UV, no P04 sponge. No chemicals, unless you include the Calcium reactor and Kalk reactor.

I don't feel it right, on natures part to keep a full reef and still not have the best possible system, routine and stability I can offer.

I agree with this sentiment, but may disagree with some on how to accomplish this. My theory is though we will never be able to "mimic" nature, that I should do my best to keep things as natural as possible. No mechanical filtration, no carbon, no chemicals. How do I keep my system "clean" - and how do insure my water is "treated"?

- A good calcium/alk supplementation scheme...keeping all my water parameters as close to NSW as possible.

- Good protien skimming

- Good nutrient removal (good current, water movement, and blowing detritus around with a turkey baster so it is suspended in the water column & skimmed, a good refugium, a good cleaner crew).

- Don't add a lot of nutrients that you have to take out -- keep a low bioload, don't overfeed.

That's it! My tank maintenance/water treatment consists of this:

- Maintain membrane/filters on RO/DI

- Maintain C02 & reactor media in Ca reactor, maintain adequate kalk powder in Nilsen reactor.

- "Blow" off rock with turkey baster at least weekly.

- Hubby cleans out the skimmer monthly or thereabouts.

- Water changes? Maybe once a month, usually 10% every 6-8 weeks.

- Clean the glass.

[dgasmd]

I actually keep things very simple here. I have a 55g drum that I use for saltwater mixing. I already know almost exactly how much salt it takes to bring the salinity to where I need it. I fill it up with RO/DI wate, tunr the circulating pump (little giant 4) and turn on the heater. Drop in the salinity monitor while mixing and check on it about 10 min later. That is all it takes to get a steady readout. I usually leave it mixing for a few hours until the temp is right.
I tend to trim the refugium and clean the skimmer before a change. That is it.

The only thing that goes in the tank besides food is the Ca reactor and Kalk reactor effluents. I also run phosban and have a 40 watt UV filter.

I think I have dosed iodine once and it was because I ahd a free bottle of it here just to try it out.

[mojoreef]

I think we need to put up a little word of warning on this thread. When we are looking at peoples systems we have to look at them as a whole. I know for me my concept of keepring my reef (from filtration to purification to replenishment) is all based on the sum of all the parts. So when reading these posts try to look at the whole picture of all the reefers that post on it. that way you can understand how each person puts the system together.


MIke

[NaH2O]

Great thread, and thanks, Mike....very good point! Along for the ride on this one!

[Scooterman]

Ok, I made an edit & removed the strictly part.

[mojoreef]

Ok well this thread looks to be a good one so lets see if we can get the ball rolling. As I mentioned above we must look at the whole system when we are breaking down a reefing method. As most know I run my tank a little different the most of the latest fads out thier. Even though my system looks complicated it is designed to be as simple as possible.
Most of everything we do in our tank is in search for good water quality and mine is designed under that same way. Most everything we do in regards to filtration is for the removal of 2 elements (P and N). I learned along time ago that the simplest way to deal with these is to remove them and to not attempt to create complex systems to remanufacture or recycle them. For this reaso my tanks water flow is designed to remove them directly from the water column. All things bad in a tank are associated with detritus (food, waste, and so on.basically P and N) the flow system circulates detritus in the water column, this makes the detritus available to corals and other critters that may need them for food (instead of sinking it in a sediment bed and feeding it) at the same time the detritus is alway being removed via the overflow (mine is 16 feet long). Once down into the sump it is pulled through a very large skimmer running wet (wet=pulling out more solids). I use UV (alot) to remove various nasties in the water column that may excape the skimmer. I am looking to kill pathogenic bacteria and protozoa, algal cells and spores, and pretty much any planktonic critters. The concept behind this is that I believe natural food sources to be very poor and loaded with the P aand N that I am trying to get rid of, that and most of the pathogenic forms tend to be open water swimmers.
Every few weeks the detritus in the water column builds up to a point where I feel the need to put on a 5 micron felt sock, I usually keep it on about 2 days max.after removing it the water is stripped of most all detritus, and thus I leave the process to start all over again. I do also have a carbon and phosphate chemical filters attached to the tank but only use them while the sock is on.
That is pretty much it, I do not use or have to use a DSB/plenum to break down or sink P and N because I remove it from the system prior to it being broken down (so no need for nitrification or denitrification) I also know that no matter how good my system is some will always get through, and this is where the LR comes into play.
On the water change front, I dont believe i them. Folks do water changes for two reasons, to dilute polution and to replace elements used up by the inhabitants. For me on the polution front, I choose to remove it on a constant basis and not to sink it or store it in the tank, so I dont need to do one for that reason. On the replenishment of elements, I perfer not to use the lowest food grade of additives that can be purchased (which is exactly what all salts mixes are). Instead I replenich the elements through the use of a calcium reactor and kalk addition. On the reactor I use a high grade media from rowa and on the kalk I use analytical grade calcium Oxide. for trace I use the same line of analytical grade additives but thier doseing is very few and far between.


Anyway thats about it.


MIke