Mojoreef's Water Treatment Methods

[Flatlander]

Sheez Alberto, where did you get that pic of me.

Mike, I am doing somewhat of a mini version of yours. I just ordered my new tank. Its 30in.L--24in.W--24in.H. Only high flow sps and my 3 small maxima clams. There will be a lot of Fiji rock and only rubble pieces on the bottom. There will be a fake overflow, but no drain and no sump.

Lighting will come from my 400w pulse start/Radium pendant. Now for the likeness to yours. It will have tons of current generated by my two Tunze 6080 stream pumps. If anything settles in there, I will be shocked.

A modified 32in. Myreef beckett/Mak4 combo will skim it. It will take water direct from the tank, at all levels and return it into the fake overflow. I will also run a large hang on power filter, to remove floating crap. So, not counting the skimmer, their should be about 5000gph of flow in the 70g tank.

[mojoreef]

Sounds like a cool tank buddy, I want to see lots of pics for sure. One thing I have found is that it doesnt really need to be alot of flow as it needs to be smart flow. You want the detritus to stay in suspention but you also want it to be able to get out of the tank. With your skimmer drawing directly from the tank it looks like you have that more then covered.

Mike

[Mebigloser]

Love the info so far, keep it coming.....

[dgasmd]

Mike:

As far as the ozone, it is pretty simple actually. The key, like with everything else, is not to over do it. I don't have personal experience with it, but know a couple of people that use it in smaller amounts daily and it works wonders for them. Calfo has a pretty good section on it in his book of coral propagation. I probably sound like a broken record here, but when I redo my system I may be adding a smaller unit to it. Certainly undersized and with the aid of a ORP controller. For what I ahve heard from others, a controller is really not needed if you undersize the unit, but it is a nice failsafe.

Alberto

[ste]

nice setup mojo i wish my other half would let me go that big with my setup but reading this thread and about your setup has inspired me to rethink the setup on my system

[sharks]

Thanks for the reply and answers to a few questions I was wondering about.
Another great thread gang

[tankgirl]

Mike, I'm sorry about the sore typing finger! We're all getting so much out of this thread, tho', I appreciate your efforts so much!!! Your explanations are great - I understood all the plumbing, so far!!!

One thing I've always wondered about spray bars - wouldn't the pressure at one end be more than at the other end? How big is your spray bar and how big are the holes in it, please?

Also, you mentioned a particulate filter bag that you run a couple days a week - where is that in your system?

Wow - I can't believe you can just dial in water speed.
----
Alberto, Thanks so much!!! That was the clearest and best description of where and how pods and bacteria exist in a tank I've Ever seen!!! And your dancing man was great!!!

[nivek]

mojoreef = Lord Of The Reef

[NaH2O]

Could you run the 5 micron filter sock all the time? If you cleaned it out once a week? I understand that it might clog up quickly, but if you made it a part of the weekly cleaning maintenance?

[mojoreef]

TG my spray bar is aout 15 feet long. you do loose a little pressure as the bar goes along, but remember you are only drilling small holes so the flow carries on as each hole has a max it can let out. What I did was to not put so many holes at the begining, then more as you go.

For the filter, if you look at the bottom right corner of the pic, you can see the drain lines coming into the sump. Att acttached to the drainline on the inside of the sump is an bag adapter (looks like a small frizbie) that screw right onto the drain line. The bag just slips overtop of that.
here is the pic

here is the adapter

and here is the bagbag


Mike

[mojoreef]

Nikki lots of folks do it that way, but I dont. The fish poop is probibly one of the best sources for food, and yes it is also a source of some of the worst stuff for your reef. What I am trying to set up with my system is the ability to control it. I leave it in the water column so that the critters that can use it have access to it. In my system when coupled with the food and detritus it very slowly builds up, (usually takes about a week or two) at that point I strip it with the use of the socks and the chemical filter. the water goes crystal clear. Now its just time to staart the whole process over again.
Nikki Alot of folks are always talking about fish poop and detritus being a food source and it is for sure, but if it is allowed to just sink to a plenum or dsb or to the LR it is only a food source for that and not for the things (like corals and such) that you want to feed.

Mike

[wooddood]

great info all thanks its much appreciated.

[Maxx]

Mike,
Just out of curiousity, Do you feel that two Aqua C Remora skimmers on a 58 gallon tank will be appropriate for the heavy skimming you employ? I noticed that Jerel has mentioned the same concept in response to another person posting that they'll be using a denitrifying coil for their upcoming Starboard reef...

You'll find that if you use efficient wet skimming to remove detritus and not let it sit and break down, you're not going to need that.

The only reason I ask about 2 Aqua C skimmers is that I happen to coincidentally have two of them and thus would not have to purchase a new skimmer.
Also, do you have a substrate in your tank at all? I thought I remembered you stating that you had a very shallow CC bed that was vaccumed semi-regularly, but if you're not doing water changes, I'm not sure how you're going about that. Just curious.
I hate to say it, but I could really get into the KISS reefing principal....But then what would I spend all my hard earned money on if I didnt purchase the Aqua-equalizer or its latest trendy competitor of the week????

Thanks for taking the time out to answer all these questions and give the intimate details of your system.
Nick

[mojoreef]

Hey Nick happy New Year. I dont know to much about the skimmers you are refering to so I cant say for sure. But you could easily figure it out by just watching it and seeing if it produces enough foam and on a consistant level.
On the dentirfing coil, these are alot tougher then most folks think, they quit awhile to get going. and to be honest its going backwards again. My concept is to remove it before it begins to decompose, why let it rot to begin with???. If some happens to get stuck in their and rots, well I got a bunch of rock for that.
Yes I did run a 1/2 inch or so of cc on the exposed portions of my tank. Just annother stupid mistake I did in wanting to cover the BB. My advise on this DONT BOTHER, lol I removed about 3 or 4 months ago. Now the bottom of the tank is covered in thick layers of corraline, looks pretty cool actually. I do plan a dropping down some zoo's and a few more clams to cover some of the bottom.
Ok you got to tell me what the KISS means, lol. On the money spend it on the things you want to keep.
Just to go back for a moment. The concept is to deal with things prior to biological breakdown. Doing this allows for less micro systems to be stacked up ontop of each other (ie; I have Lr on top of a dsb and I use a macro algae ref/trees/algal turf scrubber and so on) Not to say that all these things dont work to a point, but its alot of time, effort, money and so on to just take care of what you could prior to allowing it to rot. The biggest thing that scares me about those system is the chances the take, If one of the spokes in the wheel fails its a domino effect.


Mike

[tankgirl]

Hi Mike, Neat trick, about putting more holes at the far end of the spray bar! First time I ever heard that idea.

Wow! That's a great pic aside from showing the micron bag. Bet it clogs up pretty fast because it's 5 microns? But, I'll bet, too, that the water is crystal clear!! Do you rinse & reuse them? If so, how many times?

Also, I want to make sure I understand everything - you don't do any vacuuming or siphoning anymore? Just use the water motion to keep everything in suspension and into the overflow - is this right?