A Golden Reef Tank (v2)
- Thread starter halmus
- Start date
That’s a great question! My answer is...yes?...Not sure.
I certainly don’t like the idea of introducing extra chemicals in my tank. I would much prefer to achieve the results “naturally”. Not sure exactly what that means or how to do it. Right now, this is kind of an experiment to see what happens. If it does show the desired results, I can keep introducing livestock and feeding more and slowly dial back supplementation.
Right now, I’m still experimenting on how many ml of added chemicals I need to achieve the recommended low but measurable Nitrate and Phosphate. Once I get there, how much does it take to maintain a steady state? Can I decrease that over time naturally?
I’ve been doing about 30 min of testing/recording most water parameters every morning and tracking results. So, somewhat scientific about it.
I certainly don’t like the idea of introducing extra chemicals in my tank. I would much prefer to achieve the results “naturally”. Not sure exactly what that means or how to do it. Right now, this is kind of an experiment to see what happens. If it does show the desired results, I can keep introducing livestock and feeding more and slowly dial back supplementation.
Right now, I’m still experimenting on how many ml of added chemicals I need to achieve the recommended low but measurable Nitrate and Phosphate. Once I get there, how much does it take to maintain a steady state? Can I decrease that over time naturally?
I’ve been doing about 30 min of testing/recording most water parameters every morning and tracking results. So, somewhat scientific about it.
I’ll keep everyone posted.
Yes, both are “0” with no supplementation. No carbon. No GFO. Barely any skimming. No water changes.
Best guess is the huge amount of water volume in the system and lots of rock in the tank, sumps, and refugium. I might have to remove some of that rock. The fuge has rock because I wanted it to be an ornamental thing with mangroves, pretty algaes, and eventually seahorses. I may have to rethink that goal.
Total system volume is around 600g. Display is 325-350g. So, a lot going on in the back end.
Yes, both are “0” with no supplementation. No carbon. No GFO. Barely any skimming. No water changes.
Best guess is the huge amount of water volume in the system and lots of rock in the tank, sumps, and refugium. I might have to remove some of that rock. The fuge has rock because I wanted it to be an ornamental thing with mangroves, pretty algaes, and eventually seahorses. I may have to rethink that goal.
Total system volume is around 600g. Display is 325-350g. So, a lot going on in the back end.
Very rough guess, 2-300lbs between all of the back end tanks?
Doing as you suggested would certainly do the job in limiting the filtration. However, the way I’ve designed the tank, all of the life support would be isolated from the display at that point. ATO. Heating. Skimming. CaRx.
How long are you suggesting I isolate the back end? I’d have to keep water flowing back there somewhat just to prevent massive die off in the filtration zones.
Doing as you suggested would certainly do the job in limiting the filtration. However, the way I’ve designed the tank, all of the life support would be isolated from the display at that point. ATO. Heating. Skimming. CaRx.
How long are you suggesting I isolate the back end? I’d have to keep water flowing back there somewhat just to prevent massive die off in the filtration zones.
I'm thinking you go old school with it. Obviously move a heater to DT, but no need for CaRx or others cause setup a weekly water change!
However much you need to get Ca and Alk on target.
Length of time, I'd suggest 2 week trial just to make sure you aren't hurting anything. Keep the backend flowing.
Pretty much treating this like 2 tanks and isolating each tank let's you see how much nutrients each system eats. Maybe also take out 100lbs of LR from the backend.
Instead of dosing chemicals, maybe you could dose Fuel, the fiancee went ham on that stuff once and boy did I have an algae problem quickly!
However much you need to get Ca and Alk on target.
Length of time, I'd suggest 2 week trial just to make sure you aren't hurting anything. Keep the backend flowing.
Pretty much treating this like 2 tanks and isolating each tank let's you see how much nutrients each system eats. Maybe also take out 100lbs of LR from the backend.
Instead of dosing chemicals, maybe you could dose Fuel, the fiancee went ham on that stuff once and boy did I have an algae problem quickly!
I appreciate the input. It’s something I might have to look at in the future.
For the time being, given my lack of spare time and higher priority projects, I’m going to keep on track with an approach that requires less re-work of the system and provides the best stability.
I have an install to finish today so I didn’t get around to measuring parameters today. Otherwise, it has been a daily task of measuring and adding supplements (brightwell Neo products). Yesterday, I finally saw some noticeable levels in my Red Sea kits. I need to order some of the Hanna checkers to simplify the task and double check. So I scaled back dosages.
Continue to see new growth of kelp and some varied desirable algae’s in the fuge. Pretty cool to see that stuff resurrect themselves after over a year of being choked out by snotty ugly algae. (I think the junk is spirulina). As the snot algae dies off, I’ll likely see an impact on nutrient uptake. So, it’s a multi-variable problem while the desirable stuff gains a foothold and starts consuming nutrients more.
Same lessons we learn every day in this hobby:
-nothing good ever happens quickly
-try to change one variable at a time slowly and give things a chance to adjust before moving on to another variable.
For the time being, given my lack of spare time and higher priority projects, I’m going to keep on track with an approach that requires less re-work of the system and provides the best stability.
I have an install to finish today so I didn’t get around to measuring parameters today. Otherwise, it has been a daily task of measuring and adding supplements (brightwell Neo products). Yesterday, I finally saw some noticeable levels in my Red Sea kits. I need to order some of the Hanna checkers to simplify the task and double check. So I scaled back dosages.
Continue to see new growth of kelp and some varied desirable algae’s in the fuge. Pretty cool to see that stuff resurrect themselves after over a year of being choked out by snotty ugly algae. (I think the junk is spirulina). As the snot algae dies off, I’ll likely see an impact on nutrient uptake. So, it’s a multi-variable problem while the desirable stuff gains a foothold and starts consuming nutrients more.
Same lessons we learn every day in this hobby:
-nothing good ever happens quickly
-try to change one variable at a time slowly and give things a chance to adjust before moving on to another variable.
I think that dosing N and P is a mistake. Get a Hannah Ultra Low and make sure that you are below 1 ppb. ICP showing N below .05 might be a good idea too - hobby test kits just cannot do this. If you are above either of these then you are fine. Really the only way to get into trouble is by using GFO, LC, Organic Carbon or other chemicals. Natural methods usually will always leave just enough to keep the equilibrium moving forward.
Dosing P will just get absorbed by your aragonite and not get to the corals. Corals prefer to get nitrogen from ammonia or ammonium because they need to expend energy to get nitrogen from Nitrate. Feeding more really is the best remedy even if it means more fish.
Ocean is about about .1n and .005-.01P. This is enough and there is a suplus. More of a surplus will not do anything.
Dosing P will just get absorbed by your aragonite and not get to the corals. Corals prefer to get nitrogen from ammonia or ammonium because they need to expend energy to get nitrogen from Nitrate. Feeding more really is the best remedy even if it means more fish.
Ocean is about about .1n and .005-.01P. This is enough and there is a suplus. More of a surplus will not do anything.
So, I’ve been monitoring chemistry for months and have finally given up on chasing levels for the time being.
CA, Alk, Mg, and Alk most major parameters are all stable and where they should be. Nutrients are still low.
About a month ago, I installed 4x 250w MH fixtures in place of my Radions. I reworked my T5 to allow for slightly bigger fixtures but still have 10 54w T5-HO over the tank to supplement the combined 1000w of MH.
The transition was slow and I was really worried about burning coral. But, it has gone well. I started off with short photo period and bumped up by 5 min each day.
Almost all coral survived. I had other issues going on with the tank when this started and I lost a few colonies but everything has stabilized and my coral is looking better than ever.
I’m not ready to jump on the anti-LED bandwagon yet. But, I could never find the magic spectrum, intensity, and duration to allow my SPS to grow and color the way I expect. MH and a ton of T5 worked well on my last tank. So, I’m back to that as a baseline.
Cleaning the tank today and I’ll post up a few phone pics to show everything early on with the new lighting.
CA, Alk, Mg, and Alk most major parameters are all stable and where they should be. Nutrients are still low.
About a month ago, I installed 4x 250w MH fixtures in place of my Radions. I reworked my T5 to allow for slightly bigger fixtures but still have 10 54w T5-HO over the tank to supplement the combined 1000w of MH.
The transition was slow and I was really worried about burning coral. But, it has gone well. I started off with short photo period and bumped up by 5 min each day.
Almost all coral survived. I had other issues going on with the tank when this started and I lost a few colonies but everything has stabilized and my coral is looking better than ever.
I’m not ready to jump on the anti-LED bandwagon yet. But, I could never find the magic spectrum, intensity, and duration to allow my SPS to grow and color the way I expect. MH and a ton of T5 worked well on my last tank. So, I’m back to that as a baseline.
Cleaning the tank today and I’ll post up a few phone pics to show everything early on with the new lighting.