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Coral Vue Hydros

tibbsy07 IM10


tibbsy07

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Doc, step back from the tank, focus on a few things that make it worth having. If you can't find even a few then it isn't worth the frustration. And you know me, I would never say that if I didn't truly care that it's affecting your enjoyment of it.

 

The diatoms are a new tank problem and/or a source water problem. What has kept your tank new was the early on 100% water change plus the constant sand vacuuming and the deep cleaning you were doing on a little tank, and that was the pico, not this nano that you upgraded to. Diatoms can be removed with source water correction or adding something to help such as the xtraphos product. To my knowledge rowaphos is just a phosphate remover, not silica. Hope the oxydator helps, give it some time.

 

The ATO malfunction is probably the float switch gone bad - switch to the other float switch in the package or get a new float switch. I would trouble shoot with JBJ to find out if it could be the controller or the float switch in their opinion.

 

The rockwork is never correct. Ever. But you are seeing it all the time which explains your focus. If it was covered with corals you won't see it. That's the truth.

 

Nanobox: maybe there is a connector pin plug that is available to connect the light to the power, bypassing the controller. You'll have to do manual on/off and there won't be ramp on/dimming etc but hey you'll have the light back.

 

HTH

Edit: Benny says without some active PWM output it won't work. I'm not sure what that means in english but I guess it means you can't connect directly to the power on the NB.

I do enjoy the tank and I LOVE having it, and so the work is worth it to me - it's just that I don't currently get to spend much time with it at all unless I am doing work on it. Things are slowing a bit, though, so that's nice.

 

As for the diatoms - it could very well be the water supply. I have tried two different RO/DI water set ups - either lab or the RO/DI water that can be purchased. It's either still maturing or the water is bad. I would prefer to not have to buy my own RO/DI set up right now as that is significantly more expensive than what I currently buy. Hopefully the oxydator helps and I'll figure out the skimmer, too. I have a couple of new options.

 

The ATO switch I need to figure out, but I think I've actually been using the new switch and not the older one. I'll have to double check.

 

The NB light will just have to wait. I currently have the CC bulb, which is nice, and I removed the damn gooseneck (I hate that thing more and more) and have put the desklamp back in action. So far so good.

 

Thanks for the tips, kat :)

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Don't worry too much Tibbs, those diatoms will work themselves out eventually. It's just the ulgies. I have some nasty brown algae growing in my tank too :-(

 

post-82935-0-81309400-1426196559_thumb.jpg

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looks just like the normal tank woahs! Keep the chin up and keep on reefing! Its a great set up!

Don't worry too much Tibbs, those diatoms will work themselves out eventually. It's just the ulgies. I have some nasty brown algae growing in my tank too :-(

 

Thanks y'all.

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Got my oxydator in today! Woohoo! So far so good.

Xkione1.jpg

The mini, or nano, comes with 2 bottles of 82.5mL of a 4.9% H2O2 solution, the ceramic base, the jar/top for the liquid, and 2 small catalysts. It is rated for up to 8gallons.

 

Even though this is a 10g tank, with everything in it, I have 8 gallons at most.

 

Here is what Neill from Saltwater Conversion told me - use ~20ml and expect 4-5 weeks of activity, then replace the H2O2 solution

 

The actual instructions are as follows:

1 catalyst - for up to 30L water, ~4 weeks expected efficacy (I used 1 catalyst)

2 catalysts - 30-60L of water, ~2 weeks expected efficacy

 

Fill jar up until 1cm from the top. This accounts for headspace. Replace the plastic lid on the jar. Invert ceramic cup and press down until seated on the jar/top. Turn over upside down and place in tank.

 

Now... I like to be exact as possible. I made a small mark at 1cm below the top of the jar thing. I measured the top as the BASE of the neck. I did this because the plastic top fits pretty much all the way to the base of the neck, so to me, where the lid is, that's the top.

 

Then I added the 4.9% hydrogen peroxide with a syringe. I measured 25mL to get to the top of the line.

 

It's small and hides pretty well:

3FZMPqW.jpg

KucnAaW.jpg

 

The only complaint I have is that there are lots of visible microbubbles in the tank right now. Supposedly you are not supposed to be able to see the bubbles, but that's BS. I bet it's hard to see in large tanks, but this tank it's hard to miss.

Sy5TTnv.jpg

 

I will write a more thorough review and anything I learn when I know more about the product and have more experience...

 

 

I also stopped by the pet store on the way home and got a Whisper 40 pump for the Pico Skim 2.0. So far it seems to be working, though I am not quite sure what wet vs dry skimmate is, but I know I want dry.

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jedimasterben

When the bubbles are going up, how do I know?

You won't until it starts pulling skimmate. If it is too wet, raise it up a bit, leave it for a few hours, and check it out.

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Here is a week's worth of wet skimmate from mine, Tibbsy. For size comparison, that is an 850 mL glass VOSS water bottle I converted into a skimmate container. I would aim for about that much, haha.

 

DSC_0023_1.jpg

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You won't until it starts pulling skimmate. If it is too wet, raise it up a bit, leave it for a few hours, and check it out.

I'll have to check it tonight

 

Here is a week's worth of wet skimmate from mine, Tibbsy. For size comparison, that is an 850 mL glass VOSS water bottle I converted into a skimmate container. I would aim for about that much, haha.

 

DSC_0023_1.jpg

That's what mine looks like. I used an old Famous Grouse Black bottle for my waste reservoir ;) I'll tweak the airline today to figure out the right skimming level

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I put my oxydator in the return chamber of my fusion30L and I don't see bubbles.

Doc, you can put the oxydator in the back chamber if you have room. the bubbles will not come into the display that much

I am not seeing any more bubbles now. I am hesitant to put the oxydator in the return because I worry about the effectiveness of the oxygen saturation if it's not in the display tank. The flowing water in the return chambers might have excess gas exchange due to the flowing water and I worry that that will allow the excess oxygen in the water to exchange into the air, lowering the efficacy. It's fine in the tank right now.

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Sounds like time for an upgrade !!!

Ha. I barely have enough time/space for this little tank. How would I ever make an upgrade work? lol

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You're focusing too much on the important stuff

Seriously though I think you would regret selling it off.

Yeah, I'm going to keep it. I was just having a shit day at work/life/tank stuff. just needed a vent. We're good now. I do kind of want to get a Coralife Mini Light to supplement my tank lights, but I'm going to wait a while until I get the NB back in business and get more coral.

 

I haven't had any time to work with the tank, really, but I need to. I really need to do some work and I think I'll be happy. I mainly need to figure out the coral placement stuff for the ricordea and the acans in the front.

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the ups and downs of this hobby keeps us going. things will get better.

 

i am very interested in the oxydator (i love toys). shouldn't the PicO airstone skimmer already add extra oxygen to the tank? what's the benefit of the oxydator over an airstone or water surface agitation???

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the ups and downs of this hobby keeps us going. things will get better.

 

i am very interested in the oxydator (i love toys). shouldn't the PicO airstone skimmer already add extra oxygen to the tank? what's the benefit of the oxydator over an airstone or water surface agitation???

The Airstone only pushes oxygen/bubbles/air into the skimmer unit itself (theoretically). The oxydator supposedly catalyzes the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water only. Then this escapes into the actual tank itself.

 

I have to say, at 2 days in, there is no difference in my tank. I still have diatoms everywhere on the rocks, glass, and sand. My tank looks no different at all. The only reason I tried it was because it cost 24 bucks with shipping and I knew it wouldn't hurt anything. Let's hope the oxydator does SOMETHING good soon...

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Hey tibs , I was thinking when you get the skimmer working , I think you will see your oxydator make a difference in water clarity,

Hopefully! I really do hope this thing helps :)

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http://nanoreefs.info/download/7 Heres what I was reading,

 

Albert wrote that and he is who I've been talking with (at least one of the people) in the other thread. I've read all the stuff he is talking about. Like you said, hopefully when my skimmer works itself out, the oxydator will help.
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Ok here is where I am going to document my oxydator progress. I intend to write my hypotheses, methods, results, and discuss the oxydator and its role in our tanks. Neill at Saltwaterconversion.com sells them. They were originially created and patented by a Dr. Sochting in Germany.

 

Ok. So, there is a great discussion going on here on oxydators and what they may or may not do. Feel free to read up on it and get your own opinions. I shall summarize the basic principle behind the oxydator below.

 

The oxydator, in a very simple sense, is a hydrogen peroxide doser. The idea is to use hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a catalyst to oxygenate the water, thus driving heterotrophic bacterial proliferation to remove organic wastes and outcompete algae/cyano, etc. EDIT: jedimasterben also points out the likelihood of peroxide entering the water. Peroxide likely enters the water column with its breakdown products as the reaction isn't 100% effective and it does take microseconds, allowing the possibility (and probability) that peroxide enters the water column before it is broken down. Peroxide and other oxidating agents are used in wastewater treatment to remove sludge and organic wastes because of the chemical reaction peroxide has with these wastes. It is probably a combination of these mechanisms that the oxydator uses. It works as follows:

 

Hydrogen peroxide (5-30%, 15% optimal) is placed in a jar/bottle with a bit of room for headspace. A small catalyst (in this case made of clay and silver) is put in the jar (sometimes 2 catalysts). The lid of the jar is placed back on the jar, and there are 2 small holes in the top. There is a ceramic "cup" that has catalyst in it and that is placed on top of the jar with the lid. The whole thing is inverted and placed in the aquarium. This makes it look like a ceramic dish in the shape of a U, facing upwards, with a glass bottle/jar full of liquid upside down in it.

 

The small catalyst hydrolyzes (as in, breaks the chemical structure to release a molecule of water) the hydrogen peroxide, H2O2,into H2O and O2 (water and oxygen gas). This event causes the oxygen gas to flow up to the top of the jar (actually the bottom, but it's inverted, remember? ;) ) and the oyxgen has nowhere to go so it pushes the liquid below (mainly peroxide) out of the two holes in the bottom of the jar (the lid). The peroxide pushed out into the ceramic dish/water where it reacts with the catalyst in the dish and the water itself to create, again, water and oxygen gas. This is the oxygen that enters our tanks. It's a 2 step process - both steps are the EXACT same reaction, just the first step is much smaller and required to lead to the bigger, 2nd step reaction. (Kind of like the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima is now the trigger bomb for the much larger hydrogen bombs that are housed by the USA, Russia, etc.). I hope that makes sense.

 

Now, some people, a LOT of people, have reported much success with using these. Others, including yours truly (so far) haven't had such great luck. I haven't had anything bad happen, but others have claimed more algae outbreaks, etc.

 

Neill, because of the discussion, has offered those who are unhappy a full refund. I say bollocks to that! I plan on putting down everything I can here.

 

I don't have any real way to measure oxygen or pH, save a pH test with my test kits. That's not super effective, though.

 

Here is the basic break down of what I have done so far:

See oxydator and my original post with more specifics here.

I followed the instructions for small tanks (~30L), using 1 catalyst in 25mL (this amount was not specified, only that the jar be filled to ~1cm below the top of the lid. I measured it, and used a syringe to fill to the line and got 25mL) of the supplied hydrogen peroxide. This is supposed to last ~4 weeks (~ 2 weeks if using both catalysts in the jar). That peroxide is 4.9%. So far, it has been 4 days and I haven't seen anything beneficial. Nothing really harmful, either, save some unhappy xenia. The patent, however, says that anything under 5% is ineffective and is therefore impractical and useless. Why the manufacturers (not Saltwater Conversion - they just supply the product) supplied the oxydator with peroxide that is less concentrated than their bare recommendation is beyond me, especially considering the oxydator is manufactured and sold by Sochting, the people responsible for the original design.

 

I think I need more peroxide before anything will happen. I hypothesize that the lower percentage peroxide (below 5%) is basically ineffective and that the small amount of peroxide seeping out is what is making the xenia angry, and that moving the oxydator away from the xenia and increase the peroxide concentration will allow the oxydator to work properly.

 

I am going to try using 15% peroxide and I am going to move the oxydator away from the xenia that hate it (they despise peroxide) and over near the return nozzle.

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Looking forward to seeing the results! I've been following the discussion in that other thread with interest.

 

I can't help wondering if this is one of those things that's hard to assess because there are so many other variables involved in keeping a reef tank. It kind of reminds me of the discussions about whether a small refugium is helpful or not, or (like Kat pointed out) whether you should use GFO vs Purigen. You can argue it either way but it's a real challenge to design an experiment that would eliminate enough variables to say for sure one way or the other.

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