old thread lol

[jedimasterben]

I had to get one as well.......pressure to the pump was only about 45psi, now I can fill up a 32 gal Brute in a few hours.

My house bounces from 45PSI to 30PSI before the well pumps kick on again. I don't know if it is the only cause, but my rejection rate would plummet to about almost nothing, if I were to believe the inline TDS meters.

 

I measured my tap TDS at 180. The inline meters from HM say my tap is 360, and post RO at 45PSI gets 6-7, but I noticed ridiculously slow filling of a 5g jug, looked, and it said the TDS from teh RO membrane was almost 175... to know that it went from low to high on the same inline meter was troubling, so I've stopped making any water until it gets here. And here I thought I was done using just RO water. Meh.

 

I dialed up the house pressure to 70 PSI How high does one of boosters go? I know AZ says you can run the SpectraPure filters at higher than rated pressure.

The Aquatec pumps say they can push up to 60PSI above the incoming pressure.

[Veng]

Not with clams, which have no measured photosaturation/photoinhibition point (up to around 4,000mmol PAR is the farthest I've seen tested).

Yeah, but a clam only tank would be boring. And people have been keeping clams with waaaaaay less light than that for years.

[jedimasterben]

Yeah, but a clam only tank would be boring. And people have been keeping clams with waaaaaay less light than that for years.

But keeping clams in less light is what's boring.

 

I will probably have a few rocks and such and might be able to keep some coral in the shadows of the clams/unhangs of the rock. I may just shoot for 700 PAR, who knows, we'll see what my testing over the next week gives me with. My lighting program will also help out, as it won't be a simple rise from 0-ELEVEN, it will have many peaks and valleys across the entire light period like in nature. The third picture in this article is the graph I wish to mimic: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/5/aafeature

[jestersix]

From the peanut gallery on intensity - my plasmas were pushing 1000 PAR at the waterline and I had a number of SPS (especially Millis) that sprinted to the top of the tank to bask in the glowing goodness...and clams, well you just can't have too many and it just can't be too bright.

[jedimasterben]

From the peanut gallery on intensity - my plasmas were pushing 1000 PAR at the waterline and I had a number of SPS (especially Millis) that sprinted to the top of the tank to bask in the glowing goodness...and clams, well you just can't have too many and it just can't be too bright.

I'm liking you more and more with each post.

[jedimasterben]

Lost a lot of fish just before the move last night to the temporary holding tanks. The hippo tang, a leopard wrasse, both Bartlett's anthias, the firefish are all unaccounted for. The remaining leopard wrasse made a break for the sand at some point in the tank so I was unable to move it, will hopefully capture it today. I started around 7:00 last night and didn't finish until around 12:30AM or so, and I'm beat, but I'm gonna have to keep on doing stuff like that.

 

The plan for today is to get the egg crate to build the racks in the tank and get started getting the corals and inverts in place. I don't particularly know what to do with my conchs and brittle/serpent stars, and I have a stupid amount of snails to house.

 

When I was taking the rocks out to catch the fish, I noticed that my emerald crabs just don't seem to give a damn about bubble algae - because OMFG was there a ridiculous amount. One rock was 100% covered by it, except for the underside which was on the sand.

[metrokat]

Red bull and vodka. Skip the vodka.

[jedimasterben]

I've never had Red Bull (or any energy drink), but I hear they taste awful. Coffee and ibuprofen will do.

[metrokat]

Red bull tastes a lot like sprite mixed with benadryl. it's not too bad.

[jedimasterben]

[jball1125]

Bummer man, I wish you the best.

 

Shots of Cuban coffee, no crash and you won't even need the ibuprofen.

[jedimasterben]

Bummer man, I wish you the best. Shots of Cuban coffee, no crash and you won't even need the ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen was for my back, it's killing me this morning. I need to get a new mattress, and then moving all that water and rocks and bending down building/painting the stands was just too much.

[metrokat]

I need an espresso

[metrokat]

Hope you're doing alright there Benny. And that you got everything built and moved.

Not with clams, which have no measured photosaturation/photoinhibition point (up to around 4,000mmol PAR is the farthest I've seen tested).

Zeph is reporting that his small Maxima may have fried sitting very close to the halides so too much PAR might not be a good thing.

[jedimasterben]

http://blog.aquanerd.com/2013/04/losing-sight-of-real-reefkeeping.htmlKinda made me realize that there IS hope, just gotta get off my bum and get going!

 

Hope you're doing alright there Benny. And that you got everything built and moved.Zeph is reporting that his small Maxima may have fried sitting very close to the halides so too much PAR might not be a good thing.

I know - the farms that these clams are raised at highly regulate the amount of light their clams are cultured under, when they are less than a few inches they are maintained under sunlight with several shade cloths, keeping PAR at 500-1000, but that peak is only for a short time. My light arrays are all highly adjustable and I would not subject them to anything I think they couldn't handle.

[metrokat]

Very nice article and something I fully agree on. You know how everybody is always encouraging me to upgrade? I am so happy with the tank I have that fretting about with a new setup and going through all the growing pains to establish a new tank is not something I want or look forward to. I want to make what I have the best that it can be. Keeping it simple brings me great pleasure because I see the results in my tank.

[jedimasterben]

Ok, so the only fish I have left are:

4x chromis

2x dispar anthias

coral beauty angel

yellow watchman

barnacle blenny

yellowhead jawfish

powder brown tang

marine betta

molly

chalk basslet

mandarin

leopard wrasse (that is still in the freakin main tank, wily little devil)

 

All of them are doing splendidly and all are actually eating NLS pellets. I was thinking the powder brown was going to be a problem with those pellets and that I would have to supplement it with nori, but after a day in QT it was eating them with gusto. Most of you reading this will think I am nuts for not giving the tang nori or any other type of seaweed/algae, but NLS has everything that they need and more. NLS has even been used, as an exclusive diet, for long-term care of moorish idols.

 

I've been taking the salinity down very slowly, probably more slowly than i should be, but all the fish have stopped flashing, so that is an indicator that the parasite is not coming back in the same numbers as before.

 

The main tank actually looks great, in its half-drained state. Dinoflagellates seemed to have disappeared. I took out most of the rock, and have been removing one piece of rock daily from the fish QT tank, and took the last two out on Saturday. They're stinky now, gonna pick up the muriatic acid to etch them this week, gotta be ultra careful with it, though.

 

Anyone know if I can use a little acid on my sandbed to release bound phosphate from the aragonite?

[metrokat]

Sorry about your fish losses. No more new fish for now right?

[Arkayology]

It sucks to read about you losing all those fish. I hope you can get the leopard wrasse out and acclimated so it does well during the process. I know how tricky that can be.

[Deckoz2302]

You will turn your sand into mush like mudd with the acid. I suggest fluidized bed reactor. Take a 5 gallon bucket with lid. Drill a hole in the top and thread a pvc fitting with pipe that goes to the bottom. This us the input hook this upto your mag 9.5 output. Drill a hole in the side of the bucket and use a uniseal with a bulkhead strainer with 1 micron screen wapped around the strainer and ziptied. Plumb this to a phosban reactor with gfo in a 1 micron bag. The output of the gfo reactor will be the input to mag 9.5. This makes a closed loop fluidized sand bed reactor hooked to a gfo reactor. Fill the bucket halfway with sand approx 50lb then fill the bucket with rodi. Put seran wrap over the bucker then put the lid on to make a seal unless you have a rubber o ring. Turn on the mag and let it do work

 

You have to use rodi water not tap or salt. Rodi water is very hungry and will pull the phosphate out of the sand where the gfo will pull the phosphate out of the water

[jedimasterben]

Spoke too soon. Pulled out the powder brown, a dispar anthias, and the starry blenny today. I thought the betta was gone too, I couldn't find her for around 10 minutes, but then I realized she was hiding up behind one of the HOB filter intakes like a boss.

 

 

Sorry about your fish losses. No more new fish for now right?

Correct.

 

You will turn your sand into mush like mudd with the acid. I suggest fluidized bed reactor. Take a 5 gallon bucket with lid. Drill a hole in the top and thread a pvc fitting with pipe that goes to the bottom. This us the input hook this upto your mag 9.5 output. Drill a hole in the side of the bucket and use a uniseal with a bulkhead strainer with 1 micron screen wapped around the strainer and ziptied. Plumb this to a phosban reactor with gfo in a 1 micron bag. The output of the gfo reactor will be the input to mag 9.5. This makes a closed loop fluidized sand bed reactor hooked to a gfo reactor. Fill the bucket halfway with sand approx 50lb then fill the bucket with rodi. Put seran wrap over the bucker then put the lid on to make a seal unless you have a rubber o ring. Turn on the mag and let it do work

You have to use rodi water not tap or salt. Rodi water is very hungry and will pull the phosphate out of the sand where the gfo will pull the phosphate out of the water

Hmm. I like this idea, but I have an idea - the new system will be made 100% with new RO/DI. I think I will just move the sand as-is, fill the whole system with RO/DI, and then load it up with GFO.

 

The aggressiveness of the RO/DI water won't pull the bound phosphate off - it is the lower pH that will break the bond (and then the RO/DI will dissolve it ). I'm glad you're here to run ideas by

 

It sucks to read about you losing all those fish. I hope you can get the leopard wrasse out and acclimated so it does well during the process. I know how tricky that can be.

I hope so too (as it eats just about anythign in front of it), but QT is tough on fish. :/

[Deckoz2302]

Spoke too soon. Pulled out the powder brown, a dispar anthias, and the starry blenny today. I thought the betta was gone too, I couldn't find her for around 10 minutes, but then I realized she was hiding up behind one of the HOB filter intakes like a boss.

 

 

 

Correct.

 

 

Hmm. I like this idea, but I have an idea - the new system will be made 100% with new RO/DI. I think I will just move the sand as-is, fill the whole system with RO/DI, and then load it up with GFO.

 

The aggressiveness of the RO/DI water won't pull the bound phosphate off - it is the lower pH that will break the bond (and then the RO/DI will dissolve it ). I'm glad you're here to run ideas by

 

 

I hope so too (as it eats just about anythign in front of it), but QT is tough on fish. :/

Again to low of ph and it will turn to mush if you're usin samoa pink aroganite sand. ..ittle be just like a ca reactor. Phosphates thate are actually part of the aroganite calcium carbonate structure will never leach...the rodi is hungry enough to pull basically anything out of anything given time. Rodi or pure water is the only compound with a nuetral ph that can disolve metal....

 

Either way will work I just figured you'd want to kill the sand before the move

[jedimasterben]

I'm not worried too much about killing what's in the sand, I just want any bound phosphate to die in a fire.

 

Phosphate that is bound to CaCO₃ will start to break off at a pH of 7.4 I think, somewhere around there.

 

Water is wacky.

 

 

 

 

Started the first muriatic acid bath. Man, did I look sexy in my respirator, goggles, and black rubber gloves lol. I think I put in about 20lbs or so of rock, forgot to weigh it before and see the difference.

 

After this, it'll be a good rinse, then I'll make a solution of hydrogen peroxide to start oxidizing anything that couldn't be rinsed out, and then another rinse (or just dry) and it'll be ready to go. Then, repeat with more rock!

[jedimasterben]

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/327229-fluitantis-vada-the-floating-shallows/

 

[ZephNYC]

Hey Ben, I have a Q. SInce my Ro unit runs 24/7, how often should I change the carbon block ? I do it every couple of months but know it lasts longer then that.