Egginis Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I'm gonna hold off on the minimax. I'll see how well the chaeto works in bringing down my nitrates. Love my mini-max reactors. I feel that you can never have to many fun toys on the system. I have biopellets running in one reactor and phosguard in the other. My water parameters are near perfect although I do perform 3 gallon water changes each night. Nice buy with the InTank media baskets, they are an excellent upgrade to the Nuvo. How high are your nitrates now? Link to comment
rdck99 Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 I'm gonna hold off on the minimax. I'll see how well the chaeto works in bringing down my nitrates. Perfect - this is the exact test I was hoping to find results on before I made my own decision. I'm still having fits with my skimmer, which may be part of the nitrate problem, but like you, I seem to always have a reading between 5-10 ppm. I know that's not necessarily bad, but I'd like to be close to zero after my water changes at least. The debate has been between the minimax with biopellets versus the InTank fuge basket with chaeto. I'm excited to see what you find and I hope you knock those lingering nitrates out! Love my mini-max reactors. I feel that you can never have to many fun toys on the system. I have biopellets running in one reactor and phosguard in the other. My water parameters are near perfect although I do perform 3 gallon water changes each night. Nice buy with the InTank media baskets, they are an excellent upgrade to the Nuvo. How high are your nitrates now? 3g water change EVERY night?!?! That's dedication. Link to comment
Egginis Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 Perfect - this is the exact test I was hoping to find results on before I made my own decision. I'm still having fits with my skimmer, which may be part of the nitrate problem, but like you, I seem to always have a reading between 5-10 ppm. I know that's not necessarily bad, but I'd like to be close to zero after my water changes at least. The debate has been between the minimax with biopellets versus the InTank fuge basket with chaeto. I'm excited to see what you find and I hope you knock those lingering nitrates out! The minimax with biopellets is working great for me and my skimmer seems to be really responding to it. I use Dr. Tim's NP-Active Pearls in the reactor and my nitrate and phosphate is at 0. Still very interested to hear how the InTank fuge basket works out. I probably will order one just because I like new aquarium toys. Keep us posted Jay. 3g water change EVERY night?!?! That's dedication. I can do this because I have the RO/DI unit with the 65 gallon drum of water. Keeps everything nice and balanced. We can never really recreate what nature provides, but I am going to do my best to simulate it as much as possible. Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 Love my mini-max reactors. I feel that you can never have to many fun toys on the system. I have biopellets running in one reactor and phosguard in the other. My water parameters are near perfect although I do perform 3 gallon water changes each night. Nice buy with the InTank media baskets, they are an excellent upgrade to the Nuvo. How high are your nitrates now? I heard biopellets on the minimax really brings down the nitrate level. I will eventually go there. Just wanna try the natural fuge basket way and see how that goes. Anything without adding adding another extension to my electric socket. Perfect - this is the exact test I was hoping to find results on before I made my own decision. I'm still having fits with my skimmer, which may be part of the nitrate problem, but like you, I seem to always have a reading between 5-10 ppm. I know that's not necessarily bad, but I'd like to be close to zero after my water changes at least. The debate has been between the minimax with biopellets versus the InTank fuge basket with chaeto. I'm excited to see what you find and I hope you knock those lingering nitrates out! 3g water change EVERY night?!?! That's dedication. I'll keep you updated on the performance of my fuge basket! If it doesn't do anything, we should both order the minimax with bio pellets. Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 Something to share here. I've been Feeding "Coral Frenzy" and today is my third feeding. I've noticed amazing polyp extensions, growth, color improvements on all my hammer, zoas, palys, and duncans. Kinda awesome. The direction says feed 3 times a week but i recommend just once or twice a week. And also don't follow the direction where it says mix with tank water and pour content into high flow area. That would cloud your tank like crazy. I recommend spot feeding with a turkey baster and turn off your pump and flow. Below are some iphone pictures. Link to comment
Mike Savage Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 What a beautiful tank! Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 17, 2013 Author Share Posted August 17, 2013 What a beautiful tank! Thank you sir Link to comment
Eckozulu Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Hey jay, was looking at your algae problem.... And it looks like maybe dinoflagellates. I hope it isn't, been battling for a week now, and it sucks. Good luck. Btw, dinos disappear and reappear with light. Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 Hey jay, was looking at your algae problem.... And it looks like maybe dinoflagellates. I hope it isn't, been battling for a week now, and it sucks. Good luck. Btw, dinos disappear and reappear with light. oh man I pray its not dino. That would really suck. Heard its the hardest to deal with. I'm gonna cut my lighting down and see if that does anything. Link to comment
Egginis Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 oh man I pray its not dino. That would really suck. Heard its the hardest to deal with. I'm gonna cut my lighting down and see if that does anything. Cutting down your photoperiod a bit, feeding less, and regular water changes with 0 TDI water will drastically reduce the issue. Running my IM media reactor with the bio pellets in combination with the protein skimmer has really wielded great results. My skimmer pulls out loads of crap, and that is with a 3 gallon water change each night. Only goes to show us how fast crap can accumulate in our small systems. Really like the photos and extension of your coral. Heard good things about coral frenzy and I am going to give it a try when my Rod's Reef food runs out. Keep,us posted and good luck. Link to comment
Eckozulu Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 Yeah, right now I'm raising my ph to 8.5, siphoning, then a 3 day blackout. Dinos are no joke! Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 Would a 3 day black out affect my corals? Or do you house all you live stock in a quarantine tank? What do you guys think if I do a full sandbed and 50% live rock change? I've been dying to change my black white sand bed to a full white sandbed and also re-scape my tank, again. And by doing that I can also get rid of this algae problem. I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone. But would it be too drastic and crash my tank? Link to comment
Eckozulu Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 3 day blackout should be okay. I was told water changes don't help. You're suppose to siphon out the algae through a filter sock, then replace the water. I had the lights out for 3 days, but didn't cover up the tank. Those bitches came right back. Good luck bro! Link to comment
Egginis Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 Would a 3 day black out affect my corals? Or do you house all you live stock in a quarantine tank? Your corals should be fine for 3 days. Sometimes they go that long in a little box while being shipped around the world. What do you guys think if I do a full sandbed and 50% live rock change? I've been dying to change my black white sand bed to a full white sandbed and also re-scape my tank, again. And by doing that I can also get rid of this algae problem. I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone. But would it be too drastic and crash my tank? It's tough to say. Replacing the sandbed is mostly recommended when moving or transferring aquariums which is in essence what you might do. You also get to plan a new aquascape which can be fun and frustrating. Now is the time to clean your live rock with saltwater and brush off excess algae and detritus with a toothbrush. Use the opportunity to do a larger water change as well. I just transferred my Nuvo 16 to the Nuvo 24 and did have a slight algae bloom even with all the above steps. Whenever you change things around you are bound to see some chemical changes. If done quickly and carefully, you should not have a system crash. Have separate buckets for your fish, separate buckets for your corals, and separate buckets for your live rock. Use another couple buckets filled with saltwater at the same temperature as your aquarium to clean your live rock of the algae and detritus. Remember when you add new live sand, it will carry new types of bacteria. This can cause changes to your system as well. I'm not trying to discourage you, but want you to know there might be some additional blooms before things get better. If your up to it, do it. In the end you probably will be happier since you seem to have been thinking of changing things up anyway. Good Luck! Link to comment
rdck99 Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 You take better photos with your iPhone than I do with my DSLR...are you editing them at all or is the color pop attributable to the Maxspect? Did you knock out your dino problem? How's the fuge/chaeto working out? Have you seen an improvement in nitrates levels? How fast it the chaeto growing? I'm antsy, because I'm ready to dump the last IM media basket for something, but I'm torn...thanks! Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 29, 2013 Author Share Posted August 29, 2013 The trick is to rest your iphone on a tripod so it's stable and you'll get pretty sharp pics. I don't think it was dino. It got a lot better. Might be a unexpected diatom bloom. I figured it's probably cuz I re-did my rock scape with new dry rock that's why. And I also lowered my light intensity and it's better. Will just wait it out and see. The media basket's definitely worth getting. As for the fuge, too early to say. And I can't seem to keep the chaeto in there. keeps getting loose and coming to the top and flowing out to the pump chamber. It might be because I have too little chaeto. Gonna get more and put a big clump in there. My nitrate did drop 5ppm since i added the fuge. Link to comment
sangheili Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 The trick is to rest your iphone on a tripod so it's stable and you'll get pretty sharp pics. I don't think it was dino. It got a lot better. Might be a unexpected diatom bloom. I figured it's probably cuz I re-did my rock scape with new dry rock that's why. And I also lowered my light intensity and it's better. Will just wait it out and see. The media basket's definitely worth getting. As for the fuge, too early to say. And I can't seem to keep the chaeto in there. keeps getting loose and coming to the top and flowing out to the pump chamber. It might be because I have too little chaeto. Gonna get more and put a big clump in there. My nitrate did drop 5ppm since i added the fuge. You could try keeping it in place with filter floss. Link to comment
Jay Wee Posted August 29, 2013 Author Share Posted August 29, 2013 You could try keeping it in place with filter floss. Why have I not thought about that? *Slaps forehead* Link to comment
sangheili Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Why have I not thought about that? *Slaps forehead* Haha we all have our days :-) Figured I'd throw it out there just in case. Link to comment
schaNYC Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Jay- is that a Reliance Aquapak water jug you're using next to your stand as your ATO reservoir I assume? What size container is that and how regularly does it need to be refilled? I'm trying to get a sense of the evap that's occurring. Also what are you using as your salt mixing container? Thx Link to comment
schaNYC Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 I'd like to hear from any other nuvo 16 or 24 owners re: their ato reservoir tank. How many gallons is yours and how often do u refill? Link to comment
rdck99 Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 I'd like to hear from any other nuvo 16 or 24 owners re: their ato reservoir tank. How many gallons is yours and how often do u refill? I use a 2.5g converted plastic bathroom waste basket. It was the only thing I could find that actually fit where I wanted it beneath my stand. I refill about every 7-10 days. I have the 16g Nuvo and I use the glass lid/cover. Link to comment
defender.TX Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 I'd like to hear from any other nuvo 16 or 24 owners re: their ato reservoir tank. How many gallons is yours and how often do u refill? I go through a 5 gallon container every 7-10 days with the Nuvo 24. Link to comment
Cameron6796 Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 What ato are you using Link to comment
rdck99 Posted September 4, 2013 Share Posted September 4, 2013 What ato are you using If you mean me or all of us, I have the Tunze Nano Osmolator. Link to comment
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