Polarcollision's Nuvo 24: March FTS

[Polarcollision]

On 5/17/2018 at 1:21 PM, Star-39 said:

Is the orange monti stuck to the glass or back? So in love with your tank 😍

Hi! Thanks for stopping by! And thank you for the tank love. 🙂 I’ve neglected my thread for lack of activity and missed your Visit. Oops! Hope you get this. 

 

Hmm trying to figure out which Monti you’re referring to. On the left there’s a red plating Monti with yellow polyps. That one is glued to the back wall just above a powerhead. There’s an orange coral growing behind the pink bird that’s not a Monti. It’s also attached to the back wall. Then there’s an orange psammacora on the sand in front of the Miami hurricane chalice. It’s just growing off a rock in the sand. Last montipora that might look orange is the forest fire digi and that one is also growing on a rock in the sand. Hope that helps! 

 

-~~~

stopping by to bookmark. Leng sy cap care https://reefbuilders.com/2018/06/06/how-to-grow-the-most-intense-purple-rim-monti-cap/

 

• high magnesium: 1400-1500 for lush thriving montis and the purple rim.

 

• Trace elements: Strontium, zinc, iodine, etc. Author likes Brightwell Replenish and acropower for aminos

 

• 400-600 par, up to 1000 par for gnarly growth pattern. The more light, the more vertical it will grow. Purple rim displays best under warm lighting. Makes sense considering color theory rather than an aspect of physiology.

 

[Polarcollision]

Now that my ATO issues seem resolved, I'm ready to tackle finding a reliable dosing controller. I like my Jebao power heads so I'm looking at the 4-head Jebao doser and the 6-head ATO doser which look like the exact same product aside from the number of pumps. Reliability is more important to me than having the latest/greatest sexy toy. Any advice/feedback?

[Polarcollision]

Well this turned into putting all this into a shopping cart. 😂😂😂 Can't quite click the button... do I really need an apex??

 

Apex 2016

FMM module

2 optical sensors for Alk and Ca

ATI 6-head dosing pump

red sea reef colors ABCD

tubing and tube holder

 

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, Polarcollision said:

Well this turned into putting all this into a shopping cart. 😂😂😂 Can't quite click the button... do I really need an apex??

 

Apex 2016

FMM module

2 optical sensors for Alk and Ca

ATI 6-head dosing pump

red sea reef colors ABCD

tubing and tube holder

 

You didn't get the ATI DP-6, did you?  you can have the Jebao DP-4 for 1/3 the costs on amazon - unless you really need all 6 heads. I've been looking at DP-4 as well, that and the basic BRS one.

very curious to see how Reef Colors program will turn out, if you do go through with it.  I'm switching to RS Ca/Alk/Mg for my big three, after my current Reef Fusion 1&2 are done.   

[Polarcollision]

51 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

You didn't get the ATI DP-6, did you?  you can have the Jebao DP-4 for 1/3 the costs on amazon - unless you really need all 6 heads. I've been looking at DP-4 as well, that and the basic BRS one.

very curious to see how Reef Colors program will turn out, if you do go through with it.  I'm switching to RS Ca/Alk/Mg for my big three, after my current Reef Fusion 1&2 are done.   

that's a tough call. Three of the jebao dosers are roughly the same cost as the ATI and I'm 90% sure they're the exact same product. Score one for Jabeo. I need 5 dosers for acropower and the 4 coral color ABCD products so score one for ATI. The ATI is 11x6.7x2.7" and the jabeo is 9.25x5.1x2.6" so the ATI takes up way less space (and fits perfectly in my cabinet) so score 1 for ATI. Both get the same reviews unless we're talking about the first generation jebao model which was unreliable at best. Since the jebao listings didn't specify which model they were selling, I figured there were enough reasons to get the ATI... BRS bait and switched on me during the black friday sale so I'm not shopping with them until I've saved what they shorted me, so their doser isn't an option right now.

 

However, if you have the patience, look back in my thread around black friday 2 or three years ago where I'm figuring out the most cost effective way to dose the tank. BRS powders are pharmaceutical pure (proven by my triton test results) and their formulation is based on a formula by the highly respected marine chemist Randy Holms Farley. Consider it? The benefit over the BRS powders is that RS Ca powder has strontium added, which is the only major or minor element I haven't covered in the new auto-dosing plans.

 

I didn't get the Apex system. Yet. It's coming. I figure I'll set up the doser and get it squared away and then tackle replacing the entire brains of the reef. There's a frag contest on the line if I screw up!! 😂😂

[jdmcbuilt]

On 3/11/2017 at 7:12 PM, Polarcollision said:

03.11.17 Full Tank Shot

 

 

I think most corals are placed now. The left side is still a work in progress since they're just itty bitty frags. only 3 aptasia known to be in the tank. Peppermint shrimp were the way to go.And the emerald crabs took care of all but a handful of bubble algae. I'm pretty happy with the tank right now. Corals are looking better and better and the fish all get along. It's hard to see in this pic, but the right side of the tank is mostly small bridges with lots of caves and arches for the fish to swim through. It's incredible how much more active they are with this one change.

 

I've discovered favias. So many gorgeous choices! A few years ago it seemed like there was only red and green options, but now... I want them all. So! I will have them all. And they're going to live on the back wall where the GSP used to live.

 

 

 

What's your current light schedule and intensity? 

[Polarcollision]

3 hours ago, jdmcbuilt said:

What's your current light schedule and intensity? 

Oh boy, I've tweaked it so many times this past year trying to not wake my husband with the lights that I don't remember exactly. It's a long photoperiod and the lights are fairly intense because my system runs high phosphates. Page 13 has my PAR readings and I'm having trouble locating the actual programming of each channel. Its in the thread somewhere. If memory serves, both blues and violet come on at 6am and ramp up to around 11 am, full intensity until 5, then a plateau and slow drop until lights out at 10pm. whites on a few hours later, ramping up to 11 am, then ramp down to off around 6 or 7 pm. Green comes on mid-day and follows whites at end of day. Red comes on around noon, spikes around 5 pm and off by 6. This is to signal end of photosynthesis. I don't remember if I ended up keeping the UV leds on or not. Max percentages: both blues around 60%, violet around 50%, white around 15-20%, green around 10-15%, red around 20%. Hope that helps. It's not exact, but general idea at least.

[mitten_reef]

4 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

Oh boy, I've tweaked it so many times this past year trying to not wake my husband with the lights that I don't remember exactly. It's a long photoperiod and the lights are fairly intense because my system runs high phosphates. Page 13 has my PAR readings and I'm having trouble locating the actual programming of each channel. Its in the thread somewhere. If memory serves, both blues and violet come on at 6am and ramp up to around 11 am, full intensity until 5, then a plateau and slow drop until lights out at 10pm. whites on a few hours later, ramping up to 11 am, then ramp down to off around 6 or 7 pm. Green comes on mid-day and follows whites at end of day. Red comes on around noon, spikes around 5 pm and off by 6. This is to signal end of photosynthesis. I don't remember if I ended up keeping the UV leds on or not. Max percentages: both blues around 60%, violet around 50%, white around 15-20%, green around 10-15%, red around 20%. Hope that helps. It's not exact, but general idea at least.

Sounds not very exact to me 😆. 

[DaveFason]

The tank is looking great. The bubblegum monster looks killer!

[Polarcollision]

Calibrating the ATI 6-Head doser

(Supervised by Namara)

 

 

The ATI doser is exactly like Jabeo’s doser down to the questionable setup instructions in ingrish. The interface is fairly intuitive though, so it only took a little trial and error to get a basic calibration going. Each of the 6 heads had different time values to dispense 100 mL, from 216 to 190.

 

Next was figuring how much of each Red Sea trace color element to dose. For A(iodine), B (potassium), and C (iron) I had the Triton test results and the dosing matrix on the bottle to get the tank up to recommended levels. Now it’s just a matter of maintenance dosing based on the consumption of calcium. That seems pretty sketchy and reasonable at the same time. So I’ll dose as recommended for 4 weeks and then send off for another ICP test to see how things have changed. 

 

 

If I were using Red Sea calcium, dosing bolus would be pretty cut and dry. 1mL trace for every 10mL calcium dosed. But I’m using BRS calcium. Are the concentrations the same? Apparently not. BRS has a video going over using these trace colors with their 3-part. For every 51.1 mL calcium, dose 1 mL trace color. A R2R thread broke down the ratios very differently. They came up with 5.1 mL instead of 51.1 for a verified increase in Ca ppm. So that’s awesome. 😕 I opted to go with the conservative 51.1 numbers until I get results of the next ICP test. 

 

My tank is currently dosed 25 seconds 12 times a day = 300 seconds/60 = 5 min times 1.1 mL for the BRS doser rate = 5.5 mL/day of calcium used by the reef. That would be waaaay less than 1 mL a day. So 5.5 x 7 = 38.5 mL/week. Still means that less than 1 mL would be dosed. Urg. This doesn’t work since 1 mL is the smallest unit the doser can handle. 

 

 

So I googled some more and found a thread where Randy Holms Farley green lights diluting each with RODI. So I’ll add 1 part trace to 9 parts RODI to the dosing containers. Using the 51.1=10mL concentration difference, that means I dose 0.753 mL trace for 38.5 actual mL BRS calcium. With a 10:1 dilution, I’ll dose 7.5 mL each week of each trace element. 

 

 

Diluting kills 2 birds with one stone because these dosers are no where near as accurate as the BRS 1.1 mL dosers. Gives some wiggle room for their wide tolerances. I found these 2oz bottles that will only need to be refilled every 6 weeks. The spout can let in air and also reduce evaporation (concentrating the trace solutions). I’m soooo looking forward to seeing how coral color and growth responds to all the new foods they’re about to receive. AND it’s almost completely hands off. Perfect!!

 

OK, all done. Now to let it run for a few days until I trust it enough to dose something other than water. 😂😂😂

 

 

[Polarcollision]

In tank news, my sea hare recently died. It was a couple of days until I found it. People always say they're not a good idea because they can nuke the tank, but that has just not been my experience, even with it decomposing in the tank. The epic outbreak of hair algae  that's appeared since explains why it never starved. I pulled close to 1/2 cup out today while trying to decide if I get another or try to control phosphates some other way. PhosBan hasn't been enough. Considering NoPoX since there's the extra dosing pump available.

 

I didn't know a good way to secure all the dosing lines to the tank. Every option I found was both too big for the space and also a little rich for what it offered. I'm fine dropping cash on something extremely well made and critical, but I just can't bring myself to pay $60 for two pieces of plastic to hold all the doser lines. Enter @A Little Blue and his idea of using the IM tank lid holders.

 

 

 

I just drilled 4 holes in 2 of the tabs (one not shown), inserted the lines, and that was it. Total cost: around 60 cents. Good. Now I have $59 more to spend on a new Apex controller. Sure do wish there was a way to stop the alk creep, but for now at least that line is separated from the calcium line all by itself.

 

The doser fits perfectly in the lower cabinet, suspended with heavy duty velcro. I really like that the bottles are see-through. It will be quick and easy to know at a glance if trace elements need refilling.

 

Tiny storage space is tiny.

[Polarcollision]

So... I got a little something. It was time for a new toy. So far all I’ve done is basic setup, connect to Fusion, and calibrate probes. Already it’s let me know that my salinity was 37.4 so I quickly brought that down to 35.5.

 

ORP is low also. It’s been a while since that chemistry class, but from what I gather it appears that when ORP drops, the oxidation/reduction balance has shifted toward more organics in the water. I can artificially raise ORP, though when it lands above 400, there’s a higher probability of organics being oxidized and killed. 

 

• Theres a relationship between pH and ORP, where ORP goes down as pH goes up. 

 

• Theres also a higher chance of sulphur dominance when ORP drops very low (0). 

 

• Oxygen can turn into H2O2 under UV light

 

• oxidizers: O2, H2O2, ozone, chlorine, Fe+++, iodate, and nitrate

 

• reducers (want to donate electrons): iodide, ammonia, sulfite, vit C, 

 

• sources of reducers: fish food, all the living things, dying things, ferrous ions, 

 

• middle ground range: 200-500 mV, 300-450 is typical ocean value

 

• if ORP suddenly drops, suggests large death or lack of oxygen

 

 

[Polarcollision]

07.08.18 Full Tank Video

Running 4 yrs 8 mos; rockscape 2.0 running 1 yr 11 mos

 

 

[Polarcollision]

So far I've connected the apex to Fusion, set up the probes, and moved the return pump, skimmer and osmolator over from Reefkeeper to Apex. I was right in my hunch that the reefkeeper is on its way out. Now the skimmer turns on and off again. It's been periodically not running for a while now. Super relieved to have it start moving out phosphates again,

[specore]

This monti is cool.  Don't think I've ever seen one branch quite like that. 

[Polarcollision]

17 hours ago, specore said:

This monti is cool.  Don't think I've ever seen one branch quite like that. 

I think it’s the forest fire digi, which makes the growth pattern even more relevant, ya? Hehe! I’m happy to share, it grows really fast

[Polarcollision]

That moment you test calcium twice because HTH did it drop to 200 from 450. (???!!!!)

 

the next moment where where you realize that wasn’t the heater cord you transferred over to the apex control, it was the calcium doser. 

 

God.

 

Could have been way worse. Thank god it is summer and the heater is barely on. If it were winter, I would have nuked the tank with that mistake. Thank god for body instinct that something was off. And now that I have to test Ca every day I transferred it over to apex control too. 

 

Biting nails.

 

[DaveFason]

6 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

That moment you test calcium twice because HTH did it drop to 200 from 450. (???!!!!)

 

the next moment where where you realize that wasn’t the heater cord you transferred over to the apex control, it was the calcium doser. 

 

God.

 

Could have been way worse. Thank god it is summer and the heater is barely on. If it were winter, I would have nuked the tank with that mistake. Thank god for body instinct that something was off. And now that I have to test Ca every day I transferred it over to apex control too. 

 

Biting nails.

 

Hoping for the best. I know the feeling on accidents like that. I recently had a close call a couple months ago too!

[Polarcollision]

Everything is still alive and colorful when I got home from work tonight. I’m now convinced that levels can drop fairly low and corals just chill. But when they raise too fast, that’s when we’ll have problems.

 

In apex setup news, the tech support is AMAZING. They’re as high on my list as Roger at Tunze. All the measurement probes are giving meaningful data now. I even have a good idea what this tank’s  daily pH swings look like. Mine are from around 8.25 to 7.95 each day. RHF says aerating the water can reduce the swings, as can boron. Until reading that, I wasn’t going to dose boron, but reconsidering now. Maybe in a day or two I’ll lower the water height in the back chamber to see if it aerates the water any better. 

 

Until then, back to testing calcium...

 

[Polarcollision]

On 7/20/2018 at 5:46 AM, DaveFason said:

Hoping for the best. I know the feeling on accidents like that. I recently had a close call a couple months ago too!

Well, everything seems to have pulled through the setup mistake/calcium crash. Even corals that have been existing but not growing are finally coloring back up or growing nicely. I can't find the forktail fang blenny or the purple firefish though.

 

Things going well:

~ Steadier Alk and Ca levels

~ Dosing Red Sea's additives for trace and micro elements

~ Dosing Acropower regularly

~ PO4 down from 0.34ish to 0.26ish

~ SSC starting to color up after a false start a few weeks ago. It seems to like Ca around 375-400 and alk around 7.0

~ hair algae disappearing/coraline starting to grow in

 

Getting ready to mail off another ICP-OES test kit in the next week or two to see how switching from Fauna Marin to Red Sea has improved trace and minor element imbalances. Just waiting on the 99.9% pure sodium borate to arrive so I can bring that last element back in line.

 

Can I also say that I'm a huge fan of the Apex system? Really had no idea what I was missing out on before. Even more than simply the rich programming and monitoring features, their customer support is AMAZING. As good as Roger at Tunze, and that's saying a lot. Plus, last week (?) all over the globe, routers and gateways running McAfee Home Security had a bug/hack/glitch that caused them to be unable to access the internet for close to a full day. I didn't fully understand how sophisticated the Apex system was until this 24 hour internet blackout while the reef hummed along as usual. The only thing I couldn't do was to use Fusion to turn off pumps for feeding the fish. Everything else was perfect.

[specore]

4 hours ago, Polarcollision said:

Well, everything seems to have pulled through the setup mistake/calcium crash. Even corals that have been existing but not growing are finally coloring back up or growing nicely. I can't find the forktail fang blenny or the purple firefish though.

 

Things going well:

~ Steadier Alk and Ca levels

~ Dosing Red Sea's additives for trace and micro elements

~ Dosing Acropower regularly

~ PO4 down from 0.34ish to 0.26ish

~ SSC starting to color up after a false start a few weeks ago. It seems to like Ca around 375-400 and alk around 7.0

~ hair algae disappearing/coraline starting to grow in

 

Getting ready to mail off another ICP-OES test kit in the next week or two to see how switching from Fauna Marin to Red Sea has improved trace and minor element imbalances. Just waiting on the 99.9% pure sodium borate to arrive so I can bring that last element back in line.

 

Can I also say that I'm a huge fan of the Apex system? Really had no idea what I was missing out on before. Even more than simply the rich programming and monitoring features, their customer support is AMAZING. As good as Roger at Tunze, and that's saying a lot. Plus, last week (?) all over the globe, routers and gateways running McAfee Home Security had a bug/hack/glitch that caused them to be unable to access the internet for close to a full day. I didn't fully understand how sophisticated the Apex system was until this 24 hour internet blackout while the reef hummed along as usual. The only thing I couldn't do was to use Fusion to turn off pumps for feeding the fish. Everything else was perfect.

Glad you turned it around.  I made a similar mistake recently when I turned my calcium doser on to bleed some air out of the line.  Finished bleeding, dropped the line back into the tank and never turned the doser back to auto.  Better Ca then alk I suppose.  

 

Glad you like the Apex.  I've had mine for nearly ten years and love it more every day.  

[Polarcollision]

15 hours ago, specore said:

Glad you turned it around.  I made a similar mistake recently when I turned my calcium doser on to bleed some air out of the line.  Finished bleeding, dropped the line back into the tank and never turned the doser back to auto.  Better Ca then alk I suppose.  

 

Glad you like the Apex.  I've had mine for nearly ten years and love it more every day.  

Oh good night, you must have had so much anxiety when it was discovered. Sounds like it all worked out alright in the end at least. My worst fear is that I’ll be priming the dosing lines and then forget about it, effectively dosing constant for... whatever time til the container runs out. My phone gets an alarm and the microwave gets a timer too. I’ve forgotten about the RODI often enough to clean up at least 6 floods, but no way am I taking the tank out with that kind of move. Come to think of it, wonder if there’s code to never let the apex turn on an outlet for more than a few minutes at a time. 

[Polarcollision]

You've probably heard that the entire PNW is burning. Watch this - video has more drama than Jaws. https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/father-son-drive-flames-escape-forest-fire-57267809  I'm super relieved these two survived. And I want that guy for my father. He's so cool and collected while still conveying that OMG shit's real vibe.

 

Since we're holed up inside under beautiful brown skies until it rains, I'm coping by declaring tonight Whiskey Wednesday Eve. Plus I guess with all the extra CO2 in the air, the tank's pH swings and dips have gotten out of hand. So hey! a project for distraction! Last night I installed MERV 12 and 13 filters in two windows for just a little bit of air flow. And the big fan has a merv 13 filter to clean inside air. Even so, tank dropped down to 8.53 pH last night and never recovered. High today was 8.7something, which is the usual nightly low. Here's a fancy graph from the fancy-pants apex to illustrate my panic, that's not so panicky one maker's mark in.

 

Boron is supposed to help swings a little bit. And my Triton ICP says boron is in the red. And I guess I can dose Kalkwasser to see if it helps at all. And maybe, just maybe I'll make a paste for the multiplying ball anemones. I really like them. Like, really like them. But they're probably bad for the rest of the coral, right?

 

OK. Waaaay down at the bottom of this article is the dosing info I'm using. https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/12/chemistry

 

"If you want to supplement boron, you can just use borax (from the grocery store; borax is 21.5% boron by weight) dissolved in water. One teaspoon will weigh about 4 grams, so 1 teaspoon in a 100 gallon tank will raise the boron level by 0.21 mM (2.3 ppm)."

 

Just in case there's some awful impurity in grocery store borax, I got the 99.9% pure sodium borate.

 

1 tsp is in fact 4 g. No, this is not Snorting Snow Sunday.

 

Hmmm. Triton measures mg/l and RHF uses mM and ppm. God. Off to google for the conversion.

 

I need to increase from 1.66 to 4.5 mg/l. So 2.84 mg/l dose, which conveniently is also 2.84 ppm. OK! easy peasy. So my tank is 24 gallons, but not really with the coral and rock displacement. I usually just divide by 4 when dosing is per 100 gallons to make it simple. the fuzzy math is slightly in favor of under-dosing. That feels way more comfortable to have a margin for error. So I'll start with 1/4 tsp dose today and then send off the ICP test next week to see if math still works on Whiskey Wednesday Eve.

[Polarcollision]

Borax seems to be making a small but significant difference. The spike at the end of yesterday’s pH swing is directly related to dosing. Not sure what the quick plummet is about, but today’s pH swing is a little higher than yesteeday’s Even with worsening smoke air quality.

 

[luckie1966]

I also recently got a Apex and orp probe also started very low then gradually rose to 475 which is where it's at now. I also use Ozone generator and Just curious what your levels run at now? I get ph swings but with in 1  point. So you think dosing causing swings or corals using up minerals in water?