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Coral Vue Hydros

Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)


markalot

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Nice FTS Mark. I'm glad you like the cardinals, I have a trio of them also and they have ended up being a very peaceful and friendly tank mate. Not to mention their colouration is very nice also.

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Nice FTS Mark. I'm glad you like the cardinals, I have a trio of them also and they have ended up being a very peaceful and friendly tank mate. Not to mention their colouration is very nice also.

 

 

Looking very good Mark

 

Thanks. :)

 

With no other changes made I think it's safe to say the CO2 scrubber is doing it's job, UNLESS the probe calibration slope was way off as well.

 

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A window near the tank was open all night, and has been for the last 3 nights, but will be closed this afternoon since it's getting too hot outside. This will be the real test ... can I keep the PH above 7.8 when the house is closed up?

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So the very last pest I was worried about has suddenly showed up on a monti I had in the 46 for 6 months. I had it on a frag rack, moved it into more light 1 week ago, and it started losing tissue 2 days ago. Where the hell did this army come from!

 

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I removed the entire frag after turning off the pumps so none would blow off. I counted 5 on top and 5 more underneath. ####ers. All I can figure is my purple dottyback was eating them and without the Dottyback the population finally exploded. I hope to hell they were confined to this frag.

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It's garbage, and so are any frags around that area if they show any signs of MEN. Appreciate the suggestion though.

FTS. Tank is getting some mojo back, new growth tips on just about every stick, and the Alk usage shows. Started at 80ml, now at 150ml and falling behind. I dropped to 7.7KH, got it back up to 8.6KH and now it's back down to 8.3KH so I'm getting closer. You can see all the algae, but it's falling apart and blowing around. Tangs and Blenny love it, but too much to eat! I'm running two medium sized bags of Phosguard in the sump and this has helped brown this algae and increase growth ... me thinks.

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Montipora capitata

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Montipora spongodes
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One of my Pocillopora's. Not very attractive from a distance, but has some nice green skin.
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Katropora
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This will be a hell of a piece if it ever grows.
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I'm calling this Acropora confused. It started out bushy green, then grew sideways into a rock, then started getting purple and turquoise tips while the rest of the coral browned out. I swear every day it shows a new shade of something. It also feed heavily, with those filaments coming out whenever food hits the water.
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Pretty pictures :)

 

Thanks. :)

 

So here's my latest APEX PH graph. The spike two days ago was me recalibrating the probe. I have increased daily dosing by 20ml but why the heck is the PH now jumping up and down at every dosing point? What changed?

 

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KH this morning was 8.6, which I checked out of my normal time just to make sure I wasn't nuking the tank. It was 8.6KH yesterday morning and I expect it will be 8.3 KH this evening during my normal testing time, which means I have to increase the dose yet again.

 

Oh, Mag is 1300, I think I mentioned that before, so this should not be a Mag issue,

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I'm not sure about the pH, but is it a big deal? My reef has always done ok with a pH of 8.0-7.8

pH is a basically a measure of dissolved carbon dioxide and dKH. If you're dKH is in line, then don't chase pH. However, monitoring it can be good as sudden, large changes in pH (>1.0) means something has generally gone wrong like a dosing pump has decided to empty it's dosing container into your tank or your ATO has done something similar.
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I agree the jump is meaningless, I just want to know what the heck changed to cause it to suddenly start showing up. :)

I can't see the picture from work, but I can venture a couple of guesses. Did you relocate the probe closer to the output of the doser? As you get closer to the doser output, the affects will be less diluted. Did you clean the probe before you calibrated it? A gunk build up may have made it slower to measure changes.
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I can't see the picture from work, but I can venture a couple of guesses. Did you relocate the probe closer to the output of the doser? As you get closer to the doser output, the affects will be less diluted. Did you clean the probe before you calibrated it? A gunk build up may have made it slower to measure changes.

 

Nope. Probe is brand new, calibrated twice since I apparently messed up the first time. Probe is in the same location at the same depth in the sumps probe holder. I did increase the dose by 20ml a day, but that's a small amount each hour. I'm attaching the image so you view it. The only other thing I can think of is the flow in the sump has slowed, but to the best of my knowledge it hasn't. I also have a 750 GPH circulation pump in the sump section where I dose, and that is still working.

 

My other guesses are:

 

- The dieoff of the uglies is changing something

 

- The tank was going through a mini cycle that has now ended.

 

- Adding Seachem Prime every day, which I stopped doing Saturday, changed something

 

- My solution of C-Balance Alk is inconsistent, I refilled Saturday morning. But my Alk has not risen much at all.

 

 

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Here is an updated graph from right now. Looks like the peaks are dropping a bit as the overall PH rises.

 

If nothing else, this is entertaining. :)

 

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Nope. Probe is brand new, calibrated twice since I apparently messed up the first time. Probe is in the same location at the same depth in the sumps probe holder. I did increase the dose by 20ml a day, but that's a small amount each hour. I'm attaching the image so you view it. The only other thing I can think of is the flow in the sump has slowed, but to the best of my knowledge it hasn't. I also have a 750 GPH circulation pump in the sump section where I dose, and that is still working.

 

My other guesses are:

 

- The dieoff of the uglies is changing something

 

- The tank was going through a mini cycle that has now ended.

 

- Adding Seachem Prime every day, which I stopped doing Saturday, changed something

 

- My solution of C-Balance Alk is inconsistent, I refilled Saturday morning. But my Alk has not risen much at all.

 

 

attachicon.gifzzPH.jpg

 

 

Here is an updated graph from right now. Looks like the peaks are dropping a bit as the overall PH rises.

 

If nothing else, this is entertaining. :)

 

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Ok, I can see those. Are you dosing every hour? It's odd that you've got spikes like that so regularly. Is there anything you're doing on an hourly basis with the tank?

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Ok, I can see those. Are you dosing every hour? It's odd that you've got spikes like that so regularly. Is there anything you're doing on an hourly basis with the tank?

 

Yea, it's dosing Alk at the top of the hour and calcium 10 minutes later.

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That's pretty much what I'd expect then if you're dosing once an hour. Not sure why it didn't pick that up before though.

 

Same. So at least we have the same question now. :) I'm going to double check the flow in the sump to make sure something didn't get clogged. I would expect this to the the most obvious symptom of slower flow through the sump.

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So something did change.

 

There are no more air bubbles being created from the overflows into the first sump chamber where the PH probe is. No air bubbles, slower PH equalization. Why no air bubbles? If the returns were restricted the display volume should go up while the sump volume would decrease, but sump volume has been fairly steady. Just part of the maturation process, perhaps.

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So something did change.

 

There are no more air bubbles being created from the overflows into the first sump chamber where the PH probe is. No air bubbles, slower PH equalization. Why no air bubbles? If the returns were restricted the display volume should go up while the sump volume would decrease, but sump volume has been fairly steady. Just part of the maturation process, perhaps.

That last bit isn't right. As you increase the flow from your return pump, the water level in your display will rise which in turn means more flow through the overflow. The sump level however, will not change. While you would initial think it would decrease due to water being moved to the overflow, the typical ATO is setup based on a float switch in the sump which will add RO/DI water to the system till the sump returns to the previous level.

 

As to why no bubbles, not sure. Did you move any of the return lines?

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That last bit isn't right. As you increase the flow from your return pump, the water level in your display will rise which in turn means more flow through the overflow. The sump level however, will not change. While you would initial think it would decrease due to water being moved to the overflow, the typical ATO is setup based on a float switch in the sump which will add RO/DI water to the system till the sump returns to the previous level.

 

As to why no bubbles, not sure. Did you move any of the return lines?

 

Nope, nothing moved. I think I left out some detail in the previous post.

 

If the returns get clogged, let's say both get clogged or are restricted, the return pump will still be pumping the same amount of water so the sump level (chamber 3) will drop and kick in the ATO, which would have used a big part or all 5 gallons and I would notice the level difference. The sump level is where I expected it to be, a little lower than the max level, and the 5 gallon ATO container is at the same level.

 

I've tried to set everything up so that there will be no catastrophic failure that results in water on the floor. Worst case the overflows both clog, the sump drains the pump chamber only plus the 5 gallons of ATO that is fed into the pump chamber, and then the pump runs dry, heats up, and burns the house down. But no flood dammit! :D

 

Second case is the pump quits and the overflows drain and fill the sump to over max ATO level and the alarm goes off plus the skimmer overflows into the middle chamber and makes a royal stinky mess. The Marineland overflows are designed with siphon breaks built in plus I have my return lines out of the water to create some extra splash, so the sump can't really flood under any normal circumstance I can think of. :D

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Yeah, I've actually got a catch chamber built into my sump so if the sump over flows, it flows into that chamber. It has a float switch in it that kills the ATO and forces on the return pump. It's saved me many, many times from having a mess.

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