Patbacks RSR170

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Just now, patback said:

Hahaha. We have sisters from the same litter.  About a year and a half old and every morning it sounds like horses are running through the living room and bedroom.  They just chase eachother, jump on us trying to sleep, run back towards the couch and repeat for 15-20 minutes.  Kittens definitely like their playtime.  

It's like a herd of elephants lol. Up and down the stairs on mission. They like pretend they are starving to death lol. My older one is 19 pounds he far from starving to death. We have big cats. He's not fat either he's just a big cat. The vet said the kitten is gonna be big. He's 8 and a half pounds now... slender cat

[patback]

2 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

It's like a herd of elephants lol. Up and down the stairs on mission. They like pretend they are starving to death lol. My older one is 19 pounds he far from starving to death. We have big cats. He's not fat either he's just a big cat. The vet said the kitten is gonna be big. He's 8 and a half pounds now... slender cat

We have HER cat and MY cat

  My cat is fat and lazy and never makes a sound. Never in trouble.  Just eats and shits and goes to sleep.  

Her cat is this skinny, wild cat that doesnt even meow.  She makes wierd clicks and squirrel sounds.  Chews through everything and is just a menace.  

They are basically our personalities put into cat forms. 

[patback]

Last week I stirred the sandbed up good.  Ever since I've had a good amount of diatoms and cyano growing on the sandbed and the very base of rock work.  Tests are still coming back low in nitrates and phosphates.  

I'm thinking of maybe doing a small scrubber, and am wondering if it would work just to run the nanobox in the sump with only whites running and allowing the algae to just grow on rock surfaces rather than an acrylic sheet.  

[HarryPotter]

3 hours ago, patback said:

Last week I stirred the sandbed up good.  Ever since I've had a good amount of diatoms and cyano growing on the sandbed and the very base of rock work.  Tests are still coming back low in nitrates and phosphates.  

I'm thinking of maybe doing a small scrubber, and am wondering if it would work just to run the nanobox in the sump with only whites running and allowing the algae to just grow on rock surfaces rather than an acrylic sheet.  

 

Not sure why you would run only whites though- algae loves red! You basically mean a refugium, no? 

 

Side note- algae scrubbers usually involve algae growing on a mesh, not acrylic sheet. Easier to attach to mesh than smooth acrylic. 

[patback]

59 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Not sure why you would run only whites though- algae loves red! You basically mean a refugium, no? 

 

Side note- algae scrubbers usually involve algae growing on a mesh, not acrylic sheet. Easier to attach to mesh than smooth acrylic. 

I couldn't think of the word mesh so I just said what I thought it was made out of 

my light has the white and blue channels, so the warm colors come on with the whites. 

[patback]

Also I was out to dinner/drinks earlier and couldn't do a full response.

I dont want a typical refugium with loose algae since it can get stuck in the pumps.  I am hoping I can basically just get the hair algae to grow on the rock work but am unsure if it will be enough of benefit to cause it to all grow underneath rather than in the display. Maybe I'll just try to make the full section into one giant scrubber with the plastic mesh and an air stone. 

[patback]

Bad day for deliveries.  

I got a tv from best buy delivered and there is a golfball sized black spot in the screen.

Also got my doser in today, but for some reason my tubing didnt come with it like I could have sworn I ordered. 😕

 

the stand is getting tight in here.  I need to re-route some wiring and pick up some brackets to hold the doser up.

[HarryPotter]

Shipping companies definitely don’t like the holiday season!!

[patback]

I picked up a small clam today, which pushed me to buying some 2 part, which is pushing me to calibrating and mounting the doser, which is making me clean around the sump, which means now I'm elbow deep into detritus and heavy cleaning inside the sump. The old nanobox is also now lighting the sump on a reverse timer for 12 hour cycles. 

[Sancho]

Funny how things just multiply like that. 

[banasophia]

6 minutes ago, patback said:

I picked up a small clam today, which pushed me to buying some 2 part, which is pushing me to calibrating and mounting the doser, which is making me clean around the sump, which means now I'm elbow deep into detritus and heavy cleaning inside the sump. The old nanobox is also now lighting the sump on a reverse timer for 12 hour cycles. 

Ah my LFS had some gorgeous clams in stock yesterday!!! I was so tempted, but I think they’re a no-go in my systems. Let’s see a pic of your new addition!!!

[patback]

48 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Ah my LFS had some gorgeous clams in stock yesterday!!! I was so tempted, but I think they’re a no-go in my systems. Let’s see a pic of your new addition!!!

Probably tomorrow.  

[patback]

You've got to save every bit of space you can. 🙂 I really dont think there would have been a way for me to mount this doser in my tank if I didnt move the heads from the horizontal position. At some point I am going to have to print up a plate to close up the bottom of the unit, but for now it will stay open, and can be mounted much more flush to the wall. 

[patback]

First two heads have been calibrated and tested.   About to go grocery shopping and will see if I can find a suitable container for the calc and alk.   My super scientific measuring system tells me my container needs to be slightly smaller than my fist is wide.  

[patback]

All I set out to do today was a water change.  4 and a half hours later.... I should probably start making some water. Only 10 gallons to make. 😖

[patback]

When I stirred the sandbed I've been getting lots bits of cyano on the ends of the gha patches.  After cleaning the sump out and nothing else, it's pretty much non existant.  The skimmer is also working much better when it isn't battling a 1/2" thick sludge wall up the neck. 

[patback]

2nd water change is done for the weekend.  My fresh saltwater measures at 10 on the dot dkh and my tank water before the 2nd change was 7.1. Just waiting a bit for everything to circulate before I do another test. I'm thinking of changing water every day until I get to that 10 and further monitoring my usage.  

Most of you monitor for a week, take the average and dose both alk and calcium (2 part) and adjust over the next week or two, right?  I'm not sure why I am so nervous about starting the doser.  

I also fed some of this shit today.  God, it smells awful.  Lol. Instant feeding response from everything though, so theres that.

 

[FISHnChix]

What 2 part did you get? And what's the point of the water changes? Just to bring the ca and alk up? I use the brs stuff and per their video I just dose the tank up to the levels I wanted before I started the daily auto dosing..(Imo water changes take to long to bring up the levels and cost to much) if you go to dose by hand to bring the levels up to the numbers you want just try and do it slow like a half dhk per day and 50 ppm of ca. I believe the guys from brs said you can even do 1 dkh per day and 100 ppm ca. Also watch your coral if they react poorly then wait until they look normal and then start bringing the levels up. Oh and also dose the ca and alk hours apart so you dont get precepataion , add the alk part slow to a high flow area .

[patback]

50 minutes ago, Weikel said:

What 2 part did you get? And what's the point of the water changes? Just to bring the ca and alk up? I use the brs stuff and per their video I just dose the tank up to the levels I wanted before I started the daily auto dosing..(Imo water changes take to long to bring up the levels and cost to much) if you go to dose by hand to bring the levels up to the numbers you want just try and do it slow like a half dhk per day and 50 ppm of ca. I believe the guys from brs said you can even do 1 dkh per day and 100 ppm ca. Also watch your coral if they react poorly then wait until they look normal and then start bringing the levels up. Oh and also dose the ca and alk hours apart so you dont get precepataion , add the alk part slow to a high flow area .

Esv b ionic. I was just thinking that itd be simpler to start at square 1 rather than figuring out what is needed for daily consumption on top of trying to manually dose up to what I'm mixing at.  

Now that I'm thinking of it, it wouldnt make a difference really if I started dosing what's being depleted and continuing the water changes moving forward normally.

So it's too my understanding regardless of what my calcium is at, to dose my alkalinity up higher, I NEED to follow it up with the 2nd part, other wise my numbers will go out of whack?

[patback]

I'm figuring on the safe side, let's say my system is roughly 35 gallons after rocks and sand displacement and everything.  Randy Holmes calculator is saying around 11 ml will bring my alkalinity from 7.3 to 8.... so I would also do 11 ml of calcium a little bit later, test the next day and see where I am at with my levels?

[spectra]

Well not sure if you shou;;d dose it all at one time. Break it up once in the morning and then when you get home.

 

I dose many times a day with the doser.

[FISHnChix]

43 minutes ago, patback said:

I'm figuring on the safe side, let's say my system is roughly 35 gallons after rocks and sand displacement and everything.  Randy Holmes calculator is saying around 11 ml will bring my alkalinity from 7.3 to 8.... so I would also do 11 ml of calcium a little bit later, test the next day and see where I am at with my levels?

Ok I dont know about that 2 part you bought so bear with me. But what I would do it . Let's say your ideal params are like 8.3 alk and 430 ca.(hopefully your ideal params are close to what your wc water mixes to so that when you do a wc it won't swing things) and your current params are out of whack like you said 7.3 alk  and say for this example your ca is 400. Do your math and see how much of each part it will take to get your alk up to the 8.3 and ca up to the 430. Note the amount of alk will be A LOT smaller than the amount of ca part you will need to add at this point. Dose your tank with the alk and ca parts over the course of a few days tring not to raise the alk more than 1 dkh per day or 100 ppm of ca per day. Once you get the levels of 8.3 alk and 430 of ca wait a 7 days and then check your alk again. Next figure out how much 2 part you need to get your alk back up and divide by 7. Say you figure you need 3ml of alk a day then set your doser to dose BOTH the alk and ca at 3ml per day at different times. Hope that makes sense. Also most 2 parts also depend on you mag levels staying in range. Dose your mag to keep it around 1300 if your mag is off then your tank could use up the alk and ca at different rates.. I dose my mag once a month by hand.

[patback]

26 minutes ago, Weikel said:

Ok I dont know about that 2 part you bought so bear with me. But what I would do it . Let's say your ideal params are like 8.3 alk and 430 ca.(hopefully your ideal params are close to what your wc water mixes to so that when you do a wc it won't swing things) and your current params are out of whack like you said 7.3 alk  and say for this example your ca is 400. Do your math and see how much of each part it will take to get your alk up to the 8.3 and ca up to the 430. Note the amount of alk will be A LOT smaller than the amount of ca part you will need to add at this point. Dose your tank with the alk and ca parts over the course of a few days tring not to raise the alk more than 1 dkh per day or 100 ppm of ca per day. Once you get the levels of 8.3 alk and 430 of ca wait a 7 days and then check your alk again. Next figure out how much 2 part you need to get your alk back up and divide by 7. Say you figure you need 3ml of alk a day then set your doser to dose BOTH the alk and ca at 3ml per day at different times. Hope that makes sense. Also most 2 parts also depend on you mag levels staying in range. Dose your mag to keep it around 1300 if your mag is off then your tank could use up the alk and ca at different rates.. I dose my mag once a month by hand.

Thank you so much. I always read about 2 part never being dosed by themselves but it makes sense to bring them up to normal levels before dosing equally.  Tomorrow will be the day I start. 🙂

[FISHnChix]

3 minutes ago, patback said:

Thank you so much. I always read about 2 part never being dosed by themselves but it makes sense to bring them up to normal levels before dosing equally.  Tomorrow will be the day I start. 🙂

Glad it made sense . Shit it was getting a little wordy there. So I didnt want to add to the confusion but now that you get it I figure I would mention that after the seven days before you start your daily equal 2 part dosing I would do the math again and dose manually one more time to get your levels back to "normal " if not you will maintaing what ever your levels are after the 7 day drop... common sense but figured I throw that out there.

[patback]

20 hours ago, Weikel said:

Glad it made sense . Shit it was getting a little wordy there. So I didnt want to add to the confusion but now that you get it I figure I would mention that after the seven days before you start your daily equal 2 part dosing I would do the math again and dose manually one more time to get your levels back to "normal " if not you will maintaing what ever your levels are after the 7 day drop... common sense but figured I throw that out there.

Went the slightly safer route.  Added 5 ml of alkalinity just now.  Alk dropped from 7.3 last night to 7.2 tonight

  Calcium is at 453.  Am I right to suspect the calcium to slightly drop with just the addition of alkalinity?  Or will it hover where its at?