Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 16, 2019 Author Share Posted September 16, 2019 the lip lip is definitely below water line. I can’t fill too much more I don’t think. Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 You might ask/read around on that filter....I think they're pretty commonly used as the only flow source in very small tanks, but I haven't done that myself. I just don't recall hearing any caveats about bubbles from folks who use them. Definitely add another flow source if it seems needed. I also can't comment on that pump...never used it or seen it before. Are you still in a 10 Gallon tank? You say "non cube" which I assume means rectangular. 😉 I think I'd suggest checking out either one of these: Turbelle® nanostream® 6015 For aquariums from 40 to 200 liters (10 to 55 USgal.). Flow rate: approx. 1,800 l/h (475 USgal./h) Energy consumption: 3.5 W Voltage / frequency: 230V/50Hz (115V/60Hz) Magnet Holder with Silence clamp up to a glass thickness of 12 mm (1/2") Cable length: 2 m (78.7 in.) Dimensions: diam. 70 mm (2.7 in.) Outlet: ø40/15 mm (1.5/.6 in.) 6015.000 40.99 USD Turbelle® nanostream® 6020 For aquariums from 40 to 250 liters (10 to 66 USgal.). Flow rate: approx. 2,500 l/h (660 USgal./h) Energy consumption: 4 W Voltage / frequency: 230V/50Hz (115V/60Hz) Silence Magnet Holder up to a glass thickness of 12 mm (1/2"). Cable length: 2 m (78.7 in.) Dimensions without flow deflector: 65 x 60 x 72 mm (2.6 x 2.4 x 2.8 in.) Outlet ø40 mm (1.6 in.) 6020.000 43.78 USD Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 16, 2019 Author Share Posted September 16, 2019 Yes, rectangular. 10” by 20” approximately. About a foot deep. I’m considering adding something so the flow isn’t so unidirectional. The one I listed 2nd seems pretty well liked and has good adjustments. The inverts are doing a pretty pretty good job on the rocks with “most” of the brown stuff. There is some green film algae on the rocks when I look with a flashlight. The sand still looks bad. Inhabitants seem happy. I’m hoping I just caught the uglies late. Levels are the same. 2.5 Nitrate and undetectable phos. I am going to do the 2 sample containers this afternoon as suggested and keep one as a reference/control. The other thing I need to do is find a par meter. I want to get an idea of my values and make a tank map. I’m a WAMAS member here in Northern VA but the barrow line is a bit long. I think I can rent one from BRS. I might see if someone local has one first though. Thanks for the continued help. 1 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 16, 2019 Author Share Posted September 16, 2019 OK... I did the double vile test and low and behold there is a very very slight blue hue in the phosphate vile. I don't think it is .03, but it is a different shade from the control. If I had to guess I would call my Nitrates 3. Darker than 2 barely, not at 5. The sand bed is rust colored as well as the class where uncleaned, sand looks fine in the shady spot under the rock A frame.... All corals are good it seems. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 16, 2019 Share Posted September 16, 2019 If the tank is fairly new, it very well could be diatoms or even a cyano. Adding flow will help, flow is super beneficial. The aqamai is an awesome wavemaker, completely controllable and small. You can set it as you want to for your tanks needs. If phos is 0, definitely get that up 1 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 It looks worse by night if I don’t blow it off. It’s just a mat of bubbles. Not super stringy though. Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 ok... I'm going to order the Aqamai to address the flow and a PPB phosphate checker Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 Ordered today. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 On 9/16/2019 at 8:13 PM, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: It looks worse by night if I don’t blow it off. It’s just a mat of bubbles. Not super stringy though. Blowing it around may spread it further. Would be better to suck it out with a Turkey baster 1 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 18, 2019 Author Share Posted September 18, 2019 9 hours ago, Clown79 said: Blowing it around may spread it further. Would be better to suck it out with a Turkey baster Agreed. I ceased doing that. It was actually time for a water change so I did as little of one as possible and sucked out as much as possible while still keeping a 10-15% change. I don't want to speak too soon, but the rocks might be clearing up some. I’m going to try and hold off for 2 weeks before next change to continue and get phos up. I did order the Hanna PPB checker so hopefully that sheds some light on things. I also ordered the wave maker so I will dial my filter flow back and let that give me some pulsing flow to move things around a bit. Again, thanks to everyone. If the brown ugliness returns with a vengeance on my freshly vacuumed sand bed should I just let it stay there and see what happens? Like don’t touch it for a week, or should I continue to keep it in check as much as possible. If it is just ugly diatoms will exposing a fresh layer of sand just provide more silicates? I started the tank with live sand and dry marco rock. I’ve heard the dry rock can cause some pretty serious uglies for quite a while. There are a couple small live pieces from LFS as well. Thanks everyone for your time and experience. Josh Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 12 minutes ago, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: Agreed. I ceased doing that. It was actually time for a water change so I did as little of one as possible and sucked out as much as possible while still keeping a 10-15% change. I don't want to speak too soon, but the rocks might be clearing up some. I’m going to try and hold off for 2 weeks before next change to continue and get phos up. I did order the Hanna PPB checker so hopefully that sheds some light on things. I also ordered the wave maker so I will dial my filter flow back and let that give me some pulsing flow to move things around a bit. Again, thanks to everyone. If the brown ugliness returns with a vengeance on my freshly vacuumed sand bed should I just let it stay there and see what happens? Like don’t touch it for a week, or should I continue to keep it in check as much as possible. If it is just ugly diatoms will exposing a fresh layer of sand just provide more silicates? I started the tank with live sand and dry marco rock. I’ve heard the dry rock can cause some pretty serious uglies for quite a while. There are a couple small live pieces from LFS as well. Thanks everyone for your time and experience. Josh If its diatoms, it will go away on it's own once the food source(silicates) is used up. Adding new sand will do nothing besides more areas for diatoms. 1 Quote Link to comment
A.m.P Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 If they are actually dino's manual removal can really help, if it's diatoms you'll likely stop having blooms even with manual-agitation anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 18, 2019 Author Share Posted September 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Clown79 said: If its diatoms, it will go away on it's own once the food source(silicates) is used up. Adding new sand will do nothing besides more areas for diatoms. I didn’t add new sand. Just sucked out the covered layer a bit. I will update with any new levels or changes soon. Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 On 9/15/2019 at 2:05 PM, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: I am getting a fair amount of micro bubble when its cranked. Forgot to ask if you were worried about this only because it bothered you, or if you were worried about your corals. I don't think the corals will mind. If you don't mind, then just keep the AC70 cranked up. (Does that akami seem like a lotta $ for a single pump in a 10G tank? The Tunze 6040 strikes me that way.) On 9/16/2019 at 10:37 AM, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: The other thing I need to do is find a par meter. I want to get an idea of my values and make a tank map. I’m a WAMAS member here in Northern VA but the barrow line is a bit long. I think I can rent one from BRS. I might see if someone local has one first though. A lux meter can do about the same job and costs nothing for an app version. A handheld meter is a lot better and still only costs $7-20 or so. 2 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 1 hour ago, mcarroll said: Forgot to ask if you were worried about this only because it bothered you, or if you were worried about your corals. I don't think the corals will mind. If you don't mind, then just keep the AC70 cranked up. (Does that akami seem like a lotta $ for a single pump in a 10G tank? The Tunze 6040 strikes me that way.) A lux meter can do about the same job and costs nothing for an app version. A handheld meter is a lot better and still only costs $7-20 or so. The aqamai is fully customizable and will work in a larger tank if they choose to upgrade(a common occurrence😁) 2 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 18, 2019 Author Share Posted September 18, 2019 10 minutes ago, Clown79 said: The aqamai is fully customizable and will work in a larger tank if they choose to upgrade(a common occurrence😁) Yup. Lol. I’m sure I will upgrade and I liked the features. Can you convert lux to par when using an LED? I’m using an AI prime. I think I have it set ok but I’m worried they might be a nip low. I was pretty conservative with the power. I’m running the BRS setting but powered way down and slightly altered. I definitely want some measurable way to make sure I’m in the ballpark. Mahalo! 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 Forgot to mention a few things... You can use a lux meter and PAR meter (when you rent one finally) together to create a PAR->lux conversion factor for your light setup. All of your future lux measurements can easily and accurately be converted to PAR using your custom conversion factor, if/when needed. The whole object (for most folks at least) of measuring with a meter is to get an objective reading of light intensity so we don't have to depend on the subjectivity inherent to viewing with our eyeballs+brain. This is useful when setting up new lights, and especially useful when changing lights on an established system. I reverse-roached a tank of SPS when I switched to LED and inadvertently cut the lux their tank was receiving by 75%. In my personal view, it looked MUCH brighter than it actually was in the meter's view. Didn't have a meter back then, or anyone to point out that I could use one....eventually I bumped into Dana Riddle's article(s) on the topic, which "i think" can be found at reefs.org but were once on advancedaquarist.com, and they spelled all this out in more/better detail. A PAR meter is truly (but incrementally) more accurate. But even a "lowly" lux meter gives objective and repeatable measurements. This is the info most folks need when setting up or changing lights. 3 Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 8 hours ago, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: Yup. Lol. I’m sure I will upgrade and I liked the features. Can you convert lux to par when using an LED? I’m using an AI prime. I think I have it set ok but I’m worried they might be a nip low. I was pretty conservative with the power. I’m running the BRS setting but powered way down and slightly altered. I definitely want some measurable way to make sure I’m in the ballpark. Mahalo! The Ai Light is powerful. What percentages are you running? 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 8 hours ago, Clown79 said: The aqamai is fully customizable and will work in a larger tank if they choose to upgrade(a common occurrence😁) Very true! I'm just not usually a big fan of "buying for the next tank" though. It generally leads to greater upfront costs and greater ongoing costs but rarely leads to better performance for the current tank. You can compare the stats (price, watts, GPH) for the Tunze 6040, 6020 and Aquami and see what I'm talking about, but that's a conversation after the fact here! 🙂 Plucked this off the inTARweb...click and enjoy! Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 19, 2019 Author Share Posted September 19, 2019 Peak is from 12:10 to 8:10. I have an hour ramp up and 2 hour ramp down with lunar effect. Light is 8” off surface. Tank I approximately 12” deep. Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share Posted September 20, 2019 Tank is looking better today! Rocks are very clean. Sand looking better. Very happy. Thanks everyone. All equipment arrived. @Clown79 do you have any recommendations on Aqamai settings? Max percentage for 10gallon? I played around some but had to run out. Trying to find the sweet spot. I want to get a good pulse going. I will still update my levels until everything is clear and clear and wrap up the thread with my final thoughts and steps. I will post po4 in ppb. Mahalo! 1 Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted October 2, 2019 Author Share Posted October 2, 2019 Well.... it’s creeping back after being beautiful for a week. Po4 - .07 nitrates - 4 ph 8 to 8.2 I dunno. 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 How goes it now? Quote Link to comment
Josh&Sarah's Reef Posted November 24, 2019 Author Share Posted November 24, 2019 Its doing fine. I am still getting a mix of random algaes and strange goings on, but they come and go on their own. I think I will see this tail off around the year mark. All my levels are fine.... Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 On 9/20/2019 at 6:45 PM, Josh&Sarah's Reef said: Tank is looking better today! Rocks are very clean. Sand looking better. Very happy. Thanks everyone. All equipment arrived. @Clown79 do you have any recommendations on Aqamai settings? Max percentage for 10gallon? I played around some but had to run out. Trying to find the sweet spot. I want to get a good pulse going. I will still update my levels until everything is clear and clear and wrap up the thread with my final thoughts and steps. I will post po4 in ppb. Mahalo! It will be different for every tank depending on set up and corals. Mine is run in conjunction with the mighty jet pump and rfg's I had to really play around with various settings until it was right for my corals. Quote Link to comment
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