Isaac

huh, inline filter... duh! i think ill take one of those very old inline Di canisters and fill it w/ filter and try it!

i put older media in second chamber. i also put old dead corals in there...crush em up a little. my milkwaukee has been in service for 3yrs w/o issues *knock on wood* i use vegetable glycerin in the bubble counter, got tired of refilling the water. this is an excellent start: http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/how-to-set-up-a-calcium-reactor when tweaking, make sure to remember whatever you are using to trigger the CO2 is a switchable outlet, it has finite on/off cycles. make sure when tweaking, you are not flipping it too frequently. in my aoex config, i have a 5min delay on it.. i then have to adjust ph/efluent/co2 counter to cover that 5min gap.

i measure out 8-days worth of supplements, split it evenly. then each bottle gets 3 tinyspoons of roids and 3 tiny spoons of chili. after the supplements are added to the bottles, i top it off w/ about 5ml Ro to get me to the 110ml mark. stick em in the fridge. daily around 5:30, i shake one up, pour half in the tank. around 9:30 the other half. first post has my complete recipe/amounts

so alk still drops a bunch during the day even w/ new reactor media. had to turn on dosing overnight to compensate. guess my livestock has come to push the limits of my reactor. I cant up the effluent or lower the ph, because my ca/mg are already elevated compared to alk. blah. heres my night every 8 nights:

dibs on temp/ph if you start parting out

ok, everyone just wait longer now we can do it!

Ca tends to precipitate at higher temps**, this might explain why Ca dropped w/ the more info of your higher temps for a day. dont chase pH, it will fall in line when "the three" are in check, your salinity is right, aeration is in place, and the temp is stable***. all those "recommended" readings in the chart above are at 78. as temp rises, Ca precipitate kicks in at "lower" levels. ie. 520 @ 78, vs 460 @ 80 (examples, i dont know the exact numbers, and it will vary based on many factors in each system) I think somewhere in the middle of Ty's thread we all had a discussion of which type of salt we use. it seems most use the cheaper "reef" mixes, since we dose or use reactors more than we water change. why pay extra for salt, when you have other systerms maintaining those values? the bottom of my "salt" barrel is lined w/ precipitate & other things settling out, since my garage is friggin warm/hot. but using this water in a water change doesnt impact my numbers, aside from dropping nitrate and phosphate (i have a pump and airstone in there). ** http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#15 *** http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#13

motorsnorkle finally had a sale last week. my generator is now tri-fuel w/ natural gas! woohoo. tapped into the 3/4" line i ran for the grill... lined up perfectly.... and the test run today... I might be willing to house an emergency tank on extended outages in trade for some frags

yuuuup. if you set the pump on one of those gardening foam pad things, it'll isolate it even more

Ca-Mg-Alk are all related. they should rise and fall in unison. when one of these gets out of whack, figure out why and correct it by compensating the other two. So.... say you have high alk, avg ca/mg. raise the ca/mg, this allows the system to process the alk naturally. dont chase numbers, but know your ratios and when they get out of whack for your system.

i used to siphon them into a net that was in my fuge... so i could siphon for a couple hrs to catch em, water was just going back into the system

RCA gets em often

get a clean up crew

I gave my tank a fresh CARX media change for its b-day. been having dropping alk problems lately, last carx change was 1/15 (i mark level/date w/ grease marker). I use arm coarse, the 75-90% of stuff i pulled out was smaller than the neomag.... so i think i found my alk prob. tons of silt too. guess i have to watch alk daily this week.

i use that pump in my homegrown ato setup. that little thing is a workhorse and can fit through a bunghole (hehehehe... darn show ruining a real word)

our local fish pharmacy award goes to....

got an apex temp/ph probe hiding somewhere?

look at it this way... its a learning process... nothing is really "wrong" (unless yer just being neglectful). having a price tag on things just gives you more motivation to learn faster!

Bulkreefsupply is have a buy one get one free sale on a lot of their socks/canister inserts. the rest seems 10% off. MAP excluded as usual.

tested lastnight around the time i always do my testing.... hanna- 6.5 (reagent exp 4/17) redsea- 8.5 (reagent exp 9/17) API- 8 (w/ a small tint of blue... so 8.5ish. reagent exp 8/19) i've never had the hanna be the outlier.. its weird. did a water change overnight, guess ill test again today!

the clown finally made a new friend!

tried, mg/ca go up, alk not so much.

i concur w/ the above.. nitrates 5-10 and phosphates aim for 0.1-0.2 range should be the general goal on SPS. However each tank is diff.... I put an algea scrubber online, it stripped a bunch out, i had to overfeed and reduce flow on the scrubber over time... seems like 2-3NO3 and 0.3 PO4 is the sweet spot on my tank lately. adjust in slow intervals, watch for growth, keep adjusting, watch when things stop growing as fast. take notes, your sweet spot in in the "upper" middle there somewhere. I have the "low" hanna, wish i had the ULR... but if you are settling for 0.1-0.2... both are actually accurate enough in that range (brs has a video on these two checkers)

i;ve got something odd going on last month. I cant keep alk about 8kh w/o dosing ~27.5ml/night. This is in addition to the CARX. My CA/MG are on the high end (480-500/1480-1520). I lowered the ph level on my CARX, thinking it might cause alk to spike... nada. CARX If CaRktr > 6.78 Then ON If CaRktr < 6.75 Then OFF If pH < 7.89 Then OFF AlkDsr If Time 04:30 to 04:35 Then ON If Time 05:30 to 05:35 Then ON If Time 06:30 to 06:35 Then ON If Time 07:30 to 07:35 Then ON If Time 08:30 to 08:35 Then ON EDIT: ....I do have to add, i been seeing "explosive" growth on the acro's and chalices.... so its most probably eating up the alk... buy why in such an odd ratio? CARX media mebbe?

whats the water temp and salinity at?