jestep Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Jestep, just a thought I had this morning. How long ago did you add the Cermedia block to your sump? I've just been reading on other forums lately and there was a correlation of higher aluminum levels in tanks that had one of those blocks. This is assuming that the Triton test is at least able to discern high and low concentrations of Aluminum. Not everyone who had a block had higher aluminum levels but interestingly, a lot did. Only reason I mention is because you had an issue with randomly stning corals this past summer even though all your measured parameters were in line. Once I corrected my salinity and lowered my nitrates, I had random STN for awhile too and it only stopped here lately. I wonder if it's time to pull my block. It was about a year ago exactly when I started using it. I did have alk issues when my dosing pump went ^&*$^%* this past spring though, and I changed lighting this summer, and we moved in July, so I don't think I would want to try and make any definitive statement on what caused the STN. But it's definitely possible. What was weird is that some, not all, of my monti caps and other very forgiving coral were the ones STN'ing. I will do some research on it as well. I'm 100% convinced the large block has de-nitrification ability, so I truly hope that's not the case. I think these blocks are one of the simplest and best ways to remove nitrates I've ever seen. Skimmer stand is a bonus. I wonder if there's an easy way to remove aluminum from the water without stripping everything else out at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 If you find one please let's us know. My Triton test showed elevated aluminum as well. I don't have any ceramic media in my tank though. I ran a polybio pad for a week and I will see on my next test if that helped. I generally will refuse to use a poly bio pad because we don't really know exactly all that they strip out. I haven't been able to find another way to remove aluminum. I have searched RC and R2R as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 You can chelate aluminum with vitamin c. I know there's various methods of dosing vitamin c in reef tanks for a carbon source and other reasons. I wonder if an ancillary effect could be detoxifying aluminium. Long shot on this one. Possibly bentonite clay which is really good at binding to metals. There's a bunch of chelating agents that remove aluminium, copper, and other metals, but would take someone with a lot more chemistry knowledge than myself to assess whether any would be effective or if they would cause more harm than good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 OR triton is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 OR triton is wrong.Blasphemy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 What's the opposite of blasphemy? reverence ? Consecration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Evangelism 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 CO2 filled yesterday, it's going to happen... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 The initial dialing in is always fun! I hope you have a lot alk reagent laying around Jestep! FWIW, I recently switched to Reborn media by TLF after 3 years of using ARM media after hearing reports of the ARM media quality going down and some people having problems with it. The big one was hearing that BattleCorals (big time SPS supplier on another forum) switch after having problems with his stock and everything looked better after the switch. The Reborn media looks like dead coral skeleton branches where the large ARM media looked like they harvested and crushed large concretions of aragonite. I'm only 2 months in so I'll let you know how it turns out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 Just found these which look perfect for feeding. Was going to run a separate pump but my return uses 3/4 tubing and I hardly think the tank will notice such a small loss in return flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 The initial dialing in is always fun! I hope you have a lot alk reagent laying around Jestep! FWIW, I recently switched to Reborn media by TLF after 3 years of using ARM media after hearing reports of the ARM media quality going down and some people having problems with it. The big one was hearing that BattleCorals (big time SPS supplier on another forum) switch after having problems with his stock and everything looked better after the switch. The Reborn media looks like dead coral skeleton branches where the large ARM media looked like they harvested and crushed large concretions of aragonite. I'm only 2 months in so I'll let you know how it turns out. Yeah, I was on the fence between the 2. Saw several older reports of some bad ARM batches. Seems like they may have corrected it. I think they were having some PO4 problems a few years back as well. Hopefully this works out, otherwise will switch to reborn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 I didn't notice any ill effects with the ARM media but switched just to be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted November 29, 2014 Author Share Posted November 29, 2014 Just got this little darwin from AD to pair with my 16+ year female. He instantly started following her and was eating about 15 minutes after being added. Unlike a lot of the recommendations I hear, I try to get fish eating in the first hour after adding them. They seem to settle in much better. He's also pure black, which I hadn't seen in a clownfish this young. They normally start out a chocolate orange color and turn black when they mature. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 And we're off to the races. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Woohoo! Are we taking bets on your final DT pH? I'm going with a high of 8.05 and low of 7.85. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Woohoo! Are we taking bets on your final DT pH? I'm going with a high of 8.05 and low of 7.85. I think a more appropriate bet would be when I screw this up and dissolve half the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 In that case, I'm betting on a unhappy new year! Please mark me down for January 1st. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 In that case, I'm betting on a unhappy new year! Please mark me down for January 1st. Do you run CO2 all night? Also, what drip rate do you run into the tank? Right now, my bubble rate is about 15 - 20 per minute, and drip rate is about 30 per minute. I may end up swapping out regulators because the needle valve on mine is extremely difficult to accurately adjust in the <30 bpm range. Reactor PH made it all the way down to 6.22 this morning, tank ph down to 7.95. Not changing anything until I see if my alk / ca is stable at this rate though. Hopefully I need to slightly increase my drip rate because I think it will bring the reactor ph right in range without the controller shutting off CO2 for me. Current Apex programming: Fallback OFF If PhRx > 06.68 Then ON If PhRx < 06.48 Then OFF If PhTank < 07.80 Then OFF Defer 001:00 Then ON Defer 001:00 Then OFF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 I run mine 24/7 and my drip rate should really be considered a flow rate. I have a solid stream coming out of my reactor... imagine somewhere in between the fastest stream possible coming out of the 1/4 tubing and the slowest stream possible... I'm right in the middle of that. I have no idea how big your reactor is or how much media you're running so hard to gauge if that'll be enough or not. I tend to use the flow rate as my "coarse" adjustment and the reactor pH value as my "fine" adjustment. I agree with your gameplan though to start it slow and work up from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Yall need to get yourselves a Dwyer ml/min flow meter instead of this drops per minute madness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Here's the guide I went from: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/sh/feature/ I'm running a 6x18" reactor with about 12 lbs of media. Guide suggested starting at 40 drops per minute and about 10 bpm, so I went for something in that range. 10 bpm was almost impossible to accurately adjust to so I settled slightly higher after many attempts to get it there. Seems like it was either 5 or 20 bpm. I may be way off on my drip / flow rate then, too early to tell right now but will continue to test and dial it up. My tank's quite a bit smaller than yours as well, so will probably need much less with my current coral. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Yall need to get yourselves a Dwyer ml/min flow meter instead of this drops per minute madness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Yall need to get yourselves a Dwyer ml/min flow meter instead of this drops per minute madness. Yeah, I've got the effluent coming out so slowly, it wouldn't matter at this point but will probably get an accurate volumetric meter if I have to increase the flow to a stream. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 You can get that range way,way down. They're not too expensive either. 30-40ish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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