Jump to content

90 gallon rimless build thread


jestep

Recommended Posts

You can get that range way,way down. They're not too expensive either. 30-40ish.

Separate project, but do you know if they make one that will fit inline on garden hose connections, FGHT -> MGHT? I briefly looked on their site but didn't see any ready to go. Could probably plumb one into a GHT fitting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 85
  • Created
  • Last Reply

So tank PH has been fairly consistent. Down to about 7.9 at lowest during the day and 8.04 at night. Pretty good guess Ty.

So far Ca and Alk have been very stable at my current dosing rate, but it's still a short period of time. Ca running at 440ppm and Alk at 8.5 dKh. If I can maintain these without frequently messing around, you can consider me a convert. Will be checking daily for at least the first 2 or 3 weeks though. I'm sure my Ca requirement is going to increase but my 10# tank will last way more than a year at this rate of CO2 dosing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know my CaRX better than I know my wife! shifty.gif

That's awesome you dialed it in so close so quickly and that 10# bottle definitely should last more than a year. So the only real work you need to do is top off media 1-2x a year. I hope you'll be the next convert. They are really that simple once up and running.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Well I guess I completely forgot to update this for more than a year. Not much has happened. Going back into dosing some stuff, but keeping the CaRX going. This time going with a high end dosing setup for carbon and bacterial additives, on the fence right now between the CaRx or 2 part, or some combination. I've had a really hard time getting the PH low enough in this reactor to work effectively. If my drip rate is too low, I get CO2 in the reactor which messes with the pump, and if it's too high, I have a hard time getting any Ca and Alk benefit from it. There's some sweet spot I just haven't been able to keep it at. Goal is to get a very low but stable nutrient levels and stable alk and ca that doesn't require me to manually dose a half dozen things every day, like most zeolite based setups.

Got a GHL 4 pump doser for xmas this year which uses very nice stepper motors instead of brushless ones, which I've had really bad experiences with.

I just built this stand for it yesterday using 1/4" steel tubing. Still need to paint and seal the piping since it's not stainless, but found a killer deal on a 1in thick HDPE cutting board on amazon for under $20. Not sure what the deal with that is, but I should have purchased a few of them because they're up to $90 now, I was planning on getting one for actual cooking. I'm watching it hoping they sell the 1in ones for this cheap again. Would make probably the best actual cutting board I've ever seen. Anyway cut it on a table saw with a nice 100T blade, didn't even need to sand it.

I offset the lower rack so that if I ever setup a slave dosing pump, I can easily run 2 - 4 pump dosers on here while keeping the tubing very manageable. This fits under my stand with just enough room at the top to fit the pump housing. Planning on putting my UPS on the lower level, a little bit of safety as well since it will be off the stand and above any potential water from leaks if they ever happen.

20161228_212837%20(Medium).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20170102_185259(0)%20(Medium).jpg

Slight change of plans, going to route dosing lines from my garage where my CaRX is at to keep the space under my sump clear, but it's ready to go. Base is the perfect size for 2 stirrers and 2 larger 2 gallon jugs for dosing alk and ca, or can easily fit 6 - 8 stirrers on the lower platform.

For the tubing, I got 1/4" ID steel pipe from https://www.zoro.com/black-pipes/c/7207/ . They have multiple sizes, this is the same type of tubing you see in industrial furniture, but I used smaller tubing instead of the normal 1/2 - 1" pipe. This stuff is fairly flexible though so I definitely wouldn't use it for anything heavy. Looks really good though. I cleaned and de-greased the heck out of it, coated with a spray primer / rust inhibitor then 2 coats of dark bronze spray paint, and 2 coats of clear enamel sealant. Still probably won't completely avoid rust, but not being under the stand should help a ton. Attached with 3/4 stainless screws and 1/2" nylon fasteners.

I'll try to start posting FTS's again at some point. I pretty much have my actinics on any time I'm around the tank so got a little boring posting all blue photos every time. Also, dealing with a bizarre bubble algae outbreak that seems to get worse, the lower my nutrient levels go.

Stocking list is pretty much complete at this point, except 1 fish may be going because it was purchased by accident, or rather accidentally sent in place of another more peaceful fish...

Purple Zebrasoma Tang

Male Lyretail Anthias

Royal Gramma

Pair of darwin ocellaris clowns (female is 20+ years)

Springers Damsel

Talbots Damsel

Ocellate Damsel (Peaceful so far but we'll see)

7 Blue/green Chromis

Couple aptasia annihilating peppermint shrimp

4 or 5 emerald crabs who are not adequately keeping up with bubble algae plague

I am considering a few more damsels / chromis. I'm finding some success treating them like African cichlids where the aggression is spread out so much that none perish if you have enough of them in the tank. I'd had bad luck even with blue/green chromis in the past but these with the 3 damsels seem to be working great. The female clown is by far the dominant fish in the tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the stirrers are to stir the solution your dosing?

Yeah, some of the bacterial ones, and probably a few others, settle really badly, so the dosers come on and mix the whole bottle up for 30 seconds or so before the pumps come on. They have a magnetic pill looking stirrer that is dropped in the bottle, and the quickly rotating magnet on the base spins the pill while it's in the bottle. Basically like a mini vortech.

I was experimenting by daily hand dosing the last month or so, and without shaking the bottle, the first 2/3 of the bottle is almost like water, and the bottom 1/3 ends up being close to honey consistency. It would be the opposite pulling it from the bottle but definitely needs mixed. Otherwise, they're not necessary for most dosed chemicals that form a solution, alk and Ca and Mg for example, shouldn't need stirring unless they sit for an extremely long time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So, per another discussion, I started nitrate dosing this weekend (2-18-2017). Will detail some of the process here since I've had more than 1 PM about it. As of now, it's obviously too early to make any conclusion or recommendation other than ones entirely out of logic.

Preface, almost anyone who doses a carbon source (vinegar, vodka, zeostart, brightwell biofuel, vibrant, etc.) or uses a significant number of biopellets can likely relate to either exhausting NO3 entirely or creating a NO3 / PO4 imbalance. This most often results in cyano, sometimes to the point where one can stop dosing and very predictably the cyano will disappear, and will come back shortly after resuming dosing. 

Coral, bacteria, and all organisms consume both NO3 and PO4. The ratio of consumption, or ratio they exist in an organism, is called redfield's ratio. So not to get too technical, but bacterial redfield ratio is roughly 6:1, NO3:PO4 and algaes range from 13:1 to 70:1, depending on the algae and a number of factors, algaes can vary their uptake depending on availability. 16:1 is commonly thrown around, but it's quite variable depending on the species and conditions. 

Anyway, for the purpose of this test, I am assuming a 6:1 NO3:PO4 bacterial uptake ratio, which is the primary concern when dosing a carbon source. Considering the amount of variability and utter lack of control in a display tank, this is largely irrelevant. As of right now and for a long time, I have undetectable NO3 in this tank to a resolution of ~20ppb, and due to fairly heavy feeding, I am constantly battling PO4 by using GFO in an overly complicated multi-reactor setup. Ideally I would like to get a balance of dosing NO3 that will allow me to use very little GFO.

My available options for dosing NO3 consist of:
KNO3
CaNO3
MgNO3
NaNO3

The most common option is Potassium Nitrate (KNO3), which is available as a commercial stump remover, also used in fertilizers as well as used in planted tanks as fertilizer. In a reef tank, it makes significantly more sense to use CaNO3 or MgNO3 for the obvious reasons of a reef environment actually benefiting from these elements, and much less so from potassium.

I choose MgNO3 because it contains a higher amount of NO3 by mass than CaNO3 as well as the added theoretical benefit of introducing additional Mg, which I'm always measuring lower than I would like.

I created a mixture of MgNO3 and RO/DI water at a concentration so that I can increase the NO3 in my ~100 gallon tank by 1ppm for every 10ml of solution that I dose. Right now, I'm starting out dosing 10ml per day. And if by chance the consumption of PO4 actually does occur at a measurable ratio to the availability of NO3, I will be removing an additional 1ppm of PO4 every 6 days.

Variability is a huge issue right now. Additionally, I do believe that much of the PO4 is bound in rocks and substrate and obviously being simultaneously consumed by GFO. I do not feed the same amount every feeding and do not feed the same amount of times every day, so my PO4 input is unpredictable. I am in the process of trying to identify how much PO4 is introduced with the food I am feeding just to get an idea of how much I need to dose. If it is possible to identify close to the uptake ratio, one could calculate the amount of MgNO3 that needs to be dosed over the same period of time that a known amount of food is introduced into the tank. Once could create a roughly zero-sum PO4 game without a ton of effort and without grossly overshooting the NO3:PO4 ratio in the other direction.

What I'm trying to avoid is completely unbalancing the ratio in the other direction, although it is an easy fix, I just need to feed more heavily, which everything in my tank should appreciate. My other concern is effectively dropping PO4 and NO3 so low, that the tank is nutrient free which is going to stress the corals. I plan on combating this primarily through measured feedings and conservative use of MgNO3 at first. I do add amino acids once per week, but I do not expect these to compensate for what I'm doing with the NO3 and PO4 levels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...