Aquaripure...Lab Rat

al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///forum/thread/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/60#post_3392023
everything is looking great!!!!! Wow. water clear?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/60#post_3391766
UPDATE:
Sunday, June 19 2011 Week #3 test results:
PH - 8.0 (Taken early morning, lowest PH of the day)
KH - 12
Cal - 400
PO4 - 0.5
NO3 - 20
SG - 1.027
Temp - 80
It cost me the last of my spending cash but I ordered new tests kits from Seachem. I must admit that when my NO3 test read 80 my shrimp and other inverts were just fine, which made no sense. Calcium is a little low. For some reason PO4 remains at 0.5 and holding. PH goes up to 8.4 by the end of the day.
Hey Flower, I just started using the seachem for nitrite and nitrate, pH, Phos - I think you will like them. Numbers are looking good my friend.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
UPDATE:
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoJ http:///forum/thread/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3407938
Still fallowing lets see your numbers....
.... What was it?..two to four weeks after getting the Aquariaripure filter, I got a seachem test kit. My nitrates were at 0.1 and one week after that it went to 0 and it is still 0.
PH....8.2
Nitrate...0
Alk... 3.5
Calcium...420
PO4...0.1
Temp...80 SG...35ppt
Unbeknown to me, my nitrates were near perfect when I got the filter...I will never use API test kits again, even though the kits said 2008 and would be fine if they were not outdated. I love the seachem kits and that's what I will use from now on...being able to double check is an added bonus.
We had the power out for 4 days, I lost my Kole, Hippo tang and my Lemonpeel angelfish. I believe it was because there was not enough oxygen, the tank ran into trouble much faster than it should have...same results if I were straight vodka dosing. I did small water changes and everything else survived. I now have a generator in the event I should ever have another power outage.
There is no algae in the 90g, I mean none, the snails are even living off the algae sheets.... I have some corals in there.

[*]
Purple Finger leather...very happy, It was moved into the tank after the black out to recover, and is doing better in this tank than the SH tank it came from.
[*]
Bubble coral...very happy..happiest it has ever been, this frag has been in the 90g for a year, and actually looks like it's finally growing.
Zoa neon dragon eyes or something like that...the colony is shrinking and disappearing...tiny colony survived the tank being shocked and was growing...now it's just going away.
Neon green kenya tree....it is not happy and stays withdrawn and only come out a little (This could be the result of the MH, the SH tank has T5HO and even though the coral was moved to the bottom of the tank, it is still after many weeks unhappy but alive) it extended nicely in the SH tank up top....I have hair algae now in that tank so I don't want to put it back in there. Maybe I will try the darker area of the 90g and see how it responds.
I haven't had the money for any SPS yet to really test the Aquaripure on healthy corals, before I got the new filter, I knew no SPS could survive that tank. I figure SPS coral will be my acid test. I got my disabilty squared away, and when I get my money rolling in as it should, I plan to add a few and see what happens. I will post on that result too.
In the 30g tank without the Aquaripure:
Since the black out, I used sun light to get the horses to come eat...it has developed hair algae. I hate hair algae, and the SHs are so messy, it just feeds it. I got a sea hare and it grows so fast even that critter isn't making a dent...and I removed a bunch of it by hand. I'm doing weekly water changes and may try bi-weekly.
I'm seriously considering getting an Aquaripure filter for that tank as well. I hesitate because then I won't be able to keep the macros, I have harvested three times already....and the coral in that tank are like super glowy happy, the mushrooms are almost the size of my open hand and super vibrant, as are all the coral in that tank..... Unfortunatly the hair algae is just as happy.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3409540
HI!!!!!! How are things??
My 90g is beautiful and coral ready...I just need my money so I can rebuild. Meowzer has a frag of pink star polyps for me...if it does well. The bubble coral in there is really pffed up and looking very happy. I need to replace one of the actinis bulbs with a 10K fluoresent...96w square pin...I have MH 175w on one side. So I can put low light coral on the other....I don't want to redo the lights.
On the 30g Sea Horse tank:
Sea hare starved to death???? It shrunk to 1/3 it's original size over the last few weeks and it was dead this morning. With tons of red turf, and green hair algae everywhere. It's under the guarantee...but how much of a bummer is that?
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
thats a huge bummer, sorry to hear the challenging news. With the sea horses, I know someone who has ghost shrimp in with there horses. The lil ponies eat these shrimp. Would this work in your situation?
Are things currently growing with your old lights? Why the upgrade?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3409648
thats a huge bummer, sorry to hear the challenging news. With the sea horses, I know someone who has ghost shrimp in with there horses. The lil ponies eat these shrimp. Would this work in your situation?
Are things currently growing with your old lights? Why the upgrade?
Kiefer....she lost the SEAHARE....NOT the seahorse
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3409648
thats a huge bummer, sorry to hear the challenging news. With the sea horses, I know someone who has ghost shrimp in with there horses. The lil ponies eat these shrimp. Would this work in your situation?
Are things currently growing with your old lights? Why the upgrade?
Like Meowzer pointed out...I have not lost any sea horses, they are happy liitle dirty critters...LOL...The sea hare starved to death in a tank with tons of hair algae.
The light on the 90g is a Coralife Elite. 2 X 175w MH with 2 X 96w actinic...the right side MHs have a short and won't fire without tripping the GFC outlet. I disconnected and don't use the ballast on that side. To give some light on the right side, I was going to replace the actinic with 96w 10K or 50/50 PC bulbs....and put coral that requires lower light on that side. I only have a few pieces of coral on the left side right now, under the MHs...I want to add coral on the right side as well..
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3409654
Kiefer....she lost the SEAHARE....NOT the seahorse

seahare....... seahorse..... COME ON!! I thought you were like naming them like race horses. "coming around turn 4 is sea bisket and close behind is sea hare making a dash for the lead!!!!! Watch out for Animal Kingdom......... that lil tail is a kickin!!"
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3409779
seahare....... seahorse..... COME ON!! I thought you were like naming them like race horses. "coming around turn 4 is sea bisket and close behind is sea hare making a dash for the lead!!!!! Watch out for Animal Kingdom......... that lil tail is a kickin!!"
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
UPDATE:
The filter is awesome, my nitrates are 0 and staying there on the 90g. The water quality is pristine. I do have to buffer alk to keep PH where it should be, the Aquaripure instructions said as much. If I can figure out how to drip kalk I will go that route. I say this filter does exactly as advertized. I feed the filter 8ml of vodka each Sunday morning..that's it, no cleaning media, swapping media..nothing. The drip needs adjusting now and then, so I look at each morning to make sure all is well.
I have no SPS corals yet, (plan on next month to get some) but the LPS bubble coral, that I have had for a year and a half and was just been staying alive, is now supercharged and happy, it's never looked that good.. It did so well on eliminating algae that I put another one on the Sea horse tank. That means my macros will also go the way of the dodo, but as sad as that is, I hate hair algae enough to make it worth while.
So today is day one of the hair algae battle using the Aquaripure filter...I am also going to be attaching a small phosphate reactor (aquaripure says that is fine to do) Plucking the algae and doing daily water changes has helped very little...the algae is way out of control. Phosphates and nitrates read 0 on this tank, always has thanks to the macros. I figure the hair algae and macros are feeding on it, and giving me a false negitive reading of 0. So the acid test for this tank will be on how long the hair algae can last.
Here is what the tank looks like this morning....corals are just waking up, they open up full bloom in a few hours. I put the Botryocadia (red grape) maco in the refugium to keep hair algae off of them. I removed the GSPs, purple finger leather and yellow polyps to the 90g to recover, they were being choked out.

To give you an idea of why I'm so upset..this was my tank less than a month ago....just before the 4 day black out.
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
Wow, are you keeping a nature aquarium? Lol.... sorry not very funny. You still can't take some out and scrub can you? Hopefully this will clear soon. Will continue to watch.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3410655
Wow, are you keeping a nature aquarium? Lol.... sorry not very funny. You still can't take some out and scrub can you? Hopefully this will clear soon. Will continue to watch.
Most of the algae is on a back rock wall. The center part is a ceramic feeding tray that I attrached a air line and moonlight to in the back...amphipods drop all over if I disturb it and I don't want to pull it out and rsk killing them...my horses love them and I paid good money for seeding the tank with them. I will continue to pluck and clear as much as I can by hand, and starve the rest by removing all the nutrients it needs to feed on....That's the plan anyway.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by kelly4687 http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3503054
Hey Flower,
Are you you still using the aquaripure? If so, hows it going?
Hi,
I not only am still using the Aquaripure filter, I purchased a second one for the other tank. Mt nitrates are a steady 0...HOWEVER I keep tons of macroalgae which exports nitrates as well, but even before the macros the nitrates were 0. Seahorses are VERY messy eaters.
The filter had only one incident: Because of the (good) bacteria the lines do slow down, and will clog and that has to be watched. If it clogs just open the line all the way to allow it to flush, and then cose it slowly to a drip again. Well, do not do that into the sump...use a bucket. I killed all my Erectus seahorses because I flushed the line into the sump. I contacted Aquaripure and was told most fish wouldn't care but a seahorse is very sensitive to bacteria. Hard lesson learned and it was the only problem.
The filter never needs cleaning, just a dose of vodka once a week and I watch those lines to make sure I have a constant drip. I wish all my equipment worked so perfectly and did what it was meant to do. I can't imagine not having one.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
I also would like to update on the fate of that 30g, it never recovered. I had used miracle mud so that I could keep turtle grass. So no matter what I did the nutrients were so powerful the hair algae took over EVERYTHING once it had gotten a foot hold. It grew 3Xs faster than normal hair algae. I ended up tearing the tank down and setting up the 56g tall that I have now. Instead of turtle grass, I found a wonderful macro call Caulerpa Prolifera that looks like turtle grass but does not need a deep sand bed or extra nutrients. I will NEVER add miracle mud to any aquarium again.
 
kelly4687

kelly4687

Member
Awesome,thanks! I had a Ilon and a wasp and they were really messy. I have an empty tank now with some snails and crabs but always had issues with my nitrates. I want to add some macro algae too but am lost when it comes to what's good and what's bad. I think after the new year I will order the filter. Do you stick with the same kind of vodka ..what kind should I get? I always heard of it but never read up on it.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by kelly4687 http:///t/385846/aquaripure-lab-rat/80#post_3503137
Awesome,thanks! I had a Ilon and a wasp and they were really messy. I have an empty tank now with some snails and crabs but always had issues with my nitrates. I want to add some macro algae too but am lost when it comes to what's good and what's bad. I think after the new year I will order the filter. Do you stick with the same kind of vodka ..what kind should I get? I always heard of it but never read up on it.
Hi,
As long as it's 80 proof your good to go. Get the right size for your tank, it isn't like a filter where bigger is better and too small won't work. Check out Golf coast ecosystems for macro algae, sometimes yoiu have to wait until it's in season but they have the best info I have found and a great selection. You can get Chaeto anywhere and for a refugium that's all you need. I put the decorative stuff in the main tank, but you have to keep it really cropped back if you want coral.
 
kelly4687

kelly4687

Member
Awesome all around! Thanks again Flower :)
I had chaeto in the back before (biocube) but then the light I used for it died and I never replaced it..so starting fresh! I will look into the macro.
 
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