Neptunes 125 Reef Diary.

[king_neptune]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3165983
So my question to you would be is your system too new to realize the advantages of the scrubber? Im not so sure. I do know the scrubber is gaining momentum, and recovers from cleanings much faster than when i first made it, but Ive also made some major changes in just the last week aloneIs the scrubber design you have not doing what it is intended to do? I added a thicker screen a week ago, and the growth in the scrubber exploded, comparatively to the algae in the DT recedingAre you not harvesting enough from the scrubber to have an effect on the display?This is a good point. I am currently trying to clean one side every two weeks, instead of one side a week. My experiment is mainly to see if I get better protection from a thicker algae supply vs a thinner algae supply.Stay tuned to see if I revert to a cleaning every week.
My over all predictions for 6 months down the line:
You will see a second scrubber station.
You will see the skimmer hooked up, and running partially...more if needed. I know some people ween their systems off skimmers, i would actually be doing it in reverse...weening my system to accept skimmers, but not rely on them solely.

 

[spanko]

Big I am under the belief that the buffering capability of aragonite is only true in acidic environments such as the the anoxic zone at the bottom of a deep (5"+) sandbed that becomes acidic through the production of sulfuric acid by denitrifying bacteria.
Your thoughts?

 

[king_neptune]

Originally Posted by Happyfeet
http:///forum/post/3166067
King, Question please.
How do you clean your scrubber? I see you have zip tied it on, do you cut them each time and replace them with new ones when ever you do a cleaning?
nope, i keep the zip ties in tact if possible.
1. I cut off the water flow
2. then I remove the scrubber.
3. I scrape one side clean.
4. Trim the top 1/2" on the other side to keep blockage from forming.
5. plug it back in and turn on the flow.
If I get slurping it is usually from algae blocking the water flow, a razor blade inserted in the slit fixes this pronto. If I have to, I have a pack of zip ties in case I need to remove the screen and do a deep cleaning on the pipe.

 

[posiden]

Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3121480
Have they opend up? Button polyps is my guess from a closed shot.
I have this coral here. It looks like yours when they close up.

Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3165972
Some hitch hikers,

those tube worm things that I was describing...
These guys are a purpleish, with bright green veins that glow neon under the actinics. They are begining to spread around the rocks, and the other day I found a separate colony, starting on the other side of the tank!
It seems I called it on those corals.

Just keep an eye on them. Mine spread like wild fire. Last time I got mad and ripped every one off of my rock and they came back. I need to frag them now.

 

[king_neptune]

Since scrubbers is the topic:
hear is roughly 2 weeks old growth

hear it is cleaned

In about two weeks, ill clean the opposite side.

 

[king_neptune]

Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3166086
It seems I called it on those corals.

Just keep an eye on them. Mine spread like wild fire. Last time I got mad and ripped every one off of my rock and they came back. I need to frag them now.
yup. i was pretty excited when you let me know what they were. im glad you get to see them months later. pictures cant do justice. they look so AWESOME under the actinium. they really glow!
i been hand feeding them. they seem to eat just about anything from pellets to mysis. and it may be my imagination...but they have flourished even more since doing so...or am i witnessing a defense mechanism when they close up around shrimp and other foods.

 

[posiden]

Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3166098
yup. i was pretty excited when you let me know what they were. im glad you get to see them months later. pictures cant do justice. they look so AWESOME under the actinium. they really glow!
i been hand feeding them. they seem to eat just about anything from pellets to mysis. and it may be my imagination...but they have flourished even more since doing so...or am i witnessing a defense mechanism when they close up around shrimp and other foods.

No, I don't think you are imagining anything. I feed my corals. They do respond to it. My Candy cane put out feeders when it is time to eat. It is kinda cool cause they look like mouths with big nasty teeth. The feeders they put out at night when the lights are off look different.
Why, do you go two weeks inbetween cleanings? The way I read it, you are only cleaning it twice a month in total.
What RO/DI unit did you buy? I could go back and see. What is your TDS reading on the input water. Down in the valley where I am I get about 85-90 TDS on the inlet side. Up at Barrier Reef they have like 65 TDS.

 

[king_neptune]

Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3166115
Why, do you go two weeks inbetween cleanings? The way I read it, you are only cleaning it twice a month in total.
What RO/DI unit did you buy? I could go back and see. What is your TDS reading on the input water. Down in the valley where I am I get about 85-90 TDS on the inlet side. Up at Barrier Reef they have like 65 TDS.
I have seen both sides argued on a scrubber cleaning schedual.
Some say clean one side a week, but ive heard others say one side every two weeks. If you ask SM, he will say one side a week.
He's probably right, since he knows more about these...but thats the beauty of it all. I am playing around with it all till i find what works best and why. Im mainly looking to see toxins rise, but that hasnt been happening. If i do get a bad spike, ill dilute/wc ect, and adjust.
As for the water...I get around 80ppm incoming and 0-3ppm outgoing. Some will change out thier filters at anything over 1ppm. But I dont see any reason to do that till around 8-10ppm.
Every one ive talked to says 10ppm or less is pretty doggone good water. I baught a nice TDS meter from bulk reef supply. It was $45, but its really nice and shows incomming/outgoing

 

[posiden]

Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3166159
As for the water...I get around 80ppm incoming and 0-3ppm outgoing. Some will change out thier filters at anything over 1ppm. But I dont see any reason to do that till around 8-10ppm.
Every one ive talked to says 10ppm or less is pretty doggone good water. I baught a nice TDS meter from bulk reef supply. It was $45, but its really nice and shows incomming/outgoing

IDK, it isn't my setup. It just seem odd to me that you get anything on the outgoing side. Especially with such a low input like me. What unit did you get?
Oh yea. I too have seen the different sides to the cleaning of them. The one that got tank of the month goes longer then a week between cleanings. He like to see bubbles form on it, he says that is when the real power starts to kick in. I didn't see any difference by letting it go and cleaning it less frequiently. It is good that you are playing with it to see the differences it does or doesn't make. I be reading along to what becomes of it.

 

[king_neptune]

Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3166179
IDK, it isn't my setup. It just seem odd to me that you get anything on the outgoing side. Especially with such a low input like me. What unit did you get?
Oh yea. I too have seen the different sides to the cleaning of them. The one that got tank of the month goes longer then a week between cleanings. He like to see bubbles form on it, he says that is when the real power starts to kick in. I didn't see any difference by letting it go and cleaning it less frequiently. It is good that you are playing with it to see the differences it does or doesn't make. I be reading along to what becomes of it.

I cant recall the brand off hand. But i only payed 100 bucks. you get what you pay for. when i first fired ti up i was getting 5-10 ppm(and sometimes as high as mid 50's). I was pretty miffed. But then I read that you wan the DI unit to stand verticle not horizontal, that immediately gave me 0-3ppm when I took it off the top of the unit and set it on its side. Eventually Ill get myself a couple hundred dollar unit, but for now, a cheap one does the job.
Im not impressed if a manufacture will design something with such an obvious flaw.
as for the scrubber...im anticipating my levels to spike to around .1 to .25 and i would be shocked if they hit anything over 1
at least thats the trend ive gotten when i clean it. I get a small dribble of a spike, then it mellows out to practically non detectable within a week.

 

[posiden]

Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3166190
I cant recall the brand off hand. But i only payed 100 bucks. you get what you pay for. when i first fired ti up i was getting 5-10 ppm(and sometimes as high as mid 50's). I was pretty miffed. But then I read that you wan the DI unit to stand verticle not horizontal, that immediately gave me 0-3ppm when I took it off the top of the unit and set it on its side. Eventually Ill get myself a couple hundred dollar unit, but for now, a cheap one does the job.
Im not impressed if a manufacture will design something with such an obvious flaw.
as for the scrubber...im anticipating my levels to spike to around .1 to .25 and i would be shocked if they hit anything over 1
at least thats the trend ive gotten when i clean it. I get a small dribble of a spike, then it mellows out to practically non detectable within a week.
I don't think there is any need to get a new one. Just look at this one and see what is up with it. You can upgrade the filters to make it a better unit. I payed 149 for mine at Barrier. It was on sale a few weeks back at thier annual sale. If you buy a new one you will essentually be into one for a 100 bucks more then the new unit will cost you. No one will give you much money for a used unit that needs new filters. I guess you could turn it into a drinking water unit.
I am courious about the vertical thing on the DI resin. Both my resin cartridges run horizontal. I wonder if you don't have enough resin in there? If it wouldn't be too much trouble I would like to know the name. Where you got it from. If it isn't that good of a unit then, folks should know. If you mod it to work the way they should, then other people with the same unit will know how to improve thiers. Just a thought. I couldn't find it back in your thread. Maybe I looked too fast an skimmed over it.

 

[king_neptune]

I dont think i ever mentioned what brand it was.
you are right about the resin. the di resin would not fill the container. so i have to keep it verticle for it to all slide to the bottom.
next time i head over to the aquarium room ill make a point look at it close.Dont get me wrong, it does do its job. it promises 0ppm, and it delivers it....%90 of the time. but the rest it goes 1-3ppm who knows why. at any rate, i don't use it often. the most work it gets is topping off the fw in the tank.
today i was noticing the peppermints are starting to stick there heads out. and they have grown in the last 2 weeks WOW!

 

[king_neptune]

surgery success.
i drained 60gal from the DT into storage. then I pulled out the old bar. cut some pvc to fit, made some teeth in it, filled it back up. ill put a 6x9 shallow overflow, and dump it straight down. i haven't made up my mind on depth, but probably 4-6 inches deep.
fish took it well. they spent their time enjoying the shallow water, sifting around. eating and picking.
took me about 2hours time, but i took my time, and had a friend helping. it was totally feasible to do solo. although it gives me a whole new appreciation to why people plumb drains and refills at the push of a button.
temp heads installed. things churned down slow and gentle.
im ordering a custom piece, option b is to make one myself.
i think this pay check ill also get me some more options for flow inside the tank. something that will give me significant boost in turnover.
also going to order a pump. most likely an eheim. or ill salvage a spare one from somewhere for the reactor. it simply doesn't move enough. a maxi jet was unacceptably too little. bulk reef let me down when they recommended one. ill spend more and get a nice one for sure if i could do it over.

 

[king_neptune]

oh and there is no company name on theRO unit, just aserial number and i didnt have a pen. that means made in china. what I will do next time is order my own canisters since they are all universal. but for the next 6months or longer i can use these, they are still great looking.

 

[eric b 125]

nep, how many holes did you drill in the back of your tank? i'm debating on drilling my returns. yesterday i was so sure of going over the back but the more i think of it the harder the decision is to make. if i drill the returns it will be 4 holes total, 2 for overflow and 2 for return.

 

[king_neptune]

2. and they are still fine.

 

[king_neptune]

my return was a single 1" pvc return that snaked up and over the top. then i put a loc line and split it in two directions.
i dont need or want high pressure on my returns, so a gentle flow is what comes out.

 

[king_neptune]

Starting to get some motivation to think about what i want to do for the other side fo the sump. i got aprox 20 gal of volume i can put in there.
Im pretty confidant there will be another scrubber station installed by Christmas. But down below Ill have enough room to do a nice fuge as well. Currently there is 10x12 screen. I will be adding another of the same size on the opposite side.
Gonna be doing a bunch of reading on fuge setups and checking out what people are doing in their systems.
Also I ordered a shrimp grow box that has arrived. I just need to install it, and in short order Ill be growing my own feeder shrimp.

 

[eric b 125]

hows the shrimp grow box working out?

 

[jchase1970]

Can you post a pic of your new overflows. I'm getting ready to drill mine in my tank and was thinking about using your overflow bar idea. But I see you have abandoned that idea. I am mounting my tank in the center of a wall so it is half in 2 rooms and need a overflow idea that I can mount in the center of the sides. Anybody with ideas or link to other projects please share.