Squidd I'm Almost Ready To Move To The Basement!!
- Thread starter lubeck
- Start date
lubeck
Active Member
I better not let my wife see that post.. she kill me..he he.
The calcium reactor makes me nervous. I think my b-ionic does a good job, i just want to get the dosing pumps for it so all i have left to manually do is feed the livestock.
Although, I am intereseted in the phosphate/carbon reactors but MOST of all the Automatic WC pump system!!! Does that really work? do you have any posts on it so I can read about it? That would be awesome. correct me if i'm wrong but does that mean that "bad" water is going out while fresh sw is going in constantly?
The calcium reactor makes me nervous. I think my b-ionic does a good job, i just want to get the dosing pumps for it so all i have left to manually do is feed the livestock.
Although, I am intereseted in the phosphate/carbon reactors but MOST of all the Automatic WC pump system!!! Does that really work? do you have any posts on it so I can read about it? That would be awesome. correct me if i'm wrong but does that mean that "bad" water is going out while fresh sw is going in constantly?
squidd
Active Member
You can set it up any way you want, but most common is the "occasional" (weekly, bi weekly, monthly) use rather than "constant" use...
Make up a tub of NSW...mix and heat... then pump old out and pump new in...
More effective if you pump old out first then add new, (but then you have water level issues) or can pump new in at same rate as pumping old out, (but then you have "dilution" issues)
Either way beats hauling buckets around and dumping and siphoning...
Make up a tub of NSW...mix and heat... then pump old out and pump new in...
More effective if you pump old out first then add new, (but then you have water level issues) or can pump new in at same rate as pumping old out, (but then you have "dilution" issues)
Either way beats hauling buckets around and dumping and siphoning...
lubeck
Active Member
Oh.... Ok, I already have all the plumbing and pumps running through the basement. I did that as soon as I moved the filtration down to the basement. I use my mag9.5 to pump the water out through a tube draining into my utility sink on the other side of the basement. I havn't had to hall a bucket in months. Water changes are a sinch now. I used to do wc every week but have changed that to every 3-4 weeks.
I am still waiting on my new rock to be cured... it has been almost 7-8 weeks I have gone through a 5gallon bucket of salt already and still its not cured. I am pretty pissed its taking this long. I am actually running out of salifert nitrite testings and am trying to spare it for when i really need it.
The last 2 weeks i have stopped doing 100% water changes and have been doing 50% changes and still showing nitrites. I am using the mag24 as the HUGE powerhead so i am getting plenty of flow and it creates enough heat and have to run a fan on low to keep it at 80. I don' t know what i am doing wrong but this sucks. there are quite a bit of pods in the rock, enough that if i look for a few seconds i see them swimming around so I know there is life in their. I wonder if i should go back to 100% wc? it seems the water is still very dirty. should i still be scrubbing the rocks? I wish i could hook up a hose with salt water and spray them all off and start over fresh. I know that the 2 smaller pieces are ready because they smell like salt water with no odor, the smaller pieces are at least 10lbs and the 2 LARGE pieces are over 24lbs. they still have an slight odor i noticed last night when doing ANOTHER water change. the amonia reads 0 but trites read 0.3 and has been like that for 2 weeks. i don't know what to do.
I am still waiting on my new rock to be cured... it has been almost 7-8 weeks I have gone through a 5gallon bucket of salt already and still its not cured. I am pretty pissed its taking this long. I am actually running out of salifert nitrite testings and am trying to spare it for when i really need it.
The last 2 weeks i have stopped doing 100% water changes and have been doing 50% changes and still showing nitrites. I am using the mag24 as the HUGE powerhead so i am getting plenty of flow and it creates enough heat and have to run a fan on low to keep it at 80. I don' t know what i am doing wrong but this sucks. there are quite a bit of pods in the rock, enough that if i look for a few seconds i see them swimming around so I know there is life in their. I wonder if i should go back to 100% wc? it seems the water is still very dirty. should i still be scrubbing the rocks? I wish i could hook up a hose with salt water and spray them all off and start over fresh. I know that the 2 smaller pieces are ready because they smell like salt water with no odor, the smaller pieces are at least 10lbs and the 2 LARGE pieces are over 24lbs. they still have an slight odor i noticed last night when doing ANOTHER water change. the amonia reads 0 but trites read 0.3 and has been like that for 2 weeks. i don't know what to do.
squidd
Active Member
Yeah, been following that discussion...
Might be time to pull some of the smaller "clean" rocks from the tub and transfer to MT...
Will probably have negligable effect if any on MT...
That would also allow a larger water volume to help cleanse the Bigger rocks (also less concentration of nitrites per gallon..)
Might be time to pull some of the smaller "clean" rocks from the tub and transfer to MT...
Will probably have negligable effect if any on MT...
That would also allow a larger water volume to help cleanse the Bigger rocks (also less concentration of nitrites per gallon..)
lubeck
Active Member
I was thinking of putting the smaller cured rocks in but will have to remove ALL the rock when the larger pieces are ready. They are just too big, and must be put on or towrads the bottom of the tank. Although, i could put them in the fuge for now and like you said let the larger pieces have more water volume. what do you think of that?
lubeck
Active Member
I put the two smaller rocks in the fuge last night. I am going to do some trite and trate testing tonight to make sure i didn't pollute my tank. There is really not adequate flow in fuge at all I think for live rock to function properly. Is there any down side to that? Meaning if lr sits in water that moves very slow will it have a reverse effect?
I will do a w/c on the uncured rock tonight. do you think it would be OK if i did a 100% w/c or No?
I will do a w/c on the uncured rock tonight. do you think it would be OK if i did a 100% w/c or No?
lubeck
Active Member
Originally Posted by Squidd
I don't keep much more than a "pod pile" of rubble in my fuge (algal scrubber actually)
Slower water flow is for malnutrient uptake by Macros and LR (and resident bacteria) benifit from the higher oxygen content of a higher flow area.
Could you try to explain this to me a little better?
Also, I did a test of trites and trates on my DT. Let me first say I tested the "curing" tub of just trates and BOTH the DT and the curing tub tested Zero for nitrates. Although, testing for trites in the DT however tested 0.02. I think the test kit is not accurate(salifert, i think some water got in the container or something), i tested nitrites with a hagen kit a few days ago on the curing tub and got zero.
so i guess my question is: is it normal to have 0 trates and register trites? I do know when the rock was first curing i would test both trates and trites and of course trites were at 5 and trates were over 100. So i don't know if the kit is accurate. I am going to buy a new one tonight because i am out of the trite anyway. So what do you think?
I don't keep much more than a "pod pile" of rubble in my fuge (algal scrubber actually)
Slower water flow is for malnutrient uptake by Macros and LR (and resident bacteria) benifit from the higher oxygen content of a higher flow area.
Could you try to explain this to me a little better?
Also, I did a test of trites and trates on my DT. Let me first say I tested the "curing" tub of just trates and BOTH the DT and the curing tub tested Zero for nitrates. Although, testing for trites in the DT however tested 0.02. I think the test kit is not accurate(salifert, i think some water got in the container or something), i tested nitrites with a hagen kit a few days ago on the curing tub and got zero.
so i guess my question is: is it normal to have 0 trates and register trites? I do know when the rock was first curing i would test both trates and trites and of course trites were at 5 and trates were over 100. So i don't know if the kit is accurate. I am going to buy a new one tonight because i am out of the trite anyway. So what do you think?