Dmitri's 1000 gal DT journey!

[Adam]

Hi @Dmitri I hope the GFO is starting to help your elevated PO4. Here's a couple articles to show you what else GFO does to water chemistry. I agree it is useful and I'm not saying I won't ever use it, I most certainly will when I face the same issue. But I'll do more frequent water changes, especially after I take it off line. During use, dosing some trace may be beneficial too.
I'm curious if you've noticed any drop in pH since you started it, as well as a higher Alk demand?

Aquarium Chemistry: Effects of GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) on ‘Trace’ Metals Concentrations in Artificial Seawater

Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) is popular among reef hobbyists as a means to decrease phosphate levels and subsequently algal growth in their tanks. GFO, however, can also affect other ions and compound levels as well. In this article, Dana investigates the effect that GFO has on our tanks outside...

reefs.com

What is GFO? - Simplicity Aquatics

Aquarium GFO, or Granular Ferric Oxide, is a popular chemical filtration media used in fish tanks. Learn more about it in this blog article.

www.simplicityaquatics.com

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

 

[Dmitri]

Hi @Dmitri I hope the GFO is starting to help your elevated PO4. Here's a couple articles to show you what else GFO does to water chemistry. I agree it is useful and I'm not saying I won't ever use it, I most certainly will when I face the same issue. But I'll do more frequent water changes, especially after I take it off line. During use, dosing some trace may be beneficial too.
I'm curious if you've noticed any drop in pH since you started it, as well as a higher Alk demand?

Aquarium Chemistry: Effects of GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) on ‘Trace’ Metals Concentrations in Artificial Seawater

Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) is popular among reef hobbyists as a means to decrease phosphate levels and subsequently algal growth in their tanks. GFO, however, can also affect other ions and compound levels as well. In this article, Dana investigates the effect that GFO has on our tanks outside...

reefs.com

What is GFO? - Simplicity Aquatics

Aquarium GFO, or Granular Ferric Oxide, is a popular chemical filtration media used in fish tanks. Learn more about it in this blog article.

www.simplicityaquatics.com

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

Excellent articles Adam! Thanks, learn something new every day.

days 1 results from alk / phosphates test
Alk about same from 7.7 to 7.5

phosphates went from 1.19ppm to .61ppm

I’m liking the progress so far, when I get to desired .06 or lower levels I will send off icp test to see how everything else is.

 

[Adam]

Excellent articles Adam! Thanks, learn something new every day.

days 1 results from alk / phosphates test
Alk about same from 7.7 to 7.5

phosphates went from 1.19ppm to .61ppm

I’m liking the progress so far, when I get to desired .06 or lower levels I will send off icp test to see how everything else is.

Just be careful not to over shoot your target, it can happen fast. That's when you'll shock the coral. Maybe aim for .1~.12 and ease it down from there.

 

[Dmitri]

Happy Friday! Quick video of me feeding the tank, 14months running!

 

[Dmitri]

I am getting ready to add another reactor with this product Purit by Brightwell. I heard good things about it!


I found my starfish today near anemones.. I wonder if it gets hurt by them stinging tentacles?

 

[Adam]

View attachment 26511

I am getting ready to add another reactor with this product Purit by Brightwell. I heard good things about it!

Isn't Purit more for when you think there's a contaminate and not for continuous use?
I saw a brs vid about it but don't know what the guidelines are.

 

[Dmitri]

Isn't Purit more for when you think there's a contaminate and not for continuous use?
I saw a brs vid about it but don't know what the guidelines are.

I’ve yet to hook up reactor for purit, it’s for preventative/ precautionary type of method.

To remove any contamination’s like metals etc...

 

[Dmitri]

About 3 months ago my stirring motor went out on the reefbot and I finally was able to fix it couple of days ago! Back to easy testing, I’m excited! I feel like I am a reefbot engineer now... lots of work of disassembling and reassembling went into this project...
ReefKinetics were able to help out with the process.

My alk is around 8dkh
Nitrates around 5ppm , I’ve turned down slimmer. Want to raise it up to 10ppm
Phosphates 0.02-0.04Ppm
Magnesium 1360ppm (I’ll be dosing a bit extra today to get it upto 1400 or so)
cal- 480ppm

 

[Dmitri]

I took some pictures of corals from top this evening. Want to share with you guys:

Little bit of everything on this on


That hammer colony on the bottom is a size of a volleyball


Here is small frag of cb maleficent next to Garf Bonsai colony


and a wide shot


this red monti cap is very special to me, my very first sps coral. I got it as a tiny 1” frag about 4 years ago.



One more shot of anemones


here is a shot of this one bounce mushroom that split into 4 now. I forget exact name of this mushroom.


and another wide angle shot of the island


This one is in the very back side / middle of the tank, very hard to take good picture of these
One of my favorites, WD in the middle, PC rainbow to the right, TSA prince peach on the left


up close with prince peach

 

[Trizzino]

I took some pictures of corals from top this evening. Want to share with you guys:

Little bit of everything on this on
View attachment 27348

That hammer colony on the bottom is a size of a volleyball
View attachment 27349

Here is small frag of cb maleficent next to Garf Bonsai colony
View attachment 27350

and a wide shot
View attachment 27351

this red monti cap is very special to me, my very first sps coral. I got it as a tiny 1” frag about 4 years ago.

View attachment 27352

One more shot of anemones
View attachment 27353

here is a shot of this one bounce mushroom that split into 4 now. I forget exact name of this mushroom.
View attachment 27356

and another wide angle shot of the island
View attachment 27357

This one is in the very back side / middle of the tank, very hard to take good picture of these
One of my favorites, WD in the middle, PC rainbow to the right, TSA prince peach on the left
View attachment 27358

up close with prince peach
View attachment 27359

Absolutely beautiful. I’m impressed and jealous.

 

[Dmitri]

This fox flame colony looks so good to me


Cherry bomb Frag starting to color up


This one is a beast mode frag. I moved it from middle of the tank to very top and it seem to love it. Lots of coloration here


And a wide shot

 

[Dmitri]

Absolutely beautiful. I’m impressed and jealous.

Thanks for following @trizzino ,
I appreciate it!

 

[Adam]

Everything is looking good!

Are you planning on bumping up the Alk at all and possibly lowering the cal some?

 

[Dmitri]

Everything is looking good!

Are you planning on bumping up the Alk at all and possibly lowering the cal some?

I’m planning to change calrx media, hopefully that will help me bring alk to about 9dkh mark.
Calcium been around same mark all this time. Some people have mentioned to add a claim to the to lower calcium but I’m not sure if it’s really needed or if there are any negative side effects of having slightly elevated calcium levels or not.

Kalkwasser been helping me with keeping alk up! Although changing media in it every 2 weeks a task I could go without. One day I’ll make a much bigger reactor to have media last me for a month or so...

Btw my reefbot went out again, this time motor that moves syringe up and down stopped working. I need to figure this out soon before warranty rans out

 

[Adam]

I’m planning to change calrx media, hopefully that will help me bring alk to about 9dkh mark.
Calcium been around same mark all this time. Some people have mentioned to add a claim to the to lower calcium but I’m not sure if it’s really needed or if there are any negative side effects of having slightly elevated calcium levels or not.

Kalkwasser been helping me with keeping alk up! Although changing media in it every 2 weeks a task I could go without. One day I’ll make a much bigger reactor to have media last me for a month or so...

Btw my reefbot went out again, this time motor that moves syringe up and down stopped working. I need to figure this out soon before warranty rans out

Damn, that sucks about the Reefbot.

Elevated Cal won't hurt anything at that level. I've just found that when Alk & Cal are in balance the system just seems to run smoother. When I finally got there everything just fell into place, coral growth took off and I had far fewer algae problems. When you change out the CARX media you could leave it off line for a bit and manually adjust the Alk with Baking Soda or Soda Ash to where you want to keep it and see when the Cal falls to after the adjustment. Then with your normal Kalk dose and Alk dosing you can bring the Cal down the rest of the way slowly in a week to 10 days max. You only need to drop 55 points or so.

Oh, and adding a clam won't help if you're keeping the system balanced at those levels. Clams use Alk too, so...

 

[Dmitri]

Few updates:
Lowered lights from 18” to 12” over the water and added 4 x 48” Orphek OR3 bars. Pretty happy with results so far. Getting mid 300 par below 20” water bottle ranges from 100-200

Also added four more tenuis frags:
OZ & Xanadu beauties..
here is a picture of OZ colony


this one is Xanadu colony

 

[Dmitri]

I’ve added about 70lbs of rock to an aquascape. That was diving experience ....
That big section in the back mid section of the picture.
I’m getting about 350-600 par around there. Planted lots of frags

 

[codesensei]

Hard work pays off, nice.

 

[scottw]

How are you liking the OR3 bars? I have heard some great things about them? Tank is looks amazing my friend!

 

[Dmitri]

How are you liking the OR3 bars? I have heard some great things about them? Tank is looks amazing my friend!

So far it’s been great, I think I may need to get two more to fully cover the tank. Definitely big boost on much needed par. Dont have to worry about changing t5s every so often and no heat issues.