Dmitri's 1000 gal DT journey!

[Dmitri]

Tested phosphates yesterday .9ppm
I’ve been dosing 20ml of lanthanum chloride mixture and two tables spoons of stump remover.
Seems that my nitrates are little bit on the low side and high phosphates.

My lanthanum chloride mixture is the following:
1500ml of water to 48ml lanthanum

After adding GFO reactor, phosphates are lowered but still working on getting it under control.

I’ve sent off icp yesterday, can’t wait for results.

 

[Dmitri]

I’ve increase dosage of lanthanum to 80ml per day. Last phosphates reading was done yesterday .07ppm



I have received ICP Test results and I am pleasantly surprised. I have not done any water changes for at least 6 months now.
Here is what it looks like:



I already knew about phosphates issues, everything else seems to be more / less in order.

In the next few days I will be setting up DIY aminos dosing. Recipe for aminos is almost identical to whats in Brightwell's aminos.

Jo Mar Labs Black Label Pure Form 21 Blend Amino Acid Powder, 10g (two scoops that come with the amino acids) in 375 ml RO plus 125 ml vinegar to make 500mL.
Going to start dosing 120ml daily
I sharing the results as go.

 

[civics14]

interesting that your lanthanum reading is that low since you dose it to reduce phosphates. looks like it get bound up right away and removed. how often do you change your socks while dosing lanthanum? are you dripping?

 

[Dmitri]

interesting that your lanthanum reading is that low since you dose it to reduce phosphates. looks like it get bound up right away and removed. how often do you change your socks while dosing lanthanum? are you dripping?

socks are pain ... I remove them every 2-3 days which isn’t ideal but I can’t do daily, just too much work.
I do 200 micros on two sides and 2 10 micros in the middle. This lets me get away with changing that way.

I still have to deal with tons of socks washing every two weeks or so.
It took me a while to dial in on lanthanum, I was doing very low dosing before, but now with this formula it really make different.

As far as feeding habits, I have not made any changes. Feeding ton of food. Every 1.5 hour, two rounds of small pellets. From 9am to 9pm
Every other day, diy reef chili and 4 sheets of nori 5-6 times weekly.

 

[Dmitri]

This week I’m on vacation and planning to add another section to aquascape. Small bridge, that will connect two sections and anothe bridge to the middle of it. It will be nice front acro section with very high par.


This will be supporting rock for that additional section


sort of like this ...

 

[Dmitri]

I got lazy and have not tested alkalinity in 7 days. Yesterday I tested and it dropped to 6.1 dkh, I had to use seachem buffer (12 tablespoons) tested today and it’s 6.7. Did another 12 tablespoons just now.
I am wondering why my alkalinity dropped so much over a period of 1 week. Usually it was in the range of 7.4-7.8. Only thing different I did was start to dose heavy lanthanum.

My guess is after phosphates were removed uptake of alkalinity increased. I also suspect that maybe calcium reactor probe isn’t correctly read ph. I lower ph to 5.9 from 6.3 to see if it will make any difference.

Finally I have fixed actuator on reefbot and testing water won’t be an issue anymore. Currently running alk/ phosphates / magnesium and nitrates tests. I will probably do alkalinity test 2 times a day and phosphates once per day to get it tunned.

I will be changing calcium reactor media to triton media, I wonder if it will give me boost to alkalinity.

 

[Adam]

I got lazy and have not tested alkalinity in 7 days. Yesterday I tested and it dropped to 6.1 dkh, I had to use seachem buffer (12 tablespoons) tested today and it’s 6.7. Did another 12 tablespoons just now.
I am wondering why my alkalinity dropped so much over a period of 1 week. Usually it was in the range of 7.4-7.8. Only thing different I did was start to dose heavy lanthanum.

My guess is after phosphates were removed uptake of alkalinity increased. I also suspect that maybe calcium reactor probe isn’t correctly read ph. I lower ph to 5.9 from 6.3 to see if it will make any difference.

Finally I have fixed actuator on reefbot and testing water won’t be an issue anymore. Currently running alk/ phosphates / magnesium and nitrates tests. I will probably do alkalinity test 2 times a day and phosphates once per day to get it tunned.

I will be changing calcium reactor media to triton media, I wonder if it will give me boost to alkalinity.

Try crushed coral. But the pH would need to be higher than 5.9

 

[Dmitri]

I hope these little guys don’t change their eating habits to acros...

 

[Dmitri]

Changing calcium reactor media. Think I can reuse this old media in the sump for bio filtration? Seems like a waste if I through it away.


also I’m gonna try out this new triton media.

 

[Dmitri]

I found a good way to keep Purple stylo from growing out of control. Just put two heavy rocks on top of it.

 

[civics14]

View attachment 29854
I hope these little guys don’t change their eating habits to acros...

I got a pair of harlequins and it keeps them in check

 

[Dmitri]

I got a pair of harlequins and it keeps them in check

I wonder if those harlequins will kill my linckia first. I may just move it for a whole and pull the trigger on harlequins

 

[civics14]

I wonder if those harlequins will kill my linckia first. I may just move it for a whole and pull the trigger on harlequins

Oh... thats risky. Not sure I would risk it if they aren’t bothering anything. I actually wanted more asterinas cause I always wanted harlequins.

 

[Dmitri]

Oh... thats risky. Not sure I would risk it if they aren’t bothering anything. I actually wanted more asterinas cause I always wanted harlequins.

I did end up getting 2 harlequin shrimp but not seeing impact on the population of starfish just yet. The pair of harlequins are pretty large too about 1 1/2” each. Both have been in the display tank for about a week now.
As far as blue linckia, i put it in the 60 cube safe from harlequins.

Small update today, I’ve set up doser for two part on top of Carx and Kalkwasser. I made DIY 5 gallon containers out of buckets and starting dosing with 100ml per day to see how it goes. Currently I’m sitting at 7.6dkh, goal is 9

My nitrates jumped from 0-5 to 10-20 since I’ve stopped changing socks and lowered skimmer. I think I will keep it around that area.

Phosphates been an uphill battle, dosing 80ml lanthanum daily on top of GFO reactor.
Formulate for lanthanum that I use is this:
1500ml water to 48ml lanthanum

Currently I’m at 0.34ppm it jumped from 0.02 after I changed gfo and only had enough for about 1/2 of reactor size.

I am planning to set up DOS today for lanthanum dosing and DIY Aminos

Tank is looking good so far, no algae outbreaks yet

 

[Shawn]

I would absolutely love to see this tank in person. Maybe a tank spotlight zoom meeting?

 

[Dmitri]

I’m not sure how this happened but I suspect it pencil urchin had something to do with it...
The rock that this garf Bansai was growing on tilted and fell over. That thing is huge, about 12 inches across...
I’m gonna have to dive to adjust this

 

[scottw]

I got lazy and have not tested alkalinity in 7 days. Yesterday I tested and it dropped to 6.1 dkh, I had to use seachem buffer (12 tablespoons) tested today and it’s 6.7. Did another 12 tablespoons just now.
I am wondering why my alkalinity dropped so much over a period of 1 week. Usually it was in the range of 7.4-7.8. Only thing different I did was start to dose heavy lanthanum.

My guess is after phosphates were removed uptake of alkalinity increased. I also suspect that maybe calcium reactor probe isn’t correctly read ph. I lower ph to 5.9 from 6.3 to see if it will make any difference.

Finally I have fixed actuator on reefbot and testing water won’t be an issue anymore. Currently running alk/ phosphates / magnesium and nitrates tests. I will probably do alkalinity test 2 times a day and phosphates once per day to get it tunned.

I will be changing calcium reactor media to triton media, I wonder if it will give me boost to alkalinity.

Seachem just released 2 new sizes for reactor media. Trying to compete with Julian’s reborn. My want to look into that.

 

[scottw]

Also. Why do you want to run your dkh at 9.0?

 

[scottw]

And pps imma have to come over and get some frags. What’s this week/weekend looking like. I’ve needEd to come over for a long time now.

 

[Dmitri]

Also. Why do you want to run your dkh at 9.0?

@scottw I’m running high nutrients so need to raise alkalinity for better growth. I’ll let you know how this weekend looks.