Dmitri's 1000 gal DT journey!

[Dmitri]

Here is what I’m planning to test for with reefbot. (8 vials for test reagents)

RS - phosphates (2 vials)
I’ll be testing phosphates once per day for a month to see the trend.

RS - alkalinity (1 vial)
Since I’m running calcium reactor I will be testing 4 times per day for the first two weeks. Then I’m planning to scale it down to 2 times per day based on stability.

Tropic Marin - Nitrates (3 vials)
Once per day for a month to see the trend.

API - calcium (2 vials)
Once per day for first two weeks, then I may scale it down to once every three days.

Magnesium testing manually once per week. Since I have elevated levels I’m not worried about it for a while...
Current level is at 1530 ppm

 

[Dmitri]

So over the weekend I did some more plumbing work and now 100 gallons tank and 60 gallons cube both connected to one main system. Total water volume at about 1500 gallons.
Plan is to have all my softies and anemones in the cube. Here is a picture in blue lights
It’s a bit overstocked ...


I put a little bit of a sand in the cube just in case I accidentally get a wrasse or two

Here is a picture of cube with all lights on


My plan for 100 gallons to be mainly LPS and zoa tank. It’s kinda empty at the moment, I’ll upload few more pictures of plumbing work and the tank it self.


As far as display goes, everything looking good. I have a few more sps frag to mount

 

[Dmitri]

So I’ve been having phosphates issues lately, lots of hair algae popping out in frag tank. So measurement had to be taken.
I’ve tested water and nitrates were around 12, which is not bad, a bit higher than what I’m aiming for. I want it to be around 10 mark.


It’s a pain in the but to do accurate phosphates test with ultra low Hanna checker, simply because the reagent powder is hard to empty out completely without spilling some of it out. But practice makes it perfect.
As I was doing multiple daily tests throughout the week, results became more accurate

Anyways I am dosing lanthanum chloride solution to lower phosphates

I gotta tell you, I have done a bit of a research before committing to test this product and see how effective this will be for my system. I will advise others to be very careful and do your research before trying lanthanum chloride.

Things to keep in mind, DO NOT lower phosphate level more than .5ppm in short period of time (24 hours period) (High risk of coral bleaching)

Solutions that worked for me is 250ml of RO water to 1ml of lanthanum chloride
Here is how I dosed and my results in the last 7 days

Day1. (2 tests)
Phos- 0.03ppm
Pho’s-0.08ppm
Dosing 5ml of diluted solution into 1500gallons of water volume

Day2
Phos-0.23ppm
(I’m guessing my first two tests were not accurate)
Dosing 10ml of diluted lanthanum chloride

Day3
Phos-0.04ppm
Dosing 10ml

Day4
Phos-0.08ppm
Dosing 12ml

Day5
Phos-0.08ppm
Dosing 10ml

Day6
Phos-0.14ppm
Dosing 15ml

Day7 (today)
Phos-0.06ppm
Dosing 5ml solution
I will test 2nd time later this evening and see where we at.

Thing to note:
I have kept up with heavy feeding of fish. But I did adjust skimmer from dry skimming to wet skimming.

 

[Dmitri]

Happy Thursday evening folks! Wanted to give some updates here.
First, I’m continue to monitor effects of lanthanum chloride as well a stump remover for which I started to dose regularly to bring nitrates up.
I will share data in a week or two of the progress...

Other update:
Reefbot!
I have received and set up reefbot. I have to say directions on the setup and almost non-existent. Most of it I had to figure out myself by watching videos etc...
The company needs to put a bit more effort of making videos on set up.
Biggest challenge was that I had to exit out of app during the initial set up and after turning back on there was no way to get back into step by step directions. My reefbot was telling me that it was already register to account and would not let me do anything.
After several tickets and couple of days messing around with unit I finally figured out how and what needed to be done.

Having said that, I’m super happy with automation that reefbot brings. I’m thinking, I may create video for how to set up the unit and what things to look for during the process to help other out there...

Currently I’m testing nitrate , alkalinity, phosphates and calcium with this unit.
Here is what I found out, Hanna check for alkalinity was giving me consistent results however it’s about 1.5dkh off from Red Sea tester. I’ve used three different Hannah tester with 3 different reagents and similar results.

Hanna check would show me alk at 8.2- 8.8 dkh , Red Sea Pro would show me 9.8 - 10.3 dkh

I have ordered salifert test kit and looking forward on getting results and comparing.
For now I’m focusing on stability.

I’ve lowered drip of calcium reactor and keeping my alkalinity at 9 by Red Sea pro test kit.

Phosphates are between 0.02 - 0.04
I am still doing fine tuning of dosing lanthanum chloride .
Also with stump remover I’m doing about 3 table spoons daily to raise nitrates to 10ppm
Currently at 5ppm

Also feeding habits are about the same, 2-3 times per day with heavy pellets and frozen food.

Live stock update:
I’ve added gold torch to display tank, good size cc 21 tail torch frag. Beautiful color on that, hard to take picture to capture it. I’ll try to figure it out and share.

I’ve also added lots of acro frags to display tank and everything looking good so far.

Walt Disney frag from last year turned into mini colony, same as joe knows rainbow and fox flame.

Here are few pictures from today

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Looking amazing Dmitri! I think you are making a lot of us quite jealous

 

[Dmitri]

Looking amazing Dmitri! I think you are making a lot of us quite jealous

Thanks Dan! You gotta come by brother! I haven’t seen you in a while...
Oh I’m making some progress in the room too. Laying tiles at the moment, such hard work! Never imagine that being so damn intense... slowly but surely!

 

[Dmitri]

So today I was ready to finish up tiles flooring. When I walked in the fish room, I’ve noticed small water spots near pumps. I took out temporary raised floor covers and started cleaning up. After water clean up, I have looked everywhere for the source of leak but no luck. I’m stumped where this leak came from, water in the system is leveled and ato isn’t going crazy with beeping.

Now I’m trying to think what I did in the last couple of day that may have spilled some water on the floor.
I moved few corals yesterday from frag tank to main display and changed filter socks but that’s about it.

after some more investigation I found tiny drip from skimmer fitting. I did turn on skimmer yesterday as well after being off for a few weeks. Was raising nitrates in the tank and now its between 10-20 somewhere. The skimmer is about 5 feet away from where spots of water were found. I guess it maybe have dripped in to lowest point of the floor over time. I will be keeping close eye on things here today to see if there are any more leaks.

Ah just found the source of leak, in the skimmer fitter where water lever adjusted.

 

[Dmitri]

Bubble king skimmer is ridiculously effective...

I’ve been trying to raise my nitrates for almost a month now.
I was at 5ppm with goal to get to 10
Feeding fish 3-4 times a day heavy on dry pellets and nori sheets. Once 2-3 days frozen food.

About a week ago started putting in 2 1/2 table spoons of stump remover daily.
Meanwhile skimmer been offline for about a month now.
Two days ago I tested nitrates and it was at 20ppm. So I turned on the skimmer to lower it.
Next day I had about 5 gallons of waste to get rid of. Tonight I decided to test for nitrates again and I’m back at 5ppm
Here is a history of tests.

 

[Adam]

Hey Dmitri. Everything is looking incredible.

I hope you get the leak figured out. If it's a real slow leak salt creep should seal it in a week or so.

Couple of questions.

How has the pH been, especially when the skimmer has been off?

Is there a reason you're shooting for exactly 10 nitrates? I've always approached it as 10 was the max and anything between 2-10 was good, but 5 was the sweet spot.

 

[Dmitri]

Hey Dmitri. Everything is looking incredible.

I hope you get the leak figured out. If it's a real slow leak salt creep should seal it in a week or so.

Couple of questions.

How has the pH been, especially when the skimmer has been off?

Is there a reason you're shooting for exactly 10 nitrates? I've always approached it as 10 was the max and anything between 2-10 was good, but 5 was the sweet spot.

Thanks Adam! Ph has been between 7.8 -7.9
I’ve got a lot of surface agitation, I think that helps with keeping up ph. Also I circulate fresh air from outside at night time. But when I run slimmer ph definitely goes up higher.

As far as nitrate go, I shooting for somewhere in the range of 10 to 15. I’ve been having a lot more success with growth and coloration when it’s higher. I’ve also noticed algae isn’t as much of issue (hair algae) when it comes to keeping nitrates higher. Another reason is, when I’m looking for ratio between phosphates and nitrates to be about 1 to 17
Having higher phosphates it seems to be easier to increase nitrates rather than battle phosphates so much to keep those at lower level. It’s all constant, trial and error, one giant experiment figuring out what works best

 

[Adam]

Thanks Adam! Ph has been between 7.8 -7.9
I’ve got a lot of surface agitation, I think that helps with keeping up ph. Also I circulate fresh air from outside at night time. But when I run slimmer ph definitely goes up higher.

As far as nitrate go, I shooting for somewhere in the range of 10 to 15. I’ve been having a lot more success with growth and coloration when it’s higher. I’ve also noticed algae isn’t as much of issue (hair algae) when it comes to keeping nitrates higher. Another reason is, when I’m looking for ratio between phosphates and nitrates to be about 1 to 17
Having higher phosphates it seems to be easier to increase nitrates rather than battle phosphates so much to keep those at lower level. It’s all constant, trial and error, one giant experiment figuring out what works best

That's the same issue I had with my system in the basement. When I was dosing 2-part and using Sodium Hydroxide for the Alk it was real easy to keep the pH between 8.1 & 8.2. As soon as I put the CARX on line that went out the window. With the skimmer running 24/7 and a co2 scrubber connected closed loop the pH would be what your seeing. When I added two gallons of kalk a day it would hold 7.95~8.05 till the media needed replacing in the scrubber. I could see the drop starting and knew when the media was getting exhausted.
In the new house, the systems will be in the basement again, it's unfinished like yours was. The new fish room is going to be 28'x16.5' so I'm going to have plenty of space this time, instead of the cramped closet I'm coming from. The first thing I'm going to tackle down there is the electrical & HVAC. I'm also going to put in a HRV Air Exchanger. I'm hoping the constant fresh air is going to be a big help. Another thing I'm going to do is experiment with different ways to blow off the co2 from the effluent out of the CARX before it goes into the system. My goal is to keep a min pH of 8.1.

I've read a good bit on the Redfield Ratio. Some well respected names, like RHF, say it's a moot point. While others swear by it anecdotally. It's going to be interesting to follow your results over the long term. Did you have any new tank ugly's with your main tank at the 8-12 week mark?

 

[Dmitri]

That's the same issue I had with my system in the basement. When I was dosing 2-part and using Sodium Hydroxide for the Alk it was real easy to keep the pH between 8.1 & 8.2. As soon as I put the CARX on line that went out the window. With the skimmer running 24/7 and a co2 scrubber connected closed loop the pH would be what your seeing. When I added two gallons of kalk a day it would hold 7.95~8.05 till the media needed replacing in the scrubber. I could see the drop starting and knew when the media was getting exhausted.
In the new house, the systems will be in the basement again, it's unfinished like yours was. The new fish room is going to be 28'x16.5' so I'm going to have plenty of space this time, instead of the cramped closet I'm coming from. The first thing I'm going to tackle down there is the electrical & HVAC. I'm also going to put in a HRV Air Exchanger. I'm hoping the constant fresh air is going to be a big help. Another thing I'm going to do is experiment with different ways to blow off the co2 from the effluent out of the CARX before it goes into the system. My goal is to keep a min pH of 8.1.

I've read a good bit on the Redfield Ratio. Some well respected names, like RHF, say it's a moot point. While others swear by it anecdotally. It's going to be interesting to follow your results over the long term. Did you have any new tank ugly's with your main tank at the 8-12 week mark?

I think PH will stabilize more in the 8.1 area once I finish basement and tank mature to 6 -12 months
Coraline algae is growing everywhere and should help with getting rid of co2 during day time.
currently I’m running slimmer just night time hours which helps with balancing ph abit more. My main concern is to get nitrates to be around 10-15 ppm area because of phosphate issues. As far as uglies that was one of the main issues so far, not getting nitrates high fast enough where phosphates were out of balance. So I had hair algae issue in my frag tank and lost few frags to that. No issues in the main tank. Feeding heavy and corals growing well.
There was a pump issue during backup generator installation. One of the return pumps gave out, luckily I had a spare one and replaced it.
I’m looking to upgrade both dolphin pumps to new MRC pumps, which would save me around 300kwh of energy

I did get a few new corals, some highend acros , couple of sweet chalaces and gold 22 tail indo torch. everything coming together nicely.

basement almost finish, tiles are done Just need to grout.
Adam I’m looking forward to seeing your new system progress !

 

[Dmitri]

Happy Friday night! Just finished laying tiles floor. Up next, grout and trim for bases then painting. Things are coming along great!

 

[Dmitri]

Just came back from work. 120 was full of water but no li




so that’s what 120 gallons of water looks like on the Floor... not too bad. Clean up time

I’m guessing seal went out sometime in the last 12 hours. Tank completely empty

 

[Dmitri]

For anyone wanting a quick way to get rid of pest asteria starfish, this is the fastest way to do it

 

[civics14]

Dang, that really sucks

 

[Dmitri]

Finally finished tiling basement and stairs, such a physically intense job...
Here are some shots of the progress
Up next grout work!

Tile work started on September 15th! Yes I work at a snail speed

 

[Dmitri]

I’ve got a new toy today, Awair 2nd Edition
It monitors CO2 ppm levels in the air as well as some other parameters: humidity, fine dust (PM2.5), temperature, Chemicals ppb

I mainly bought this to monitor CO2 levels and how it will affect tank ph.

Super easy to set it up with app, took me less than 5 minutes and very user friendly. First impression 2 thumbs up!
Here is what the app looks like and screenshot of overview of unit.

 

[Dmitri]

Here are some shots from top I just took under 100% lights on, one year progress.

 

[Dmitri]

So I have set up CO2 scrubber to my skimmer and look at these results. 24 hours, going from 7.98ph to 8.12ph loving it so far...

I did have to test CO2 levels in the room before installing it. Levels throughout the day about same as outside, 450-500
Didn’t want to waste media if levels were high.