How do you quit GFO?

[kirkwood]

Silver Surfer;951506 wrote: Why take it offline? If your tank is doing well, I would keep the GFO and feed your fish and coral more. I keep my po4 at 0 (Hanna) and I have no issues. I feed heavy.

I just switched from the ULN system via highly controlled feeding and heavy bio/mechanical filtration school of reefkeeping to the Heavy Filtratation/Heavy Feeding school and I'm getting much better results. Within SPS corals are coloring up and showing better PE and growth. And I'm talking about noticeable changes with the common eye, no photo comparisons needed. The difference is that great. I'm kicking myself in the butt for all those years of being scared to feed frozen or worry about any bit of uneaten food... Ohh all those pretty SPS frags that browned out and died.

My question for you is - what amount of GFO are you using to maintain your 0 PO4 level and what size tank? I have been using 1 cup of bulk BRS GFO changed every 7-10 days and my PO4 is consistently at 0 via hannah. Anytime I put a new cup of GFO online my hawaiin zoas (dark phoenix, yellow mamba, and blue agave) don't look as happy. The dark phoenix is the most evident as they always close up the day I put GFO online and stay that way for a few days. They also haven't budded a new polyp in months. I want to find the sweet spot for GFO to maintain low PO4 while at the same time not shock my zoas everytime I put a new batch of gFO online.

 

[silver surfer]

I have 2 tanks tied together. 120 and 300 and about 120 gallons of sump and refuge water. Not sure how much GFO I have in my reactor. Maybe 2 cups. I change it once a month. I also run bio pellet and carbon reactors. I also dose bacteria twice a week.

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[kirkwood]

Silver - looks awesome... that is a lot of water.. You've got 2 cups GFO on about 540 gallons of water and I've got 1 cup on about 80 gallons. Big difference. I understand its impossible to compare our systems but I am certainly thinking I can reduce the quantity of my GFO and maintain low PO4 levels.

What kind of bacteria are you dosing?

 

[acroholic]

Silver Surfer;951525 wrote: I have 2 tanks tied together. 120 and 300 and about 120 gallons of sump and refuge water. Not sure how much GFO I have in my reactor. Maybe 2 cups. I change it once a month. I also run bio pellet and carbon reactors. I also dose bacteria twice a week.

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Silver,
That setup looks like the Georgia Aquarium. And I thought I had a lot of pipework, hehehe! I can't tell, but are you running multiple protein skimmers? I'm not sure what I am looking at, but I am referencing the bottom picture, upper right corner, in the sump. Almost looks like a couple skimmers without the lids on them. If they aren't skimmers, what are those?

 

[silver surfer]

Those are my bubble traps. I don't run filter socks and my homemade traps keep the micro bubbles out of the tanks. Works really well.

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[acroholic]

Silver Surfer;951565 wrote: Those are my bubble traps. I don't run filter socks and my homemade traps keep the micro bubbles out of the tanks. Works really well.

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Oh, so the pipes going into them is the water coming into the sump then, right? And the ball valves are to even out the flow between the two of them?

 

[silver surfer]

The water coming in is from my 120 gallon tank from upstairs. Sump is down in the basement. The water enters the reactors (bubble trap) and leaves at the bottom of the trap bubble free.

Here are some more pics of the whole system.

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[mikesmith34]

Declanisadog;951510 wrote: I started dosing vodka a few months back and have been VERY happy with the results.

+1 very good results here also:thumbs:

 

[mikesmith34]

I just switched from the ULN system via highly controlled feeding and heavy bio/mechanical filtration school of reefkeeping to the Heavy Filtratation/Heavy Feeding school and I'm getting much better results. Within SPS corals are coloring up and showing better PE and growth. And I'm talking about noticeable changes with the common eye, no photo comparisons needed. The difference is that great. I'm kicking myself in the butt for all those years of being scared to feed frozen or worry about any bit of uneaten food... Ohh all those pretty SPS frags that browned out and died.

My question for you is - what amount of GFO are you using to maintain your 0 PO4 level and what size tank? I have been using 1 cup of bulk BRS GFO changed every 7-10 days and my PO4 is consistently at 0 via hannah. Anytime I put a new cup of GFO online my hawaiin zoas (dark phoenix, yellow mamba, and blue agave) don't look as happy. The dark phoenix is the most evident as they always close up the day I put GFO online and stay that way for a few days. They also haven't budded a new polyp in months. I want to find the sweet spot for GFO to maintain low PO4 while at the same time not shock my zoas everytime I put a new batch of gFO online. My nitrates tested at 2ppm tonight after cutting back on the vodka a couple of weeks ago. I was looking to put a little bit back in the water column so now I will slowly increase the vodka to bring it back inline.:fish:

 

[rk4435]

I think I just forgot my husbandry and got tank envy.

 

[kirkwood]

Silver - I know with a system that big you're not dosing 2-part. What are the 3 things I see you running on the dosing pump?

 

[silver surfer]

I dose around 80mls a day of mag ca and alk. Don't like ca reactors.

 

[kirkwood]

Silver Surfer;951755 wrote: I dose around 80mls a day of mag ca and alk. Don't like ca reactors.

I'm assuming you use some kind of powder to mix your 2 part like BRS or Randy's?

Just asking because at 80ml/day with your water volume I'd think you have a super concentrated formula, so I am curious what you are using and how much physical product is being dosed.

I use BRS products and for an 80 gal system I dose 1.09 tablespoon of Calcium and 0.65 tablespoon of ALK.

I could never figure why I have to dose so much more CAL than ALK (there isn't a ton of coraline buildup sucking up the CAL, MAG is 1300-1400, and 0 precipitation)

 

[silver surfer]

I am using ESV Bionic Calcium Buffer System and ESV for Mag. It's premixed. It's the only brand I have found that will not fall out in the dosing reactors.
Mag 1400 ish
Ca 420
Alk 9.2
Ph 4.30
I really like this product. I used D&D h2Ocean for salt. Which I rally like as well. I do a 80-90 gallon water change every week.