I did it!

Discussion in 'General Reef Discussion' started by SilentReefer, Dec 20, 2017.

  1. I took my skimmer off-line!

    My grow light came in (the red blue LED variety) so figured it was time. I placed my cheato ball inside the sump chamber that my skimmer called home. It's the largest section of my 55 sump. I don't plan on testing Phostphate.....at least not much. I'll keep you guys posted.

    I only changed my skimmer collection cup about every month, so couldn't have been doing much, except increase the db in the house.

    We'll see if my SPS like the switch....fingers crossed. Anyone with suggestions please post!!
     
    Botheboss likes this.
  2. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    I need to clean my Skimmer cup. I think it’s so full of gunk in the tube that it has quit skimming again. Yuck!
     
  3. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Interested to see how this goes.

    I'm skimming and growing large amounts of chaeto in my refugium. Thinking about shutting my skimmer off since my PO4 is 0.02 and my nitrate is undetectable. Only thing holding me back is this rapidly growing greenish brown biofilm on my glass and sand.
     
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  4. I'm guessing it will take a couple months to notice real change if any in coral.

    I'll have to be better at changing filter socks. Once a month won't cut it.

    Any thoughts on ceramic block placed in the sump?
     
  5. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    BRS did an interesting study on filter socks and the gist of it was twice a week was the optimal frequency to change the filter socks. About what I do. I have around 30 socks and I change 2 of the 3 every few days, and move the #3 one to the #1 slot.

    I have used Marine Pure ceramic blocks and did not see any effect on my nitrates. I did see an elevated aluminum on my Triton test.

    I am currently using the Brightwell Xport NO3 bricks X 2 and I'm thinking this may be why I can't get nitrates to register.
     
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  6. Thanks for the input!
    I saw the BRS trial. Very interesting. I was thinking I may shoot for weekly. Though is was suboptimal I remember it not being terrible. Definitely better than what I'm currently doing.

    Good to know about ceramic blocks.
    Are the brightwell blocks similar in that you place in area of flow?
     
  7. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Yep. Its one of the reasons I dont have a lot of turnover in my sump. Rely on power heads more for flow.
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  8. Brightwell blocks disintegrating!? Yuck! I kinda want to try one but I make enough mess without that. Have you read anything about "bad batch"?
     
  9. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Yeah that was over a year ago and was taken care of. Mine are "rock solid" , pardon the pun. That was even more of a problem with the Marine Pure. Mine got very fragile.
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  10. LJC6780

    LJC6780 Grouper

    I’ve been using the marine pure balls in my sump. I haven’t noticed them disintegrating or anything. Nitrates had been through the roof despite light feeding and skimming. I added some bactergen m soaked balls and nitrates started going down. I’ve not done a triton test.
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  11. Okay, so it's early for an update. But..... so far so good. My glass hasn't exploded in green carpet, so we'll see what a few more days looks like.
     
    graciesdad, LJC6780 and huntindoc like this.
  12. Quick update.
    Had a bit of cyano and still do, small amount. Almost looks to be diatom on my filtersocks.

    Overall I've noticed nothing else negative. Not even a noticeable difference in glass cleaning. Surprisingly, my cheato also isn't noticeably growing; I'm sure it is.

    Coral seem to be doing well. May have a bit more PE, but likely placebo affect.
     
  13. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Looking forward to future updates!
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  14. Okay, another update.

    Cyano persists in the DT. Mostly on the bottom sand, but not overwhelming.

    Dino's in the Fuge persist, but isolated.

    Cheato seems to be growing a small amt.

    My concern is my nutrients may be too low, I refuse to use my Hannah PO4 tester cause it's such a pain. May take sample to LFS.

    Very little algae scraping required on glass, surprisingly.

    Coral looking fine.

    Always open to suggestions
     
  15. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    What's wrong with your Hanna tester?

    I bet you're right. Every time I've had cyano it was in a low nutrient (like zero nitrate or phosphate) situation.
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  16. Nothing wrong, it's just difficult getting the powder in the bottle. Can't ever quite get it all, then questions accuracy.

    Low nutrients seems odd. I would've thought taking the skimmer offline would've increased. I honestly think my SPS are sucking em up. I really don't want to dose for nutrients.....trying to minimize the process.
     
  17. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    Actually that reagent is in excess in that test so it's not really critical. I'll have to show you my method for getting it all in the cuvette!

    Go to post #19 on this thread. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/alternative-to-hanna-phosphorus-ulr.346387/#post-4318686

    I'm sure there are lots of other reasons for cyano, that's just what was going on when I've had it. I'll trade you. I've got dinoflagellates (ostreopsis). It makes me wish I had cyano!
     
    SilentReefer likes this.
  18. Thanks for the link!

    Cyano is easily eliminated with erythromycin, which I've done multiple times over the years. I think this is a short sighted band aid likely destroying a large portion of "good" bacteria. I'm contemplating a bacteria in a bottle product. Vibrant is very intriguing.
     
  19. huntindoc

    huntindoc RRMAS BOD Membership Director Staff Member

    I have a fairly dim view of Vibrant, but what happened to me is probably not due to it. I had some pretty bad hair algae and started dosing Vibrant. After dosing it for 2 months with no improvement I stopped and started running GFO to get my phosphate really low (nitrate was already undetectable). Unfortunately that lead to what I'm battling now.....dinoflagellates (ostropsis species to be specific).

    I never thought I would do this but I'm dosing sodium nitrate and a phosphate solution. I have my nitrate up to 1.0 and my phosphate is up to 0.03 and it seems to be helping a little.

    Video of the little devils

     
  20. I didn't realize you tried Vibrant. I'm curious to know if increasing the bacterial mass will eliminate cyano. I don't think I want to supplement long term, but a few weeks of something seems intriguing. Any thoughts or suggestions?

    I guess I'll test PO4 :)
    I'm with you on adding sodium nitrate and phosphate, really don't want to. I'm thinking that may be my next step.

    It's interesting so much of this hobby has centered around nutrient export and elimination of N and P, but so many people seem to be struggling with the damaging effects of ULNS. I havn't run GFO in over a year.
     
    huntindoc likes this.

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