my re-build thread

[JohnK]

I'd shell out the extra $$ for starfire.

Picture this down the road, your showing off your system;
"Yup, everything is custom built and I put it all together and I Built XYandZ with my own hands. It's sweet, but I wish I had gone with the starfire front glass"

VS,
"Yup, this is my masterpiece"




Really though, how much $$ difference to get starfire?

 

[Behrmon]

I'd shell out the extra $$ for starfire.

+1, if you can make it happen without breaking the bank then by all means go for it.

 

[ReferReefer]

I wouldn't work to discredit your opinions or work at all, but having just gotten through the post HS, college, post college grind, I would offer a few words just from looking back on my own experiences.

After HS are you heading off to college? Will you be local, and able to care for a reef like this while away?

I know many HS reefers who take pico/nano's to school with them (FREE POWER!) but then there are also concerns about school vacations where they forcibly kick you out of the dorms (xmas vacation, summer vacation, spring vacation, etc...)

Anyway, just a few things to think about, I have no doubt you can handle the load, I've been reading your posts for a long time but when I think back to how many directions I was yanked in over the last 6 years, I'm not sure I would have been able to maintain a super reef on top of the other pressing committments.

Either way, tagging along and very interested to see your progress

Regards,
Lee

 

[Joel A]

I wouldn't work to discredit your opinions or work at all, but having just gotten through the post HS, college, post college grind, I would offer a few words just from looking back on my own experiences.

After HS are you heading off to college? Will you be local, and able to care for a reef like this while away?

I know many HS reefers who take pico/nano's to school with them (FREE POWER!) but then there are also concerns about school vacations where they forcibly kick you out of the dorms (xmas vacation, summer vacation, spring vacation, etc...)

Anyway, just a few things to think about, I have no doubt you can handle the load, I've been reading your posts for a long time but when I think back to how many directions I was yanked in over the last 6 years, I'm not sure I would have been able to maintain a super reef on top of the other pressing committments.

Either way, tagging along and very interested to see your progress

Regards,
Lee

The reef will likely be taken down in two years... i'm hoping to be able to leave it in my fathers care... but who knows on that one. I'm prepared to have to take it down when i leave...

College is certainly the plan, not quite sure where... i'm a baseball player and just had elbow surgery, so a lot is riding on how i come back from that... but likely not someplace local where i'd be able to come home and take care of the reef tank.



Anyways though, as far as starfire... in the big scheme of things, it's not a big price difference.... i forget the exact cost to be honest.. i want to say around 100 bucks though. (Not much when the tank cost 600+ anyways).

I guess i probably should just spring for it, huh?

 

[UncleJT]

I guess i probably should just spring for it, huh?

YES!

 

[Joel A]

so i learned something fairly important today... and how i missed this before is beyond me... i'm an idiot i guess.

So i've been having issues with Alk a bit lately... it's been fairly low (7-7.5) which is fine i usually aim for about 8, but a little lower isn't going to hurt anything...

but on top of that i had been having PH issues... so i thought maybe it was because my alk was low.. (my PH has been very high, around 8.55 during the day) so over the past week i've been raising the amount of alkalinity part i've been dosing... sounds plausible right?

Well i forgot the whole "add equal amounts of part 1 (alk) and 2 (Calcium).. so i was adding 125 ml of alk daily (A LOT for a tank my size that's not heavily packed with corals..) and only 88 ml of calcium daily..

my thoughts were my calcium was sitting where i wanted it, around 425, and my alk was a bit lower than i wanted at about 7 dKH, so the thought process was to just add more alk because i didn't want to bring my CA any higher... well that process was obviously wrong.. now everything is all out of whack..

Despite not upping my CA at all, somehow it managed to raise from 425 to 475, and despite pouring pretty high amounts of alkalinity solution into my tank, it never really raised much higher..

now i've got an issue i need to fix, because my CA is high, so i need to wait for that to fall, and my Alk is where i want it, so as my CA falls, my Alk will fall as well, and then i'll need to bump that back up before i restart my whole dosing routine again...

I thought it was odd when i was viewing a thread on RC (some of you might be familiar with it, it's "SunnyX" rimless reef thread) he too uses two part, and in a larger tank, with a lot more hard corals he was dosing LESS alkalinity portion than me... so i knew that i had to be doing something wrong...

ughhh what a mess...

 

[kotu100]

have you tried leaving the tank alone for a month just topping off, just to see what happens?

what are you dosing to raise alk?

 

[UncleJT]

Joel: What is your magnesium like, this can play a HUGE role in situation like yours? Also, although your CA is high at 475, I don't like its anything to freak out about. However, I definitely wouldn't go any higher. Maintaining 450 always used to be a sweet spot for me.

kotu may have it nailed though and to just leave it alone for a bit. However, I am curious to know what your Mg is like.

 

[KSC]

Are you using recipe 1 or 2?

 

[stingythingy45]

Fwiw Joel,I dose about 120 ml. of both part 1 and 2 in my sump nightly.
I'm managing to keep alk around 9 dkh and calcium around 450 ppm.I don't really check PH all that often.I find more folks run into trouble chasing this parameter than any other.
I upped my Mg.to around 1400 last week,that was low around 1100 ppm.
Definitely check your Mg. parameter.
Do you make up your own 2 part(Randy's)?
If so,as mentioned above about the 2 recipes.Don't bake the baking soda to drive off excess Co2.

 

[ReferReefer]

Just keep in mind that water changes are the universal reset button.But you've gotten some good advice for dosing changes to implement.

Regards,
LEe

 

[Joel A]

Just keep in mind that water changes are the universal reset button.But you've gotten some good advice for dosing changes to implement.

Regards,
LEe

you read my mind .

I'm due for a 20 gallon water change today, that should help a bit.

The plan is to do a water change this afternoon, retest tonight, and see where i am.

JT- Mag is at 1250 or so... i think the only place i went wrong is not dosing equal parts of 1 and 2.

KSC- I'm using recipe 1, i used to have a fairly low PH, now all the sudden it's very high.

Stingythingy- I don't "Chase PH" per say, but it's hard not to notice when it's 8.55... i have a ph monitoring probe, so i notice it all the time.... and although it doesn't worry me that much, a PH of 8.55 is probably not very good long term.. i'd like to just drop it down a little bit. As far as the two part i use, i use bulkreefsupply chemicals, and mix it myself...

 

[Joel A]

When i start dosing again i think i'm going to try 80 ml's of each as a starting dose... might be a tad low, but then i can just up it no problem...

I'm kind of in an inbetween stage here... i'm going full blown zeovit in the coming months, and in a ULNS they like you to keep alk around 7.5, and CA at around 400, but if you're not running ULNS i've found that a lot of people think 7.5 dKH for alk is a bit low...

 

[stingythingy45]

Stingythingy- I don't "Chase PH" per say, but it's hard not to notice when it's 8.55... i have a ph monitoring probe, so i notice it all the time.... and although it doesn't worry me that much, a PH of 8.55 is probably not very good long term.. i'd like to just drop it down a little bit. As far as the two part i use, i use bulkreefsupply chemicals, and mix it myself...

Simple solution,just pull the PH probe out and mothball it.
Just kidding.
Anyways,I have read about dosing club soda to bring PH down.
Have you tried asking in the chemistry thread on RC?Maybe Randy's watching and can give you a few pointers.

 

[Joel A]

yeah, well i don't think i'm going to dose anything to bring it down... that would be chasing PH, wouldn't it? =) .

I think one of the reasons it was high was because i was dosing quite a bit of part 1... i also wonder if it had anything to do with not dosing equal amounts of part 2 (like some sort of balance issue).

 

[stingythingy45]

Yeah,don't go chasing PH,that's a rookie mistake.
And I'm thinking you're not quite a rookie anymore.
Wonder what would happen if you stopped pulling outside air for the skimmer?

 

[KSC]

Switch over to recipe 2. Just remember you have to dose twice as much of recipe 2 compared to recipe 1. The soda ash raises the PH significantly. I dose 60 ml of the recipe 1 alk mixture twice a day. That 60 ml raises the ph in my tank almost .2 in about 5 minutes.

 

[stingythingy45]

Switch over to recipe 2. Just remember you have to dose twice as much of recipe 2 compared to recipe 1. The soda ash raises the PH significantly. I dose 60 ml of the recipe 1 alk mixture twice a day. That 60 ml raises the ph in my tank almost .2 in about 5 minutes.

He doesn't want to raise PH,he wants to lower it and then maintain it in the correct parameter.

 

[UncleJT]

Joel: have you re-calibrated your pH probe recently?

 

[KSC]

I'm using BRS recipes. Recipe 1 raises ph, recipe 2 lowers ph...