FarmerTy

Good catch guys. Yes, I meant 0.05. Here's the thing, everything you stated is true Bpb. What everyone told you is something to keep in mind. But really, tuning is as simple as what I described. Keep a steady flowrate, decrease pH in the reactor until your tank's uptake matches the output of the reactor. It really is that simple. Sorry Reburn, I tried to watch that video but his delivery was excruciating. The long pauses, the continual back tracking... drove me nuts. I'm sure there was good information in there. From what I could pull from the thread discussion though, same idea but with using the controller and manipulating the pH via a solenoid (his case, the carbondoser). The only problem I have with that is you are reliant directly on your controller to set and maintain your pH. I prefer to set the bubble rate and pH manually without the solenoid first and then program my controller to react if it ever goes beyond my limits by killing the CO2. Otherwise, IME, your solenoid will eventually wear down (I know you guys use much fancier ones than I used in the past) and your nice steady 6.6 pH just shot down to 6.3 in a day because your solenoid gave out. If you tune your reactor without using the controller and solenoid and do it manually, the bubble rate should maintain your pH without ever having to engage or disengage the solenoid. At that point, it's there for insurance like it should be utilized, not as a control mechanism. But that's just my preference. To me, it won't bite you in the butt now, but it will eventually with that control scheme once the solenoid wears down. Even if yours is the much more stable and reliable solenoid, why risk it? The other issue with Toxics method is desired efficiency. He recommends a quicker flow. I actually ran a pretty quick flow on my first two reactors but have since dialed it back on this one. The main reason... efficiency. The faster flow requires you to use more CO2 to maintain that lower pH as more water is being replaced in the reactor. Hence why I've dialed my flow back, deliver a more concentrated effluent, and save my CO2. He is correct though in the fact that it is super easy to tune your reactor. Set drip rate, check, don't mess with it anymore. Now set bubble rate to achieve X pH in the reactor, check. Test alk, oops, it went down in 24hrs, decrease pH 0.05 and test again in 24 hrs. Rinse and repeat until it matches your tank uptake. Done.

Cool, that's what I use too. You'll want to probably add neomag in the reactor as well as I've noticed the media has less Mg content then the caribsea media and it doesn't keep up with my tanks Mg uptake. Anyways, it's just going to be trial and error while you tweak. Don't worry about nuking your tank, the reactor is really designed to just maintain levels so it would take settings pretty far out of whack to really increase your alk too much in a day. I'd start with aiming to get a reactor pH at 6.7-6.8 range with an effluent rate of about 5 drops/second. You just adjust your bubble rate until you can get it to maintain a pH of around 6.7-6.8, probably about 2 bubbles/second but every CaRX is different. I'd set the solenoid to shutoff at a value of 6.6 just in case. Test your alk level before firing up the CaRX and test 24hrs later and see how it impacted your alk level. If you are paranoid, then test in 12 hrs and see what the impact is. My guess is it'll do very little supplementation. I would leave the effluent rate the same and from this point increase the CO2 bubble rate and lower the pH 0.5 more each day until it starts matching your tanks alk uptake rate.

Woohoo! This is as far as I go. You're on your own now! I just like to spend other people's money. [emoji12] What media are you planning to use?

I have two blocks and my aluminum level is 86 ug/l (avg seawater level is around 4 ug/l if I remember correctly), to no ill effect to any of my tank inhabitants. We don't even know what form of aluminum is leached from the blocks but I'm going to guess a non-reactive form. I've got some pretty sensitive corals and fish in the tank and there have been no issues. Some have reported that it does irritate leather corals for a brief period but I don't keep any to confirm that.

I wouldn't try to disturb the brown jelly until you can get Lugol's and remove the hammer to treat. I feel like I saw it at RCA but I'm pretty sure Aquadome, Aquatek, or Fish Gallery should have it. Just don't let it get in contact with any other euphyllias... they are prone to the infection.

No way, it's going on the frag tank first. I'm experimental but not crazy! [emoji4] I bet they just mean it won't come with a lab grade pH probe but it I'd be surprised if it didn't come with a pH probe at all. That would be ridiculous.

It's got a brown jelly infection. You'll want to take it out and treat it. I've done a dip with tank water and a couple drops of Lugol's on one before and it recovered. You'll want to use a pipette or syringe and suck up/blow off the brown jelly bacteria and then place it in the Lugol's dip for 10-15 mins. It may be a little too far gone but it's worth a shot.

Add a John Guest CaRX feed line on the manifold.

The guy I talked to at Vertex said watch the video from BRS. He said it'll basically come with everything there. While I doubt it comes with two power strips, I would bet it comes with a temp probe and pH probe. Who knows what else but at that price and with those features, who cares. Anything else is bonus to me. [emoji4]

This was posted in the comments section of the link I posted. Can't vouch for them or anything though. http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/vertex-cerebra-prima-controller That's where I preordered it through.

I'll let you guys know when it comes in. [emoji6]

Looks like bam bams and rastas, respectively.

Welcome to the club!

Yeah, I'd hold the salt. Just run a temperature test for now.

Here's the thing about an achilles tang (and this applies to powder blue tangs in my opinion), both fish have no immunity to ich. Most other tangs/fishes will get over it and they'll be fine. Hippo tangs are prone but if in good conditions and eating, will get over it. Neither the achilles or PBT will. They will both slowly die from ich if its in your system. Obviously with any rule, their are exceptions to it and some are able to keep these tangs in ich-maintenanced tanks (ich is present but not overly active). Only treatment I would recommend is to setup a QT tank and treat the fish. You can use either tank transfer method, copper, or chloroquine phosphate. I would recommend TTM personally. That's the easy part. The hard part is running your tank fallow (without fish) for 76 days until all ich has cleared from the tank. Then you can put the fish back in. That's not it though. Now you have to make sure it never gets into the tank again. Now you have to QT everything from this point before it goes into your tank. Assume everything has ich on it, this includes corals, fish, and CUC. In the end, I only recommend the fish for advanced hobbyists that are willing to put in the time and effort to make sure they have an ich-free tank and QT everything before it comes into the tank for at least 30-45 days, but probably should do it 76 days as well just to be safe. If you don't want to deal with all the mess that I outlined above, I would highly advise you to just rehome the fish to someone who is willing to do all of the above. I know of one guy right now that just recently lost his achilles but has been working on an ich-free tank that would more than love to probably take it off your hands. I'm sure he'll speak up if you are looking to part ways from it.

Yeah, my halloween urchin was plenty destructive. I got rid of him and just keep the blue tuxedo urchins these days. I appreciate a good LOTR reference any day... why do I have to be the bad guy though?

May want to order a 55-gallon drum of this stuff then! http://aquanerd.com/2016/06/fauna-marin-launches-new-revolutionary-product-for-aquascaping-your-aquarium.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aquanerd%2FWdua+%28AquaNerd+RSS+Feed%29

Aww man, you have environmental knowledge of the garage that I don't. I change my answer to 86, unless your garage is also insulated... then my answer may change.

So what is your guess on the temperature of the tank, say by tomorrow?

Holy cow! I feel like you've spent $1000 on just rock alone up to this point! I hope you craft the most beautiful, iconic reefscape man has ever seen with all this stuff! It will be the stuff of legends!!!

I've used NLS Ich Shield Powder, RCA usually has some in stock as well as Aquadome. The active ingredient is a derivative of CP and in my use of it, seems just as effective. I'm no chemist but here is the active ingredient: I,4-Pentanediamine, N4-(7-chloro-4-quinolinyl)-NI,NI-diethyl The manufacturer mentioned on a forum thread I read once that he could only sell it in that form or else it would require a prescription. Only difference I've found is the quantity/concentration required to be different. Only reason I mentioned is so that anybody reading will follow the instructions that comes with the product and don't follow instructions that they may have found online in a thread somewhere that is directly referring to CP as you'll probably overdose. It will readily treat ich, marine velvet, or brooklynella so nice to have in your arsenal if you cannot tell which you have. It is sensitive to UV so indirect room light is advised when administering the CP. I would not put a light directly over the tank. I found it very easy on fish and very easy to use. The only issue is that there is no test kit for it so you'll have to keep an eye on concentration level. Once you dose, make sure that any water changes are followed with a resultant dose to put back how much you took out. For instance, you change 20 gallons of water, replace 20 gallons of water and dose enough CP for 20 gallons to replace what you took out. Also, don't use live rock while dosing it as it will be absorbed and the resulting concentration may not be enough to effectively treat the fish. Luckily, if you slightly overdose, the CP has a large margin of error that is still safe for fish. Some have reported that wrasses may be sensitive to it but I found that not the case. Also, it could be an appetite suppressant but I've found most medications have that as a side effect anyways. Obviously, don't use activated carbon, skimmers, or UV sterilizers while using it. I would not use it in conjunction with other medications either. Hope that helps.

I'm with Jim on this one.

Sure, we'll figure it out. Only thing I'll say about bioballs is to give them to your cat as a play toy and move on. [emoji4]

I want it! Where's the UV? I don't see it? I think that thing in the corner is a sand filter if I had to guess.