FarmerTy

That's what my cheapy stunner strip is for... basically just lights it up for my viewing pleasure but doesn't really add any significant par. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I'd just go back to 3-4 hours of lighting and ramp up slowly from there. You've had SPS long enough that you can probably tell if they are getting too much light by now.

I'm dumb. You guys are right. I was referencing my condition in my current tank but that is without the biopellets online. So he's basically selling a ball of biopellets probably with GFO infused in it, or some other phosphate binding media. That would be nice for people who don't want to run two reactors. That would be pretty cool if it works in theory. The slow release of the phosphate binding media coupled with the nitrate reducing abilities of the biopellets would mean you don't have to keep changing out your GFO monthly while your biopellets just churn and churn away for months to a year.

Give it a whirl and let us know your results! If you read my build thread, I recently discussed the merits of adding potassium phosphate to my tank in order to dose phosphates to my phosphate-limited system. This allowed for more uptake by my macro/bacteria to assimilate the excess nitrate in my system. From the description of these biopellets, it seems like the product has added a phosphate source to the biopellets so that the bacteria have enough phosphates to further drive down the nitrates in a system than what normal biopellets can do. It seems the reviewer might have mistakenly said that the creator added more "phosphate remover" in the biopellets. I believe he meant to say he added a phosphate source to the biopellets. Either that or that's marketing magic to not scare people with thoughts of adding phosphates to a system.

That pictures makes it much easier to visualize all that data. That's very interesting about the fixture's par readings. It is in line with how I want to eventually run my system. Running a standard par value of 300-400 most of the day in the mid-level and 150-300 in the sand. Then for about 3-4 hours a day, have a more intense time period of 400-700 in the mid-level to aid in development of the protective color pigments in the SPS corals. Basically blast them to produce the pigments but only for a short-time per day so that you don't overwhelm them to the point of it being detrimental. Interesting results bud. Thanks for sharing.

I think it would work for a little bit but eventually, it would all mix together. The problem with different grain sizes and various inputs of kinetic energy in the tank (mainly from flow and inhabitants) is that it will eventually sort itself. All your fine stuff will end up in the bottom and the coarser materials will end up on top. The ideal sand setup is one with a homogeneous grain size and large enough that it doesn't get pushed around by the high flow in my tank but not too large as I don't like the look of larger grain sizes or crushed coral.

Always wanted a nice little setup at the office. Looks great! I would have to agree with Juiceman. Could also just be the picture and can't really tell.

Thanks Brian! Glen, I have a million of these guys. More often than not, when people buy frags, there are a couple wrapped around the plug. Once my colors come back after all that experimenting, I'll have a frag sale and anybody who buys anything can have some if they want as a gift with purchase. :-) Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Enjoy the late night viewing. Make sure the spouse isn't watching you or they'll question what video you are watching. For those who don't want to hear the awesome song in its in entirety, you can fast forward to 0:25 and 2:00 and see the good stuff.

Must be something in the water! Details posted later tonight... dare I say... a video!

Sorry, already sold. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

With respect to water changes and keeping certain parameters at certain levels, it seems an uphill battle. You're just going to be diluting the concentration with each water change and dosing to get it back to that point. That seems like quite the chore to do this on a weekly basis. If it were me, I'd just go with what the levels that the salt mix gives me and not fight them too much. Once you get a calcium reactor or 2-part dosing system, then I would perform less water changes and allow the supplementation to drive the numbers. At that point, you can tweak it to whatever numbers you prefer to run. I don't think targeting a higher alk or higher magnesium level is going to give you that much better growth to be worth trying to drive numbers up weekly as you dilute them during each water change. Just my 2 cents bud. You'd probably get more growth just keeping nutrient levels in check and dosing aminos every couple of weeks. Oh yeah, and making sure your return line doesn't get clogged!

I'd just keep an eye on it for now since I can still see polyps in that white area. Looks like something may have rubbed up against it and burned it. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Keep an eye on that white patch and if it continues to spread, I would either cut it off or super glue a line in front of it (kind of like a DMZ) so that it can't continue. BTW, I want my war coral patch back!

Tried with the larger neodymium magnets I already had but it still wasn't strong enough. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

I'm on two... wouldn't mind a 3rd. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

What if I fired myself long ago? Haha. The word deliverable still gives me goosebumps. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Sascha, if you got the Jr, you would assuredly need to buy another module to connect a 2nd pH probe so that you had one to use to control the CaRX itself and the other to monitor the tank's pH value in case something went awry and it was depressing it too much. I guess I should reword, you don't need to but it would be highly advised. You could get away with only using one ph probe to monitor and control your CaRX but you'd have no idea what your pH of your tank is at. I don't even bother with floats and wires for auto topoff. I just run a time function and have it come on 4 times a day. If you were to do that, all you'd need is a pump and an open power port on your EB4 that came with the Jr. The problem is you only get 4 ports with the Jr. and I'm going to guess 7 times out of 10, you'll end up needing more power ports. With that, you'll need to shell out $150 anyways for the EB8 (which has 8 power ports). That gets you that much closer to the Full Apex and with it you'll get a 2nd pH port and variable dimming built-in. The variable dimming will allow for control of some LED fixtures and I use it personally for controlling my Jaebo pumps. I can ramp them up and down, set wave modes, set flush modes, etc. using the variable dimming ports.

Yes, I would assume it was more the macro algae uptake than bacterial uptake and me getting "in the zone" for the macro. If my biopellet reactor was running, I would assume more bacterial uptake but that is just a wild guess as I don't know if bacteria would assimilate it faster than macro algae. I appreciate the calculation you did on the amount of phosphate processed and its comparison to the RHF article. I perused the article last week and found it results interesting but did not correlate the results I had back to it. Very interesting indeed and I'll give it the official cool rock out smiley face that my impromptu experiment somewhat lined up with it... even though my controls were non-existent and my process severely limited by equipment and lackadaisical documentation. I guess not bad for spontaneously putting it together. Please send my consulting bill to El Jefe, MFrame. I will agree with you on the hitch. I feel that the macro will be too limited to make a difference at the ppb levels I am wanting my phosphate level at and I didn't even think about the failing macro actually contributing back to the phosphate level increase. Perhaps that is when the bacterial uptake will be able to take it down to the ppb's for phosphate and I should just remove the macro if it shows itself to be withering away in the low phosphate environment. One can only hope but you don't work so long in the field and not carry out your day with a giant weight of skepticism on your back daily. As Gig'em wisely said, that's my job is to be skeptical!

I'll split my tang in the name of science! I call heads! Okay, excuse the slightly morbid humor. I've always depended on chemical intervention for ultra low phosphate levels that my SPS like. And my feeding is anything but reasonable... which is why I have the nitrate issue I have... among other things. The interesting thing about my tank dynamics is if I leave the refugium going, even if I have so much nutrients that algae goes nuts in my tank, the only thing that will happen is my macro algae will go very quickly in the sump and anything growing in the main DT will get consumed by either my tangs or my urchins. Interesting thing to note is that I have resumed feeding my ridiculous amounts of food per day and with the GFO reactor being offline for almost a week and me dosing phosphate, my phosphate levels continued to drop after each time I dosed phosphate. I know this won't carry on forever but I was surprised at the results. I purposely added roughly 0.16ppm of phosphate to my system over 3-4 days and continued to feed heavily while removing my only phosphate removing system (GFO) and my phosphate still went down! I started with 0.02 ppm, dosed 0.16ppm of phosphate over 3-4 days, removed my GFO during that time, fed like crazy, and my phophate went back down to 0.05ppm... not to mention my nitrates went down from ~50ppm down to ~10ppm over that time. I don't know what kind of voodoo that is but whatever it is... I like it!

That's exactly what I told Ol Aggie a couple of weeks ago but I'm interested to see if it can be accomplished now. I don't have any utter chaos but I'll put up a frag of my naso tang that says I can get my phosphates below 0.05 ppm with biopellets!

It'll start off blue/green and once settled, will start transitioning into the bluest colored acro you'll ever own. It is literally stunning to look at. For being around for years, it still commands top dollar in most coral markets.

I just kicked them back on last night... way to not read every word of my 2000+ words I posted last night! The experiment was fun to just do... throw me a bone man... you know I miss "sciencing" sometimes! Haha. The biopellets once fully online will be the primary mechanism for export of nitrates and phosphates if I can find a balance between the two. If not, then GFO will be implemented to remove the residual phosphate which was my tank maintenance regiment for the old tank.

Not in my tank man! It's salsa and chips only or no chips for you! That's where I would hope that I could observe the limiting condition if it presents itself once the biopellets are fully online again. If I have no limiting condition and the nitrates and phosphates stay at a low enough level to not warrant GFO, then I have no issues just leaving it alone. If I have a phosphate-limiting condition again and then dose phosphate but nothing happens, then I know that it may not be a functional solution anymore and GFO may re-enter the picture. Either way, I'll aim to tweak the levels in my tank to get the best efficiency of removal for nitrates and phosphates. At worst, I ran my old 125-gallon off of the GFO and biopellet regiment and never had phosphate or nitrate issues. The tank was gorgeous to me and I had great success with SPS in the old tank. The new tank is having some growing pains from the transition through error on my part and just some tank newness issues but I hope to achieve the same success in this one while having a little fun with some experiments as I go.

How come you're getting rid of the Oregon Tort? It's literally the deepest blue acro you'll ever get your hands on! Super slow grower though!