FarmerTy

I see your argument for less risky with the dosing pumps, especially if you keep a low reserve volume in the bottles that it is pumping from. At the worst, the dosing pumps will empty out the bottles and increase your calcium and alk levels to a certain degree, but maybe not catastrophic. Basically, if all the things go wrong with the dosing pumps, only the bottle of 2-part will be dumped in the tank. This may or may not lead to a tank crash. Worst case scenario, if everything goes wrong with the calcium reactor, the increase in CO2 will kill everything. This will have a higher chance of a tank crash than dosing pumps.

I'll have to look into the NEO MAG offroaddodge. I may not need it currently but may need it in the future. Not to hijack, but a weird thing about my tank, I bought the 2-part plus magnesium from BRS 1.5 years ago and have never had to dose magnesium. It's always stayed at 1375-1400 with no water changes. Odd. For awhile, it actually was increasing very slowly. Perhaps my substrate??? With the calcium reactor, same thing, never had to dose magnesium. Odd, always been the same at 1375-1400. Maybe I should get my water tested in case my test kit is off. -Ty

Is this a discussion for your own purposes Victoly or is this more discussion inducing? I ask because with your Apex controller and pH probe, you can counteract the catastrophic dumping of CO2 in your system. Or are you leaving that out of the discussion for now and just focusing on the dosing pumps vs calc reactors as a separate topic in itself before identifying and discussing possible outside remedies? I fear the dumping of CO2 in my system too but my Apex helps me sleep at night knowing that solenoid will shut off my CO2 if my pH goes below my safeguard setpoint. That's why I went the route of the calcium reactor vs the dosing pumps, because I have a safeguard with the controller. Then again, my Apex could always fail or my pH probe can malfunction!

Ahhh, gotcha.

You could use your Apex controller you have to set it up. One day maybe I'll get a 2nd pH probe and modify the cap of the reactor to hold the probe, but for now one pH probe works for me. I just program my Apex to shut off the CO2 solenoid if my pH gets below a certain number.

I feel that calcium reactors have the advantage of dosing other trace elements that are not found within a pure mix such as a 2-part mixture. However, I have no data to back it up and in our industry Victoly, theory without supporting data isn't even worth the paper it is written on. I will say that whatever materials were used in the creation of the coral skeleton and deposited within its matrix are the same materials that are being broken down in a calcium reactor. Maybe not all of it will be dissolved in a usable form for the corals to use but I'd imagine there is some added benefit somewhere in there. Even the Caribsea Arm media states, "A high magnesium reactor media. ARM™ Extra Coarse is still a complete reactor media containing not only calcium and carbonate, but essential trace elements as well. ARM™ Extra Coarse contains: 275200 ppm Calcium, 590000 ppm Carbonate, 2200 ppm Strontium, and 2000 ppm Magnesium." It is a manufacturer claim so take it for what its worth but there's got to be some type of additional benefit in there somewhere that we are not measuring. The added risk with a calcium reactor is albeit a little higher than with a dosing pump but I think the added benefits outweigh it in my opinion. Pluses that include low maintenance, potential trace element dosing, and Victoly's "cool factor" of having a calcium reactor. Once dialed in, maintenance is about 2x a year (fill CO2 bottle, fill media, warm water through lines to clear out buildups), versus the mixing of 2-part solution for calcium/magnesium/alkalinity every 2 months and setting them up in a bottle and monitoring them to see when it is time to fill them back up again. I set the calcium reactor, took me about 1-2 weeks the first time, then 1-2 days from that point on now that I know my bubbling rate and drip rate, and leave it alone for 6 months. Replace media, clean it out, dial it in again for about 1-2 days, then walk away again. Just my 2 cents as I have had experience with both types of systems. -Ty

Thanks Reefninja! One last question, what kind of wood did you buy?

SWEET!!!

I used it on my 10-gallon nano way back in the day. I felt like it was useful because when I removed it, things went bad. But, no data to support it as I was not as industrious about testing my water as I am now. Personally, I would stick to GFO as it is tried and proven. My bro still uses purigen in his nano with great results, as his phophate usually tests around 0.050 with just purigen as a removal source of phosphates. He would use GFO but no sump and he doesn't want to run an external reactor. Purigen you can just put in a bag and toss in one of his back chambers. I believe you can also recharge it with bleach but may not be worth the hassle. -Ty

If you are keeping SPS, get ready for a life of dosing and testing. If you only have a small population of SPS, you can get away with water changes but they prob won't grow very quickly or have the coloration you want from them. But, like most things, you can get as anal as you want with it... some are happy just having SPS and aren't worried about optimum growth and optimum color. My work on my tank for sure increased 10-fold after I went heavy on SPS. I dosed manually, then went with dosing pumps, now I run a calcium reactor. Also went from timers, to a controller. Now that almost everything is automatic and stabilized, I test monthly versus biweekly to weekly like I used to. But, that was about 6 months of heavy testing and thousands of dollars of equipment before I got to that point. Getting back to your main issue however, I would agree with most, you prob have a ULNS and the coral are in shock because I'm going to guess it perhaps happened on the quicker side of things? Adding GFO and vodka dosing is typically initially applied incrementally and I can't tell by your post if you had the time to do that or not. When I tried to vodka dose, the initial removal of nitrates/phosphates from the water bleached out one or two of my LPS as well. They recovered just fine. I do however feed my tank everyday and have plenty of fish to add nutrients back into the water. I have also switched to biopellets as my carbon source instead of vodka. Lot less work in my opinion. And some actually advise to use carbon dosing methods to bring down your levels in your tank, but as a periodic method, not a continuous one. I just run mine continuous, but at a lower than advised amount (biopellets). If I was vodka dosing, I'd use it to initially bring down levels in my tank, then reduce my dosing drastically to more of a maintenance dosing amount. One thing though, I'd just be careful of adding the kalk to your system without really knowing what your calcium and alkalinity levels are. I compare it to adding salt to something your cooking without actually tasting it first. The food maybe a little saltier than you want! But the repercussion is not as simple as throwing away your food and ordering pizza, it's the death of your corals. As always, just my 2 cents and my experience with things. I am not by any means an expert. Also, I ditched biology for technology. Subsea is a great source for biology versus technology. -Ty

Well if nobody else is going to request... updated FTS please! The corals looks great and I want to see how everything is coming together now in your tank! -Ty

Sweet build Reefninja. I have the exact tank but had mine drilled and overflows added (completed by Prof). Question on raising the stand, you mind me bugging you on your exact build on the base? I've been wanting to do that myself but was afraid I'd screw up and the whole tank come crashing down on me. Is your sump just sitting on the base inside your stand? We can chat via PM if you want, don't want to fill up your build thread with questions about how to build the base. :-) -Ty

Sweet 10gReef. That would be pretty awesome and I live right off Braker/I-35. Thanks!

I'll be the 10th as long as I can jump on board with someone up north to split shipping with. -Ty

You da man Richard! I was curious myself but didn't expect labeled pictures! I have inspirations to close out my tank like you did for a seamless look. -Ty

Man, that sucks bud. I know that was one of your favorite hobbies. Hope you got a backup gun and gear to keep playing. -ty

I use a calcium reactor now but when I was dosing with BRS 2-part: Total volume: 150 gallons Tank size: 125 gallons Dominant coral type or ratio: 45% SPS, 35% Softies, 20% LPS Cal dose: ~25mL BRS #1 daily Alk dose: ~50mL BRS #1 daily

I think Don Duncan was selling some too.

Gibs, What size is your tank? Are you setting up a new one or running the 16g you have listed on your profile? If 16g, personally I wouldn't do a DSB because at least for me, I would hate how much real estate it takes in such a small tank. 5" of sand in a 16g, you'd end up with like 1/3rd of your viewable tank as just sand. Probably not that bad in your case but the nanocube I'm picturing looks like that in my head. Again, just IMO, but I hate hermit crabs and feel no need to keep a single one in my 125-gallon tank. I think it's just an industry standard to throw them in there and it's been the status quo for so long that nobody looks back and says... why are these in my tank again? If I had kids that loved looking at the little guys run around, then I would get some just for display purposes. Not a big fan of urchins either. They knock things over, eat your nice purple coralline algae, and are voracious eaters. I have fears of them clearing out all edible algae in your tank in 1-2months time and would either starve to death or you would have to supplement their feeding. If you don't mind that and you enjoy watching them, much like the hermit crab scenario above, then pick one up for display purposes but be prepared to reglue frags that it knocked over, lose most of your coraline, and possibly have to supplement its food when all the algae is gone. If you are setting up a larger tank than the 16g, you probably would not have to supplement the feeding at least. I enjoy my nassarius and despite what anybody says, I think they are beneficial and not as much of a pain in the rear as I think hermit crabs are. Both will eat the extra food that doesn't get eaten or anything rotting/dying. Don't believe most of the hype about hermit crabs or nassarius snails eating anything else than that. Cyano? Diatoms? GHA? I'll believe it when I see it. I'm sure there are exceptions but in my experience, they are rare. Hope some of the info helps. Just my 2 cents... I am by no means the final word on anything. -Ty

Ahh, thanks guys. I think you guys pointed me in the right direction. The problem is not the function itself (well maybe, it's more complicated then needed)... the problem is with the testing. The OSC was set up to restart/refresh at midnight and so 510 minutes later, it should turn on at 8:30. Since I programmed this morning expecting it to turn on at 8:30, that wasn't going to happen.. because it will turn on and cycle 510 minutes after I set it up. However, at midnight tonight, it should reset and turn on at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Is this a correct assumption? Thanks for all the help guys. I really need to delve into this code a bit more. -Ty

I'm new to the game and haven't gotten to delve into the programming yet. I am aiming to turn on a pump for 25 seconds/day starting at 08:30am. Here is what I have: Fallback OFF OSC 510:00/000:25/930:00 Then ON It's not working and I'm puzzled as to why. Any Apex gurus want to impart knowledge on me? TIA. -Ty

I wouldn't mind getting 2 MP-40's to add to my system for supplemental flow and to get rid of those stupid koralias, but in either case, I would still keep my wavebox for the wave it makes. Two different niches indeed. One makes a great wave, the other can make a good wave, and also do a bunch of other cool stuff too. If I could have both, then for sure. If I could only pick one, I might have chosen the MP-40's first then added the wavebox later. -Ty

I'd think I'd get a little distracted with a mag float moving back and forth on my back glass wall... lol!

I'll take them, what's your paypal so that I can reserve? I can possibly pickup on my way back in town Sunday. Let me know when's a good time. I'll be out of town until then but will be around the week if there is a better day. Thanks. -Ty