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Unread 11/14/2017, 03:46 PM   #226
biecacka
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Wow!
Very impressive

Corey


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Unread 11/16/2017, 01:50 PM   #227
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^ Exactly what I thought
There is a small "window" in the ARID so I knew I had some growth, but I did not think it would be this much.

Expensive toy, but I am super happy


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Unread 11/19/2017, 10:31 PM   #228
ReefKeeper64
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Volcano1 View Post
I'm still waiting for my numbers to drop. I am getting growth, just seems slow. I rinsed and re spread what algae was in each chamber, both were about half full. A few more days and it will be two weeks, I'll take things apart and re rinse. Is everyone waiting for the chambers to fill before removing any cheato? I have been dosing the iron supplement for the past 3 weeks. Cheato doesn't seem brittle, but I will check boron levels and see if I need to supplement that as well. My biggest complaint so far is the cleaning and rest ringing of the algae is a little pita. I have been having issues with my right hand arm, so I volunteered my wife for this.

Does anyone know what this is all about? "My biggest complaint so far is the cleaning and rest ringing of the algae is a little pita"?? I'm guessing that the pax-bellum instructions state that you have to squeeze and rinse the cheato periodically? This seems odd.



Last edited by ReefKeeper64; 11/19/2017 at 10:53 PM.
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Unread 11/27/2017, 05:24 PM   #229
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I threw away a lot more than the recommended 2/3 when I did my first chaeto harvest.
Yesterday, 12 days later, the reactor was almost full again

Although maybe still not the recommended amount, I kept more algae this time, so I will probably do my next harvest after a week







More random ARID-stoke:








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Unread 11/27/2017, 09:54 PM   #230
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Looking good!


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Unread 04/20/2018, 06:35 PM   #231
jbyrne
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I'd love to buy a used N18 off of anyone upgrading to the N24. Feel free to PM me.


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Unread 01/21/2019, 04:07 PM   #232
saltwaterpicaso
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so is everyone still using there reactors and if so or not why


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Unread 02/11/2019, 11:30 PM   #233
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I’m interested in why everyone is stripping all nitrate and phosphate, only to add it back in. Is it too difficult to dial it back so that there is some nitrate and phosphate in the system? It looks very impressive to me. The pics of Chaetomorpha growth is amazing. But, just seems like overkill if you have to dose nutrients back in after you just exported them.


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Unread 02/12/2019, 01:58 AM   #234
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I noticed a lot of them for sale recently.


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Unread 02/13/2019, 04:12 PM   #235
paal
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Still run mine (N24). Works great.

I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.

At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.


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Unread 02/13/2019, 11:50 PM   #236
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Still run mine (N24). Works great.

I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.

At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
This seems like the perfect balance. I guess you need to have a good feel for your tank to do this.


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Unread 02/14/2019, 12:56 AM   #237
paal
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I dunno… For me this has been pretty straight forward (after I learned the importance of avoiding 0/0 values )

I guess it becomes a bit harder if nitrates and phosphates are depleted in such a manner that only one of them deviates from your desired set-point. I guess this is typically when people would resort to dosing. From what I have read, algae reactors generally consume nitrates faster than phosphates (in relation to our desired values), and as a result, nitrate dosing is the most common solution. My reactor even came with a bottle of nitrates for this very reason, but I have not been required to use it yet.

Maybe I am just lucky to get that “perfect” NO3/PO4 removal ratio in my system, but I really do not think it would be hard to figure out how much nitrate to dose if nutrient levels would start to become unbalanced.


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Unread 02/14/2019, 01:43 AM   #238
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Oh I see now.


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Unread 02/14/2019, 05:17 AM   #239
Big E
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paal View Post
Still run mine (N24). Works great.

I check nutrient levels about once every two-four weeks and simply adjust the photo-period to make sure i stay at roughly 5 NO3 and .02 PO4.
I do not dose anything except standard aquaforest balling.

At first I did run nutrients too low and had issues because of it. It was just so fun to see those numbers drop to zero in the beginning.
Do you run a skimmer or just the reactor?

What's your livestock load?

Explain the photo-period........what's the duration now and how much do you have to change it to see the test numbers change.


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Unread 02/14/2019, 07:32 AM   #240
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Hi Ed,
Above info is a bit simplified. Let me try to be more specific:
Tanks is 40x30x20, roughly 100gallon.

4 chromis
2 percula clowns
2 flame hawkfish
2 pseudochromis fridmani
1 coris wrasse
1 fairy wrasse
1 filefish
1 purple tang

I have always been using a skimmer, and ever since I had a dino outbreak I have also used a 55W UV sterilizer. Outbreak was a little over a year ago, and it was when my nutrients dropped all the way to zero. At least the nitrates did (do not have a PO4 reading from that time) I assume this is what caused the dino outbreak, though I cannot say for sure.

I should add that I only measure nitrates myself (like I mentioned; every 2(lol not really)-4 weeks or so.) I submit water samples to aquaforest/marinlab for ICP-testing roughly 4 times/year, and that is where I get my PO4 readings. (I use salifert for both NO3 and PO4, so my own PO4 readings are useless / always “0” / I don’t bother doing them anymore. I should of course have gotten a Hanna checker or some other way to correctly measure PO4, but I am lazy and my current “system” works for now at least Even the Salifert NO3 is a bit hard to read correctly I think, but at least it gives a rough estimate.

So… I simply adjust my reactor based on the NO3 alone, and so far both NO3 and PO4 stay within “ok” levels.
Again, I am lazy, and don’t write down my own measurements but I just logged in and checked my last 4 PO4-values from marinlab: (oldest reading is just over 1 year old) 0,0041 – 0,0151 – 0,0480 – 0,0240.
My NO3 readings in the last year have typically been in the 5-10 range. Never lower than 5, a few times maybe 20ish. (marinlab does not measure NO3, so I have no official data from them unfortunately. Would be neat to see the exact correlation.

When I said I adjust the photo-period of the reactor, that was a small lie said in order to keep things short and easy to understand
My lights are on for 12 hours every night and have been so for about a year. My current method of adjusting the nutrient export is simply harvesting and cleaning the reactor more frequently. I have it in series with the UV unit, so I actually have too little flow through the reactor for it to work optimally. But I really don’t require optimal, so all is good The problem though is that the low flow causes some detritus and “goo” to build up inside the unit. If I wait too long between each harvest I can clearly see that some of the cheato does not look perfect. (Note to self: clean the unit/measure NO3 TODAY )
So, when NO3 is on the higher side (10+) I simply have more focus on keeping the thing cleaner/harvesting more often. (roughly 2x/month vs 1x)

The ideal solution would probably be to have a dedicated pump for the reactor with higher flow. This would make for a healthier algae/less work when servicing the unit. Photo-period could then be adjusted in order to control export levels.

I have been planning to do this for quite some time, but I keep saying “next weekend” (as with SO many other things…)
The change is not required though: Everything is working perfectly fine the way it is, but it would make the overall maintenance easier.

Overall I guess I have a bit of a messy approach. Perhaps I should be more proactive. I used to do 10% weekly water changes super consistently, but lately that has been more like 10% monthly. This summer/autumn I waited close to 6 months. No major issues though, so…
Also, cabinet/sump used to be pristine wrt cabling etc.. the last year or so it’s gotten messy. I guess when things are working well I get more lazy…?


6ish month old tank pic / 1+ year old sump pic (before UV and some more vortechs etc...)






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Unread 02/14/2019, 10:39 AM   #241
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How do you keep the sand so clean lol


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Unread 02/14/2019, 10:42 AM   #242
paal
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Siphon

But that pic was taken not too long after new sand tbh. (Had removed old sand bed when i had a dino-outbreak)


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Unread 02/14/2019, 10:43 AM   #243
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Looks clean!


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Unread 02/14/2019, 12:03 PM   #244
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Thanks for the detailed response


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Unread 02/24/2019, 08:05 PM   #245
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Natural reefs have no measurable nutrients. You could just strive for that.


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