Hey Kien! How are things? Sorry for the lack of updates here... It's been a while but I should post some updates once a while...

My tank is ok... it's still running... The nicest tank in the West is only a short drive from you...

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psjuqf4uaj.jpg

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps16gl2aj7.jpg

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These shots were just taken earlier this month...

Guess I need to update my signature... I've stopped running bio pellets for a couple mths now but I will dose vinegar two or three times per week. Nitrates has been .2 or lower and phosphates are between .01 and .02 for the last two years. I am still dosing a couple Zeo products but I have been slowly converting over to Aqua Forest.

I'll post some coral pics later,

Cheers!

I've lost all my older pics... luckily I have saved most in a portable drive... but I don't think I will ever be able to repost them... just way too much work... :neutral:

Looking nice! The corals have grown out nicely within.

I'm good, thanks. Busy, as I'm sure you know how that is :-)

That's interesting that you ditched the pellets. Curious as to why? Were they causing a problem ? I'm actually thinking about switching to a different carbon dosing method too. My pellet reactor is acting up. Mostly the pump as it's not fluidizing my pellets as well anymore. I'll probably switch to vinegar or vinegar-vodka.

Ya, I have all my photos on a hard drive and debating whether or not I want to re-upload them somewhere else like Flickr or even the Canreef photo gallery, but as you said, that's a hellofa lot of work.. but going back through my build thread, a lot of those posts are useless now without their photos :cry:

There were no issues with the pellets at all. I don't think the bacteria was using the pellets as a source as it took over a year and a half to consume all the pellets. To prove a point, I took the pellets off but continued with the occasional vinegar dosing. It's been over two months and both no3 and po4 remained unchanged at .2 and .01-.02. The tank did have a spike in both no3 and po4 couple weeks ago due to a death to two clams ( no3 was at 2 and po4 was at .09) however, after two wcs over the last 4 weeks these numbers have dropped down to 1 and .04 and I expect it to drop back to the old numbers soon.

If you do change, why not just dose only vinegar and see how the tank reacts to it first before adding vodka?

More pics as promised...

A few close ups...
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Nice. Ya, my biopellets ended up in the same scenario where they took forever to deplete, which kind of makes sense if your tank has super low nitrates (and phosphates). I do still like the simplicity of just leaving the pellets in the reactor and forgetting about them for a year as they do their thing and tumble away :-) That said, mine are struggling to tumble due to a faulty pump so I either get a new pump for the reactor or use one of my spare dosing pumps to dose vinegar instead. I suppose I could just do vinegar without the vodka. I've never done either but I've read up on both.

Your tank looks like it has all of two fish in it? I see a cardinal and a tang. Is that all you have in there??? :-)

You have a point there with the pellets... it's easy and if I don't have to constantly refill it, even better...I may just hook it back on. I would continue to use the pellets for a while longer while you introduce the the vodka and or vinegar while the tank is building up a new strain of bacteria that uses vinegar/vodka and not starving out the existing bacteria that may only feed on the pellets.

There are more fish in there... lots of leopards and a few fairy wrasses... they have all went to bed when I was taking the pics in the evening...

Oh right, I remember you having all those fancy wrasses. Sounds like my wrasses, they sleep quite early and they literally do go to sleep, tucking themselves into the sand bed.

At the end of the day I may just get a new pump. Would be a lot easier than working up to figuring out what my vinegar dosing rate would be.