120gal mixed predatory reef tank

[whatcaneyedo]

Its been a few weeks since I ran out of the probio kit stuff and it seems like some of my cyano is returning a bit. But that is the only noticeable difference that I can see.

This time I'm experimenting with some Vertex Pro-Bio Pellets. My hopes is that I'll be able to use them in place of GFO which I've been running steady for about two years now to keep the phosphate levels in my tank undetectable. The GFO from BRS has been great and I've been able to bring the phosphate down to 0 from .75 and keep it there by changing out 1 cup each month. But this solid organic carbon system appears to be much less expensive and a little less maintenance so I've been wanting to give it a try. At this time both phosphate and nitrate in my system are undetectable so I'm curious to see if the phosphate starts to creep back up or not and whether or not anything looks visually different in the tank over time.

I was able to get about 300ml of pellets to completely fit and liquidize in a TLF Reactor powered with a Mag 3 pump. My net system water volume is probably a little over 200gal so according to their directions I should minimally have 400ml of pellets running. But most of my system is empty water space and contains just 6 fish so we'll see.

EDIT: I removed the sponges and replaced them with some of that craft store plastic mesh. By doing so I was able to fit some more pellets in and now I'm pretty close to 400ml.

[whatcaneyedo]

I'm only on day two of the pellet experiment. My tank looks quite a bit cloudier than normal and the skimmer is pulling more than it generally does. Some of the coral look a bit off while others look perfectly normal.

On a side note my Seachem KH test kit ran out today so I switched to a new Elos one. On my Seachem kit I was told that my tanks alkalinity was 8 dkh. On the Elos one it says 12.5 dkh! I don't know about you but that is a huge difference in my opinion. So I'm shutting off the flow of CO2 to my calcium reactor until it comes down to at least 10 dkh. In the mean time I'm going to try and find someone else in town with a test kit that I can reference mine against.

[trilinearmipmap]

OK here are a couple of ideas regarding the lack of reliability of kH test kits.

My Salifert kH test kit came with a reference standard to check the kH test results against. If no one in town has a reference standard to lend you, I can bring one out next time I am in town.

The other idea is to use a pH monitor (recently calibrated against known standards) to measure the pH of a sample of tank water that has been aerated outdoors for a few hours. By aerating the water sample, the concentration of CO2 in the water will be equal to the concentration in the atmosphere. Since carbonate/bicarbonate is the predominant buffer system in seawater, you can take the pH and the concentration of CO2, and calculate the kH.

By using both these methods you should be able to come to some approximation of how accurate your kH test kit is.

[whatcaneyedo]

A lot of coral looks ****ed off this morning and some of the fish aren't breathing right so I'm going to take some of the pellets out so that I only have 250ml running and do a water change.

I dont think I'll have a problem finding someone in town with a KH kit that I can try but thanks for the idea.

[globaldesigns]

Hey, I haven't used the Vertex Pellets, but with NP BioPellets they need to be tumbling very aggressively... I may be incorrect, but doesn't the Vertex ones need to be used in the same way? I see that you have your reactor stuffed, with no room to move.

If the Vertex are on the same principle as NP BioPellets, then the reactor is just going to get bunged up with mulm and garbage... I would suggest removing half of them and get them really moving around.

This is way I use 3 reactors in my setup, with about 1 litre in each, and have them going crazy (tumbling and whipping around).

I hope this helps, If the vertex pellets are different, please enlighten us all.

Thanks.

[whatcaneyedo]

No they all tubling. I posted a picture and not a video so its hard to tell. I guess I could take a snap of them with the pump off and then with the pump on so that you could see... But I've already made some changes and removed a lot so there isn't really any point now. With the amount that was in there the reactor was about 2/3 full with the pump off. With the pump on it looks like its completely full.

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

No they all tubling. I posted a picture and not a video so its hard to tell. I guess I could take a snap of them with the pump off and then with the pump on so that you could see... But I've already made some changes and removed a lot so there isn't really any point now. With the amount that was in there the reactor was about 2/3 full with the pump off. With the pump on it looks like its completely full.

Ah cool, pic is very decieving.

Not saying you have to do this, but I run 3 liters on my system (180G, with 100G sump/refuge) How much are you running, maybe run more.

I know I run alot for my system, but I have researched that it is quite hard to overdose on these, and since I have a big bioload, I found what I run to be working well.