kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[globaldesigns]

Those photo's are SICK! Incredible!!!

Very nice as usual... Interesting, you doubled your Pellets. I removed 50%

No reason for me removing, things are clean, just seeing if I really need all of them. Also to see if SPS recovery is better.

[kien]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Beautiful tank!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

Those photo's are SICK! Incredible!!!

Very nice as usual... Interesting, you doubled your Pellets. I removed 50%

No reason for me removing, things are clean, just seeing if I really need all of them. Also to see if SPS recovery is better.

Thanks! Well, in theory you should not be able to overdose on the pellets. Because it is a solid form of carbon dosing it all stays in one place and the bacteria for the most part is localized to the pellets rather than all over the tank. Further, the pellets should only be consumed by whatever bacterial numbers are available. If there happens to be more pellets than bacteria to consume them, that's perfectly fine. It just means that there's more pellets to go around, therefore the pellets should deplete at a slower rate is all. That is one of the reasons why I increased the number of pellets. Plus, I had the room and can drive both reactors with one pump

[Lance]

Kien, let us know how the larger volume of pellets works for you. I was considering adding more pellets as well.
Tank and photos are amazing: As always.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Lance

Kien, let us know how the larger volume of pellets works for you. I was considering adding more pellets as well.
Tank and photos are amazing: As always.

oh, I have been running the dual bioPellet reactors for about a year now I guess. So far no ill effects (I don't think). I'm sure I have way more pellets than I need, but I don't have to top them off as frequently as I used to when I only had one reactor.

[fishytime]

Sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon ....looks like you just drove her off the lot tho

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fishytime

....looks like you just drove her off the lot tho

Almost inspires me to clean mine! Almost....

[mike31154]

Interesting. The idea of the chunk of styrofoam holding what I assume to be probes is nifty! Not sure about the whole cleaning thing though. So now you're removed all of these nasty feather dusters & tube worms that were presumably consuming some amount of nutrients or whatever in your system. Are you not somewhat apprehensive about how that may affect it short term? Might be a bit of a shock removing all that matter at once? Something else in your system now has to take up the nutrient consuming duties all these little critters were performing? Sorry, tons of questions, but really interested in what your observation & perhaps water parameters will be for the next little while.

I finally pulled a canister filter off line on my system a little while ago (it developed a leak). I don't have a sump & was kind of assuming the canister would operate as a pseudo or mini sump for me so I had been running one since pretty much day one. In the beginning, being a noob, I had all the filter media in there, ceramic, different foam pads, the works. In the end I just ran a bag of carbon. Over the years the media baskets developed the same encrustation of wormy things & I let them be during my cleanings, thinking they were a good thing. I've always had varying amounts of hair algae in my system & don't sweat it too much provided it doesn't encroach some of the coral I have. Didn't notice a huge difference after taking the canister off line. It has receded in some areas, most noticeable in the flow regions where the canister used to return to the tank. However, it still persists in some areas & I need to remove it manually from time to time. The term nitrate factory is used often in discussions about canisters. My theory is, ok, so it may be or may become a nitrate factory. What happens when you remove it? Something else in your system has to take up the slack, like your live rock or sandbed. Otherwise, would not ammonia & nitrite build up to toxic levels? As long as there is livestock that needs to be fed, your system will produce nitrates, with or without a canister. Getting a little off topic, but yeah, some info on the effect of your cleaning efforts would be interesting.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Almost inspires me to clean mine! Almost....

+1

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by kien

drive both reactors with one pump

Really? Cool! What kind of pump?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Lance

Kien, let us know how the larger volume of pellets works for you. I was considering adding more pellets as well.
Tank and photos are amazing: As always.

Thanks, and will do! Although, I don't expect the extra pellets to really change anything in the system other than less frequent top ups of the pellets That is, I can't really see the pellets dropping nutrients any further than they already are.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Really? Cool! What kind of pump?

One of these ones that I got from Red Coral. Cheap, works great. I even have to throttle it back still so in theory one of these pumps could probably drive 3 reactors if it were wide open