Cloudy Water Ideas

[ruslicus]

Titus do you droton? Never heard about, have a link for with more info on this hydroton? How to build and benefit? For now I will run Pellets, Carbon and Skimmer will see what happens. I don't want to shut down pellets as it's been about a month running. I just opened it to clean some debris on cap of Pellets reactor. Hope that would not disturb the process Thank you guys for info. I will draw on your epertize if something goes wrong side.

[Proteus]

You won't find info about hydroton in a reef tank. But u will find info on cryptic zones

Not related to you issue but since you may have a m t reactor:

Hydrton is small expanded Clay marble that are used in the hydrponics industry. Hydroton is inert and very porus. Making it a great material for natural biological filtration. It would be the same as live rock rubble in sump. But if you can keep it dark and have relitivly low flow you will create a breeding ground for sponges and small feather dusters to grow filtering out water. As you said you want to create a low nutrient system

I started this after ditching gfo and have had no negative affects. If you want more info ask Albert dao.He Is a pretty good guy

[kien]

Good to see things are clearing up. I wouldn't stop feeding fish. If you are concerned about it then maybe reduce feeding to once a day?

Also, if you take your GFO off line be sure to check your phosphate reading regularly as you may find it climbing. BioPellets do not strip out phosphates all that well. They take out nitrate and phosphate in proportion to the "redfield ratio". In other words, lots of nitrate but not a as much phosphate. This is why a lot of people (myself included) run GFO in combination with bioPellets.

A few people do dose microbactor 7 with BioPellets but since you are currently having issues I would not add another variable. That is unless you are already dosing it :-). I have never dosed it myself so can't speak on its effectiveness (or lack of).

[kien]

As for saving the red planet, I would first observe it. It could easily stabilize and start re-encrusting once it is happy again. If you're really paranoid or if it continues to lose tissue you can frag its tips. This is not always a guarantee though. Often times if it is sick the whole colony is sick even if you frag it :-(

[ruslicus]

So day 2:

NO3 <0.25ppm RedSea Test
PO3 0.08 Red Sea Test and 0.08 Milwakee test
Ca 423ppm Hanna Test
Alk 8.7 Hanna Test
PH 7.8 Digital Milwakee Test (mrning)

As I can judge I have close to 0 NO3 but elevated PO3, which means my NO3 export is overkilling but PO3 stil persist. The water is better but still not crystl lear as used to be.
I m going to turn on GFO and change the media GFO and Carbon.
Still waiting for water test result from Denny to cross check. The plan is to chek all these measurements daily over a week and see dynamic.

Target to lower Alk to 8 and keep Ca at 420-450, To control PO3 nd PH within 7.8-8.2

My issue is SPS coloration and STN or RTN.

Any feedback and comments how to solve the issue? Thx

[kien]

Originally Posted by ruslicus

So day 2:

NO3 <0.25ppm RedSea Test
PO3 0.08 Red Sea Test and 0.08 Milwakee test
Ca 423ppm Hanna Test
Alk 8.7 Hanna Test
PH 7.8 Digital Milwakee Test (mrning)

As I can judge I have close to 0 NO3 but elevated PO3, which means my NO3 export is overkilling but PO3 stil persist. The water is better but still not crystl lear as used to be.
I m going to turn on GFO and change the media GFO and Carbon.
Still waiting for water test result from Denny to cross check. The plan is to chek all these measurements daily over a week and see dynamic.

Target to lower Alk to 8 and keep Ca at 420-450, To control PO3 nd PH within 7.8-8.2

My issue is SPS coloration and STN or RTN.

Any feedback and comments how to solve the issue? Thx

Your numbers across the board are actually looking pretty good today. NO3 and P04 while not absolutely zero are still not numbers that I would panic about. Looks like alk is on its way down and again, 8.7 is nothing to panic about. CA at 423 is perfect and pH at 7.8 this morning is fine too. My pH is sitting at 7.8 now and will continue to climb throughout the day until it tops out at about 8.3 sometimes 8.4 before it starts to drop again for the night. My recommendation there is to not fight your pH. Let it do what it's going to do.

Your BioPellets should continue to drop your nitrates and bringing GFO back online will drop your PO4 to zero in short order.

[ruslicus]

I ust changed GFO media and Carbon media. will text PO3 from output of reactor in an hour to see if the reactor actually is working. I use 1cup of HG GFO, is it enough for 85-90gal water system? My concern isn't NO3 too low? talking about starving? should I dose some coral energy solution? but PO3 is too high... dilema!