Sodium Nitrate

[coolhandgoose]

Haha, thanks for that. I think the suggestion of turning off the reactor for a bit might help. I'll hold off on the peroxide treatment and see what happens.

[coolhandgoose]

so I ditched the pellets and skimmer and built a scrubber based on the new guidelines. My tank looks like crap right now, the corals are only about half open. I did a water change yesterday and planning another one tomorrow. I'm not sure if quitting pellets cold turkey like that is a shock to the system or what?
I'm hoping this scrubber will help as this is very frustrating.

Here is the scrubber next to an adult beverage for size comparison.



It's lit from both sides.

[soapy]

Originally Posted by coolhandgoose

Does anyone know where to get sodium nitrate from in Calgary? I'm running an ultra low nutrient system with bio pellets and thinking that this may be contributing to my Dino problem. I've heard of people raising their nitrate levels to about 2-3ppm helps to get rid of them. Figured it can't hurt. Failing a spot to find sodium nitrate how about potassium nitrate (saltpeter)?

I have heard people sometimes use Seachem Nitrogen to boost their nitrates.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...hNitrogen.html

[coolhandgoose]

Thanks. I've abandoned that plan though and trying the scrubber route.

[reefwars]

if you want to raise your nitrates just come over to my place and take 20g of water

[reefwars]

how big is your tank??

scrubber looks good but i believe its recommended 1 sq/inch per gallon not sure how big your tank is though

[coolhandgoose]

I thought it was small too but here are the new sizing guidelines from santamonica.

New Scrubber Sizing Guideline (Sept 2011)

Scrubbers will now be sized according to feeding. Nutrients "in" (feeding) must equal nutrients "out" (scrubber growth), no matter how many gallons you have. So...

An example VERTICAL waterfall screen size is 3 X 4 inches = 12 square inches of screen (7.5 X 10 cm = 75 sq cm) with a total of 12 real watts (not equivalent) of fluorescent light for 18 hours a day. If all 12 watts are on one side, it is a 1-sided screen. If 6 watts are on each side, it is a 2-sided screen, but the total is still 12 watts for 18 hours a day. This screen size and wattage should be able to handle the following amounts of daily feeding:

1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen), or
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen), or
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen), or
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen), or
10 square inches (60 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
5 square inches (30 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen), or
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen), or
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)

High-wattage technique: Double the wattage, and cut the hours in half (to 9 per day). This will get brown screens to grow green much faster. Thus the example above would be 12 watts on each side, for a total of 24 watts, but for only 9 hours per day. If growth starts to turn YELLOW, then increase the flow, or add iron, or reduce the number of hours. And since the bulbs are operating for 9 hours instead of 18, they will last 6 months instead of 3 months.

HORIZONTAL screens: Multiply the screen size by 4, and the wattage by 1.5

Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen [60 lph per cm], EVEN IF one sided or horizontal.

Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.

Clean algae off of screen every 7 to 14 days, so that you can see the white screen material.

[coolhandgoose]

So I know this thread has drifted quite a bit from the original.

I tested my rodi and the TDS was 30!
So I've gotta replace my filters and get new di resin.
I'm wondering if I may have diatoms and not Dino's???