Ideas/Advice for recovery

Judge · 07-07-2008, 12:54 PM

Hey TG I just ordered some phosphate filter media for my cannister since I continue to have problems with NitrAte/Phosphates myself. I am not over feeding, not a problem with lighting. I have over the last couple of months singled/ruled out one thing after another. My tank is still considered new so I had chalked some of it up to that. But I discovered these filter pads so I thought I would give them a try. You are suppose to be able to reuse them. I thought I would remove the carbon and put the pad in the sleeve. Any thoughts?

Poly Filter media from Pet Solutions is what I ordered.

Tommy Gun · 07-07-2008, 01:48 PM

Hey Judge,

I haven't tried it myself but I was told that most of the "pad" type media is either hard to recharge or the amount of chemical (e.g. phosphates/nitrates) it can absorb slowly diminishes with each recharge. If I go with something else, you will have to keep us all updated on your experiences with the product, ok?

Obviously I am sort of in a different spot than a lot of people because I already know that the power outages have a lot to do with my current predicament but even still, I want to cover all of the bases again anyways...which means one more question:

What does everyone think/feel about using an air stone in a SW aquarium? Up to this point, I have always skipped them in my own SW tanks, mostly because of salt creep concerns, especially as it relates to my light system. However, I did plop one in shortly after getting my tank set back up in my new place and so far everything actually looks a lot better than before the move. Using my own brand of logic, I can see how an air stone may help drag more oxygenated air towards the bottom of the tank (and mine is pretty deep...almost three feet) but as I am sure most of us have already noticed, my logic isn't always entirely reliable.

Thanks again for all of the help/ideas so far!

TG

Nereaga · 07-07-2008, 04:20 PM

Well off the top of my head, space is a HUGE factor. You can fit a lot more media in a reactor than in a cannister. A cannister filter cannot be fine tuned with flow. This is huge, you just want the media to lightly tumble in the reactor. If flow is too vigourous it will make the media rub together into dust.

I would say if you have a cannister filter that has enough space and the option to slow down media half way through it, you really don't need a reactor.

I would think slowing the cannister down to 30-40gph will make things messy and not function properly, right?

FWIW, no future SW setup of mine will not have one.... I feel they are very important and needed to keep algae in check. Even if you take the correct steps with starting with pure water.

Algae grows, you can only hope to contain it....

Hope to take somethign from that... I jump around a lot! lol

Brad

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommy Gun

What does everyone think/feel about using an air stone in a SW aquarium? Up to this point, I have always skipped them in my own SW tanks, mostly because of salt creep concerns, especially as it relates to my light system. However, I did plop one in shortly after getting my tank set back up in my new place and so far everything actually looks a lot better than before the move. Using my own brand of logic, I can see how an air stone may help drag more oxygenated air towards the bottom of the tank (and mine is pretty deep...almost three feet) but as I am sure most of us have already noticed, my logic isn't always entirely reliable.

Thanks again for all of the help/ideas so far!

TG

Hey TG,

Do you run a skimmer? If not I would use one. The salt creep will stink but more oxygen in the water is NEVER a bad thing. Things will breath easier! Gas exchange is also another perk.

Tommy Gun · 07-07-2008, 05:40 PM

Thanks for the info/advice Brad. I figured that there was a benifit to reactors above and beyond some company making a profit

I do have a skimmer, actually two of them. My 'good' one (read: more expensive) is a coralife version and works well. I also have another cheap one that bought during an emergency (when the first coralife broke). I am running both because of the dead bristleworms and whatever else I cannot see.

I did do away with the sump system though...so all of the water coming out of the skimmer(s) hits the top of the water and probably stays up there. That is probably why I am seeing a difference with the airstone...I have decided that I am not completely fond of the bubbles though. Ironically, this was a large reason why I bought a 125 gallon; it is no where near as deep as the bowfront tank.

Nereaga · 07-07-2008, 05:56 PM

What do you have for flow in the tank, powerhead wise?

Tommy Gun · 07-07-2008, 06:29 PM

Nearly 1200 gph inside the tank, not including the cannister filter and the skimmers. I think one skimmer has a 250 gallon-ish pump on it and the other, only an 80 gph pump.

Nereaga · 07-07-2008, 07:32 PM

I forget, forgive me, are we talking about your 125g or 90g? 90g right?

Tommy Gun · 07-07-2008, 09:22 PM

Yea...went back to the 90 gallon for salt. Embarrassingly enough though, I can't remember why I did that.

Nereaga · 07-08-2008, 03:03 PM

I would look to increase flow a bit more to stop detrius from building up on rocks and sand. This is a main cause of excess algae growth. Right now you are at about 13X your display tank. I would look to bump this up to 20-30X.

Also a great technique I use once a week is to use a turkey baster and blow off all the rocks of detrius and decay. You might also want to blow the top layer of the sandbed aswell. This will get things into the water column and then it can be removed by your skimmer.

Brad

Tommy Gun · 07-09-2008, 09:51 PM

Good points Brad. Now that you mention it, I did remove two power heads after I noticed my puffer fish having a hard time swimming around and didn't put them back when he died. I have taken the direction of water flow into consideration though by hooking up one of the pumps to a DIY spray bar so the flow is pushing water through my rock work but you are right, that may not be doing enough. As I mentioned before, one of my problems right now was the massive die off of bristle worms.

If I forgot to mention it the other day, I did add a sea cucumber to my tank - which I believe is a "Black Sea Cucumber" because it is...well, black. However, I didn't really buy it because I wanted to expand my clean up crew but more so because it was cheap. So now I am wondering if anyone has kept the same sort of cucumber and if so, has your experience(s) been mostly positive or not so much?