Chemistry

Maintaining Good Water Quality

melev — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 05:07:17 +0000

Maintaining Good Water Quality melev Thu, 04/01/2021 - 08:07

I have read countless threads on discussion forums asking for assistance with water quality issues. Considering how many forums are available to hobbyists everywhere, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine that hundreds of queries are posted on a daily basis just in the United States. With the availability of search engines, the information is readily available having been answered time and time again. Why is it so hard to master this particular area of our hobby? Are our personal circumstances so uniquely different from everyone else’s? Perhaps it is simply easier to ask the question and wait for a direct answer, but there is a chance that the answer won’t be accurate due to the responder’s inexperience or due to a lack of initial detail. Finally, how do you gauge if the answer or answers are correct? Since you asked the question, you don’t have the information to judge those answers, which means you have to decide if you can believe the respondents. I’ve also heard people say that they prefer not to get information from the internet, but I disagree. We have a huge knowledge base a few keystrokes away, and turning to it has become a way of life.

By researching a question via Google, it allows you to read an abundant amount of recommendations gathered up over time. Obtaining a better overview of possible solutions helps you judge the knowledge pool, instead of a very narrow sampling proffered in a single discussion. We’ve all asked questions no matter how long we’ve been in the hobby. Personal experience has taught each of us some lessons that were learned the hard way, at the expense to both our beloved livestock and our bank accounts. Most hobbyists try to inform others of mistakes made in an effort to help prevent similar happenings to their fellow reef keepers. We can be a protective bunch, usually erring on the side of caution. Yes, message boards are good in that way, opening the way for intelligent discussion, but let’s not forget to check the archives and compare notes.

Is there a simple solution to maintaining good water quality? Not exactly, but here are some steps that will help:

Source water
Decent Test kits
Frequency of testing
Dosing accordingly
Optional methodology
Longterm results

One point to consider before going any further: How is your livestock doing? How does everything look? Is the system clean, or overrun with algae? Are the corals healthy and thriving? Are the fish exhibiting any issues? If everything looks good, don’t make radical changes because of something you read or heard.

Source water
This can never be emphasized enough. The water you use in your aquarium needs to be the best you can provide as it is basis of the entire ecosystem. The absolute best choice is to purchase your own RO/DI (reverse osmosis de-ionizer) system. Having pure water at the ready is useful both daily and in an emergency. Additional reading: Why should you use RO/DI water?

Tap water contains all kinds of stuff designed to make it safe for human consumption, but based on some Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) measurements provided to me from people across this nation, there are areas where that isn’t true at all. If your TDS measures over 500, it isn’t considered safe for human consumption, yet people in Arizona are measuring 1200 - 1500 in some places. One suburb 45 minutes from me measures 800 while where I live it is less than 180. What about filtered ocean water? Some hobbyists have this readily available, but water quality can vary depending on who’s in charge of maintaining filtration. Suffice it to say, the more you can control how the water is filtered, the better. Owning your own RO/DI system that you maintain is ideal. Change those filters regularly and test the water to make sure it is producing perfect levels. If you let this decline due to lack of attentiveness, it will only come back to haunt you with frustrating issues in your aquarium.

Get one today from melevsreef.com: http://www.melevsreef.com/catalog/rodi-systems-filters-0

For a reef tank, we mix RO/DI water with the salt mix of choice. There are many to choose from and people debate and defend various brands often. I’ve used Kent, Oceanic, Instant Ocean, Red Sea, and Sybon. For my new tank, I’ve decided to use Sybon salt exclusively, based upon how well it mixes and the measurable results I’ve gotten from batch after batch.

Salinity - The best tool to measure salinity is a refractometer that has been properly calibrated. These cost $40 and up, and the 35ppt calibration solution is less than $10. A few drops on the glass slide allows you to view the salinity precisely. The target range for a reef tank is 1.026 sg or 35ppt. Buy a refractometer and use it often.

Test kits
I’m not brand loyal to any one line, and recommend getting the best kit for each of the elements we test for. If you happen to colorblind, you will want to seek out digital measuring devices like the new ones offered by Hanna.

pH: Your best option is a pH meter or an aquarium controller that uses a pH probe. Digital measurements will always supersede what a test kit or dip strip will tell you. Digital readouts update as you watch, and having a probe that you can move from tank to tank allows you the freedom to make sure all your systems are within the target range. The ideal range would be 8.1 to 8.3 each day. If your tank’s pH reads below 7.6 or over 8.5, something needs to be corrected. pH readings will be at their lowest early in the morning and at their highest near the end of the lighting period. I glance at the pH level of my tank often, but it is not a critical number I worry about. It is what it is because of the other elements in the water that have been ionically balanced.

The Aquacontroller 3 displays the current measurements at all times.

Alkalinity: I’ve used Salifert, Elos, Tropic Marin, and API to measure for this. This kit is usually affordable, easy to perform and easy read. The target range is 8 to 11 dKH, or 2.86 to 3.89 meq/l. Test this one frequently, weekly at the minimum. Alkalinity is taken up by the corals and fish in your tank, and needs to be replenished daily. The most used kit in my arsenal, to be sure.

Calcium: Salifert’s kit is my preferred test kit for this element. Calcium levels should be checked weekly, and this too is taken up by both livestock and even coralline algae so it needs to be dosed daily. The target range is 390 to 425 ppm. Higher levels of calcium can be hard on some livestock, and to bring this number down simply don’t dose further for a few days and continue measuring with a kit to determine when dosing should resume.

Magnesium: Salifert again is the kit I continue to use. I’ve tried others, but this one has always worked reliably. The target range is three times the calcium level for balanced ionic levels, but I simply suggest keeping it between 1380 and 1400 ppm because that is what seems too keep Montipora sp colored up. If magnesium levels are low, it will take a lot of product to raise it up but once the target level has been achieved, it tends to stay there for a good while. For my reef, I probably dose Mg four times a year.

If salinity, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are at their proper levels, pH will usually take care of itself. I don’t recommend dosing anything to make the pH a different number necessarily, but rather encourage you to verify that the alk-ca-mg levels are still on target. There are caveats to this, such as depressed pH due to excess CO2 in the home, but usually bringing in fresh air into your home will help correct this. Some have connected airline tubing from outdoors to their skimmer’s venturi intake lines to achieve this, which is useful in colder climates with homes that are sealed up tight.

Note: Whenever you dose anything to your system, remember that you don’t have to dose it all at once. For alkalinity or calcium dosing, it should trickle in slowly in an area of high flow. For magnesium, it would be better to dose a portion daily rather than the full dose to reach the desired level (recommendation: maximum 100ppm rise per day). If you are using buffer to raise pH, mix up the powder in 8 oz of water and gradually add some to the tank while watching the pH meter’s display. Add some then wait 15 minutes or longer before adding more, so the impact will be lessened on your livestock. Test the water after an hour or two to see how the dosage affected the corresponding levels. It’s best to only dose what you can test for, and dosing should never result in tank drama. Dramatic changes can leave fish gasping and corals sliming due to stress.

Nitrate: API’s test kit is simple to use, it’s affordable and easy to read. The lower the nitrate, the better. Less than 5ppm would be a good goal, and even lower would be great. Nitrate is in the water, and big water changes done frequently will bring these down.

Phosphate: Salifert or Elos kits are both easy to use. The target range is .03 ppm and anything more than that needs to be controlled to avoid nuisance algae.

Temperature: Aquarium controllers measure tank temperature, or you can buy a digital thermometer as well as a cheaper glass one. From time to time, compare multiple thermometers to make sure they are reading accurately and equally. Tank temperature is important to maintain, and the target range I suggest is 79F to 81F. This two degree range is where my previous reef flourished. The controller I use turns the heaters on if the tank drops below 78F at night and brings it back up to 79F. As the lights run all day, the tank temperature rises gradually, and during the night it cools off.

ORP: Using an aquarium controller, the ORP (REDOX potential) measurement is constantly reported on the screen. The number itself isn’t overly important but what is is the consistency of that number. For example, if it normally is around 315 and then suddenly it crashes to 200 or less, something has changed and an investigation as to why needs to be performed immediately. People that run ozone watch this number closely to avoid overdosing the tank with too much, setting their controller to shut off ozone at a predetermined peak level. I don’t run ozone, so I would suggest that this number should read between 310 and 340 but again it isn’t a precise attainable number. Just one to keep an eye on to see if it varies all of a sudden, possibly due to dosing something that day. A lowered number indicates lower dissolved oxygen levels.

Sampling from a single week via Aquanotes App

Nitrite & Ammonia: These are usually only tested when a tank is initially set up, when uncured live rock is cycling, or when livestock starts dying in our tank. When death and decay occurs, measuring nitrite and ammonia is important because elevated levels are toxic to fish and corals alike. The target range is always zero.

Iodine: Iodine doesn't last long in our tanks, but it is included in the salt mix. I've used a few Iodine test kits, but the results were spotty. Shrimp and crabs need iodine to help them molt (shed their exoskeleton), so dosing it weekly would be good. Lugol's Solution is offered under many brand names, and 1 drop per 50g best. Don't overdose iodine in your tank; don't even hold the bottle over your display or sump while dosing because a small spill will do major harm. When I dosed a single drop to my 29g reef many years ago, it seemed like nothing. Adding one more drop, my fish were suddenly gasping and appeared to be very distressed. How could I retract that drop?! Please be careful with iodine.

Testing Frequency
The above measurements are what I test for and watch frequently. Try to make it a routine, such as “Test Kit Saturday” or something similar. Record those numbers in a spreadsheet or a smartphone Application to be able to review your water parameter history. When things go wrong, the usual excuses are that the person didn’t test diligently in some time, their test kit ran out and they didn’t buy a new one yet, or their test kit is way past expiration. Try to make a mental note (or a physical one!) when a kit is getting low to pick up a new one next time you are at a fish store or ordering online.

Many kits have an expiration date. When I open a new kit for the first time, I write that date with a Sharpie on the box. Most kits are good for 12 months after you break the seal on bottles. If you are still using a kit that you purchased in 2007 just because it still has some test solution left, please trash it now and buy a replacement. Surely the total investment in your reef justifies the small cost of a fresh kit.

Another quality control step that you might consider is to test some water with both the old kit and the new one to see if the results are close to the same. Occasionally a brand new kit can be faulty, and false results could cause you to panic and overdose a product in a hurry to ‘fix’ what is allegedly wrong. If the number is really strange, ask a local hobbyist to test your water with their kit or head to the local fish store with a fresh water sample and have them double check those numbers with their kits. While you are at it, bring your test kit along and show them how you test to make sure you are doing it correctly. It never hurts to confirm your methods occasionally. If the store charges a fee to perform some tests, don’t balk at the idea. Just pay them for their time and get the answers you seek.

Dosing Accordingly
The aquarium is going to require regular replenishment of alkalinity and calcium, and occasionally magnesium. With frequent water changes, the new water may contain enough of these elements to take care of that demand, but the only way to know for sure is to test the water in the display tank. Also, test the newly mixed saltwater, especially each time a new bag or bucket of salt has been opened. Never assume the batch is fine, test and know for a fact that everything is normal.

As your reef matures, the demand will be ever greater for alkalinity and calcium. Ten years ago, everyone wanted a calcium reactor. These days, the preference has swung to two-part dosing. Is one better than the other? It comes down to preference. A calcium reactor has an initial setup cost of $500 or more, but after that the cost is minimal. CO2 refills and more reactor media are both very inexpensive. The benefit of a calcium reactor is the replenishment is done 24 hours a day. Two-part dosing costs less up front, but it is more labor intensive in that the person has to continue mixing up a batch of each part and replenishing those containers once depleted. With timers, dosing pumps and a controller, each solution can be dosed to the tank at regular intervals. With smaller tanks (55g and under), two-part dosing is probably the best choice, but for larger systems that require more product, I would prefer to use a reactor. I know a number of large tank (200g+) owners that dose two-part. Those huge exhibits in public aquariums use calcium reactors.

Which is more risky of the two? If the calcium reactor fails (too much CO2 injected; recirculation pump fails; feed pump fails), the media within is ruined and it has to be replaced. This would cost $10 to $25 to correct, and it is back in business. The tank would hardly skip a beat unless this wasn’t noticed for weeks on end, but with weekly water tests, it would be hard to miss. The media in the reactor would turn milky white. If the two part dosing system fails (runs out of solution; doesn’t shut off and adds too much), the reef would be affected negatively due to the huge swing in Alkalinity or Calcium levels. When you are out of town and someone has to watch your system, I think it would be easier to have them double check the output of the calcium reactor versus them knowing if the two-part dosing system was operating correctly.

Kalkwasser dosing is another method used to maintain alkalinity and calcium levels, but there is a risk of overdosing if too much is added at one time. I would say the majority of hobbyists do not use kalkwasser, as it has become less popular due in part to the many posted horror stories. In addition, pumps can seize up from the calcium deposits that adhere to their magnets, requiring more frequent cleanings after a vinegar bath soaking. The safest way to dose kalkwasser is to drip it into your tank for a specific duration during the night, completely separate from a top-off system. How much to drip is something each hobbyist would have to determine by measuring water parameters daily. Kalkwasser has a pH of 12, and too much will cause the pH of the tank to rise sharply. If an overdose occurs, white vinegar can be used to bring it back down. Please do your research and know how much vinegar you’d need to use to correct an accidental overdose BEFORE it happens. Type it up and stick it near your tank so you can find it quickly in an emergency. Like the Boy Scout’s motto: Be Prepared.

Optional Methodology
An area every hobbyist struggles with is water pollution. Our reef is full of hungry reeflings and we enjoy their response to feedings. The more we feed, the more quickly water quality worsens. Two measurements we test for are Nitrate and Phosphate, because we know these fuel algae growth. To combat these, we have several options. Some are perfect for newbies, while others are better suited for seasoned aquarists that have learned the nuances of their tank and can see issues just by looking at a few specific corals. Algae Turf Scrubbers (ATS), Refugiums, Carbon dosing, Product dosing, Denitrifying reactors, NP reactors, GFO reactors are some of the weapons of choice, and of course those never ending water changes.

For newbies (those that are new to the hobby):
A refugium with macro algae will taken up some of the nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) from the water, reducing the likelihood of nuisance algae growing in the display tank. By growing out “weeds” in the refugium zone, hair algae is less likely to take over the reef display. Cull out 25% or more algae from the refugium monthly to encourage more growth. The refugium needs a light source for the plants to grow, resulting in the benefit of additional oxygen (O2) in the water thanks to photosynthesis. Run that light at night when the reef is a rest to help keep pH levels up during the late night hours. With a refugium, regular water changes and a bunch of snails in your display tank, PO4 and NO3 should be controllable and nuisance algae should be preventable.

Algae Turf Scrubbers are beginning to make a comeback. They were quite popular in Australia for a long time. A perforated plastic sheet is set up at an angle in a section of the sump and water cascades down the slope. A bright light shines upon that plastic, causing algae to grow. Each week, the algae is scraped off and disposed of, removing NO3 and PO4 that was taken up by the hair algae. An ATS can be a little messy because of salt creep splashing around the affected area, and it may be a little bit noisy depending on the setup. It has to be maintained and tended to for it be effective.

GFO (granular ferric oxide) reactors are popular with many hobbyists, who use them to lower PO4 levels in their tank. GFO is basically rust particles that the phosphates adhere to. Using a Two Little Fishies’ Phosban Reactor or similar apparatus, water is gently pushed through the GFO media. What comes out of the reactor should be phosphate-free water. Running a GFO reactor around the clock should be able to reduce and eliminate measurable PO4 entirely. If the PO4 level in the tank is .25ppm and the output of the reactor is .03ppm or less, it is working. If the two are the same, it isn’t working and the reactor needs to be adjusted to slow the output until it comes out with that zero reading we desire. Once a week, the reactor needs a ‘puff’ of water surged through the media to avoid it becoming clumped or brick-like. Systems running high levels of alkalinity usually encounter GFO clumping, so the 15 second surge can help prevent this. GFO is usually good for one to three months before needing to be replaced. Caution needs to be taken that the ‘fines’ (GFO dust) doesn’t find its way back into the display, as some corals get stung by these. GFO should be well rinsed prior to being installed on the system, and the output or effluent could be directed to flow over some filterfloss to trap any fines that made it out of the reactor.

Phosphate Rx or Phosbuster Pro are liquid products that remove PO4 virtually overnight. The correct amount is dosed to the tank, causing the PO4 to turn to a solid. The tank will appear to be cloudy, and that will be exported via a protein skimmer or a 100 micron filter sock. I’ve used both products for several years and have never had any losses (fish, corals, invertebrates). I prefer to dose this flocculant late at night when the fish are at rest, and by morning the tank is crystal clear and PO4 measures zero.

Carbon can be used to improve water clarity and to reduce organics in the water, but it must be changed out frequently, as in weekly. 1/2 a cup of GAC (granulated activated carbon) per 50g of water in a Phosban reactor is a great way to keep the water looking sparkling clean with no green tinge.

Kent’s Nitrate Sponge or Seachem’s Matrixx media are designed to soak up nitrate from the water. These can be used in a canister filter or a mesh bag. Nitrate Sponge needs to be used for 48 hours, then taken off the system where Matrixx can be used indefinitely. Depending on the level of NO3 in the system determines how much media is needed and how effective it can be. Kent’s Nitrate Sponge is aluminum-based which can affect leather corals adversely, and it can take weeks for them to recover.

Seasoned Aquarists (you know who you are):
Vodka, Sugar, and or Vinegar dosing has proven to work at reducing nitrate and phosphate. It’s a slow process as the tank has to adapt to the daily dose of any or all of these three products. Each week, the dose is slightly increased. I dosed Vodka in my 280g reef for 7 months before seeing any change in NO3 or PO4 levels, but at last it worked. It dropped the NO3 levels from 65ppm to 0 in about two weeks’ time once I finally hit that dosing threshold. Vodka (or VSV) dosing is for the most patient of hobbyists, but it allows them to feed more heavily and enjoy better water clarity. Corals perk up because they are getting more light than previously when the water was a tad murky, for lack of a better term. Decreased nitrate levels produce stunning corals. Essential reading: Dosing Vodka - Why?

Zeovit / Prodibio / Biofuel and other bacterial dosing systems coupled with the dosing of Amino Acids can result in beautiful reefs, but it is for those that want to dose a drop of this and a touch of that on a daily basis like a mad scientist creating his own personal monster. It requires careful attention to dosing each additive, and many pin a dosing schedule to their cabinet door to make sure they stay on track and don’t omit anything that could make their efforts take a step backwards. It’s a tightrope that some can glide across easily, but their experience in the hobby helps them look for signs of trouble that a newbie wouldn’t spot so easily.

Denitrifying reactors are designed with an anoxic zone that depletes NO3 levels in the water. Within the reactor, the water moves so slowly through it that the oxygen levels drop, and an adaptive type of bacteria consumes the nitrate. Usually sulfur based, although I did see a vodka-based reactor by Deltec two years ago, these reactors need to be fine tuned by the owner, and they must be plugged into a Uninterrupted Power Supply (a UPS for a computer) in case of a power outage. If the reactor is powerless for over 30 minutes, bad things happen quickly within so the UPS is a form of insurance.

Biopellets are the newest craze for the reduction of NO3 and PO4. A media reactor is necessary, and it is filled up with a specified amount of NP (nitrate/phosphate) pellets that tumble gently. These polymer-based pellets become populated with bacteria, which slowly consumes the media over time. Hobbyists are still trying to determine how well they work, including myself. Biopellets should keep NO3 and PO4 at bay, while allowing more frequent feedings. So far, it’s working well for my 400g but my tank is young.

NextReef reactor filled with Vertex biopellets

Longterm Results
Armed with information above, you can choose to use what applies to your system and your level of experience. However, proper husbandry is equal no matter how long you’ve been in this hobby. If you become lazy or complacent, if you have test kits but don’t use them, if you have a refractometer but don’t calibrate it, if you have probes but don’t clean them, your tank will suffer.   Be proactive rather than reactive. Get passionate. Double check results and don’t make assumptions. Yes, you can look at a Birdsnest colony in your tank to tell if the water’s nitrate level has risen, or the Xenia population to know that alkalinity has gone askew. You can look at the coralline growth to know you have adequate calcium, but is your skimmer working efficiently? Have you checked the impeller magnets to make sure they are in good condition, not cracked and exposing rusty innards? What about the magnets holding that encrusted frag rack in your tank? Are they in good shape, or do they need replacing? Is your sump vacuumed clean of detritus, as well as the overflows? Are the Tunzes, Vortechs or other flow pumps in need of a vinegar bath? Are the RO and saltwater mixing barrels clean, or have you put that off too long? Are you still testing your newly mixed saltwater to make sure it has the same standards now that you originally set? Are your test kits in dire need of replacing?

Go nuts and clean up your system. It’s so much fun to work around a brand new tank because everything is clean and shiny. Clean up your current setup and get that new look back. It will be a lot of work if the tank has been neglected for some time, but thereafter you’ll be motivated once again, and you may notice some things that need your immediate attention -- before they can fail on you at an inconvenient time. Aquarium husbandry is a term to describe the person caring for the system. Are you being a good caregiver? If you are, your water quality should be in good shape.

And your reef will reward you with beauty day after day.

Additional reading:
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems

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Getting Nitrates Under Control

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 05:00:52 +0000

Getting Nitrates Under Control melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 08:00

The good news is... They Can Be Beaten Down Into Submission.

Nitrates are a part of nature in the ocean, and correspondingly in our tanks. As waste breaks down in your aquarium, it cycles from ammonia to nitrite to nitrates. The first two are highly toxic to marine life, and we make it a point to make sure our tanks test zero for these. However, nitrates aren’t as bad, and sometimes are even a little beneficial.

Specifically, few organisms need nitrates. Both micro and macro algae love the stuff, while fish tolerate it. Invertebrates suffer if the levels are too high, but a little is required to keep clams happy. In our goal to match NSW as closely as possible, we strive to keep nitrates down to a minimum at 10 ppm or less.

First things first -- what is causing the nitrates in your tank? Bioballs, biowheels, filter pads, foam blocks & tubes, and under gravel filters all contribute to the production of nitrates. Overfeeding is another cause, and a lack of water changes will be another factor.

Nitrates are in the water column, not your substrate or rockwork. Frequent large water changes will quickly reduce the amounts of nitrates present in your system. I battled with nitrates for years, even when using Nitrate Sponge on a weekly basis. I’d change 5 gallons in my 29 gallon tank and see the nitrates drop from 80 to 60ppm, only to rise again. I’d cringe when I’d run a new test and see the fluid bright red before the timer was even set!

Once I removed the 3 year-old under gravel filter & my Penguin Biowheel filter filled with bioballs, I was finally on track. I did three 10 gallon water changes in one week, or 33% at a time. Nitrates were down to 20ppm. I became more meticulous with my water changes, changing 7 - 10 gallons each time every two weeks.

Later on that year, I added a sump & refugium to that tank. The saying “Dilution is the Solution to Pollution” proved to be absolutely true. The macro algae in the refugium as well as the small sandbed helped denitrify my tank, and nitrates are ranging from 0 - 2ppm with a water change only being done every other month.

In November 2002, I bought an existing 55 gallon tank filled with seven fish, 120 lbs of live rock and crushed coral substrate. The previous owners never tested their water, and the nitrates were 200ppm or more. Through a series of major water changes in those first two weeks, nitrates were lowered without stressing the fish. The substrate was replaced with a DSB (deep sand bed), and the canister filters with biowheels were removed as a sump was incorporated. Nitrates were down to 7ppm after three months, and only one fish was lost during that period (probably due to starvation… it never looked healthy).

If your tank is suffering from high nitrate levels, the success of your reef will depend on your being able to get this under control. Changing 100% of the water would be the ideal, but it may shock your corals, fish and invertebrates in the process. A more gradual way is recommended.

Example from my 55-gallon Reef : Make up 20 gallons of fresh saltwater in a trashcan in front of your tank. Drain 10 gallons of tank water into the 20 gallons of new water, and let that mix. Pump 10 gallons of that water back into your tank, and let the power heads mix that water up in your tank for a minute or so. Then repeat this three more times. Dispose of the now polluted 20 gallons of water. Make up another 20 gallons of fresh saltwater, and repeat this procedure. As long as your temperature and salinity match the tank, your inhabitants won’t be affected adversely, and with each rotation of water, the nitrates are being diluted and removed from your tank.

Simply pulling out all of the water in one massive water change puts stress on your entire tank. Doing small water changes consistently won’t bring nitrate levels down. At best, it will maintain them at their current levels. Using the example above, a tank that was at 80ppm would be around 30ppm after a couple of hours work and your population will be happy and unaffected. Once your nitrate levels drop, they are easily kept low with regular water changes, as well as the use of a DSB and macro algae.

Your tank will be healthier, your reef happier and the nitrate problem fixed!

Update - 5/10/09:

Since the writing of this article six years ago, other options have become available. Some people have opted to purchase a De-nitrification Reactor, such as the one made by Midwest Systems. These definitely work, but they are not cheap.

Another method that has proven effective is to dose the tank with a carbon source, such as vodka, sugar, or vinegar. Some use a combination of these three products, concocting a very precise dosing regiment. Please do your homework before putting anything new in your tank. I've been dosing my 280g reef tank with vodka since July 2008, and will be doing a write up soon on what that entailed and how it worked. In the meantime, here's the article that was my guide. Please read it very carefully: Notes from the Trenches - Vodka Dosing... Distilled!

Update - 5/11/09:

Was that soon enough? LOL Here's the article: Vodka Dosing - Why?

Update - 6/3/11:

Now I'm using biopellets. And it's working great so far.

Update - 9/30/14:

I stopped running biopellets and am only using Prodibio after waiting about 3 months for the corals to settle down after an accidental overdosing event. I did a few water changes and waited 12 weeks, the resumed Prodibio dosing every 15 days.

Another nitrate reduction method that has worked for some is NoPox by RedSea which is great for smaller system, but has to be dosed daily.

Update - 1/28/16:

Using biopellets once more to get nitrates back down as they rose inexplicably high in record time over the holidays.

Update - 11/30/16:

Nitrate has measured less than 2ppm for over six months. Here's my video pertaining to important biopellet knowledge after years of personal experience:

And I'm using the Elos Nitrate test kit these days. API is just fine if you want to go that route, but Elos measures between 0 and 25ppm with a very easy to determine color chart.

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Don't chase the pH

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:55:25 +0000

Don't chase the pH melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:55

A question that has been popping up a lot recently has been in regards to pH levels. Articles, books and even additives list recommended pH levels so it is only natural to be concerned if our tank isn't sitting at that particular number. pH rises in oxygen rich environments, and where O2 is lacking or excessive CO2 builds up, pH will drop. In addition, pH rises daily during the lighting period, and drops during the night. Here's a graph from the past week's data stored in my Apex controller. Note how it rises and falls consistently day after day.

Here's the same graph highlighting the past 24 hours. By moving the mouse along the red line, I can see what the value was at any preferred point in time. At 05:23 a.m., it was measuring 8.17 (or nearly 8.2).

It's very normal for the pH to drop quite a bit during the late night hours. Photosynthesis isn't taking place, hence no new oxygen is being produced. The period from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. could potentially be a crucial time because pH is usually at its lowest. Anywhere between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. would be a good time to dose the Alkalinity portion of your daily additives (commonly referred to as 2-part dosing). When you dose Soda Ash (or Sodium carbonate), pH rises accordingly. The product is dosed to maintain a specific alkalinity level in the tank, and the rise in pH is an additional benefit, but it is not being dosed specifically to get pH to a certain level. It just happens in conjunction with dosing. And it's best to dose it when the pH is depressed in the tank.

Another way to raise pH during the late night hours is to run a refugium filled with Macro Algae on a reverse light cycle. Having the plants lighted from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. would result in the benefit of oxygen being produced by the photosynthesis of the plants. They absorb some CO2 and produce O2. Running the reversed lighting cycle will help even out the pH swing, staving off an even larger dip.

When the tank lights come on, you'll observe how the pH begins to rise for the day. Usually within 5-6 hours it will hit a specific peak for the day, and then it will begin to drop off again. It's rising because of the aquarium lighting assisting with the in-tank photosynthesis, in part from the symbiotic algae within the corals.

During the evening, this would be a good time to dose the Calcium portion of the 2-part dosing. Basically dosing Calcium about 12 hours later prevents precipitation. Both Part A and Part B (or Part 1 & Part 2; or Alkalinity & Calcium) should be dosed in an area of high flow so it mixes into the water column. It should trickle in slowly, not be dumped in all at once. A peristaltic doser is a nice way to take care of this task, setting it with a timer to run quietly each day at a specified time or times. Finally, Magnesium can be dosed any time of day. It takes a lot of Magnesium to raise the level in the tank if it is depleted, but once you attain the target level, it tends to stay there for a long time.

Water temperature can affect pH if it gets too warm. When a tank reaches 85° F, oxygen levels plummet and with those the pH would drop off significantly.

Now that you've been told all of the above, what's my point? People that chase pH often dose their tank much too much with a buffer that will raise the alkalinity levels too high. They keep measuring pH and when they see it is "low" they add more powdered solution to get that number up because they are worried about hitting a magic number. When it comes to measuring pH, the best method is a pH meter. I don't recommend the pH test strips because they will become inaccurate over time (each time you open the jar to take a strip out, oxygen gets in and degrades the test strips which is why the instructions always say to close the lid tightly). American Pinpoint has a very nice battery powered pH meter that is easy to calibrate and can be used from tank to tank as well as to measure the pH of newly mixed saltwater prior to a water change. It can be used to measure the pH of new fish arrivals still in the bag of water too. If you own a controller like the Apex or Reefkeeper, it comes with a pH probe. That probe comes with a rubber cap that needs to be removed when you install it in the sump or tank. The tip remains submerged in the system and the readings are constantly available on a digital display, or can be checked in a browser or smartphone. Knowing the pH of the tank at a glance is great, but knowing what is the normal pH level for your tank on a day to day basis is even more important.

If you keep your reef's water parameters at normal levels equal to natural sea water, pH should take care of itself. Here are the target numbers:

Temperature: 77-79° F -- If your tank runs 79-81° daily, that's okay. If your tank runs 72-84° daily, you have bigger problems to deal with. 1° or 2° changes per day are within acceptable limits.
Salinity: 1.026 sg or 35 ppt -- use a calibrated refractometer. Calibrate it with 35 ppt calibration solution; never use RO/DI water to calibrate it because it will skew the results.
Alkalinity: 8-11 dKH -- this is the target zone. It should be somewhere within that range, and stay quite stable with regular alkalinity dosing. 8-8.5 dKH is perfectly fine (and this level is best for biopellet users)
Calcium: 375-425 ppm -- through regular calcium dosing, this number should stay pretty much where you need it to be. It shouldn't waver much; it will commonly test about the same week after week.
Magnesium: 1380 ppm -- that number is my preference, especially if you keep Montipora in your system. Magnesium should be three times the calcium level (Calcium = 440 x 3 = 1320 ppm Magnesium). I prefer to keep it closer to 1400 ppm in my tanks, and that yields colorful montipora colonies.

If those five measurements are within range, pH will be whatever it will be. Yes, you can pump in fresh air from outside and run it to your skimmer. Yes, you can dose kalkwasser during the night to help raise it. Yes, you can add pH buffers to raise the number, but why? There are some beautiful reefs out there that seem to thrive in a daily pH swing of 7.7 to 7.9 for years at a time.

If the pH level seems crazy wrong, get the instructions out and calibrate your pH probe with the appropriate solutions. And even more importantly, observe the livestock. How are the fish and corals doing? Are the corals growing steadily? Are the fish swimming naturally and eating normally? Is coralline growing on the glass, pumps and rock? If all is well, it's best not to mess with success just because you are seeking to hit a target number. It's normal for the pH to measure lower during the months we seal up our homes to keep the heat of summer or the cold of winter outside where it belongs.

Happy reefing.

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How to cycle an aquarium

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:53:01 +0000

How to cycle an aquarium melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:53

Decades ago, hobbyists would cycle their new tank with a sacrificial fish, like a blue damsel. While this method may still be used by some, it's not a good plan for two reasons: 1) as the ammonia rises in the water, the fish's gills are burned by the rising ammonia levels which is unkind, and 2) most people don't want the damsel in their aquarium later because it's deemed too aggressive to other livestock.

Once you fill up your aquarium with saltwater, powerheads, a heater and perhaps add sand for substrate, the next step is to "cycle" your tank. The purpose of a cycle is to create bacteria that will be consuming ammonia and nitrite from your livestock, but you have to get the bacteria from somewhere initially. Why is it called a cycle? Because the tank will go through three phases: ammonia will rise and fall, then nitrite will rise and fall even quicker, and lastly nitrate will rise and fall. Once Ammonia and Nitrite read 0 and Nitrate is less than 20ppm, the cycle is complete and livestock can gradually be introduced. The bacteria population will increase with the new bioload, processing waste and converting it to nitrate rapidly. However, it is important to note that overloading the aquarium with too many fish initially can exceed what the bacteria can handle. This is why it is best to add new fish slowly over the next few months. The bacterial levels will adapt if you don't overload the system with too many mouths to feed.

How long does the cycle generally last? Using the three test kits to measure results daily, you'll likely see the process takes 21 days. There are several ways to cycle a tank, but the easiest one is to run up to the supermarket, go to the seafood deli counter and ask for one large shrimp. If they sell it with the head, even better. One shrimp will cost about $1. Don't worry if they think you're crazy to buy only one; this is not the first time someone will wonder about your motivations with this hobby.

I purchased one headless jumbo white shrimp for $0.90, came home, unwrapped the deli paper and placed it in the aquarium.

Do not use any lights over your aquarium during the cycle. There's no reason to use any lighting for the first month, and if you choose to ignore this advice you'll likely see algae taking hold. No filtration should be used during the cycle. No skimmer, no carbon, no GFO, no pads to trap particulates. Just maintain circulation and temperature around 78°F. Do not add a clean up crew of critters, it's too soon.

Leave the shrimp in the tank for 72 hours. That's it. It may even visibly rot, or envelope in some type of mucous. That's what needs to happen. As the shrimp rots, ammonia is released into the water, and bacteria is growing exponentially, spreading into the substrate. The water may even look a little cloudy, which is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. After three days, remove the shrimp and throw it away. It is no longer needed. Test for ammonia and see what it measures. It should read at the very least 1ppm, or higher.

Test the aquarium daily for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, logging the information on graph paper or perhaps in a spreadsheet or app. The more data points you collect over time will graph the rise and fall of each of these parameters. No livestock of any kind should be placed in the aquarium as long as you have any measurable traces of ammonia or nitrite because these are toxic to fish and invertebrates.

In the meantime, you can turn on the protein skimmer and let it remove whatever it can extract. Do not perform any water changes during the cycle because that will only prolong it, but be sure to top off daily with RO/DI water for any evaporation to keep salinity steady and on target. You can add more rock to the tank if you are so inclined. Live rock won't affect the cycle if it was kept submerged in saltwater prior to being added to the tank. Dry rock won't do anything to hurt or help the cycle. Uncured liverock will definitely affect and make the cycle last longer, but only by an extra week at most. The skimmer will pull out all kinds of foul stuff from the uncured liverock.

Start planning what you'll want to put in your aqurium while you have a few weeks to wait. There's no reason to rush this process. A good solid foundation will benefit your future reef and handle the bioload adequately.

If you are running the system with a sump that has a refugium or Algae Turf Scrubber section, don't add any light or plants because the system is too clean. Once you add livestock, that is when you want to start the refugium or ATS. The plants benefit from nitrogen, which comes from fish waste. A new or cycling tank doesn't have any yet, so the plants (cheatomorpha or caulerpa) would starve and die. This section waits until livestock has been added that you'll be feeding daily.

That's it. I hope you found this helpful.

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Biopellets in use

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:49:46 +0000

Biopellets in use melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:49

For nitrate and phoshpate control, I'm using a NextReef reactor. Model SMR1 XL, this reactor holds 2 liters of Vertex NP biopellets. Plumbed to the manifold, a ball valve is used to control the flow rate through the pellets. I've been running biopellets since February 6, 2011, and it appears to be working well: water-testing

The Nextreef reactor is the blue acrylic one.

The valve is very easy to turn, compared to the kind purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. This kind is sold at Savko.com

The pellets tumble gently from top to bottom in the reactor.

The output of the reactor goes into this fitting that I fabricated with a Tee fitting and cap.

The piece fits over the intake to the Eheim pump, and the cap (drilled out in the forefront) accommodates the flexible 5/8" tubing.

This this simple mod, the skimmer absolutely skims the effluent of the reactor, which likely contains dying bacteria. The other opening of the Tee fitting permits additional water to be drawn into the skimmer's pump. The lack of restriction has worked out very well, and the skimmer hasn't been altered or affected adversely.

September 2011 to February 2012: I switched to Coralvue's BioSpheres to see how they run.

March to October 2012: Ran Ecobak biopellets in an AquaMaxx reactor to see the results.

Important Considerations when using biopellets:

Skimming: The output of the solid media reactor needs to be pointed directly to the intake of a protein skimmer's intake pump. All effluent should be heavily skimmed, as this helps avoid issues like brown/reddish mulm on the substrate of the aquarium. If you enjoy a clean sandbed, heed these words.
Bacteria: Dose the aquarium with additional bacteria in a timely fashion. With Prodibio, I dose every 15 days. With Microbacter 7, dose at least weekly. Replenishing the aquarium with additional bacteria has resulted in better results when it comes to running biopellets, which may add diversity to avoid a monoculture, and replace what has died off and being skimmed/exported from the system.
Lighting: As the pellets break in (with bacteria), you'll usually notice a sudden increase of water clarity, and it may be necessary to reduce the lighting period to avoid bleaching livestock. If water was somewhat murky before, better clarity means more light penetration -- the corals can't adapt that quickly so adjust the daily light cycle to match the change in conditions, gradually ramping it back up to the normal schedule.
Alkalinity: Running biopellets like EcoBak usually works best in tanks that keep Alkalinity around 8 dKH. Higher levels of alkalinity may result in burnt-looking coral tips, so weekly water testing should be part of your husbandry routine.
GFO & GAC: You may decide that it isn't necessary to continue running granular ferric oxide. Running fresh granulated activated carbon helps keep water from becoming discolored, and isn't a problem in conjunction with biopellets.
Feedings - Because the extra bacteria in the closed system is so efficient, increasing the feeding routine is best to avoid starving corals. By adding more food, those corals will retain their coloration. Multiple smaller feeding sessions would be better than one giant dose per day.
Maintain proper flow always - The reactor is rated for a specific gallons-per-hour rating, but as the reactor's flow is obstructed one way or another, the liquid inside may become toxic to your reef. Keep an eye on it and if you see less movement or less effluent exiting, take it apart, clean out the obstruction and resume. [Blog]

I've used biopellets for over three years with excellent results. (I'm still using biopellets as of August 2014) Using the suggestions on this page should help you do the same.

Full product review of the Nextreef Reactor: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/311-Product-Review-NextReef-s-NP-Reactor-(SMR1-XL)
Full product review of the Aquamaxx Reactor: http://www.reefaddicts.com/content.php/373-Product-Review-AquaMaxx-biopellet-reactor

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Previous Water Parameters

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:47:29 +0000

Previous Water Parameters melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:47

When keeping an aquarium, the best husbandry requires owning and using test kits to measure water parameters. Most kits have enough tests to last a full year, and using these kits frequently assures happy livestock. If a kit has 50 tests, that's an indicator it should be used weekly. I'd recommend that kits be replaced annually. Mark the date on the box when you purchase it and open it for the first time to avoid relying on a dated kit. Older reagents may lead to false readings. Please read my full article here: http://www.melevsreef.com/articles/maintaining-good-water-quality

Test Type	Recommended Parameters matching Natural Sea Water (NSW)
Salinity	1.026 sg - a calibrated refractometer is the best tool to measure salinity. A hydrometer will measure specific gravity, while a refractometer will show parts per million. 35ppt is the target measurement that is closely equal to 1.026 sg.
pH	7.9 to 8.3 - this varies daily in a tank; measure with a Pinpoint Meter or controller rather than a test kit.
Temperature	78° F to 84° F - average reef temperature tends to be 81° F; try to keep within a 1.5° to 2° swing at the most.
Alkalinity	8 to 11 dKH -or- 2.86 to 3.89 meq/L
Calcium	390 to 450 ppm
Magnesium	1350 - 1400 ppm (or 3x Calcium levels)
Phosphate	.03 ppm - leading cause of nuisance algae in your tank: click for article
Ammonia	0 - anything higher is toxic
Nitrite	0 - anything higher is toxic
Nitrate	10 ppm or less - huge water changes bring down nitrates: click for article

In February 2011, my new 400g reef was started. Readings are taken at various times, and are documented here to allow you to see how the parameters vary over time.

2011

Readings from my 280g reef were taken at various times, and are documented here to allow you to see how the parameters vary over time. This aquarium ran for nearly six years, but in early July 2010 it sprung a leak. Any measurements thereafter were taken from the livestock vats while the new system was being built from the ground up.

2010

2009

2008

2007 - 2006

2005 - 2004

2004*

* Both reef tanks were upgraded to a 280g during this year.

2003

Blank entries were not taken for whatever reason. Certain tests are ignored, such as Ammonia because they typically result in 0.

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Dosing Vodka: Why?

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:42:14 +0000

Dosing Vodka: Why? melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:42

For the past few years, I've been aware that some people were dosing their tanks with Vodka. Yes, the stuff that people drink from the liquor store. When I was at MACNA one year, the famous David Saxby was in attendance. He was in the beautiful Deltec booth, telling me that my nitrate and phosphate issues would be resolved if I were to use lots of RowaPHOS in a big Deltec reactor, and my tank would do even better if I dosed vodka. David's gorgeous tank can be found on the web, packed full of fish that every reef keeper dreams to emulate. So... vodka, huh? I filed it away, because I just didn't know enough about it.

During the summer of 2008, an article finally came out explaining how to dose a tank with vodka. Please read it very carefully: Notes from the Trenches - Vodka Dosing... Distilled!

So now that I had the recipe in my hands, I decided it was time to give it a try. I made sure that I had 80 Proof vodka (40% alcohol), and I took careful notes to make sure I dosed correctly each day. My journey started on July 14th, 2008.

For the first three days, I dosed a mere 1 ml. On Day 4 to Day 7, I dosed 2 ml. Then for the next week, I dosed 2.5 ml daily. Each subsequent week, .5 ml was added. Just to be clear, here's the breakdown for how much was dosed DAILY:

Week 1 - 1ml - 2ml
Week 2 - 2.5 ml
Week 3 - 3 ml
Week 4 - 3.5 ml
Week 5 - 4 ml
Week 6 - 4.5 ml
Week 7 - 5 ml
Week 8 - 5.5 ml
Week 9 - 6 ml
Week 10 - 6.5ml
Week 11 - 7 ml
Week 12 - 7.5 ml
Etc...

This continued for a long period of time. To determine how much vodka is sufficient to break down nitrate and phosphate, tests need to be done weekly. I was watching for the numbers to begin dropping, but I was in for a very long wait. My reef tank has a DSB (Deep Sand Bed), a refugium filled with sand and macro algae, and it was a mature, established system. I stopped using GFO in my tank during the vodka dosings, but I did run GAC (granulated activated carbon) in a Phosban reactor - which is changed out bi-weekly.

FYI: At the scheduled rate of adding .5 ml per week, it took 27 weeks to reach 15 ml. Almost 7 months!

The months went by as I gradually ramped up the dosage until it reached 15 ml of vodka per day. For my system, that is when the magic happened. Nitrates dropped to 0, as I'd hoped they would. Phosphate hasn't been a problem in my tank in a long time, although it was present. I do believe that the vodka helped keep the phosphate from rising quickly, but it did go up ever-so-slightly between testings. When it got around .25 ppm, I dosed the tank with Blue Life's Phosphate Rx to bring it back down to 0 ppm overnight. I really do like that product.

Click the images above to see the larger version available on the Reef Parameters page of my site.

As of the writing of this article (May 10, 2009), I've been dosing my tank for almost exactly 10 months. During those 10 months, I used over 3 liters of vodka in my tank. The brand isn't important; the last bottle I purchased was 1.75 liters, and cost about $10. During those 10 months, I did four 55-gallon water changes, used Phosphate Control four or five times, and nitrates are measuring 0.

During the past two months, I've reduced the vodka dosage from 15ml to 12.5ml, and then again to 10ml per day to see if that is the 'maintenance' dose, as directed in the original article.

By July 2010, I'd dosed my tank daily for three years to keep nitrate levels down, and it worked. I stopped dosing when I had to break down the 280g because it was leaking. As of February 6th, 2011, I chose to use biopellets instead to control nitrate and phosphate for the 400g setup.

What's the bottom line? Dosing vodka is easy if you can keep up with it, daily. The cost for 10 months was under $40, and I didn't have to deal with refilling a Phosban Reactor with GFO and all that that entails. I purposely didn't do very many water changes because I wanted to know if vodka could do the job as advertised. Had I done monthly water changes, nitrates would have been diluted away, at least in part. It wasn't a quick process, but it did bring them down from 35 ppm to 0 ppm, and they are staying consistently at that low point ever since.

An additional perk to vodka dosing is the ability to feed more heavily without fear that water quality will suffer. It can be a challenging dance indeed to not overdose with food nor with vodka. Water clarity is obvious to the eye.

I still believe this is a method best suited for seasoned hobbyists and not for those new to the hobby, because they lack the ability to quickly recognize corals reacting badly. If the hobbyist is in tune with his or her tank, they tend to notice even the most minute changes, and take the necessary steps to avert disaster.

What's an article without pictures? Here are some before and after pictures.

May 2008 (Taken with a Fuji S5100)

April 2009 (Taken with a Nikon D70s)

May 2009

To make dosing easier for me to accomplish, I made my own drip system with some parts on hand. I didn't want to have to drip it in slowly by hand, and definitely didn't want to pour it in all at once. I had a 15 ml plastic syringe, and affixed the drip system from a Kent Dosing kit to it. After heating up some acrylic, I secured the Vodka Drip Doser to the frame above my sump.

15ml syringe doser	Vodka & dosing cup
1) Measure amount with syringe	2) Fill drip doser
3) Replacing the cap (avoid contamination)	Drip doser full of vodka
Drip counter (verify drip rate)	Pinch valve to adjust drip rate
Vodka drips into area of flow	Resulting skimmate

When I'm out of town, it is easy for my son to pour in the daily dose.

Vodka isn't the only solution to nitrate and phosphate issues, but for my tank, it really works. I will continue to dose the tank daily, as it takes less than 15 seconds, and I'm more than happy to do so.

Additional link: After almost two years of dosing daily, I decided to make a more automated system using an Aqualifter and a digital timer so I didn't have to wonder if my tank was actually being dosed correctly when I wasn't home. Here's the link, posted on 5/21/2010:
http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php/494-Automating-feedings-and-vodka-dosings

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Various Chemicals Solutions

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:38:51 +0000

Various Chemicals Solutions melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:38

Caring for our aquariums, we often run into any number of problems that may be resolved with time and water changes, but at times it may require a chemical solution instead. This webpage is designed to show you some of the products that I have used in the past 8 years, and what types of results I obtained, if any at all. Remember, what you choose to dose in your tank may produce negative results and thus it may be best to remain patient and not dose a particular product.

There usually are no quick solutions: Nothing good ever happens fast in a reef tank.

Some products are used regularly - maintaining good water parameters; or as an absorber to improve water quality.

		ESV's B-Ionic - This product maintains Alkalinity, Calcium and pH levels when dosed daily. It is recommended to dose it early in the morning when pH is at its lowest, and it should be dosed slowly in an area of high flow. When I dosed my 29g and my 55g, I would pour the correct dose of Part 1 very slowly over 15 seconds. Once done, repeat with Part 2 the exact same way. If it is dumped in at once, the concentrated solution is super saturated in one spot temporarily and may even precipate out of the water - which would make the dose ineffective or even defunct. I used B-Ionic for 2 years with excellent results, and it will definitely promote coralline algae growth. To the left, you can see quart bottles of each part. This is the best way to dose the tank, using the small dosing cups that come with them. So buy a set from your LFS or online. However, purchasing it by the gallon or even the five gallon bucket saves you the most money. I would either buy it by the bucket for myself, or share the buckets' volume with a couple of people in our club to spread out the cost of product and shipping. Refilling the quart bottles once a month worked great.
		Boyd Enterprises' ChemiClean - This product is designed to remove Cyano Bacteria. Cyano is often referred to as red algae, but since it is actually bacteria in nature, it has to be resolved a little differently. If you prefer to avoid using a product in your tank, increase the flow in the area where cyano grows, do water changes, skim well, and double check the age of your bulbs. Over a period of a few weeks, it will die off. Using a turkey baster, you can blow it off the rock and corals, and with flexible tubing it can be siphoned out of your tank. I have waited it out for weeks before, and it did go away. I have used ChemiClean many times, and never lost any livestock at all. The product is great. Mix it well up in a cup of RO water, using the correct dosage for your tank, and pour it in an area of high flow. Turn off the protein skimmer for 48 hours. Within 24 hours, all cyano should be dead and gone. Its main ingredient is erythromycin (I think), and this kills off the bacteria as promised. It is recommended to change 20% of the water after the treatment has concluded. With the skimmer being off, it might be wise to hook up an airpump and put an airstone in the display area of the tank to maintain good oxygenation. Running carbon after treating would be wise. Another similar product I use is RedCyano Rx.
		Carbon - running carbon actively will yield good results in water clarity, and absorb some things from the water. If you've treated your tank with another product to solve a problem, running fresh carbon should remove that product now. Or if your soft corals are slumping over, carbon may remove some of the chemicals corals exude in 'chemical warfare.' They should perk right back in within a few days. I only run carbon 3 days per month, and believe running it longer is ineffective. Carbon can only absorb so much and after that it may simply become a nitrate bed instead. If it is tossed in a small mesh bag in the sump (passive filtration), it will not work as well as it would in a canister filter or some other system that forces water through it (active filtration). The Phosban reactor is a nice choice to run carbon. I recommend you read this article to get more insight about using carbon. And remember: Charcoal is for grilling, carbon is for filtering. ;)
		Algone - This one is new to me, but it promises to clear up a cloudy tank. I'm using it to lower nitrates in my reef tank. Each box contains 6 little pillows that you can float in your sump in an area of good flow. Each pouch is designed to handle up to 200g of water. The jury is out on this one currently (September 2005).
		Kent Nitrate Sponge - A one pound container of these granules will treat a 50g aquarium, and it really works. I put half a pound in one canister filter, and half a pound in another one, and let it run for 48 hours. It brought nitrates way down. Once the time has elapsed, remove it from your system to avoid it releasing back into the water. Do I recommend this as a chemical solution? If your test numbers are sky high - yes. However, you must remove what is creating them in the first place. Please read this article, and resolve those issues first. Once that is done, big water changes will usually solve the problem better than using a chemical solution.
		Kent Phosphate Sponge - Similar to Kent's Nitrate Sponge, this granular product will remove phosphate. When my tank tested 2.0, I used this product in a canister filter. 48 hours later, PO4 tested at .2ppm - quite a substatial drop, right? Remove this product promptly to avoid it from releasing the PO4 back into the tank. This product is aluminum-based, and leathers will respond poorly to it. Mine shrunk down for about 3 weeks before it recovered. I won't use it again. (Aluminum-based)
		CaribSea's Phosbuster Pro - Liquid Gold! Yeah, I sound like a salesman. :) I used a lot of products trying to bring the PO4 levels down in my 280g reef, and nothing was working well enough. This product is a flocculant, and what it does is convert phosphate into a fine dust particle that can be trapped with filtration or exported with a good protein skimmer. I dosed my tank several times with it, and readings have dropped from 3.0 to .1ppm When treating, I chose to use it at night when the fish were asleep (rather than when they are most active) just in case it was an irritant to their gills. Phosbuster Pro can lower alkalinity in the water, so be sure to measure that level before dosing. CaribSea recommends raising alkalinity 10 minutes before dosing, which I did. My tank runs around 11 dKH, and my livestock did fine. If you have a Yellow Tang, you might be wise to remove that fish from the tank before dosing. CaribSea was aware of a number of yellow tangs dying after the tank was treated during the first year of this produt coming to market, so they diluted the product further. I wouldn't hesitate to use this, or Phosphate Rx.
		Two Little Fishies' Phosban - About two years ago, everyone was excited to order a "phosban reactor" for about $35 online. I mean, everyone was ordering, and people were on waiting lists. It was crazy. I didn't even know what the big deal was. The phosban reactor is a clear acrylic container that you can hang on your tank or sump, which you'd fill up with Phosban - a fine powdery substance that absorbs phosphate from the water. The reason it was so popular was because it would force water through the media and didn't cost a fortune. A very small powerhead is all that is needed, moving no more than 90gph through it. It really does work well, and the Phosban Reactor has become a great tool for hobbyists needing to run other products as well, such as Carbon. Each reactor is rated for 150g, and the container of Phosban treats about the same. Buying Phosban in buckets is cheaper than the smaller individual containers. I use two Phosban Reactors on my 280g reef, and they are doing the job now that the levels are lowered to something they can handle. FYI, the newest reactor is much easier to open and close, as the entire top twists off in a quarter turn, and has elbows where the tubing connects. This is a major improvement from the older model that had 10 or more screws holding the lid down, and nipples pointing straight up to receive the necessary tubing (which you can see in the linked picture above). Once the reactor has been filled and sealed, it would be wise to run 3g of RO water through it in the sink, to wash out the "fines" (red dust) so that it doesn't release these in your tank or sump. I also stuff a little polyester padding in the top of my reactor to keep the larger fines from escaping. This is a good product that doesn't really have negatives. It has to be replaced when it clumps up, which may be as much as 60 days later. (Iron-based)Supplemental article.
		ROWAphos - Similar to Phosban, this product should be used in a fluidize reactor. ROWAphos arrives in a sealed container and is rather moist. It looks like a jar of rust which, in essence, it is. I've used it in the past and am currently using it. A large container is $65 online and treats about 450g, which is rather expensive compared to the amount of Phosban you get in a bucket. You need to rinse out ROWAphos. It is recommended to slow down the flow to the point that what is coming out of the fluidized reactor produces a 0 phosphate reading. What I do is set up the reactor in my sump, let it run very slowly in a bucket next to the sump until the effluent comes out clear. After about 3 gallons have collected, it is ready to drain into the sump itself. (Iron-based)
		Tunze Silphos - I used this product for several weeks, and it worked okay. Perhaps if I'd continued to use it in larger quantities, I may have had better results. You must rinse it very well, and even after you do that, once you hook it up (this is the method Tunze recommends), it will release a red cloud in your tank. You can use it un-rinsed if you have to bring PO4 down quickly, but expect your tank to look like the surface of Mars in a sand storm. Yes, I did that once and it was a tad scary. However, the next day all looked perfectly fine. One container will fill up the filter basket two times, and I used two containers worth trying to bring PO4 levels down in my tank. Silphos will also reduce silicates in the water as well. (Iron-based)
		Salifert's Flatworm eXit - This product will kill flatworms. I've used it when necessary, and suffered no losses. Please be sure to read this page several times, and if you follow my guidelines you should have success as well. The product will not hurt your livestock, but dying flatworms release toxin that will. READ my guidelines, PLEASE. I've used this product a few times, always with great results. It would be wise to always have this on hand for any new arrivals. Just add two or three drops to the bag holding the new frag or coral, and let it do its thing as the coral is floating during acclimation. If any flatworms were present, they'll be dead. Rinse the coral in a container of tank water, shaking off any hidden flatworms, and place in your tank without fear. Being proactive in this regard will keep your system flatworm free.
		CaribSea's Purple Up - This product contains the necessary elements to increase coralline algae growth in your tank. I've used it a few times and it works. It will not create it from nothing - but it will encourage growth if there is any coralline in your tank. I've used it a few times now, and in addition to healthy water with proper seawater levels, coralline is now growing on the back wall of my tank rapidly.
		Joe's Juice is a product made specifically to kill aiptasia or anemonia majanosin your reef tank. The product is easy to use. I've been told in Europe, hobbyists are getting great results with this product. Shake it up well, then fill the syringe. I turn off the pumps in my tank during application, and then slowly depress the plunger to drop a small pile on the mouth area of the aiptasia. Try not to frighten the glass anemone by touching it, so that it will simply close up over the food and injest it. For best results, be vigilant and feed them daily until you can't find any at all. If you only do this once a week or once a month, the problem will never be resolved. New tips (see picture) may be purchased separately to get to those that aren't easily accessible.
		Pickling Lime is another product used to kill aiptasia. Actually, I think we've pretty much tried anything we can get our hands on in that battle. ;) Pickling Lime can be used for kalkwasser, which many opt to use to top off their tanks to replace what has evaporated. Usually 1 to 2 teaspoons per gallon is about right. I add a rounded teaspoon of powder for each gallon of RO/DI water, and mix it well. After it has settled for one hour, I'll start to drip it into my sump, in an area of good flow so it can mix in and be pumped back up to the tank. Be sure not to disturb or add any of the sediment at the base of the top off container. Kalkwasser has a pH of 12, which is why it is recommended to drip it into your tank rather than pouring it in at once. Such high pH will burn some corals and possibly hurt the gills of fish, so be wise and use precautions. When setting up your system, it would be smart to limit any potential disaster by only mixing it in small amounts. A couple of gallons won't hurt your tank where a full 35g trashcan might, if it all added at once due to human error or mechanical failure. For years, I've avoided using it because I've read about tank after tank being decimated due to a huge accidental overdose. So be careful, and control the worst case senario. If you do that, you'll have nothing to worry about. Ball's Pickling Lime or Mrs Wages are both safe. For my tank, I have 6g mixed up at a time, and if it all dumped into the 280g reef, pH would only rise to 8.45 - not a problem. Kalkwasser helps maintain pH, alkalinity and calcium levels cheaply. Supplemental article.
		3% Peroxide. The same stuff we use to clean a wound can be used to treat a reef with a Dinoflagellate outbreak. The general rule is 1 ml per 10-gallons of actual water volume, treated daily for eight days in a row. Livestock is unaffected but the dinoflagellates will lessen daily. Do not disable any filtration - leave everything running as usual. If this is a massive outbreak, as always I'd recommend siphoning out all you can first to reduce its density in the system. Clean and remove anything coated (locline fittings, cleaning magnets, frag racks) with the outbreak away from the tank, then reinstall.

I hope this information helps provide some answers to some common issues, but remember results may vary. Do your homework first!

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DIY: Make your own Soda Ash cheaply

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:18:02 +0000

DIY: Make your own Soda Ash cheaply melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:18

You can buy baking soda anywhere. Supermarkets, Walmart, even the Dollar Store. A box costs $0.99 and is perfectly safe for your reef. Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate which can be used for baking, cleaning, and deodorizing. And we hobbyists use it to buffer the alkalinity level of our aquariums, too.

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) will raise alkalinity while depressing pH, while Sodium carbonate (Soda Ash) will raise both. By baking the baking soda in your oven, the heat will drive off the trapped CO2 in the powder that would decrease pH levels and turn it into sodium carbonate. We want to use Soda Ash, and making your own is easy and inexpensive. You can use Arm & Hammer, or any other brand sold where groceries are available. Here's one I bought at Aldi. Spead the contents of the box evenly on a pizza / cookie sheet.

Preheat your oven to 300°F, and wait for the oven light to turn off.

Once the light turns off, the oven is at the proper temperature. Don't put the tray in the oven until the temperature has been reached first, so you don't burn the product while the oven is heating up.

Place it on the rack in the middle of the oven.

Set the timer for 60 minutes. Let it bake. No reason to open the oven during this process. Once the timer chimes, remove the pan and allow it to cool off.

It should still be white. If you burned it and it turned brown, toss it out and make a new batch.

Once cooled, transfer the soda ash into a storage container, like this disposable Ziploc one.

How to use it:

If you want to mix up a gallon of alkalinity liquid solution for daily dosing, combine 1 gallon of RODI water with 2 cups of soda ash. Stir it very well for 30 seconds, then give it a few minutes to mix. Once clear, it's ready to hook up to a dosing pump.

You can also make smaller amounts for quick adjustments. For example, if you mixed up a batch of new saltwater and the pH or alkalinity is low, a couple of teaspoons of soda ash mixed in a cup of RODI water may be just the amount necessary to make that saltwater batch measure correctly. You can fine-tune what you need, just experiment and test thoroughy until you have learned what amount works best for you. Also, just cause you mixed up a cup of soda ash and water doesn't mean you have to pour it all into your barrel. Pour in a little bit, let it mix into the saltwater, and measure alkalinity or pH. Add a little bit more, mix and test until you hit the desired level.

Remember: Alkalinity should always be dosed in an area of high flow, trickled in very slowly rather than being dumped in all at once.

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Carbon In The Reef Tank - Part 1 (Repost)

melev — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:12:31 +0000

Carbon In The Reef Tank - Part 1 (Repost) melev Mon, 06/29/2020 - 07:12

Richard Harker wrote a two-part article that I found very helpful and easy to digest. Unfortunately as websites close down, knowledge such as his could be lost so I reached out to get his permission to store his writings here on Melev's Reef. It was written roughly 20 years ago!

Granular Activated Carbon In The Reef Tank: Fact, Folklore And Its Effectiveness In Removing Gelbstoff — Part One

One of the most frequently cited reasons given for using granular activated carbon (GAC) in a reef aquarium is to remove “gelbstoff” — the compounds that give water in a captive reef system a yellow cast. Bingman (1996) notes that “these yellow-colored compounds seem to accumulate over time” and are difficult to remove without the use of activated carbon.

As far back as 1986, Wilkens and Birkholz wrote of the use of activated carbon to “remove material that can't be biologically decomposed any further (so-called ‘yellow matter’).” Ten years later, Fosså and Nilsen (1996) echoed these feelings by writing, “the main purpose of activated carbon filters is to remove from the water any organic pigments…(that) give the water a yellow tint.”

Suppliers to the hobby have responded to the nearly universal support for the use of activated carbon by offering over two dozen GAC products. Unfortunately, the hobbyist has had very little guidance as to the functional differences between these GACs or their relative effectiveness at removing yellowing compounds.

A rare exception is an article published in Aquarium Fish Magazine by Timothy A. Hovanec (1993). Hovanec described sources of GAC and reviewed the performance of four different types of source material for carbons. Hovanec found carbon derived from bituminous coal to be the most effective in removing tannic acid from freshwater.

In a more recent article, Hovanec (1998) states flatly that “the best carbon for use in water filtration for removing dissolved organic carbons is bituminous coal-based carbon.” He also comments about the decline in use of coconut carbon, stating that “coconut carbons have the wrong pore size for filtering the target materials from water.”

Between the appearance of the first Hovanec article and the second, Stephen Spotte and Gary Adams published a study examining GAC’s ability to remove dissolved organic carbons (DOC) in a captive seawater system (1984). They reached somewhat different conclusions. They found that carbon made from hardwood was most effective in removing DOC. Carbon of anthracite coal origin was least effective.

Reconciling the conclusions of the two articles is difficult. The Hovanec study examined tannic acid removal from freshwater, whereas Spotte examined DOC removal from seawater. The two authors compared GAC from a somewhat different mix of sources (both authors examined coal based carbon, but while Spotte evaluated lignite coal based carbon, Hovanec evaluated bituminous coal based carbon). The rank order of the Hovanec study from most effective to least was coal, coconut and wood, whereas Spotte’s rank order was wood, coconut and coal — exactly the opposite. Hovanec concluded that coconut carbon was ineffective for filtering water. Spotte found coconut carbon less effective than hardwood based carbons, but still able to remove significant proportions of DOC.

Regardless of the study in which a reef keeper places more trust, Spotte identified only the manufacturer of the carbons (all were produced by one company), and Hovanec did not identify manufacturers or repackagers. (Most carbon sold to hobbyists is simply bought in bulk from a limited number of manufacturers and repackaged for the hobby. Calgon Carbon, a major manufacturer of GAC, alone produces 40 different carbon formulations.)

Potentially more useful to the hobbyist was a review of GAC written by Gregory Schiemer (1997), including several tests on 17 different brands of carbon. Unfortunately, while he examined adsorption ability, his test only subjectively measured a carbon’s ability to remove blue dye from water. Gelbstoff is composed of large complex organic compounds, so it is not clear whether a carbon’s relative performance in his tests correlates with a carbon’s effectiveness in a reef tank. While Schiemer used a five point scale to note relative adsorption, 12 of the 17 carbons rated the highest possible score. This lack of differentiation among the majority of brands makes it difficult for a hobbyist to narrow his or her choice beyond the dozen.

Test Procedure

If a carbon’s ability to remove yellowing compounds is an important reason to use carbon, it makes sense to compare the ability of various carbons to remove these compounds. Bingman (1996a) identified the source of gelbstoff as marine humic acids, and in Bingman (1996b) he noted that the presence of humic acids can be detected spectrophotometrically using the American Public Health Association (APHA) method outlined in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. In this study, a Hach DR/2010 spectrophotometer was used to measure the removal of color by GAC. The one change made from the Hach procedure was to follow Bingman’s recommendation (in this case) to use a shorter wavelength of 400 nanometers (nm) rather than 455 nm as per the APHA method to increase the measurements’s sensitivity to the presence of humic acids.

The procedure consisted of circulating saltwater containing gelbstoff through a quantity of carbon for 12 hours and determining the reduction in color over the time period. My 300 gallon reef tank water, even after several months without GAC, measures only 9 APHA color units, so a method outlined in Sieburth and Jensen 1969) was utilized to increase the color of the water. A combination of Calerpa and Sargassum algae was allowed to “stew” for several hours in warmed water removed from my tank until sufficient materials had been exuded from the algae. The exudations of algae are a combination of phenols and carbohydrates that bind with proteinaceous matter in saltwater to produce the yellowing compounds. This approach raised the apparent color from 9 to 89 units in a day, enough for the color to be visually detected against a white background.

Twenty grams of GAC were sandwiched between two layers of plastic filter material supported by 38 grams of polyester filter floss in an 8 by 30 centimeter vertically oriented acrylic tube. This arrangement forced water to flow evenly through the carbon. The quantity of carbon was chosen to reflect the recommendations of hobby authors regarding the use of carbon.

The carbon chamber was gravity fed with a powerhead moving approximately 1.5 liters per minute, pumping water to the top of the chamber. The chamber was placed in a tank filled with 4 liters of test water. While hobby authors generally give recommendations on the quantity of carbon to use, none of the sources I reviewed offered opinions on the rate at which water should flow past carbon. Hovanec offered no details on the flow rate of his experiment. Spotte and Adams conducted their flow-through experiment at 24 milliliters/minute (ml/min), considerably slower than my rate. Other work suggests that the effectiveness of GAC begins to decline with flow rates higher than 65 ml/min (Kerr and Quinn).

The traditional method of GAC use in a reef tank is to repeatedly circulate water through a canister filter or PVC tube fed by a powerhead (Moe), and both methods involve much higher flow rates. For this experiment, it was decided that rates closer to hobbyist rates would be utilized.

Color was measured at the beginning of the 12 hour test period, at least once during the test, and then once again at the end of the period. For each measurement, three replicates of approximately 30 ml each were removed from the test tank and then successively poured into a 1-inch cell. The color of each replicate was then measured with the spectrophotometer. The three measurements were averaged for the final result listed in the chart below. The blank for each test consisted of distilled water.

Results

All GACs were able to remove some color, but effectiveness varied considerably between brands. The highest reduction was 88 color units, virtually eliminating any color, while the lowest was 21 units, only a slight reduction over the initial color of the water. A control test using only the polyester filter floss removed 7 color units. Three of the top five performing carbons were lignite based. The top five carbons adsorbed considerably more color than the second tier of bituminous based carbons. The lone coconut based carbon ranked eighth, outperforming several bituminous coal-based carbons.

As a rule, the molded “pellet” type GACs were less effective in removing color than the other brands. Three of the four lowest adsorbing carbons were pellet shaped. The pellets had smooth, hard surfaces. The most effective carbons tended to be irregular in shape and offer a large surface area to volume. The surfaces of the more effective carbons were rough rather than smooth like the pellet carbons.

While there are many brands of carbons sold to hobbyists, there are a limited number of types of carbon sold. Bituminous coal based carbons make up the majority of brands available. Lignite based carbons make up the rest with the exception of a few coconut based brands. This may have affected the outcome of the tests. For example, only one coconut carbon was tested, and it was a mid-pack performer. It did, however, outperform the same company’s “scientific grade” bituminous based carbon. This suggests that had I been able to acquire more formulations of coconut, coconut based carbons may have performed better.

Hovanec (1998) writes that “(coconut carbon) was the subject of much marketing hype…but the drawbacks of using coconut carbon in the aquarium finally merged with the market forces and sales of this type of carbon dropped.” One wonders what marketing forces would have prevailed if Spotte’s findings had been as widely read as Hovanec’s. Perhaps the hobbyist would have a greater range of choices available to him. None of the large repackagers sell hardwood based carbon to the hobby, so it was impossible to confirm Spotte’s findings regarding the effectiveness of hardwood GAC.

GAC available to the hobby varies considerably in price, but price is a poor predictor of effectiveness. Some of the least expensive GACs outperformed GACs costing nearly three times as much. Figure 1 shows the relationship between effectiveness in removing color and efficiency expressed in cost per ounce. GACs shown in the upper right quadrant effectively remove color, and do so at a low cost per ounce. GACs in the lower right quadrant also effectively remove color, but do so at a higher cost. The GAC's found in the left quadrants are less effective on a unit cost basis than those shown to the right.

In part two of this examination of GAC we’ll explore the use of carbon in captive reef systems. We’ll examine the recomendations offered to hobbyists on how to use GAC and look at the growing trend of passive use of carbon.

Acknowledgments. I wish to thank Jeff Voet of Tropical Fish World of Raleigh, North Carolina for his assistance in selecting and procuring many of the GACs used in this review. References will be included next month in part two.

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