Spartanman's cube

Checked the skimmer this morning and had some nice green smimmate. Not a lot but definitely more than my SCA has been able to produce. I'm still a bit nervous that this will be too large and won't maintain a consistent foam head, but we'll see how the next couple weeks go. As a backup I picked up a used Vertex In-80 skimmer body. If I need to I'll throw the psk 600 on the Vertex.

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I tested nitrates now that the new skimmers been online for about 36 hours and it seems to be making a dent. Last week I was at somewhere between 50-75 ppm and tonight I was at or even slightly under 50.

I haven't done a water change since the last testing only change has been the new skimmer. Now hopefully my sps start recovering. It's strange, all my original pieces are struggling save 1, but I have 4 new pieces from AP that are encrusting and doing really well.

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It is so frustrating to try to save those pieces that started going downhill when you have a tank issue. Everything can be perfect in the tank a week later, but those struggling pieces either seem to bounce back or die a slow death to matter what. And then as some are dying, they release crap that can cause a chain reaction of death. So it's hard to know when to cut your losses and pull em out, or see if they will bounce back.

Why do we put ourselves through this? :banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
One question - have you dosed any nitrifying bacteria like MB7 while you were doing the vinegar, or ever? If you saw no reduction in nitrates at all with carbon dosing, and have no good skimmate, I wonder if the tank is out of balance and low on bacteria to convert the nitrate into nitrogen?
 
I did not dose MB7 but isn't that essentially the purpose of carbon dosing, to fuel the production of bacterial growth?

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And yes I know what you mean. I've got a large purple stag and setosa I'm trying to salvage but the stag isn't looking too good. If they don't start improving I will likely just scrap all of the damaged coral and start over.

Nothing more demoralizing than ripping out multiple colonies and throwing them away ?

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I'm starting to see skimmate production now with the new Diablo XS 160. It's been two full days and I've already got some dark green skimmate, which is why I think I saw a reduction in nitrates from last week. I may consider starting carbon dosing up again now that I've got a skimmer that's producing.

If I could just get these nitrates gone I think I'd be in the clear. I've had the complete stability in all other parameters.

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Spartanman22 said:
Nothing more demoralizing than ripping out multiple colonies and throwing them away ?

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Click to expand...

Man I know what you mean. Back in March when I had aefw I was throwing sps away by the had full everyday. At least things are going in the right direction for you now. Hope to see some good updates soon
 
Depending on the amount of corals you have that are in bad shape have you thought of setting up another tank like you would if fish got ick? It's just a thought.


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I have. I've moved a lot of pieces to thr frag tank, but at this point there's not much left worth saving, only about 3-4 pieces I'm really keen on trying to revive.

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I'm ordering new filters for my RODI and was wondering if anyone has any information on when to change the RO membrane. I've seen numbers anywhere from 2-5 years and 6-10 years. My current membrane is approximately 6 years old. Should I consider swapping it out for a new one?

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The way I did it was if the my TDS reading was higher then 10 I would first change the other three filters... If I still had high readings I'd replace the membrane.. Hope that helps
 
Ok thanks I'll just stick with the filters for now then. It's currently reading 0 out but it's been over a year since replacing the DI, sediment and carbon so I'm going to just go ahead and swap them out regardless.

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I've decided to give MB7/vodka dosing a go. I ran my old 75 gallon with vodka dosing and it was very successful. My plans are as follows:

Days 1-3: 0.2 mL per day
Days 4-7: 0.4 mL per day
Week 2: 0.9 mL per day
Week 3: 1.4 mL per day

The criteria I'm following states to dose 0.1 mL per 25 gallon net system volume for days 1-3. Days 4-7, double the initial dose. Then increase dosage by 0.5 mL per day until a nitrate and phosphate zeros out. Once nitrate and phosphate reach zero, cut your dosage in half. This then becomes your maintenance dose and you can adjust as needed.

My system is currently at 0 ppm phosphates (Salifert) and about 50 ppm nitrates (Salifert). So really not looking for phosphate reduction just nitrate.

I will dose the MB7 per the bottles directions. My plan is to dose vodka in the sump and MB7 in the display.

My new skimmer should fit the requirement of an oversized skimmer for vodka dosing. I will monitor Alk, Ca, NO3, and PO4 daily, as well as record daily dosages.

For this dosing regime I intend to keep my alk right around 8.0. As of last night I'm at 8.3. I've decreased the dosing time slightly to try and drop it a bit closer to 8.0. Yesterday was the first dose of 0.2 mL and I'm hoping to get the MB7 in today or tomorrow.

I'll update this thread to document my results and will do my best to take lots of photos!



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superchargedgp said:
After I changed my membrane tds after the membrane went from 7 to 1 and and after the di from 1 to 0
Click to expand...
Good to know! My TDS still reads 0 going out but it's cheap to replace the DI resin, sediment filter, and carbon block and they all have over a years use. So, I figured why not.

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