Water Parameter Help

[Kjmsmith]

The support on this forum is truly amazing! Thank you! Any specific brand of biopellets reccomended to use with the TLF 150?

 

[TORX]

I prefer tlf pellets but have used vertex as well.

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[Nonuser]

Where do you get the nice flexible hosing? I bought some home hardware clear tubing but it's not very plyable or elastic. I also wonder why in the heck they are sold without the hoses it's ridiculous is 2017 people. It's almost as bad as products that require batteries to be sold without batteries?

 

[AdInfinitum]

Let's not forget that consistency in our closed systems is almost if not more important than a specific number. I have read and heard of many SPS systems that run numbers with nitrates and phosphates you would think the same you are thinking, but they have slowly and over time had those levels rise to that, and then so consistently stay there that things find a way to adapt and survive. My guess is your system has been running with numbers like this for a long long time.

This is absolutely the correct answer!!! Levels have not spiked...they have gradually accumulated and everything in the tank has adapted...nitrates are not lethal to typical adult fish in a typical SW tank/ph range until they hit SEVERAL THOUSAND PPM. When I first converted my old fish system to a reef I had all kinds of SPS (acros specifically) brightly coloured and growing rapidly in 100ppm nitrates....there is an extensive thread on RC regarding member Thales system that thrives with extremely high phosphates...my personal take is that these systems evolve...frags that cannot adapt to the nutrients die off...ones that can survive or even thrive...but ultimately if nutrients continue to accumulate beyond some point they eventually surpass the level that things can adapt to and eventually there is a crash.

The usual trajectory is...something dies so the aquarists who thought their tank was OK since everything was happy, does some testing...goes holy crap my water is way out of whack!! I need to change a bunch of water asap to save everything else...then the sudden change in conditions starts to kill off all of the remaining livestock as the snowball rumbles down the hill....

 

[Kjmsmith]

@AdInfinitum thank you for the overview which probably describes my situation exactly. I added a few new coral frags to my system 3 months ago and they all seemed to adjust except for one piece of trumpet coral which should have been the easiest of the pieces to acclimate. Perhaps this is a sign of the water issues before I tested it. Regardless, I plan to take action and get it under control, the key will be to do it slowly so as to not shock the system.
I was intersted in feedback on my plan to not use the F5 with filter media and eventually just take it off line. Given my setup, is not having a filter possible if I were to run a nitrate reactor and the skimmer?

 

[AdInfinitum]

IMO. Maximizing nutrient export is one of the keys to keeping a system stable and sustainable long term and especially without a sump or large fuge some mechanical filtration is important. I ran canisters and UG filters for many years....the best combination I found was filter pads or floss (preferably fine filter pads) in the first section to remove detritus and ensure only physically clean water goes through to the denitrification area. (These pads should be accessible to be cleaned regularly). Then the rest of the canister I filled with rock rubble to create a large denitrification zone. If I were doing it today, I would use siporax in place of the rubble. That portion of the filter I would disturb as infrequently as possible to help maintain the anoxic zones in the media.

 

[Kjmsmith]

Great, thank you for the advice. I'm going to keep it empty for now to eliminate a possible source of the high nitrates until I get the NO3 under control most likely with the addition of a reactor. Once i accomplish that I will slowly start re-adding mechanical filtration media whilst still running the reactor.

Thanks everyone for your help. I will update my progress over the coming weeks/months.