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12 hours ago, watdachuck said:

I did not use an additive but my start up did not go quite as I had planned either.  I somewhat chronicled the tank change, but the initial set up had been running for about a month.  The live rock from BRS was curing in a 45 gallon trash can about a month prior to that.

The first week of curing the ammonia stench was harsh to say the least and I conducted several massive water changes.  I continued to 10% changes every other day or so for about three weeks from there.  Once I broke down the first tank, the rock cured for another month back in the trash can, but there was definitely enough dead matter from the get go to jump start the cycle.

At this point I am comfortable adding fish to the tank without any fear of them stressing.  I still conduct daily water tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and will send out my monthly test samples to aquamedicwatertesting.com for the full range.

PH is averaging about 7.88 monitored in real time on a freshly calibrated PinPoint probe.  At night it dips only slightly to about 7.82, and during the day only slightly higher at 7.92.  I attribute the stability to the chaeto in the refugium which I had initially been running on a 24/7 light cycle.  The growth was very fast but it seemed to be browning on the outside and very green on the inside.  I now have the Kessil H380 on a wifi timer from 7:00 PM (DT goes off at 9:00 PM) and turn off at 9:00 AM (DT turns on at 11:00 AM).  The spinning motion has encouraged it to mold into a nice ball shape.

The pod population in the fuge has also been spectacular.  I am sure the sixline wrasse is going to be very happy as those puppies overflow into the display.

 

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Question, what happens to your ph for that 2 hours no lights are on at all?  Curious if the pinpoint picks that up and how much it moves if so.

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55 minutes ago, Muttley000 said:

Nice and organized!  The white rolls on the bottom shelf, do you have one of those rolling filter systems?

Thanks.  

No, I just cut the 100 micron pads to size for my overflow in the sump.  I don't always have one in there, otherwise there is just a prefilter sponge.

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So, in anticipation of setting up the calcium reactor on the new tank I decided to do some research on my old one.  I had a lot of success with this reactor so I thought I would share what I was reviewing.

Below is a list of my water test results from June 2013 through February of 2015....ignore after that it was a different set up.  Up until October of 2014 I had only been using kalkwasser to maintain calcium, and alkalinity with the addition of Brightwells Magnesion to dose magnesium (no other dosing, only water changes).

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The decision to begin using a reactor came when it seemed I could no longer maintain calcium with Kalk alone.  Although, until that point it had proven for the most part reliable.

Tank September 2014 (Pre-Reactor)

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Tank December 2014 (Post Reactor)

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Close ups from February 2015

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All that being said, although growth and color was OK prior to the reactor, after it was introduced growth multiplied and color was much more dramatic. 

My initial thoughts on the new build were to follow the same process using kalk as long as possible before introducing the reactor.  But I believe the reactor just does a much better job of supplying all the required elements to produce better growth and color in the correct combinations.

Likely moving more sticks over from my holding tank this week, and filling the CO2 tanks next week to fire up the reactor.

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Quick update.

I started the calcium reactor 3 days ago (1 bubble per second, 1 drop per second at PH 6.7) Alkalinity was at 7.9 the day it started, 8.1 after day 1, then 8.5 and today 8.6.

Tank PH: 7.87

Tank Temp: 77

I'm going to wait a full week before sending out water samples for lab testing to compare to the Hanna tester.

As of right now the tank is looking very clean.  The skimmer is pulling very nice funky skimmate.  I am running a single cup of Phosguard and what is now a mob of chaeto.

 

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38 minutes ago, Nanoreef13 said:

I totally need to pick your brain on how to set up a calcium reactor! Looking good!

Anytime....I will say the carbondoser from aquariumplants.com and the pH controller make it soooooo much easier.

I probably spent a week dialing it in the first time a few years ago with a traditional solenoid and pH monitor.

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8 hours ago, watdachuck said:

Anytime....I will say the carbondoser from aquariumplants.com and the pH controller make it soooooo much easier.

I probably spent a week dialing it in the first time a few years ago with a traditional solenoid and pH monitor.

That's good to know thank you! 

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