Arid Users thread

[petemichelle]

I have just started a Pax Bellium C24 ARID chaeto reactor in the last few days, and am trying to dig up as much info as possible. if you have had success, or failures, please post them here, and a very detailed account of the methods involved. I have had trouble finding actual users and there methods of success or list of their attempt that didn't turn out well. please share... so that I, as well as others may learn from them.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Following

 

[petemichelle]

here ar

e some picture

 

[petemichelle]

okay here are some pictures, my apologies, I am not very good at posting this stuff, but I am trying. here's a little history. I have a 150 gal tank with a 20-30 trigger system sump under neath. it's been up for a couple of years. it is a mixed reef with a lot of corals, and about 10 SPS on top, probably 13 fish or so. it has a deep sand bed, and miracle mud in the sump. I have a large skimmer, a doser, which doses alk, cal, and red sea colors program A,B,C and D. I run a carbon reactor with activated Carbon. I have heaters, and chillers. my reading are salinity, 1.025, mag 1360, calcium 475, kh 9.8, ph 8.2, iodine .06, potassium 434, iron reading is always 0 when I test with the red sea test kit but I dose it, about 6ml a day. my nitrates before the ARID were 8, and phosphates were either .04 or O depending on the kit you choose to believe. I use the red sea algae test kit, the Milwaukee, mi412, which reads 0, and the hanna hand held ULRHI736 Phosphorus ultra low range tester.

when I first started the tank I used the red sea NOPOX system and it worked pretty well. only issues were I had to constantly clean the filter socks because of the bacteria blooms, then I started getting cyano, and no matter what i did, when I couldn't get rid of it. I would stop, do water changes and even use peroxide and or chemiclean, it would go away, but as soon as I started the NOPOX it would come back.

I tore out the carbon dosing, and started fresh with chaeto and miracle mud in the sump. it went great for a while, had to trim the chaeto because it grew so well, and a very dark green. oh I was using the Kassil purple grow light. but then I started getting long haired algae growing on my chaeto and suffocating it. I dosed iron, because I heard that it would help. it may have gotten a little better but never went away. the Chaeto no matter what I did, would slowly get smaller and smaller.

I ordered met Arid reactor, I just put it in 4 days ago, I have a mag 2 pushing it through a Emperor Aquatics 40 watt lite UV sterilizer, then into the C24 Arid. it picks up water from right under the filter socks, so it gets it all before the skimmer and anything else. I took all the chaeto out of the sump because I heard that I shouldn't have them competing for the nutrients, I shut the lighting schedule down also in the sump. the UV sterilizer and mag 2 that pumps it runs 24/7. the skimmer shuts off between 8pm and 3 am. which is when the doser dumps the chemicals in so it doesn't get stripped right out. the ARID runs from 10pm to 2pm which is a revers cycle of my tank lights. that's 16 hours on, and 8 off.

what I am primarily after is to see how others with successful Arid systems have been running and maintaining them. do you fill the reactor 1/2 way initially, or only a handful in each section? what kind of hours are you running on them? what are your nitrate and phosphate readings before and after your set up? do you actually dose the nitrate solution and iron solution they give you? even if say your nitrates are around 10 without the solutions? how often do you take it off line for trimming and or maintenance. is each maintenance to include a trim? do you take it all apart and the chaeto off of the reactor and rinse and then remount each time, or do you just submerge it and swish it around in a 5 gal bucket of salt water to call it good. how do you clean the reactor itself? vinegar? bleach? or just rinse with salt water every week, two, or three week?

I've been reading for the last 4 days, and I can't much at all as to peoples experiences good or bad , let alone their techniques and procedures... please lets share, isn't that what this forum is about.... ask what you want, I will try my best to answer and send pics too.

 

[petemichelle]

oh by the way, what you see in the pictures is brand new chaeto from the local fish store, because I didn't want anything with even a hint of long hair algae on it from the beginning, also running it down stream from the UV sterilizer i would hope will kill off any water born algae.

 

[Jonty]

I have been unable. to get my Arrid 30 to work everything just melts and turns to slime algae so following along I like the idea of running a UV on the intake I was running mine with a Mag 5 pump which pushed 300GH through the unit.

 

[petemichelle]

I have been unable. to get my Arrid 30 to work everything just melts and turns to slime algae so following along I like the idea of running a UV on the intake I was running mine with a Mag 5 pump which pushed 300GH through the unit.

did you try dosing the nitrate and iron they gave us? what are your readings? nitrate and phosphate? do you take it out every week or two and rinse the chaeto like they suggest?

 

[petemichelle]

i just did my water test nitrates are at 5 and phosphates are either 0 or .04 depending on which tester you want to believe. I have a milwaukee and a hanna. i will keep you updated as to my luck with this. I want this so much to work. it would be a very very expensive experiment if it doesn't...

 

[Jonty]

Nitrate was 10 phosphate was .1 I dosed the Iron and nitrate supplements they provided I tried for 6 months buying new Cheato and suppliments went through about $600 worth always the same results.

 

[petemichelle]

you know what's amazing... you and i are the only people on this forum who has an arid..... a person who has failed in getting it up and running and a person who just hooked one up and is trying to get advise. isn't that amazing..... maybe you would think someone else with years and years of experience would like to help and participate in the conversation...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

you know what's amazing... you and i are the only people on this forum who has an arid..... a person who has failed in getting it up and running and a person who just hooked one up and is trying to get advise. isn't that amazing..... maybe you would think someone else with years and years of experience would like to help and participate in the conversation...

x mas is slow.

Most use chato in diy reactors or others to reduce excess No and Po(refugium). so adding No seems odd.(marketing)

If you have No and Po in the system and decent light w decent flow chato should grow. so for it to fail would indicate on of those three basic things is lacking.

 

[Jonty]

There are several people that have failed, more will chime in unless you have had to deal with one of these units the comments are ill informed.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

There are several people that have failed, more will chime in unless you have had to deal with one of these units the comments are ill informed.

what?

 

[thetedinator]

In my build thread, I have posted a picture of the Chaeto growth I see with my ARID (see post 12).

I cleaned my ARID today. Here is a picture of the Chaeto I threw away.



That's a five gallon bucket about 1/3 full. I have the C-24 (white PVC) model. One way I know it's time to clear some Chaeto is the flow threw the ARID slows down as the Chaeto grows. Another way is the amount of 'glow' I see when the ARID is on is diminished because the Chaeto is blocking the light.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

In my build thread, I have posted a picture of the Chaeto growth I see with my ARID (see post 12).

I cleaned my ARID today. Here is a picture of the Chaeto I threw away.



That's a five gallon bucket about 1/3 full. I have the C-24 (white PVC) model. One way I know it's time to clear some Chaeto is the flow threw the ARID slows down as the Chaeto grows. Another way is the amount of 'glow' I see when the ARID is on is diminished because the Chaeto is blocking the light.

does it run from the return or a separate pump. how do you set the flow.

 

[GoVols]

does it run from the return or a separate pump. how do you set the flow.

Bump!

 

[Jonty]

tedinator, the product looks great, what do you use as a feed pump, light cycle and do you dose iron and nitrate as Arrid recommends?

 

[thetedinator]

does it run from the return or a separate pump. how do you set the flow.

tedinator, the product looks great, what do you use as a feed pump, light cycle and do you dose iron and nitrate as Arrid recommends?

This is how I run my ARID. Your mileage may vary.

I mostly follow the recommendations in the instructions from Pax-Vellum but not entirely. I purchased my ARID because of space constraints. There are other ways to control algae and in different circumstances (meaning more available space) I would run a refugium instead.

I have been running the ARID since May. My first 'run' failed because I put too little Chaeto into the unit (literally about four tablespoons). My second run was only partially successful because I spread about 1 large handful of Chaeto in one section and I spread 1 large handful of Gracilaria in the other section (to grow for my Tangs). The Chaeto filled it's section but the Gracilaria did not really grow. I have been successfully running the unit with only Chaeto since then. When I clear out the Chaeto, I clean it in a bucket of SW and then spread about 1 large handful into each section. Unfortunately, I did not think to take a picture of the reload I did yesterday. I tease out small portions of the Chaeto to lengthen it, stretch sections of the 'rubber bands' to expose the 'hooks', press the bits of Chaeto against the rubber band and then releasing the rubber band to hold the Chaeto in place. Repeat along sections of the rubber band. I have also used zip ties to hold Chaeto in place but this is not required and if you use zip ties be careful not to cut the rubber bands when you cut the zip ties to remove the Chaeto. I have done this but it is repairable.

I use a Sicce Silent 1.5 to feed the ARID. I have the pump set to it's maximum which should mean it is pushing 350gph. I used to use a MaxiJet 1200 (the pump recommended in the instructions) and had the same success. I switched pumps because I am chasing a source of Tin in my system so I am replacing hardware to find the source. As the Chaeto grows the flow through the ARID is reduced. The reduced flow is one indication it's time to clear out some Chaeto.

I have run different lighting schedules. I am now running it 12 hours/day (when my DT lights are off). I have run it as little as 9 hours/day and as much as 14 hours/day. My ARID uses 35w when running and these units will add heat to the system so I reduced the schedule during the summer so that the fans that cool my system would not run at night.

I am not currently dosing the Iron or Nitrates supplements. When I do, it is right after I clean out the Chaeto to jumpstart the growth. Yes the supplements are ridiculously expensive but there are threads that discuss making your own supplements. See this thread (posts 4, 10 and 12) in Dr. Holmes-Farley's forum for information on making Iron and Manganese supplements.

Hope this helps.

 

[gus6464]

I don't have an Arid but a DIY version I cooked up and I am feeding nitrate into my system to keep it at 5. I also had to turn off my skimmer as the reactor along with skimmer and my bio block was stripping the water clean insanely fast. Right now I am a week in with no skimmer with the chaeto reactor lights on when my main light isn't on and nutrients are staying stable. I am feeding iron in the form of aquaforest drops once a week right now. If the chaeto starts to get pale in color I know it's time to put more iron.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This is how I run my ARID. Your mileage may vary.

I mostly follow the recommendations in the instructions from Pax-Vellum but not entirely. I purchased my ARID because of space constraints. There are other ways to control algae and in different circumstances (meaning more available space) I would run a refugium instead.

I have been running the ARID since May. My first 'run' failed because I put too little Chaeto into the unit (literally about four tablespoons). My second run was only partially successful because I spread about 1 large handful of Chaeto in one section and I spread 1 large handful of Gracilaria in the other section (to grow for my Tangs). The Chaeto filled it's section but the Gracilaria did not really grow. I have been successfully running the unit with only Chaeto since then. When I clear out the Chaeto, I clean it in a bucket of SW and then spread about 1 large handful into each section. Unfortunately, I did not think to take a picture of the reload I did yesterday. I tease out small portions of the Chaeto to lengthen it, stretch sections of the 'rubber bands' to expose the 'hooks', press the bits of Chaeto against the rubber band and then releasing the rubber band to hold the Chaeto in place. Repeat along sections of the rubber band. I have also used zip ties to hold Chaeto in place but this is not required and if you use zip ties be careful not to cut the rubber bands when you cut the zip ties to remove the Chaeto. I have done this but it is repairable.

I use a Sicce Silent 1.5 to feed the ARID. I have the pump set to it's maximum which should mean it is pushing 350gph. I used to use a MaxiJet 1200 (the pump recommended in the instructions) and had the same success. I switched pumps because I am chasing a source of Tin in my system so I am replacing hardware to find the source. As the Chaeto grows the flow through the ARID is reduced. The reduced flow is one indication it's time to clear out some Chaeto.

I have run different lighting schedules. I am now running it 12 hours/day (when my DT lights are off). I have run it as little as 9 hours/day and as much as 14 hours/day. My ARID uses 35w when running and these units will add heat to the system so I reduced the schedule during the summer so that the fans that cool my system would not run at night.

I am not currently dosing the Iron or Nitrates supplements. When I do, it is right after I clean out the Chaeto to jumpstart the growth. Yes the supplements are ridiculously expensive but there are threads that discuss making your own supplements. See this thread (posts 4, 10 and 12) in Dr. Holmes-Farley's forum for information on making Iron and Manganese supplements.

Hope this helps.

Hey Thank you. Very helpful!