Desparate For Advice

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

Russ265 said:
np and good catch!
Potassium Nitrate is also used in explosives FYI and goes by the common name Saltpeter. There are plenty of places to get it online though.

Oh lord are you serious!!

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

twilliard said:
Oh lord are you serious!!

yes lol. its fertilizer.

exit timothy mcveigh jokes

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

Lol well I don't need the feds on me for sure!
I will stick with the seachem

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

Nitrate is undetectable in my tank
I work so hard to bring it up!
Amazon time!

Any tips on 80g of volume?

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

twilliard said:
Lol well I don't need the feds on me for sure!
I will stick with the seachem

relax. it needs sugar for those kind of fun times.

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

twilliard said:
Nitrate is undetectable in my tank
I work so hard to bring it up!
Amazon time!

Any tips on 80g of volume?

get a gallon bucket

twilliard said:
Nitrate is undetectable in my tank
I work so hard to bring it up!
Amazon time!

Any tips on 80g of volume?

get an experimental gallon bucket, dose, test, multiply by 60 (rock displacement of water)

or do the math

Rickyrooz · Jul 29, 2015

Russ265 said:
get a gallon bucket

get an experimental gallon bucket, dose, test, multiply by 60 (rock displacement of water)

or do the math

Good idea!

FoD · Jul 29, 2015

Russ265 said:
relax. it needs sugar for those kind of fun times.

And guess who's now on the watch list.

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

Lol better not be me lol Russ is a smart guy. He should team up with Randy!

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

FoD said:
And guess who's now on the watch list.

LOLOLOL!!! - god i havent laughed so hard in a while

does this mean we cant be friends?

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

twilliard said:
Lol better not be me lol Russ is a smart guy. He should team up with Randy!

little too flattering.

Randy is the real whiz with the chemistry. Got a primer from his stickies that i forgot long ago.

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

He is an excellent guy for sure.
I am more on the micro biology side so I look to him for the chemistry end of things

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

twilliard said:
He is an excellent guy for sure.
I am more on the micro biology side so I look to him for the chemistry end of things

I am a software engineer. I generally do the physics, math, forecasting portion of things.

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

I love technical people!
I am a retired 40YO with electronics, electrical, fluid dynamics, automation, and a history of biology, micro biology
Sorry OP if off topic!

Rickyrooz · Jul 29, 2015

I came home from work and nothing else died or turned "whiter". I tested the water again after removing the GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon.
Alkalinity – 8.0 (Salifert) 7/19 exp.
Phosphate – 0.05 (Hanna) 3/17 exp.
Nitrate - 0.00 (Salifert) 6/16 exp.
Nitrates didn't budge even after adding amino acids and feeding frozen food but the phosphates did go up a little. I guess I will be purchasing Seachem Flourish to raise my nitrates. The alkalinity did drop even with the dosing pump still running so hopefully that means the corals are still uptaking it and growing/recovering.

Russ265 · Jul 29, 2015

Rickyrooz said:
I came home from work and nothing else died or turned "whiter". I tested the water again after removing the GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon.
Alkalinity – 8.0 (Salifert) 7/19 exp.
Phosphate – 0.05 (Hanna) 3/17 exp.
Nitrate - 0.00 (Salifert) 6/16 exp.
Nitrates didn't budge even after adding amino acids and feeding frozen food but the phosphates did go up a little. I guess I will be purchasing Seachem Flourish to raise my nitrates. The alkalinity did drop even with the dosing pump still running so hopefully that means the corals are still uptaking it and growing/recovering.

care.
run that gfo for tonight and get it down to 0 or .02ppm then shut it off and let it climb naturally.

whenever i hit .06 i turn my gfo on for a few hours.

you probably have a ton of dissolved carbon and since po4>no3 cyano is ripe to inhabit the system. running carbon wouldnt hurt either.

your results are the same as mine btw. be sure to raise no3 slowly. 2ppm a day max.

you have almost exactly half my volume. so 10 ml would get you to 2ppm but the first dose may get "soaked" up in the first 24 hours.

good luck

Rickyrooz · Jul 29, 2015

Russ265 said:
care.
run that gfo for tonight and get it down to 0 or .02ppm then shut it off and let it climb naturally.

whenever i hit .06 i turn my gfo on for a few hours.

you probably have a ton of dissolved carbon and since po4>no3 cyano is ripe to inhabit the system. running carbon wouldnt hurt either.

your results are the same as mine btw. be sure to raise no3 slowly. 2ppm a day max.

you have almost exactly half my volume. so 10 ml would get you to 2ppm but the first dose may get "soaked" up in the first 24 hours.

good luck

I took my GFO out and rinsed in fresh RO/DI water, it turned the water red/brown. There was still a good amount of "dust" so hopefully now it won't irritate the corals as much.

Myka · Jul 29, 2015

FWIW, copper sulphate is in a lot of dry fish foods too. Adding nitrate is probably a good idea. I have a bottle hanging over my tank at the moment too.

twilliard · Jul 29, 2015

Rickyrooz said:
I came home from work and nothing else died or turned "whiter". I tested the water again after removing the GFO and ROX 0.8 carbon.
Alkalinity – 8.0 (Salifert) 7/19 exp.
Phosphate – 0.05 (Hanna) 3/17 exp.
Nitrate - 0.00 (Salifert) 6/16 exp.
Nitrates didn't budge even after adding amino acids and feeding frozen food but the phosphates did go up a little. I guess I will be purchasing Seachem Flourish to raise my nitrates. The alkalinity did drop even with the dosing pump still running so hopefully that means the corals are still uptaking it and growing/recovering.

The no3 will take time to go through the cycle if relying on aminos and food.
I have the flourish on the way!!

gdemos · Jul 29, 2015

Russ265 said:
care.
run that gfo for tonight and get it down to 0 or .02ppm then shut it off and let it climb naturally.

whenever i hit .06 i turn my gfo on for a few hours.

you probably have a ton of dissolved carbon and since po4>no3 cyano is ripe to inhabit the system. running carbon wouldnt hurt either.

your results are the same as mine btw. be sure to raise no3 slowly. 2ppm a day max.

you have almost exactly half my volume. so 10 ml would get you to 2ppm but the first dose may get "soaked" up in the first 24 hours.

good luck

Curious here how a po4>no3 is a set in stone indication for cyano. I understand redfield and I understand how some say this ratio has no baring in a reef. But is there not more to a cause of any outbreak (GHA) as bad as Ricky has (which reading here seems more to be a dry rock die off cycling issue) cyano is a completely different component than simply a no3

o4 scenario is it not? There has even been Adv aquarist Articles noted here about cyano and aiptaisia correlation. I just don't know if it is fair to concretely deduce that a po4:no3 is a contagion for cyano (or GHA). It's a bloom that has got to work its way through the system over time/over good water changes/flow/turnover/prudent feeding/proper livestock/striking nutrient import:export balance. Not a biologist not a chemist and not an expert just along for the ride and being mindful that drawing such conclusions from two hobbyist test kit numbers is not necessarily gospel. Keep posting. Thanks for the read. Greg