Emergency MTRC meeting

Dowtish · Jan 15, 2014

A grounding probe is just going to keep you from getting shocked. Its not going to eliminate stray voltage in the tank. Once you got the reading that you did, you are supposed to then start unplugging your equipment one plug at a time to see what is putting off the voltage.

NeveSSL · Jan 15, 2014

20 volts is normal and nothing to worry about as you are probably measureing AC coupling from your pumps and what not.

Brandon

greg0385 · Jan 15, 2014

Exactly.

Still needing people to come down and to bring test kits.

Daniel's test kits and mine are ready different #s
Salinity
Phosphates
Alk

Need some other test done to see what are my true params

Im prob going to buy a hanna phosphorous(ppb) kit since its low range vs my hanna phosphate kit(ppm)

Looking for a different refractometer, mine is hard to read as the numbers are really vs Daniel's that was easily readable. Might even get a digital refract.

Dowtish · Jan 15, 2014

I dont think you need to to get the ppb hanna checker as I have had my phos read as high as 0.27 and suffered no color loss or deaths of any of my acros.

I am also considering getting a digital refractometer as mine is always needing to be calibrated and I have read good things about the Milwaukees.

schooleyosis · Jan 15, 2014

MTRC has the Hanna Checkers for you to use rather than purchasing!

Dowtish · Jan 15, 2014

schooleyosis said:
MTRC has the Hanna Checkers for you to use rather than purchasing!

He already has what the club has.

ToXIc · Jan 15, 2014

my tech tank had 0.30 po4 in it entire lifetime and i had good/great color and growth.. stability is key.. chasing numbers does more harm than good..

greg0385 · Jan 15, 2014

Not trying to chase numbers, just trying to get a true idea what my params are so i can stay consistant.

My poly pad arrived today, it was a 4"x8" pad that i cut in half and place one half on each side of my drain inside my 4" wide over flow box. Now i wait to see if and what it changes color too :-/

greg0385 · Jan 20, 2014

After lots of test from tds to stray voltage, i have a small problem that has been causing most if not all my recent problems.

Salinity plays a bigger role than i was giving credit too. After months of watching alk and phosphates, i failed to notice that my refract is a poor quality resulting in having a hard time telling what the salinity actually was. I only notice this after a few members showed up and using there refractometers did i notice how small my display was.

I have since purchased a digital refract and may buy a better refract as a back up.

Below are the results from all the test that i and the members have done.

A special thanks goes out to Keith, Daniel, Jim and Lana, Jay, Chris and Cory for taking the time to drive down here and help me figure out what i was doing wrong.

Salinity- 1.040(purchased a digital refract and been doing 30gal W/C and reading my old refract a little more carefully until my digital refract arrives.

Tds-27(raw)13(out of membrane)0(out of the DI) I realize my membrane is shot and i need to replace it and need a booster pump. Purchases a portable tds meter to monitor tds in different containers.

Ammonia- 0(API TEST)
Nitrite-0(API TEST)
Stray Voltage-15-20volts(ohm meter)
Nitrates- 5-20ppm(Salifert) Need to do more water changes to keep this closer to 5ppm
Ph-8.15
Calcium-450(salifert)
Alk-8.5/8.6dkh(Hanna)
Phos-0.05-0.10ppm(Hanna)
Mag-1320(Salifert)
Water Hardness- 34.2ppm(very low)
Copper-0
Poly Pad- No color change
Par Meter- 250-275 on top of scape(using LED) not sure how accurate this is toward actual par #

I also rearrange my 2-wp40 wavemakers. Instead of one on each side facing each other, i use Bill's concept to have the left wp40 toward the back glass blowing on the backside of scape. The right wp40 is toward the front glass blowing on the front of scape. This results in a swirling motion around the scape and keep more particles in the water column.

Future purchases- RO membrane, booster pump, Smaller size skimmer instead of a mega oversized skimmer.

Once again, a big thanks to the people who have helped me.

Thanks

Greg

NeveSSL · Jan 21, 2014

Wow, Greg... 1.04... that's really low! Glad you were able to find the culprit!

Brandon

greg0385 · Jan 21, 2014

Oops my bad it was 1.030 not 1.040. I must had 40ppt on my mind when writing that

rcmike · Jan 21, 2014

I actually used to have my salinity up that high (1.030) and had no problems. I only found out when I was trading frags with someone (Tennsquire I think) and he checked the salinity in the bags and found it was off. I had miscalibrated my refractometer or something. It's been several years so I don't remember exactly how it got off.

p woodard · Jan 27, 2014

How is your tank doing man

greg0385 · Jan 27, 2014

Pretty neutral, nothing is dying so i guess thats good. I have done several 30gallon W/C to get the salinity down in my tank. Finally started up the auto w/c pumps today and bought a new skimmer to replace the swc300 beast!

NeveSSL · Jan 27, 2014

How are you doing your auto water change?

Brandon

greg0385 · Jan 28, 2014

2 brs 50ml/min dosing pumps. I tested each one for 10mins on, to see how many mls it could pump into a metric measuring cup. After countless test, one pump pumps 60ml/min, the other at 62.5ml/min.

I plugged them into my apex, the 60ml is on for 5min,15sec each hour and the 62ml pump is on at the same time for 5min,
2seconds. That program changes 2 gallons of water per day with a 10ml difference. My ATO adds the 10ml difference and my plan is to monitor my salinity 2-3x a week.

10ml difference in a month is only around 300ml of fresh water instead of it being saltwater. In a 200gallon system, it will take awhile before the salinity changes.

As soon as i see a decline in salinity or sooner, i can manually do a W/C to correct the salinity or have my salinity in my auto w/c container just a tad higher than normal. I will figure that out when that becomes a issue.