Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
There so much, Apex, biopellets etc, but more recently the best thing I've added is a calcium reactor. I have gotten more growth on SPS in two weeks, then I did in two or three months.
What product or thing really made a difference for your tank?
- Thread starter Cory
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Dosing two part with a doser.
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2016
- Messages
- 1,907
- Reaction score
- 4,530
- Location
- Vancouver, WA
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
CO2 scrubber on my skimmer! Balanced out pH and corals perked up.
jason2459
Not a paid scientist
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2015
- Messages
- 4,668
- Reaction score
- 3,197
I have a regular sandbed now too.
I started with a 55g in around 2006 or 2007 and did ok with it. Lost it all to a flood in 2008 and rebuilt it in 2009. Leading up to the rebuild I found another forum that has an acronym similar to radio controlled cars. And started reading everything I could and mostly from the Chemistry section which was just filled with amazing information. Randy, boomer, highlander, bertoni, TMZ, disc1, etc etc and many but not all still post there.
I also ran into one other individual as I was research what the most successful tanks were doing ( to me that's successfully lasting over a decade as just one criteria) and ran into what I still believe to be the most successful reefkeeper regardless if you believe in his methods or not. And that would be PaulB.
My tank's a combination of PaulB's influence and the Chemistry subsections. Of everything I do the one thing I will always try to have is a reversed undergravel filter. On the 55g I had no sump except for the fact the RUGF turned the entire bottom of the tank into a refugium like cryptic zone. So much life flourished under there is wa amazing. It was what I believe allowed me to house a mated and breeding pair of mandarins. Unfortunately lost them in a move (rock slide killed them) but transfered everything else over.
Eventually I upgraded the 55g to my current 180g transfering everything over to the 180 and added more rock and a lot of sand as I moved the UGF plate and dolomite to my new sump. So, I called it my RRUGF. A play on the RDSB (remote deep sand bed.) I recently replaced that sump with a bigger 75g I got for $1/g and designed the whole sump around the RUGF and a bigger plate to boot.
What ever else it may do I don't know or care. But the biodiversity of life that calls it home is awesome. I will not have a tank with out one.
My old 55g with RUGF under it all
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...-with-few-problems.283516/page-4#post-3463479
My new sump setup built around the required UGF
I have had a few sumps now starting with a 40 breeder I picked up from a $1/g petco sale. It was very simple straight through design with a return section where my skimmer sat. A baffle that water flowed over into a cryptic zone like area that I had an ATS waterfall type from Turbo's aquatics on top and a bunch of live rock inside and a Reversed Undergravel filter plate on the bottom. Then an over, under, over baffle setup to a return section.
It was a simple setup and silicone in some pane glass was easier and just as messy as I thought. For me at least. I think I looked at many over at Melev's reef too and decided on that one. http://melevsreef.com/category/articles/diy/sumps
I then moved where my sump was located in the basement last year and I ran across the design of the trigger systems crystal elite 36 and really liked it's layout and would work better then my 40 breeder layout in the new location. Except I didn't exactly use it in the way it was designed. Area 1 was where all my drain lines ran too and had several marine pure blocks in and the ATS sitting on top of. Area 2 is where my skimmer was. Area 3 the return.
Just beautiful huh? I'm much more about function and maximizing space then aesthetics. [emoji14]
It wasn't perfect as I would rather the skimmer first in the series and couldn't fit a very big UGF plate anywhere in there and didn't get around to it yet. I was planning on using that setup for who knows how long but Petco this year offered 75 gallon tanks in there $1/g sale in my area....
So, I designed this and again used some silicone to easily and messily slap in some glass panes.
I based it off the trigger system design but with some tweaks so I could have the skimmer first and a "bio" like area. I don't really want to call it a refugium as it's not your typical one as I don't keep it lit at all and just let what ever grow and settle in there.
So, just like I had with the Trigger sump all drains go to that first section where the skimmer now sits and to the bio area is a flow over baffle. Then to the return is an under/over/under baffle setup.
This is to prevent the left side from ever being emptied. Say for some really terrible reason my skimmer goes nuts and starts filling up the skimmate bucket and murphy is really on his game and either the switches in the buck don't work to shutdown the skimmer or what's happened before starts siphoning out just the skimmer section could get drained. Assuming my other failsafes don't fail too. Lots of failsafes in place. Basically from failures of others or myself that I've learned from and put something into place to help prevent from happening again.
The flow over from the skimmer section also forces all the microbubbles to the surface. The return section is pulling water from the bottom where they shouldn't be. The ATS drains may cause some bubbles, which they do, but those are bigger then the skimmers microbubbles and rise pretty quick and even if it got under the returns first baffle would be killed by the second set of them.
The space between and under the baffles are 2" so allows the 1400gph that I have going through the sump go through fairly smoothly and not like a raging rapids causing bubbles.
I tried to calculate out the baffle heights to maximize water volume but not over flow the sump when the return is off. Which after implementing the new sump it was perfect with about 2" to spare. The baffle height and running height is just over 14" and drops about 2" into the return section. Bubbles have 0 chance of hitting the return pump. The bio area was the perfect size and I was able to get a bigger UGF plate to place on the bottom. I got one for a 90 gallon that comes with 2 plates. So, in 40 years if I accidentally crack the one I have a spare (PaulB knows what I'm talking about... lol) . I think it's a 16"x22.5" plate. I have about 100gph being pushed down into the plate. My turbo's aquatics ATS sits nicely on top of that section too and looking to get a bigger one with his Rev4 version.
and everything fitting in there perfectly.
The ugf in place and pumice rock(Seachem Pond Matrix) soaking in bags until they all sink.
Syntax1235
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2016
- Messages
- 1,126
- Reaction score
- 744
- Location
- Maine, USA
- What state or country do you live in
- Maine
Ato
Apex
Plumbing my water mixing station directly to the sump from the basement.... no more hauling buckets up stairs.
Apex
Plumbing my water mixing station directly to the sump from the basement.... no more hauling buckets up stairs.
benpoole28
Active Member
This thread forced me too buy an apex.
Ty Hamatake
Hi, my name is Ty and I'm a Reefer...
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2016
- Messages
- 1,938
- Reaction score
- 1,903
100% this! I struggled with pH for a long time and this was the answer to all my problems!
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
What is a Co2 scrubber?
Ty Hamatake
Hi, my name is Ty and I'm a Reefer...
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2016
- Messages
- 1,938
- Reaction score
- 1,903
It is just a reactor (same type of canister as most carbon, GFO, and pre filter/DI canisters on an RO/DI unit) that you fill with CO2 absorbing media. It easily hooks up to the intake on your skimmer and absorbs (scrubs) the CO2 out of the air before it enters the water in the skimmer. Less CO2 in the water = higher pH
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-universal-co2-scrubber.html
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
It is just a reactor (same type of canister as most carbon, GFO, and pre filter/DI canisters on an RO/DI unit) that you fill with CO2 absorbing media. It easily hooks up to the intake on your skimmer and absorbs (scrubs) the CO2 out of the air before it enters the water in the skimmer. Less CO2 in the water = higher pH
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-universal-co2-scrubber.html
Thank you.
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
It is just a reactor (same type of canister as most carbon, GFO, and pre filter/DI canisters on an RO/DI unit) that you fill with CO2 absorbing media. It easily hooks up to the intake on your skimmer and absorbs (scrubs) the CO2 out of the air before it enters the water in the skimmer. Less CO2 in the water = higher pH
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-universal-co2-scrubber.html
So you just hook this up to the venturi and thats it? You dont actually need to add Co2, correct?
Zero Nitrates
I love chalices
Vibrant
Ty Hamatake
Hi, my name is Ty and I'm a Reefer...
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2016
- Messages
- 1,938
- Reaction score
- 1,903
Yep, connect it either directly to the venturi or to the intake of the silencer and you're good to go. No CO2 required, though you do need scrubbing media of some sort. If you're interested... https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/co2-scrubbing-an-unexpected-journey-chasing-numbers.305924/
