ATS for 120 Reef

[Floyd R Turbo]

Stopped in today, Birdsnest is mostly open again, frogspawns and hammer are not looking good.

I think I had an outbreak of Dinos

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/rhf/index.php

This article describes exactly what I saw, brown slimy stringy gooey stuff that if it was burgundy/red I would have called it cyano. It seems that this is the same brown gooey stuff growing on the screen, the stuff that disintegrates easily. Should I be cleaning my screen (at least FW rinsing it) several times a week until it goes away?

[SantaMonica]

Just had a thought... if your topoff did have a problem, it might have killed some of the micro life; this would have cause a spike in nutrients, and thus brown screen growth. This would coincide with certain corals closing (poision, etc).

If this is the case, only GAC would remove it all.

[ShanGo]

Just had a thought... if your topoff did have a problem, it might have killed some of the micro life; this would have cause a spike in nutrients, and thus brown screen growth. This would coincide with certain corals closing (poision, etc).

If this is the case, only GAC would remove it all.

what is GAC ?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Interesting. The other thing is that the zoas are more open, and the leathers have completely taken off during the same time period. Also I fixed the 'smell' problem with the RO/DI system by replacing the granulated carbon #2 stage.

This may sound like a stupid question, but can I use the standard activated carbon (like what you use in a FW canister) in a media bag and just put it in the sump, or do I need to use something specific to saltwater, like something that Bulk Reef Supply would sell and use a reactor device of some type?

[rahjelli]

Just had a thought... if your topoff did have a problem, it might have killed some of the micro life; this would have cause a spike in nutrients, and thus brown screen growth. This would coincide with certain corals closing (poision, etc).

If this is the case, only GAC would remove it all.

what is GAC ?

Granular Activated Carbon

[SantaMonica]

Any GAC works. The difference in brands etc are how long it lasts, how much dust etc, but in your case you only need a day or two of it in front of some flow.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Will do. I have plenty of carbon.

Tested just now

Phosphate 0.15 (but 0 TDS RO/DI water tested 0.05 - meter error is +/- 0.04?)
Nitrate solid 0 (salifert)
Ammonia 0 (API)

[Vannpytt]

That's a whole lot of phosphates Floyd.What are the nitrates?

[Floyd R Turbo]

They are listed in the same post.

Added carbon today. We'll see how it goes. Algae screen growth is looking a bit healthier, more green, not as gooey, and already 3D at the bottom 2" in the middle. Frogspawn and hammer still clenched. Birdsnest about the same, maybe 50% polyp extension. They aren't flowing in the current, but not retracted fully.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Here's some pics to give you an idea of what NOT to do. This is how the tank plumbing was set up (NOT by me)

Here's the tube from the bulkhead to the jets.



and the inside of that tube after years of operation



This tube goes from 3/4" threaded to 3/4" hose barb at the bulkhead end to a combo hose barb-3/4" and 90 to female threaded, which is the major choke point.



The inside diameter of a 3/4" hose barb insert is about 1/2". Similarly, I had replaced the 3/4" tubing from the pump to bulkhead with the same, 3/4" tubing and hose barb/threaded adapters.

Here's the drain, it actually was 1", I guess my eyes were tricking me into thinking it was 3/4".



And here's the pump after 5-1/2 months since the last cleaning



The pump smelled like a sewer. Not as bad as it did the first time I cleaned it when I took over the tank though. That time made me gag, I seriously thought I was going to hurl.

Here's the new plumbing setup



Here's the new tube run from pump to bulkhead



and from bulkhead to jets



Since the 3/4" threaded goes to a 1" hose barb, the inner diameter of that fitting is the same all the way through. Also, the 90 to the jets is a 1" female to 1" male, then a bushing to reduce the female to 3/4" for the jets. That means that the overall minimum ID of this is 3/4" (ID of the 3/4" threaded connector) vs 1/2" (3/4" hose barb connector), which is an increase of (0.75^2)/(0.5^2) = 2.25 or 125% more cross section. The maximum hose diameter went from 3/4" to 1-1/4", so that's (1.25^2)/(0.75^2) = 2.77 or 177% increase.

The Danner Manufacturing pump curve for the Mag12 http://www.dannermfg.com/instructionsheets/ZG100.PDF says that at 6 feet of head, you should get 950 GPH as long as you use 1.5" return piping.

So I would have to say that I'm pretty happy that I'm now getting 760 GPH. So now instead of 433 GPH (when cleaned on 10/10/10, it was 380 when I tested it last week) and <20 GPH/in on the 20" screen, I am getting OVER 35 GPH/in of flow.

I expect that since the piping will 'slime up' over the next year, that the true maximum flow will eventually decrease by about 10%, putting it near 700 GPH, but it's a far cry better than the 433 max I was getting.

Also, here's a few YouTube videos that illustrate the difference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlkxy97ySk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zh8s3LiDNs

I also replaced the jets, because I had another set on hand...



And I almost forgot, here's the screen







Getting better, slowly recovering. We'll see what doubling the flow does for growth and for phosphates, which have never been below 0.10 in this tank.