Brew12
Electrical Gru
Spectracide stump remover is what I used
Algae ID & Vibrant Testing
- Thread starter DeepBrew
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twilliard
Tank pests..
Yuppers! one bottle will last a LONG time I have learned LOL I have 2 bottles of it.
OP
OP
DeepBrew
Active Member
I picked up a bottle of Spectracide at Lowes today. I'm going to test the 20L water then do the weekly water changes in both tanks. After that I'll do more reading before I dose the stump remover.
I'm still unsure if I should go ahead and hit the 40B with Chemiclean or wait a bit. I get nervous about dosing the tank with too many products at once.
I'm still unsure if I should go ahead and hit the 40B with Chemiclean or wait a bit. I get nervous about dosing the tank with too many products at once.
OP
OP
DeepBrew
Active Member
Today's 20L water parameters:
Ammonia - 0 ppm (API)
Nitrate - 0.5ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate - 0.03 ppm (Red Sea)
Calcium - 450 ppm (Salifert)
Alkalinity - 10.5 dKH (Salifert)
Magnesium - 1360 ppm (Red Sea)
Salinity - 35 ppt (calibrated refractometer)
pH - 8.3 (cheap meter)
The alkalinity and calcium have been running high in this tank even though I don't dose anything to it. I think it's because the last box of Instant Ocean salt I received was way high in both of those and there's not enough load in the tank to consume it. I've got a box of Fritz RPM now, this will be the first water change using it. It looks like the parameters of it are a lot closer to where I want to keep the tanks so I expect those numbers to drop in the near future.
I'll be reading about dosing stump remover tonight to address the low nitrates in both of these tanks.
Thanks to everyone for their help!
Ammonia - 0 ppm (API)
Nitrate - 0.5ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate - 0.03 ppm (Red Sea)
Calcium - 450 ppm (Salifert)
Alkalinity - 10.5 dKH (Salifert)
Magnesium - 1360 ppm (Red Sea)
Salinity - 35 ppt (calibrated refractometer)
pH - 8.3 (cheap meter)
The alkalinity and calcium have been running high in this tank even though I don't dose anything to it. I think it's because the last box of Instant Ocean salt I received was way high in both of those and there's not enough load in the tank to consume it. I've got a box of Fritz RPM now, this will be the first water change using it. It looks like the parameters of it are a lot closer to where I want to keep the tanks so I expect those numbers to drop in the near future.
I'll be reading about dosing stump remover tonight to address the low nitrates in both of these tanks.
Thanks to everyone for their help!
OP
OP
DeepBrew
Active Member
20% water changes done on both tanks tonight. I know that's not going to help the effort to get the nitrates up but I needed to siphon a bunch of spirulina out of the 40B and try to get the dKH down a bit in the 20L with the new salt mix.
I mixed up 2 liters of Spectracide stump remover following @Randy Holmes-Farley 's instructions and dosed enough to each tank after the water changes to increase the nitrates by 0.8ppm. I measured the nitrates in both tanks an hours or so after dosing, they were both still well below 1ppm so I dosed again. I'll test again tomorrow and also see how everything looks before I dose again. I may wait a day or two.
I mixed up 2 liters of Spectracide stump remover following @Randy Holmes-Farley 's instructions and dosed enough to each tank after the water changes to increase the nitrates by 0.8ppm. I measured the nitrates in both tanks an hours or so after dosing, they were both still well below 1ppm so I dosed again. I'll test again tomorrow and also see how everything looks before I dose again. I may wait a day or two.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
I don't understand the chemistry behind it, but my tank acted like it "consumed" nitrates. I had to add a crazy amount just to get it reliably detectable. By that point I had gotten used to bigger doses and next thing I knew I was sitting at 60ppm!
Just keep that in mind as you go, you may hit a similar break point like I did where a dose may not do anything and then later that same dose may make a much bigger change.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
I tried H2O2 for a week but it didn't do much, 10ml/gal 2x per day. I think it was the Micro-nano bubbling that made the biggest impact along with getting my nutrients back under control.
Mpierce
Active Member
I did the h202 1ml/10gal 2x a day for 2 weeks with little result as well. I think it knocked out they cyano and the spirulana just took over those areas. After recent testing my phosphate was .27ppm (hanna). I have been knocking that down over the past few days and have it down to .05ppm. My nitrate test is garbage so it shows somewhere between 0 and 5ppm. Red sea test kit should be here tomorrow so I can actually see where my nitrates are. I have continued vibrant at a half dose every week since I like the results of not having film on my glass every day. If my nitrates stay very low I will probably stop until they rise to ~5 and then see if I can find a happy balance.
I have been trying the kz cyanoclean and coral snow combo. We will see if between those and getting my nutrients balanced I can finally kick this stuff or at least keep it to manageable levels.
Brew12
Electrical Gru
Have you tried the micro-nano bubbling?
Mpierce
Active Member
I have not. My current bubbler is operating a sponge filter on a QT. Next week when that is done I may grab a wood air stone and give it a shot. Do you just put the stone below a powerhead or the return line?
Brew12
Electrical Gru
The best place is going to be based on your system and flow. I tried putting mine in my baffles before my return pump, but didn't get enough bubbles. I ended up playing around to find that putting it behind my return pump (the return pump cord holds it down) worked best for me. I think with lower sump flow the baffle location would have worked better.
Mpierce
Active Member
What about just putting the stone in the display under the return line or PH so the bubbles get pushed all around. If I were to give it a shot I would just have it run at night and keep it toward the back of the tank behind some rocks so I don't have to look at it
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Brew12
Electrical Gru
I don't understand the physics behind why the stone works but I'm not sure how successful it will be without a sump. My understanding is that it uses the height of the column of water in the return line from the sump to help achieve the tiny bubble size.What about just putting the stone in the display under the return line or PH so the bubbles get pushed all around. If I were to give it a shot I would just have it run at night and keep it toward the back of the tank behind some rocks so I don't have to look at it
It might work behind a power head but I haven't seen anyone without a sump try using this method.
Mpierce
Active Member
I have a sump so that isn't an issue. I just thought maybe there would be more efficiency getting the bubbles in the display having the stone in it. But I will give it a shot putting it by my return pump if I try it.
SantaMonica
Valuable Member
The natural periphyton that covers your rocks consumes a great amount of it, converting it into food to feed your animals and microbial life.
OP
OP
DeepBrew
Active Member
I don't understand the chemistry behind it, but my tank acted like it "consumed" nitrates. I had to add a crazy amount just to get it reliably detectable. By that point I had gotten used to bigger doses and next thing I knew I was sitting at 60ppm!
Just keep that in mind as you go, you may hit a similar break point like I did where a dose may not do anything and then later that same dose may make a much bigger change.
Thanks for the tip, I'm going to try to go very slowly and keep daily doses small so maybe I can avoid that happening.
The 40B doesn't have a sump, it's strictly bare bones HOB filter with a couple of power heads. I tried micro bubbling but I couldn't find a place where the bubbles would cover the whole tank so I gave up.
OP
OP
DeepBrew
Active Member
I started Chemiclean in the 40B this evening. I expect it will take two doses to get rid of the spirulina, like it did in the 20L. I put two airstones in to keep o2 up.
I also have MJ1200 type pump that I use with a cut off soda bottle as a surface skimming filter sometimes. I put that in and set it high enough that it sucks a bit of air in with the water. I should have thought of that when I was trying micro-bubbling. It spits out a lot of bubbles.
I also have MJ1200 type pump that I use with a cut off soda bottle as a surface skimming filter sometimes. I put that in and set it high enough that it sucks a bit of air in with the water. I should have thought of that when I was trying micro-bubbling. It spits out a lot of bubbles.
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