cruelle

After months of raging the war on nitrates I decided to dosome major updates to my sump area. First was a new sump and stand to put iton. The sump I had just didn't allow for expansion and the stand wasn't makingthe grade either. Here is a shot of the old set up I should note that this asits in my basement tank room as the wife calls it.


The stand was replace with a powder coated steel stand andsome composite shelves. The sump was replaced with a 20 long tank, withrefuguim in front and the skimmer area and return area with ATO in back. Hereis a mock up it.



My new set up allowed for more room and a bigger auto topoff container in this case a 19 gallon gray rubber main tub on the shelf below thesump.


After all that was done I still wanted to improve the waterquality of my tank (which is the main focus of the upgrades). Being on a budgetand this just being the stepping stone to want I really wanted was a great pairof rectors and a new skimmer. First up was a new skimmer and I went with the Coralife Super Skimmer rated for 125 tank. Sofar I am very happy with this skimmer pulls out a great deal of crap from mytank.
After doing some reading and asking some questions Idecided to buy 2 reactors, 1 to run carbon in and one to run Vertex Bio Pellets.I chose the NextReef Line of reactors pictured below. When I received these from Marine Depot I was veryimpressed on the quality of these rectors. Here is what I purchased.



This reactor is the NextReef MR1 Complete MediaReactor Kit which I am running carbonin it and is working great. Easy to change the media and easy to put together.

This is the NextReef SMR1 solid Media Reactorthis whatI will be using to run Vertex pro bio-pellets in. I received these in April but didn't get themup a running tell the end of May do to a huge red smile out break on the daythey arrived. So after getting rid of the slime but losing some of my corals Idecided to step up the pace bit as luck would have it my stand was done the dayafter my slime was gone. So in a matter of a couple of hours and a water change I had everythinghooked up a running.


Over the next 4 weeks I checked levels 2 a week for thefirst two weeks then one a week for thelast two weeks of a 4 week cycle as the levels slowly went down. With such highnitrates readings 80 to start with I was still a little worried it won't work. I dosewith Blue LifePhosphate Rx so phosphates where around zero from the start.Well the readings went down 80...40...20...10..and finally zero as of two weeksago I was almost in shock and that little test tube didn't turn any color butyellow. It took 4 1/2 weeks for the nitrates to reach zero but on the packageit did state could take up to four weeks to fully kick in. Well now that mytank is on the mend and the levels are where they should be water changes are abit easier knowing that the levels stay where they should be such as lastnight's tests...

NO3 zero
PO4 Zero
dKH 8.0
Ca 480
Ph 8.1
Mg 1380
salt 1.026

Well now that my tank has stable water parameters and is startingto mend I am glad that I put my effort into water quality as it will result into a better looking tank and ahealthier place for my fishy friends. Ithink I will take it easy for a month and let things regroup and then add a fewnew corals. Here is a full tank shot on the 4th of July with things starting to look much better

My next project is to use one pump for both reactors after I get all the plumbing worked out!
Chris