LizardKing
06/09/2007, 08:37 PM
I have a group of systems I am about to plump together to a basement sump to increase total volume, help controll temps, and allow for a very large fudge sump, full of macros to try and lower nitrates, run on a reverse cycle to help with ph swings.
I plan to tie the 3 systems together via the basement sump, but with a valve before the drop to the basement to take one or more systems off line at any time to run alone.
This would allow me to dump my 350-400 gallons of new pre mixed salt into what is / would be a 1750-1775 gallon combined system.
Now if I split up to only one system plus the basement sump, the numbers would be as follows
approx 800 gallons plus approx 150-175 gallon sump (depending on water level in a 300 gallon stock tank)= 950-975 gallons
approx 500 gallons plus approx 150-175 gallon sump = 650-675
approx 300 gallon plus approx 150-175 gallon sump = 450-475
So the water changes would amount to anywhere from about 45% to as much as a 95% total volume if only one system was changed.
The water in the systems seperate generally runs about 26-40 on nitrates, as it is a heavy traffic system with things in and out all the time (hands, ect, ect). As such I have done very large volume changes allready, as much as about 80% on a freshly cycled system that was running high and very very very lightly stocked (a couple leathers and live rock) and it seemed to do no major harm. Ive done many 30-50% changes on other heavily stocked systems and again it seemed to help far more then hurt.
My thought is this would allow me to off line two systems, do a hudge volume water change on just one system, then re connect it to the other two systems. I would imagine this would lower nitrates more then doing a 400 gallon change on a 1750+ gallon system.
Im sure I may get hammered for the numbers, I dont want to get more specific as I would like for this thread to not be pulled as all my others have. The nubers are run on a spectrometer, and for the most part the corals (yes sps included) are doing very well.
Calcium 350-440 (salifert, working to get it more steady) 240-360 hach (only once did it test that low, have since started kalk dosing
Nitrates 26-40 spectrometer
Phosphates 0.006 spectrometer (may add a phos reactor)
Ammonia, Nitrites all 0 spectrometer
Mag 1300-1500 salifert (after starting to mag dose) 650 hach (the same time the calcium was low, tested by friend one time, have since started to mag dose, always test normal)
Alk/Hardness 7-8.5 on salifert, trying to stabalize with baking soda dosing
I run different skimmers on each system, that would total 1100 gallons by euro reefs rating. However the skimmers are allready under volume according to euro reef, yet it still takes 2-5 days to fill the cup with penut butter skim, so I think they can still handle the combined job.
The system is approx 7 months old, and has only been on RO/DI for about 6-8 weeks (thats when the calcium drop happened, and steps taken to correct it). I hope thats enough, but not to much info. No pics, as they may get the thread pulled.
I plan to tie the 3 systems together via the basement sump, but with a valve before the drop to the basement to take one or more systems off line at any time to run alone.
This would allow me to dump my 350-400 gallons of new pre mixed salt into what is / would be a 1750-1775 gallon combined system.
Now if I split up to only one system plus the basement sump, the numbers would be as follows
approx 800 gallons plus approx 150-175 gallon sump (depending on water level in a 300 gallon stock tank)= 950-975 gallons
approx 500 gallons plus approx 150-175 gallon sump = 650-675
approx 300 gallon plus approx 150-175 gallon sump = 450-475
So the water changes would amount to anywhere from about 45% to as much as a 95% total volume if only one system was changed.
The water in the systems seperate generally runs about 26-40 on nitrates, as it is a heavy traffic system with things in and out all the time (hands, ect, ect). As such I have done very large volume changes allready, as much as about 80% on a freshly cycled system that was running high and very very very lightly stocked (a couple leathers and live rock) and it seemed to do no major harm. Ive done many 30-50% changes on other heavily stocked systems and again it seemed to help far more then hurt.
My thought is this would allow me to off line two systems, do a hudge volume water change on just one system, then re connect it to the other two systems. I would imagine this would lower nitrates more then doing a 400 gallon change on a 1750+ gallon system.
Im sure I may get hammered for the numbers, I dont want to get more specific as I would like for this thread to not be pulled as all my others have. The nubers are run on a spectrometer, and for the most part the corals (yes sps included) are doing very well.
Calcium 350-440 (salifert, working to get it more steady) 240-360 hach (only once did it test that low, have since started kalk dosing
Nitrates 26-40 spectrometer
Phosphates 0.006 spectrometer (may add a phos reactor)
Ammonia, Nitrites all 0 spectrometer
Mag 1300-1500 salifert (after starting to mag dose) 650 hach (the same time the calcium was low, tested by friend one time, have since started to mag dose, always test normal)
Alk/Hardness 7-8.5 on salifert, trying to stabalize with baking soda dosing
I run different skimmers on each system, that would total 1100 gallons by euro reefs rating. However the skimmers are allready under volume according to euro reef, yet it still takes 2-5 days to fill the cup with penut butter skim, so I think they can still handle the combined job.
The system is approx 7 months old, and has only been on RO/DI for about 6-8 weeks (thats when the calcium drop happened, and steps taken to correct it). I hope thats enough, but not to much info. No pics, as they may get the thread pulled.