Build and Progress of my RSM Nano Tank

[martinphillip03]

Laurent, someone in the RSM thread is using a buffer to raise the Alk. The used baking soda to lower the ph of the buffer. I think it was Brent F. I can't remember more. Maybe someone will chime in.

Marty

[Seadoc]

Wouldn't baking soda increase the pH instead of lowering it?

[martinphillip03]

Not really. I believe the ph of baking soda is 8.5. More or less. If the ph of the liquid your adding to is 11. It would lower it

Marty

Originally posted by Seadoc
Wouldn't baking soda increase the pH instead of lowering it?

[Brent F]

Originally posted by martinphillip03
Laurent, someone in the RSM thread is using a buffer to raise the Alk. The used baking soda to lower the ph of the buffer. I think it was Brent F. I can't remember more. Maybe someone will chime in.

Marty

Yes, it was me. Here's a calculator that shows the effect on PH of different products for boosting alkalinity

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

Here is the table from the calculator sumarizing how different product effect PH:

Product........................................... ................Effect on PH
Baking soda.............................................. .......Somewhat lower
Soduim Carbonate Anhyd. (Baked B. Soda)........... Substantially Higher!
Kent's Tech CB Part B Alkalinity...........................Higher
Warner Marine CalxMax Part B Alkalinity................ Moderate Increase
Randy's Recipe 1 Alkalinity Part............................Substantially Higher!
Randy's Recipe 2 Alkalinity Part............................Somewhat lower
Limewater (saturated).......................................Substantially Higher!
Aq Systems Reef Evo SeaBuffer.......................... Substantially Higher!
Two Little Fisher C-Balance Part B........................Higher
ESV B-Ionic Original Ca Buff Pt 1..........................Substantially Higher!
ESV B-Ionic Bicarbonate Syst Pt 1........................Somewhat lower
Oceans Blend Part 2 of 2 Part Supplement..............Somewhat higher
Seachem Reef Buffer (dry)...................................Substantially Higher!
Seachem Reef Builder (dry)................................. Substantially Higher!
Seachem Reef Carbonate (liq)............................. Substantially Higher!
Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium Powder (Also Calcium)...... Minimal
Salifert All in One (Also Calcium)...........................Minimal
Salifert KH + PH Buffer (dry)............................... Higher

[LaurentSeattle]

Thanks Marty, Brent and Seadoc...

Red Sea Buff is mostly Sodium Bicarbonate . Therefore, I will check BOTH pH and Alk before adding more, if any...

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 9 - Week 37 - Day 255 - Wednesday March 12th - Around 8pm

* Just checked a few water parameters:

- pH: 8.2
- Alk: 7.0 DKh (Salifert)

I have added small doses (2ml) of Red Sea buffer "Buff" in the past few days. Alk is back up a bit with no serious change of pH. I will do it again tonight and possibly in the new few days if pH stays at normal levels.

The low Alk seems to have no incidence so far on animals or on algae growth.

* I have restarted the skimmer again and now there is almost no bubbles but very little foam. I guess this thing will never ever work properly...

[danvan]

hi laurent
i have read your thread from start to finish very informitive, at the begining i was just about to order a rsm but after all your equipment problems would you do the same thing again or would you go to a more tradtional set up ???.
thank you for all your effort this is a great thread
tks

[gmatta]

I too thought of a rsm but due to problems u have no longer, you are sure dillegent with your routine very impressive

[LaurentSeattle]

Danvan:

Welcome to Reef Central and thank you for choosing my build thread for posting for first message!

I think I would buy again a RSM. All All-in-one's have the same problem: not enough filtration volume and now I am convinced that either a canister filter or a sump is a necessity. The "Reef Ready" that all vendors do advertise is just plain BS.

The other problem with the RSM is the ridiculous skimmer but I have been lurking on other setups and their skimmers are also quite bad, just a bit better than the RSM.

The really good things with the RSM are:
- the looks,
- the lights,
- and the stand.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 9 - Week 37 - Day 256 - Thursday March 13th - Around 8pm

* Yet another Alk check:

- Alk: 7.4 DKh (Salifert)

- No adverse effect of the regular small doses of Red Sea Buff, so far.


* A 2.5 gallon water change, a bit ahead of schedule.


* The skimmer is now working quite properly.
- Almost no bubbles at all.
- Decent foam climbing.

I just do not understand...

* The Rainford's Goby has been hiding for two days. I fear the worst...

[martinphillip03]

Have you decided when to change your bulb?

Marty

[LaurentSeattle]

Hi Marty,

There is no consensus on when to replace lights: Some people say 6 months, some other say 1 year. I will replace them around 9 or 10 months, depending on when I will receive them. It seems that these tubes are out if stock almost everywhere...

L.

[elsefailed]

Laurent check the water level in the second compartment.
If it is to low the bubbles wont climb high enough.
I noticed also if the water level isnt high enough its microbubble heaven.
I have two maxi jets and its great for flow and overall circulation but it seems to kill the skimmer.
I am trying to decide what to keep.
The water level in the 3rd and 1st compartment are higher then ever
but the skimmer compartment is the lowest ever. Once i turn off one of the two maxijets the water level raises significantly!
Its getting down to a science now!

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 9 - Week 39 - Day 265 - Saturday March 22nd - Around Noon

A long long time since last update. Again a lot of work...

I have (just a bit) somewhat neglected the routine maintenance of the tank and it started to show up yesterday in the form of the coming back of some bryopsis and two spots of cyano...

I have to say that without the newly installed canister filter, the tank would certainly be in much worse shape.

- Yesterday:

* A 3g water change with some algae removal.

* Surprisingly Dictyota is still receding. Of concern is the alarming growth rate of some form of encrusting brown scroll algae. This pest was growing on the GSP, killing them. This pest is very hard to remove and a significant part of the GSP colony is dead. However, they have been growing quite fast and overall the colony still look good.

* Red fluffy algae was growing in the corallites of the candy canes. I removed that too. The coral apparently was not suffering from it.

- Today:

* Complete cleaning of the canister filter.

* New bag of ChemiPure Elite

* New bag of PhosBan

* Rinsing the new media with tank water and refilling the canister ended up with a 2 g water change.

All the above completed in less than 20 minutes! I really like the canister filter now! NO MORE need to remove the hood, remove the pumps and "dive" to get the media bags and of course putting everything back into place... That was a two hours chore.

Indeed, I do not regret my purchase, I think the Fluval 205 is great but I should probably have picked the 305 model.

I will post some pictures tomorrow night. This thread is back to life

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 9 - Week 39 - Day 267 - Monday March 24 - Around 8pm

- Little to report but routine maintenance...

- I took a few tank shots yesterday night but nothing worth publishing on this thread..

- Tried again tonight and selected this close-up of the Sarcophyton.



This coral is doing very well in its strong current spot and has almost doubled its size. Polyps are longer than ever and they all move along the ever-changing flow produced by the rotating HYDOR flow diverters. Very nice...

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 9 - Week 40 - Day 272 - Saturday March 24 - Around 10am

- Two days ago:

* After a few days of minimal feeding, a 3g water change and some algae removal: Dyctotia is now almost gone and overall pest algae are in check.

* Situation is back to normal on the cyano front: Amazing how fast things can go wrong in a small tank.

- Yesterday:

* Fluval 205 cleaning session: All done in 15 minutes! Removed some of the ceramic balls to make room for a "polishing" pad at the very top. Water has never been so clear!

- Today:

* Quick water chemistry check:
ALK: 7.4 DKH (Salifert)
pH: 8.0 (Red Sea)

Still this problem of low ALK despite regular (almost daily) additions of Red Sea "Buff" - which is mostly sodium bicarbonate.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 40 - Day 276 - Wednesday April 2nd - Around 9pm

- Cleaned some cyano spots.

- Tested water:

* NO3: Zero
* PO4: Zero
* ALK: 7.2 DKH.

Now I am running out of buffer solution... and no improvement on the ALK front.

I am planning a more significant water change tomorrow night. Hopefully, this will help.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 40 - Day 277 - Thursday April 3rd - Around 8pm

- Done the weekly 3g water change, removong some cyano and various detritus here and there.

- Removed a dead Astrea snail. The smell is ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!! I had to leave all windows opened for a while...

- Cleaning the canister filter is the plan for tomorrow.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 278 - Friday April 4th - Around 8pm

- I stuck to the plan and cleaned the canister filter earlier tonight. I am getting the hang of it now: All done in 13 minutes.

- Cyano is still "bugging" me... Removed some.

- I received replacement lights earlier this week. I plan to change them next weekend. That will be a bit more than 9 months: Somewhere in the middle of what I have heard: from 6 months to one year.

- The fans completely died tonight... after a very noisy agony. Replacing them requires removing and dismantling the hood. Next weekend, if there's some time left. The weather is bad here: cold and rainy (as usual!) and cooling fans are not needed at all for now. But well... I really would like to have to hurry to change these fans: I hate the rain...

- Shopping tomorrow: I need to get some buffer product at the LFS and I will check out their corals. Who knows? Maybe a new addition?

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 279 - Saturday April 5th - Around Noon

I went to my LFS this morning and I had a long discussion with the owner about my Alk issue. He recommended to test for Mg before trying any other additives. Therefore I bought a Mg Test Kit (Elos). Magnesium is at 1600ppm in the tank! Well above the usually recommended 1300-1400ppm range.

Consequently, I purchased an Alk booster ( Reef Builder from Seachem ) and started the "treatment" following the "beginner" method explained in the product description.

I will let things settle a bit and test for Alk and pH in a moment.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 279 - Saturday April 5th - Around Noon - Cont'ed

pH: 8.0
Alk: 7.4 DKH

No improvement...

[Reef Ruler]

wow....Just read this whole thing front to back...took me three days. But then again I only read for about an hour aday...

Still, very imformative info. I wish I could be so dedicated to my tank and keep such good records. The tank looks amazing, keep up the good work.

Thanks
Brian

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 281 - Monday April 7th - Around 8pm

- Still trying to restore balance on the Alk problem and added a second dose of Reef Builder this morning.

- And tonight:

pH: 8.2
Alk: 7.7 DKH

Some improvement... Therefore, I added half a dose tonight.

---

Hi Brian,

Thanks for reading this thread and the compliments too

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 282 - Tuesday April 8th - Around 6pm

- Still working on the Alk problem and tested the water:

pH: 8.2
Alk: 8.0 DKH

Yay! More improvement... Good! Therefore, I added one more dose tonight. This buffering product ( SeaChem Reef Builder ) seem to work much better than Red Sea Buff in my case. I wish I could undestand the 'situation' better...

As long as pH is not shooting too high (above 8.4), I will continue dosing until the tank reaches 9.0 DKH. This is the "consensus" median value I have choosen after reading my books and other reference material on the web.

- Cyano seems to be receding a bit. Better pH and Alk levels are probably helping.

[LaurentSeattle]

Month 10 - Week 41 - Day 282 - Tuesday April 8th - Around 10pm

- Tested again the water after letting things settle for a while:

pH: 8.3
Alk: 8.5 DKH

Alk is almost back to normal. Now, I guess I will have to dose very carefully...