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DSA 135....

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Just a small update, but if it works could be a huge turn around for my tank and the boost i need to want to keep going. My biggest fight in my tank is bryopsis, and i've noticed phosphates were a bit high even with gfo, so i decided theres only one place left to look for the source, the rocks. Blew out the rocks three days in a row, the amount of crud coming out sent my skimmer crazy. i'll be doing this once or twice a week now. i've also been aggressively tearing out the algae, the night before last, i decided to give algaefix another chance at bryopsis, the first time it seemed to love it but why not. I put in about 5ml more than the recommended dosage, came home from the swap yesterday, and either from low nutrients, the algaefix, or a combo of both, its no longer dark green, it's turning pale and losing it's color. I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet, and after speaking with Jason Fox at the show, he gave me another idea or two to try, but it's definetly a good sign. i'm going to try and get a full tank shot after i glue all my new coral to where they are going to end up.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
it's on the list of possibilities, but i'm not sure there's much in there i haven't tried yet.
 

Trio91

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator
it's on the list of possibilities, but i'm not sure there's much in there i haven't tried yet.
Gotcha, it's supposed to be this new miracle solution and I'm really more or less just curious about it
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Well, on the advice from the swap, i was told that when the people who made tech m sold the company, the new one that took over changed the formula as they were trying to get into the european market but wouldn't disclose what was in it. I was told that the formula for the old tech m is now used by continuum, and it should be the exact same, so i picked up a 2 liter jug of it, only enough for about a 250ppm raise, but if it is the same, i will see die off in a few days after using it. I'm on day 2 right now, tomorrow or tuesday should give me the answer i'm looking for. my mag at the start was 1700 so already high, i wouldn't want it up much past the 2k mark. I also have the liquid aquarium cleaner coming as well on monday, i will be testing that out.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Put my first dose in yesterday, not seeing any difference yet, I don't think I expect to for a while though. My new skimmer will be coming in Friday, ups got my hopes up and said tomorrow and then rescheduled it, I'm hoping the skimmer will help as well, it's about double the performance of my current one. I also put a second reactor on, now I have two filled with gfo
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
My skimmer lost it's **** for some reason last night, almost like when you put prazipro in the system, so i'll be throwing in some carbon today to see if that can pick up whatever it is, the only thing i can think of is something spooked my cucumber and it tossed something into the tank, everyone in it looks fine though.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Well, the skimmer decided for the last two days its going to go bat**** crazy so my tank is looking a bit worse now, since it's not really skimming. I was told it's still part of the break in process which could be, but i don't know why it was fine skimming a few days ago, now is a constant overflow with the exit flow wide open. Before that it was making a horrible noise from the pump, that seems to have died down mostly, but i can still hear a low hum from it, i'll see if it goes away even more in the coming days, but it was dead silent on the first day. This thing was expensive, i really shouldn't have heard that kind of pump noise from the start.
 

njtiger24 aquariums

Officer Emeritus
Article Contributor
Agree I don't think you should be hearing the pump. I don't hear my RO skimmer. A friend told me (when I got my new skimmer) to soak it in a vinegar/water bath and then never touch the inside part of the skimmer. This help speed up the break in time.

Maybe look for a lose fitting or pump out of place that might be causing some of your skimmer issue.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I've pulled it apart 3 times, so i'm leaving it alone now, i soaked it in vinegar before putting it in, but after messing with it so much i may have upset it.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Found the issue with the vibration, or at least part of it, back of the skimmer pump mount is pressing against the cone, i'll see what vertex tells me to do at that point.
 

horseplay

NJRC Member
If it was skimming fine and now it stopped it might be there is nothing to skim from the water. If the skimmer is over sized it might do this. I have this happen occasionally but it usually starts forming a head within one day. The key thing is to make sure you have a nice form production. Air restriction may reduce the amount of form. Also you can't open the air too much it will cause large bubbles instead of the tiny ones you are looking for.
 

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
i have the air adjustment on it fully closed, so no additional air is going through, i ran some vinegar through it, it calmed the pump down a bit, its still breaking in at this point, but my bigger concern is the noise, i'm asking vertex if they will let me file down the plastic without voiding the warranty on the unit, if not i'm looking at a 2 week turn around just to get this thing fixed.
 
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