Coral reefer
Past President
So what’s your process? How do you mix it? I use a gal bottle, fill 3/4 or so full, add 381 grams of soda ash, put cap on, shake vigorously, then fill the rest of the way. Never had it not dissolve within a minute.
NanoCrazed's Lazy Tank(s) Journal
- Thread starter NanoCrazed
- Start date
How much are you dosing in each shot? If you're using a DOS over the whole day, each individual dose is probably so small it wouldn't matter.
As to mixing, maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that dosing precipitate wouldn't really do anything but add particulate to the tank? I thought precipitate was basically just a solid formed out of the solution? I would think this wouldn't affect alk?
I mix like @Coral reefer and generally get it all mixed after a couple shaking sessions over a couple hours. Sometimes there are a few little solids floating around.
As to mixing, maybe I'm wrong, but I would think that dosing precipitate wouldn't really do anything but add particulate to the tank? I thought precipitate was basically just a solid formed out of the solution? I would think this wouldn't affect alk?
I mix like @Coral reefer and generally get it all mixed after a couple shaking sessions over a couple hours. Sometimes there are a few little solids floating around.
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
I measure the powder and pour into the container and fill up to a premeasured gallon line. I didn't have spare bottles around at the time with this being my first liquid dosing run.
Was using dissolving blocks and atraight baking soda until about a month or so ago, if you might recall...
But running koralias in the container to mix should solve my problem. Though, i might just have bottles premixed to refill. Just hoping to minimize more clutter with all the other equipment i have scattered around.
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
My batch had a fair amount of precipitate. It's probably a concentration/equilibrium thing... my alk drift started happened afteri installed a hard tube to draw from the bottom thereby drawing more of the particulates into the tank. Once in the tank, it disolves pretty quickly...
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
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The lil fragvbucket makes for a nice fragging station. Had a few to make tonight...
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The lil fragvbucket makes for a nice fragging station. Had a few to make tonight...
Coral reefer
Past President
I would definitely add powder to water, not the other way around.
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
Yep...
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
Yeah, i suppose i could measure out the water first. From a chemistry standpoint, you'd top of the water to make a X molar or percent concentration solution...so the logistics is easier with adding the gunk and then liquid for whatever total volume of solution. But yeah, kinda a pain this time around doing it the chem lab way.
Coral reefer
Past President
It’s going to dissolve better adding powder to water.
max_nano
Supporting Member
Do it on a as baking scale and weigh the water. And you could mix it with this:
INTLLAB Magnetic Stirrer Stainless Steel Magnetic Mixer with stir bar (No Heating) Max Stirring Capacity: 3000ml https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072K24X5P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UdxlFbJBP1QG4
Get scientific with it
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
Brings back bad memories... lol
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
@max_nano you think I'm kidding? Had the distinct honor of forcing a building wide evacuation of the Cal Chem building back during undergrad. My experiment might have been present with quite a bag.
Collected liquid hydrogen carbon, liquid oxygen, and burners... what could go wrong? Yeah, took a mini bomb squad to dismantle my experiment. Hah...
Collected liquid hydrogen carbon, liquid oxygen, and burners... what could go wrong? Yeah, took a mini bomb squad to dismantle my experiment. Hah...
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
AquaJapan85 (...ish)
====
So i now realize the follynof my ways. The use of the top of the frag area for a fragging station was a great idea. However, i lost almost all the frags I made that night..
I was pretty perplexed why I lost frags from really strong healthy colonies. First time i lost any sps frags I made.
At first i wondered if it was the alk swing, then maybe a microbubble storm caused by a dry sump and a something stuck inside the retun's turbine. But it finally occured to me this morning that the RTN of my frags were lokely caused by the deathstar above it. @Meshmez's deathstar meme was apropos afterall...
I left the plugs on the egg crate rack to let the glue cure a bit before tanking again. But given the close proximity, even a reasonable amount of time outbof water for a few minutes would like be too much high PAR nuking. It's 150PAR at bottom, 500PAR at top... and probably well into nuclear bomb territory inches above water surface.
So i think mystery solved. Bummer on the frag loss, but glad i realize it before making more frags in the same manner.
I made a few frags in the day following but used a different work surface and all seems fine at least.
====
So i now realize the follynof my ways. The use of the top of the frag area for a fragging station was a great idea. However, i lost almost all the frags I made that night..
I was pretty perplexed why I lost frags from really strong healthy colonies. First time i lost any sps frags I made.
At first i wondered if it was the alk swing, then maybe a microbubble storm caused by a dry sump and a something stuck inside the retun's turbine. But it finally occured to me this morning that the RTN of my frags were lokely caused by the deathstar above it. @Meshmez's deathstar meme was apropos afterall...
I left the plugs on the egg crate rack to let the glue cure a bit before tanking again. But given the close proximity, even a reasonable amount of time outbof water for a few minutes would like be too much high PAR nuking. It's 150PAR at bottom, 500PAR at top... and probably well into nuclear bomb territory inches above water surface.
So i think mystery solved. Bummer on the frag loss, but glad i realize it before making more frags in the same manner.
I made a few frags in the day following but used a different work surface and all seems fine at least.
Coral reefer
Past President
What glue are you using? Do you really need to leave frags out for it to dry? I use ic gel and never purposely leave frags out of water. Works just fine.
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
I use gorilla or sometimes loctite gel. The gorilla gel tends to leave a film on the water surface when fresh ... basically skim from some of the glue. Used to never do that but over the last few months, I've noticed this happening. Never a problem with loctite.
I usually like to give a few minutes to make sure frags don't fall over due to water movement, etc.
That said, i am considering switching over to using a small ball of 2-part epoxy. I really like it when I've received frags sitting on a small ball. Makes remounting a breeze... or sometimes i let the frags puddle over for instant height...
RandyC
Supporting Member
Use a cyanoacrylate accelerator.
www.bulkreefsupply.com
Insta-set Super Glue Accelerator
Insta-set accelerator will help speed up the set time of any cyanoacrylate super glue. The most frustrating thing about fragging coral is the time you need to wait for the glue to set, or the frag may simply just fall over and get glue all over. With the accelerator that time spent waiting will...
www.bulkreefsupply.com
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
Decided to make some more frags using a dremel with diamond blade... what a mess it makes!
Regretting not buying that gryphon xl i had a line one... was a great deal too, brand new... (yes, could've put in for the club saw but spur of the moment thing)
Regretting not buying that gryphon xl i had a line one... was a great deal too, brand new... (yes, could've put in for the club saw but spur of the moment thing)
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
AquaJapan85 (..ish)
====
That's it! after a few spills and a couple near misses, time to reconfigure the frag tank for an emergency drain and run the return over the top.
Despite having everything dialed in there are still random moments of inconsistent flow either drain or return wise that causes a hiccup, especially when I tune for noise. Was hoping it was a smalll enough set up to keep it easy and clean looking but looks like not. And, I don't want to tap another hole at the moment as I want to week the middle of the tank wall clean so I have the option of mouting a different light than the deathstar.
On that note, might throw up a XR15 to make for easier transitions of pieces into the DT. At least, I don't have to account for spectrum differences.
====
That's it! after a few spills and a couple near misses, time to reconfigure the frag tank for an emergency drain and run the return over the top.
Despite having everything dialed in there are still random moments of inconsistent flow either drain or return wise that causes a hiccup, especially when I tune for noise. Was hoping it was a smalll enough set up to keep it easy and clean looking but looks like not. And, I don't want to tap another hole at the moment as I want to week the middle of the tank wall clean so I have the option of mouting a different light than the deathstar.
On that note, might throw up a XR15 to make for easier transitions of pieces into the DT. At least, I don't have to account for spectrum differences.
NanoCrazed
Supporting Member
AquaJapan 85
=====
Rough day today... lost a few frags and mini colonies but I can't figure out why. The biggest change really is I restarted my skimmer a few days ago so not sure if it's shocking the system by pulling too many things out at once after being offline for a few weeks. Nothing else has changed in my system except the addition of the frag tank and slightly reduced flow / turnover in the main tank area as a result.
Other thought is that it can be a delayed impact of that 13dkh alk spike I had last week and just took awhile for the affect to show.
One of the casualties is my RR Dante Inferno milli. It was doing really well so I decided to make a small nub of a frag to grow out as back up. The main colony RTN'd after a few days but the nub is looking good still.. for now. Hopefully , it's not a case of the apple falling not far from the tree. Spoke to a friend in the aquaculture biz and he suspects it could be a combination of stress from fragging plus the alk and skimmer creating a perfect storm. Another casualty is @ofzakaria's DBTC red planet -- i had moved this piece to the frag area when I got the tank plumbed in. Saw a good deal of receding tissue from the middle of the trunk... so, tried saving as much as i could with aggressive fragging and applying a coating of superglue all around the margins of the dying tissue. Hopefully, I can save it. @Coral reefer @ofzakaria any other ideas for things I should look into? stumped. (or perhaps at this point, it's a matter of waiting and seeing)
The other thing he pointed out is that I shouldn't use the flat edge bone cutter I recently got but stick to my old cutter that's small and curved for acros. I suspected that the tool is adding additoinal stress to my pieces as frags made using the tool have had more issues than any other time prior. The tool has a blunt edge that I feel created more pressure and damage when cutting.
Pic of my RR Dante Inferno (RIP):
=====
Rough day today... lost a few frags and mini colonies but I can't figure out why. The biggest change really is I restarted my skimmer a few days ago so not sure if it's shocking the system by pulling too many things out at once after being offline for a few weeks. Nothing else has changed in my system except the addition of the frag tank and slightly reduced flow / turnover in the main tank area as a result.
Other thought is that it can be a delayed impact of that 13dkh alk spike I had last week and just took awhile for the affect to show.
One of the casualties is my RR Dante Inferno milli. It was doing really well so I decided to make a small nub of a frag to grow out as back up. The main colony RTN'd after a few days but the nub is looking good still.. for now. Hopefully , it's not a case of the apple falling not far from the tree. Spoke to a friend in the aquaculture biz and he suspects it could be a combination of stress from fragging plus the alk and skimmer creating a perfect storm. Another casualty is @ofzakaria's DBTC red planet -- i had moved this piece to the frag area when I got the tank plumbed in. Saw a good deal of receding tissue from the middle of the trunk... so, tried saving as much as i could with aggressive fragging and applying a coating of superglue all around the margins of the dying tissue. Hopefully, I can save it. @Coral reefer @ofzakaria any other ideas for things I should look into? stumped. (or perhaps at this point, it's a matter of waiting and seeing)
The other thing he pointed out is that I shouldn't use the flat edge bone cutter I recently got but stick to my old cutter that's small and curved for acros. I suspected that the tool is adding additoinal stress to my pieces as frags made using the tool have had more issues than any other time prior. The tool has a blunt edge that I feel created more pressure and damage when cutting.
Pic of my RR Dante Inferno (RIP):