Hiatt filtration system

[Bill S]

I should have told you about the skimmer. My fault. It's a big deal.

[CoryDude]

Skimmer has been off for 3 days. I've been using a berlin system all my life, so seeing an idle skimmer makes me nervous. I also did a small 10 gallon water change in order to syphon around and behind the live rock.

There's better polyp extension on some of the acros and a stylo. NO3 is still holding steady at 25ppm. But, is hasn't increased in over a week. Algea growth on the glass has slowed also. So the hiatt seems to be working on some anecdotal level.

Went ahead and ordered more RN! bacteria and 5 more lbs of carbon. I'm hoping that the extra carbon and reseeding it can provide better no3 removal. Of course, I'll remove carbon and make adjustments as needed in the coming weeks/months.

Overall, I'm a little dissapointed in this filter in it's first week, mainly because the bar was set so high. But, a lot of this could be my fault.

On a side note, many thanks to bstreep for all the advice and responses to my pm's. It's his fault for getting me interested in this system.

[CoryDude]

Been kinda of busy lately. Here's a weeklong update:

I reseeded the bacteria earlier this week. Skimmer has been off for 1.5 weeks. I actually measured the h2o flow output and it about 7.5 times the tank volume. Not where Snake wants it at, but within limits.

Tank inhabitants look good. Most acros have better polyp extension during the day. I'm also wiping the glass every 5 days for a light film of algae instead of every 3 days. For not using a skimmer for a few weeks, the tank water looks remarkably clean.

PH, alk, and ca parameters are the same, but I did see a slight drop in NO3 this past week. Salifert high range reads slightly darker than 10ppm and less than 25ppm. Where I first noticed the nitrate drop was on the low range of the salifert. It usually reads closer to 50ppm but now reads at 25ppm.

Either way, a nitrate drop without doing a major water change is a plus. This coupled with the water clarity seems to indicate that this system is working on some level. More to came as it becomes available.

[CoryDude]

I've just seen NO3 levels drop from (10+ppm high range, 25ppm low range), to (5ppm high, 10pmm low)........in less than 24hrs!!! That's the kind of reduction I usually see with a 50% water change.

It this trend continues, I'll up feedings. My goal is to maintain NO3 around 2ppm-5ppm on the low end of the test kit.

[ErikH]

Tagging along, I read up on this awhile back. keep posting!

[CoryDude]

I turned the skimmer back on earlier this week, but noticed NO3 wasn't being reduced anymore. Turned the skimmer off yesterday and saw a slight decrease in NO3 levels since last night. This goes against all my experience, but it looks like in my situation, skimming reduces the effectiveness of the system.

Corals look great. Many of the them have new growth nubs. All blue and green acros seem a little brighter, but maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. My borealis frag is regaining it's bright blue tips. A red milli has some of the longest polyp extensions I've ever seen on it.

There was a little brown algae on the substrate and a patch of cyano that appeared since last week, but most of that is already disappearing.

Tank specs:
ph 8.3
alk 9dkh
ca 420 meg/L
NO3 10ppm low range

[Richard]

This goes against all my experience, but it looks like in my situation, skimming reduces the effectiveness of the system.

You have to remember that you are using a system that was designed for waste water treatment. It just doesn't work well without enough organics in the water. It was amazing when we converted our liverock tank to a haitt. Imagine repeatedly sticking 200 lbs of uncured stinky rock in a 75 gallon and the water stays clear, no ammonia spike, nitrates never go above 10 and you never have to do water changes. Or 800 goldfish in a 50 gallon and nitrates at 5 without water changes. Those were the tanks where the hiatt worked the best. On other tanks sometimes they would get too clean for the system to work properly.

[olaggie01]

Can you test PO4? I'd be really interested in seeing how this system affects PO4 as SPS are much more susceptible to high PO4.

[Richard]

The bacteria Hiatt uses reduce PO4 as they reduce nitrate. It think the ratio is 1:4 if I remember correctly. I think Bill was actually dosing PO4 to his tank for awhile.

[Bill S]

Yes, I was. Sodium biphosphate. Intentionally adding phosphate to a reef tank was just plain... goofy.