Ziss Bubble Bio - Crushed Coral?

[nabokovfan87]

Hey everyone,

I have a tank (journal link below) and I need to add crushed coral and rely on either the HoB or some other method to buffer the water.  The issue currently is that my KH is right on the edge of being bad and I am seeing PH drops throughout the week.

I am thinking, because I have a good pre-filter on the ziss filter, it would mean that I don't have to worry as much about the filterbag or media getting clogged up.  If I filled the ziss with a media bag fulled of crushed coral, do we think it would be a good amount of flow to erode away the minerals and buffer the water?  Right now the crushed coral is in the top of the tidal HoB but the weight of the media is causing me some concern and causing additional bypass (sponge being crushed).

Thoughts?

[KBOzzie59]

As long as water can flow past the bag that should work.

[TeeJay]

Yes I have a 1lb bag of crushed coral in my tidal 55. With the bio media and sponge. Took about 6 weeks but I got my kh up from a 0 to a 3-4. It will take awhile for the KH to come up to help buffer for the pH. I test my pH regularly and it stays right about 7-7.2

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/23/2022 at 1:27 PM, Uttjrt3 said:

Yes I have a 1lb bag of crushed coral in my tidal 55. With the bio media and sponge. Took about 6 weeks but I got my kh up from a 0 to a 3-4. It will take awhile for the KH to come up to help buffer for the pH. I test my pH regularly and it stays right about 7-7.2

What is your starting PH on the tap and water change schedule?

[TeeJay]

On 5/23/2022 at 4:31 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What is your starting PH on the tap and water change schedule?

My tap pH is 7.2-7.4. I do a weekly water change of 35-45 percent. Just did it today lol. After that is when I dose my easy green and potassium supplement.

[nabokovfan87]

Perfect. I'm right there with you.

I was watching Corys vlog when he was setting up the living room tank, very similar issue. Trying to chase water changes keeping PH up while the tank is trying to buffer up some KH.

I will probably have to have some acid buffer on hand, seems like a good thing to have for this transition or when I need to have major water changes due to meds or something.

I am trying to get the tidal going, flow improved through the media box will *really* help (my thread for that is under experiments) but I don't know if adding it to the ziss will help. It's pretty fine chunks or media for the bags I have but I can stuff a lot more in that filter. Probably close to another pound.

[Mark C.]

On 5/23/2022 at 4:27 PM, Uttjrt3 said:

Yes I have a 1lb bag of crushed coral in my tidal 55. With the bio media and sponge. Took about 6 weeks but I got my kh up from a 0 to a 3-4. It will take awhile for the KH to come up to help buffer for the pH. I test my pH regularly and it stays right about 7-7.2

Hey man, how often do you change out your Crushed Coral in your Tidal 55? Will it just all the way dissolve? I have the same filter so I'm curious.

Thanks!

[TeeJay]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:14 PM, Mark C. said:

Hey man, how often do you change out your Crushed Coral in your Tidal 55? Will it just all the way dissolve? I have the same filter so I'm curious.

Thanks!

I have not changed it out yet. It usually will last a solid 6 months. But that also depends on how much buffer it needs to build up to as well. So it could need changed out soon for you. I don't believe it will complete dissolve to nothing but I'm not sure. I have had the same batch in there for 3 months so far.

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/23/2022 at 6:14 PM, Mark C. said:

Hey man, how often do you change out your Crushed Coral in your Tidal 55? Will it just all the way dissolve? I have the same filter so I'm curious.

First time using it for me.

My plan is to change it every 30-90 days. I test often. Depending what I run into with results I'll have an idea and be able to tell during weekly cleanouts of the Media bags.

It varies based on what your PH is on average.

[gardenman]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:01 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

First time using it for me.

My plan is to change it every 30-90 days. I test often. Depending what I run into with results I'll have an idea and be able to tell during weekly cleanouts of the Media bags.

It varies based on what your PH is on average.

You don't really have to change it as much as add more when it dissolves. It doesn't "go bad" it just slowly dissolves into the water. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/24/2022 at 6:21 AM, gardenman said:

It doesn't "go bad" it just slowly dissolves into the water

Mine already looks like it's dissolved out all of the calcium.

Update on this.

I got the pump I needed to replace the dual outlet with a single outlet (finally) which will also let me reduce the flow ever so slightly in the tank.

I finally got the stupid media bag in the right size for the use.

I have just over 1/2 lb in the media bag now, and I have 1 lb of crushed coral ready to go to add to the ziss.  I'll let you know how well it works or doesn't work and keep an eye on parameters.  I also got some of the alkaline buffer, so I might end up going that route instead of buying more crushed coral.

Edit: It fits very close to 1 lb of crushed coral, potentially slightly more if you stuff it in there.

The downside.... it's very loud because the air basically goes around it, not through it.  Very likely will end up removing it back tomorrow, but I'll give it a chance.

Edited May 26, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

The media settled a bit.  I'm going to add more here shortly, (3/4 lb in there now) and then I am going to let it run and keep an eye on KH.  I'll let you know when I have results. I DID like that it eventually settled and forced the air to flow through the coral instead of past it.

[nabokovfan87]

Well, Unfortunately, poor news.  The crushed coral definitely needs a bit more flow to work in this situation.  I think it will still "work, but it might need to be a lot lower amount than what I can simply jam into the HoB.  Honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about it.  If this was something like a sponge filter, I can manipulate the bubbles a bit, but in this situation I really can't without 3d printing something to modify the output.

What I've seen multiple times when adjusting the filter is that my KH has stopped climbing (still in the 50's, more on this later) and I am not seeing it increase or hold on anymore.  I am also seeing the PH start to crash.

Here's a video of the situation:

You can see the right side of the bag is slightly higher.  this is just the nature of trying to jam it into the bottom of the filter chamber.  It's not smooth, and things tend to get caught.  The CC is in there pretty good and I filled the zip bag until it wouldn't hold any more of the material.  I had to scoop some out by hand just to get the lid on.  My assumption was that the bubbles would disperse through the media, but what I'm finding is that it more often than not just channels.  Because it's channeling, I'm seeing areas with low movement and I'm seeing a reduction in effectiveness. 

I buffered the water with Alkaline buffer on top of everything in my last WC.  This should've increased KH and PH as well, but I am seeing no change as a result.  I have more crushed coral in the water than I did before and I'm seeing the numbers fall as well.  It's about... 15% as effective as having it in the HoB I'd say.  There's just not enough movement.

If I had the media on the substrate, I would think that it has more movement over more of the CC and works a bit better. With the HoB you have much higher flow compared to this setup and it erodes away the minerals a bit easier.

Thank you to everyone who offered there opinions and for anyone who stopped along the way for their own curiosity!