Does anyone want to learn about the Hiatt system?

Update, Almost got all the equipment for the build. Still waiting for light fixture and Rock from bulk reef.

One peace of news from the Hiatt system. I have three tanks running on Hiatt system for about 18 months now. The SPS coral stop growing and is dying.. LPS and soft are doing great. I talk to the creatator of Hiatt system and he told me to back off the carbon and bacteria and add more supplement and feed the fish more to add nutrient in the water. The bacteria is stripping nutirent and trace elements from the water and starve the LPS. I added a large block 1kg of SEA LAB 28 of cal and trace in the tank and also feeding the fish and coral more. Hoping to see any improvement in the SPS.

Update, I also added amino acid and other vitamin and trace and it seem to work. The sps is recovering.

What it shown is getting the sizing of the filter right is important. Adding amino acid and other supplement for low nutrient system is a must for sps.

News on my75 gal build. In a week or so, I will be putting the tank together. I have been working alot and does not have time to do much of anything.

Got a new 75 gal tank for $75 at forestlake pet shop. Lighting fixture 2X250w MH 2X96w PC 4 moonlight LED for $325. Rocks Dry From Bulk Reef Supply 50 X $2.10 per lb. Sand got it free, Tank Stand Free, Hayward Pool Mechenical Filer $20 + $50 new filter element.

More next time

Congrats Greg! I need pictures

Sorry for the long time not being on the post.
Work was tough... as I was restarting my consulting business after years of working for the man. Also got a new baby at home...

Ok to my tank status
My other tank water is too clean. I am sick of putting too much supplement into the tank. I have remove all LPS and make it a fish only tank. No Algae. Fishes are happly water change every 6 months.

Back to the 75 gal setup.
I finally got the tank pumbing hook up. RO water is filling up the tank now. I am going to start out filling my carbon container with 2.5 lb of tribase carbon. I am not going to demonstrate the 24 hour cycle because it will take more carbon which, I do not want to do. I want to do a gradual build up of carbon to meet the need of SPS coral. The recommendation for 75 gal reef is 4+ lb of carbon. I will try to monitor N/P to make sure that is is not zero like my other larger tanks. Will get some picture this week of my 75 gal setup.

Start the tank last Saturday three hours before the swap... With new salt water, gravel, Eco Rock, Tribase Carbon and RN Bacteria. Added 4 small angles got from Petco and the girl at petco sold them thinking they were demosel. Got them for $3.50 each. When mature these guys should get as large as a medium yelow tangs. Added the corals I got from the TCMAS swap an hour after the fish. Tested the water, PH 8.1, Cal/Alk is good do to new water. No nitrate or Phospate... Did not have Amonia or Nitrite tester....

They recommend 24 hours cycle for this tribase carbon with RN bacteria. Well if this work, I will be breaking their record.

Fish eat everything offered in five min of releasing in the tank. No sign of stress. Coral open up 3 hours later.

Test the water for nitrate/phospate... nothing show up. Sunday at 11pm

Coral still doing good.

Hopping to see some trace of nitrate/phospate soon... Looking for low range. If no nitrate/phospate, I have to add more fish and add coral supplement.

Water is cold because the tank is in my basement. Ordered the water heater should be here tonight from BRS. That should speed up nitrate/phospate production in the water as the fish get more active in warm water.

I would post picture of my setup but, could not figure out how to load my pictures into this forum.

Home made bio filter from large PVC pipes. Complicated pipes work and valves are for back flushing/cleaning the media without taking it out of the container.



Tank with two one inch returns on the top and a 3 inch line to the dart pump sitting behind the rocks.



Hayward swiming pool filter used as pre machenical filter.

Love the Dart Pump Supper quiet and powerfull with low power comsumption.

Oh, This setup is for my six year old son. standing in front of the tank.

What kind of angels did you get? Good deal on them no matter what.

Not sure, I got to look...

Man my bad, The are a variation of barrier reef chromis. I was sure they were a juvinile of some sort of angles. I saw a few of them in the scuba diving book when I was diving phillipine.

Oh well still good looking fishes.

Feed lot of food to these fishes. Still no Nitrate and no Phospate.

Ph was a bit low alk also low. Dose bicrabonate from BRS.

Could be CO2 from RN bacteria resperation.

Ordering a new set of test kit.. Hoping to get better reading.

I size my filter media to half of the recommened amount for a reef aquarium. I add fishes 3 hours after the water are mixed and filter went on line. Water a little cloudy at first because I mix the salt and RN bacteria in the tank but the fishes were doing great. The water is crystal clear after 24 hours. I check all parameter and everything is in range for a reef aquarium. I was a little concern on the first 24 hours because there were no trace of Nitrate or Phospate. I want some Nitrate and Phospate in the tank so that the SPS can live. It have been three days now and the Nitrate is still zero, but I see a trace of Phospate the reading show 0.09 using the Hanna Digital Phospate reader.

PH/cal/alk are in parameter for reef.

Hopping to see more nitrate and phospate on my next test. Will add more tribase if needed to keep nitrate and phospate in a low range for SPS.

Finding a balance is tricky is due to how efficient and the flow rate of your filter setup.

Also added water heater and set it to 81F.

Test the water again and Phoshpate is down to 0.03 and nitrate up to 5.

PH/ALK in range and Cal is low. Mixing up some cal supplement and add it in tonight.

Also added more fish and corals.

Everything looks good so far. Will report back into two weeks. Hope P/N stabalized by then.

Added lot of SPS and LPS and 10 more fish to thank. Feed the fish and coral a lot.

ALK and Cal is in the high range.

Phospate 0.23 ppm Nitrate 0.5 ppm

Nitrate is a bit low and phospate is a bit high. Need to increase Nitrate so that the bacteria can use it to take out the phospate due to 1 to 4 p to n ratio of how the bacteria consume it.

Did not do any test this weekend... Just glue some of the SPS onto the rock.

Got some bad luck with Petco yellow tang. It die. The fish got stung by corals when the they try to catch the fish. One side of the Tang got large bump on it with on an hour after an hour of release into the tank. It die the next day. Other fishes purchase are doing great. Could not return to Petco. Lesson learn, never by fish from vendor tank that have lot of corals.