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Thanks Brett. Yeah, the SPS are finally starting to show some serious potential and I'm hoping will get even more colorful now that I've swapped out the old bulbs.
As for an ULNS, I was running the biopellets but shut them down after I had a major plague of hair and turf algae. It may have been a huge coincidence but the algae has slowly died back after taking the pellets off line so its hard to say what caused the outbreak. The algae was contained mostly to ceramic reef rock so I figured the algae could have been pulling some phosphates out of the clay that was used to make the rock. I'll likely try the pellets again here once the corals get used to the lighting spectrum. I'm not sure if they actually do anything as my phosphates were zero prior to starting the pellets and I didn't notice any increase in skimmer performance. I haven't ever used any kind of bacterial supplement as I didn't feel I needed to. An oversized skimmer seems to really keep all my nutrient levels in check. |
TOTM
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Thanks for the compliments everyone. My system is a far cry from TOTM though as it has alot of maturing to do. Most corals in there have only been in the sytem for 6 - 16 months max. Once it all fills in it will look alot more symmetrical and I'll post some FTS then.
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How is the tank comming along you havent posted anything in along time??? I think its time for some new pics
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For a reason that still remains unknown, I ended up with sky high nitrate levels (40 ppm) after not having detectable nitrate levels since I moved the remaining corals from my 90 gallon over into the 225 a few years ago. I did do a precautionary interceptor treatment of the entire system prior to the Saskatoon frag swap as I had 2 or 3 colonies that were not looking 100% and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't red bugs before selling a bunch of frags, even though I never did see any on the affected colonies. I'm not sure if this is what triggered a chain reaction that somehow caused a nitrate spike or if this was simply coincidental but either way, the tank hasn't been the same since. I've been battling to keep the nitrates down since late April and still have not got them back down to zero despite doing doubling or tripling the amount of water changes per month and firing up my biopellet reactor again. Last month I finally started noticing the biopellets shrinking in size and numbers so I'm guessing they are finally populated with beneficial bacteria and starting to work their magic. I ended up losing about 10 small colonies and frags and had to frag up 3 of my largest acros in order to prevent STN from killing them completely. The majority of the remaining SPS have browned out somewhat but I can see the colors are finally starting to come back. A few of the SPS have actually never looked better which is really strange. My giant colony of Cali tort along with my red planet, two differnt color morphs of A. granulosa and a few other random ones actually look pretty amazing. I also had a nice live rock collapse when my blueface angel and bariene tang got into a pretty good scrap and took out the zip ties holding my live rock tower together. Apparently UV resistant zip ties are not immune to going brittle from prolonged exposure to salt water. Once the first zip tie holding a shelf rock overhang in place snapped, 3 others followed suit and a 15 lb piece of rock came crasing down to the bottom. Both fish escaped with only a few minor scatches but a half dozen acros got really beat up and it took me almost 8 hours with the help of my wife to get the liverock all re-drilled, pegged with fiberglass rods and re-zipped tied back into the aquarium. Now there should be no way that the same structure can collapse as it all supported from the bottom as opposed to being held in place predominatly by zip ties. Now that golf/fly fishing season has come to an end and my shotgun is in for repair after a significantly too short pheasant season, I'll get some pics taken next time I'm back in Regina. |
wow, sorry to hear of your woes man. Sounds like this year was a tough year for a lot of tanks. Good to see you're still plugging away at it though :-)
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He is overly picky his tank at its worst is still amazing. I was over there the other day getting a couple frags and I can only dream to have such a tank.
Sent from my porcelain aquarium |
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The tank could be in worse shape but it looks nothing like it did when I posted pics last August. I'll post some progress pics shortly as the SPS have all gotten bigger, just their color leaves ALOT to be desired. |
Well as promised here are some shots of the system from last week. I didn't turn the flow off so some of the shots aren't very clear and I couldn't quite get the white balance adjusted perfect so the pics don't quite do some of the colors justice.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050368.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050363.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050361.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050358.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050343.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050341.jpg Cali tort running out of real estate http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050332.jpg Rainbow monti http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050327.jpg My pride and joy, 10+" across Acropora efflorescens. I'm so glad I didn't loose this guy in my psuedo-crash http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050325.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050323.jpg |
be nice if your colonies weren't all so MASSIVE. My eyes get sore from uninterrupted AWESOMENESS.
That efflo is going to bust your front pane out! |
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050288.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050287.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050286.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050285.jpg And now for some recently aquired frags that seem to have some serious potential http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050380.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050373.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050370.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050366.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050331.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050315.jpg |
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050307.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050305.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050303.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050297.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050283.jpg And heres my sad attempt at some macros http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050379.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050375.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050311.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050312.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050295.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050294.jpg |
And here are some comparison shots to show the effects the nitrate spike had on my tank:
2011 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...polypacro2.jpg 2012 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050282.jpg 2011 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/Alokani2.jpg 2012 http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050309.jpg And a few pics of the other tank inhabitants http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050275.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050279.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050346.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/P1050354.jpg |
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The key to getting the OK from the wife to get a bigger tank is clearly strategic placement of corals. After a year or two, if placed in a suitable location, they'll start to encroach on the sides of the tank. So now when I show the wife that efflo, I say that poor coral is going to grow into the glass unless I get a wider tank. Checkmate. |
Hey man did u get alot of those corals from Dreef
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Hey Mike, it's actually the other way around. Dreef got alot of those corals from me. There is the odd one in the tank that came from him but they are just frags at the moment. I have a few A. millepora colonies that I grew out from him and a nice A. convexa but I didn't snap any pics of them this last go round.
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Now that 2012 has come and gone, I figured I'd try and update my thread a bit more regularily than I did in the previous year seeing as I only made 1 or 2 posts.
Since the family was going to be out of town for 5-6 days in a row for Christmas, I was getting my tank prepared to run fully automated for such a long duration as in the past I've always had a friend swing by to check up on the tank while we were away. I upgraded my auto top off reservoir from a 6 gallon instant ocean bucket (which would last for 2-3 days) to a 15 gallon food grade plastic barrel that just barely fit inside of my stand. Sadly I forgot to snap a pic of the new setup but it's looking like I can now go 7-8 days without needing to refill the reservoir. I fed the fish a 1/2 sheet of nori and setup my Rena automatic feeder so that they would continue to be fed while we were away. I then went upstairs to pack myself for the trip. An hour later I went back downstairs to do one final check on the tank only to be greeted by the aroma of burning plastic. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps422c820b.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psd57255a4.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psf77a409b.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps2bb5ed99.jpg It seems the laws of physics defied themselves (quite typical in this hobby for some reason) as saltwater from the tank had managed to auto-siphon itself over my 3/4" thick eurobrace, run down the end pane of the aquarium and slowly drip directly on top of both of my vortech wireless wave drivers that were screwed to the inside of my stand. I'm still a bit baffled by how this managed to happen but the only scenario that I can come up with is that there was a small puddle of water left on top of my eurobrace by the PVC nori feeder tube that I had just used. When my wavebox fires, the water level in the aquarium rises up ~3/4" to just touch the bottom of the eurobrace, which conveniently has a 1" hole cut in the corner for running cables or PVC pipe through. Somehow the small puddle of water sitting on top of the eurobrace must have wicked up additional saltwater each time the wavebox fired through the hole in the 3/4" thick eurobrace until the point where it started to drip down over the end pane of the aquarium. I'm sure this would be impossible to replicate again if I tried but either way, I'm just glad we hadn't left the house yet as I'm sure there would have been a fire. In the past, I had also burnt out a wireless wave driver when a friend of mine had come over to help my wife take apart my return pump while I was away at work. The return pump failed to fire up again after a power outage causing a small scale flood (when my siphon breaks in the return line failed to do their jobs). My friend accidentally spilled some make up saltwater down the end pane of the tank and it dripped into one of my vortech drivers causing it to malfunction and not work correctly afterwards. Seeing as this was the 2nd time it happened, I now have revised the way I mount these drivers to the inside of the stand. Before they were screwed directly to the wood on the end of my stand. And here is my solution to hopefully prevent this from ever happening again. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps88c3d0b6.jpg I used 3/16" foam spacers meant for protecting flooring from chair/table legs so now if water ever spills or drips down the end pane of my aquarium, the water should run behind the drivers and end up in the base of my stand which is sealed and can hold ~10 gallons of water. On a related matter, if anyone has upgraded to the Ecosmart drivers and still has their wireless wave drivers kicking around, I'm going to be needing a new one as I only had 1 spare and 2 drivers were damaged by this little incident. |
That sux bud you do know I'm only a phone call away if you need a tank sitter. I am glad you fought it in time
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If it helps I have two huge extinguishers I can bring with me
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Lol well I hope you at least had a good vacation.
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So I got in on a few black friday bargains from an American retailer and decided to get myself a much needed christmas present.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psd50ee22e.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psa1cb571f.jpg And why, may you ask, is this a much needed item? See exhibit A below: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps817450ce.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps51c57d03.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps70a0b6c0.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psb2d52f45.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psfcf96f14.jpg I work out of town for ~24+ days a month and when I'm home I typically don't have enough time to do all of the maintenance I'd like to on my reef tank. Combine this with the fact that it's a real PITA to remove my skimmer cup from my very cramped sump and you have a formula for a very gross and poorly performing skimmer. Here are the pics of the Vectra installed on my Alpha 250 cone skimmer: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps84e0ecd1.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps4c3f94f1.jpg And here is the collection cup after only running for 5 days with the neck cleaner installed: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps3d5902cd.jpg Since I've had the Vectra installed for ~3 weeks now, I can say that this was definatley a worthwhile investment. I purchased this product primarily to cut down the amount of maintenance required and didn't really expect to see that much of a difference in the performance of the skimmer. However I was pleasantly surprised by how much more skimmate I'm now getting with the Vectra in place. I'd estimate that I'm now producing 20 - 30% more skimmate per week than I was prior to installing the Vectra. Currently I have the Vectra running at 1 minute intervals twice per day and that seems to be doing the trick although I may add in a 3rd or 4th interval as well to see if it makes any difference on skimmate production. I did shoot a short video of the Vectra in action but since I'm on satellite internet out at work, I wasn't able to upload the video (I'll try to get it uploaded on my next shift at home). What I wanted to illustrate with the video was how the Vectra has basically no effect on the foam head inside of the skimmer body when it's operating. I had expected the foam head to collapse similar to when I add food or work with my bare hands in the aquarium. This is not the case. Directly behind the wiper blade, larger bubbles end up forming as the blade wipes the skimmer neck clean and then seconds later they are replaced by the same small to micro sized bubbles that are more typical of a needlwheel driven skimmer. As with every Vertex product I've ever owned, build quality on this unit screams qualilty. Packaging was very modern and effective at protecting the unit from damage while in transit. My only complaint with this unit is that it does not have an integrated timer and I had to go out and drop another $15 on a digital timer in order to get this unit up and running. This is a very common complaint on this unit and the folks over at Vertex say they left out an integrated timer purposely so that hobbyists could integrate the Vectra more easily with their reef controllers. I personally do not own a reef controller and even if I did, I'd rather this unit have its own integrated timer anyway so that I wouldn't have to waste one of the precious few outlets on the power bars for the Vectra. Either way, this is the only shortcoming that the Vectra has IMO and this seems very minor in comparison to the solid build quality and benefits of running the Vectra. |
"I have a mind-blowing SPS tank which I usually don't have enough time to perform general maintenance on".
You sir... suck :biggrin: |
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The mind-blowingness of the system however, is sadly at an all time low right now. Hopefully I can get everything back on track here within the next few months with some diligent water changes as well as a few other measures I'm taking to test their claimed effectiveness. Luckily I didn't lose too many pieces from the pseudo-crash and just need to get them to color back up to their full potential. Most of the pieces I did lose are also replaceable as I had given frags to the only other hard core SPS addict in southern Saskatchistan. |
Did you compare the Vectra against the Avast unit at all? I'm curious, I'd like to try one someday as well and the two seem similarly priced.
One idea I had if I ever get ambitious and energetic enough was to put a cleaner head on my skimmer and see if I could also attach a mist nozzle attached to a pump on the RO/DI reservoir doing the top up. Get a wipe AND a spray-down kind of thing .. but maybe the squeegee does a good enough job on its own? |
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Thats a pretty slick idea using a spray nozzle and pump to help aid the cleaning process. When I first heard of these neck cleaners, I assumed they would have had hardware in place to do just what you described so I was a bit dissapointed that they were simply a motorized squeegee. The trick to pulling off such a design would be running the hose to the spray nozzle if it were mounted on the wiper blade arm. You'd have to figure out how to get around the hose getting wrapped up as the wiper arm rotates. You could just mount the spray nozzle protruding just below the inner lid of collection cup so that it sprays the entire skimmer neck I guess but this wouldn't be as effective. However, I'm not sure that a spray down would be necessary or even help the cleaning process at all. It seems the foam head inside of the skimmer neck keeps the surface of the neck continuously wet. When the wiper blade makes its rounds, it removes most of the grime on the surface and after each pass, the rising foam column cleans off any loosened gunk that the wiper blade may have missed. If the foam head were to collapse shortly after the wiper blade started moving, then I could definately see a mist of freshwater aiding the cleaning process but this is not the case. I'm also running the wiper blade for 1 minute intervals twice a day so the wiper blade goes around 6 or 7 times per cycle. After each run cycle, the skimmer neck appears just as clean as if I had gone over it with a scrubber so I'm happy enough with how this unit performs without the use of an added fresh water mist. |
I'm not sure it's made anymore but the AquaDriver units had water nozzles:
http://reefbuilders.com/2009/07/31/a...m-custom-nice/ They also cost as much as the skimmer lol. |
Cool, thanks Stones, yeah I agree Vertex seems pretty top notch on all their other things too. I'm still sort of tempted to consider Avast because I'd probably get one of their waste collector buckets (with a skimmer shutdown relay? Boo yah!)
Brett - Oh wow, neat, it almost looks like that would spray down into the cup area. I didn't even think of that but man would that make for a nice feature. |
Next thing you guys will want is the fish to be potty trained lol.. Cool stuff tho I've thought of the skimmer cleaner but now I won't have the room to fit it
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Posted this pic at the beginning of the build but it shows how I added a 2 way shutdown relay to my skimmer. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...b/IMG_6477.jpg This way if the sump level rises above the level where I have float switch #2 or if the skimmer collection cup gets full it triggers float swith #1. If either switch is engaged, power is cut to the skimmer pump until the float drops back down. This way, I'm protected against power outages where the sump level rises by ~6" or if I add something to my tank like 2 part epoxy that makes the skimmer go crazy for a day or two the skimmer also shuts down when the collection cup is full. |
Not sure if you have an Apex, but if you do, you can use it to have your skimmer come on 5 min after your return pump following a power outage. Also similar to your float switch relay, you can use the Apex with a water sensor to shut down your skimmer when it overflows. I use this DIY sensor with my Apex (which can recognize an off/on switch event) to shut off pumps. It could be taped to the outside of your skimmer cup. Or use your float switch inside with the Apex (no relay needed). Just some alternatives...
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psf87f6810.jpg |
Thanks for the advice Reef Pilot but I do not own a reef controller at this time. I think you have the option to shut down your skimmer after a power outage on pretty much all of the major brands of controllers now whether it be via timer, sensor or float switch.
As stated earlier, this feature has saved me multiple times from having to shop vac my aquarium stand after it gets blasted with gross skimmer foam following a power outage. Depending on how long its been since I drained my collection cup, it also prevents all of the skimmate from flowing back into my sump and contaminating the system with a concentrated shot of nutrients. |
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I also had a hose pop off a return pump outlet (wasn't using a clamp) once when I was adjusting flow with a ball valve. Water shot right up to the ceiling of my sump room. Luckily I was right there, but I still got soaked and lots of water on the floor before I found the right plug to pull. That's what inspired me to use a water sensor to instantly shut off my pumps... BTW, you could use my DIY water sensor (nails and solder) with a relay too (without a controller), to stop a pump. It acts like a closed switch as soon as the paper towel sucks up some water. Works on RO/DI water just as well as salt water. |
So in order to help combat my nitrate issues and to hopefully prevent further instances from happening, I decided to give a new product a try about 8 weeks ago.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psbef84a1c.jpg I've never used any of the Brightwell products before but their price point was much more competitve than probidio or zeovit so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm not running their full blow zeolith system but simply using a combination of the Xport-NO3 media and MB7 dosing to keep the beneficial bacterial populations well stocked and diversified. I also picked up some amino acids to dose as well as some marine snow as I've heard that it can help prevent cyano. Here is a close up of what the Xport-NO3 media looks like. First thing I thought of was that they look almost exactly like the bite size mini wheats. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps42e0fbe3.jpg Prior to ordering, I wasn't exactly sure whether or not this media acted like a sponge and absorbed nitrate from the water column or if it was simply an inert substrate meant to be colonized by beneficial bacteria as their product description is a bit ambigious. After seeing the product in person, I'm assuming it's just an inert substate with tons of surface area for bacteria to colonize. However, there are these little yellow "chunks" embedded into the media as well which I'm assuming may be some sort of bioplastic used as a food source for the bacteria. Prior to first use, you are required to "seed" the media with a mixture of tank water and microbacter7 for 24 hours. After this has been completed, you can then add the media to a filter bag or reactor. Here is the media inside the reactor downstream of my carbon and GFO. You can sort of see the yellow chunks I was speaking of earlier in this pic. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps47d3d7e2.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps005b17fa.jpg The product instructions also state to replace a 25% of the media every 3-4 months which doesn't make much sense to me if it is simply meant as a substrate for bacterial colonization. If for some reason, nitrate levels do not seem to be dropping after a few weeks, Brightwell also recommends adding a carbon food source for the bacteria which they offer in the form of Katalyst (biopellets which I'm assuming should be run inline prior to the Xport NO3 media) or Reef Biofuel (liquified bioplastic similar to Instant Ocean Nitrate Reducer). After running the Xport NO3 for ~8 weeks and dosing the MB7 whenever I'm home from work (at least once per 10 days) I have noticed a substantial difference in the health of my corals as well as nitrate level in my system. Prior to running this product, I was using only biopellets and despite this, I was still getting readings of 10-20 ppm nitrate using a titration based test kit. The test kit was very expired however and my other test kit usually showed nitrate levels <10 ppm. Now I'm reading zero on both test kits and the SPS are all starting to show signs of color darkening. Hopefully after a few more months, their color will recover to the extent they were prior to the tank crash last April. |
Quick update, tank is back down to zero nitrates and phosphates thanks to a combination of microbacter 7, Brightwell Xport NO3 and biopellets.
Cleaned the glass and everything was looking so good I had to snap a few pics. I'm still having major issues getting the white balance set correctly as the blues and purples in the pictures are not nearly as dark or intense as they are in person. I tried using a piece of grey rock in the tank to balance the WB but 99% of my rock is deep purple from corralline. Does anyone use a piece of white or grey plastic that they can submerge in the tank to set their WB? I need to figure out a way to get the WB set consistently so I don't have to waste half my time fighting with it before finally settling on a mediochore result and snapping some pics. Cali tort http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps9f0b07f9.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...pseef5df0e.jpg Rainbow monti http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...pscebb4ba8.jpg FAL mystery Millepora http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps1a424c4f.jpg Efflo http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps0bab9e3c.jpg Unknown tabler. Anyone have an idea on species? http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps473d3e2a.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps30af3c4c.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps9b07eb8d.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...ps14433708.jpg Another mystery FAL frag http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...psc2e4ad55.jpg |
Nice. Looking good man.
Your mystery tabler looks like a Loripes to me. Also, your mystery millepora looks like a "sunset" or "christmas" millepora. |
What's FAL stand for? Glad you've gotten things under control! Those colonies are just huge nice work.
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