KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[michika]

Please do! I want to make sure whatever is happening in my tank won't happen again, or will stop happening. I am so clueless, 3 dead fish in 3 days, 2 with unknown causes of death.

[JDigital]

Ohhh horrible news!! I'm sorry to hear about your losses.. I really hope your luck changes QUICK and you figure out whats going on!

[Delphinus]

No, indeed 22ppm NO3 won't do that, even 35ppm won't, but I thought I would caution about 35ppm because the last thing one needs now is to start noticing the SPS letting go (35ppm is way too high for SPS, IMHO). 21ppm is definitely a lot better than 35ppm though, I would not bother with the test kits if you're using the monitor. Just have plenty of calibration fluid on hand, I find if I get unexpected readings (or readings that don't make sense), I guess over time that stuff just contaminates to slightly different nitrate levels, so I switch to a new batch of calibration (I use refill the little bottles with the big ones) and it seems to normalize.

[michika]

I try to calibrate the monitor every few months when I remember.

Today's readings, I'm just including the red flag ones from yesterday;
dKH 5, dropped by 1pt
Ca 350, went up 5ppm
Nitrate 11/10 went down by 10 or 11 pts with the WC, tested with monitor
phosphates; 1st test 0.01, second test 0.17. I'm taking the second reading as valid.

I dosed for Ca yesterday, and dKH today, but I guess its not doing much so far. I am going to go ahead and do that other 25g WC tomorrow. The water change we did yesterday was about 1/8 of the total water volume.

I've never really battled nitrates before. I've read some serious accounts of some brutal battles, but I've never had one myself. I think the highest I've ever had for nitrates is about 30ppm in any tank I've had.

I'm hoping one more WC will bring phosphates and nitrates quite close to 0. With the Ca reactor online I'm hoping dKH will slowly start to rise to the 8/9 dKH I like to see. Once I start to have to top off again via my kalk. reactor I'll start to see the Ca. rise to the 400/420 mark I tend to keep my tanks at.

[Delphinus]

I'll have to check my instructions to be 100% sure, but I swear I remember reading that you're supposed to calibrate the monitor for every use. I know if I don't, I will not get steady readings from day to day.

[michika]

That would be great if you could check. My monitor came second hand with no instructions.

[Delphinus]

Found them online - http://www.americanmarineusa.com/NO3monitor.html

Sort of buried near the bottom it says "Calibration is recommended before each measurement."

I'm not sure if anyone local has any, but you can MO new calibration fluid from J&L. Probably wouldn't hurt to have some extra onhand. I find the calibration fluid only lasts so long before it seems to drift. I would think that the residue of the 1ppm fluid would eventually start to pull down the 10ppm fluid. (Having said that I seem to get a few months out of each, so the stuff lasts forever anyhow.)

[michika]

If I had anymore towels I would be considering throwing them in...

The power went out. So I watched the rubbermaid sump almost overflow. Then I shut the gate valve to keep most of the water in tank and to prevent the aformentioned overflow. It worked and was working when I was called to the manager's office about a problem in our condo. I came back and the sump overflowed, its all over the carpet, and in the bottom of the stand. This is not my day! Oh yes, and I argued very strongly for sealing the bottom of the stand, but was told to just put it off until we put the glass sump in...should have gone with my gut instinct.

*Edit for more info*
Post mess photo;
- most of the water on the ground has been soaked up
- dried out the stand as much as possible, I think there is water under the rubbermaid.
- have the fan blowing on the carpet and the stand.

Found out why it overflowed;
- too much water in the system, overtopped off from the water change.
- I thought the gate valve was shut, but I guess it has a sticky point about 3/4s of the way closed. It felt tight and closed, but it wasn't.

Good things! (This is my favorite part!)
- Emergency back up worked great, koralia 1 kicked on with no problems.
- Lights and everything else came back online automatically (except the pump which I shut off manually)
- Everything in the tank looks no worse for wear.
- Power was out for a total of 45 minutes, and aside from my error, and the fact that the tank was over filled with water, I think an extended power outtage would be quite easy to handle for the tank.

I couldn't find the flashlight in the dark in our catchall drawer so I had to use the flash of the camera to tell me how full the sump was.


After the clean up;


More good news is that the new top plate for the Ca. reactor is done. It needs to be cleaned but I think it just needs to be washed and assembled before going online tonight.