KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hah! 6 degrees from the equator is WAY too hot and humid for me to permanently settle down. Heck, last night in Calgary was way too hot for me. *sigh*

I followed a thread on Zeovit.com where several people gave their systems an hour of dark during the day to disrupt the photosynthetic cycle of the algaes growing in their tanks (this will be in ridiculous layman's terms, but apparently photosynthesis begins after so much time in light, and by turning the lights off, you're re-starting that process...or something). I thought it was interesting, so I did it. Why not?

Originally Posted by Delphinus

You're living your life totally upside-down compared to me. I want to retire away from Calgary and live 6 degrees from the equator (I'll even be happy with 7!!), not first live there and then retire to Calgary.

Interesting idea about the lights off for an hour. What's your reckoning behind that one, a storm? Just a break for things to keep things from overheating? (All of the above? / Insert other reasons here? / etc.?)

[michika]

Nice idea! I think I may want to do something like that when my T5s arrive.


So the tank has been running since May 11th, technically its had water in it since then. We have been topping up, but have not yet performed a water change. I try not to do a water change in the first month of setting up a new tank or transfering new livestock from one system to another. It just seems to help things along better. I do however change the water sooner if the chemistry tells me to.

Anyways so these are my pre water change numbers for today. I'm guessing that the total water volume right now is 200g.
Temp 79
SG 1.025
pH 8.1
Nitrate 35! Thursday was 19
Ca 345, Thursday was 400
dKH 6 Thursday was 8
Mg 1260, 1280 on Thursday

I've adjusted the kalk. reactor by adjusting the mixing pump and re-filling it with kalk. powder. I feel kind of dumb because I'm still on auto pilot and dosed the levels I used to do for my 28g long.

Ca reactor is going online ASAP. I'll dose with a powder when I do the water change while we wait for the reactor's plumbing glue to dry. Mg is okay, a few points lower then I want, so I will probably dose for it as well.

Off to do the tanks first water change! I have 55g of water to swap out!

[michika]

Something is wrong in my tank.

The lights just came on and my imperator angel is dead. Crabs haven't gotten to it yet, so it was a recent death. No cutes, sores, or wounds on the corpse. Imperator ate yesterday, and everything was normal. What should i be looking at to try and determine a COD? I could already see some of the colours fading when I pulled it out.

Ozonizer should be here any day now, and I hope that day is sooner then later. I'm not adding any more fish to this system until its here and running. I'm seriously debating not adding anymore fish at all until I've passed the 6 month mark with the ones I have. Maybe just some additional clean up crew members.

[Delphinus]

Ouch, that sucks Sorry to hear it and good luck with things.

And not that you have enough to worry about (and I don't think it's the cause of the fish deaths), but nitrates at 35ppm is definitely something you also want to look at. (It could just be the fish feeding.) You may want to look into sugar, or sugar/vodka/vinegar dosing as a temporary stop gap measure (be careful not to overdo it, the sudden reduction in nitrates can shock things - also if you dose too much sugar your tank will go cloudy with a bacterial bloom).

[michika]

Crap...I forgot to update this thread...I have 3 nitrate tests, 1 pinpoint monitor and two different brands of traditional test kits. I tested the water with the test kit and it gave me the 35ppm reading. When I tested with the pinpoint monitor I got 22ppm. I re-calibrated the monitor and got 21ppm. We are believing the monitor.

I did that water change yesterday, so I'm going to check the levels in the tank for today, and possibly do a second change tomorrow.

Nitrate levels are definitely the product of some seriously heavy feeding over the weekend, and possibly the death of the powder grey. I know the powder grey was eaten over the course of the 8 hour night, but still 8 hours is a long time.

I'm tired of this though, I just want a nice tank again with fish that thrive and don't die. I think I'm asking too much lately.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Oh no I'm really sorry....I didn't think Nitrates at 22 ppm could kill fish like that?

I'll hold on the Regal. No hurries.

[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.