144G Half Circle Mixed Reef

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by JDigital

If I remember right (I did help carry it to her car) its a 40x12x18 or something.. so definitely bigger than a 20G.

An easy fix would be to downgrade your return pump to something less powerful. Slowing the rate at which the water flows through the sump should also help in stopping/reducing any bubbles that may be rolling over your last baffle. I think I only had 5-6x turnover on my 105 with a baffle-less sump w/ Skimmer and never saw a single bubble and my return was 100% hard plumbing. On my 75 I was running 16x turnover with a baffle system and always had some amount of micro-bubbles, just not bad enough to bother me. That is just my opinion though. I am Pro-low-sump-flow. Others disagree and are Pro-High-Flow claiming it provides more filtation and oxygenation, but a skimmer can only process so much water.

Your tank is looking fantastic right now though Carmen. Great photo of the fish.

Pretty good memory there Josh!

My question as I put to Tony is...then shouldn't the bubbles improve if I turn down the return valves? If I used a less powerful pump, wouldn't that do the same?

Thanks on the compliment! Startin to fill up slowly but surely...
A very easy fish to photograph!! He poses as though he loves it!

[Argentiner]

Tank looks great Carmen. Really starting to fill out. Love that tile fish.

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by Argentiner

Tank looks great Carmen. Really starting to fill out. Love that tile fish.

Thanks Scott!

[Delphinus]

Your feeding does not sound excessive to me. I'm sorry that the nitrates aren't going down.

Are you using RO/DI or tap? I'm actually having some pretty bad nitrate (and for the first time ever) phosphate buildups. I use RO/DI for my SW but I wonder if the membrane is going and maybe it's a spring runoff issue? My FW tank is just raw tapwater and it's off the charts all of a sudden, which you'd think wouldn't be possible with the amount of plants in there (well, now algae ). So I was thinking I might test my source water tomorrow and see if that could be an explanation.

We're on different reservoirs but it stands to reason if spring runoff is starting that both the Elbow and Bow river water systems could be having issues?

Wonder if anyone else is noticing more NO3 and/or PO4 all of a sudden lately?

[Carmen]

Well tank stuff had been put on the back burner for the last week or so. My daughter was very ill and in and out of the Emergency all last week for a severe stomach flu/infection. She was severely dehydrated and required IV and such, however we all survived! What a week! Now I am running around in a panic trying to pack for Mexico tomorrow!

So...the tank issues continue. Nitrates still high..., still bubbly...(But improved since I added a filter sock and raised the sump water level even more), and suddenly a new concern.......yesterday while trying to hook up my new RO/DI unit, the power dies to the tank!!!!!! Ah, OMG! WTF??? No tripped breaker??? Finally found a tripped GFI upstairs that runs in the same circiut???????? So we have no clue why it suddenly tripped or that it was even on the same circuit! (No one was even in the house using power when it tripped!) So.......no time to get an electrician in before we leave but we are concerned that I have overloaded the circuit or something so I have extension cords running all across my basement to disburse the electricity to the tank to different circuits?????????? Electrician will be in to check it out while we are away. (These things always happen right before holidays right!)

Anyway........I shall be sunnin on a beach tomorrow! (and chasin two kids)
The tank saga will continue when I return..............

[Delphinus]

Yikes. What a week. Hope your vacation is awesome. Things will be fine. It is always most hectic just before you go.

How are you measuring your nitrates? Is it possible you're getting bad readings? Have you tried another test kit (borrow one from somewhere/someone maybe?)

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Yikes. What a week. Hope your vacation is awesome. Things will be fine. It is always most hectic just before you go.

How are you measuring your nitrates? Is it possible you're getting bad readings? Have you tried another test kit (borrow one from somewhere/someone maybe?)

ya she has double checked a couple times with the test kit at work.....still high......lentils may not have been tumbling as much as they needed to be......sorry for jumping in Girly

your guy has a couple really good numbers to phone if anything happens ( Im sure all will be cool.....cept maybe in Mehico)

Have Fun Girly!