Reef Pilot's Undersea Oasis

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Bugger

What are your feeling towards adding sand and scrapping the back glass?

It's an acrylic tank, and very hard to keep clean. Only do the front and sides. Need to get a plastic scraper out every couple months (or sooner) to clean off the coralline. Plus it is getting very tight in there with my SPS. I have a small amount of sand, which tends to be blown bare in the middle by the pumps.

My downstairs tank is glass, and very easy to clean.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by Slyguy00

Why? I think it looks great walter!

Thanks, you are very kind. Just trying to make it through the summer without too much change or effort. Then in the fall, plan to rescape it, and relocate a lot of the corals.

[Reef Pilot]

Well, I knew it was going to be tough summer for my tanks, with my being gone from home (flying and at our lake cabin) a lot. But it was a lot worse than I had bargained for.

I also had a bad start going into the summer, struggling to get my phosphates down, and a jump in my nitrates when I foolishly disconnected my bio pellet reactor a few months earlier. SPS growth and colour were already suffering.

Then with my being gone so much, my KH got out of hand. I usually keep it pretty steady around 8. I would get home occasionally for a day or two, and I noticed that it was dropping to 7 and lower. So, as I've done many times before, I just dialed up the doser, and thought it would be OK. Not so, came home a week later, and it was below 6. That sure didn't make a lot of sense. Meanwhile my Ca jumped up to about 480 and had to reduce that doser. I finally had time to have a closer look, and to my chagrin, I found the KH doser line plugged at the water end. I guess I had not cleaned it for some time...

Shortly after I also changed my doser KH container with a new mix of bicarbonate. I set the doser to what I thought would bring the KH back up to what it should be, and had to leave again for a few days. When I came home again, the KH was over 9, in just 3 days. I knew that wasn't good, and have been making more doser adjustments ever since until I now have it back to about 8, where I want it.

But the damage is done. Many of my SPS are not looking very good, and lost a few of my prize colonies. What's bad, too, is that my Pearlscale Butterfly fish decided to add SPS to his diet. Up to now (for the last 4 years), he only ate aiptasia and left my other corals alone. But I guess with my being gone a lot (fish don't get fed in my absence) he got hungry and would nip (more like fleece) any SPS that was suffering. He seems to leave the healthy ones alone, or at least I hope he is. In any case, many of my SPS have taken a real beating, with some full casualties. I just hope all is not lost and most will recover now as I get my water parameters back under control.

The Good:
Orange Digi frags and colonies none the worse for wear.


Hawkins Echinta has been through a lot, but still alive.


Strawberry Shortcake not growing much but still hanging on.


Birdnest seem to be able survive anything.


Pearlberry OK, although not doing great.


Some of my Valida is OK.



Green Bali is OK.


Red Planet lost some color, but is OK.


Setosa hanging in there.


Bonsai Valida fighting with mushrooms.


Also have a bunch of softies and LPS (no pics) that seemed to not have been affected at all. Mushrooms, frogspawn, leathers, bubble corals, and palys still growing like weeds.

The Bad:

Lost a beautiful Cali Tort.


This one went early on. It was a rare Icefields Tenius. Also lost my Blue Tipped Tenuis (that used to grow like a weed). These were once very beautiful corals.


Another favorite barely hanging on.


I think this one could be toast. It was a very nice Tri-color Nana.


Burnt tips on this Purple Valida.


There is more I could show, but it is getting a little depressing...

The Ugly:

Wasn't able to clean the front of my acrylic tank often enough...


No shortage of algae.


Pumps need a cleaning really bad.


So there you have it. This is definitely the worst my tank has been in a couple years. It is amazing how quickly it went downhill. My intention was to redo my aquascape this fall, and still want to do it. But my first priority will be to get my tank healthy again, and the SPS growing again. That will probably take a couple months. After that, will try do a rescape.

I can sure see why people quit this hobby. Having said that, am a long way from considering that. But it definitely is a major set-back for me. Hopefully, I can get it looking good again. I think I learned a few more lessons, too. Biggest one is, don't let your KH get out of hand.

[MitchM]

With your reef keeping skills, Reef Pilot, you should have the tank looking great again.

Do you not have any remote access to your your tank while you're gone?
(webcam, controller access?)

[Reef Pilot]

Thanks, I hope I can get it back, and will work hard at it. Won't be away as much now, so will have more time to put into it.

I do have internet access to both my Apex and a webcam. Problem is I was often in the boonies, with no internet access. And at our lake cabin (Harrison) reception is marginal, so I wasn't looking at my webcam.

But really can't tell that much from the webcam, just good to see the fish swimming around. Mostly just able to monitor power and temp with my Apex (biggest fear is always a power outage). I did make it home from time to time, but didn't have the time to do any major maintenance.

Good news, is that my fish are as healthy as can be.

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

...Mostly just able to monitor power and temp with my Apex (biggest fear is always a power outage). ...

Have you thought of a whole house generator?
Generac makes some dependable units. I put in one that was a pretty straight forward installation.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by MitchM

Have you thought of a whole house generator?
Generac makes some dependable units. I put in one that was a pretty straight forward installation.

Not really, or at least not an automatic one. We don't really get a lot of outages, mostly just in late fall if we get a big wind storm. If I am home, no problem, as I do have battery back-ups that are good for a day or so. I also do have a diesel generator, but never had to use it.

Not sure I would want an auto generator running at my house when I am not home.

[MitchM]

I thought the same way and wasn't comfortable with it until I was home during a few power outages.
Now I don't give power outages a second thought.
Also, at my location, outages have lasted for a couple of days.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by MitchM

I thought the same way and wasn't comfortable with it until I was home during a few power outages.
Now I don't give power outages a second thought.
Also, at my location, outages have lasted for a couple of days.

Do you have a fully automatic cut-over to your generator back-up that will function when you are not home (and can't get home for a week)? And how much did all this cost?

[MitchM]

Yes, the generator cuts in about 10 seconds after the main power supply fails and switches off about 30 seconds after the power supply is restored.
The generator switches on every 7 days for a 10 minute period to perform maintenance checks. All automatic.
The size of mine is 13KW on natural gas. (14KW on propane) I have ours directly plumbed to natural gas.

The cost for it hooked up 6 years ago was about $4,000.