Darth_Tater's 40 Breeder

[Darth_Tater]

Originally Posted by Sully72

OMG! What happened....Nitrates!!

You've found the frustrating part! I've never measured a detectable amount of nitrates in this tank! The algae IS slowing down though, and hopefully the fuge I'm getting ready to build will help. I need this hair algae gone so I can get some Acros growing!

Speaking of Acros, I took my skimmer offline a few days ago and the colors on my Birdsnests and Green Slimer went nuts! Super bright green on the Slimer, and the purple polyps and green tissue on the Bird of Paradise is much brighter than it's been in a long time.

[golferbud101691]

you could deploy a sea hare to help you with the gha. the reason you're not getting any phosphate in the test is because the gha is consuming it before it will read on the test. I bet your rocks are still leaching phosphate. only problem is a sea hare will make your nitrates go up. you will need a good snail crew after you get the gha under control to help you keep it there or just the right amount of gfo.

[Devaji108]

take is coming along nicely once the HA is finished its gonna be a good looking beauty!

what rocks did you use? I bet there po4 leaching out of them and the HA is feeding on that.
that the only possible way i see to have such low reading and a tank full of HA.

I still would run an ATS never more so now that your skimmer is off line. you can DIY one for pretty cheap.

I am also be setting up a 20L macro. but it will not be connected to the main DT.
I think thats a great idea.
used different rock or and cure it really good. I the problem i see if there connected is that the HA might spread to that take to. but if it lower in po4 it should stay where there is food.

hopefully what ever is feeding the HA will run out of fuel soon.

[Darth_Tater]

I agree that the Phosphate is coming from the rocks. I have tested the PO4 a couple days after doing a massive algae harvest and it still reads 0 ppt. I used dry rock and sand for this tank. The thought process was that it was my first saltwater tank and I wanted to have lots of time to aquascape and get things right.

I have some sand and about 10-15 lbs of rock in my sump I was planning on putting into the new fuge. Since the light has been off in the sump all of the algae that was down there has gone away, so hopefully it will stay away. I don't know, I'd like to get some Tampa Bay Live Rock but I can't justify the shipping price for less than 20 lbs.

Anyways, the 20 gallon tank is now empty! I need to clean it up and drill the holes in the glass and plumb it. Hopefully I can get it running this weekend.

[Darth_Tater]

Got the tank all cleaned up. Looks good as new! Well, except for some grass on the outside... It's amazing what a little vinegar will do to hard nasty algae and hard water spots.

I'll get it drilled sometime this week and hopefully be able to plumb it this weekend.

[Darth_Tater]

So in the thread I started in the DIY section for plumbing this thing, blowmecius gave me a great idea for preventing airlocks in the return lines for this remote fuge. I think I'm going to modify it though for simplicity.

In the top of the "upside down U" where the lines will go from the floor up over the top of the sump, I think I will simply drill a hole at the top of the "U" pointing into the sump. Water will permanently flow out of it into the sump (but so will any air that happens to get trapped in the return line). I believe the return pressure will be low enough that water will more seep out instead of spit out of those lines if I make them the right size, so that there won't be splashing saltwater all over.

Edit: Well, slight change of plans. It just dawned on me that if I don't use an overflow the water level will be unacceptably low. So I'll have to find and order an overflow and wait for it to get here before drilling.

[mgoulding]

Looking good

[Darth_Tater]

Originally Posted by mgoulding

Looking good

Thanks! It's a slow work in progress, but most reef tanks are it seems (at least the semi-successful ones).

So last week I got fed up with my skimmer spewing water all over my living room and shut it off. Over the weekend my Kole Tang developed a white "spot" (spot isn't the right word, because it makes you think Ich and it was more fungus looking than Ich looking). It also seemed kinda sluggish and not as active.

I figured the skimmer must have been pulling more out of the water than I realized, so I turned it back on a couple days ago. It has been skimming extremely dry (almost no skimmate in 3 days) and the stuff it has pulled out hasn't been very dark colored at all. HOWEVER, all the fish seem much more active and the "spot" on the Tang's fin is now gone. Apparently my tank does not have enough gas exchange without the skimmer.

This discovery is not very encouraging since I was planning on turning the skimmer off once I got macro algae for the display fuge to provide them more nutrients. Oh, and the skimmer is LOUD. I didn't realize it until turning it off for a week and then back on. Of course I live by myself so the only other noise in the house is noise I make, so I'm comparing the loud skimmer to silence, but still! I will try turning the skimmer off again once the macro algaes get established to see if they will provide enough oxygen, but I'm not too optimistic.

Speaking of the display fuge, I figured out the lighting. I'm not going to use the FugeRay because I remembered I have a DIY LED lighting fixture sitting around gathering dust. It has 14 3W Cree LEDs on it. Over a 12" deep tank with 4" of sand in it, those algaes won't know what hit them! The driver is dimmable, so I'll start it out at probably 20%-30% and see how it goes. This is also good news because I can get the softy corals out of the display that I can't sell because they're attached to rocks with some algae on them. The softies are spreading and it's only a matter of time before they get out of hand.

[mgoulding]

Originally Posted by Darth_Tater

Thanks! It's a slow work in progress, but most reef tanks are it seems (at least the semi-successful ones).



So last week I got fed up with my skimmer spewing water all over my living room and shut it off. Over the weekend my Kole Tang developed a white "spot" (spot isn't the right word, because it makes you think Ich and it was more fungus looking than Ich looking). It also seemed kinda sluggish and not as active.



I figured the skimmer must have been pulling more out of the water than I realized, so I turned it back on a couple days ago. It has been skimming extremely dry (almost no skimmate in 3 days) and the stuff it has pulled out hasn't been very dark colored at all. HOWEVER, all the fish seem much more active and the "spot" on the Tang's fin is now gone. Apparently my tank does not have enough gas exchange without the skimmer.



This discovery is not very encouraging since I was planning on turning the skimmer off once I got macro algae for the display fuge to provide them more nutrients. Oh, and the skimmer is LOUD. I didn't realize it until turning it off for a week and then back on. Of course I live by myself so the only other noise in the house is noise I make, so I'm comparing the loud skimmer to silence, but still! I will try turning the skimmer off again once the macro algaes get established to see if they will provide enough oxygen, but I'm not too optimistic.



Speaking of the display fuge, I figured out the lighting. I'm not going to use the FugeRay because I remembered I have a DIY LED lighting fixture sitting around gathering dust. It has 14 3W Cree LEDs on it. Over a 12" deep tank with 4" of sand in it, those algaes won't know what hit them! The driver is dimmable, so I'll start it out at probably 20%-30% and see how it goes. This is also good news because I can get the softy corals out of the display that I can't sell because they're attached to rocks with some algae on them. The softies are spreading and it's only a matter of time before they get out of hand.

Sounds great. Do you have any updated pictures? How heavy is your bio load? Not running a skimmer is dicey at best.

[Darth_Tater]

I have a small Yellow Eye Kole Tang and 8 tiny Red Spot Glass Cardinals. They only reach about 2" maximum and are about the size and shape of large Neon Tetras, but with much larger eyes and MUCH larger mouths! I would say it's very little bio load.

I'll take some pictures sometime. I haven't posted any recently because there's a new algae I've got on my glass that won't come off. It's kinda like coralline, but much harder to get off and almost clear. My magnet scraper won't touch it. I'll order a scraper when I finally break down and order new T5 bulbs.

[Darth_Tater]

Ok, picture time! Things seem to be about the same. Corals are growing, fish are swimming, Kole Tang is getting fatter, algae is growing. I did change the flow a bit due to some recent additions. I have the Gyre running at a lower intensity and longer pulses. Things seem to be liking it better, even the fish!

Ready to paint the back and then plumb this thing



Longest extension I've seen out of the hammer



Yes Goniopora police, I do realize (after I bought it) that I accidentally bought the hardest to keep Goniopora. However, I'm feeding it rotifers almost daily. Hopefully it will stay happy looking for more than a couple months.



Fungia! Watching this thing eat is just cool



Maze Brain has grown a ton since I bought it



As has the War Coral



The "Superman Monti" is starting to show signs of a purplish-blue so maybe it actually is one...



This is supposedly a California Tort. The Green Slimer is recovering well, so thought I'd see if I could keep a real acro



Rainbow Monti!



Pocillopora recovering from the Combtooth Blenny, Purple Monti growing like crazy, and Ponape still infested with blue polyps

[Darth_Tater]

Various Zoas + Various Algae = two pictures





Some sort of cool Favia that's slowly growing



Pink Birdsnest is looking better



And the ever reclusive Watchman Goby poked his head out!



And finally a FTS:

[Charley Diesing]

update?

[Darth_Tater]

Oh boy, a ton has changed since I updated this! I did get that fuge plumbed in. I added macroalge and a ton of small snails at the same time. Something in that mix caused a large ammonia spike, and the tank went downhill fast. Lost most of the SPS (still have the Montis) and the plate coral. Lost all of my Red Spot Cardinals and the Goby. I do still have the Goni, but it's not looking great. All the other LPS are still looking pretty happy.

One thing that hasn't changed is the GHA. It's EVERYWHERE!!! Frustrating that I can't find a fix for it, but I just keep pulling it out when it starts bothering the Montis.

I also recently fried my Gyre. So for water movement I'm playing around with a 500 GPH powerhead (cheapo box store brand) and a new Tunze 6025. Lots of water movement, but I've got some dead spots.

Current tank inhabitants: Banggai Cardinal pair, Royal Gramma, Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse.

I have an LFS holding a really nice looking small Coral Beauty and a Lawnmower Blenny. If all is well, I'll pick them up Tuesday or Wednesday.

I am very slowly setting up a new system that will replace this one. Right now, to be honest, this one is being maintained minimally to keep things happy-ish until the swap in the next few months.

[Clarkii3]

Ive never seen so much GHA in my life. Its really not that hard to eradicate. What water are you using?? Just DI is not going to cut it. If you don't have access to an RO/DI unit, make the switch to distilled. Test kits can be bad as well, especially if they expire. Not sure what lights your using, but if their T5s make sure the bulbs are not too old. This can cause algae outbreaks as well.The best most effective method of removing hair algae is manual removal(pull out as much as you can even if it takes hours), water changes(with pure water),reduce feeding, 48hr blackout period and some Astreas. If that doesn't clear it up (which it should), you can always dose some Erythromycin but you need to be cautious. I would not let my corals get that engulfed. Just my .02. Good luck and happy reefing!

[Darth_Tater]

I think I may have found part of the algae problem. My RO/DI and storage tank are in my basement utility room... with the cat's litter box. I'd heard other people say the litter box led to ammonia in the storage tanks, but I never really believed it. Just for kicks last week I ran an ammonia test on my top off water after filling up the bucket from the storage tank and guess what? Positive for ammonia.

I can't really move the RO/DI or the storage tank or the litter box, so for the next couple months I'm going to just add Prime to the top off and water change water and see if that makes a difference.

I also decided to try biopellets a couple weeks ago (before I found ammonia in the water). I'll keep them going for at least a couple months to see if there's any difference.

I still plan on setting up my new system, but have been hesitant to do so until I can convince myself I can run a system without the algae problem. Hopefully in the next couple months I can start seriously working on that again!

[Darth_Tater]

Skimmer went crazy today and completely overflowed and spit water everywhere. Now I have to run the box fan for a couple days. On a positive note, it's producing foam for probably the first time since I put it in the sump. Hopefully this means the biopellets are doing their job!

[Darth_Tater]

Well, figured I'd update in case anyone is curious. Lots has changed in the last couple months.

First, I've been running the biopellets and they have made absolutely 0 difference. With that in mind, I started thinking and figured out how to make a super simple ATS. And the results after 6 days:



I added a second light to the near side today.

Second update, I added some new LED lights. So far I'm quite pleased with them and the corals seem to be responding positively. They are the VIPARSPECTRA 165s. Not quite the Hydra 26 HDs I was planning on, but I got these for 30% off which means I was able to get 3 (needing 3 for a future replacement build I will one day get finished) for the price of 1 1/4 of the Hydras!

So these Viparspectras have 2 channels, blues and whites + colors. Both channels have their own timer. Both channels also have the ability to adjust intensity. I've currently got them set as follows:

Channel 1 (blues): 50%. Runs from 11:30 to 8:30.
Channel 2 (colors): 25%. Runs from 12:00 to 8:00.

They look like this:



And the tank looks like this:



For $140 each, I'm very pleased with these lights. A few minor complaints:

Color spectrum with both channels equal intensity is very white.
Fans are not loud, but noticeable.
The lights have a remote, but they're all on the same frequency. So remote can't be used with multiple lights on.
They can't be linked together. Timers and intensities all have to be programmed independently.

Positives:

Very, very bright (I might be able to get a sunburn from them!)
Channels have independent light intensity adjustment so color can be tuned to your liking.
They look pretty clean hanging up above the tank.
The hanging system is very good. You can tilt them and make it stick even though it's a wire "Y" hanging system.
The light is much more focused downward than my T5 fixture. Much less light spilling into the room.
Built in timer for each channel.


As far as the actual tank is going, the brown monti cap has turned brown again under the LEDs (it was green under the T5s). The plate coral and goni are pretty much gone thanks to algae. I removed the purple monti cap and it broke into pieces. I think I'll end up trading them off eventually. I may try grafting it with the brown cap if I ever break a piece off of it.



Rainbow and Superman montis are doing great when I can keep the algae off them.



I have a Bonsai acro that I've managed to keep the algae off and it's exploded the last couple of weeks. Lots of encrusting and it's showing polyp extension for the first time since I brought it home.



War Coral is growing like a weed, Maze Brain is looking nice and dome shaped, Torches are doing well, Hammer looks like it's finally starting to grow, and the Frogspawn is doing great.



Photosynthetic Gorgonian was doing really well until recently. It's still very alive, I just haven't seen polyps for a week or two. Not sure what's up with it.

Current fish list:

Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
Banggai Cardinal Pair
Coral Beauty Angel
Yellow Tail Damsel trio
Peppermint Shrimp x 1
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

And my Royal Gramma is in rehab in the remote fuge (the Coral Beauty didn't like it very much).

[Darth_Tater]

Small update time.

The gorgonian shed over the weekend and looks much better now. I finally found some more frozen Rotifers and added them to my LRS food. The Goni is showing a tad bit of polyp extension, but I think it's too far gone for any real hope. The gorgonian however showed lots of polyp extension after adding the Rotifers so I think it will be fine.

Speaking of food, I also bought a new package of LRS Reef Frenzy over the weekend. The chunks in it are huge!! There's no way any of my fish can eat chunks that big. Not sure if I got a package that was labeled wrong, or if they changed something, or if this batch just settled before it froze, but if the next batch also has chunks this big I'm going to need to find a different food.

I cleaned my ATS screen over the weekend at the one week mark like the ATS thread said to and I think it was a mistake. It went back to almost new color. Oh well, the way this tank grows algae I'm not concerned about it growing on the screen.

Speaking of the ATS, I made a simple DIY aluminum foil reflector for the cheap shop light I added on Friday. Doesn't look like much, but there's lots less light coming through the cover so hopefully it will help a little:

[Darth_Tater]

The effects of these new lights are crazy! I had 5 T5HO bulbs in the old fixture, but the explosion of growth after changing to these LEDs makes me think that wasn't enough. The Bonsai Acro and the purple Monti were slowly losing color and all parameters were still reading fine so I ended up turning the LEDs down some more. I'm now running channel 1 (blues) at 30 and channel 2 (whites and colors) at 15. And by the way, these LEDs are turned down that much and they're going through egg crate diffuser that I've painted black. Impressive!

[Darth_Tater]

Thought I'd give a bit of an update since my tank has taken a dramatic turn for the different.



The algae is declining! Hair algae is practically gone in the display and almost gone in the fuge. Bubble algae is still running rampant, but seems to be less happy. I get significant red haze on the glass after 3-4 days, so I'm pretty sure it's the bio pellets that have finally kicked in making the difference. I've turned off the lights on my ATS to test this theory. I'd leave them both running, but the ATS has never grown a lot of algae and the lights are growing algae all over the equipment in the sump and it's just a huge pain.

With the decline of the algae has come an unexpected development, my SPS seems to be struggling. They're still actively growing, but the colors aren't very good. I've turned down the light intensity to see if that makes a difference.

Oh, one more change! I added a pair of Tunze 6095s. They're awesome! Super wide flow, and I have them turned down to about 30% and there's still a lot of flow. I'm having some trouble keeping the sand in place, but the improvements in the livestock make it worth it. The damsels and Coral Beauty love the extra flow, but the Cardinals don't seem to like it as much. I think they're adjusting though.

[jam.jo]

You could try Red Sea NO3/PO4x to bring nitrates and phosphates down together and keep them in balance when bringing them down. Do you have a good skimmer removing the nutrients efficiently?

[Darth_Tater]

Things continue to go well with this tank. Changes: The ATS has come back online and I took the skimmer offline. It's super finicky and any algae at all makes it spit like crazy. I just couldn't keep it going with the ATS lights. The skimmer really wasn't doing too much anyway.

My parameters are all too high. Alk is about 10.6, Calc is 500+ and Mag is 1600+. They are stable though, so I'm very slowly bringing them back down where I want.

Colors are improving greatly. Bonsai is turning nice and purple, Superman Monti is finally turning blue, and the Rainbow Monti is turning nice and rainbow colored. I'm also getting a lot more polyp extension than I've seen in a long time. Now I just need to figure out this bubble algae! I'm going to mess with my ATS a little next week and see if I can get it working better.

I added a lot of coral over the last few weeks.

Cool Acan:



Biohazard and Red Planet Acros:



Another Biohazard at the very bottom, the Purple Bonsai that's coloring up nicely, Gatorade Birdsnest, and the tops of a Blue-Tip Staghorn in the back:



I traded off those chunks of Purple Monti Cap yesterday for a green Monti Spongode. It's up top between the Red Planet and the big Brown Monti Cap. Not sure yet if it's going to stay there or not.

Blasto and new Zoas in this one:



And finally, a FTS:

[Darth_Tater]

Got some lenses for my phone and more acros so thought I'd give a photo update. Still learning with the lenses, so they don't look the greatest...

I also added 3 Emerald Crabs, 2 Turbo Snails, and 5 Hermits to help clean things up.

I don't know the names of any of the new acros, but some of them are pretty awesome! Seller said they all came from WWC. My new favorite:



And the rest of the new ones:

(Pretty sure this is a Paletta Tri-Color)


I thought this one was red, but it's starting to change color so maybe it was just browned out.







The Spongode:

[Darth_Tater]

And some updates of coral I've had a while: