Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning [Archive] - Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board

blacknife

09-05-2009, 09:16 AM

Tank looked good.

HA is still out of control, Pretty sure it is just from to replace my lights, as it never slowed down after getting the damsels out. There was a very slight hint of cyano but not the heavy dose like I had briefly before I went away.

Stopped by the lfs on the way home and got a lawnmower blenny, hopefully he will pick at some of that ha while I'm away at work. Got one peppermint shrimp to hopefully try eating the little apistas that keep magically appearing, I keep trying to kill them and they keep trying to grow back. I have only seen it once since I put it in, hopefully the last addition doesn't make a meal of it. I could not say no to getting a tube anemone though, i've wanted one for a while and they look so purdy. cleaned up the few corals that had fallen onto the sand bed and put it in. I might have to get some more glue just to make sure there are no accidents :)

too bad I missed the fragfest, oh well there will be more frags

I have been getting an idea for the next tank, the location I have my tank there is no room for a stand it is in bay window kind of thing that has a kind of ledge or sitting area in it so no room for a sump. I want to find or get a tank that is the same depth as the window, and then build a little mini sump/refugeeum/hardware area into the back of it so everything is out of sight, Kind of like the all in one tanks available but fit to my window. I guess I am just looking for any opinions on that kind of setup, or advice that would change the way it gets set up.

BlueWorldAquatic

09-05-2009, 12:56 PM

I had HA go nuts in my 60 for the last little while, I found a little brown tang that did wonders for it, as most lawnmowers will only take care of short HA.

Sea hares or dragon gobies will take care of it too.

As for the FragFest there is always next year. :)

Ken - BWA

banditpowdercoat

09-05-2009, 03:29 PM

I hear ya, I am away 22 days at a time. Wife feeds and looks after then. But the tanks are allways in bad shape when I come home. Coraline on glass, needing water changes etc

blacknife

09-05-2009, 04:06 PM

I was picking at it pretty regularly all summer and it never seemed to make a big dent so perhaps if both me and the fish pick at it it will make a bigger dent.

I have thought sea hare's but have not seen any on any of my shopping trips, would one sea hare clean out the HA in time and starve?

Would the tube anemone have to be rehoused while the sea hare was in there?

blacknife

09-06-2009, 10:35 PM

Thought i killed the anemone earlier..

but i think its going to pull through.

lesson learned don't siphon anywhere near the mucous tube it gets picked up pretty easily :)

i ripped a small chunk off of it while cleaning but it is back out fully extended 20 mins later. tough little bugger I guess.

bvlester

09-08-2009, 04:08 AM

picked up some LR today and one piece had an aiptasia on it well once the kids were in bed I boiled up some water and with my 2 oz seringe I took the rock out and dose it little bugger. it is now completly white and I believe dead may have lost about 1 inch of LR. meaning everything within 1 inch maybe dead but better 1 inch dead than a tank full of aiptasia. I am keeping my fingers crossed as I could not get the little bugger out of the crevis it was in.

Bill

blacknife

11-20-2009, 01:49 AM

Added a phosban and carbon reactor and a k2 a couple days ago. I think I can see a difference all ready. Did a 1 bucket cleanup water change and sucked up all the red slime, usually it is grown back thin the next day… it's not growing back at all.

everything is growing good, green rodidactis split again, perhaps ill take some update pics and some old pics for the evolution page, I know every time I look back at how it looked when I started I want to laugh.

the little crab is long gone from the christmass tree coral, and it is still the same size or perhaps a touch larger than when i got it. the little hitchhiker has plucked many of the spikes off each polyp, i hope not for the worse, and the challice at the base of it is slowly regaining color and meat.

I want to add a few more small fish, but I'm not sure what.

blacknife

12-07-2009, 10:37 PM

Last week the girl noticed the ato was not working right and decided to fill the tank up.. . saw some white stuff in the bottom of the water container so stired it all up<kaulk> and poured it in till it was full then sends me a text a while later saying the tank looks like crap and she thinks its her fault.

Christmas tree coral is now near death, it looks all melted on the outsides and really shrank down. and at least one snail died.. everything else has slowly bounced back.

I missed out on the store tours yesterday but its probably a good thing, work is kind of sketchy lately and christmas is coming so i have to pinch every $ i can for a bit. did my own mini store tour today but bought nothing. even though i was really tempted.

after i got back i looked in my refugeeum and my cheato is all full of HA agian, if i knew that i would have grabbed some fresh stuff from one of the stores if they had any. It is not really spreading around the tank any more but it has not stopped growing. I need to do more water changes but i have been slacking on that a bit lately due to the pain of having to pick water up all the time. hopefully santa can afford a RO unit for the holidays after he is done brining the kids presents.

blacknife

12-10-2009, 01:56 AM

All this time sittin around the house ive been having my hands wet way to much for the gf's liking...

had the AC running cleanup duty the last few days since i keep randomly going in and plucking out HA.

i barely redid some rock and coral placement today moving some zoa's off the little shelf peice on top and moving them down so I can try some sps up top.

now that the AC300 isnt sitting on the front of the tank and i have it cleaned up a little I will have to take some pictures.

I hope the zoa's still grow good where i moved them cuz they were looking pretty good where they were.

really wishing i had a little bit bigger tank though there is just not enough real estate in this one :)

Myka

12-10-2009, 02:08 AM

Got some pics?? :D

blacknife

12-11-2009, 04:51 AM

I tried taking some pics but the girl has her camera with her, and the lense i have on my slr does not do the tank justice.

and the lights went out just after i took these.

Shot from late this spring for comparison
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=160&pictureid=2330

FTS from today
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=160&pictureid=2341

Left Side
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=160&pictureid=2338

Right Side
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=160&pictureid=2339

I got a couple more up in my album too.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/album.php?albumid=160

I stoped by AI tonight too and got a couple little things i wanted, was going to stop at blue world too but i never made it in time, dammed traffic. the roads were crap on the drive back to Leduc.

blacknife

01-03-2010, 07:05 AM

I had a good little laugh today.

I bought some tanks from leducreef, I wantted to upgrade and move the tank from the window to make sure any spills did not dammage the laminate or hardwood or whatever it is the tank is on.

i got his 40breeder, sump and 15 gallon addon.. got it all to the house and was setting stuff up

and she asked me "So what am i leaving in the old tank?" took me a minute or 2 to realize she thought i was just starting MORE tanks, oh the things i could have gotten away with.

saved most of the water from the display since it was only a 6 block drive, currently whipping some up to fill the sump and side tank.

if I can get the params stable and close to matching my other tank would it be safe to move all the livestock over tomorrow?

probably heading out of town to work monday morning, so my thoughts are to either bring everything down or just bring my few bad peices of HA covered rock to cook in dark for a couple weeks.

Thanks again Jon(John) for the tanks, and gear and the help getting them over here.

leducreef

01-03-2010, 08:30 AM

hey no worries hope it all works out for you if you have any problems
give me a shout :smile:

blacknife

01-04-2010, 11:13 PM

2 quick questions then the summary
Where is the easiest place to find epoxy for frags. leduc or southside edmonton I keep looking at the hardware stores and not seeing, I know one of the reef stores in ed should have it but i was hoping not to go to ed.

Where do you find the small eggcrate, or something like it to put around overflows to try to keep little swimmers out?

well for better or worse everyone is moved over.

the girlfriend was at first sad that there is no fishtank to look at in the living room any more but then glad that there feels like there is more room up there.

Things look great so far and I think i will have alot more success with this setup. The goal was to make a lower maintnance more stable environment for my fish while im still working on the road <looking harder for a local job or a job i would have to move for but have to be home> so now the setup is pretty much as leducreef had it before 40breeder display, on top of a 25? sump with a small dsb chamber with a big ball of cheato on top of it.. 15 gallon is inline beside with a 5 inch sandbed and 10-15 pounds of really ha covered rocks with no lights over it for now. ATO sits on the floor under the 15 and is a ?? big tall rubbermaid container, with lightly kaulked water.

The 40 breeder is a much nicer shape than the 33 i had, it just feels like there is so much more area to work with. pulling out the worst of the HA rock probably helps here too. so far i am happy with the aquascaping. central island with a few tunnels and overhangs, near gyre conditions with no rock touching the wall and the powerheads all blowing the water round and round. I need to go get some glue to redo all the coral's that were moved. My diy pc lighting still looks bright even though its a bigger tank, probably because it is shallower. I would not mind upgrading them but thats out of the budget for a while.

beside all this sits my old 33 on top of a heavy duty rolling counter. this will be for new salt mixing/water making. with storage underneatH.

behind the fish area is my workbench and in the room beside it is my mancave. so there is lots of room for toys and lots more reason to be in the basement.

all the corals opened back up after the water cleared, mucked it up a bit moving some of the sand in.

had a few minor hickups while tweaking all the plumbing out but i think i got it safe now.

My tiny watchman goby was the first victim to the overflow found him swiming in the sump today. What is the chepest/easiest thing to get like that small eggcrate for blocking that off? <in/around edmonton> he can stay alone in the 15 for now if i do not find anything.

While getting it set up i had a few close calls with the overflow too, I kind of wanted to drill an emergency overflow before i set it up but i rushed into things. is it possible to drill on a setup tank or would that be a strip it down and drain most of the water event? either way I might have to work on that next days off just for peace of mind.

The girl is allready talking seahorses in the 15 but she needs to learn how to take care of the tank more before i try something crazy like that.

blacknife

01-05-2010, 12:14 AM

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2511

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2512

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2513

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2510
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2509

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2508

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/picture.php?albumid=270&pictureid=2507

leducreef

01-05-2010, 10:32 PM

looks great man i have some frag epoxy and some egg crate if you want it :biggrin:

blacknife

01-07-2010, 09:17 PM

so things went great till today

girl goes downstairs and there is water all over

troubleshooting ith her over the phone was terrible..

she got it all back working but we found no problem
so i told her to keep an eye on it

2 hours later she has not looked at it.. so i remind her

water is everywhere again and i STILL dont know the problem

im shut down from cold weather today anyways i might as well drive the three hours home to see what is wrong

banditpowdercoat

01-07-2010, 09:24 PM

Crap, sorry to hear, hope its simple fix

blacknife

01-08-2010, 04:19 AM

did not drive home.. so far its holding out. at least its in an unfinished basement now. I just hope it doesnt crap out again and then not get looked at for a day or 2 heh

blacknife

01-11-2010, 11:34 PM

Made the 3 hour trek home last night and then 3 hours back to work this morning.

The bad news: a few corals look rough. One of the brownoporia frags I put in a few weeks ago is gone. One of the clowns had a couple flecks of what looks like ick. Slight diatom bloom in the low flow areas.

The good news: everything else looks in awesome shape. the girl did a good job containing the mess and getting everything but the sump up and running again.

i got the sump back up to working temp tested the water and got it working again. I ran it full out for a bit and the leak did not appear. Not wanting the gf to deal with any more bs for the tank I then cranked it down so its just a nice low steady flow though the overflows till i can get home and check it out more this weekend.

so far so good.

blacknife

01-16-2010, 11:34 PM

Found the tanks first victim today.

the overflow has been backed up for 2 days, but i have had a very busy day including traveling around the countryside for job interviews. Basicaly i saw it was plugged up, assumed a snail was in it or something and just throttled the pump back so more drains into the sump.

today i went to modify the returns, as i allready planed to do and found my lawnmower blenny jammed in the return pipe, the plumbing previously had had a small rigid pipe into it for venting. My lmb had gotten into the overflow then sucked into the hole and stuck on the vent tubing so he could not swim out or get dumped into the sump.

Now both tanks have durso style vents so if anyone falls in they will get sucked straight to the sump. the other advantage to this is now the main tank's return has no problem taking the full GPH of the return pump. It will never have to do this as some is going to the second tank and a small amount returning to the sump. I did run it at full speed for about 15 mins and the water would not even rise an inch over the overflow.

The gf is sad that was her favorite fish. was one of my favorite too.

no more fish untill i get some kind of grating on the overflow though.

blacknife

03-04-2010, 05:29 AM

New peave

after not testing the tank for a while

testing it only to find everything is near perfect.

I am working in Leduc again so the tank gets little bits of maintenance regularly. and it shows.. everything is looking better. HA is still not beat but diminishing.

thinking about a couple new fish.. dunno what yet.

I want to drill my 33 and pull it beside the system and join it in instead of just having it be the fresh water purifying tank. must get hole saw one of these trips.

I want to upgrade my lights as well, and add real lights to the fifteen. tank is mixed reef so far, would like to try a bit more sps.

for the 40 b i was thinking a combo mh/t5ho unit but im undecided as to get 1x250 or 2x150 for the metal halides... any ideas?

and for the 15 with intents to go into some kind of frag tank would a 70w mh or 4 bulb t5ho cut it?

I had an excuse to run into Edmonton this evening, for some reason thought it was Thursday.. rushed in to try to get to bwa and ma before they close just to look.

mwhahaha did i feel silly when i saw they were closed and remembered its only Wednesday

blacknife

03-25-2010, 12:31 AM

Sad story and funny story.

I got a royal gamma and a red spotted blenny at BWA last week.

first night my dottyback was picking on the gamma so i put them lights out and they left each other alone.

lights come on an hour or two before i get home from work, when i get home the gamma is in an open area of the tank .. with a couple little nipps but looks ok... i watch them lots and the dotty seems to be leaving it alone all the time.

come home from work the next day and it has a few more chunks out so i put him in the 15gallon.

come home the next day and its dead and half eaten by the sandmonsters allready.

so then yesterday i cant see the red spotted blenny at feeding time.. thought nothing of it he might be hidden, go down to feed them today and he is not seen again

check the overflow,

check the sump.

watch the tank for like 15 mins

look at the frags in the 15.. and low and behold there he is

there is no way he could have jumped across because the canopy blocks it.

my only guess is he went up the shared return line and got spat out into the small tank.

I think he looks skinny i think he might stay there for a few days till he gets plumped up

blacknife

03-25-2010, 06:48 PM

Stuipid blenny found his way to the floor sometime last night.

guess those little red spot ones are good jumpers eh?

I guess ill just stick to new corals and not get any more new fish for a while.

blacknife

03-30-2010, 07:04 AM

Killed a few birds with one stone today.

at least there were no more fish involved.

problem 1: Christmas tree coral :shrinking like crazy.
Problem 2: HOB refugueum that i had nothing to do since i went sump-less
problem 3: lots of hoses and extra power-head in the sump for Phosphate remover+carbon reactor.
problem 4: Cyano and problem algae in the fugue/sortie tank.

solution 1: Isolate non-photosynthetic coral and increase feeding since its not getting enough in the DT.

Solution 2: use HOB fugue to put the coral in.

Solution 3: Plumb the reactors and the HOB off the return, thus freeing up power-heads.

Solution 4: Re-organize freed up power-heads so there is more flow in the tank and the Fugue, hopefully curing the cyano.

So now I guess its time to sit back and see how things work out. The HOB has a small powerhead and heater in it, and I will probably get some more LR rubble. I will try to give it lots of little feedings and the extras can slowly drip out into the system.

I got a few frags from Dez's fragapoloza last week so far all but one look good. Superman monti is starting to brown a little but i kind of expected that.

I have my eyes on new lights for the dt in the very near future.

When that happens i am thinking seriously about modifying the stand, plumbing my old 33 into the system where the 15g fugue is, and putting the fugue above the 2 tanks just as a fugue instead of a fugue/softie/beginner frag tank. Might have to rename it Frankentanks but that's ok because its sitting in my unfinished basement.

To add to the madness the girlfriends sister gave the gf a 50 gallon tank.. which is now full of Fresh water, she plans to start easy, i keep telling her it should be salt so she can have the seahorses shes all ways wanted but she doesn't need extra babies right now with our second one coming out next Monday.

blacknife

04-09-2010, 11:26 PM

Baby is out, came out early, brought on by food poisioning or something from some bad fish.

I picked up a 38tall with hopes of redoing the sump for my system.

turns out i forgot to take into account the black trim when deciding it would fit in the stand the glass is 12" the opening in the stand is 12" the trim takes up an extra 1/4" on each side. doh

so I have a new vision

There is room enough room between the DT and the wall and then to the door to the mancave that i could put the 40 there, with only a couple inches overlap in the corner. draining to my 33 as a LRR at the same height, and tied to the 20 gallon sump from the main tank.

i can probably push the tank back towards the wall so there is no overlap, Just have to wait till i have the sump off to drill and drain off most of the water quickly.

Just have to draw up a quick sketch of the stand to figure out how much wood i need, and wait till i have hole saws and the guts to drill.

Tank would be FOwlr or perhaps low light, preadatory reef with the PC lights that are currently on the 40.

the sump should then be able to handle the drainage from all three tanks, and there will be lots more room to play in.

blacknife

04-14-2010, 04:38 AM

Got glass hole saw..

got crazy

decided to go with the added sump water,

made a "stand" to put the new refugieum the same hight as my sump.

lined up and marked holes.

drilled the empty tank..

Making a new big batch of water to fill it up.

tomorrows project.. drain and clean the sump then drill it and re-pumb everything that needs re-plumbing.

I think i will attempt to make some of the rock for in there, i will see how that goes. but for now it can just be extra water for stability.

blacknife

04-25-2010, 08:51 PM

All projects got derailed by going on a week of storm callout down south the next day.

Came back and my new/used lights were in the post office. 6 bulb nova extreme. they look great and i swear i can see growth on some of the sps after a week of having them.

15g addon is on lights off and all it is housing is the tube anenome, gorilla crab, and a hermit. it had the softies, some lr and the cheato in it with standard flourescents but it seemed to just want to grow cyano and diatoms. the sandbed is black in it and i am not sure what to do. might just take it offline, rebuild the stand and put one of the bigger tanks there. might just leave things the same.

Main tank looks good same small little patches of HA but its not spreading at all and i can deal with that. If the "easier" sps that are in there keep doing good i might have to try a couple little harder ones.

I want to setup the other tanks as either an addon or separate. I was thinking all the low light corals could go in the other tank. I would like the ease of having a common sump but wondering if the long term health of some of the hard corals would be better if i left the softies in a separate tank instead of just using carbon.

TheKid

04-25-2010, 10:07 PM

You are really dedicated, good job!

blacknife

04-30-2010, 12:03 AM

Down to one tank.

Failure of the day....

looking at the plumbing of the return from the 15 gallon.. thought i put a union in it when i put the tank together after the flooding incidents of a few months ago. barely touched the plumbing... cracked the tank.

I was looking to move it so i could put the 40 tall beside the 40 breeder and leave the 15 a fuge.. but now.. i just have the 40 b. and room to build everything.

on a side note took my kid on a tour today to all the fishstores. all i got were 2 acro frags and some salt.

playing with everything to get the rock from the 15 back in the 40 messed my flow up and i cant find a spot to make my alveoporia happy. everything else is settled in and normalizing.

that sand in the 15 was pretty rank. it was nothing like that when i moved the 33 into the 40 and split the sand between the 2 i wonder why it ripened up so fast.

blacknife

05-07-2010, 01:25 AM

i took a pic of milli that has stringy stuff on it, found a different way to use the camera to get good macro shots.. decided to go back and take more pictures only to discover the mj1200 fell off its suction cups and fell on some stuff and sprayed sand everywhere..

yay fun times..

blacknife

06-05-2010, 06:12 PM

Everything is still growing and doing ok.
sps are growing and.. showing hints of colour but not not really colouring up.

im not sure if it has only been since i got my new lights or if it has been longer, but all my zoo's and some of my lps have been looking fairly washed out lately. looked through some of my old pictures last night and was affirmed of that. I know need to put new lights in my newer fixture but i don't think that would cause this. New lights are waiting till I'm working again.

what do i need to do to get some color back in my zoo's?

blacknife

08-28-2010, 04:24 AM

Hah off all summer and no updates.
Fish come and go.. corals do good then do bad.

not sure what i had for fish before but im down to the 2 clowns, dottyback and a yellow line goby it is staying this way for now, work is to unstable dead fish make me to sad. all my blennies have either jumped or found their way into pumps.. the fish i have have not committed suicide yet so ill keep it that way as long as possible.

I'm back to work so this means 2 things.. more money for the tank.. back to less time. oh well keep trying to automate things more.

replaced half my lights a few weeks ago the rest today.

as well IO got some prodiobio<sp> to try out.
I have been battling with a mix of diatoms/cyano. most trays it looks like diatoms but some days it gets little red patches here and there, dust off the rocks and suck what i can out and call it good.
I think i need to look at getting an ro unit soon to make this problem go away for good but who knows.

Some of my spas are having a real battle.. my alk got low a few months ago.. or something else was bugging them and the birdsnests' and one of the pocks has been fighting back to life since.

the milli i got from dez ages ago finally pinked up.. i assume its a rose milli of some kind because.. i pretty much gave up on it having any color other than brown. the couple arco frags i have are slowly looking more like when i got them,

I was going to take some shots tonight to throw in for good luck but the reefbooster food made everything to cloudy for now.

I still want to add a bit more rock to the sump but i have not find the right rock at the right price yet.. base rock.. used live rock i don't care just need the right stuff.

on another note i found a small 12ish gallon classic cube<has stainless frame around it to boot. i was going to use it for mixing but instead i put a small hob filter on it .. one picee of rock.. and a few days later some of my softies. plans are to get a couple more nice pieces of rocks for it and put softies/mushrooms/ what not in it.. but right now i just watch all the pods run around on the rock doing their thing with no predators.

blacknife

08-31-2010, 10:33 PM

I THINK there is less algaee growing all over the place. not sure.. perhaps the prodibio stuff is doing something.

Made some aggrocreete rocks today too. I will have to see how they look tomorrow perhaps i will make more perhaps i wont. if they are ugly they can go in the sump if they turned out good they can go in the tank.<after curing of course>

I had to spend quite some time rinsing out my old sand in a bucket that has just been sitting there it was black as black. kind of makes me think against ever doing a remote dsb bucket, after lots of rinsing almost all the black was gone and just using that sand for shaping anyways for now, had all new stuff for the aggrocrete. would having some flow over that much gravelactualy keep it from getting black?

My one other thought from the day.. i did the rock in a nice flat rubber maid container, but looking at it it would be perfect for a dsb, almost thinking building a rack above the sump for one of these and some mangroves... but one project at a time.

blacknife

10-11-2010, 12:45 AM

Dammit, I am in calgary, wanted to grab a few things from other canreefers and visit some stores but have no time.. oh well.. next trip i guess.

blacknife

10-20-2010, 05:00 AM

Did some de-constuction today... 15g wc with an attempt to suck up as much black nasty pockets of sand as possible.

got about 2/3 of the sand i can get to without moving the rocks around.

the new water felt a little cool compared to the tank water even though the thermometers read the same so i called it quits at that. try more in a couple days.

I changed my GFO and carbon over the weekend then came home on sunday <with a few frags from the lfs heh> to find my one milli that used to look at least kind of healthy bleaching/rtn from the tips.

assumed this was from the gfo and turned the flow to the GFO and carbon down to a trickle. The rtn has slowed down not sure if its done though. I hope that was the problem. that was the last thing i wanted to see when brining more SPS home to play with.

At the same time i chilled out the little frag tank i have been trying to make in my room, its still runing just in the dark till i can get real lights for it, the daylight cfl's that were over it were barely keeping the softies and zoo's alive. I think i might empty it drill it than tie it in to the main tank and get some real lights for it. as frag tank or larger fugue.. either one is needed heh:)

enough late night rambling i think changing all that water made me tipsy
:drinking:

blacknife

10-23-2010, 12:16 AM

HOB dsb is dead. i tried moving it to the sump. turned it on.. thought it was flowing good.. looked away for a few mins and came back to wet floor.

anyone want a HOB refugium? it doesn't usually flood just have to be careful when you start it up that you get all the air out heh. price free

it was running .. i think over a month and the sand looked clean except for a little black stint right at the start by the top lip. I did use used but well washed sand mix of Crushed and fine.

the cheato tank is not doing much i think i will go get some fresh fine aragonite sand and put it in there and run the 5g half+full of sand and leave the cheato on top.

got some coral snow today too. put my prodibio dosages in early in the am.. put the coral snow in before shutting down the pumps cuz the dsb was going goofy.

left the pumps off for a bit.. and everything is covered in sliminess.. like the algaee/cyano that is there but different heh oh well i think its clearing up.

I only have a couple weeks of prodibio kicking around i think i am going to drop to just the digest and tp and supplement with the coral snow.

the reefbooster is what makes my protien skimmer gum out and not do much for a couple days after i guess there is to much fatty acids or something in it for my skimmer

blacknife

10-26-2010, 11:51 AM

I guess its time to start dipping. I have seen 2 interesting critters in my tank the last few days that i have never seen before.

The first one a whitish flat free swimming ribbon, about 3/4 inch long and 1/32 or less wide, attracted to the flashlight as i looked in my tank the other night.. followed it around the tank once.. thought what was that.. lost it.. watched for 15 mins then saw it again.. found something to trap it with then did not see it for a while.. saw it and missed the trap attempt then decided it was well past my bedtime.

Last night i saw a small clear object in my fugue. shaped like a classic star trek communicator with a heart or something in the middle. I am thinking some kind of flatworm but I have not looked it up yet.

all this was prompted by noticing the pump to my fugue was not working and my reactors have not been hooked up for a couple days. My ato was kicking in regularly and can barely keep up to the evap, I swore it was leaking but i looked all over the tank and discovered that while re-plumbinng the fugue and reactors I must have bumped the return line because now it has a slow drip<not even a cup over night so i am safe for a bit> unfortunately last time i re-plumbed it i could not put a valve in between the sump and the pump so now instead of a simple fix its going to be re-plumb the whole return line. but thats ok.. its all fancy with a manifold on it im not using any more i think it will be going straight into the tank for now.

the sad part is i think the fugue was just not flowing cuz the cheap vinyl tubing had pinched.

To add to the troubles my kitchen sink drain is not working. the same one i plumed my laundry machine into. i got home early from work went to put in laundry. the girl was doing the dishes and the laundry machine was full of dishwater. laundry machine is back in the drain for the house for now. 15 ft snake ran into some junk but did not clear the problem so i went and got a 25 ft snake..which did not clear the problem either. every other drain in the house works and it is only 15-20 feet to the main drains in the middle of the house so im not sure whats going on. time to call a plumber i guess.

blacknife

11-04-2010, 05:55 PM

meh.. nothing spectacular going on. still have the slime/sludge algee.

grabbed some biopelets on the drive home last night.. started them up today. got a new phosphate test kit yesterday too. elos, tested higher than 0, but lower than 1 could not decide if it was lighter or darker than the .5 . At least thats better than the no change ever i used to get with my last kit. Still need a new nitrate test kit since that one keeps testing at 0 too.
last dosage of prodibio goes in tomorrow, ill have to see if things kick up a little extra with the pellets in there and decide if i will stick with that or not.

Corals are looking .. so so.. most of my lps are thriving. zoo's are mostly doing ok<i see some more than others> sps frags .. some are holding their color still and some are looking worse. I will try to take a few pictures this afternoon since i have time today.

blacknife

11-10-2010, 01:48 AM

so its night 2 of working on the road "temporarily" till there is work in my area again and bam call from the wife

"there is water all over the floor and i don't know where its coming from."

<yelling and screaming from both partys ensues>

turns out my largest hermit crab somehow got past the pad that covers the over flow and decided to try to crawl into the return and block it off completely.

this tank has scared me before with its single return.

so i guess i am on the market for a new tank. I have a 75 lined up in calgary that is 36x18x24 so will fit right where this 40b is. i wanted to keep the 40 plumbed in but i think it will have to be re-drilled for safety if i do that. problem is i don't go to calgary often.

also gonna have to get the girlfriend to somehow pay more attention to what i do to the tank. i had her all talked through how to make it do good for the week to 10 days ill be gone this time but that did not include another bought of water all over the floor. this happened a few weeks after getting this tank originally.

The salinity is down a little 1.021 from 1.026 but i think she can handle slowly brining that back up. I think that was the first time she checked that ever.

ugh

at least i don't have to make an emergency drive the 3 hours home and three hours back to work.

phi delt reefer

11-10-2010, 02:27 AM

blacknife

11-10-2010, 02:41 AM

I am familiar and a fan of the bean, might not be on this next tank but perhaps the one after.

never thought of a float switch on the return. will have to hook that up asap heh

that.. and water on floor switches and other great controller options ..

must make money to spend it on fish tank... ... ...

blacknife

11-16-2010, 04:12 AM

hah, Not home yet but the GF told me that I have 2 healthy looking, same size as they looked GBTA now.

That thing has been in the tank 3 weeks and already split? she must be feeding it lots.

She also said all the lps are looking really good and the sps look about the same as when I headed out, Guess I should stop worrying about the tank so much:twised:

blacknife

11-19-2010, 03:37 AM

Plunked in an MP10 today.. dam i wish i could have afforded one earlier heh.

Everything in the tank is looking pretty good. noticed one fatality though.. the PPE i got that was starting to open up before i left disappeared.. the frag got hermit knocked over and the gf did not notice or even know it was there.

oh well. I pulled the frag rack and put scattered the sps around a bit. I will have to keep an eye on the bubble tip's if they decide to move around to much the frags will have to go back in the rack. I will try to get some update pics soon. some of my sps are starting to color up a bit more than before, so i am guessing the pellets are doing a little something something. either that or i feed more than she does.

blacknife

12-19-2010, 12:43 AM

No new pictures yet but lots of change.. heh

got bored today.. .. drilled an old 20g i had around.. bought some plumbing... played around

not what i intend to do, but.. now i got a 20g.. with a 250wmh and the mp10.. with a little rock, and most of my sps frags that have been dragging along.. plumed into the 40 that i put all the old korrilas back into.

so 20g sps tank.. hopefully the sps will do better with even more flow and don't get to shocked from change in light. none of the big crabs or other coral harasses got moved into the 20.

my 14g cube is still running but is now back in the dark, it was starting to look good with that 250 running on it the last few weeks but it will be maintained as a q-tank for now, pulled the few corals i had out and the one crab and snail i could see so it can stay that way till its needed.

I still need to suck a bit more black-nasty sand out of the 40 but i need more water for changes i guess i should have got the bigger brute than i got heh.

if everyone opens back up ill take some pics.

blacknife

02-18-2011, 09:36 PM

Egad's I am bad with the pics and posts lately, perhaps because I am unhappy with the tank.

got a couple new fish and corals over the holiday sales, everyone made it and is settled in.

still having problems with my sps but they are growing and coloring up.

haven't tested MG in forever because one of the vials was missing, finally found it today and.. .. wow.. I think thats why my sps are not growing. I was adding some liquid MG once a week or so without testing <but probably not enough> and it ran out a week or 2 ago. and i kept forgetting to buy some when i was at any store.. heh.. off to the stores i go mg of 5-600 doesn't grow corals well from what i hear.

blacknife

02-18-2011, 09:43 PM

OoO the other misadventure of the tank.

while looking at how to set up some temporary extra circuits for my tank until i move or the basement is finished realizing that 1 of the 2 circuits the tank is plugged into already is an Against code added in plug off the feed for the furnace.

but really its ok to have near maximum rated draw going to your tanks and hope everything works out every time the furnace turns on.

blacknife

03-05-2011, 10:40 PM

something missing from my basement today...

and i like it

the sound of this system roaring and gurgling away is all gone.

curently picking little bits of life out of the sand before i get rid of it.

everything has been crammed into my 50g and looks a lot better in there.

I was going to tweak this thing out to be quiet while everything is in the other tank but i think i will just get rid of everything and save up for the next big thing.

blacknife

03-05-2011, 11:15 PM

Oh the decisions.. the old stand fits right behind the new tank.. and the 50g sump even has a hole predrilled near the top when i wanted to make it a refugieum to my old sump..

50g refugieum should have enough pods to keep a tank full forever eh?

good thing i have to drain it to move it up there gives me an hour to think about it.

blacknife

03-09-2011, 04:40 AM

Just when i thought i was ready to go to bed...
barely touched the tank and got a full 120 zap... mmM fun..
grabbed my greeny potential tester, that can usually just pick out the hot wire in a 2 conductor wire and my whole tank lights it up.. oh well start unplugging things i guess

blacknife

03-09-2011, 05:14 AM

somehow the cord for a powerhead got a nic in it and that was underwater... ugh. at least now i can sleep.

the tank still has 24-28 volts induced voltage from everything else.

one question for the electrically inclined.

if you are running off multiple GFCI

should your ground probe tie to all the gfci's?

blacknife

03-14-2011, 12:27 AM

ugh..
my sps frags are not taking the move well. I am guessing there is a mini cycle going on I'll test later this after noon..

lost 3 frags allready. a couple others are having some tissue loss but not as bad as the ones that are gone. the acro's that are not dead are browning out when they were showing color before.

all the LPS look fine.

did a 10 gallon water change so i could fill the barrel back up.

almost ready to give up on SPS until i can have a tank dedicated to them.

last week before i changed the tank over i added way to much magnesium because of old test kit i guess.

was trying to change a little water a day to lower that.

blacknife

03-16-2011, 06:00 AM

2 more frags down.. boo
4 acro's left all looking brown and no polyp extension
all but one monti's left, looking mostly healthy
1 pocci still holding on with barely any PE

MG 1800
cal 460
alk 9.5 dkh
Po4 between 0 and .05 as usual
nitrates... undetectable as usual.

cheato is still healthy green in the new fugue but the caulpurla<sp> is looking worse for the wear. im beat i get up in a few hours not doing anything about it tonight.

water change barrel is not quite up to spec tonight. hopefully tomorrow i can do a big change.

all in all im pretty ****ed off at things right now all my sps frags were looking pretty good 2 weeks ago.. grrr.

and my bio pellets are clumping on the MJ 1200. they never clumped when i had them on the old return pump

blacknife

03-21-2011, 12:55 AM

found a few .. random items in my sump.. guess its time to skirt the tank to protect from 3 year olds.. not sure if these were part of my problem.

<tweezers and 4-5 super worms that should be fed to the gekos>

culpurla totally melted and disappeared

I have the MH light that was on my 20 gallon over the fugue /frag rack but only on a couple hours a day.. with a cfl on about 12 hours a day. should i pull my brown and barely holding on acro's out from under the t-5 and put them back under the MH they were used to before the tank swap? The MH does spill over into the main tank and is on during what would be noon for the lighting hours im running

or just leave them where they are.. upper half under 6 bulb fixture and hope for the best?

blacknife

04-09-2011, 05:45 AM

the sps that survived.. are brown.. but showing good PE again.. perhaps things are looking up.

on the downside... my display looks good, the few bits of nascence algaee are disappearing slowly.

the Fuge/fragtank is a cyano factory.

things are being remodelled this weekend.. the fugue used to be my sump.. but it would not fit in the old tank stand.. it does fit in the new tanks stand.. i do not know why i did not move it there when i changed tanks.

stuff in fugue will be temporally rehomed for the night.

sump is off right now.. internet distracted me

moving the fugue to the sump.. thus saving me buying a new pump for the return since i have been runing off an underpowered powerhead.

also rehoming many of the softies. t ruing to sell a few or just start a nano again.

one question about chemical warfare, do any of you avid sps keepers have lots of Zoa's and pally's in the same water column or should they be rehomed to the softie tank too?

blacknife

04-23-2011, 12:05 AM

Everything looks happy after the last rearrange. SPS in the frag tank are growing <for once> and starting to color up. SPS in the display are growing but do not have as much PE as the ones in the frag tank.

the only thing i am not happy with is how much sand my female maroon is kicking up.

I want to get some SPS to replace the ones that died but i need to wait a paycheck or 2.

blacknife

05-04-2011, 01:49 PM

Shut down the Frag rescue tank last night and put everything back into the display. I left the frag tank plumbed in but until there is enough in my tank to justify running a 250w MH light on the frag tank i might as well save my money for an extra frag or 2 a month. Perhaps if my 40b does not sell I will start re drilling that for a bean overflow and put that up instead of the 20 for a frag tank or perhaps FOWLR.

I glued everything into hopefully good spots and left a few small well weighted frags just on the sanded.

My 2 across that survived have more color then they have had since i got them, hopefully they stay that way under the t5h0. I tried to put them fairly high because they were very high under the MH in the frag tank.

I am having issues with the TLF reactor for pellets. one side keeps sticking and turning color's against the wall no many times a day i try to give the reactor a shake. I guess this means i need to get a new reactor in the next few months or perhaps switch to zeo just to give it a try.

blacknife

06-14-2011, 07:45 PM

rare update.

well the tank budget is pretty tight lately but things are slowly looking better. i decided to try one of those new mj1200 for flow to free up a smaller pH to put in the frag tank

the ball joint contraption they use will not even hold the pump up so i tried the suckies which have held smaller mj's for longtime in my tanks.

moved a few rocks around to make sure no corals were in the direct flow.
check this morning everything looks good

come home and bam.. the thing fell off the glass sometime today and made one of the milli's i got a month ago half flow dead.

oh well

oh yeah im running the frag tank again. i moved all the lps and zoa's to the lower 2 shelves, left the mandarin in there and put sps bits on the top shelf if they look like they need some McHalide loving. not giving up but frustrated at my lights things in the frag tank look ok when i try to put them in the display some of them really slow down growth. one of the accro's that keeps getting color in the frag tank gets bleached looking in the display.
Might have to prioritize getting some new lights at some point, like those clone oddeseey mh/t5 combos or DIY some led's up.

the frags i got from dez a month ago or so are all still holding their basic colors, though a little less vibrant and still have PE though slowly seeming to be less.

alk was low last night 6.5. slowly bringing it up.. i guess that could make the corals bleach out a bit too eh?
meh.. trying to stay on top of things better but i do not know if much progress is being made

blacknife

06-30-2011, 06:40 AM

how is it when im home for supper.. before getting called out everything is working good.. go do 4 hours of storm chasing, come home and the tank is making funny noise and water is all over the floor but no signs of a leak

currently tired as hell but watching for a leak before i let myself even think about relaxing enough to fall asleep

mr_alberta

06-30-2011, 02:47 PM

The power probably went out and when it came back on it overflowed your skimmer because the sump had filled up.

blacknife

07-14-2011, 03:12 AM

figured it out... was using a filter sock while I was making mess in the tank, don't usually run one. it was below the lip of the sump but not by much. left it in there for a few days and pouf got all clogged up and drained 15 gallons on the floor.

Had a micro bubble problem just after that, after much frustration. I was ready to rip my plumbing apart and re do it. Problem being there is no valve between the sump and the pump<whoops bad jon> realized the screen on the bulkhead was plugged causing the pump to have extra suction on the bulkhead and plumbing.. or possibly to cavitate. cleaned screen problem gone.

On the weekend I empty'ed the frag tank contents back into the display. frag tank is running with just the sun coral in it right now. regular feedings of the sun coral+ 250w 14k bulb was making lots of algae. now having a minor algae attack in the display. but i had another reason to do it i will soon be tying the 40b that i cant sell in instead of the 20g frag tank i have. took the 40b apart on sunday because i want to redo the overflow. cracked the mirrored background while pulling it off.. oh well. i did not realize it was 2 thin pieces of glass and was putting uneven presure on them. single overflow 40b will be turned into herby, and the whole tank will be resealed. Not sure if i want to turn it into a frag tank or fowlr/ lps tank.

since the day of the flood i have not had my skimmer dialled back in either it keeps overflowing the bubbles all over the place.. i keep turning it down a little every day thinking it looks good then get home from work to find bubbles everywhere again.

SPS are slowly growing but brown with heavy green tint when they should not be green. I think the sun coral has to go away. I have a second mp10 and zeo reactor on the way so I was kind of hoping to wait till after I get those started before I give up on the sun coral and give it away to someone that can save it.

with the regular feedings the last week or so the polyps all come out but they are much smaller than they used to be.

I got a small starfish to keep the wife happy a few weeks ago too.. she really wanted it even though I lectured the hell out of her and told her it should not go in but it makes her happy and my son likes it too. Was told its a red chocolate chip, and thats kind of what it looks like but i can not find pictures of one on the net that looks exactly the same.

fishytime

07-14-2011, 02:15 PM

Um........chocolate chips are not reef safe:wink:

blacknife

07-14-2011, 11:43 PM

thats what the attached tank is for ... ... Gf Adds

whatever it is i have been watching it and it has not munched anything... yet

blacknife

07-21-2011, 07:45 AM

I got my zeovit reactor but it does not fit through the space into my sump.. doh. I have really wanted to redo my sump for a while though so i guess its time to DIY something up, jump on one that fits if it pops up here or get one built.

if i could find a tank with a 36x16 footprint to start with diy would be nice and easy, and keep it mostly under the stand.

blacknife

07-23-2011, 05:36 PM

I pulled my pellets out the other night when trying to get the zeo reactor in.. they are all bunched up again anways and i am sick of them. i also shut down my carbon reactor and forgot to turn it back on.

now a few days later my bali slimer has polyps where i have not seen polyps in months.

heh.

might be the second mp10wes running with the first one instead of that beast of a prop mj1200 though.

blacknife

09-05-2011, 03:02 PM

did a waterchange this morning.. nothing out of the ordinary it all went good, just filled up my ato last night so it was nice and full.

mindlessly plugged my ato back in after i got the water change water all leveled out.

look down a few minutes later to see the skimmer overflowing.. try to fix skimmer and realize the sump is almost overflowing... wonder WTF

I mindlessly plugged my ato pump into the wall instead of the ato unit.

so after perfectly matching my salinity and temp and doing a nice change i now have huge salinity drop. besides the 10 gallons left in the barel i just used i am also out of salt.. hehe hehe i needed an excuse to go into edmonton today anyways.

fishytime

09-05-2011, 03:53 PM

eeeeek! how many gallons of RO did you pump in?

blacknife

11-04-2011, 11:46 PM

hah leave the rock alone,

in the steady war against apistasia infiltraitors attempts were made to move full live rocks with sps frags and mini colonys to the 20g frag tank.

now the frag tank looks like a full on sps reef with fully loaded micro frag rack. the main tank looks empty with rock only going half up, and .. i dont know what to think of any of it.. why cant those dammed peppermints learn to stay in the main tank when i put them in there instead of going sump surfing.

blacknife

11-05-2011, 02:15 AM

I have also decided i do not like the look of my t5s on my main tank, beside the mh on the frag tank, still undecided on leds, but no upgradess till long after this next chittlin pops out next week.

blacknife

11-08-2011, 03:53 AM

"Why is the dead fish on the floor daddy"

What fish buddy

"The dead one from in the rock on the floor"

Mmmmm dried blennie yum yum

Sigh

blacknife

12-24-2011, 03:55 AM

phosphates 0.00 by hanna.. .wtf thats a first...

must be all that dammed algaee that grew last week.

blacknife

01-10-2012, 11:41 PM

I figured I should put these here as well as the fts thread so i can find them easier later.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4118.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4119.jpg

Might have to take a few close ups if the kids give me time after supper.

I have a sump sitting around ready to replace the one i cant stand, and glass cut silicone removed from the 40b in the garage, just have to reseal it to put it in place of the 20.

I still want to upgrade to a bigger tank but christmas has ruined that plan for a few months.

I hooked up a small fuge a few weeks ago and the light leaks out all night i think thats where all the bright green algee on the underside of the rocks on the main tank is comming from but i will probably just rearange everything when i have the new sump in so it can keep doing that for now.

blacknife

01-23-2012, 02:28 AM

Pulled my fuge offline yesterday as per zeo forum advice, halved the cheato and threw it into a 20g tank i am cycliing for a holding tank for whatever when i do the tank rearangement<swap out the sump and swap the 20 g for a 40b>, but I am also debating temporary downsizing. squishing everything into the 55, selling any lps that i am not digging getting rid of some of the fish clutter, and getting a bigger tank. My plans for the tank are so scattered its not funny heh.

I did notice one thing today though. Both my maricultiured acros that did have crabs still have crabs, but one frag/mini colony that has been in my tank 2 years and never had a crab now has a crab, that doesn't look like one ive seen yet, but is a typical acro crab looking guy.

colors are looking good, had lots of film algae yesterday after the cheato was pulled but today is about normal. I just figured by now that the cheato should be not growing but instead its been growing like crazy lately possibly competing with the zeo, only one way to find out. hopefully nothing crazy happens.

my skimmer which was doing a good job for a month or more is being finiky again.. which does not make me happy. might be the next big upgrade if i don't get a bigger tank.. and will need to be upgraded for a bigger tank anyways.

anyways, the little one is crying so this is enough of an update.

reefermadness

01-23-2012, 02:38 AM

Nice stuff......great persistence and hard work. It's going to pay off for sure.

blacknife

01-31-2012, 12:21 AM

Potassium chloride came in the mail today, time to start swinging my potassium back into line. Only faith i have in the kz potassium test is....
fresh RC water... tests low end of the scale <250 or so)
tank water tests low end of the scale <250 or so>

tank water with one quarter teaspoon of KCL tests... off the chart

heh so I guess dose the tank a teaspoon or 2 a day until it stops looking potassium deficient.

on a booo hooo note.. my darth mauls decided to up and melt on friday... they came from that first haul of blue words new supplier, looked good and were multiplying till a couple weeks ago, then closed up while i was picking algae off the plug. stayed closed till last week when i moved them to a lower light area then they shrank off the face of the planet. oh well ill f ind more someday

blacknife

02-02-2012, 01:19 AM

attempt 1 at resealing the 40b = fail. overflow leaks from the bottom, oh well rip it apart and start from scratch, perhaps i will even take the panes apart this time just for practice for the next project.

blacknife

02-04-2012, 11:45 PM

hair algae on the frag racks:
-1 to hydrogen peroxide nuking zoas:snipersm:

+1 to pulling the whole rack from the mandarin/frag tank to the display hoping the snails might help. Having the evil large blue hermit crawl up 6 inches of glass to get to it, immediately throw all frags not on plugs off, tossing them into the waiting sps below that now have burns on them heh. then watching him sit on the rack for a week straight decimating all the algae. I think he has a couple more days work to have it spic and span then i think he just earned himself a spot to go clean up the other tank.

who would have thought.. the evil bastard that i have wanted to get rid of so many times would be such a good little worker if given a chance heh. I don't even mind the frag tossing, 2 emeralds, 2 smaller hermits and numerous snails in the other tank wont keep a dent in it:laluot_32:, but sneaky hermit takes the prize:third:.

on a different note, things are looking good, nutrients are still low even with no fuge, corals are coloring up ever slightly more, possibly due to the getting the potassium built up a slowly. :rainbow1:

blacknife

02-25-2012, 07:57 AM

tonights project... clean the 40b a second time for resealing.

almost debating taking it right apart just for giggles instead of just the inside beads. so lots of the silicone <well not lots but more than one would like in a water containing device> just peeled right off. Inadequate prep of the old glass? I think i cleaned with vinegar but might not have, guess acetone is the thing to use to prep the glass to not have it fall apart?

TaioneReefer

03-22-2012, 11:22 AM

on the right of the duncan coral, what kind of corals are those?

blacknife

03-22-2012, 01:12 PM

The mostly orange? Some kind of acan, the nicest ones I have.

reefwars

03-22-2012, 01:48 PM

blacknife

03-22-2012, 10:46 PM

Ugh, got home from work yesterday and most of my sps are bleaching out, did 15 gal or so water change without even bothering to test anything last night, come home today and the bleaching is no worse, no better.. pe is crap.. lps appear unafected and new clam is toast. ugh.. prepping more water for change.

the night before the problem i rearanged the powerheads a little bit, and used the bottom of the jar of my zeo coral snow, everything else was normal looking.....wtf.

blacknife

03-24-2012, 04:18 PM

I remembered what else happened, the night before the problems started I was pulling the weeds(xenia) and a big chunk got away and met the food prosessor which was left stuipidly on full speed. half of the piece was minced and I have no idea where I tossed the remains. Most of my unidentified algae was also feathered at the edges and has since disintegrated. And to add to the insult my skimmer is barely pulling anything out at a setting that was doing good aweek ago.

some lps have bits of skeleton showing through but the affected sps still look bleached. At least they do not look dead

blacknife

04-10-2012, 06:53 PM

Colors and growth seeping back into my sps. The girlfriend says the tank is full and I am not allowed to buy more fish or corals or a bigger tank. I guess its time to upgrade some hardware heh.

blacknife

04-17-2012, 01:37 AM

My Skimmer is not working worth anything, so upgrade time, hopefully this new one works a little better.

I am on day four of a lighting experiment. My six bulb t5 fixture only covers twelve of eighteen inches width of my tank. I had a 250 w hqi de fixture I was going to put on the frag tank wasting closet space. It now sits behind the t5. I swear a couple drags that have barely grown since frag fest are showing little nubs of growth already. If that keeps up its totally time for a lighting upgrade

fishytime

04-17-2012, 02:49 AM

what kind of skimmer is the new one?

blacknife

04-17-2012, 02:26 PM

Skims sk 181. I wanted a little more airflow but the price was right so I will give it a go.

I am rarely home when the lights come on in the am, but damn my Bali sliver had long feeders this morning in the dark.

The last few months I have been dosing mostly all and barely any ca but tasting last night ca was low 330 or 340, I guess I will have to start dosing more.

blacknife

04-18-2012, 04:01 AM

quick fts from the phone
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/2012-04-17_20-21-18_188.jpg

there are fish in there they just chose that moment to hide heh.

Might not be a new skimmer either, as of today I have lots of time to play in the tank.

blacknife

04-25-2012, 08:40 AM

I have been trying to be productive while on this vacation.. er week of unemployment some projects that have been on hold for months are getting done. hah got this sump/tank from Kal at the fragfest without knowing it was him. did the baffles and resealed it 2 or 3 times before i got it right < i think that was around christmas> I started isolating the mandarin/frag tank sometime this afternoon. an hour or so ago things got back to full running everything back in place.

I used to have my rock in the first chamber, but I could not get in and clean it. There was lots of nasty goo in there. This go round the rock is on a pvc/eggcrate cage so if i ever need to clean out detritus I can just lift the rock out quick and suck away. there is also a new mj1200 in there to keep things stirred up, though that might get downsized when i tie the 40 in.

The last sump also had a baffle fail and eventually i just removed it, with no valve between the pump and the sump, it meant draining all the water out to do maintenance, that issue is resolved.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-04-25_02-18-53_457.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-04-25_02-18-15_999.jpg

Here is my old sump just for nastiness sake:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-04-25_02-43-17_671.jpg
It was too high, I could barely get anything in under the stand let alone clean much in there. I forget what i had the hole in there for, I think it was when i had it as a live rock refugeium before its sump life but when I started running zeo i had to bust a piece out to get the reactor in. my arms were regularly getting scraped on the rough edges. it might get rebuilt into something else for frankentank or perhaps just cut up for glass.

Just need a few more plumbing pieces for the 40 and another batch or 2 of water and the 40 will sit where the 20 now is. I think it will be bare bottom fragugieum, the 20 will be moved below the 40 and be turned into FOWLR Mandarin paradise, or let him go to a new home and just remove the 20. He/she is pretty skinny right now, the wrasse outcompetes for food and i have not been feeding the LPS much in attempt to get the SPS to grow.

All In all I wish I could take all these tanks and magically turn them into one but thats not happening for a while.

:redface: I just remembered one of the reasons I decided I had to get on this sump move is as I was trying to clean the barely working skimmer one more time over the weekend I lost one of the rubber bearings/bushings under the sump. I just now remembered seeing it as I was cleaning up under the sump and totally forgetting about it.. I wonder where it went. Oh well new skimmer as soon as I am working again anyway.

Ohh one more thing.. my white worms are now white worms amidst thousands of little bugs.. ugh.. dammed unsterile basement. I will try to start a couple new cultures out of the one culture i have and pull individual worms out and hope the bugs don't spread.

blacknife

04-28-2012, 12:59 AM

busy today too. I cobbled everything together almost the way I want it. I will have to redo the bulkheads when i get some new ones.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-04-27_18-15-49_335.jpg

need to decide if the 40 will be frag tank or just put most of the sps and the mp10's into it and leave the fish and lps in the other. manderin tank looks good there as long as the kids leave it alone. might need to skirt things in to make it all kidproof.

blacknife

04-28-2012, 04:15 AM

Just fired up the radium above the 40... daymmmm that xm20k is gone for good heh.. i think it will be radium till the led-s show up.. i think ill be throwing the sps in there for sure..

blacknife

04-28-2012, 06:52 AM

I took a bunch of shots with the slr but now Iphoto is acting up and so is everything else that will handle NEF. grrr

the 40 is looking awesome, mostly sps, both mp-10s 250wHQI radium, If the colours even of the frags that were totally browned out under 4-5 month old xm bulb all ready show colour everything else should colour up pretty quick.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/2012-04-27_23-39-32_799.jpg

only took this one with the phone before i pulled out the d200.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/2012-04-27_23-40-05_509.jpg

<.... .... ... ok an hour later ill try this again.... ... ... >
Unedited jpegs as nothing is co-operating today. This was a quick photoshoot before lights out rushing through everything I will try harder next time when everything looks better.

FTS
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4249.jpg

This rainbow has some hydroids or something in it its spreading pretty good not sure to pluck the hydroids out or just nuke that section of it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4253.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4250.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4251.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4252.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4255.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4257.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/DSC_4270.jpg

bah I am to tired if your really interested here is the album

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/

blacknife

05-23-2012, 11:57 PM

Skimmer finally crapped out. the shaft for the impeller cracked just above the magnet. skimmer replacement is still waiting on me finding a half decent job.

oh well I all ready pulled out the hob remora pro out, weak tea is better than no tea.

On the other hand if anyone has a skimmer for loan or cheap It would probably make my sps happy.

fishytime

05-24-2012, 04:14 AM

blacknife

05-24-2012, 05:59 PM

I do have lots of glass sitting here, i will just make a new sump... or not lol thanks for the offer :)

blacknife

06-06-2012, 04:26 AM

so i pulled the old workhorse 7 out of the fixture i put the radium in and the 2 pc bulbs were just sitting there doing nothing.. they are a 454 and a 50/50,uvl with internal reflectors.. I just draped them over the glass to see how i like them with the radium and i think they might stay.

that is until i get some end caps and new t5 bulbs to put in instead.

I need to clean up the old pc reflectors and re bend them a bit for t-5s as well.

my only wonder... with these 1-1.5 year old bulbs will my sps color up more or brown out more? I guess just try it for a few weeks and see eh?

sure whats another 192W of electricity/light seeping into my tank going to do... heh break the wallet?

blacknife

06-06-2012, 11:27 PM

I went away for 2 days over the weekend and came home to most of my chalice fraglets dead or having unexplainable damage.

Today I was bagging up some frags to help pay for a skimmer and I see my buddy, the GF's must have orange coloured Protoreaster nodosus right on top of the one untouched frag,.. green eye green rim that was growing slow and steady since i got it at fragfest.

guess what is now half eaten?

can we all guess who is now a resident of the reffugieum/sump area.

The gf's response? "Can I just start a tank to put him and a few seahorses in then?".

she then points at a 14 gallon cube that had some freshwater fish in it till a few days ago. "that would be big enough wouldn't it?"

I just need to remember not to let her talk me into putting things in my tank.

on a side note, new to me skimz sm161 is bubbling away.. I do not have it quite dialled in yet but im sure thats a few week long constant tweaking event.

I only fully lost one challice. is 95 percent gonner, and the other 3 should recover with big dead spots.

the insanity never ends

blacknife

06-15-2012, 05:04 PM

Silly starfish is at it again.. this time I don't mind.

I cut all my GSP off the glass a few weeks ago in hopes of selling the large chunks for cheap. they ended up in the.. anything I don't want in the DT tank also known as a refugeium.

Seems my starfish loves GSP may have been munching it for quite some time in the other tank but I never noticed. Unfortunately it appears It only eats the polyps and leaves the purple base intact, Perhaps one would have a taste for these clove polyps everyone is complaining about.

Enigma

06-15-2012, 06:25 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/2012-04-27_23-39-32_799.jpg

I really love your rock in this tank.

blacknife

06-16-2012, 06:11 PM

I really love your rock in this tank.

Thanks.. I will try to get a similar look when I rebuild.

So I was downstairs watching something on netflix, go upstairs for 20 mins, and my kid starts saying something about the tank dripping. I ignore at first as we were about to come back down to watch a movie. as we come down he starts yelling all excitedly. Before I can even see the water I can hear Power heads and return pumps churning and gurgling in air. Panic sets in.. breakers are shut off for safety.

I look for about 5 mins before I see that the bottom of the 40b is cracked diagonally corner to corner.

2 hours later cracked tank is outside. 15-20 gallons of water are cleaned up. all livestock is crammed into the display and sump.

meh i need to upgrade anyways I just can not do it right now.

blacknife

06-16-2012, 06:28 PM

one mp10 has flaked out after being moved over too. Probably something simple but I am not worried about it right now, to grumpy.

I forgot my mckoskers does not get along with my dotty back and could not see him in the tank. the overflow has netting around it.

i fed everyone and could not see the wrasse and was worried because he got pretty beat up last time.

little bugger is in the baffles in my sump, I did not make those big enough to get a fish net in hah but he can stay down there till i know what the hell i am doing.

cale262

06-16-2012, 07:17 PM

I have a couple dry 30 gallon tanks sitting here if you need something to borrow until you figure out tha DT situation...I even have a dry 170rr acrylic tank if you want to borrow that instead.

blacknife

06-16-2012, 11:03 PM

The gf is out for an hour or 2 might as well sneak that 170 to prove to her i need a bigger tank.:mrgreen:
which of those tanks in your basement was the 170? the one on the tall stand?

ok back to reality heh

Thanks for the offer but I think I can make do for now. I do have a 25g and a 14g cube neither one drilled or clean right now, and a few brand spanking new rubbermaid tubs if I decide to do something crazy.

I got most of the corals into the 55 a few colonies are in the 20g refuge. I need to do something about lighting in there. I have a 250w de pendant but i salvaged the cord when i put the lights together for the 40b. I don't really want to unwire that as it was a little PITA to jam the cord back into the wiring box. I think the original wiring was done in the factory before the box was riveted into place. so the only thing I really need to find is a male plug for a Hamilton ballast. or plug/cord combo. or any 24 inch lighting that will sustain SPS, or to mod my 250w se not hqi that used to be on the 20g that will not fit in the stand the 20 is in now.

It would be nice to keep the same or larger footprint <36x18> on any replacement just for the lighting bits I do have availiable, 18 wide always feels a little cramped to me.

I have a few things on the go for work possibilities but not all of them are local. It would be nice to know if i have to move in the next few months before i get all crazy with bigger tanks.

Must be a little stressed I just re-read this whole post and it seems really scattered oh well

Enigma

06-17-2012, 03:03 AM

Oh my! Any idea why the 40B cracked?

blacknife

06-17-2012, 05:26 AM

old age? I am not sure. I was at least the third owner of it. It was running bare bottom, there are no obvious chips or impact points from the rock, and all my rock looked to be in the same place as it was. I have never checked if it was level, and I have never liked the construction of the stand. I will try to see if it is twisted or not level, as I would like to have an excuse for its cracking. I have a futon sitting on the floor 5 feet away and it does not sit level as there is a crack in the cement there. and the water that spilled out of the tank makes some interesting puddles. The water defiantly does not flow towards the floor drain on the other side of the room.

I don't mind the bare bottom approach but I guess next round I will either run some acrylic or sand.

The mp-10 started working again after being unplugged for a few hours. It was flashing red/green and was totally unresponsive.

I think I made a few new frags today too. I will have to pick through everything as I finish sorting everything out.

once again tank in an unfinished basement, and the power of shop vac saved the day.

cale262

06-17-2012, 05:31 AM

fishytime

06-17-2012, 01:43 PM

:surprise:Holy crap dude that sucks!.....at least it happened when you were home....

blacknife

06-17-2012, 06:58 PM

Yeah i was rather shocked, considering it was at most a half hour I was upstairs. Corals were just starting to be out of the water.:what:

blacknife

06-17-2012, 10:30 PM

overpacked DT: currently running 2xmp10 2xac300 with no media. mj900 with prop and a k2 i think. should be enough flow around all that rock.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-06-17_16-30-29_313.jpg

I think it could survive like this untill i have a bigger tank if need be. as long as i get those frags/colonys on the frag rack thats just wedged between the rock and the glass somewhere.

Jail
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/2012-06-17_16-30-39_345.jpg

all coral packed into the dt now, except for the starfish food that is in the fuge.

My son wanted his fishy out of the sump so I tried without a plan to get it out of the baffles. It quickly jumped in along the heaters then when trying to catch him out of there squeezed under the cryptic rubble/rock area. I've had enough playing with the tank he can stay there if i fish him out i have to shut down the pumps and do a water change as I think it needs a quick cleaning.

blacknife

07-08-2012, 04:24 AM

Just curious when SPS, particularly montis start warfare on eachother will it affect all corals in the tank? a few of mine are fighting, and this week i was a little lazy dosing, and some of them have some damage. First i thoguht it was high alk, or one of the powerheads shifted and was blowing to hard, but now I am a little stumped.

ALK was HIGH at the start of the week. 151 or so on the hanna and is now back down to 135. calcium was down to 320-340 today, way down. kids kept me from testing anything else earlier but perhaps now that they are in bed I will catch up on my reef work.

Oh well time to pull out the chisel, though I am guessing I should go get one just for the tank and not use one that has been collecting who knows what in the garage.

Possibly related but doubtful. I am due for a zeo change ran out of bak this week. I am happy with the zeo results but might just call it quits as its almost time to go work on the road again as the local job hunt is not going well. though this will require acquisition of some kind of replacement for the 40b, perhaps just to run as a fuge section or fuge/frag tank.

right now i have all my extra rock. the mkoskers that the dottyback keeps beating up, and the coral muncher starfish the gf does not want me to get rid of squished in the 20 gallon that should just be the fuge. and I am Pretty sure the starfish is eating every sponge he can get to on the rocks. so much for cryptic LRR fuge.

Ohh one more gripe.. my skimmer that ran quietly for almost a month after getting used decided to start being really loud last week too. nothing looks wrong to the impeller or motor to my eyes but something must be out of whack in it. Cleaned it once last week I will try again. its in the basement so it does not drive me too nuts. but if it was in the living room.. it would be out the window by now.

blacknife

07-27-2012, 05:08 PM

I picked up a used 65 g to put where the 40b used to sit. It happened to come with a stand. Now the gf does not want me to tie it into my system she wants me to set it up as fowlr upstairs somewhere. I guess i need to keep shopping for a frag tank.

Yesterday we had guests, the gf's friend and her three kids. They thought i was downstairs when i was really in the bedroom. While down there the kids were playing in the tank and did something to the starfish, either poking, grabbing, or taking it out of the tank and then squishing it. Try getting the truth out of a four year old an hour or two later. Pretty sure it was the older visiting boys but who knows. I guess its time to skirt in the stands.

blacknife

07-28-2012, 03:24 AM

Moved the 20g up on top of the stand again.. temporary frag tank instead of fuge.. all extra rock is crammed in the sump.. where i did not want it. DT was opened up slightly.

I will be skirting the sump next week.

at least i have a frag tank again.. its nice to have somewhere the frags can grow without constant harassment from large snails, hermits and angry bab/marooons...

Mr coral muncher is happily in the sump with the rock, but all the more reason to skirt the sump in as the kids can easily get in there.

I chipped up some of my fighting monti's yesterday too but some of them are looking pretty dull from poor placement the last month or 2.. but they should get nursed back to health where they are and be able to be shared out soon enough.

blacknife

08-03-2012, 05:16 AM

I am not quite sure how this works.... Starfish eats coral.. Temporarily gets banished to sump..then finds himself a new home in the living room, while all my corals and fish are still in the dungeon.

set up a 65g upstairs over the last few days, decided tonight to throw protesttar coraleatius in there as well as one baby conch.

Tank quickly went from its planned ST-fowlr to starfish with all the softies I don't want to spread through my frag tank. I believe its official tittle is "The girlfriend wants it but I don't want it in my tank".

It only got half the sand I planned on. I had a bucket and a half of sugar sized which took its time in the buckets well. I had another bucket and a half or 2 buckets of CC mixed with sugar fine and it was solid black and smelly even after some washing... gross. There is enough for the current inhabitants. It is sumpless and currently skimmerless, so I was contemplating a DSB. Low maintenance is priority. I need to figure out some good critters to suggest she put in there once its stabilized in a couple months.

blacknife

08-16-2012, 11:24 PM

I guess I will have a few more frags to get rid of for fragfest or whenever.
I have been trying to find something interesting to put in the starfish tank upstairs.. trying to keep the tank low maintnance fowlr.

so i am talking to the gf about my tank telling her i want to try to round up all the mini gbta and bta and get rid of them. she tells me to put the clownfish and some of the nems in the FO tank. my two questions were something about does that mean i can buy leds to keep the BTA's alive?, and can the dottyback go too? I think the leds were a yes and the dottyback was a firm no.

SO the next part was catching the maroons in the 55 with to much rock in it. 4 buckets of water and 3/4 of the rock moved now they are out of my tank.

Re-scaping shall wait untill the kids are in bed..I should pick up some more glue before than as i have a feeeling the frags are not finished smashing themselves free of the rocks.

On a plus note it looked like there was lots of detrius in the sand under the rocks where i can never get to so i did about 15g of sand siphoning water change ... 15g of brownish stank water I wonder if thats why the sps have not been looking their best the last month and a half or so.

the 2 biggest pigs of my tank are now out which gives me some more room to play, I love my neon dottyback but i should have caught him while i had the tank half drained just because he is so mean..

blacknife

08-23-2012, 08:59 PM

Quick FTS of the redone rock.. might stay this way for now.

Upstairs FOWLR+starfishfood+nems:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/aug12tank/Patricks.jpg

Dungeon DT FTS:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/aug12tank/DTFTS.jpg

Dungeon Fragtank FTS:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/aug12tank/FRAGTANKFTS.jpg

Alot of things were out of position with either to much or not enough light while i had all the rock crammed in one tank so nothing really looks good right now. I was having some good colors and growth earlier this summer before things started breaking and acting up, so hopefully it goes back to that way.
I am sick of some of my 1-2 year old frags still looking like frags while I know some people I have sold/given frags too have had enough growth to pass them along all ready.

I chiseled/smashed most of the encrusting sps off some rocks that went up to the starfish tank, but the chunks came out pretty small, I guess just leave them in place and let them grow unless they magically heal up before fragfest.

I only have PC lights on the tank with the clowns in it. the nems in there were all cheap/free if they keep on looking good i might have to get a nicer one in there. I wanted to get rid of all the little mini bta's on that one zoa rock but i could not get them off so the whole rock went up there they just split to much to keep in my other tank. one batch all splits as soon as they get a little bigger than a toonie, and the other ones were about 4 inches across then just split before i decided to move them here

blacknife

08-30-2012, 10:58 PM

My pump is putting out lots of micro bubbles.

I don't think its the plumbing, I think I got all the leaks with that out a few months ago.

I just went to clean the strainer again<cleaned it last night> and after I pulled off the strainer my pump started making buzzing noises.

can't do anything till the kids are in bed but here is hoping it just needs a good cleaning<never ever cleaned it yet since purchased used a couple years ago... doh>

blacknife

09-02-2012, 04:43 AM

Something has been munching on my zoa's, the last few days it has been eating toonie+ sized chunks out of previously healthy mats. the last three days it has all been confined to one rock, a fist sized rock with mostly goldeneyes on it.

now the rock is in about 10 pieces and i have one of those nasty worms <enuncid?> with the three feeding tentacles by its mouth, sitting in a container beside the tank. heh.. I tried to take some pics of it but I need a better container or to not be distracted by the rest of things in life for a few mins to set up a shot of the little demon.

hopefully That is the only one.

blacknife

09-21-2012, 09:48 PM

I have been slowly moving most of the lps and zoa's up to the 65g with the clowns in it.
I have been running a calcium reactor since fragfest, and its almost dialled in now. I do not have a controller or solenoid yet, just started slow and slowly bumped it up until it maintains ca and alk. my ca is steady and high< it was high when i started trying to dial it in> and the alk fluctuates with the changes.

most of my sps are slowly getting more colour but they still seem dull to me. one of my bluish acros turned grey back after the tank cracked and the new growth is finally vibrant blue again but the grey has not left the body. it is also growing uneven as it is almost in front of the AC70 fuge and my return. I think i might get a sea swirl for the return, or another mp10 or a 40, and ditch the fuge.

I have a few possible upgrades in the near future. A friend who is downsizing offered me a 180g for a good price, problem is its in Calgary, also perhaps a 150 from a fellow canreefer with a cracked bottom. thinking depending on glass size and condition the 150 could get cut down to a 48x30x12 frag tank instead of the 48x24x30 as it sits but who knows as this has not been discussed with the gf yet:)

After not working all summer I start work again on tuesday unfortunately I have to work on the road, 10 day shifts for now, right when my sps are looking good. i will have to give the GF a crash course on zeo, and if she cannot do that perhaps switch to some other form of dosing to keep nutrients down. The plus side is that means its time to buy some toys for the tank. Right now I think I am sold on a reef-angel controller. I have some computer programing background but do not want to do a full diy audrino controller, I think the reef angel has enough packed into it for its price to give the bigger names a run. I would love a proliflux but can not justify the price... <yet heh>

blacknife

10-14-2012, 06:40 AM

so the GF likes wrasses..... 55g sps tank... 65g fowlr+zoanthids..+lps

are my tanks even big enough 55 has a dottyback, scopas, target manderin, and lawnmower... 65 has a pair of gold stripe maroons and a ssb-dsb

want to try some nicer looking wrasses... more googling will follow once the current beer goggles are off.. but.. will anything from bwa upcomming hawian order fit in my tank.. preferably a pair, but will run anything that might work past the powers that be.

I have googled most of the wrasses on that order before but ...... right now while the lights are out i am more concerned with what might make the tank more interesting...

also considering something for algae control for the 65.. either another tang, or blenny, but i am worried if i have to recombine everything into a single larger tank at a later date THAT EVERYONONE .. dammed caps.. .has a chance of getting along..

I am not ruling out moving the dottyback either to the frag tank or to the lfs for bait.. as it has allready beat up a few potential additions including a mcoskers that is in my frag tank that might like to have other friends instead...

...

blacknife

10-17-2012, 02:39 AM

My corals have a major hate on me right now.

the day of fragfest.. my control for one of my mp10s fell in the tank. not replaced yet.

that day i picked up a used calcium reactor.. played with it for a few weeks and thought it got stabalized, stopeed testing for a week or so as i was busy with work, corals look funny, so i test.. alk is higher than usual(169@hanna) which is high for zeo, so i turn off the co2 for a few days.

in those few days my kind of noisy skimmer <skimz 161 with es2800> gets really noisy and stops skimming, or even pumping more than a trickle of water.

then yesterday i realized that all powerheads but my one mp10 that still works were turned off for 2-3 days as they are on the same powerbar as the skimmer.... and i was really frustrated at the skimmer and forgot to turn them on.

come today and i come home and my skimmer is moved from where it was<outside the tank to outside the tank> and for some reason there is a puddle of water under it. the pieces of controller for my mp10 that does not work is not on the shelf beside the tank any more but is now in the bottom of my tank. after some yelling and invasion by mom my 5yo admits to playing with the skimmer and says the cat knocked the controller in. the cat was the suspect for the contrller all along but the fact my kid blames the cat makes me wonder if it was him heh.

my corals that were just starting to look nice again after the tank crack back in the spring summer are all looking like crap.. some are bleached some have burnt tips.. algaee that was almost under control is growing.. and .. i .... just ... want.... a bigger tank that is worth skinning in and building cabinets/cubpoards for that will keep cats/kids out..

daplatapus

10-17-2012, 03:48 AM

Ugh, sorry dude. Sounds like a bad run. I feel for ya.

blacknife

10-23-2012, 01:52 AM

added victim to my list.

1x250w radium bulb. approx one month use. was going to be switched out in the next month or so for the year old bulb currently on the tank.

it was 7 feet in the air on my shelf by the tank, currently housing all my fish stuff that needs to be kept away from the kids. a few weeks ago the gf moved the cat tree beside the shelf and i guess it took till today for the cat to try to climb up there, perhaps he thought it would be an easy jump into the kitty pool from there..

perhaps the frag tank will be moving to led's sooner than i thought.

on a side note.. any store in Ed carry radiums?

got my calcium reactor stabalized again, and did a 30% wc on the weekend.. coral stn/alkburn/random death appears to have slowed down. hopefully things only get better or i will be going FOWLR for a while. sick of seeing the $$ turn white and throw flesh off in the tank..

Hah on a related/similar note I not sure i want to add any fish right now even though some nice ones are comming in, and i was contemplating some wrasses off BWA's hawiian order.

blacknife

11-08-2012, 04:08 PM

damit another possible vicim of cat,child, equipment age.. my other mp10 controller fell into the water while i was gone. I thought i had all the cords done tied to the pegboard its on good enough that they would not touch but noo.. it was apparently just hanging in enough to get a little water in the housing but there is a big fried black mark up the middle of it, a little scary it could have started a tank side fire.

this weekends project.. to skin the tank area, making it cat and child proof, wether it looks sexy or not.

I also have not tested my levels yet but someone/thing pulled the feed tube to my calcium reactor out of the water so who knows how long that has been overloading itself<no controller yet doh>

it is obvious which corals are going to pull through and still look good and which are all ready done or probably not going to make it from all these adventures.

all my t5-s are past due for change.. sitting about 11 months right now but I'm going to stretch it out and either go led or upgrade to a more modular MH system<pendants of some kind> I am sick of these 2 little tanks tied together i want something that fills the same space 6-8 feet, unfortunately that wont be in the budget till after christmas unless something falls into my lap.

mr_alberta

11-08-2012, 04:24 PM

I do have a used 6' 135G setup with steel stand and sump sitting in the back of my shop right now Jon...cheap cheap.

blacknife

11-25-2012, 03:24 AM

Enjoyed the meet today, a few new faces I have not met before.

Finally saw and played with the maxspect razor at AI, I still like it and think it looks good for the upstairs tank, but am still tempted to see what i could pull off for DIY for the same price, perhaps over christmas.

I got a few new additions while at Marine experience, and with all the talking at the meet on the drive home i made a couple decisions.

I wrecked my aquascaping that i liked to get to the neon dotty back and finally get him out of the tank. Not sure if I want him gone for good but I want to add a few more fish in there and not worry about him going aggro.

I pulled all the frags from the frag tank and spread them on the dt. fixed the few accidental frags that allways happen when you move rocks smothered in sps, and called it good.

I want to cut down the fish space/expense in the basement for a bit while i save up for upgrades and running a MH light on a bunch of burnt out frags is not really saving heh. something about the thought of wanting to put a nice lookdown frag table in its place has my gears spinning today.

blacknife

12-11-2012, 12:18 AM

While leaving for a 10 day shift at six am this morning noticing the co2 cylinder will be empty by the end of the day= fail.

Oh well things in that tank can't look any worse than they do now anyway.

blacknife

12-31-2012, 09:22 PM

I don't need this $h1+ right now: domestic problems in the house so I Might have to shut things down and start over again at another time.

65g sumpless 2 maroons, bicolor blenny, manderin dragonet, cleaner wrasse, lots of zoas + lps, lots of rocks up for easy pickins

55g sps tank, lawnmower blenny, scopas tank, lots of struggling sps corals and lots of rocks. no hardware from this tank at this time.

probably post it up in the for sale section if i get time to take pictures.

Pm me to make any offers or suggestions

blacknife

01-01-2013, 05:54 AM

Drama averted... as usual more to it than that but The gf has to much going on when I am away at work and doesn't want to deal with the tanks. talked down to leaving them as is or perhaps shutting one down untill i can get the new tank setup.

on a positive note after a week of fiddling around at night when i can I finally popped the overflow off the new tank. it was in very tight to the main glass so tight i can not get a blade in everywhere. the main pains are the same way. Hopes are to strip it apart, change it to an external overflow + wave box, then rebuild it.

then build all the important things like stand, new sump, controller, and extra hardware to make it low maintenance and automatic so the gf and kids can just enjoy it.

Debating going off the zeo, but i will try to get a controller and small doser first before i do something drastic like that :)

BTW

HAPPY NEW YEAR

<celibrating in style with a beer and working on the tank hah>

blacknife

02-10-2013, 03:07 AM

tank.. is slowly turning around.

running MH now just because

bleached some corals with said mh.

corals that did not bleach are growing and getting better color slowly:rainbowa:

I was planning on getting a second lumenarc 2 reflector and good bulb for the new build, but unless something falls in my lap its only a little bit more to trial that new Rapid led light on the current settup, since for that price it seems so much easier than full diy which was my other option for the new build. I am planning no holds barred on it but also not putting a timeline on it so really how hard is it to spend 300$ to try out something when i have spent XXXhundred on junk and livestock that has been killed over the last few years.

kien

02-10-2013, 04:27 AM

Pics? :-)

So the switch over to MH was just a whim then?

blacknife

02-10-2013, 06:05 AM

Pics, bah my tank is a mess of barely alive but recovering sps frags/mini colonies with rock covered in apistasia. When I was thinking of a new build i thought i would "cheap" out on mh for a while, really I have been keeping my eyes for used lumenarc 2 reflectors for a while, when one came up at the right price i got it. I need another or some led's by the time the new tank comes up. its amazing how much more light gets into the tank from lumenarc/pheonix/magnetic ballast than with the 250w DE cheapo fixture or the t5ho unit thats now on my low maintenance tank. Also i was not digging the t-5 look, though I could use some t5 or led actinic to extend viewing hours. The lumenarc also throws more of a square which does not evenly light up my 36x18 tank right now.
the pheonix in the fixture supposedly has 6 months on it so i figured get everything growing again then try radium out again once corals aclimate to having proper light.

honestly I am just trying to get everything cleaned up and growing so it looks good when it goes into the new tank.

blacknife

03-01-2013, 02:00 AM

ok.. impending doom upon the fishtanks as stated a few months back.

my sps tank is slowly turning around. progress on new build is barely crawling along. low maintnance tank keeps getting forgotten about.

Playing with a few short term options.

Shutdown the upstairs tank, sell off what ever coral won't fit in the downstairs tank, sell or cook the rock. use any proffits towards new build.

move upstairs tank to the basement, drill a couple holes into it and tie it into the sps system, either the way it is or as a large LRR. thus adding a crapload of nutrients to the sps system, but who knows that might help things at this point.

hoping i wont have to renovate the house and sell it in a few months but that is not out of the picture yet either, hopfully if i have to move i will have the new build done for the new place.

on top of all that i REALLY need to get a controller and an automated feeder, in case i have to start going on the road again just to keep things sane around the house for the time being.... end of rant

ideas anyone ? buy a couple tangs for the upstairs tank to clean off all the lps and zoas then move all of them on? mostly HA a little other stuff

blacknife

03-14-2013, 10:31 PM

90% done the transfer, Crammed all the rock into the sump, the 20gLRR and the stuff with corals on it into the DT. still need to transfer some frag sized corals, move the fish and other critters, and sell off/trade/give away some oddballs.

I woke up today minus my male maroon clown that has been around since the start, he was fine last night i assume he jumped and got nibbled, also while moving all the rock i saw none of my shrimp, last week i still had 2 peppermints and 2 fire shrimp. hopefully they are still there somewhere.

all the zoa's opened up under the Phoenix right away so i guess they did not get shocked to much by the move, if they start shrinking from ulns instead of growing i will have to re home them. At least for now they can be cleaned up by team algae munch.

blacknife

07-08-2013, 01:49 AM

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/07/08/ase8unaz.jpgI think it would be safe to start shutting this tank down.
Livestock only at this point. If you see anything that interests you pm an offer. I will post individual items for sale when I have time

blacknife

01-01-2014, 06:30 AM

Tank has been unattended since august. Finnaly saw it today. Agter getting the kids to bed and shovelling the walks I figured I could see what is up. Reffugeium had 0 flow to it but this looks to be recent as the water is still high. Skimmer pooched and microbubbling, now cleaned removed one destroyed cerith shell still needed new impeller. Return pump, drasticaly reduced flow, no time to clean that today but I think its slowly getting pooched.

Remaining fish scopas tang and a few cardinals.
Most sps gone..
Most lps.. gone my acans apparently were launching out of their sceletons at some ponint at least there are a few scattered survivors..
Zoas and palys.. some colonys totaly disapeared, a few thriving

Xenia.. monstor sized. Grew up through a few of my sps choking them out..

Hydroids.. a few new patches on rocks they were not on..

Random pest anenemies.. only one huge apastasia in the refugeium..many ..manajoes in the display and a few of those mini bubletip bastards left too but they look scungy not nice like they used to.

Pulled the zeo reactor out since.. there is no point.. then knocked my automatic fish feeder in dumping all the food In...

Hoping the water for a waterchange will finish mixxing before she comes home and I am done here.

Oh well it was nice while it lasted..

Think I am going to try to keep it in this state untill I can set up the next tank. Next build or even the fixing of this one will be lower maintnance.. try to avoid getting the sps bug and hopefully set up to survive up to 6 week shifts...

The 7 foot is parked, I might still use it and the glass for the 105 is still sitting outside in the snow against the stand for the 7 foot, guess I will hoard that for future use too since it never got picked up.

Happy new year!

gregzz4

01-01-2014, 06:37 AM

Sucks to come home to this
Sounds like it's time for you to bail out until you have more time to keep your critters happy and alive

Happy New Year !

blacknife

01-01-2014, 06:41 AM

Separated with no contact order changed in the last few days.. I would have sold the tank months ago if life was that easy.

Now there is not much woth selling.

gregzz4

01-01-2014, 07:53 AM

Separated with no contact order changed in the last few days.. I would have sold the tank months ago if life was that easy.

Now there is not much woth selling.
Frig. Sorry to hear about that

Don't worry about selling stuff if you can afford to hang onto it
Focus on what you can keep in boxes for later and make a comeback when you can

Well, things can only go uphill (positive) for you from here :boink:
If I were close enough you'd have some help with the bulky stuff

Sorry to hear you're starting the New Year this way, but I gotta tell ya ...

I've been through a couple New Years, and each one is better than the last :wink:

Alright, I lied
That's the crap my GrandPa tried to feed me when I was 5
Honestly, it only gets better when you are happy, and you are only happy when it's better

Chin up dude, it gets better :biggrin: Really :hug:

blacknife

01-01-2014, 08:42 AM

Chin is up lol.. just thought it was time for a tank update

gregzz4

01-01-2014, 09:03 AM

Well, with a chin as big as Quagmire's I'm sure you'll get through :wink: :lol:

blacknife

09-12-2014, 05:08 PM

Working in Sylvan lake and renting a place.. Was going to start a small aio.. But asked the landlord if I could start a small tank.. I defined small as 10 to 40 gallons.. And got the green light.. I probably only be here another 10 months or so so I don't want anything to extravagant.. Just something to keep my feet wet... Where then I can finally shut down my 55 tank of most neglect

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

blacknife

09-13-2014, 01:00 AM

Half debating just relocating my whole tank here since asking the landlord went so smoothly... would want to either rebuild my sump or get a smaller sump and new return pump.. kind of want to go internal so if there ever is any plumbing problems it spills back into the sump.

Or stick to my first idea.. something small and simple.. Cube coral tank.. perhaps a few fish..

cube would probably be a in kitchen project.. any other shape,size would be bedroom.. headboard reef perhaps?

blacknife

09-15-2014, 02:57 AM

moved the tank to Sylvan today... forgot my ro at the other house.. so i guess it can sit the way it sits for now 3/4 full and packed full of rock.

3 pajama cardinals and 1 scopas tang, and a few snails are the obvious survivors..

remaining coral. a few random palys and zoa's, one frag of 15-20 nuclear deaths. 2 large chunks of xenia, one or 2 blue mushrooms a bunch of bright green rodaddactis mushrooms, 1 mini carpet nem, a few bubletip lookalike pest nems. and that is all of note..

I dont want to use the sump that i have, the tank is 36 wide and the sump is 42.. kind of want to finally skirt this thing in.. was debating just using the tote i used to move some rock but then my ato won't function...

oh well.. ill get it figured out.. and those little fuzzy sticks will grow again

intarsiabox

09-15-2014, 03:18 AM

A standard 30g tank is 36"L and would make a good sump for your size of tank. Used ones go for pretty cheap. Good luck getting your tank all back together, moving a SW tank is a ton of work.

blacknife

09-28-2014, 12:39 PM

I bought a 20 long for a sump. small rubber maid for the input/skimmer chamber. This should do until I build or get built a custom sump. Might move some of my excess live rock down there as well, like my peice that 2 years later is still battling dychiota<sp algee>.

Skimmer is not working good as it used to but still pretty good.. a bunch of the pins on the impeller are busted off but there are enough to do the job for the current bioload.

Was debating just doing fish only.. but... now that everything is running again the tank seems empty without some sps in it.
Gotta track down a few cheap starter frags before i get anything fancy again i guess.

blacknife

10-22-2014, 10:38 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/20141022_162400_47A%20Ave.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/nakedboy/media/20141022_162400_47A%20Ave.jpg.html)

Crappy quick cell phone FTS

Went home for a few days to see the kids.. come back and one of my 2 sps test pieces is not doing good. Its not done yet but I do not have much hope.. and to make it worse i decided to **** with the tank more after that.. pulled a bit more rock out to open it up. added some sand to block the light getting down to the sump and.. because i kind of missed having sand.. not much just 1/3 of a bag of seafloor grade. Now i need to get me some sand snails.

I need to build or get built a new sump.. i really don't like this using a plain tank, My first day of days off i was in calgary and did stop and concepts but just my luck everyone was busy on a call.

I am on the fence, probably decide after i get the sump issues sorted out.. to start up the zeo again, and sell off all the "sump rock" or leave all the rock in there and not bother with any crazy ULNS system.... dammed fuzzy sticks why do i like growing you..

blacknife

05-12-2015, 07:28 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/Mobile%20Uploads/20150512_130431.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/nakedboy/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150512_130431.jpg.html)

So.. i had a few problems with my ato while in sylvan.. no more sticks. same problems killed one clam that i picked up... moved back to leduc... problem ato died in the move.. so did some of my last few fish and one shrimp. rushed unplanned move.. had no choice.

just over a month later.. things are looking good.. new fish settled in... almost tempted to get some cheap fuzzy sticks again. I wont be working on the road again for a while.. i just got put on disability while i wait for an operation.. dammed work wont put me on modified duties... it kind of sucks as im going to be pretty broke.. but on another note.. i will have lots of time.. perhaps time enough to tackle....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/Mobile%20Uploads/20150512_125928.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/nakedboy/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150512_125928.jpg.html)

the 105 i got from Wayne ... 3 years ago now?

if i can get it built and holding water.. then i will build a nice stand for it.. then.. it might be time for fuzzy sticks again :)

Might have to start a new tank journal as well.

blacknife

08-04-2015, 09:40 PM

I write this journal more for myself than for you guys, so i can keep track of the antics of trying to keep a tank through the possess of separation and having three little monsters.

My tank looks like crap.

the tang i bought back in may, about a month after I got it.. i thought i was out of the woods with it, well one night the cleaner shrimp start riding on it and picking on it.. the next day its a gonner. all ready at that point i was having more HA than in the last posts pics. with no tang just a couple snails picking at the algae the algae got worse and worse and worse, I doubled my GFO up from a quarter to a half a cup and the algae seemed to like it even more and get worse.

I mixed up a batch of water.. and did not use it for a week or three, I go to look in my mixing barel and the water is labout 95 degrees with a thick layer of precipitate.. im like what the hell..

go through a bought of checking all my heaters.. to discover one on my tank is also on on one of those thirty degree days when the tank is 86-88 degrees and the heater is on as well.

down to one heater that works on the tank, and one that works for top up<although the dial is about ten degrees off> ever since fixing the heaters the tank has not toped 80 degrees even on the hottest days.

get the water all to the same temps and do a 10 gallon change<with the screwed up water>

back to the hair algae.. i got some turbo snails.. was like half way done acclimating them something came up and i had to leave.. so i just dumped them in anyways... come home and most of them are still sitting in the same spot stunned. one or two of them perk up and slowly munch away.

one or two die... or i thought they were dead.. so i pick them out with the tongs.. in front of my 7 year old. one was dead and one was just stunned.. the stunned one goes back the dead one i put in the garbage.

next day all the snails i bought are still there but any of my old ones are missing. i get really puzzled and frustrated.. looking in there every time i pass by my tank looking for the missing snails and to see if the few new ones are dead.

somewhere along the line i do another 10 gallon change

no change in the snails
so i buy two more snails while I am in Edmonton.. acclimate them properly

they start off ok, but by the next day they are laying around the bottom not doing anything either.
so I am really frustrated by now

My sons room starts stinking.. it smells kind of gross.. i think one of the kids or dogs must have done a one or a two or both in something and hid it instead of telling me.. get him to clean his room. low and behold these two teeny disposable zip lock containers buried in his room under dirty clothes and blankets.. I honestly thought there was poo and pee floating in them so i got him to put on gloves and clean up his mess but as he carry's them past me i notice its not poo and pee.. but rotting snails... all my missing snails... stinking that whole quadrant of the house up. He has all ways thought its funny to do what dad does and make little tanks everywhere in random objects but i thought i had him out of the habit of taking things out of my tank over two years ago.>

so a week goes by and I am in Edmonton again. I go in to MA with intent to get a couple more snails but thankfully Harvey starts asking me lots of questions and gets me thinking more.

I haven't tested water in forever.. all my test kits are outdated and im not getting new ones till i have stable income again.. but his conclusion is contaminants from the tank or something from the precipitated water is so out of wack its killing them. I get home from that visit set to clean out my water barrel and make more water.. only to find both my cleaner shrimp are done and some of my corals are looking even more rough, I can see most of my mini brittles.. they are not hiding as usual they are more like floating near where they normaly hide, even the brisstle worms are in on the sick.. big chunks of worm lazily hanging on to rock and floating around in the current instead of consciously probing for detrius... panic sets in.

vinegar wash of the brute barrel, let it fill.. mix salt as quick as i can.. and do a change when the kids are not awake and bam.. within minutes the snails start to perk up. not all of them some are st ill rough. so i mix up another barrel and finally today, 3 days after the last change i get to change another barrel. my brute filled to where i put the float switch is about a 27g water change, in a 55 gallon tank + sump so i have probably done a 1/3 water change twice in the last 4 days now. snails are all perking up more.

downside is now I am out of salt, I have one clam in there otherwise I don't really have need of REEF salt, I missed out on someone selling 25$pails of IO on the Edmonton reef group the other day, I guess ill just have to get a tub of io or reefcrystals and keep up the big water changes for a bit till the HA goes away. Perhaps then My disposable income level will come back up.

I put in new gfo today, using the last of the bit i had.. upped it to 3/4 a cup, and fresh carbon (1/2 cup as usual).

I looked at pics of my tank from when it was growing sps like mad and it just made me sad. one day it might be back that way.

blacknife

08-19-2015, 06:23 AM

Finally unpacked my test kits. DOH, I been back in this house since april.. through a few away after attempting to get results out of expired kits.

Po4 .07 I guess thats why my hair algae keeps on getting on.

the ok news PO4 out of my GFO reactor .01, and in my new water .00

I guess keep on pulling out the HA with the (as of late) frequent water changes, and stay on top of the GFO. I kind of think i probably had High phosphates the whole time i lived in sylvan lake but my now passed scopas tang was hiding any signs of it.
(tang didnt survive the rushed move home in winter temps)
Side note.. alk is low 5 in tank and 6 in fresh reef crystals(easy fix) and ca is high 500 in tank. My MG kit was one of the bunk ones. tanks a long way away from seeing fuzzy sticks again.

blacknife

01-06-2017, 04:42 AM

Tank is looking awesome for something that only has a few corals and 3 fish. unfortunately i might have to start a NEW tank journal soon since i have been building a tank up over the holidays. trying to figure out the nicest way to do this for my poor sps since the new tank needs to go where the old tank is. Plumbed in a 55 gal holding tank to make the outgoing transfer easier, not sure if i can tie it in to the new system after i get everything moved into place, here is hopping. I will at least take a couple good pics for a final FTS before i tear it down.

blacknife

01-09-2017, 02:42 AM

I forgot to take a fts before teardown, so here is a "damn im glad i only made one frag" quick shot of the new setup. Hoping the cycle is pretty light. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170109/dc9d809edc9a3a777b83b18696973b07.jpg

blacknife

03-09-2017, 05:20 PM

my corals need more poo

blacknife

05-18-2018, 08:16 PM

been lurking forever but no updates. so.. tank had one hickup early summer last year.. corals rebounded... started having minor hickups before christmass, updated peices here and there.. including ading a neptune atk instead of just replacing my float valves on my jbj or moving them to my apex.
think i bought that back on thanksgiving.

have had nothing but ato related failures since then.. a few different ones.. but now down to either just repeatedly failed sensors/defective sensor port

most of my sps are dead.. i had a few barely hanging on a few weeks ago.. but i moved one of my power heads it blew some sand around and over a few days all my remaining newer sps rtn/stn.. guessing the ole disturb the sand and screw your tank syndrome.. i am down to a couple ancient monties barely hanging on. have not tested sh@#$ all through most of the mess.. i know whats wrong most of the time.

not getting rid of the tank but.. almost that frustrated.

fish are supposed to be to make the corals nice looking not be the only thing to look at but for now ill be fowlr+ whatever left.
also going to slowly suck out the sanded.. leaving a very shallow layer in with whatever rubble is in there.

currently running the top off outlet on a timer and relying on the float valve. but things are staying stable that way instead of ... drying out the return chamber.. burning out pumps.. and having the tank go empty like it was before...