Ryans 240 gallon tank.

[Ryanst]

Well I will start off by telling every one all the tanks I had in the last year. I started up my old 29 gallon biocube in may of 2009, in september I got a red sea max 250, then in like february i got my 220 gallon tank. About 3 weeks ago I found out that I had to move so i decided to get an new tank again. lol I bought a 240 gallon 96 x 24 x 24 tank from marine aquaria. I set up the tank on may 29 and moved everything the following thursday.
This picture was taken on the 1st of june.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/P6020001.jpg
This is another picture taken on thursday the 3rd
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/P6030002.jpg
and a couple on saturday
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/P6040021.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/P6040022.jpg
and my crosshatch trigger
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/P6030012.jpg

With the rush during the move I accidently put a few of my sps to close to the top and they bleached. If they dont make it that will be the only casualties of the move. There will be many more pictures to come later on.

[Pazil]

Awesome setup

[cuz]

no messin around eh!! that was quick, looks sweet!!

[conix67]

Nice setup! I wish I had a tank of that size...

[Ryanst]

Thanks for the nice comments. I will be getting some new corals in a couple of weeks to replace the few that I lost and I have more room now for them.
Here is a picture of one of my dead corals.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/deadcoral.jpg
and a picture of my pylei fairy wrasse
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/fish.jpg

[plutoniumJoe]

Thanks for the nice comments. I will be getting some new corals in a couple of weeks to replace the few that I lost and I have more room now for them.
Here is a picture of one of my dead corals.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/deadcoral.jpg
and a picture of my pylei fairy wrasse
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/fish.jpg

Wow! Beautiful tank. Looking forward to seeing it progress. The bleached corals are beautiful in their intricacy even when they are dead.

- Joe.

[Ryanst]

Ok well the tank has been up and running for 2 weeks now everything looks pretty good. Here is some updated pictures.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1472.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1476.jpg
Some side tank shots
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1489.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1491.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1488.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1486.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tIMG_1482.jpg
I currently am running the zeovit system and it seems to be working really well. The lighting is 4 double ended 250watt 13000k geisman bulbs with t5 actinic supplimental lighting.

[Ryanst]

I forgot to say that I also added a couple more peices of rock.

[Delphinus]

Looks great! How big is the crosshatch?

[Ryanst]

Looks great! How big is the crosshatch?
Its probably around four and a half inches maybe a little less.

[Ryanst]

I dont know what to do with the glass on the back. Should I paint it or just leave it clear? I eventually want to have just vortechs so there wont be as many cords running down the back. Its nice to be able to go back and see stuff i want to suck up during a water change.

[Ryanst]

A couple pictures of my new addition a marine betta

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1550.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1553.jpg
and a few more pictures

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1558.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1561.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1556.jpg

I will post some pictures of my Achilles tang and Powder Blue tang when they come in.

[Ryanst]

I got my marine betta to eat some mysis shrimp and chopped mussel today. Hopefully pretty soon I wont have to spot feed him way inside my rocks. Everytime i stick the tongs in to try and feed the marine betta my trigger eats half the food before I get it in the rocks.

[Ryanst]

Well I have flooded my basement twice in the last week. The one last night was pretty bad though. I left my 200 gpd rodi on last night and a quarter of my basement is wet. So right now I am trying to soak the water out of the rug and I have big fans set up to help it evaporate. I was pretty lucky though the water was just at the powerbars and stuff behind my tank when I noticed it was still on.

[andestang]

Welcome to the flood club ! Probably won't be your last. Seriously though I hope it all cleans up Ok. I had one myself today with my 33g set-up, never have had a water disaster with this set up, so you just never know.

[Ryanst]

Well I have now purchased a timer for my rodi so that it doesnt overflow again. Today I decided to upgrade my rodi with a couple more filters I now have 2 white prefilters and 2 di resin.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1585.jpg
here is a picture of my fish room i will be installing shelves so that i can organize a little more.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1587.jpg
and this is my new addition still in quaranteen a powder blue tang.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_1584.jpg

[Lance]

Uh Oh. Somebody posted the wrong pic. :mrgreen:

[Skimmerking]

just hook up a float valve to the tub and then your ro/di will stop when the float valve is topped off.

[lastlight]

One thing I notice when I do my weekly manual topup of my reservoir...there is TDS creep every single time. That is weekly. I can also turn the ro/di off for 10 minutes and still get creep.

So what I do is bypass the DI resin for a minute or two until the TDS after the membrane is 3 or less. then I run it through the resin and into wherever I want good water. This saves your resin from a constant butt kicking.

In my opinion doing manual fills in this way will allow your media to go much further. Not that you asked for my opinion but...:biggrin:

Fish room's looking food btw!

[Delphinus]

Agree with Brett except that the fish room doesn't look like food at all to me. But I'm tired and maybe just not seeing it. Plus I just loaded up on some beef jerky so I'm not all that hungry, no salty snacks for at least 10 more minutes.

[lastlight]

looking food. what the heck am I smoking?

[Ryanst]

Ok I finally fixed the picture problem. lol

[Ryanst]

just hook up a float valve to the tub and then your ro/di will stop when the float valve is topped off.

I was thinking of getting a float valve but i have been filling up these tubs for a while now and 3 and a half hours is pretty much perfect and the timer was only 10 bucks.

One thing I notice when I do my weekly manual topup of my reservoir...there is TDS creep every single time. That is weekly. I can also turn the ro/di off for 10 minutes and still get creep.

So what I do is bypass the DI resin for a minute or two until the TDS after the membrane is 3 or less. then I run it through the resin and into wherever I want good water. This saves your resin from a constant butt kicking.

In my opinion doing manual fills in this way will allow your media to go much further. Not that you asked for my opinion but...:biggrin:

Fish room's looking food btw!

That is a good idea I have noticed that whenever i turn on my rodi without a brand new di it always starts at like 5ppm then goes down to 0ppm.

[hillegom]

I can't quite follow your RO/DI plumbing, but tell me you do not have your DI before the membrane.

[Ryanst]

I can't quite follow your RO/DI plumbing, but tell me you do not have your DI before the membrane.

haha no. lol. I attemped to make a paint drawing but it failed badly. lol the water comes from the one sediment filter on the right unit then into the sediment filter on the left unit. Then i took the line from the ro and ran it to the di on the right unit then back to the left one so that the inline tds meter still works. I dont know if this description is better then my drawing or not but whatever I could always attempt the drawing again. :biggrin:

[Ryanst]

Ok i made another drawing just in case my description wasnt good enough. It kinda looks like my ro out is waste water but it isnt I just took the line the one di and brought it to the other. The waste line goes out the window.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/rodidrawingpic.png

[hillegom]

Its starting to make more sense now. How does the membrane tie in?

[Ryanst]

Its starting to make more sense now. How does the membrane tie in?

This is how the membrane ties in.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/rodidrawingpic2.png

[andestang]

I have the same Vertex RO/DI unit and I notice your middle chamber also has air in it. While its running have you ever bleed(loosen the clear canister then retighten) the air out and notice how much better it runs ? I find the booster pump cycles on and off lots untill I bleed the air out and also my TDS readings will also fall. I'm sure that it is not normal for the air to be in there, if the unit is sealed properly where would it come from, what do you think ? As a note I've been sent a new canister, o-ring and mounting plate with no change.

[Ryanst]

I have the same Vertex RO/DI unit and I notice your middle chamber also has air in it. While its running have you ever bleed(loosen the clear canister then retighten) the air out and notice how much better it runs ? I find the booster pump cycles on and off lots untill I bleed the air out and also my TDS readings will also fall. I'm sure that it is not normal for the air to be in there, if the unit is sealed properly where would it come from, what do you think ? As a note I've been sent a new canister, o-ring and mounting plate with no change.

If the are gets lower then it is now I usually bleed it so not as much air goes through the booster pump. After I bleed mine their wont be any air in it till I change either the carbon or a sediment filter. Mine still sometimes runs really loud though even when there is no air in it.

[Greenmaster]

Wow that was a quick set up... Wish mine could go that fast.
Do you find you have any problems with the bare bottom?
Tank looks great.

[Ryanst]

Wow that was a quick set up... Wish mine could go that fast.
Do you find you have any problems with the bare bottom?
Tank looks great.

I like the barebottom I have never had any problems with it. It is very easy to clean and you dont have to worry about sand storms.

[Ryanst]

Well I thought I would give everyone an update on my tank. I have been battling a brown cyno/algea outbreak for the last 2 months. I just couldnt get rid of it for the longest time so I switched salts to reefers best and after the first water change the algea was pretty much gone and now 2 weeks later it is completely gone. The water had some stuff floating around in it because I moved a rock to save a frag that fell off its rock.
Here is a full tank shot I dont know why but the rock work always looks really bright in pictures.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canreef4.jpg
Here is a couple pictures of my Powder blue tang
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canreef2.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canreef1.jpg
And here is a picture of the 2 frags I picked up at fragfest today.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canreef3.jpg

[Ryanst]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I am looking for tons of colorful sps frags to fill my tank with, so if you have some for sale let me know.

[Skimmerking]

See Dez if you want high quality SPS

[BlueTang<3]

got any pics of your new frags ?

[Ryanst]

Here is a couple full tank shots
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1882.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1879.jpg
There is a bit of algea growth in my tank right now but I think its becuase I dont have very many algea eaters in my tank. If any one has any suggestions on smaller really cool looking algea eating fish let me know.
Here is some pictures of the frags I had before I went to bluetangs and got some.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1872.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1851.jpg
this one almost died on me after the move but is pulling through
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1860.jpg

[Ryanst]

Here are the frags I got from Wes aka bluetang>3.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1875.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1867.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1865.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1863.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1855.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1836.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1835.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1834.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1832.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1830.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1829.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1828.jpg
This one didnt look very healthy once I got it home but I think its coming around.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1827.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1820.jpg
This is my favorite frag
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/new%20album/cIMG_1818.jpg

[Mrfish55]

You have some nice pieces there, tank should look real nice when it grows in.

[Ryanst]

Thanks I have a few more frags I just couldnt take any good pictures with them. Hopefully the algea clears up over the next month.

[BlueTang<3]

Frags are looking good, they all made it ?

[Ryanst]

Yeah they all made it only one didnt look good for a while but I think its coming around now.

[Ryanst]

Well i got a new fish and thought i would put up a couple of pictures. There was lots of stuff in the water because i just did a water change so the pictures arent very good
Here is one of him in his favorite hiding spot.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/trigger3.jpg
And here is a few more of him swimming around
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/trigger4.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/trigger.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/trigger2.jpg
oh I forgot to say that it is a male crosshatch trigger he is about 9 inches long. Steve at red coral edmonton got him for me.

I also thought I would put a picture of my Miniature Schnauzer puppy Kokomo.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/Kokomo.jpg

[RedCoralEdmonton]

Muahahaha nice trigger!

Steve

[Delphinus]

Awesome score!! One of my favourites. :)

[Lance]

Nice looking Trigger. :biggrin:

[Dez]

What a beaut. It's pictures like these that sometimes made me wish I had a bigger tank. But then I think about the extra cost associated with bigger and I quickly become satisfied again. Thanks for sharing and letting me live vicariously through you for a split second.

[Ryanst]

I will try and get some better pictures when my water is clearer. I wasnt expecting him to be so big but he is pretty sweet. I went to feed him a silverside with my tongs and he took the whole thing and ate it in like a second and those are big silversides. lol

[Ryanst]

wow its been a long time since I posted anything on my tank Journal. Well I have been battling bryopsis for awhile now and it doesnt seem like its getting much better. So since bryopsis is a low phosphate algae I have decided to us rowaphos even though I am using zeovit. I have had my magnesium at around 1500 ppm for a couple months now which I think slowed down the growth I am currently increasing the magnesium to 1600 and see how that goes in conjunction with the rowaphos. I will try and take a couple pictures tonight or tomorrow and post them for an update.

[Ryanst]

Here is a couple pictures of my mandarin that I took yesterday.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canIMG_0059.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canIMG_0057.jpg
I took a couple pictures of my blood shrimp molting the pictures arent very good because the shrimp was at the back of my tank.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canIMG_0047.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canIMG_0044.jpg
A picture of the clam I got from Steve at red coral
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/canIMG_0067.jpg

[RedCoralEdmonton]

Haha Ryan you and your marine epoxy hahaha looks good, now where is the full tank shot!!!!

Steve

[Ryanst]

Haha Ryan you and your marine epoxy hahaha looks good, now where is the full tank shot!!!!

Steve

Haha yeah I do like my epoxy. lol I will tank a full tank shot next week sometime. I only had my Iphone to take pictures with. lol

[fishytime]

man a crosshatch and a killer clam!????......that Steve guy sure seems to get some nice stuff!:wink:......great scores man!:biggrin:

[Ryanst]

Just posting an update on my tank. The bryopsis is pretty much gone and my sps are starting to color back up and have been growing like crazy over the last month. Everything seems to be going good.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_2711.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_2639.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_2695.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_2668.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_2636.jpg

[ensquire]

That Trigger is a camera poser if I ever saw one.

[BMahura]

That Trigger is a camera poser if I ever saw one.
+1

[Ryanst]

That Trigger is a camera poser if I ever saw one.

Yeah he likes the camera he is always in front of it. He usually scares away the smaller fish that I am trying to take pictures of which is kindof annoying. Lol

[Delphinus]

Looks great!

What did you change to get the bryopsis under control?

[Ryanst]

Looks great!

What did you change to get the bryopsis under control?

Well I kind of did a lot of things at once which isn't the best thing to do. lol
At first I started bringing my magnesium up to like 1500 which slowed down the growth. Then I got a big tub of rowaphos even though my phosphate tested at basically zero I ran about half a litre in a reactor changing it out monthly. I started using kent tech-m magnesium supplement to bring my water change waters magnesium up to 1500 1600ppm I probably went through like 6 of the 64 oz bottles. I took out around 70 pounds of the live rock that was covered in bryopsis dried it out and put it in storage. I was doing 30 gallon water changes weekly from the beginning of the Bryopsis outbreak during every water change i slowly pulled it off the rocks using the suction tube and my thumb. If a rock got really bad and I could pull it out of my tank I would take it out and scrub all the bryopsis off it then rinse it with tank water. I also switched from zeovit to vertex biopellets.

[fishoholic]

Looks great I like the three rock towers. I agree the trigger is a camera hog :lol:

[RedCoralEdmonton]

Lookin real good Ryan, I'm glad the troubles are behind you.... Did you end up merging your moms tank into it?

Steve

[Ryanst]

Lookin real good Ryan, I'm glad the troubles are behind you.... Did you end up merging your moms tank into it?

Steve

Not yet she still has a valentini puffer and an angel to sell because they cant go in my tank.

[Ryanst]

I decided to start vodka dosing here is a pick of how its going.lol
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/vodkadose.jpg
Seriously though I am going to dilute it so I can use my doser instead of daily dosing. I will keep you updated on the progress good or bad.

[MarkoD]

You're putting gray goose in your tank?

[Zoaelite]

You're putting gray goose in your tank?

BAH!@#!@ Go grab the cheap stuff, that doesn't belong in your reef!!!

[RedCoralEdmonton]

Lol that's just how Ryan rolls..... But seriously cheaper vodka my friend....

Steve

[Ryanst]

Lol that's just how Ryan rolls..... But seriously cheaper vodka my friend....

Steve

Haha its just what I had I will probably buy cheaper stuff when I make my next batch of vodka and water. lol But it kind of does make sense Better vodka for me = better for my tank right? lol

[MarkoD]

I hear fish love the taste of armadale
it makes them sing

[MarkoD]

I posted in another thread but it appeared here

[Ryanst]

The vodka dosing is going good I was dosing 1ml a day for the last couple weeks but now I am going to go to 1.5ml a day its hard for me to follow the dosing instructions because my tank tests 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, I am running biopellets but I am still getting some nuisance algae growth. The sps is really starting to grow well and continues get more colorful everyday.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tank2.jpg
Here is a picture of my new fixture I got from lastnight now both sides of my tank look the same. lol
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/tank.jpg

[Ryanst]

Rock aquascaping attempt 2 my last rock work wasnt very stable so I decided to redo it with aquarium epoxy and 2 packs later this is what I got. The water was still a bit dirty from the move though.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3100.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3101.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3104.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3108.jpg
And here a a couple new frags I picked up from steve.
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3111.jpg
http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae171/Ryanst/IMG_3112.jpg

[BlueTang<3]

Have you tried to relocate your pumps yet?

[Ryanst]

Have you tried to relocate your pumps yet?
Yeah I did but I cant get a wave going I think my tank is just to long. I like the new pump position though.

[BlueTang<3]

Yeah I did but I cant get a wave going I think my tank is just to long. I like the new pump position though.

It does take some tweaking with the frequency to get the best wave in my tank it is around a second on then off for a second.

[Ryanst]

Ok I will try that I just set it up on quick pulse and didn't really read the manual much on how to change the length of the pulses.