Think it's time to make a trip to my house again my friend....

Possibly, yah, Thank you :wink:
But I'm going to hold off getting any more corals until things turn around

Sorry, no pics this time around, just a long-winded post

I swear our new wrasses would eat 24/7 if I let 'em

I'm very happy with how hungry they are, and all 4 of them eat everything;
Mysis, brine, cyclopeeze, NLS pellets, freeze-dried ocean plankton

Never in my life have I ever seen a fish try to crack open a plankton before, or any food for that matter
The little Coris grabbed a plankton and started 'whacking' it against the UV pump and then the surface skimmer
I have been told it's how they crack open 'verts, but I'd never seen it 'till now and was so surprised, especially from a fish who is only an inch long :smile:

In the wrasse QT I went through a small NH3 battle, but it was easy enough, and nobody suffered. I used some Am Guard and kept up with the Stability. The Seachem Ammo Alert is very useful. If you don't use one, consider it ...
Currently there's no NH3, about 5 NO2 and 1 NO3
I'd say it's coming along nicely

I started a 4 week Hypo treatment 2 days ago as there is definately some MI on the McCosker's, so it's going to be another 6 weeks or so before these guys hit the DT, possibly 8 weeks
I'll probably go 8 weeks as there's no point in risking the DT for a simple 2 weeks of extra monitoring :biggrin:

I cooked up a pound of baking soda and am glad I did so. Last time I did Hypo, I had no problems with the pH staying above 7.8, but this time, with this many dirty fish, I've had to start adding some of the sodium carbonate to keep the pH above 7.8
It dropped to 7.78 when I stopped the drop, and will now be adding it when needed to keep it closer to 7.9 or 8.0
So, that's about it for the QT



The DT has some other issues, and if you've noticed my post about my acans, you'll know that I've had some bleaching SPS and receding Acans

It's curious how, when you aren't used to keeping SW, you look at your corals over time and don't realise how much they've changed, unless you look at older pictures

Turns out I haven't been feeding the tank enough, so the corals have suffered
With zero NO3 and PO4, the corals have expelled their zoo and started bleaching due to my intense 8xT5 fixture
I've cut my lighting back, started feeding the fish twice as much, and have also started feeding the corals with coral frenzy and coral vitalizer, and phyto for the tank
Not all at once, or daily, but slowly added and will boost it up over time while I watch what happens

It was suggested that my Potassium could be low, so I bought a kit
I'm between 3-400ppm, so that can't be it

It was also suggested that I raise my Alk from 7 to as much as 8, so I've upped my dosing of both the Alk and Ca. I'd like to see my Alk at about 8 and my Ca around 420

I'd also changed my WC schedule from 7-10 days, to 14 days, in the hopes of raising my non-existent NO3 and PO4
This raised a suggestion from one I trust, who told me to heavily feed the corals once a week, and then do a 10% WC the next day. And do this every week
I'm going to go with this idea as it makes the most sense to get the corals fed and export the waste
So, I'm going back to my 7-10 day WC routine, even though I was happy with the lower salt usage :wink:

One other suggested I remove my GFO and Carbon reactors for a bit, but I am hesitant to do so as I'll surely see a HA, or some other, algae bloom if I do so
I also don't want to change too many things at once as there is already enough to keep an eye on as it is :surprise:

Well, that's about it for now
Thanks for reading :biggrin:

OK, lets have a pic, just 'cause :mrgreen:
Web pic ( obviously not in my tank )

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AIVpUu6hFj...l_img_2426.jpg

So I had this totally original idea. I put some travertine in the QT to cut down on reflections and it appears the fish like it
I know it looks kinda bright in the pic, but it has cut down on glare when I look top down

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps82ed953b.jpg

The wrasses are doing very well while in Hypo. They are eating pellets and mysis, and the orange-back and mccosker's even eat nori

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps10456102.jpg

Who, me ? Nooo, it wasn't me

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4aa7d45e.jpg

I picked one of those beauties up in Edmonton last week. Gorgeous fish.

<3 the purple and yellow one. What a stud

yeah that fish is a stunner!

LOVE the garbage bag background btw =)

Yup, that Orange-back is a beauty, and what character too

Glad you like the backdrop Brett. It's another Greg original :wink:
I think I already mentioned that Albert suggested I try to subdue the tank a bit to keep stress levels down

Over the last 2 days, the McCosker's has taken to swimming without using his tail fin and goes to the surface quite a bit
He's still active and eating well, no stringy poops, no body marks
Just suddenly started this
I'm hoping it's a bacterial infection from the new coris that will be easily treated

There's lots of aeration from the AC50 and HOB UV return, ammo and nitrites are 0 and nitrates are almost nil
I can't find anything wrong with the params or equipment, so it's onto meds
Last night I tried to re-calibrate the pH probe and broke it :doh:
Today I grabbed a new probe and some API E.M. Erythromycin
If you've been following along, you'll know that the wrasses have already gone through a round of Maracyn-Two, so now I'll try some gram positive medication
And if you know me, you'll know I hate using meds, but when something is kinda obvious I'll be the first to use it
I'm currently waiting for some 1.008 water to come up to temp before I add the meds to the QT, just in case someone freaks out

Hopefully the dude pulls through - I really like him
Wish us luck !

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...psc7f33368.jpg

Update time

We lost our McCosker's wrasse :sad: Looks like it was possibly cyanide poisoning/capture methods
He went all weird for a few days and then he was gone

Corals are starting to look better

Bought an iPhone5, so here's a FTS - washed out as I turned all 8 bulbs on
Next time I'll get a pic with half lighting

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...psd6421f73.jpg

that gorg has some incredible polyp extension. can you post a closer shot? are you feeding any gorg specific food to the tank?

It's a Plexaura flexuosa
Lights have only been on for a short while, so I'll have to get a better pic at a later time

No specific gorg food
Twice or so a week I feed PhytoPlan, Coral Frenzy and Coral Vitalizer
I think it was the Vitalizer that was causing me problems with the Acans
I was stupidly dripping it directly into the tank instead of diluting it in RO first
No more recession since

Pic is blues only and lights on for only 20 mins

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4aeec853.jpg

For the record, I think this new iPhone5 has a better camera zoom than my Sony WX-5 :surprise:

Welcome to the 21st century! :lol:

Tank is looking great!!

Looking fantastic Greg! Sorry about the loss of your wrasse!!

Thanks for the nice comments

Here's better pic of the gorg for you Brett

I just paid for it today - long story
Thanks Rich and Wayne :wink:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps820609cc.jpg

I just bought another PC4

I tested my Ca yesterday and it was low
I noticed this morning that the doser pump wasn't running when it should have been, and then saw that the timer had jumped ahead by about 27 hours ???
So, the digital timers are going back, and I could justify buying another power bar :wink:

More pictures of the purple and yellow dude please

Man that thing is sweet. Wonder how flow even gets to the insides with all that extension!

Haha, the gorg looks better in your tank!:wink:

That gorg is beautiful :)

I've tried, but he moves around pretty fast, the glass is dirty and yada yada yada

We'll have to wait until he's in the DT

I don't know, but it's growing :surprise:

Told ya it looks better than Rich's :smile:

Yup, I'm very happy with it

My nem split sometime awhile ago - though I won't be selling it anytime soon. Think I'll wait until it splits again
It's not totally opening up during the day as I've had to turn off half the lights, but it's definately doing well

I took this pic this morning during lights off
You can see there are 2 distinct bodies
See the separate tentacles ?

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps20e3dcc2.jpg

And this one tonight
There are 2 mouths now - somewhere in there :wink:

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...psbff20434.jpg

I hear fed ex moves pretty fast too, so u should ship him to me for photos. And it will be fed exs fault when they deliver a empty box on his ride back to you.

Mhm, and I suppose you'd like to take pics of the rest of my fish too, huh ? :smile:

Nope just the one :) I'm crushing on him pretty hard

Which one are you all horned up about ?
The colors you see may not be what I post

The bigger dude is an Orange-back Fairy, and the smaller is a Lubbock's Fairy

The Orange has a deep blue (nearly purple) body with the large orange stripe and a red face
The Lubbock's is purple with orange on his upper face and a yellow stripe at the base of his dorsal

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps1274ad8e.jpg

My RO system has put me through the ringer lately ...

I changed the prefilter this last week, and after doing so, I heard it gurgling
Turns out it's been back-siphoning from the day I installed it, but I never caught it until now
Each time I've turned it on I've thought the purging noise I hear is just that, purging. After 11 months you'd think I would have spotted this :doh:
NOT :surprise:

After the prefilter change I finally spotted the issue
The system has been sucking air in as it de-pressurizes and has been doing so as far as to drain half of my carbon canister :surprise:
This is a concern as;
1 - An RO system should always be kept pressurized to protect the RO membrane
I can't fully explain this part, but I believe the theory behind it is solid

2 - Air entering the system will allow aerobic bacteria to multiply in the canisters

Now, there are tannins in our local water, so worrying about bacteria in my RO system is a waste of time, but it brought some other things to light. The one main thing is;
I've had crud in my ATO tank since day one and always thought it was from some kind of contamination. Turns out I was right

Apparently it's from the tannins in our local water, and no amount of filtering is going to help me as it's biological
I'm OK with this. At least I now know where it's coming from
I'll clean out my ATO tank every now and then, and I'll live with it

After hours and hours of online researching, multiple PMs with 11purewater, and finally a 45min phone call with him, I started to feel like I was on the right path to solving my issue

So, the problem was;
After my RO drum was full, the float valve would shut off and the waste water would stop. Nothing abnormal about that. Release the pressure from the float valve, such as using some water, and the system would back-siphon through the waste line until the Carbon canister was only half full. This is an issue as bacteria can grow in there with air

Sooooo, after many hours of testing, multiple PMs, and a much-needed phone call, I was convinced to butcher my RO system and start over

Right now I'll give a big shout out of thanks to Andy for all his help with my issues :mrgreen:
Thanks Andy :hug:You da man

Looks like the problem is solved bud, with the addition of a valve on the permeate line :razz: even though the initial test failed
I don't understand why yet, but maybe you and I will figure it out after I send you my test notes ....

For those of you looking for pics, I started with this

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ild/RO-DI4.jpg

I removed all of this

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps97d9e073.jpg

And I ended up with this

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps66489cc0.jpg

There will be some DI parts posted for sale after I finish this post :smile:

The system was butchered as we thought there may have been some air being introduced to the system as the water pressure dropped. Water can push against a seal and you'll have no external leaks, but remove the pressure, and air can enter through a seal as the vacuum of the pressure dropping is equalizing with atmospheric air

Long story short, I added a manual valve between my RO system and my holding tank, and all is good
Plus, of course, all of the removal of the 25 fittings I didn't need with their 50 o-rings - any 1 of which could have been a potential leak

Today was a bit exciting

My wife never calls me at work unless it's important ...
The power at home went out again (second time in the last 6 months, but only 4th time in something like 18 years)
The dudes in quarantine needed some attention, but the DT was fine
Donna closed windows and turned on the gas fireplace
She also used a cup every 5 mins or so to stir the water in the QT. The DT has battery backup vortechs

The power came back on before she left for work, and I'll assume the temp came up pretty fast with my 5 heaters. It only dropped 2 degrees
Nothing flooded or broke etc etc, so all is good. Nothing like lots of automation to take care of things (while the automation works) :wink:

I just finished placing an order for a battery backup air pump for the QT

On a more exciting note, the 3 wrasses went into the DT tonight, after 6 weeks in QT
I'll get picks up when the lighting is better
The tiny Yellow Coris has been named Junior, the Orange-back is Floyd, and the Lubbock's is Asrai

Thanks to a link from Mindy, I've ordered some silicone mini ice cube trays for making my own food and I hope that goes well
I got a nice hand mixer for x-mas that I've been itching to use

I plan on buying some inverts next, so stay tuned :smile:

That's more like it!Water in water out and no shenanigans:biggrin:

So, you have eliminated DI from your system??

Thanks again Andy
You were a very big help :mrgreen:

Yes, but I never used it in the first place. I get 0 TDS with just the RO
When you look at the first pic, you'll see 2 grey valves with green handles. I plumbed it with Tees so I could use or bypass the DI. I was placing a BRS order so threw it in 'cause it's fairly cheap. I figured I might need it one day if our water went for a poop

Wanna buy it ? :smile:

I have a full RO/DI system with a dual TDS meter. What I find with mine is that sometimes my RO water will get up to about 8 or more TDS, but after DI is still always 0 or 1. That tends to happen in between water changes, when only my ATO is in use, and RO only in the kitchen. My RODI also has an auto shut-off valve, though not sure if that has anything to do with it.

When I do a water change, I also do a membrane flush, and then it comes back down to usually 0 or 1. So, my RO water TDS does vary somewhat, but my DI water is constant.

I'm in Langley, and our water here does not seem to be as low TDS as others in the Lower Mainland report. It is usually around 50 or 60 TDS out of the tap, and I find sometimes my pre-filters will clog up in only about 3 months (sometimes they are OK for 6 months or more).

I also have 2 pressure tanks (after RO, but before DI) with my system, so always have about 6 gal or so of immediate water available, which is very handy in the kitchen where we use the RO only outlet for drinking water, coffee maker, etc.

There's the difference
My tapwater TDS is anywhere from 12 down to as low as 7, so my RO does well on it's own
I always run my product water down the drain until the TDS creep goes away, so I am lucky that I don't need the DI

Yes, and because I run my ATO directly from my RODI to my sump, I always want 0 or at most 1 TDS all the time.

Ahh
I lug the water from the drum to the ATO :smile:

Anytime!:biggrin:

You have my sympathies...:sad:

New critters :biggrin:

I had originally planned on QTing these guys, but the risk is too much, so instead they were rinsed in a few buckets of tank water

First is a crappy pic of one of our 2 new Porcelain crabs

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4e423a89.jpg

Then is another crappy pic, this one of our new red sea star and pair of fire shrimps

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...psbb6c0616.jpg

As far as the new fish go, I'm not overly optimistic that Floyd will make it
He's not doing well, not eating or swimming and basically looking very limp unless he's disturbed

I'm pretty ****ed about the whole thing, but it's my own fault

I bought a McCosker's from J&L that had MI, and had to treat the QT for it, so I went Hypo. In the meantime I received a Yellow Coris that had a red body mark, so I treated with meds. Ever since then things with the wrasses became an issue

Never again will I accept a fish with any visible signs of either stress or illness

Poor Floyd would probably have been just fine if he hadn't been put through what he has :sad:
Wish us luck that he pulls through, but it's not looking good at this point

I feel so guilty about killing a fish that most likely would have been just fine had I put it right into my DT, but I'm so paranoid about infecting my other fishies ......

RIP Floyd

Sorry your time with me sucked :sad:

At least the 2 of them will keep each other company now

Floyd and Mac

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps2e99fa25.jpg

Sorry to hear Greg, some times I think quarantine kills more fish then actual diseases.