acharpenter
Pitas' Pita
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OMG~~~~~~~~ Care to share your total spent at the Expo?
Bschowa's current build thread (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Bschowa
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OP
OP
Time for a short update when I have a chance, been very busy lately so the tank has been on auto pilot. Switched out the skimmer for a Ats 3 weeks ago and already the little bit of algae that was growing on the rocks in my display is gone which is awesome to see, makes things look much better when viewing the tank
this weeks harvest
Picked up some frags from the swap everything is doing great, just working on acclimating them before glueing them onto the rocks which I plan on doing next weekend
All levels have stayed stable so I'm just going to try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible in the winter months and see how things go!
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Picked up some frags from the swap everything is doing great, just working on acclimating them before glueing them onto the rocks which I plan on doing next weekend
All levels have stayed stable so I'm just going to try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible in the winter months and see how things go!
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jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Nice looking growth on your algae screen.
Along with the visual benefit of losing the algae in the display, have you tested your nitrates and phosphates yet?
I'm curious of your results as I just started my ATS on my system two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see and compare our results, as well as our methods; screen size, photoperiod, water flow, etc...
I should be able to clean my screen and post my first update tomorrow; after we get back from Wausau (with a new ball python.)
Along with the visual benefit of losing the algae in the display, have you tested your nitrates and phosphates yet?
I'm curious of your results as I just started my ATS on my system two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see and compare our results, as well as our methods; screen size, photoperiod, water flow, etc...
I should be able to clean my screen and post my first update tomorrow; after we get back from Wausau (with a new ball python.)
OP
OP
I have not tested phosphates or nitrates in months, when I would test them in the past I would get zero, I think it was due to the algae growing on the rocks. Recently I have been judging how well the tank has been doing by looking at algae growing on rocks, how often I need to clean the glass, and polyp extension. I check calcium and alk once a week.
I'll try to get some pictures and specs of the turf scrubber later this afternoon.
Next week I will try to find something to put the harvest in before throwing it in the garbage so I can post some better results
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I'll try to get some pictures and specs of the turf scrubber later this afternoon.
Next week I will try to find something to put the harvest in before throwing it in the garbage so I can post some better results
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ATS screen is looking promising, just keep the brown slimey stuff off. Once its getting thicker and you see lighter green/yellow and more rubbery that means not enough flow in that area and may need to tweak the slot or overall flow or harvest more often. When harvesting the green pull it off in same direction as the flow and it will regrow bounce back quicker than scraping too much off against the grain/flow.
Those that quit cold turkey rather than try to phase in an ATS witch skimmer, pellets, or any other competition for nitrate/phosphate do seem to seed and get going without as much of the brown slime phase as those that try to ease into it.
Those that quit cold turkey rather than try to phase in an ATS witch skimmer, pellets, or any other competition for nitrate/phosphate do seem to seed and get going without as much of the brown slime phase as those that try to ease into it.
Last edited:
veloboy
Senior Member
Looking good Brent, keep us posted on ATS progress if you have time. I'm always interested in hearing results from them.
OP
OP
Got a terrible harvest this week, I really should have checked on it sooner but life has kept me busy. when I went to scrape today the entire center or my screen was brown and slimey looking. Scraped it off, raised the flow and I'm going to do my best to keep on top of checking it this week.
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OP
OP
Algae turf scrubber is doing better this week but I ran out of 2 part without noticing until my strawberry shortcake and green slimer Rtn today. Tested Calcium and alk to see where they were at and my alk was all the way down to 6.27 and Calcium was at 405
When looking at the brs calculator it suggests that I add 185 ml of each to get both back to where I want them. Is this something that I should calculate into my dosing over the next week or should I just split the doses and manually dose them over 2 days?
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When looking at the brs calculator it suggests that I add 185 ml of each to get both back to where I want them. Is this something that I should calculate into my dosing over the next week or should I just split the doses and manually dose them over 2 days?
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I would say at minimum add whatever it takes to get to 7dkh alk. CA at 405ppm is fine. You can use your judgement how long to ramp up to get to whatever levels you normally keep beyond the 7dkh.
OP
OP
I usually keep my alk at 8 I'm semi new to sps I just know they like stable parameters so I was afraid if I jump too fast I will shock the rest of them. Should I go up by .2 dkh a day or is it alright to go up .9 dkh 2 days in a row and be back where I want to be?
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alk at 6.2dkh shouldn't cause problems short term. It left like that for months it for sure could. So while I would certainly get to 7dkh, that by itself may not be the root cause.
If this were me, I'd leave my dosing program the same as it always been and just add an additional amount manually per day to get back to where you want it. Back to 8dkh in 2-3 days is plenty cautious enough. You probably would be fine just doing it all at once but best to play safe.
If this were me, I'd leave my dosing program the same as it always been and just add an additional amount manually per day to get back to where you want it. Back to 8dkh in 2-3 days is plenty cautious enough. You probably would be fine just doing it all at once but best to play safe.
OP
OP
I think the issue was I did a 50 gallon water change last night (30%) with 8dkh water. So I'm guessing the alk was lower than 6 before that and getting shocked like that is what caused the RTN. Keep learning new lessons the hard way every few months it seems but as long as I learn from them it's not a failure in my eyes.
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OP
OP
Had a pump fail on me and flood my fish room so after cleaning it out I decided to re do some things and at the same time get back ups of equipment that I will need if I have another failure
Figured I would check here first to see if anyone has any of these no longer being used before hitting up new wave
Ecotech vectra l1
Mp40 wet side
Mp10 wet side
Two or three head, 100 or 70 gpd Stenner perlistic pump
Neptune dos, containers and dosing pumps
Reef octopus dcs 5500 skimmer pump or reef octopus varios-4s skimmer pump
Here is the new plan for the fish room since it is currently tore apart other than the sump
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Figured I would check here first to see if anyone has any of these no longer being used before hitting up new wave
Ecotech vectra l1
Mp40 wet side
Mp10 wet side
Two or three head, 100 or 70 gpd Stenner perlistic pump
Neptune dos, containers and dosing pumps
Reef octopus dcs 5500 skimmer pump or reef octopus varios-4s skimmer pump
Here is the new plan for the fish room since it is currently tore apart other than the sump
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a stenner 2 head that I could part with. Only have done a water check. PM me and maybe we can work out a deal
OP
OP
So all of my plans for upgrading the fish room have been put on hold, we are hoping to be building our new house next spring so it was hard for me to get motivated to do an entire fish room re build. I will probably still switch out the sumps but as far as setting up the anemone tank and frag tank it most likely won't happen at this house.
On the plus side I have been given permission to start getting quotes for a 8' by 42'' by 24'' tall custom tank that will be in wall viewable from two sides, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. so I am pretty excited about the posibities that come with that.
The current tank is doing well, chugging away on auto pilot with how busy I have been at work, algae turf scrubber has been doing its thing, bio pellets are gradually getting phased out, after the brs video on refugiums I have been contemplating switching over to a larger refugium tank and trying to simplify things a bit. The turf scrubber works great but I'm not great at scraping it weekly and I have to run it through a filter sock as chunks of algae fall off and will clog up pumps if I don't keep on top of it. With doing this no pods ever make it out of the scrubber into the main tank and I flush thousands every time I scrape it off. I'm thinking quality lights and enough real estate and I could make a refugium that makes it so I no longer need to use gfo, bio pellets or the turf scrubber. I would possibly bring the skimmer back into play with this technique and will always have to run carbon.
No tank shots as of right now as the coralline algae has covered a majority of all panels and I need to find a weekend to just sit down and do a major overhaul on the display.
On the plus side I have been given permission to start getting quotes for a 8' by 42'' by 24'' tall custom tank that will be in wall viewable from two sides, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. so I am pretty excited about the posibities that come with that.
The current tank is doing well, chugging away on auto pilot with how busy I have been at work, algae turf scrubber has been doing its thing, bio pellets are gradually getting phased out, after the brs video on refugiums I have been contemplating switching over to a larger refugium tank and trying to simplify things a bit. The turf scrubber works great but I'm not great at scraping it weekly and I have to run it through a filter sock as chunks of algae fall off and will clog up pumps if I don't keep on top of it. With doing this no pods ever make it out of the scrubber into the main tank and I flush thousands every time I scrape it off. I'm thinking quality lights and enough real estate and I could make a refugium that makes it so I no longer need to use gfo, bio pellets or the turf scrubber. I would possibly bring the skimmer back into play with this technique and will always have to run carbon.
No tank shots as of right now as the coralline algae has covered a majority of all panels and I need to find a weekend to just sit down and do a major overhaul on the display.
OP
OP
Well I had a day off yesterday and was able to get a few things done in the fish room, sump is swapped out and the reef octopus t 90 is waiting to be plumbed in, just need a new pump as the one I was planning on using doesn't seem to be working for me.
Definitely need to work on cord management in the near future but here is what it looks like right now
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Definitely need to work on cord management in the near future but here is what it looks like right now
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OP
OP
I have been dreading posting this due to being ashamed of what happened but mostly just wasn't sure if I was going to keep going or tear down.
About a month and a half ago I had a mini cycle that prompted me to get the sump swapped out to get more water volume and the auto water change feature setup. This caused most of my sps to pull their polyps in and some to stn. Two weeks ago things were starting to look good when a combination of something happening overnight where my orp dropped from its steady 320-330 to 100 and the temp to rise to 80 from its steady 76
Still not sure what happened there but when I woke up it smelled like burning electrical in my house. Unfortunately I didn't find anything wrong with outlets so I left for work wondering what it could be. I got a text at about 430 on my way home from work saying that it must have been my tank because everything was pure white and looked slimey. When I got home I realized that my tank had crashed and my apex never informed me of either the temp rising that high (which it should have) or the orp dropping. Also an alarm.
Sps looked to me to be a total loss and lps was closed up further than I had ever seen before.
I did a massive 120 gallon water change, added 4 cups of new carbon to a filter sock and ran all of my reactor outputs though that. I had a spare polyfilter pad laying around so I tossed that in just in case
Polyfilter pad turned a light blue within hours which indicates I have copper in the system.
After two weeks of water changes and carbon I am hoping that most lps should survive, I did lose my sailfin tang but I am not confident that was related to anything other than the stress of the crash as all other fish were acting normal. Clean up crew and inverts is a complete loss as expected and sps is bleached completely. Some still appear to have polyps receded but others are starting to grow algae faster than I can blow it off.
I am still extremely confused on the temp rise as that has been stable for months now with no fluctuation. As far as the copper my best guess is that since I work with copper pipes (cutting and soldering) almost every day I somehow forgot to wash my hands and arms and stupidly dunked them into the tank which I am usually extremely conscious of.
My question now to those of you who keep sps is at what point do I consider them a loss and when can I hope for a comeback?
Here is some pictures of the tank in its current condition
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
About a month and a half ago I had a mini cycle that prompted me to get the sump swapped out to get more water volume and the auto water change feature setup. This caused most of my sps to pull their polyps in and some to stn. Two weeks ago things were starting to look good when a combination of something happening overnight where my orp dropped from its steady 320-330 to 100 and the temp to rise to 80 from its steady 76
Still not sure what happened there but when I woke up it smelled like burning electrical in my house. Unfortunately I didn't find anything wrong with outlets so I left for work wondering what it could be. I got a text at about 430 on my way home from work saying that it must have been my tank because everything was pure white and looked slimey. When I got home I realized that my tank had crashed and my apex never informed me of either the temp rising that high (which it should have) or the orp dropping. Also an alarm.
Sps looked to me to be a total loss and lps was closed up further than I had ever seen before.
I did a massive 120 gallon water change, added 4 cups of new carbon to a filter sock and ran all of my reactor outputs though that. I had a spare polyfilter pad laying around so I tossed that in just in case
Polyfilter pad turned a light blue within hours which indicates I have copper in the system.
After two weeks of water changes and carbon I am hoping that most lps should survive, I did lose my sailfin tang but I am not confident that was related to anything other than the stress of the crash as all other fish were acting normal. Clean up crew and inverts is a complete loss as expected and sps is bleached completely. Some still appear to have polyps receded but others are starting to grow algae faster than I can blow it off.
I am still extremely confused on the temp rise as that has been stable for months now with no fluctuation. As far as the copper my best guess is that since I work with copper pipes (cutting and soldering) almost every day I somehow forgot to wash my hands and arms and stupidly dunked them into the tank which I am usually extremely conscious of.
My question now to those of you who keep sps is at what point do I consider them a loss and when can I hope for a comeback?
Here is some pictures of the tank in its current condition
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Sorry to hear about the losses.
I recently had a temperature rise to 80°, but I believe that was last weekend when it was very hot and humid and the house temperature was getting up to 84° with all of the in and out traffic. But It was also humid the weekend prior, if I recall correctly. My Apex alarm did notify me though; every single time the temp reached the set temp.
I call Time of Death when I see the skeleton getting covered in brown algae; as long as the skeleton remains clear of algae growth, it's still alive. I find that bleaching from the rising temp isn't as fatal as RTN from alkalinity swings. You may have a chance at saving some of the corals.
Good luck!
I recently had a temperature rise to 80°, but I believe that was last weekend when it was very hot and humid and the house temperature was getting up to 84° with all of the in and out traffic. But It was also humid the weekend prior, if I recall correctly. My Apex alarm did notify me though; every single time the temp reached the set temp.
I call Time of Death when I see the skeleton getting covered in brown algae; as long as the skeleton remains clear of algae growth, it's still alive. I find that bleaching from the rising temp isn't as fatal as RTN from alkalinity swings. You may have a chance at saving some of the corals.
Good luck!