Reef #2 - The Unplanned Upgrade (1 Viewer)

[Varig]

Shawn inspired me to bust out the DSLR and try my hand at some photography. I stole my wife's camera that has a 55mm macro style lens, but sadly it doesn't have autofocus. And apparently I SUCK at focus. So I took a bunch, a couple have something that looks close to in focus. I will try again tomorrow when more light is on, or next weekend when I'm home at peak light. But I can tell this could be some fun.

First a couple fishies:



Then a transition of fish and coral:



And finally a couple corals:



I was trying to only adjust white balance, tint, and exposure to make it look as real as possible (without trying to fake colors with clarity/vibrance/saturation, which I hear is the thing to do). I think I did a decent job as the lights are turning down, so the sand doesn't look totally white right now. Again it will be easier to do in the day I think. Regardless, I'm excited to play more.

 

[Varig]

Soooooo, you know the old “ignorance is bliss” line? Blech. Clearly this isn’t ideal and I need to look into it. But any thoughts on if I need to be immediately worried?



This is my emergency overflow. I don’t think I remember seeing it last Friday when I didn’t weekly water change, but I wouldn’t swear on it. It’s been a few weeks since I looked at the overflow (maybe even a month). So this could have been building slowly. I just don’t recall.

I don’t see any active dripping or anything. And I don’t see any water on the floor itself. The water in the overflow box itself is way below the emergency level, so the only think I think it can be is a tiny leak around the tube/fitting itself that allows some water into the pipe (hence the stalactite) and a little bit outside (hence the salt creep). I assume since it’s called salt creep that it could be creeping up from that seam? Like it’s not necessarily that the highest point is where the leak began? Thoughts?

I’m leaving tomorrow for a 2 day business trip, so home Friday. My inclination is not to touch it for fear of making it worse right before I leave. But curious if anyone has thoughts.

Good times

 

[spsick]

Def don’t touch it you’re right on there. Possible to get a pic of that with the flash on to see where it’s seeping from? The emergency standpipe inside is just pressed in, no glue the that little drip at the end is no surprise. And I believe the fittings coming out of the box are glued. Hmmm.

Actually so the female part of the overflow that the pipe comes out of is part of the mold and that bushing is glued in for sure.

 

[Varig]

Right so 100% the outlet bushing thing from the overflow is all one molded piece. The bushing to adapt to the 1” pipe is also glued in as you stated.

Here are a few more pictures:



I can’t say for sure, but maybe my best guess is actually the molded seam? There is a little white there. Not sure if it’s salt creep or crazing in the plastic. But maybe if that part got bumped hard enough? Seems like that would be a pretty weak joint if that’s the case. But to your point, not really sure what else it could be. Everything else is glued.

If that’s the case I guess it’s a good thing Jeremy listed those overflows and that I’m getting one. It will be a bit of a pain to have to drain the tank down, remove that piece, etc. But possible.

Any other thoughts?

Any protection ideas you can can recommend since I’ll be gone for a couple days? Maybe just not touching it and it will be okay?

 

[Varig]

It’s not great, but hopefully this will channel any leaks (if it gets worse) back into the sump at least long enough for me to come home from my trip. Blech.



I love fish tanks…

 

[spsick]

The weird thing is what is the line of salt going up from the seam?

The Synergy overflows v1 and v2 we’re notorious for salt creep coming from the lid, seeing a thing up there? Slim chance but could be coming from there. I never had any issue but also ran a pretty low gph through it.

 

[spsick]

It’s not great, but hopefully this will channel any leaks (if it gets worse) back into the sump at least long enough for me to come home from my trip. Blech.

View attachment 65662View attachment 65663

I love fish tanks…

That’s beautiful improvisation! Somebody wants to sleep tonight!

Speaking of, rest assured that’s a pretty small amount of salt creep. I would rinse it off when you get back and monitor.

 

[Varig]

Nothing obvious from the lid. My best guess, unfortunately, is the seam. I know the tube in the sump got bumped when I was dealing with the ATO issue last week. It’s not like it got totally rammed around, but definitely bumped. So if it’s cracked I bet that is it. I also know if it’s that, that part of my stress right now is my annoyance with myself if I caused it you know?

As you said, I went pretty wide with my little fix, so it should hold all but a total and complete failure.

To your point on flow, I’m guessing I’m in the 400-500gph range based on the pump curve and the 50% setting on the pump. Definitely on the high side for what I’d prefer. I was originally running the pump at 30% but then it felt like the heater couldn’t keep the tank warm. I dunno if that was more a heater sizing problem of turnover through the sump problem. People claim you only need 3-4x turnover. So 200-250gph should be enough. I dunno.

Oh, and I don’t see anything by the lid. So I don’t think it’s up there.

Current plan is try to get over it until I’m back. Thank God Jeremy just listed those overflows, so I have a brand new one in the twin cities, I just need to go grab it. So I think I wont touch anything until I get the overflow. Then I’ll clean it as you stated and see if I can see the leak.

If it is that I’m wondering if I should drain it down and put some silicone from the inside. And if that would be enough. I’m sure the right thing to do is replacement. That decision will come later.

Man I hope it wasn’t me that broke it…..but I have a sneaking suspicion.

 

[reef junkie]

If you have any pvc glue from doing your plumbing. Could try running some glue around the area that are leaking. Might seal it up enough. I did that with some fitting I didn’t get glued well enough on my cube tank. Seemed to work and stopped any creep. Dry faster then any silicone would.

 

[Varig]

Good thought. I liked Ben’s idea of cleaning off the salt when I’m back and watching where it is actually creeping. If it’s a glued seam I think your idea is good.

If it’s the actual molded polycarbonate, I think I may try to wick in some of the Weldon 4. It says it’s good for polycarbonate. And I figure if that’s a good enough to make seems on a real tank, it should be good enough for this.

 

[Mathew0]

You can wrap the area in tissue or paper towel after cleaning the salt off and any leak will be obvious

 

[Varig]

It’s been quite the long process, but I’m happy to say I have some new inhabitants in the reef. I ordered the fish from Reef Collective and had them do the QT for me.



If it’s not clear, there is a McCoskers wrasse, a long nose hawkish, tomini tang, and a biota yellow tang. Technically there is also an orchid dottyback, but it was shy in qt and races right into the rockwork of the display. I hope all the extra hiding spaces will make it more comfortable than QT. I’ll keep an eye out.

So far the tangs seem to be doing amazing. They’re out and about, picking at the rocks. Eating when I feed. So I’m super happy there. The hawkfish was pretty shy, but also came right out to eat and is swimming around.

My biggest concern now is the McCoskers. I saw it hiding in a cave, then at feeding time it was wedged in a different cave with some mucous (maybe going to sleep?). It came out and ate a few pieces of mysis before going back to the cave. So I’ve got my fingers crossed it’s still just stressed from the move into the tank.

And of course I’ll keep my eye out for the dottyback. It’s such a pretty fish, I hope it at least keeps coming out to feed and eventually gets brave.

Anyway, figured I’d share the new additions. Beyond the fish things keep trucking along. I still need to get my kalkwasser doser setup. And 100 other little things. But I’m trying to take more time to just sit and enjoy the tank instead of always working on it. I’ll get there when I get properly tired of dosing 2 part by hand

 

[postie1686]

Pretty standard with a wrasse. Mine have all been super shy and hide a ton the first 3 days or so

 

[Varig]

Well that helps. I haven’t added fish in like 18 months because the ones I had in the old tank got along so well. And because potential for aggression etc stresses me out . But with the bigger tank I knew I’d want to supplement some fish. Hopefully they’ll all get along well once they get settled in. But in the meantime, I’ll just stress for a few weeks.

But for real, thanks. Gives me some confidence that it’s going to be okay.

 

[reef junkie]

Agree On the wrasse, with the list of them Im planning to add the research I found was they will mostly hide for 3-5 days. Acclimation box apparently is very helpful for getting them and the others used to each other or just time. Your urchin is sure sporting a lovely hat as well I see. LOL
Did you get your drip/leak taken care of?
What’s your plan for dosing Kalk? I saw an avast K1 reactor listed on facebook yesterday if you plan to go that route.

 

[Varig]

Dang skippy. The sorting hat .

I still haven’t dealt with the drip in the overflow. The salt creep is slightly bigger, but it must be super slow. I should really clean it at least to see where it starts. Maybe this weekend. I just wanted to have enough time to deal with the consequences if I make it worse .

Regarding kalk, I will start by dosing saturated kalk from my 5 gallon container. I thought about setting up a kalk stirrer, but with the amount of evaporation I’m getting I hope to split the top off to part kalk/part ato so that maybe I can refill the containers every other week instead of weekly. We’ll see.

 

[spsick]

Exciting! 5 new fish friends!!

 

[Varig]

I definitely don’t claim to be “out of the woods,” but I’m happy to report everyone is out swimming around and looking pretty peaceful today. Except the dottyback, but I’m not surprised there. The wrasse was active enough to snipe a pellet from some of the other fish. Its tail fin does have a rip, so whether that was transporting or stress diving through rockwork or some aggression is yet to be seen. I’m snooping on them from my WiFi camera to see if I can catch anyone in the act, but so far they all seem to be model citizens.



The tomini is already very actively picking at rocks. I haven’t seen as much of that behavior from the yellow tang yet, but it’s still active and feeding. So no worries.


Beyond that, the more I look at my sand the more I fear it’s not diatoms. I will probably take a microscope sample next week. Man I hope it’s still just early ugly phase. But it’s been 3-4 weeks now. It at least “feels” longer than all the reports of diatom blooms coming and going within a week. Someone talk me off the ledge!

 

[Mathew0]

Must be Dino’s

 

[Varig]

Dude…you know that’s what I expect it to be. Despite never letting this tank bottom out on nutrients. If it is I’m going to setup the ozone and see what happens. I’ve heard positive stories. Time to find out .