Much like people who've been "saved" with bad CPR, some of our reefs are never quite the same!
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Jimroth's Big Ol' Tank
- Thread starter jimroth
- Start date
Much like people who've been "saved" with bad CPR, some of our reefs are never quite the same!
Almost everything recovered. My Pearlberry frag bought the farm. The beautiful rainbow acro looks like crap, but is alive except at the tips, and the dead tips for the slimer are actually falling off. My working theory is that the whoopee new carbon cleared the water so much that there was light shock from the LEDs. Sucks but it's survivable. As always, it's surprising the corals which sho NO reaction whatsoever.
One thing I've now learned is this: Just because you have an automatic neck wiper on your skimmer, you are not excused from cleaning the skimmer! I let it go for a few weeks, and it was amazingly disgusting, particularly the wiper itself and the surrounding top end of the skimmer. It looked like a porta-potty on the third day of a rock festival.
I've been having continued issues with some acros -- the beautiful rainbow has mostly kicked the bucket, and some stalwarts like cyphastrea and pokerstar monti are clearly stressed. I did a huge water change, around 75G, and just installed a a PM KalkReactor to kalkify all my topoff water. I spent considerable money modifying my old one, and was at a high state of completion....when a family member dropped something on it and smashed it!! Hit the pipe which goes through the side, smashed in a million pieces. Gee thanks. All the 4" plumbing parts, the cool little external pump, all for nothing. Maybe I'll make something else. But the big acrylic tube is the pricey bit. The PM unit was almost $300 but is a quality piece of equipment. And it's installed now.
I've been having continued issues with some acros -- the beautiful rainbow has mostly kicked the bucket, and some stalwarts like cyphastrea and pokerstar monti are clearly stressed. I did a huge water change, around 75G, and just installed a a PM KalkReactor to kalkify all my topoff water. I spent considerable money modifying my old one, and was at a high state of completion....when a family member dropped something on it and smashed it!! Hit the pipe which goes through the side, smashed in a million pieces. Gee thanks. All the 4" plumbing parts, the cool little external pump, all for nothing. Maybe I'll make something else. But the big acrylic tube is the pricey bit. The PM unit was almost $300 but is a quality piece of equipment. And it's installed now.
Had to pull and remove about a half-gallon of xenia. Never should have let it get out of control.
Recently added a PM Kalk Reactor after the one I was building got smashed (something fell on it!). The PM device works fine, although the instructions are lousy. I put it on a timer shared with the neck wiper for the skimmer, 4X per day.
When I cleaned my biocube I found that one of the Aurora shrimp gobies had been living in the media tray for several months. very hungry but no worse for the wear!
Recently added a PM Kalk Reactor after the one I was building got smashed (something fell on it!). The PM device works fine, although the instructions are lousy. I put it on a timer shared with the neck wiper for the skimmer, 4X per day.
When I cleaned my biocube I found that one of the Aurora shrimp gobies had been living in the media tray for several months. very hungry but no worse for the wear!
Arrived this morning in good shape: four Indian Ocean Lyretail Anthias (1.3), three Chromis to shore up the existing group, two firefish for the biocube (now that the killer pistol shrimp is gone!) a Wheeler's Shrimp goby that I don't really need now, some Nassarius snails, a Halloween Hermit for the big reef, and some Scarlet Hermits as well and a Knobby Red Seastar.
The Big Ol' tank is plugging along. I continue to have issues with random corals going downhill while others do well. I'm losing my Emerald Isle cyphastrea, pokerstar monti is doing poorly while sunset takes over, and my healthy hunk of Green Slimer has deteriorated. I pruned it back and moved it to a new spot. Meanwhile, Pink Lemonade, Red Planet, Tricolor and others seem to chug right along. Mucho mysterioso. Doing what I can, including increased testing and rigidly scheduled water changes.
The biocube has a weird deal going on. I thought I was down to one shrimp goby so I ordered a new one, a Wheeler's Shrimp goby. In preparation for the new arrival, I cleaned the tank and found that one of my pinkbar gobies had jumped into the back of the tank, the filter section, for months. He was moved back and immediately took up with the Tiger pistol like long lost friends, and the red-banded hi-fin goby stayed with the candy pistol.
When the Wheeler's arrived, a nice, large, specimen, the tiger pistol went nuts for it and dumped the pinkbar goby, digging an extensive new burrow for his new friend. The pinkbar was forced to move into the (better) burrow of the candy pistol, who now has two gobies of different species, one for the front door and one for the back door. I was sure somebody was gonna get killed but they seem to have worked it out.
The biocube has a weird deal going on. I thought I was down to one shrimp goby so I ordered a new one, a Wheeler's Shrimp goby. In preparation for the new arrival, I cleaned the tank and found that one of my pinkbar gobies had jumped into the back of the tank, the filter section, for months. He was moved back and immediately took up with the Tiger pistol like long lost friends, and the red-banded hi-fin goby stayed with the candy pistol.
When the Wheeler's arrived, a nice, large, specimen, the tiger pistol went nuts for it and dumped the pinkbar goby, digging an extensive new burrow for his new friend. The pinkbar was forced to move into the (better) burrow of the candy pistol, who now has two gobies of different species, one for the front door and one for the back door. I was sure somebody was gonna get killed but they seem to have worked it out.
Is kicking or slapping an option? Oh wait, I won't be there. Could someone please kick or slap Jim for me. Thanks, Paul
I always come back from MACNA fired up about the hobby and with good new ideas. Joe Yaiullo gave a great presentation about "Old Tank Syndrome," which he says doesn't exist and is actually "L.A.R.S." or Lazy-*** Reefer Syndrome! Trying to win out over LARS. I realized that some of the problems I've had lately were because I waited to replace my GFO until it was completely exhausted! From now on I'm going to change GFO and carbon on a schedule, which seems the only way to be sure that water quality doesn't slide. I'm upgrading my older Vortechs so I can get them all under computer control, and I think I'm going to replace my Loc-Line return manifold with a big Sea-Swirl. And and dozen other things!
I upgraded all my Vortechs to the new style controller, the two MP40s are quiet drive. Now I can program the Vortechs through ecosmart live and start the feed program from my iPhone. I hooked all the battery backups up again, they've been disconnected for a while, so all the vortechs are protected like that. The MP60 broke the strain relef on its cord, so it's just wires. Steve from EcoTech at MACNA told me that I could send it in and they would swap the cord for me. I can put my spare MP40 in there while it's being fixed.
There was a MACNA discxount for DD, so I ordered a nice Aussie acro from DD when I got back, a microclados. It seems to have lost all its color in shipping but is otherwise healthy. I also bought an aquacultured efflo, hoping to regrow my big efflo I lost. Man I miss that coral!
I was talking to people from CoralVue at the show about my skimmer, looking for a pump recommendation, and they pointed out that if the pump is throttled back, the skimmer should be as wide open as it can be and then adjust via the pump. I think you lose a little dwell time in the skimmer but add water thoughput. I did that when I got back and my skimmate output picked up a lot, I'm making a pint or so of cider-colored skimmate a day, quite an improvement.
Not sure what's up next. Probably going to hook a biopellet reactor back up. At some point I need to make a big refugium, which will mean drilling one of my old tanks...
There was a MACNA discxount for DD, so I ordered a nice Aussie acro from DD when I got back, a microclados. It seems to have lost all its color in shipping but is otherwise healthy. I also bought an aquacultured efflo, hoping to regrow my big efflo I lost. Man I miss that coral!
I was talking to people from CoralVue at the show about my skimmer, looking for a pump recommendation, and they pointed out that if the pump is throttled back, the skimmer should be as wide open as it can be and then adjust via the pump. I think you lose a little dwell time in the skimmer but add water thoughput. I did that when I got back and my skimmate output picked up a lot, I'm making a pint or so of cider-colored skimmate a day, quite an improvement.
Not sure what's up next. Probably going to hook a biopellet reactor back up. At some point I need to make a big refugium, which will mean drilling one of my old tanks...
I didn't upgrade that one since it already works with EcoSmart live. The MP40s are noticeably quiter.
Sorry I only saw you guys the one time. I was visiting my sis in Falls Church so couldn't spend as much time at the show as I wanted to.
I added a bunch of new fish with some mixed results.
1) I got a good deal on an adult regal angel. I put it in the tank and within a few days, the other big angels and the purple tang beat it to death. It had a huge gash on one side, first time I've seen that.
2) That p1ssed me off, so I put in a big black Friday offer for some fish that could hold their own. I ordered
3) Harlequin tuskfish from DD, Indo not Australian, a fairly tough fish. Very attractive and doing just fine, cannot be picked on.
4) I really wanted a powder blue tang, so I bought a small one from LA in hopes he could avoid getting picked on and yet not become a bully.
5) There was a good deal on Squampy Anthias so I bought a couple for my anthias harem. LA sent one female and one female turning into a male (too pink!!). The male-ish one was pestered to death over a couple of days by the existing male. I tried to catch him without success. The other female found the harem and is fine.
6) They had captive raised Banngai cardinals for around $11 bucks, and there was a 15% discount, which made it hard to resist. When they showed up, two of them were about the size of houseflies. The third slightly larger. After the first day I couldn't find them and I assumed they had been an expensive snack for some fish, possible the tuskfish. Imagine my delight to find that all three had taken refuge in my little xenia "forest," popping up to eat. I'm impressed they found each other in the big tank. They eat like pigs and I think they will get big fairly quickly.
7) A small wild acro, purple with green polyps. Lately DD ships these tiny colonies, they are almost like maricultured pieces. Seems OK but still brown.
1) I got a good deal on an adult regal angel. I put it in the tank and within a few days, the other big angels and the purple tang beat it to death. It had a huge gash on one side, first time I've seen that.
2) That p1ssed me off, so I put in a big black Friday offer for some fish that could hold their own. I ordered
3) Harlequin tuskfish from DD, Indo not Australian, a fairly tough fish. Very attractive and doing just fine, cannot be picked on.
4) I really wanted a powder blue tang, so I bought a small one from LA in hopes he could avoid getting picked on and yet not become a bully.
5) There was a good deal on Squampy Anthias so I bought a couple for my anthias harem. LA sent one female and one female turning into a male (too pink!!). The male-ish one was pestered to death over a couple of days by the existing male. I tried to catch him without success. The other female found the harem and is fine.
6) They had captive raised Banngai cardinals for around $11 bucks, and there was a 15% discount, which made it hard to resist. When they showed up, two of them were about the size of houseflies. The third slightly larger. After the first day I couldn't find them and I assumed they had been an expensive snack for some fish, possible the tuskfish. Imagine my delight to find that all three had taken refuge in my little xenia "forest," popping up to eat. I'm impressed they found each other in the big tank. They eat like pigs and I think they will get big fairly quickly.
7) A small wild acro, purple with green polyps. Lately DD ships these tiny colonies, they are almost like maricultured pieces. Seems OK but still brown.
I've had some problems with my reef recently. I think the phosphates got high (0.15) but that doesn't explain it. I have dosed some dosing of Lanthanum Chloride, which helped lower phosphate, but it's tricky due to the precipitate. I lost a lot of corals gradually, while others do fine. My Miami orchid all died off, montipora capricornis is all but gone, and several smaller colonies of ORA corals just up and died, very mysterious. Other corals like Red Planet and Pink Lemonade seem to be doing fine. I've done some big water changes and upped my maintenance (anti-LARS-measures) and I think things are turning around. My current theory is that something got into the local water supply which my RO would not take out. All fish are doing great, I love my Harlequin tusk, my PBT is getting bigger and the Banngais have doubled in size. I might have lost one of the female anthias recently, but that's it.
Today's project was to thoroughly tear down the big Reef Octo 5000EXT Skimmer. I was seeing a degradation in performance including large bubbles in the column, plus a lot of coralline and other algaes growing in there.
I disassembled the whole thing for the first time since I set it up and cleaned what I could (you can't get into the base of course.) Amazing how much stuff can live in a big skimmer.
I got to the part where I had to tear down the Bubble Blaster pump and almost didn't do it because I hate servicing pumps and sometimes when you take pumps apart they are never the same. I gritted my teeth and went ahead. I'm really glad I did. First, though the pump is plastic construction, the threaded holes are stainless steel and the pump came apart easily. Secondly, the pump was incredibly fouled with calcareous tubeworms. There were little white tubes everywhere, in the volute, behind the needlewheel and worst of all in the tube where the impeller's drive magnet slides. It took a lot of work with a toothbrush and white vinnegar to get all the little bastards out of there, but when I put the whole thing back together it ran almost like new. Lesson: Clean that blasted pump!
I disassembled the whole thing for the first time since I set it up and cleaned what I could (you can't get into the base of course.) Amazing how much stuff can live in a big skimmer.
I got to the part where I had to tear down the Bubble Blaster pump and almost didn't do it because I hate servicing pumps and sometimes when you take pumps apart they are never the same. I gritted my teeth and went ahead. I'm really glad I did. First, though the pump is plastic construction, the threaded holes are stainless steel and the pump came apart easily. Secondly, the pump was incredibly fouled with calcareous tubeworms. There were little white tubes everywhere, in the volute, behind the needlewheel and worst of all in the tube where the impeller's drive magnet slides. It took a lot of work with a toothbrush and white vinnegar to get all the little bastards out of there, but when I put the whole thing back together it ran almost like new. Lesson: Clean that blasted pump!