ERIC'S REEFING ADVENTURE

[erics210]

Yes. That was a huge day of raffles.

Won one of Ray's anemone, the duncan colony, a Battle Coral Seasons Greetings, a small Jason Fox burning banana, OH and one of Marcus' Corky Gorgonia. While they havent grown as awesome as his are in his tank, They have attached to the rockwork and are part of the scape now...
Had issues in the anemone tank so all are gone but the original I have had for a couple years in the top left of my display. Only thing I killed outright was the extra large blue hydrphora(but he kept stinging everyone anyway, so maybe not the worst thing to lose.

 

[deepblue68]

I enjoyed the chronicle of your past aquarium setups ! You had some cool tanks.how is the new system going?

 

[erics210]

I enjoyed the chronicle of your past aquarium setups ! You had some cool tanks.how is the new system going?

Man. It was a project to find pics and document the older setups to get me caught up. This will be a line in the sand for the current tank.
Summary I have had my ups and downs with the current tank.
October/November lost a bunch of coral due to a escalated ALk. But had an enlightenment Thanksgiving Week.
Changed Salts.
Got my parameters dialed in, been showing since then and keeping a steady 9.0alk, 440 calcium and mag tested weekly at 1250.

Will be posting some updates shortly.

 

[erics210]

So my Red Sea was picked up on November 10, 2019.
So 2 years 3 months!
Havent updated in a year and was a year behind on the Red Sea s500 to begin with!

 

[erics210]

I got a cool rimless frag tank from SumpNFishy. Initially I had it as a stand along tank next to the Red Sea s500, but decided to tie them together.
Here are some pictures of the frag tank. It became an extension of the display in reality.

 

[erics210]

Looking back to November 2019, I had a huge Green Pavano (Potato Chip coral) It was dying. just a few little lingering specs of life.

This is that same Pavano this week.

 

[erics210]

As far as the main display, I havent taken a super recent full tank shot.
This one isnt too long ago, but definately have some changes since this shot.
Will add some new shots very soon.

 

[erics210]

Newest battle is that of Phosphates/Nitrates.

I had posted this in an SPS question NJTaxMan brought up.

I have a red sea s500 max tied in with a 35 gallon frag tank.
They both go into the stock sump under the red sea.
I have BRS 5 stage RODI and maintain the filters religiously. March 1st is my next scheduled change of all filters but membrane. I do 20-30 gallon water changes just about every week. Sometimes stuff happens and gets pushed back a few days.
Tested phosphates in my fresh salt bin that I have NOT cleaned the past couple salt mixes. Usually I rinse out and start fresh with the rinsed out cleaned bin.
Phosphates tested at 0.02.

I have a reef octopus skimmer skimming constantly. May wanna start running more wet as takes week and a half to fill most of the way.
Small amount of cheato added recently. Haven't been able to grow cheato on a few recent tries. Zero algae in the tank!
COULD be from the tangs cleaning it up.

I am pretty good about the filter socks, usually 4-5 days, worst case when I do the water change.
No sand...so not a ton of place for detritus in the main display.
The frag tank does have a much lesser flow so get some in there. Suck in out during water changes.

Feed mixed pellets 2x a day, nori once, frozen maybe 2-3 to eat a week.

Do not currently run GFO/Carbon.

Run
1.025
8dkh
450
1350
And was using instant ocean r/c for like 4 years, switched to tropic Marin Pro, then couldn't find it, so went with fritz blue and instant ocean combination till I use the last of IO. Then will stay with fritz blue.

Soooo.
I THINK I figured out where my phosphates came from.
I have always had a couple small tanks without sumps across the room from my main display. They get a bit neglected compared to the main tank.
So one day about 2 years ago I had a bright idea to drain the water from the small tank down from the tank on the stand, into a filter sock in my main tanks sump. And I would run a small pump from the sump back to the small tank. While doing this I would wipe the glass, suck up any loose algaes and any detritus build up into the filter socks. Most of the time I had 2 small All in Mones I would do this for.
The smaller tank was happier because I would physically clean it up and as it basically got a mineral transfusion to sustain its life!

I would THEN do a 20-30 gallon water change on the Main Display and joined frag tank.
Down side, because I was using API test kits until this Thanksgiving. When I tested phosphates and Nitrates, the stuff would ready very low. Nitrates were actually reading zero. So was dosing NeoNitro prior to getting my Hanna test kits.

I first bought the Hanna Phosphates ULR tester.
Tested. Got an error. Tested again, Same thing.
Gave my friend who stopped by a sample of my water, he also got an error. Said my phosphates were probably higher that the 0.10

Ordered the Hanna HR Phosphates tester a week later.
SURPRISE!!!
1.63

Been trying several options to bring them down. And my battle continues. I have had hugh phosphates for suck a long time I do not want to do anything too drastic as they have gotten acclimated to these higher levels. But slowly bringing them down with various methods of attack.
Last tested at 1.19

The 2 Cubes I have are both at 2.50, but no more draining to the main display. they get their own fresh water changes to focus on their nutrients reduction.
Hanna phosphates.

Morning of 2/15 8:00am....1.12 phosphates. Slow and steady.

 

[erics210]

Today was a fun one.
I usually fill my 30 gallon brute, and do 20 gallon change on main system and 5 on each smaller tank.
Today I decided all 30 of the main tank.
Generally just drain the sump for water changes (about 20 gallons), and refill sump and hit pump on.
As the sump ws draining with the phython...I preparred the hose for the refill. Put in place in the sump, but did not turn on that pump.

While the sump drained I removed 5 gallons into a jug from both the main display and attached frag tank as I siphoned some debris.
All done, I dumped that 10 gallons down the toilet and removed the python drain line. but still was hearing water.
Hmmmm.

Damn fresh salt mix had created a siphon on its own and was draining directly intop the sump. The sump I was DRAINING!!!

So, I go to turn on the fill pump and I lost about 10 gallons of the planned 30 gallon water change.
I pulled the water fromt he ATO to make up most of the difference, but as it was filling I had to turn the frag return pump on and off a few times. BOOM. Blew the motor. DEAD! So I get in there to replace the dead motor, and of course, knock my damn refugium light into the sump.
Recovered it quickly, BUT even with all my efforts- DEAD!

I am just hoping I wake up tomorrow and do not see any live stok dead after all this. Was a waterchange day from hell I tell you.

 

[erics210]

sooo. things seemed fine yesterday, but today, have a seasons greetings browing a little, a chalice getting lighter in color and a few other SPS more faded colors that normal. I had added carbon yesterday,

could THAT have made the water clearer and result in more instense lighting?
should I turn the lights off?

I removed the carbon.

Parameters
78 degrees, 1.025 salinity
Alk-8.3
Calcium 460
Maginesim 1360
phosphates 0.88
Nitrates 25

will grab pics of the corals at lunch.

 

[erics210]

My SPS as well as some LPS have taken a hit. I am holding off on giving a final verdict until the attack on my system is resolved. In Day 6 of full tank Cipro treatment.
Probably going to have to go to day 10 as I thought I was out of the woods yesterday when my torches were hit and BJD.

No Frag Farmers Market for me this weekend.

So sad right now.

Even my cool Corky Gorgonia took a hit. @Trio91 they had a good run.