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blange3's 180 upgrade
- Thread starter blange3
- Start date
The clowns are staying in the 75 with the LTA. The 180 has know anemones but lots of Euphyllia that clowns love to host in when there are no availableanemones.
I don't want them to try and host any of the LPS in the 180 as that can lead to annoyed LPS that don't extend enough.
When I setup the 75 3 years ago I went from a truly mixed reef to an LPS only 75 and a softie focused 55. Other things snuck into both tanks over time, but I found all my Euphyllia species did much better without hosting clowns and softie toxins.
I don't want them to try and host any of the LPS in the 180 as that can lead to annoyed LPS that don't extend enough.
When I setup the 75 3 years ago I went from a truly mixed reef to an LPS only 75 and a softie focused 55. Other things snuck into both tanks over time, but I found all my Euphyllia species did much better without hosting clowns and softie toxins.
They are pretty close, about 2-3" off the water. I also eliminated egg crate by closing the back with diamond netting to get the most out of the lights.
I went with a 180 for my upgrade because anything larger would be deeper as well. At 30" you could keep some mushrooms, but I'm not sure about anything else.
I went with a 180 for my upgrade because anything larger would be deeper as well. At 30" you could keep some mushrooms, but I'm not sure about anything else.
I have to try and get the energy level up to take some new pics.
Sam and I are trying to spot the new blood shrimp under the actinics.
The birthday elegance is doing well and the newly arrived AC3 is 85% programmed and waiting for permanent mounting and cutover from the mechanical timers and manual switches.
Water change took less than 15 minutes. All is good in Reefer Nirvana!
Sam and I are trying to spot the new blood shrimp under the actinics.
The birthday elegance is doing well and the newly arrived AC3 is 85% programmed and waiting for permanent mounting and cutover from the mechanical timers and manual switches.
Water change took less than 15 minutes. All is good in Reefer Nirvana!
Well it's been a while since I posted. Why so quiet?
Well first of all, everyone will ask for pictures and I haven't had the energy to take pictures that never do this tank justice. But I'll give it a shot this weekend.
On the whole everything is going well. Most of the corals are showing at least some growth. Most of the Euphyllias and zoas a experiencing good growth. Steady growth from the caps and millis. The only things that have declined are the few rics I have, but I have always struggled with rics.
So what has kept me busy? Well a fellow reefer cursed the tank when he admired the Gold Rimmed Tang, but commented that he had never seen one without ich. Admittedly he tried to hold back his comment and said he didn't want to jinx me, but I forced it out of him. After all the tang had been in QT for over a month and was in the 180 for another month with no signs of a problem. But low and behold, 2 days later he had ich!
Long story short, I lost the Gold Rim and the Bluethroat Trigger after a 6+ week battle. Everyone else is fine, and I have since added a pretty female swallowtail with no problems. Since I have been in more than one ich related debate, I kept quiet while I practiced what I preached. I fed much garlic and selcon, added a blood shrimp and some neon gobies to help the cleaner shrimp and kept the tank parameters as stable as possible. The neon gobies were cool to watch work on the tang. But alas I lost them as well.
Removing the infected fish without disturbing the corals was impossible. Since my focus was the corals I used the least disruptive approach and mangaged to save the other fish; 2 pj cardinals, a pair of filamented fairy wrasses, a yellow tail blue damsel, citron goby, yellow watchman goby, tomini tang, and a purple tang.
The tank was filled initially about 6 months ago and I did the mass migration of coral, rock and fish from the 75 almost 4 months ago. I'm experiencing the usual new tank stuff around the 6 month mark; some cyano, some bubble algae and the odd aptasia. I have several emerald crabs working on the bubble algae, but they have all migrated to the right side of the tank.
I added several peppermint shrimp when I first set the tank up to take care of aptaisia, but I see one now for the first time in several months, but I haven't seen the peppermints in some time. They use to come out at feeding time, but I haven't seen them since about a week after I added the blood shrimp. I wonder if he chases them?
The cyano comes and goes, the foot long cucumber seems to clear that up.
I have amazed even myself by staying on top of the weekly water changes, about 25 gallons a week. Tropic Marin sends me thank you cards!
I have a classic equipment related reef chain reaction tale to tell that happened this week, but that will have to wait for another post.
Well first of all, everyone will ask for pictures and I haven't had the energy to take pictures that never do this tank justice. But I'll give it a shot this weekend.
On the whole everything is going well. Most of the corals are showing at least some growth. Most of the Euphyllias and zoas a experiencing good growth. Steady growth from the caps and millis. The only things that have declined are the few rics I have, but I have always struggled with rics.
So what has kept me busy? Well a fellow reefer cursed the tank when he admired the Gold Rimmed Tang, but commented that he had never seen one without ich. Admittedly he tried to hold back his comment and said he didn't want to jinx me, but I forced it out of him. After all the tang had been in QT for over a month and was in the 180 for another month with no signs of a problem. But low and behold, 2 days later he had ich!
Long story short, I lost the Gold Rim and the Bluethroat Trigger after a 6+ week battle. Everyone else is fine, and I have since added a pretty female swallowtail with no problems. Since I have been in more than one ich related debate, I kept quiet while I practiced what I preached. I fed much garlic and selcon, added a blood shrimp and some neon gobies to help the cleaner shrimp and kept the tank parameters as stable as possible. The neon gobies were cool to watch work on the tang. But alas I lost them as well.
Removing the infected fish without disturbing the corals was impossible. Since my focus was the corals I used the least disruptive approach and mangaged to save the other fish; 2 pj cardinals, a pair of filamented fairy wrasses, a yellow tail blue damsel, citron goby, yellow watchman goby, tomini tang, and a purple tang.
The tank was filled initially about 6 months ago and I did the mass migration of coral, rock and fish from the 75 almost 4 months ago. I'm experiencing the usual new tank stuff around the 6 month mark; some cyano, some bubble algae and the odd aptasia. I have several emerald crabs working on the bubble algae, but they have all migrated to the right side of the tank.
I added several peppermint shrimp when I first set the tank up to take care of aptaisia, but I see one now for the first time in several months, but I haven't seen the peppermints in some time. They use to come out at feeding time, but I haven't seen them since about a week after I added the blood shrimp. I wonder if he chases them?
The cyano comes and goes, the foot long cucumber seems to clear that up.
I have amazed even myself by staying on top of the weekly water changes, about 25 gallons a week. Tropic Marin sends me thank you cards!
I have a classic equipment related reef chain reaction tale to tell that happened this week, but that will have to wait for another post.
Bill,
I'm so sorry to hear about your battle with ich. I'm having another outbreak of it as I'm typing, but only a handful of fish are mildly affected this time. I, too, lost my neon gobies after the last battle with it. 2 ended up in the overflow and disappeared from there, and the last one must have either died or was eaten by someone.
Believe it or not, but when you described your tank conditions (occasional cyano and bubble algae), I swear it sounded as if you were talking about mine.
Can't wait to hear the "classic equipment related reef chain reaction tale". You made me very curious.
I'm so sorry to hear about your battle with ich. I'm having another outbreak of it as I'm typing, but only a handful of fish are mildly affected this time. I, too, lost my neon gobies after the last battle with it. 2 ended up in the overflow and disappeared from there, and the last one must have either died or was eaten by someone.
Believe it or not, but when you described your tank conditions (occasional cyano and bubble algae), I swear it sounded as if you were talking about mine.
Can't wait to hear the "classic equipment related reef chain reaction tale". You made me very curious.
So now for the saga of the latest reef chain reaction. :
It was a mere week ago when I was doing my routine daily maintenance of cleaning the glass and skimming the surface.
My tank is not reef ready. It was drilled for two 1" bulkheads and the returns are 90 degree elbows with strainers. I pull the strainer and the increased flow skims any scum that builds up on the surface nicely. While I guard the drain opening from the male flasher wrasse that really wants to ride the waterslide to the filter bag in the basement, I check out whats happening on the left side of the tank.
Well last week I got a little too interested in the tank and dropped the strainer into the tank. It drifted directly to the halimeda growing behind the rock island and quickly sank into the mass of algae like a hunter in an old Tarzan movie. Quick enough so there was nothing I could do to save it, and slow enough for me to realize this was going to be a problem.
Since the flasher wrasse was anxious to take advantage of the situation and I didn't have a spare strainer handy, I shut down the return pump. I grabbed my long extended handle Kent scrapper and poked around for a while, but could not find the strainer. I realized that I was going to have to remove the canopy and go into the tank. I believe that there is one rule in reefing that is set in stone; nothing good ever comes from going into the tank!
I treat going into the tank like a space shuttle mission. I wait until there is an extensive list of experiments and maintenance activities to justify the effort, and then we launch. The halimeda did need thinning, my derasa had moved and was crowding some blastos, there were some frags I wanted to move, some bubble algae needed to be removed, and I finally located the maxijet flow diverter that had launched like a rocket into the rockwork a few weeks ago. My wife was home to help remove the canopy, so we gave the mission a green light.
A little over an hour later I was surprised to find that canopy was back in place, the strainer had been retrieved, all the planned tasks had been accomplished, and no one had jumped, no corals were crushed, nothing was broken and I hadn't stained the new carpet. Too good to be true!
AND IT WAS!
I got home after 9 the next light and Cindy asked me how come only the actinic lights were on? We checked the time and sure enough, there were still supposed to be 2 more lights on. I thought that maybe I hadn't plugged the extension harness in tightly enough, but it was in a tough to reach spot behind the tank so I checked all the other connections first. Everything seemed to be alright, but wait that ballast felt damp!
How did that happen? ??? There was no water under the tank that I could see, the flex PVC lines were all dry, but between the ballast and it's heat sink I found some water. My IceCaps lay on the bottom of the stand, wondering if I'm ever going to mount them like I intended. But since I went with a basement sump and there is no water under the tank, they wait until a day that I have absolutely nothing else to do.
Well trying to keep an already long story somewhat shorter, some water had indeed gotten under the tank while I was working, or more likely I loosened the bulkhead a bit and some water leaked along the return hose and got under the ballast which had a blown fuse. The pair of bulbs driven by the problem ballast are the main white lights for the tank so I switched one of the working ballasts and there was now light from the pair in question. But wait! It was now time for them to be off and I hadn't used the manual override on the Aquacontroller to turn them on.
Alas the slow blow fuse on the IceCap ballast was too slow to keep the triac on the DC8 controller from blowing and remaining in the on position. So now I was the proud owner of a dead IceCap 660 and a DC8 with an outlet stuck in the on position.
And as the makers of Ginsu knives and Popeils Kitchen Magician would say, "But wait there's more!"
The next day I got a fuse for the ballast and since it was dry I decided to see if I was lucky enough to have only suffered a blown fuse. I did not want to risk blowing another DC8 outlet so I test it on a power strip I had under the tank that wasn't being used (I thought) and was still plugged in.
I plugged it in but no light came on, the ballast was dead. Not only that but my return pump just went off. I must have blown the breaker. I went downstairs, but all the breakers were good. I must have blown the fuse on the power strip, which was actually a UPS that I had hoped to run some powerheads on, but AC motors and UPS power don't' work well together. Anyway, I noticed that not only my return pump had stopped, but everything working in my basement on the DC4 was off. And then it hit me. The UPS was actually hooked in to the DC4 and the return pump was hooked into the UPS so that if it went off the UPS alarm would let me know that the return pump was off.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but since I forgot about the setup I had now blown a DC4 testing the ballast that already blew an outlet on a DC8.
All this because I dropped a lousy strainer and had to go into the tank! ;D
Well the good news is the DC4 had an internal fuse that blew and all of the outlets still work. I'm sending the ballast back to Icecap for repairs and eventually the DC8 back to Neptune. The tank is doing OK on only 640 watts of VHO for now, and I got something to post on my thread.
As the wise sage JohnS_323 once said, "Everyday in reefing brings you one day closer to your next disaster."
Hopefully the next one is far off in the future! 8)
It was a mere week ago when I was doing my routine daily maintenance of cleaning the glass and skimming the surface.
My tank is not reef ready. It was drilled for two 1" bulkheads and the returns are 90 degree elbows with strainers. I pull the strainer and the increased flow skims any scum that builds up on the surface nicely. While I guard the drain opening from the male flasher wrasse that really wants to ride the waterslide to the filter bag in the basement, I check out whats happening on the left side of the tank.
Well last week I got a little too interested in the tank and dropped the strainer into the tank. It drifted directly to the halimeda growing behind the rock island and quickly sank into the mass of algae like a hunter in an old Tarzan movie. Quick enough so there was nothing I could do to save it, and slow enough for me to realize this was going to be a problem.
Since the flasher wrasse was anxious to take advantage of the situation and I didn't have a spare strainer handy, I shut down the return pump. I grabbed my long extended handle Kent scrapper and poked around for a while, but could not find the strainer. I realized that I was going to have to remove the canopy and go into the tank. I believe that there is one rule in reefing that is set in stone; nothing good ever comes from going into the tank!
I treat going into the tank like a space shuttle mission. I wait until there is an extensive list of experiments and maintenance activities to justify the effort, and then we launch. The halimeda did need thinning, my derasa had moved and was crowding some blastos, there were some frags I wanted to move, some bubble algae needed to be removed, and I finally located the maxijet flow diverter that had launched like a rocket into the rockwork a few weeks ago. My wife was home to help remove the canopy, so we gave the mission a green light.
A little over an hour later I was surprised to find that canopy was back in place, the strainer had been retrieved, all the planned tasks had been accomplished, and no one had jumped, no corals were crushed, nothing was broken and I hadn't stained the new carpet. Too good to be true!
AND IT WAS!
I got home after 9 the next light and Cindy asked me how come only the actinic lights were on? We checked the time and sure enough, there were still supposed to be 2 more lights on. I thought that maybe I hadn't plugged the extension harness in tightly enough, but it was in a tough to reach spot behind the tank so I checked all the other connections first. Everything seemed to be alright, but wait that ballast felt damp!
How did that happen? ??? There was no water under the tank that I could see, the flex PVC lines were all dry, but between the ballast and it's heat sink I found some water. My IceCaps lay on the bottom of the stand, wondering if I'm ever going to mount them like I intended. But since I went with a basement sump and there is no water under the tank, they wait until a day that I have absolutely nothing else to do.
Well trying to keep an already long story somewhat shorter, some water had indeed gotten under the tank while I was working, or more likely I loosened the bulkhead a bit and some water leaked along the return hose and got under the ballast which had a blown fuse. The pair of bulbs driven by the problem ballast are the main white lights for the tank so I switched one of the working ballasts and there was now light from the pair in question. But wait! It was now time for them to be off and I hadn't used the manual override on the Aquacontroller to turn them on.
Alas the slow blow fuse on the IceCap ballast was too slow to keep the triac on the DC8 controller from blowing and remaining in the on position. So now I was the proud owner of a dead IceCap 660 and a DC8 with an outlet stuck in the on position.
And as the makers of Ginsu knives and Popeils Kitchen Magician would say, "But wait there's more!"
The next day I got a fuse for the ballast and since it was dry I decided to see if I was lucky enough to have only suffered a blown fuse. I did not want to risk blowing another DC8 outlet so I test it on a power strip I had under the tank that wasn't being used (I thought) and was still plugged in.
I plugged it in but no light came on, the ballast was dead. Not only that but my return pump just went off. I must have blown the breaker. I went downstairs, but all the breakers were good. I must have blown the fuse on the power strip, which was actually a UPS that I had hoped to run some powerheads on, but AC motors and UPS power don't' work well together. Anyway, I noticed that not only my return pump had stopped, but everything working in my basement on the DC4 was off. And then it hit me. The UPS was actually hooked in to the DC4 and the return pump was hooked into the UPS so that if it went off the UPS alarm would let me know that the return pump was off.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but since I forgot about the setup I had now blown a DC4 testing the ballast that already blew an outlet on a DC8.
All this because I dropped a lousy strainer and had to go into the tank! ;D
Well the good news is the DC4 had an internal fuse that blew and all of the outlets still work. I'm sending the ballast back to Icecap for repairs and eventually the DC8 back to Neptune. The tank is doing OK on only 640 watts of VHO for now, and I got something to post on my thread.
As the wise sage JohnS_323 once said, "Everyday in reefing brings you one day closer to your next disaster."
Hopefully the next one is far off in the future! 8)
Oh man Bill, that's rough. All that because you didn't have a spare strainer. And people laugh at me for my huge boxes of "not yet used" fittings. I refuse to refer to them as extra's from other jobs. They just haven't been used yet ;D
Hopefully everything fares well and the equipment repairs don't cost too much. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help out (I probably a few spare strainers if you want one or two).
Hopefully everything fares well and the equipment repairs don't cost too much. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help out (I probably a few spare strainers if you want one or two).
Thanks John and Brian!
Things are OK now. I just have to get the ballast in the mail. No shipping tape in the house and I was busy yesterday.
I have been switching back an forth between what set of lights are off on a given day and I've decided to change my bulb combination going forward. At least I've had the chance to do some experimenting!
Things are OK now. I just have to get the ballast in the mail. No shipping tape in the house and I was busy yesterday.
I have been switching back an forth between what set of lights are off on a given day and I've decided to change my bulb combination going forward. At least I've had the chance to do some experimenting!
Edwardw771
NJRC Member
Sorry to hear about this. Bill If we can meet up this week. I'll take that thing to IceCap. Do you ever come up by Bridgewater?
Sorry to hear about your saga. I knew I shouldn't have said anything about the tang, but you just had to keep bugging me about it.
I have plenty of 660s you can borrow as well as a box of 6' bulbs in various spectrums (03, 50/50 & 65k) and 3 strainers you can have. LMK
I have plenty of 660s you can borrow as well as a box of 6' bulbs in various spectrums (03, 50/50 & 65k) and 3 strainers you can have. LMK
Jeez Bill, it never rains but it pours (literally, in your case.). I sometimes look at my setup and it seems like an office building held together with rubber bands, just an accident waiting to happen all the dang time. It's why I don't have any holes much below the waterline and not much equipment in the stand.