I wish I had that info, but the tank and the sump = 250G plus a surprising amount in the plumbing, call it 200G with the rocks.
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Jimroth's Big Ol' Tank
- Thread starter jimroth
- Start date
I talked with Jeff Curry and he identified at least part of my problem as dinoflagellates, the golden-brown gook. I am going to darken the tank for a few days and see if that helps. Last night I cleaned out a bunch of the gunk while siphoning out 10G of water.
I got a box from BRS with, among other things, a bag of biopellets. I'm going to try biopellets in my extra TLF phosban reactor instead of vodka. I will phase out the vodka over a couple of weeks. I think that might provide a more steady organic carbon situation.
Also in the box is some of that high-capacity GFO, going to try that instead of the regular stuff which seems to not be going the distance for me.
I got a box from BRS with, among other things, a bag of biopellets. I'm going to try biopellets in my extra TLF phosban reactor instead of vodka. I will phase out the vodka over a couple of weeks. I think that might provide a more steady organic carbon situation.
Also in the box is some of that high-capacity GFO, going to try that instead of the regular stuff which seems to not be going the distance for me.
I totally do want to try it Bax, bring it on!
Like in Pulp Fiction, my reef is a hell of a long way from alright!
I remember when stuff was doing great in there, I could put stuff in there and it would grow or at least do okay. Not these days. I want to get back to that place.
One cool note from the BioCube: Last night the orange prawn goby paired up wiuth the candy cane pistol shrimp, at least for a little while. I guess the goby is over his broken heart. I think the process is somewhat dependent on the shrimp digging a big enough burrow, usually the candy pistol keeps his burrow almost sealed, last night it was wide open. And the shrimp wasn't afraid to come outside, it almost never does that. Honestly this has been a fascinating endeavour.
I went back and read this thread from the beginning. Well, not the "lost year" but all the rest.
1) I can't believe it's been four years!
2) I can't believe all the crap I did to get it going! I always have that reaction when I look back on a project, but geez!
3) Trying to figure out where things went off the track. It's easy to point at the two power outages. Losing my first PBT and foxface helped explode the algae. But maybe it's the whole massive 2-part thing. Certainly overfeeeding with PE Mysis has soaked my tank with nutrients. I had this with my DSB 58G too, a few years and things went south.
I had about two really good years. Glad I took pictures!
If I don't get things whereI want in a couple of months, it's going to be time for radical changes. Maybe back to Ca reactor and Kalk.
1) I can't believe it's been four years!
2) I can't believe all the crap I did to get it going! I always have that reaction when I look back on a project, but geez!
3) Trying to figure out where things went off the track. It's easy to point at the two power outages. Losing my first PBT and foxface helped explode the algae. But maybe it's the whole massive 2-part thing. Certainly overfeeeding with PE Mysis has soaked my tank with nutrients. I had this with my DSB 58G too, a few years and things went south.
I had about two really good years. Glad I took pictures!
If I don't get things whereI want in a couple of months, it's going to be time for radical changes. Maybe back to Ca reactor and Kalk.
Do you think the vodka dosing could have something to do with the increased algae growth? Dinoflagettes are a real downer. They almost made me give up the hobby. Like we discussed try vacuuming up as much algae as possible and then black out the tank for 3 days. I wrapped my tank in paper to block out all light. When you unwrap the tank run just your actinics for 1 hour a day for the first few days and ramp them up 15 minutes a day after that. If the dinos return drop the light cycle back to 1 hour.
One thing that has screwed me up on occasion is this: If the skimmer goes out of adjustment and you keep dosing vodka, the crap builds up in the tank super fast. It's happened when I've gone on vacation and had a neighbor keep dosing vodka. The tank gets a crappy look, cyano develops, but not like this. I think one root cause of my current situation is that my skimmer got clogged and lost effectiveness gradually. I cleaned out the column, and now it's better but I still have it way throttled back to avoid skimming 5G per day.
BTW, three days with no lights was great for the dinos or cyano or whatever it was! You could see it letting go and floating around. The tank looks 30% better!
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OK, I think the iwaki pump is quite a bit more than that. I have a couple of PCH pumps that may fill the bill, I will check the stats.
Over the weekend I changed my carbon and GFO reactors. I switched to the BRS high-capacity GFO in the TLF 550 reactor, expensive but maybe it will do the trick. I also set up BRS biopellets in my extra TLF 150 reactor. Now it's time to wean my tank off vodka (sugar, vinegar). Let's hope it doesn't get the DT's! I am going to cut the vodka dose in half while the pellet reactor comes up to speed.
I am also trying to get used to feeding a reasonable ration of food. I briefly switched from flat-pack mysis to cube mysis, and while I'm not going to stay with the cubes (too much pack juice), it was an education about how much less I can get away with feeding the little pigs. I just like feeding fish. I've been target feeding the shrimp and gobies in the cube, using a bulb contraption, and I think that's a great way to limit nutrient input while making sure everyone gets a shrimp or two.
I added a small skimmer to the biocube, it's an Italian job from Sera, sells for about $50, seems very well built, electric pump on the bottom. I think it's going to be hard to get it to skim, but it's highly adjustable. I am not sure about the value of small skimmers, but if you can extract some pale yellow skimmate, I don't think that's a bad thing.
I am also trying to get used to feeding a reasonable ration of food. I briefly switched from flat-pack mysis to cube mysis, and while I'm not going to stay with the cubes (too much pack juice), it was an education about how much less I can get away with feeding the little pigs. I just like feeding fish. I've been target feeding the shrimp and gobies in the cube, using a bulb contraption, and I think that's a great way to limit nutrient input while making sure everyone gets a shrimp or two.
I added a small skimmer to the biocube, it's an Italian job from Sera, sells for about $50, seems very well built, electric pump on the bottom. I think it's going to be hard to get it to skim, but it's highly adjustable. I am not sure about the value of small skimmers, but if you can extract some pale yellow skimmate, I don't think that's a bad thing.
I saw one of the coral gobies, so they're not dead. That brown algae crap is everywhere, I need to either get something's to eat it or take out the affected rocks. The tank looks better now, and the corals look okay. Ski mer is under control now. I need to do a set of tests. ORP is higher than it's been in months, a good sign.
I saw a couple bigger asterina stars too, I guess there were survivors.
I saw a couple bigger asterina stars too, I guess there were survivors.
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If the police pull you over just say it's a "bong."
I'm definitely working from home on Friday, all day.
Did a full set of tests yesterday, and everything was fine...except phosphate (0.15)!!
Ca 600, Kh 9.3, Mg 1150 or something.
I'm going to add MORE GFO, maybe a bag in the raceway, and look for an alternative to PE Mysis. Maybe use table shrimp most of the time, and save the PE for a treat.
Time for a refugium I guess. It's not like I don't have a spare tank.
Ca 600, Kh 9.3, Mg 1150 or something.
I'm going to add MORE GFO, maybe a bag in the raceway, and look for an alternative to PE Mysis. Maybe use table shrimp most of the time, and save the PE for a treat.
Time for a refugium I guess. It's not like I don't have a spare tank.
Would like to gravity feed it but it would have to fit in between my drain hitting the garage and my sump! Not enough space. Maybe I could upsize my return pump and feed it off the return line, that would be a thing.
In any case, I've realized that it does not need to be fed by the iwaki 100RLT, which is a pressure pump. I have some PCX 40 externals I've never used I could swap right into where the Iwaki sits, maybe I'll use one of those.
In any case, I've realized that it does not need to be fed by the iwaki 100RLT, which is a pressure pump. I have some PCX 40 externals I've never used I could swap right into where the Iwaki sits, maybe I'll use one of those.
