Yeah, I don't completely understand it. The hardest deposits seem to grow in areas of high flow, like near the pump intake. Some of the deposits are soft and crumbly and seem to contain precipitated strong calcium chloride, if you break them the pH shoots way up. Some of these formed fantastical shapes in the current, like teardrops. I did have to learn to keep the drip lines well-separated in the sump. Muriatic acid seemed like the next pitch to me too. It scares the hell out of me, and I was't sure if it was safe to use in the tank, like does it get hot?
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Jimroth's Big Ol' Tank
- Thread starter jimroth
- Start date
Yeah, I don't completely understand it. The hardest deposits seem to grow in areas of high flow, like near the pump intake. Some of the deposits are soft and crumbly and seem to contain precipitated strong calcium chloride, if you break them the pH shoots way up. Some of these formed fantastical shapes in the current, like teardrops. I did have to learn to keep the drip lines well-separated in the sump. Muriatic acid seemed like the next pitch to me too. It scares the hell out of me, and I was't sure if it was safe to use in the tank, like does it get hot?
Kind of a tough day in the ol' reef. I lost both the Burgess' Butterfles, presumably to ich. Found one corpse only. The majestic angel, he who survived so much trouble, isn't looking good, he's hiding, color isn't good. The PBT has gotten over the ich.
The tank is looking still better, the hated mushrooms and beloved ricordias are expanding more.
The reclamation continues. I sucked all the gravel out of one stagnant area at the back.
In the front, there was an area that really got bad. What it was, was, I never had the heart to throw away any live coral, so when I had to remove some montipora capricornis or M. Hirstuta, two fast-growing pests, I would just kind of drop them there. It eventually became fused into a big mess of live and dead montipora and poccillopora. It fused to the glass in the front. I'm admitting this stupidity so if someone in a similar situation reads this they will know not to do this. It became a really bad detritus trap. Today I removed as much as I could, there will probably be another session. I had to hammer with a piece of metal (back of my giant forceps) to get the hardest parts that were fused to the glass side and bottom. Underneath was a ton of fine detritus and the telltale black areas of hydrogen sulfide. I removed about a gallon of pieces, then siphoned out a lot of the mess.
Some of the nuisance pocillopora heads have RTN'd (boo hoo) and as I warmed to my work, I smashed those up and removed them, they are too tough to break by hand.
Since there were a lot of frag plugs in the mess, I created a small coral dump out by the edge of the woods, maybe someday I'll raid it for fragging materials. There were also shells from every variety of snail and hermit I ever added to the tank, quite a few, and of course I needed to confirm that none were still occupied.
The tank is looking still better, the hated mushrooms and beloved ricordias are expanding more.
The reclamation continues. I sucked all the gravel out of one stagnant area at the back.
In the front, there was an area that really got bad. What it was, was, I never had the heart to throw away any live coral, so when I had to remove some montipora capricornis or M. Hirstuta, two fast-growing pests, I would just kind of drop them there. It eventually became fused into a big mess of live and dead montipora and poccillopora. It fused to the glass in the front. I'm admitting this stupidity so if someone in a similar situation reads this they will know not to do this. It became a really bad detritus trap. Today I removed as much as I could, there will probably be another session. I had to hammer with a piece of metal (back of my giant forceps) to get the hardest parts that were fused to the glass side and bottom. Underneath was a ton of fine detritus and the telltale black areas of hydrogen sulfide. I removed about a gallon of pieces, then siphoned out a lot of the mess.
Some of the nuisance pocillopora heads have RTN'd (boo hoo) and as I warmed to my work, I smashed those up and removed them, they are too tough to break by hand.
Since there were a lot of frag plugs in the mess, I created a small coral dump out by the edge of the woods, maybe someday I'll raid it for fragging materials. There were also shells from every variety of snail and hermit I ever added to the tank, quite a few, and of course I needed to confirm that none were still occupied.
No sign of the majestic, I fear he's dead. No body though.
Pulled out another load of dirty gravel and broken dead coral.
I'm going to change salt brands. Since everything is going so lousy, it seems like a good opportunity. I've been doing Tropic Marin since forever, which is expensive, even in bulk. I'm going to switch to Reef Crystals, saving around 20%. Plus, the 200G box comes in 4 50G bags, which will simplify my life, since I almost always do a 50G water change.
Pulled out another load of dirty gravel and broken dead coral.
I'm going to change salt brands. Since everything is going so lousy, it seems like a good opportunity. I've been doing Tropic Marin since forever, which is expensive, even in bulk. I'm going to switch to Reef Crystals, saving around 20%. Plus, the 200G box comes in 4 50G bags, which will simplify my life, since I almost always do a 50G water change.
The replacement ballasts came. It's great to see the reef fully lit again. I am going to mount them near the tank now instead of in the garage. I am not sure that the 12' light cables were the issue, but this is the second set of Lumatek ballasts I've replaced. I have to change up something. Once I get them mounted on something, I'm gonna run them at 250W until the big LED changeover.
Having just lost around $450 worth of fish, I've been doing a lot of thinking about fish choices. I enjoyed being a butterfly-and-angelfish reefer, but I think I'm going to go with the more conventional stuff when I start to restock. If I don't I'm going to go nuts trying to rebuild my coral display. Still debating whether to dismantle my beloved PVC fish cave. I will need to re-roof it if I can find a nice flat shelf rock.
So for now:
--No fish that only eat PE Mysis!
--No wrasses that need a sandbed
--No jumpers
--Nothing very agressive
I think that leaves yellow tangs and ocellaris clownfish. I do like my chromis school, best $4 fish I ever bought.
Having just lost around $450 worth of fish, I've been doing a lot of thinking about fish choices. I enjoyed being a butterfly-and-angelfish reefer, but I think I'm going to go with the more conventional stuff when I start to restock. If I don't I'm going to go nuts trying to rebuild my coral display. Still debating whether to dismantle my beloved PVC fish cave. I will need to re-roof it if I can find a nice flat shelf rock.
So for now:
--No fish that only eat PE Mysis!
--No wrasses that need a sandbed
--No jumpers
--Nothing very agressive
I think that leaves yellow tangs and ocellaris clownfish. I do like my chromis school, best $4 fish I ever bought.
I was thinking about A. Squampinnis actually. I had a school of the big square anthias for about a year. I really liked them! Which ones have you had? Some are definitely easier than others. When I had the squares the male never learned to eat dry food, he was a frozen-only kind of guy. The fantastically colored male also faded over time (this happens I hear). Eventually I was down to a single female, who tried to turn male but died.
I want to throw in a really stupid tip I came up with. I run carbon in a reactor, and have been frustrated by the tiny carbon pieces blowing into the tank through the sponge. What I did was not worry about that and just temporarily mount a filter sock under the outflow from the reactor. All the tiny carbon nuggets caught, no problem!
Have you used shrink wrap tubing on the electrical connections for the lights or just wire nuts? sometimes the wiring can become corroded and cause problems.
All my lighting cables are wired into heavy duty 3-prong plugs (Thanks for the idea MikeM!) which gives solid connections and lets you use economical heavy-duty extension cords (just don't plug the MH into 110VAC!).
Well, the fun just keeps on coming. Whatever killed the Majestic and the butterflies took out the PBT and tomato clownfish last night. How do you kill a tomato clownfish? I thought they were bulletproof. It looked like Brooklynella or velvet or that combined with ich. I have almost no experience with SW fish getting any sickness besides ich. I didn't have a strategy.
The remaining fish are a one spot foxface, a deformed yellow meringue wrasse, six chromis and a clown goby. I'm going to find new homes for them at least temporarily so I can keep the tank fallow for ich. Then if I stick to quarantine when I re-populate I can at least be rid of that menace.
Also going to be able to make a bunch of changes such as the new skimmer and possibly replacing the sump with my 100G Rubbermaid tub.
Will sea urchins eat nori sheets? The are really tearing through the hair algae and I don't want them to starve when it's gone.
One "funny" thing I learned was that Burgess' butterflies like to eat sea urchin tube feet. It didn't kill the sea urchins but I don't think they thought it was funny. Interesting to watch.
The remaining fish are a one spot foxface, a deformed yellow meringue wrasse, six chromis and a clown goby. I'm going to find new homes for them at least temporarily so I can keep the tank fallow for ich. Then if I stick to quarantine when I re-populate I can at least be rid of that menace.
Also going to be able to make a bunch of changes such as the new skimmer and possibly replacing the sump with my 100G Rubbermaid tub.
Will sea urchins eat nori sheets? The are really tearing through the hair algae and I don't want them to starve when it's gone.
One "funny" thing I learned was that Burgess' butterflies like to eat sea urchin tube feet. It didn't kill the sea urchins but I don't think they thought it was funny. Interesting to watch.
Anyone have any tips on using a Rubbermaid trough as a sump? They have that one bulkhead, which I hear can be leaky, I guess I would hook up the return pump there. Then I will need to have a pump to feed the skimmer, how can I mount another bulkhead? And I will need to mount the ATO float switches some how, and make a rock gizmo to trap micro bubbles and a filter sock holder for the drains.
Jim we found that when we had a brook like infection that freshwater dips and putting them in a hospital tank was the best. We then treated for several weeks with erthriomycine (sp?) and that seemed to work. We saved our one clown and wrasse by doing that.
Don't remember the dimensions but I measured and it will fit, both front to back and underneath the drains if I remove the bottom shelf surface.
I've been looking at some good threads on RC about using stock tanks for sumps. There is a flat spot for another bulkhead, over the existing one. Or I could make a self-priming "U" type arrangement.
One guy came up with a clever method for using PVC fenceposts from HD to make sock holders and mounts for float switches etc. by hanking them over the edge and bending the front of the post into a little shelf with a heat gun.
I think if I take the bottom shelf surface out of my bench I can fit it under there, maybe have to remove one of the supports but there's nothing heavy on top these days. Maybe put something underneath the tub for insulation, pink foam or at least plywood. I'm replacing the crappy bulkhead with a schedule 40 PVC one. My major concern is the return pump plumbing coming right out of the front where I might kick it, probably have to build a guard of some sort. I am not hard plumbing this time, I see a big length of spa-flex going to the pump.
I have cut back on two-part, since my coral population is now much smaller. I feel that two-part on a massive scale is where I went off the rails somehow. Back to the Ca reactor later in the project, or maybe look for a bigger one than the MR-1.
The Foxface looked like he might buy the farm for a day, hiding and breathing hard. Looks better now, he's eating and swimming around.
Sounds like there still something toxic in the tank or system???
Edwardw771
NJRC Member
Hey Jim. You can drill holes in these Rubbermaids pretty easy. I made the stock holes a big bigger on two of my so far.
I dunno, I have considered that. Everything else is doing okay. I'm gonna change the carbon and continue major water changes, waiting for my new salt. Was thinking of putting one of those poly pads in there to see if something metal is in the water?
I'm dashed. Continuing to clean up.
hair algae is looking pparticularly crappy tonight.
I'm thinking I will put a 2" bulkhead in there to go to my reeflo dart. Shouldn't be a problem.