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WB 130.4 Build
- Thread starter Adam L
- Start date
nightmarepl
NJRC Member
thats a HOT tank
I started the tank with reef crystals which originally had my alk at 11.2 and calcium was at 500. Within a week and a half of just letting the water run and the dry rock inside with cheato in the sump the alk dropped to 6.8. With you having a coral in there I would deffinitly test to see the alk every once in awhile. I was not expecting the alk to drop and probably bind to sand and rock that much.
Adam L
NJRC Member
Thank you! Yes, my parameters have been all over the place. Definitely risking it but that huge indo meat coral is pretty indestructible. My alk was super low initially. Using Red Sea blue bucket. Actually overshot with dosing and some baking soda. Up at 9.6 now. Will do a water change tonight. Problem has been phosphates - off the charts. Can’t run skimmer to even break it in too much foam. I can pull the meat coral and I tossed in the gsp cause I don’t care if it dies.
nightmarepl
NJRC Member
well ill tell you this... i went from a 32g biocube to a 90 gallon i had live sand, dry rock and used bio bacteria about 2-3 months in even after a ugly phase passed i " thought " the tank was cycled did all tells with hannas all the tests came back good...
i added my corals in 11 anemones hammer corals green star what ever bunch of stuff.. 2 tangs 2 clowns
within a week i started developing red cynos 2 weeks later of syphoning it every other day it got to the point the tank was Brown red dinos or cyno hard to say over took the entire tank battled it for 2 months killed off majority of the corals all the nems it was brutal...
i used chemiclean to kill the cyno added a basket ball size of chaeto and finally beat the damn thing....
then added 50lbs of dry rock rubble into the sump had alittle dinos or cyno who knows same stuff.. for two weeks now the tank finally started to show life...
i wouldnt rush it again ever...
i added my corals in 11 anemones hammer corals green star what ever bunch of stuff.. 2 tangs 2 clowns
within a week i started developing red cynos 2 weeks later of syphoning it every other day it got to the point the tank was Brown red dinos or cyno hard to say over took the entire tank battled it for 2 months killed off majority of the corals all the nems it was brutal...
i used chemiclean to kill the cyno added a basket ball size of chaeto and finally beat the damn thing....
then added 50lbs of dry rock rubble into the sump had alittle dinos or cyno who knows same stuff.. for two weeks now the tank finally started to show life...
i wouldnt rush it again ever...
nightmarepl
NJRC Member
listen man maybe itll be okay mine was a freak of nature for some reason... ive cycled many tanks never had this happen to me and this time around i got screwed....
im thinking maybe it was the rock i bought it off somone it was new for sure who knows exactly what that rock went through it was also my first time doing a sump.
one of my friends told me my biofiltration was just too strong early on and didnt let the bacteria develop enough who knows honestly just monitor it and have a backup just incase
I wish I could get detectable phopahates or any phopahates leaching from the rock. I started the tank with dry sand, and dry marco rock that I’m super sure had never touched a fish tank. I then filled the tank with about 20 gallons of the dirtiest water from my biocubes waterchanges. I got about 3 cups of sand from a super healthy reef that flourishes with bacteria and pods. I had a biobrick culturing from a stable system for a month before I added it to my tank. I also threw in cheato, calurpa, and pompom algea in my fuge to add more biodiversity. Threw in three chromis and it’s been stable ever since. I had to dose nitrates alittle bit to get a detectable level after the cycle just to keep it from bottoming out. There are extremely minimal phopahates almost undetectable. You have to run the skimmer in the beginning because it needs to get out “stuff” in the water that comes off the marco rock and the intitial bacteria. I thought my skimmer wasn’t working right from the start, creating too
Many micro bubbles. So I left the cup off and just let it overflow. I continued to try
Adding the cup but it would overflow quickly. I then said let me try dumping the immmediet white bubbles that starts to accumulate quick, and that’s what was in the water making the skimmer go nuts. When I collected that white stuff on the cup the skimmer was fine. I accidentally drained that white stuff back to the tank and immediately the skimmer started going haywire again. I think it has something to do with bacteria, or that packet of biomagnification that comes in the bags of sand. Once I removed about a gallon of the initial white skin mate it’s been smooth ever since.
Many micro bubbles. So I left the cup off and just let it overflow. I continued to try
Adding the cup but it would overflow quickly. I then said let me try dumping the immmediet white bubbles that starts to accumulate quick, and that’s what was in the water making the skimmer go nuts. When I collected that white stuff on the cup the skimmer was fine. I accidentally drained that white stuff back to the tank and immediately the skimmer started going haywire again. I think it has something to do with bacteria, or that packet of biomagnification that comes in the bags of sand. Once I removed about a gallon of the initial white skin mate it’s been smooth ever since.
Adam L
NJRC Member
Might try your skimmer idea. The white foam builds in mere seconds. Let it run for 24 hours with no cup and just overflowed. I too started with Marco dry rock and dry sand. Rodi water, new filters and di resin, and fresh salt. Can’t actually figure out where all the phosphate is coming from. Has to have been In the sand or rock. Got a reactor coming and running phosguard in a bag right now. 3 days and the phos has not budged. Time will solve all. I did dose some phosphate like a dope before testing figuring it was at zero. But it was only enough to go to .05 to match my 30aio.
