Custom Look CadLights 50Long

[twan]

So just as diatoms hit the road I am starting to get a little cyno & hair algea.
Right on schedule according to New Tank Syndrome.

It is not bad at all and concentrated to one area. This is also the area with the lowest flow.
The area of concern I highlighted in the below FTS from last week. At that time you could already see some darkening in the area.

As this has been developing I have also seen a slight rise in phosphate levels.
I am going to keep an eye on it and continue with my weekly water changes and bi-weekly carbon changes for now.
I also moved the MP10 on the right side of the tank over slightly (not shown in above picture) to hit the area in question with a bit more flow.

 

[twan]

Parameter Check

My tank is in my basement that is not running an air conditioner or running a chiller. It stays pretty cool down there as it is partially below grade and central A/C from upstairs makes some of it's way down to the basement (when we are home).

I have seen hotter tank temps recently though. Average temps have been consistently 85+ outdoors for the last 2 weeks with some days 95+. I feel safe though as the hottest my tank has gotten during this time frame is only 1 degree hotter then my average of 78.7 which brings it up to about 79.7.

The PH has responded in step and has been consistently in the 8.0+ range which is nice.
Is this due in part to the slight temp increase?

The slightly higher temps might also be from the addition of the Cobalt MJ1200 that feeds my carbon reactor I added 2 weeks ago.

All is OK, just a little warmer. For my records here is the last 7 days on temp and pH.

 

[twan]

Diver's Den Order Due 7/1

I have been waiting to find a Tanaka's and either a naked clown pair or a pink skunk clown pair on DD for the past 2 months. They both hit yesterday. My wife wondered wtf I was doing mashing refresh on DD at 6pm EST so no1 else would grab em. I had the early alert that they would be posted so I planned accordingly.

Here is the picture of the Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse Juvenile:

Here is the picture of the ORA? Peach Skunk Clownfish (Select Pair):

And to add to that in order to get free shipping:
-Diver's DenORA? Grube's Gorgonian Coral
-Diver's DenDFS Green Implosions Protopalythoa
-Diver's DenDFS Avocado Acan Coral
-Diver's DenDFS Red People Eaters Zoanthus

This will be my last additions to the tank for quite a few months.
I will probably only add frags picked up locally from here on out with a Helfrichi Firefish and a Mystery Wrasse or Flame Angelfish in the future.

 

[twan]

Diver's Den Order Livestock Report

I had the lights very dim 0w/10b/10rb for 15hrs and today the lights will flip back to their normal schedule. Here is the newly added livestock report after 36 hours.

Tanaka's Wrasse - had a touch and go drip acclimation but once in the tank he was cruising around but still very shy. In the 2 feedings I did yesterday I saw him take some mysis so all is well.
Skunk clowns - had a perfect drip acclimation but huddle together in the corner and have not done much exploring. The female has eaten, the male has not.
Grube's Gorgonian Coral - opening partially, finding the right spot is going to take a little while.
Green Implosions Protopalythoa - opening full.
Avocado Acan Coral - opening full.
Red People Eaters Zoanthus - 1 of the 9 polyps partially open only.

 

[twan]

Fast shots 7.25.12

FTS

New Clown Pair with old Yasha Goby

New Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse with old Starry Blenny

New Grube's Gorgonian Coral

New Green Implosions Protopalythoa

New Avocado Acan Coral

New Red People Eaters Zoanthus

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Nice FTS!

 

[twan]

Filter Socks

So a little history here. When I was first setting up the tank I was using mesh filter socks.
With the amount of air my drain pipe was pulling in the sock would float on the surface of chamber 1 in the sump and be pretty loud.
As I got the durso sorted I found it necessary to switch to the felt type socks to catch more particulate and be quiet.

Lately though, the socks have been clogging within 1-2 days.
It maybe from me having fish now, and more food / waste.
It may be that my 10 or so felt socks that I rotate and wash are past their lifespan.

Fast forward to the last few days and every felt sock seems to clog within 2 days.
My drain pipe is partially and intentionally choked off to allow proper water levels in the overflow.
When the sock gets clogged this has 2 negative effects.

1.) the skimmer goes crazy and is prone to over flow.
2.) the already choked drain pipe backs up with pressure and the water level in the overflow in the display gets dangerously high.

My solution last night was to remove filter sock all together. It alleviated my skimmer and water height problem and I also notice more flow through my sump.

Question is, will I notice water quality degradation and increase nuisance algae growth running without any type of filter sock?
Is everyone running filter socks now-a-days?

 

[twan]

Lost power for 6hrs in a storm last night.
Ecotech Battery backup kicked on and powered my 2 mp10's at a low setting.
Wheeled the portable generator out, plugged into panel, hit transfer switch, most of the house came back online including my network and the APEX my complete tank is plugged into.

Had a hiccup with the Tunze ATO though, when it got power back, it dumped the entire contents of my top off water into the sump and nearly flooded the display. Good thing I was there.
Does make me feel uneasy about power outage's then fast power restore when/if I am not home...........

 

[twan]

It's weird. My sump can handle the water from the display no problem.
I do not have these problems when cutting the return pump to do water changes / maintenance.
The problem was the ATO ran right away and too long under false pretenses after power restore.
The topoff is the Tunze top of the line with the infrared eye.
The water level in the sump was fine in the end, it was the display that was on the brink of overflowing.
I guess that's a consequence of a choked drain line and needing to wait for things to equalize after power outage.

The way I am trying to think of how the scenario went is:

1.) Power back on and the sump level went low due to the return pump kicking on.
2.) ATO kicks on and stays on due to low sump level.
3.) By the time the choked drain line began flowing correctly to restore the correct sump water level there was now too much water in the system.
4.) When settled, the open return kept the sump level correct.
5.) When settled, the choked drain..................with now all the excess ATO water...............made my display level overflow.

Sound right? I was overseeing the generator operation and getting it stable and covered while this was all taking place.
The resolution for this would be to build something into the apex by which the ATO will not turn back on after power restore until at least 15 minutes after.
Here is my ATO program that ensures when the return pump is turned off or my maintenance virtual outlet is turned off the ATO will not kick on for 7 minutes.
This does not help in a power outage/restore because it would require me to gain access to my network, get on my phone or browser, turn the outlet maintenance on.........or the return pump outlet off manually.......and by that time the damage would already be done.

Here is my current ATO profile set to auto:

Set ON
Fallback ON
If Outlet Maint = ON Then OFF
If Outlet Maint = OFF Then ON
Defer 007:00 Then ON
If Outlet ReturnPump = OFF Then OFF

To this I would need to add some kinda "If power lost, defer this outlets normal operation until X" I think. I am not aware of the proper syntax or placement of such a statement.

 

[twan]

Apex ATO, Skimmer, Carbon Reactor - Power Outage Fix

So my last few posts might have seemed like mumbo-jumbo to non-apex users.
This post just summarizes that those trials and tribulations were worth it.
After 3 emails back and forth with Paul at Neptune I got it solved.
Here is the proper langauge that I now use for my ATO, Skimmer, and Carbon Reactor:

Fallback OFF
Set ON
If Outlet Maint = ON Then OFF
If Outlet ReturnPump = OFF Then OFF
Defer 010:00 Then ON
If Power EB8_3 Off 010 Then OFF
If Power Apex Off 010 Then OFF

1.) If I turn my maintenance virtual outlet on or shut off the return pump the ATO, Skimmer, and Carbon Reactor all wait 10 minutes after for the water levels to re-adjust before going back to their normal operating behavior. This is the Defer part of the statement above.

2.) If I lose power for some reason the ATO, Skimmer, and Carbon Reactor will not turn back on following a power restore for 20 minutes (10+10=20). This is the Power Apex / Power EB8_3 part of the statement above.

I tested this by unplugging both EB8's then plugging them back in simulating a power outage.
Working as intended.

 

[twan]

The diatom battle has ceased, still have a little GHA and some cyno appearing.
Some in low flow areas of the tank, others in high flow, but at the same time higher par locations.
I have been doing 12g water changes each week to combat this new tank syndrome.

 

[twan]

Getting ready for a 4 day vacation next week.
My tank sitter will be over 2 of the 4 days I will be away just to feed, fill the ATO reservoir and make sure the skimmer isnt overflowing.

Added another cam on the sump for piece of mind.
This is temporary only for when I am away.
I have to open both my stand doors, set my laptop on a chair opposite it & use the integrated webcam on the laptop via my home network wifi.
It is very choppy at like 5 frames per second but it will let me access the cam via my iphone while away to be able to check the sump now in addition to the display.

 

[twan]

Low PH

So my PH usually sits right about 8.1 during the day and 7.9 at night (fuge lite opposite display lights).
The last 7 days or so I have seen a gentle swing trending lower overall.
This hit bottom at 7am this morning when my APEX sent me a text that PH hit 7.75.
This reminded me that the windows in the basement have been closed for most of the same time
in order to keep the tank cooler using the central a/c that makes its way down from the upstairs.
I cracked the window down there and will monitor. Would the low oxygen in the room account for this
gentle swing trending lower overall for the last few days?

Here is what it looks like visually

 

[twan]

PH
From my previous post I now keep a window by the tank cracked at all times even if the A/C is on.
This has given me higher and more stable PH levels.

Cyno
It is in full swing now. Not just in low flow areas, several places on the rocks and over 80% of the sand bed.
I have been blasting it off and putting a filter sock back on to catch the particulate but within 24hrs it is right back. I also see it accumulate on the sponges in my carbon reactor. I am still doing weekly water changes of 10-15 gallons and it is not improving at the moment. The only thing I changed around the same time that this started is I stopped running filter socks in the sump 24/7 since they would clog easily within 1-2 days.

• New tank syndrome? (possibly, I had detritus come and go already)
• BRS Pukani Rock leaching phosphates? (possibly, test kit reads 0 phosphates though probably because the cyno is using it.)
• Heavy handed feeding? (possibly, I am now cutting back and rinsing all frozen)

Bottom line is the tank looks like crap, a few corals (torch/gorg) are not opening fully and I am frustrated.
I am going to keep my head down, stick to weekly water changes of 10-15gal, watch how much I feed and every other day blast/siphon into a filter sock.

 

[twan]

Thinking about 2 days of no light as per this thread with zero light on the tank Tuesday and Wednesday:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2095174
Restore light Thursday and do a 15g water change siphoning out what remains.

I was under the impression that LED lighting provided more stable spectrum because of its bulb life.
Meaning, like on my past tanks with MH and PC lighting.............when the bulbs got to the end of their life span I would see nuisance algae pop up because of the spectrum shift and the bulbs would need replacing. This is not the case with LEDS though.

But I guess in the end if cyno feeds of nutrients and light...........and I have addressed the nutrients...........then maybe a 2 day black out can help some.

Thoughts?

 

[Serega]

I tried black outs on my tank, it get's better for a few days and when the light come back on so is cyano. The only thing that helped was Chemiclean. I'm now cyano free for over two month.
http://aquariumsupplies.marinedepot.com/search?asug=&w=chemiclean

 

[twan]

Thanks for the suggestion Serega, at the moment I want to exhaust all other methods before adding any chemicals.

 

[samksy]

Twan, I had the same problem but all clear now. I did 40g water change for several weeks for my 150 gallon tank. Nothing else other than heavy skimming. It was clear after 3-4 weeks. Good luck!

 

[twan]

2 day lights out ended with sunrise this morning.
The lights are doing their normal ramp up and I will perform a large water change 2nite along with a thorough sump cleaning. I will also return to running filter socks again, but mesh this time - not felt.
At 1st glance under partially lighting it looks like all of the cyno is gone from the rock and there was a 50% reduction on the sand bed. This was a band aid fix to let me get ahead of the problem. Routine water changes and careful maintenance will prevail here I think.



My thought is the breakout is a combination:

*New tank syndrome. while the rock was cycled 2 months alone it has only been in the display for 4 months with plumbing/light/sand/livestock. I am at the 1/2 a year mark on this tank.

*Slight over feeding which started with the addition of 3 fish (bringing my total to 5) at the same time almost 1 month to the this day. I am rinsing my frozen food now to combat.

* Under skimming. While using felt socks they would clog often. I would remove and replace with a fresh one from my dozen or so stockpile. This almost always lead to the skimmer having to be turned down to avoid overflows. Then over the next 36hrs I would bring it back up to the same spot. This would happen twice a week. Couple that with having to adjust the skimmer after a water change..........I am optimally skimming only approximately 60-75% of the time. This was one of my reasons for ditching the felt socks. I hope swapping in and out mesh socks will not cause my skimmer to go nuts.

 

[twan]

I think I have a problem. I made 15 gallons of fresh RODI. This water measures 0 TDS unless my TDS meter is faulty. I mix it up with some salt (reef crystals) and a clean heater and pump. Things mix for 36 hours and get to 79 deg and 1.025 salinity. I then go to perform my water changes and notice the container and pump/heater have a coating on them. Little brown thin slime. Rubs right off. Water still measured 0 nitrates in that container. I did not test phosphates of the new water but probably should have.

*Is my container contaminated in some way?
*Should I clean down all accessories and the tub with vinegar and let it dry then rinse once again before the next water change?
*Should I replace the bucket?
*Should I buy another TDS meter?
*Is this normal for there to be this build up in my water change water?