I curse the day I upgraded my tank!

[SethKim]

Hello my name is Seth Kim from Yonkers. About 13 years ago I walked into a reef store up in Elmsford, and it changed my life. Instantly I got addicted to marine tank, and soon into Reef. I picked up part time job at the fish store to support my hobby, then it became a full time job for a while. I upgraded my 150g reef tank to a 420g tank back in 2002, and its been a nightmare ever since. I though the bigger tank=more steadier, therefore easier to maintain. Boy was I wrong. I forgot to factor in time, $$$$$, time, more time and more money and finally when things are about to turn around...MURPHY's LAW, e.g, equipment failure when you are away!!!. Tank has been running since 2002 as FOWLR.

I plan on going back to reef in about two years, get things right this time!!!

Lets dive into my tank!

Back in 2007

1st pic is my main tank 120"x30"x30" tenacor (420gal)
2nd pic is the filtration in the basement
my sump is 48"x28"x24" (140g) but it holds about 64gal running
my old tank is now refugium with about 10" sand bed (holds about 80gal)
3rd pic is my ETSS 2500 XR with 1/2hp sequence pump. (rated unto 3000gal) if I run it wet, it pulls out about +5gal/day
4th pic, I'm checking out viability of corals and holding tank for more delicate fish before its added to main tank. I had the achilles since Nov. 1st...another month and half, it should be fully ready to go into main tank.
5-7th pics, I stirr up sand to get "Miracle Mud + detritus" out! Doing so I see lots of metallic dust/freckles in the tank. I assume that is heavy metal therefore not good for reef?
7th pic, Recent pullout of LR from the refugium to give more flow(about 250lb). After meeting Paul B, I'm inspired to create some "art work" by bonding them with concrete. That is when I find some time...

I feed heavy so I've been having issues with PO4. I cranked up my GFO reactor and it leached out Fe. Too much iron not good for Macro algae, it almost obliterated my Red Graciliaria. Back to Level 1 How do I grow Macro algae? does it need low flow or high flow? I've seen it get coated with debris/detritus material.

Thank you for reading! I'm always open to suggestions! but please be gentle.

I'm starting bio-pellets, so I will update you guys shortly.

Water parameters:
salinity 1.025
pH 8.1 (can't get it up even with Kalkwasser reactor dispensing about 5 gal/day
alk off the chart
ca2+ 360ppm
NH4 10ppm
NO2 ??
NO3 20ppm

I used to do 150gal H2O change per month, but now I'm doing about 70gal twice a month

I'm running MTC Ca2+ reactor, but just found out today that my pH probe is bad, so I don't know if I'm running it properly.
Yes I dose Ca/Alk about a gal of each per week. and I'm using RO water.
My primary goal with this tank is to get coralline algae in my refugium. Actually I've been trying that for the past ten years.

Deep sand bed, should it go or stay? when I stir it up, I don't see any H2S gas bubbles rising. I do see them in my main tank, there the sand bed is only about 2" deep.

 

[jaa1456]

Skip the biopellets, not worth the trouble

 

[pecan2phat]

Pretty good with your N03 for a fowlr tank. I had N03 at close to 200 ppm and P04 at over 3.0 on a heavily stocked and feed fowlr system after about 5 years time. The only way I was able to start reducing the P04 was through dosing lanthanum chloride dosing and bio-pellets for N03 reduction.
Bio-pellets will bring down the N03 to zero (and has for me) but will do almost nothing for the P04.
I've since stopped the lanthanum chloride dosing because I had clouding issues on my glass panes and my nems did not react well to the chemical but it was the only method that did work in P04 reduction. Not even 100g water changes or tons of GFO did that for my system.

 

[deepblue68]

beautful tank. i would go bare bottom and dump the sand.

 

[tunicata]

Hey good to see you have a tank thread.
Did you install the mangroves yet?