Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by ROB2005

In your present pic of the skimmer Jason, are you wet skimming for the time being?

Didn't have much of a choice. I had the collection cup raised all the way up. It was foaming so much it was a wet skim no matter what. Just the past day or so now that has completely stopped and looks like I will now need to start lowering the collection cup which is a good sign. The microbubbles in the tank are greatly reduced but still slightly present. Looks like it is starting to finally break in. I was worried for a bit there that the pump was way overpowered for this skimmer and there wasn't going to be any choice but to have a very wet skim. I like a slightly wet skim but not a very wet skim. Does that make sense?

[blrrobinson21]

That's what she said??

[jason2459]

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by jason2459

Didn't have much of a choice. I had the collection cup raised all the way up. It was foaming so much it was a wet skim no matter what. Just the past day or so now that has completely stopped and looks like I will now need to start lowering the collection cup which is a good sign. The microbubbles in the tank are greatly reduced but still slightly present. Looks like it is starting to finally break in. I was worried for a bit there that the pump was way overpowered for this skimmer and there wasn't going to be any choice but to have a very wet skim. I like a slightly wet skim but not a very wet skim. Does that make sense?

There are reefers that do a water change that way--using their skimmer

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by capn_hylinur

There are reefers that do a water change that way--using their skimmer

I was reading that thread before. I've been doing a quick 1 minute or less water change of about 1-2 gallons just about every day. I'll miss a day here or there but don't worry about it. I have two lines running to my basement. One to the drain and the other to my saltmix container with a mag 1800 in it.

On the drain tubing I have a siphon/priming pump (like you see on some boats for priming an out board engine). I just pump it once and it starts draining. I have a small mark at 3g/5g/10g on the back corner of my tank. I just let it drain quickly to about half way to the 3g mark. I pull the tube and plug in the water pump. I ran an extension cord down to the basement too so I can just plug in the water pump and unplug it upstairs with the tank. It fills up pretty fast. Entire operation is just under a minute.

I figure if I do it at least 4 days a week assuming I forget or miss a day here or there, which I do, I'm doing around a 24 gallon monthly water change. I fill the brute can once a month and add salt.

In the post above with the screening you can see the water supply line I have hanging right on the skimmers intake that goes in the tank. Its the first picture.

[jason2459]

Well, one negative thing about putting that pregnant peppermint shrimp in the refugium is that over the course of the past few days it has wiped out my aptasia back there.

Yes, I know most people would like that but I was harvesting them as my peppermints seem to be voracious aptasia eaters. I'd take a rock out from back there about once a month and put it in my main tank. The next morning all the aptasia on it would be gone and I'd put it back in the refugium to get repopulated. I haven't seen a single aptasia in my main DT since I got those peppermint shrimp.

So far I've been about to count at least 3 of the 4 that I had before. I could have the fourth in there someone still but don't know. Seems like most all the inverts survived the lack of flow and oxygen.

[jason2459]

HOT DOG!!!! (yes, I've been watching way to much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!)


My mandarins are still alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They just appeared out of no where tonight. I'm super excited about this. I thought that they were gonners. Both of them are just hovering around picking at the rocks and glass like nothing happened.

[IMG]http://i48.*******.com/2s15dvc.jpg[/IMG]

Wondering if the UGF might have saved all the critters that were bottom dwellers and were able to get under the rocks? Only fish that were not bottom dwelling fish that survived were the Clowns.

Can't wait to get the fish downstairs out of QT and into the tank. So far they all seem fine and are eating everything I throw in there.

[jason2459]

Time for an inventory break down again I think.

DT Equipment
- 55g tank w/ custom stand and canopy

- 2 50w rena smart heaters

- 4 bulb 54w T5HO retro fit into canopy (Front to back ATI Aquablue Special, UVL Actinic White, ATI Blue+, ATI Blue+) Also two 4" fans to cool bulbs.

- 2 plate UGF each being fed by a 53gph quiet one pumps

- HOB refugium about 8g of total water added there / 18w CFL eco clamp lamp

- Marineland c220 Canister (220gph) filter feeding the HOB refugium. (also just added some BRS pellet GFO till the po4 goes back down after the last disaster)

- 2 Koralia 4s (1200gph each)

- Super Reef Octopus lx-2000s HOB Skimmer w/ bubble blaster hy-2000 pump (about 500gph water flow and taking in 1300lph of air)


- Reefkeeper Lite controlling heaters, all lights, and fan for heating and cooling

- redsea ozonizer 50 (not in use right now but will setup again later)

- 5 gallon Bucket for ro/di top off water

- aqualifter conected to three float switches for ATO. Two redundant switches to tell it to stop when the tank is full and one switch to tell it to stop if the tank is draining for water change or even worse a leak.

Water turn over rate @ 3120 gph turn over

Last set of tests done last weekend
Temp around 79f
35SG
Cal: 480
Alk: 11dkh
Mag: 1380
pH: 8.1
ORP: 220
A/N/N: 0/0/5
po4: off charts for API kit

Power failure
- 2 azoo battery backup air pumps (one for HOB refug and one for DT) to turn on when they sense power outage (says it will last 20+ hours)

- APC SmartUPS 1500 (should last at least 2-4 hours) w/ canister filter plugged in and backup air pumps to kick on when UPS runs out of juice

- 1500w power inverter to plug into car lighter and 100' extension cord

- Education on how to turn off alarm on UPS and not unplug everything then turn off UPS....

Basement Water Supply and Mixing
- BRS 150gpd 5 stage plus RO/DI
- 32g Brute trashcan
- Seio p530 powerhead
- some 300w heater that probably needs to be replaced
- whisper 60 air pump
- mag drive 1800 (50' extension cord run to upstairs tank)
- two runs of vinyl tubing (one from DT to drain w/ priming pump and one from mag drive to DT)
- 200g boxes of IO Reef Crystals

Mixing pretty much 24/7. Change out about 1-2 gallons each day to every other day and takes just under 1 minute to perform and can stay upstairs with the tank. Change out about 24 gallons a month this way.

QT Tank in Basement
- 20 gallon long w/ metal stand
- tight fitting hood w/ single standard florescent
- two small powerheads with sponge filters
- 1 50w rena smart heater
- HOB whisper powerfilter w/ carbon (carbon not used during medication)
- some PVC piping cut up

Live Stock (Some are still in QT)
- Pair of Clownfish
- Pair of Mandarins
- Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp
- Mystery Wrasse (QT)
- Pair of Long Fin Fairy Wrasses (QT)
- Pair of Sharknose Gobies (QT)

- Fire shrimp
- 3 or 4 Peppermint shrimp (only seen 3 so far but I'm putting money on still having 4)
- several blue leg crabs
- 1 red leg crab
- several nerite snails
- small hand full of Nassarius snails
- many dwarf cerith and a had full of Florida cerith snails
- quadradouple magazillion various pods
- 75lbs of live rock
- dolomite gravel substrate

[blrrobinson21]

Sounds good, now where is the updated tank picture? LOL

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by blrrobinson21

Sounds good, now where is the updated tank picture? LOL

This was from about two weeks ago after I got back and after the power outage disaster.

[img]http://i50.*******.com/qpp5cj.jpg[/img]

I'll get some more pics in once I get the new additions added from the QT. Right now there's still quite a bit of cyano but that is slowly starting to go away now since I started running GFO to take up all the extra po4.

[jason2459]

Looks like my tank is at least acting healthy again. The clowns have laid some eggs and when I was trying to take pictures of them I noticed the mandarins doing a mating dance. They didn't like the camera to much and stoped as sone as I started to take video. I will have to try to catch them in action. The female grabs themale and drags him around!

[jason2459]

No longer do I have a FOWLER. I got some frags from my LFG for pretty cheap and I'm pretty excited and scared about it at the same time. We'll see if I can keep them alive. This will be my first real attempt at some corals. I had a kenya tree before but those were super simple and spread like a weed.

Here they are and no I do not have bubble algae. It's my beautiful turf algae covered in cyano. I just got done blasting them off now that the lights are out for the night. Ever since the minor misshap I've been getting wave after wave of cyano. Hoping the GFO starts kicking in soon to help out.

I put them in this afternoon and they're already extending and getting nice and puffy.

The torch:
[IMG]http://i49.*******.com/30vf5mf.jpg[/IMG]

The Blasto: (really hard to get a sharp picture on this guy and the next one down.)
[IMG]http://i48.*******.com/35jyx3b.jpg[/IMG]

Mr. Duncan
[IMG]http://i45.*******.com/2emfkt5.jpg[/IMG]


The blastos are really small and there's about 6 heads there. The Duncan has five heads and is about 2" and the torch I believe is a single head and is about three inches but the arms can really stretch out pretty good. I love the colors on the blastomussa. The pictures do not do it justice at all!

[Nemoislost]

wow,i just read through this entire thread.
you have come a long way since you started rebuilding this. love all the pictures

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by Nemoislost

wow,i just read through this entire thread.
you have come a long way since you started rebuilding this. love all the pictures

Thanks for reading. The journey has just begun for me. We'll see how successful I can be with the LPS corals. If you really want to a good thread to read through then you should check out Paul B's thread. Warning, it is very long.

[jason2459]

The super reef octopus skimmer is really starting to break in now. Been about two weeks since starting it up and the microbubbles are way down. Still a very small amount gets into the tank but they instantly go up to the surface so very bearable even if it stays like that. The skimmer has quieted down some more but still not near as quiet as the psk-100h but never thought it would be. It's not as annoying as the rio-1100 was with the SS65. It's a nice constant humm. We'll see what another two weeks will do. This skimmer definitely is not quick to break in and I think it's at least half way there.

The skimmate is getting getting much darker and getting to the wet consistency that I like. I let it go for three days and got some pics to post here shortly. The neck was just a thick cake of nasty and the smell was still just as horrible as before. I have not adjusted the collection cup down yet and still have it all the way up. So, because of that I believe there is still some breaking in to do and if I can't get to the point of adjusting the collection cup down then this skimmer's body is just barely big enough for the hy-2000 bb pump.

[IMG]http://i49.*******.com/28b5nrd.jpg[/IMG]

[PaPa_Johnny]

That is some serious Nog Jason ! Looks like it is doing an awesome job.

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by PaPa_Johnny

That is some serious Nog Jason ! Looks like it is doing an awesome job.

It certainly is getting a lot better as the skimmer breaks in. Curious when it will get to the point that I can start lowering the collection cup.

[PaPa_Johnny]

It probably shouldn't be much longer if it acts like most skimmers. Are you going to dry it up just a tad?

I finally actually have a tank with water in it now, if you are interested:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1807612

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by PaPa_Johnny

It probably shouldn't be much longer if it acts like most skimmers. Are you going to dry it up just a tad?

I finally actually have a tank with water in it now, if you are interested:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1807612

I'd like the skimmate to get a little thicker but not much more. I'd be happy with that kind of out put though too. Right now I don't have much of a choice as I can't move the collection cup yet.

Nice build so far!

[jason2459]

QT sucks.....


About three more weeks to go.

I have already fallen in love with the fairy wrasses and the shark nose gobies. They are always swimming around, very active and don't bother a thing. The mystery wrasse is still very very shy and runs and hides every time I walk into the bathroom. I still have to peak around the door way to see him swimming around and to make sure he's eating. Which he is.

[blrrobinson21]

I know your pains, Ive got two fish in Qt with about 2 weeks left. It will be worth it as long as I dont have another bout with Ich.

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by blrrobinson21

I know your pains, Ive got two fish in Qt with about 2 weeks left. It will be worth it as long as I dont have another bout with Ich.

Seems like it takes forever. Glad I've writen down when I got them in this log because I would have forgoten how long they've been in QT and would have taken them out by now.

The Mystery Wrasse is still very shy but I can at least stick my head in the door way with out him running for cover. He still hides as soon as he sees the rest of my body. I guess one body part at a time...

[ROB2005]

Jason, anything new with the gunk producing machine? Consistency to your liking yet?

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by ROB2005

Jason, anything new with the gunk producing machine? Consistency to your liking yet?

It's still about the same. If it has thickened up it's not noticable. The microbubbles are very minimal now and either I'm getting used to it but doesn't sound as loud anymore. Idealy there will be 0 microbubbles but I haven't done anything to try and fix it yet either. I'd like for it to work itself out with out any intervention first.

I did go about 4 days with out a water change and after doing a 3g change the skimmer seemed to produce a lot more microbubbles but after a few hours they calmed back down. Not sure what that was about.

[jason2459]

Dang. Last two weeks of QT. Or just under the two week mark actually. I'm still getting waves of cyano outbreaks. Weird. Decided to try some different pellets instead of flakes or the current pellets I have as a supplement. I picked up some Ocean Nutrition Formula One Marine Pellets. It's supposed to be lower in phosphates. It doesn't include fish meal which I guess contributes greatly to phosphates.

This turned out to be a great move too for an entirely different reason though. My male mandarin seems to love these new pellets. They are supposed to be a soft pellet and include garlic and salmon oil. So, maybe that's what he's liking. The female doesn't seem to notice them one bit but the male is actively searching for them in the substrate and going crazy for them.