The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[boret]

When you are not sure just go bigger!!! lol
It is quite amazing the fact that you can actually put together a complete system out of spare parts!! Good job Jesse. I just don't find it worth the hassle. Everyday there is something with my main tank. First my CL decided to stop working (had to open and clean up the Oceans Motions 4).
Then that tube inside of one of my peristaltic pumps broke. I didn't loose a lot of water, maybe 1/4 of a gallon. I am glad I had a spare. Today I woke up to low pH values, which means I have to refill my Kalkwasser stirrer.
I was having issues with blue coloration so I've been slightly changing my light schedule.
I've been fighting high Alk (~12) I have it under control now. Still, what a PITA sometimes.
I think I would go nuts if I have to deal with 2 separate systems.
I think thats why you end up opening a LFS, you have so many tanks that you better make it your job, right?

[lotusstar]

Boret,
thanks a million for the advice. A couple things there I hadn't thought about, especially the poly pad. I wouldn't think I have copper or anything since my cuc is still alive and working, if I'm right in thinking wouldn't copper usually kill those things first? Anyway I will get a pad and test it out all the same.

Oxygen shouldn't be an issue, or lack of oxygen that is. I have 2 tunze 6025s and 2 K3s so flow in the tank is good. Have quite a lot of ripples on the surface. I will try the air stone as well since I'm sure I have a couple just laying around from my boys freshwater tank.

Water changes yes are done with an rodi filter as well as top off water. The water changes I check to make sure temp and salinity are the same but admit I've never checked ph levels of water changes. It just always seemed to stay similar before and after changes so never thought about it. I will test at the next water change Monday. TDS on the rodi water reads .1 so changing out the filters before this next water change.

And at last not sure about power outages I would think I have none because the VCR clock stays current and when I do lose power that always goes out. So I would assume no, but not a definitive answer. I however do not have a UPS or backup air stone. That's another good idea. Thanks for all the help, I will post results from the water change Monday. Would rather do it this weekend but work 32 hour weekends so that's a no go.

Thanks!

[boret]

Seeing that you are having fish deaths I am more inclined to think it's a disease and not a tank husbandry issue but it is always good to double check on those.
If we can narrow it to disease then I have a couple of questions:

1. Do you buy your fish from the same source?
2. Have you tried acquiring a fish from an established tank from a fellow reefer?
3. Are you buying online?
4. Do you think you are shocking them when you transfer them from QT to Main tank? Different pH, salinity, temp, etc...
5. Are you using anything unusual for your rock work? Something that could be leaching unwanted chemicals in the water.... like a manmade rock, some type of weird glue or epoxy that shouldn't be used for reef tanks....

Glad to help.
B.

[boret]

A few more pictures.
I cleaned the back glass of coraline.



And a few close ups:

[kelso1980]

...WOW. That is awesome! I love the caps on the wall, I never even thought about doing that. my favorite is the ric garden though! Are those daisy polyps under the clown? I love them but cant seem to keep them alive.

[Misled]

Tank looks really sweet boret. Have you ever considered putting a few different color caps somewhat close and allowing them to grow together? I have a couple and am looking at a couple other colors to add right now.

The tank in the lobby is fairly easy. It gets most of it's water from the apartment tank when I do water changes. It only has some lps, shrooms and zoas right now. It's something I've done in fresh for the residents of the apartment building for the holidays in the past. I had someone give me most of the stuff in her tank when she tore it down, and I don't want shrooms in my tank. All the rest of the corals are already in my tank, and the wife even made me keep some shrooms since she liked them. At the end of the holidays, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. That was supposed to be my clown, nem tank!!!!!!

[boret]

Originally Posted by kelso1980

...WOW. That is awesome! I love the caps on the wall, I never even thought about doing that. my favorite is the ric garden though! Are those daisy polyps under the clown? I love them but cant seem to keep them alive.

Those cloves used to be cyan when I got them. Now they have mostly a green tint. They are doing great on the left side of the tank with moderate to low flow. Here its a close up:



And from above:



Misled, I have indeed considered it, as you can see on this picture from above:



The orange cap grew too fast. I moved it and you can see where the purple was dying. The green one is finally developing the purple rim. Once it goes to about half an inch of purple it will be very sweet.

I also have these green one with blue polyps, and a huge Tyree Blue Chalice (growing like a cap):

[lotusstar]

Boret,
Most of my fish have come from the same source. The only LFS within 60 miles of me, except for petco. Which I've bought a pair of black clowns from petco back in summer. I've always QT'd and before transferring to the DT I've made sure that sg, ph, alk, ammonia are the same and acclimated them over about an hour. Oh, temp is also the same between the tanks.
Haven't tried a fish from a local reefer, haven't found a local club or anything since I'm in a fairly remote area.
I haven't bought any livestock online, I buy supplies sometimes but no live stock. My sps frags I bought online from a seller on here, but no fish.
I don't use anything unusual for rock work, I have a couple small pieces of wooden dowel rods used to hold a few rocks together. I didn't think that would be a problem could it be? I did the dowels about a month or so ago, so the first wipe out of fish didn't have any dowels in there, but this one does. Could the wooden dowels be a problem?

[boret]

I really don't know if the Wooden Dowels will have any effect... no clue. Maybe someone can chime in for that question.

I am a bit confused about matching ammonia levels. You need to have 0 ammonia. I understand some NO3 (nitrate) 0 to 10 is not unusual... as a matter of fact I have never been able to reach 0 and my livestock is doing great. But ammonia will kill all your fish if not kept at zero.
This is a great article about ammonia:

article

Some quotes from the article:

Ammonia is very toxic to marine fish. The mechanisms of toxicity are complicated and are an active area of continued investigation by researchers. Its effects include damage to the gills, resulting in poor gas exchange, ion regulation and blood pH regulation.14 Other effects include hampering oxygen delivery to tissues, disrupting metabolism and toxicity to the nervous system that causes hyperactivity, convulsions and death.14 Ammonia can also be very toxic to many other organisms found in reef aquaria.

also

Because ammonia's toxic effects appear at levels significantly below those that are acutely lethal (0.09 to 3.35 ppm NH3-N or 1.3 to 50 ppm total NH4-N at pH 8.2), and because some organisms in a reef aquarium may be more sensitive than the few organisms that have been carefully studied, it is prudent to err on the side of caution when deciding what concentrations of ammonia to allow in a reef aquarium or related system.

My suggestion is to take some sort of corrective action if the total ammonia rises above 0.1 ppm. This suggestion is also made by Stephen Spotte in his authoritative text, Captive Seawater Fishes.6 Values in excess of 0.25 ppm total ammonia may require immediate treatment, preferably involving removal of all delicate (ammonia sensitive) organisms from the water containing the ammonia.

About source of fish.

Same source... and always the same problem.
Not bashing your LFS but you might need to look into that. Do fishes from them have a good survival rapport among local reefers? Maybe try a different source... maybe a hardier fish. I love blue/green chromies. They are cheap, they school around the tank and are pretty hardy.

Maybe look into your quarantine technique.

Quarantine (QT) is a delicate matter. The overwhelming majority will tell you to QT everything, and it is such a taboo that I see a lot of people outright laying saying they do when in reality they never do (or hardly ever).
The problem with QT is that if it is not done properly you are probably stressing the fish even more than it already is. I have quarantined fish that I bought online (6 anthias), and a couple of fish (neon gobby and scopa tang) from an LFS that doesn't QT. The anthias died while in QT. The other fish survived the QT and made it into my system. I have risked my system by only acclimating fish and then adding them to the main tank. I've been lucky, they survived.
I only remember one case of some type of Ich in my Yellow tang, that went away because its immune system was able to fight it. (I kept lacing his food with garlic... maybe snake oil but he survived)

This is a great article on QTing:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying don't QT... I am saying that unless your are doing it properly your are not really increasing the chances of survivability of the fish, maybe even decreasing it. And if your fish are arriving with some type of sickness from the LFS the QT won't do much unless you treat them for it.

Just food for thought though... don't do anything radical yet.

[lotusstar]

Good points Boret. And when I said I make sure ammonia is the same I meant they are both testing 0. What I do is test SG, I do water changes on both the QT and the main tank in the same fashion just on a smaller scale so put in the same water. Ammonia I always be sure to test the QT as well as the DT and they come up 0. Nitrates in the DT are 5 and usually in the same area on the QT. Sometime just a bit above, sometimes a bit lower, but nothing too drastic.
I am starting to wonder if it could have a little to do with the LFS, not necessarily the end cause but maybe I will head to Austin one day to try and buy a hardy fish to see if it can survive?

[Misled]

I would be concerned about the wood dowels. If possible remove them and put plastic coat hangers in their place. You really don't know what can be released from the wood, but it probably is leaching something in the tank. I would think they will also break down over time and not do what you want anyway.

[reefscape15]

I agree with that Jesse. Wood can be infused with many types of chemicals that are designed to make it less prone to decompose. May be that some of these chemicals are leaching into your tank. I don't know if the two different crashes/wipeouts are related, but i'd have a hard time thinking that they are not. But either way, you should get those dowels out. Replace with some sort of plastic/acrylic.

[Jagarang]

Originally Posted by boret

A few more pictures.
I cleaned the back glass of coraline.

Wow, it looks killer without the coraline!!

I was on the fence as to whether I preferred w/ or w/o coraline, but this seals the debate! Without is the way to go!

Aside from aesthetics, what are the pros and cons of leaving the coraline?

[reefscape15]

I'm not sure on the benefits of coraline other than it acts as a natural "glue" for corals to get a hold onto a rock. It is however and algae, so i'd have to assume that it has some photosynthesis occuring, and may release small amounts of oxygen. Good question!

Ok......so i've been thinking and thinking about this canopy for a few months now and never found a good time to get around to doing it. Well, this afternoon I had enough waiting around and finally did something! Here's a few pics to track the build.

Top and back corner bracing:


Simple bracing is constructed of 1x4's. 4 screws down the edge of the two pieces, and 5 screws through the top into the brace:


All 3 corners and a front/center brace on:


Same as above just from the front view:


Bracing is finished! I ran stringers between all braces, screwed in. Should I screw the top down to the stringers as well or is it enough having the 3 corners and the front center brace screwed to the top?


Just another view from the front. Also, I wanted to leave the back sides with no bracing just in case I don't get rid of my HOB fuge or if I wanted to hang anything else on. Do they need an extra support or will it be okay as is?

[boret]

When I built mine I didn't use a piece in the front but two on the side, that left a wide opening through the front. But I didn't that way because I couldn't access the canopy from the sides.

Something like this:



These are some images from my canopy:









In the garage with a temporary light:

[boret]

Internal corner:

[Hookup]

really nice woodworking. Should help a tone of ppl get DIY'ing

[boret]

Thanks man!! Here are some pictures after I painted it.
I really liked the wood color, but the stand was already painted, and sanding was more work than painting
I also painted the inside in white to add a bit more reflective capabilities.











And the final product:

[Hookup]

Nice HondaShadow... I had one of those also... looks like a 2001-2004 model?

[boret]

2004. I sold it, I have a Suzuki DL1000 Vstrom now
This one is from a trip this year to "The Tail of the Dragon":

[Hookup]

I replaced my 05 with an 05 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 classic... I don't really like the lines on the bike.. i bought it to customize it... yet another project i've not started that costs way too much...

[reefscape15]

I was planning on doing something the same with my canopy, and have the entire front flip up like yours. I may have to put a couple more braces in, but I wanted 2 small doors on the front too so I didn't have to flip the whole top up if I just needed to get something small in there. And, when did you make your cut across the top for your flip-up? Did you do it before, and then match the bracing up to it or did you get it all together and then cut it? I've seen it done both ways, but getting everything together and then cutting it seems much simpler. Scarier yet simpler.

[lotusstar]

Hey guys, quick question. I am changing out my RODI, and ran into a problem. Its the 1st time I've tried changing them since this is the first time I get readings not 0. So, I changed the 1st 2 cartridges but the 2nd 2 cartridges look like carbon reactors or something? a pair of sponges surrounding a black dust, looks like carbon but I don't know. Is that what it is and I just need to replace that or what else could it be?

Thanks

Oh and I went to my LFS and explained that I was going to try and test for metals or something with a poly pad that would change color and the LFS guy looked at me like I was off my rocker. So Boret, did I describe that right or am I way off in my description of how you suggested I test?

Thanks again.

[boret]

Originally Posted by lotusstar

Hey guys, quick question. I am changing out my RODI, and ran into a problem. Its the 1st time I've tried changing them since this is the first time I get readings not 0. So, I changed the 1st 2 cartridges but the 2nd 2 cartridges look like carbon reactors or something? a pair of sponges surrounding a black dust, looks like carbon but I don't know. Is that what it is and I just need to replace that or what else could it be?

Thanks

Oh and I went to my LFS and explained that I was going to try and test for metals or something with a poly pad that would change color and the LFS guy looked at me like I was off my rocker. So Boret, did I describe that right or am I way off in my description of how you suggested I test?

Thanks again.

Where are you measuring TDS? Before and after of the membrane? That way you can find out if the issue is at the pre-filters or the membrane.
The carbon is ok, those are your pre filters.

If your LFS doesn't know what a poly-filter pad is then I wouldn't trust their livestock Maybe we are finally narrowing down your fish deaths problem.

This is what I am talking about:

LINK

LINK2

[boret]

Originally Posted by reefscape15

I was planning on doing something the same with my canopy, and have the entire front flip up like yours. I may have to put a couple more braces in, but I wanted 2 small doors on the front too so I didn't have to flip the whole top up if I just needed to get something small in there. And, when did you make your cut across the top for your flip-up? Did you do it before, and then match the bracing up to it or did you get it all together and then cut it? I've seen it done both ways, but getting everything together and then cutting it seems much simpler. Scarier yet simpler.

You can do both, but I did the cut out of the piece that hinges first and then attached the vertical wood pieces. Just in case I messed up the cut.