29g tall nano turned into 40g breeder
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leptang
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Ok as an update, the tank is now a 40 gallon breeder. I decided to go with the 40g because of two things. One I didn't like the tall narrow look and two, temperature fluctuations. I already had the 29g tank on a 40g stand so I just drilled holes in the 40g tank and added a home made weir overflow with black acrylic. The sump is the same I transferred the rocks and corals to the bigger tank unfortunately I lost my sps corals because I shut down my frag tank because of time and equipment issues. I also decided to go bare bottom to help fight the Dino's. Crazy part is the tank consumes nitrate like no one's business and I have to dose potassium nitrate daily to keep the dinoflagellates from killing everything. Good news is I'm seeing purple algae popping up on the rocks. I'm using lime water to keep up on the alk/cal levels and dosing mag manually. Then things took a turn for the the worse my Mom went to the hospital because her health was poor and had emergency surgery and ended up on life support and I had to fly down to San Diego to get to my mother there the Doctor said she was not going to make it on life support. My mom never wanted to be on life support so I had to do the hardest thing any son had to do and take her off of life support, and she passed shortly after. I was away from my tank for a week, I left in such a hurry I didn't set up my tank to last more than a weekend. Luckily I was able to talk my gf over the phone to mix up lime water for my tank and feed my fish so I didn't lose anything. But other parameters started to shift. I got home a week later and not two hours later getting home I ended up with a horrible flu and ran a temp of 102 for 4 day and got so lethargic, to weak to do anything for my tank but at least my gf made up some limewater for me, she hates doing anything more than feeding the fish. She is to worried about messing up and killing everything it holds her back. So now I'm trying to get everything back to normal without shocking the tank with to large and fast of a change. But I'm getting there.
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leptang
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I'll get more info up and pictures, as the tank stabilizes and get some maintenance done. Got to fly back to San Diego next weekend for my mom's celebration of life party and between work and everything it has been tuff to keep up on the tank.
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leptang
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Not sure if my tank is a nano anymore, unless a 40g breeder is considered a nano tank.
Sdoutreefer
Active Member
Holy cow. I’m so sorry for you loss. That’s terrible. I can’t even imagine...
It looks like your tank is still heading down the right path. I love 40breeders. My previous tank was a 40b. I swear that tank was cursed. I had so many nuisance algae problems I ended up throwing in the towel. Most tanks usually go through the “ugly phase” and come out looking awesome but mine could never get out of that stage.
What kind of lighting are you using? Appears to be a T5 fixture?? I’m working on a new build to get back in the hobby after 5-6 years and deciding on lighting is quite the challenge for me. So many options as far as LEDs go now. My 40b had a radion over it but I honestly wasn’t very happy with it.
What kind of filtration are you running? My apologies if you’ve said it above.
It looks like your tank is still heading down the right path. I love 40breeders. My previous tank was a 40b. I swear that tank was cursed. I had so many nuisance algae problems I ended up throwing in the towel. Most tanks usually go through the “ugly phase” and come out looking awesome but mine could never get out of that stage.
What kind of lighting are you using? Appears to be a T5 fixture?? I’m working on a new build to get back in the hobby after 5-6 years and deciding on lighting is quite the challenge for me. So many options as far as LEDs go now. My 40b had a radion over it but I honestly wasn’t very happy with it.
What kind of filtration are you running? My apologies if you’ve said it above.
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leptang
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The light I'm trying out is a Aquamaxx prism 900 and yes I have two 30" t-5 but I'm going to add two coralife 36" light fixtures which will be 4 bulbs in total. The Aquamaxx prism led has a good price and seems to work well in auto mode the light ramps up and down smoothly. But I believe the only thing growing the purple algae is the t-5 light t5 led combo seems to do well. As my filtration goes no socks no filter just active carbon. But if I do get to much floating I'll add some poly-fill synthetic fibers that fill pillows that scrub the water after blasting the rocks with a turkey baster. I also have a marine pure block, which I believe there is a carbon source that bacteria eat and is way my nitrate hit zero all the time with my protein skimmer skimming out the bacteria that eat the nitrate. The skimmer is a cpr hang on back hanging off my 10g sump, same skimmer I started with 10+ years ago when I got into the hobby. It really does need time to get out of the ugly stage, with good quality water and stability, and a eye for when things get out of wack.
But yes I highly recommend t5 bulbs with a reef tank. I had some cheato but the Dino's eat it.
Thanks sdoutreefer
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leptang
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Ok a update on my battle with dinoflagellates. Been running a UV sterilizer. I dont want to cut the light because I want other life growing on the rock not Dino's. Been trying to keep up with nutrients, nitrate/phosphate they both keep on dropping to 0. So I started dosing both nitrate and phosphate but after a day or two the phosphate drops from .03 to 0 and the nitrate will go from 5ppm to 0. So I've been trying to keep up with dosing. I tried turning off my skimmer for a week, still no slowing on the consumption of a nutrients. So I've been thinking what in the world is giving a carbon source to the bacteria to deplete the nutrients? I am using limewater, I heard that limewater drops phosphate, but I'm not sure that's the case or even true. So after months of battling Dinoflagellates I think I know what's dropping my nutrients, a Xport NO3 Brick from Brightwell aquatics. The brick has been in my tank from day one starting the tank. The brick is dosed with sulfur. I believe but not sure this is my cause of my nitrate and phosphate dropping to 0. I have 7 fish and I'm afraid if I remove the brick I'll get a bad ammonia spike.
Should I add several blue chromis and try to match the depletion rate of the nitrates and phosphates dropping, or just remove the brick? Keep in mind the tank is a 40g breeder.
Should I add several blue chromis and try to match the depletion rate of the nitrates and phosphates dropping, or just remove the brick? Keep in mind the tank is a 40g breeder.
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leptang
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I am planning on building a new sump and something to house the wiring. The one gallon jars are my limewater containers, was using plastic jugs but they would start to leak so i when to glass. The new sump i am planning to build will have a home made protein skimmer made with glass in a 10g tank along with a filter floss section, a active carbon section, a pH/temp probe holder. Thinking on also adding a section for the drip from a calcium reactor where crush coral can bring up the pH from the reactor. Im going design on paper first then build
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leptang
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I finally dug out my old microscope out of a box from when i was a kid, its almost worthless. Cleaned it the best i could and i took a sample the brown stuff in the tank in hopes of figuring out what strain of dinos i got. Still not sure on the type but it maybe Coolia Monotis.
The microscope is shot and its hard to take a picture let alone, but this is under 1200x.
The microscope is shot and its hard to take a picture let alone, but this is under 1200x.
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leptang
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What ever it is my tank has been showing signs of change dosing nitrate and phosphate seachem's flourish. Been trying to hit 0.1 phosphate not 0.01 slowly and 5ppm nitrate. My plan is to try to out compete with other microorganisms boosting the levels of nitrates and phosphates.
Current FTS
After i see my snails develop an appetite again ill boost my cleanup crue to nock down the hair algae, if all goes well.
Current FTS
After i see my snails develop an appetite again ill boost my cleanup crue to nock down the hair algae, if all goes well.
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leptang
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Okay... Making progress! Been dosing nitrate and phosphate and testing every day for the past two weeks. I saw a dips with both nitrate and phosphate when i ran my skimmer but i didn't let them hit zero.
So its a possibility that my skimmer is over skimming. Ill try cutting back on skimming, and using the skimmer only if the nutrients get out of hand.
I've noticed that my CUC has starting to get there appetite back and are slightly more active.
My rate of alk/cal has gone down or something is bring up my alk. I was thinking it maybe from the presence of phosphate or when my nitrates hit 10ppm. The nitrates are back down 5ppm but my alk has gone up to 10 from 8. I read an article about carbonate being released back in the water column when bacteria and such die back. There's no way i can confirm the real reason from the spike in alk. Im just going to stop using limewater until the alkalinity drops back down to 8dKH.
But all in all i see some spots of better looking rock in my tank this morning.
Here you can see a spot of healthy looking spot with no hair algae or brown nasty stuff.
So its a possibility that my skimmer is over skimming. Ill try cutting back on skimming, and using the skimmer only if the nutrients get out of hand.
I've noticed that my CUC has starting to get there appetite back and are slightly more active.
My rate of alk/cal has gone down or something is bring up my alk. I was thinking it maybe from the presence of phosphate or when my nitrates hit 10ppm. The nitrates are back down 5ppm but my alk has gone up to 10 from 8. I read an article about carbonate being released back in the water column when bacteria and such die back. There's no way i can confirm the real reason from the spike in alk. Im just going to stop using limewater until the alkalinity drops back down to 8dKH.
But all in all i see some spots of better looking rock in my tank this morning.
Here you can see a spot of healthy looking spot with no hair algae or brown nasty stuff.
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leptang
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Some pictures of the progress of the 40g breeder, lost a clam and a couple acans. The tank is looking a little better at least. Been battling keeping phosphate levels up. I feel my skimmer maybe over skimming so only skim if Nitrate get passed 5ppm. I quit using seachem flourish nitrogen because it has urea in it. I read a study saying overall most tanks that had high levels of urea had dino problems. I dosed silicate for a while and ended up with a big diatom bloom which i believe out competed the Dino's. Then i sucked out the diatoms on a regular basis. Green hair algae is growing and other types of macro also now. Been dosing docter tims waste away, and seachem seed, and vibrant but im only dosing 1/4 of the instructions call for. Been adding more fish, up to 11 so far, and a larger CUC.
I have been trying to get my lighting dialed in. Trying to match how WWC does there lighting period.
hopefully im going in the right direction fingers crossed.
On the other hand i set back up my 20g long QT/frag tank. Been chipping away frags for my 40 breeder.
I have been trying to get my lighting dialed in. Trying to match how WWC does there lighting period.
On the other hand i set back up my 20g long QT/frag tank. Been chipping away frags for my 40 breeder.
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