Angry Upgrade 120 to 230 Peninsula!
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OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Few quick updates on the tank. Alk continues to rise slowly, up to 9.5 now. I have 15 new acros coming next week so lets hope that solves the problem. I dialed back the kamoer to 3ml/min.
Other than that things are going just fine. Doors should be delivered today!
Other than that things are going just fine. Doors should be delivered today!
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
It's been a little while huh?
Where do I even begin....
Since my last update things in the tank haven't been so great, trouble in paradise. I randomly decided to start feeding less and around mid June my phosphates bottomed out to 0. That allowed for an absolutely vengeful return of the dinosaurs... :mad: They were not messing around this time. I did everything the same as before... worked on increasing phosphates (went back to feeding normal), dosed bacteria, did a UV vacuuming, and scrubbed all my rocks down. Cleaning the tank lasted all of 2 days... so worth it.... not.
In the meantime my corals are getting covered and irritated by the dinosaur feet stomping on them. So a few have gone to a better place. As a last(ish) resort, I did a 3 day blackout period. Simply just turned my lights off... This was Tuesday last week. On Friday I turned back on the LED bars in the evening. Saturday 2 out of the 8 T5 bulbs were back online, then Sunday everything went back on. So far... everything looks okay. The corals are definitely not happy about the blackout period. There isn't much I can do at this point other than provide them a stable environment. Phosphates are back up to 37ppb /.113ppm. Alk is stable at 9.5. It's extremely annoying to have this problem, it seems like you're doing everything right and then boom, things go crazy.
A few equipment updates...
My kamoer dosing pump needs to head in for some service. The problem I'm facing is the pump will automatically (without me touching the knob) increase the dosing amount. Example.. I have it set on 1ML/min... anywhere between 1 hour to 3 days it will increase to 2ML/min... then to 3ML and so on. This is not by design of the pump, so coralvue told me to send it in...
Skimmer... I took out the skimmer to clean it because all it ever does is overflow anyways so it was disgusting. Well, either the Texas heat or too strong of vinegar ruined the epoxy coating where the cable goes into the back of the pump. So there's no way I'm putting that thing back in. It's very debatable if I even needed that skimmer. (but Owl, what about all that oxygen exchange!? You need that!)... well, after taking it offline my pH hasn't changed, so its arguable.
Gyres... I've determined I hate this pumps. After using them roughly a year and a half I just hate them. Why? Great question... Two reasons. 1) They're a little bit too loud for me. They don't scream necessarily... but every so often I can hear them wining. Minor annoyance honestly. 2) This is my main reason I hate them... Cleaning. I.HATE.CLEANING.GYRES! This is the absolute worst process to clean a pump out there. They loose power quickly and take 67 years to clean properly. Even then good luck getting them clean.
With the hate for the Gyres in mind... I'm in the market for some used MP40's. Nothing can compare to just being able to swap out wet sides and no wires in the tank! It just comes with a very steep cost.
Anyways, this is enough to catch everyone back up. Let me know what you guys think of everything and ask questions!
Where do I even begin....
Since my last update things in the tank haven't been so great, trouble in paradise. I randomly decided to start feeding less and around mid June my phosphates bottomed out to 0. That allowed for an absolutely vengeful return of the dinosaurs... :mad: They were not messing around this time. I did everything the same as before... worked on increasing phosphates (went back to feeding normal), dosed bacteria, did a UV vacuuming, and scrubbed all my rocks down. Cleaning the tank lasted all of 2 days... so worth it.... not.
In the meantime my corals are getting covered and irritated by the dinosaur feet stomping on them. So a few have gone to a better place. As a last(ish) resort, I did a 3 day blackout period. Simply just turned my lights off... This was Tuesday last week. On Friday I turned back on the LED bars in the evening. Saturday 2 out of the 8 T5 bulbs were back online, then Sunday everything went back on. So far... everything looks okay. The corals are definitely not happy about the blackout period. There isn't much I can do at this point other than provide them a stable environment. Phosphates are back up to 37ppb /.113ppm. Alk is stable at 9.5. It's extremely annoying to have this problem, it seems like you're doing everything right and then boom, things go crazy.
A few equipment updates...
My kamoer dosing pump needs to head in for some service. The problem I'm facing is the pump will automatically (without me touching the knob) increase the dosing amount. Example.. I have it set on 1ML/min... anywhere between 1 hour to 3 days it will increase to 2ML/min... then to 3ML and so on. This is not by design of the pump, so coralvue told me to send it in...
Skimmer... I took out the skimmer to clean it because all it ever does is overflow anyways so it was disgusting. Well, either the Texas heat or too strong of vinegar ruined the epoxy coating where the cable goes into the back of the pump. So there's no way I'm putting that thing back in. It's very debatable if I even needed that skimmer. (but Owl, what about all that oxygen exchange!? You need that!)... well, after taking it offline my pH hasn't changed, so its arguable.
Gyres... I've determined I hate this pumps. After using them roughly a year and a half I just hate them. Why? Great question... Two reasons. 1) They're a little bit too loud for me. They don't scream necessarily... but every so often I can hear them wining. Minor annoyance honestly. 2) This is my main reason I hate them... Cleaning. I.HATE.CLEANING.GYRES! This is the absolute worst process to clean a pump out there. They loose power quickly and take 67 years to clean properly. Even then good luck getting them clean.
With the hate for the Gyres in mind... I'm in the market for some used MP40's. Nothing can compare to just being able to swap out wet sides and no wires in the tank! It just comes with a very steep cost.
Anyways, this is enough to catch everyone back up. Let me know what you guys think of everything and ask questions!
sam.veilleux30
Well-Known Member
I feel your pain, happened to me some years ago.
Keep up the good work, things will stabilize some day.
Keep up the good work, things will stabilize some day.
vetteguy53081
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Generally not a gyre fan due to cleaning but after cleaning iceCap 3k unit the first and then second time- it’s quite quick and easy. The Maxspect were a bear and a half
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Thank you! It is very frustrating for sure.
I'll have to take a look at these as well, thanks for sharing!
xaflatoonx
Valuable Member
How many mp40s you think you will need to get the same amount of flow as the gyres. I have always loved the gyres - didn’t think anyone would go back after they experience what these babies can do.
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Well, the gyre 250's claim 5300gph, while mp40s are at 4500. So I need at least 2 but I'd like to eventually end up with 4. I just can't stand the cleaning and power loss over a short period of time.
xaflatoonx
Valuable Member
fair point.
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Update:
Things in the tank haven't really changed much. SPS are continuing to look like garbage and fade out. I've been adding more bacteria to the tank, bio-digest, microbacter7, and live rock enhance. Yesterday I took a small powerhead to the rocks and siphoned out tons of stuff from the sump. This was followed up a 30g waterchange.
Things are really discouraging right now. All of that growth and success for it to all go away. Now I'm having to invest money into fixing problems instead of new livestock - not my idea of fun.
I really regret doing a lights out period. I feel it was a final nail in the coffin for some of the corals. Before the lights out they looked okay, since the lights came back on they've looked horrible. I'm considering raising my T5 lights up about an inch - anything higher and it's starting to get a little ridiculous (they're already 12 inches over the water)... putting about about 570 par at peak hours (4 hrs).
Anyways... aside from burning down the tank. My only option is to ride things out and help keep things stable. I have low hopes for all the corals. My plan is to get aggressive on some water changes. Every 2 days I'm going to change 25g. I will do this 8 times to reach the total tank volume. After this I will go to 25g every week for 4-6 weeks. Then every 2 weeks after that.
Open to any suggestions.
Things in the tank haven't really changed much. SPS are continuing to look like garbage and fade out. I've been adding more bacteria to the tank, bio-digest, microbacter7, and live rock enhance. Yesterday I took a small powerhead to the rocks and siphoned out tons of stuff from the sump. This was followed up a 30g waterchange.
Things are really discouraging right now. All of that growth and success for it to all go away. Now I'm having to invest money into fixing problems instead of new livestock - not my idea of fun.
I really regret doing a lights out period. I feel it was a final nail in the coffin for some of the corals. Before the lights out they looked okay, since the lights came back on they've looked horrible. I'm considering raising my T5 lights up about an inch - anything higher and it's starting to get a little ridiculous (they're already 12 inches over the water)... putting about about 570 par at peak hours (4 hrs).
Anyways... aside from burning down the tank. My only option is to ride things out and help keep things stable. I have low hopes for all the corals. My plan is to get aggressive on some water changes. Every 2 days I'm going to change 25g. I will do this 8 times to reach the total tank volume. After this I will go to 25g every week for 4-6 weeks. Then every 2 weeks after that.
Open to any suggestions.
Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
Where's your NO3 sitting? When i dealt with Dino in my newer setup i needed to keep NO3 at or above 10ppm for a stretch to get a handle on them. My PO4 number didn't seem to matter so much as NO3 did at that point.
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
I will have to check the books, I believe last time I tested NO3 it was around 8ppm. Interesting correlation though vs phosphates.
Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
My PO4 ranged from .2 to .55 when they popped up on me which was at a few different points between months 3 and 7. The only difference i could pin point at each onset was the NO3 number which ranged from 0 to 10. Once at or above 10 they would seemingly recede overnight.
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Makes me wonder if my WC strategy is somewhat flawed. The thinking is to help reset the tank and get some fresh clean water in the system. I have the option to dose nutrients if required.
Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
If you are that close to 10 then dosing a bit to see what happens before diving into that kind of water change schedule to me would be worth a shot. Depending on how much of a foot hold they have, blowing off the rocks each night, running socks/floss and replacing often would be advisable as well. Im sure you're re-searched it enough to know the routine.
Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
Man we really need a Hanna Nitrate checker! Ive never used this kit but .5 looks about right. Is that your actual number or do you multiply by 5 or something?Tested no3 and alk, seems stable based on previous numbers. I can't tell if the red sea high range is reading .5 or .75.. you guys tell me
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Sorry I forgot to say lol .5 is 8ppm and .75 is 12 ppm
Scurvy
Pirate Reefer
Dang, So hard to tell for certain...
OP
OP
AngryOwl
Angry
Yea its a bit annoying. Either way I should be good though... or at least you'd think huh?
So I've went ahead and bought some snails. 30 turbos. I also moved my other urchin to the main tank... so now there are 2 in there. 25 Trochus and 10 Margarita snails are coming Wednesday. The idea here is not to eat the dinos... I know they don't do that lol. The idea is to help clean the algae off my rocks since apparently my hermits are either useless or full and need some help.
I've completed 2 25g water changes in the past 5 days and I've been dosing bacteria as well.
Another major change I've made is with the lighting schedule. I didn't want to move my lights up so I had to get creative here. My old vs new schedule is below. For reference channel 1 = 2 T5 bulbs, channel 2 = 6 T5 bulbs.
OLD:
8am - Channel 1 ON
10am - LED bars ON
230pm - Channel 2 ON (all the lights are on during this period)
630pm - Channel 2 OFF
10pm - Channel 1 OFF
1015pm - LEDs OFF
NEW:
10am - LEDs ON
12pm - Channel 1 ON
230pm - Channel 1 OFF / Channel 2 ON
530pm - Channel 2 OFF / Channel 1 ON
10pm - Channel 1 OFF
1015pm - LEDs OFF
So instead of having all 8 bulbs + my LED bars on during peak hours, I only have 6 T5s on. This will equal lower par and also I shortened the peak period. Hoping this is a little easier on everything. We'll see how it continues to play out.
Lastly I'm considering trying some dinoX because why not? I figure its a 50/50 shot. Someone convince me otherwise!
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