Angry Upgrade 120 to 230 Peninsula!

[Scurvy]

Can't lie I was quite confused by the image of the double cupped skimmer before getting to video! It sounds like you got some weird stuff happeing in that water colummn. Im not sure what I would do but getting back to basics doesn't seem like a bad idea when you're left stumped like that.

I'd wonder if your chemistry issues are in some way related to trace element dosing... Too much of something having a impact on the Calc/Alk numbers.

When you say cloudy water do you mean more of a haze to the water or simply loads of detritus, debris etc?

How you liking the Coral Box skimmer and DC pump? Thing looks HUGE.

 

[AngryOwl]

Can't lie I was quite confused by the image of the double cupped skimmer before getting to video! It sounds like you got some weird stuff happeing in that water colummn. Im not sure what I would do but getting back to basics doesn't seem like a bad idea when you're left stumped like that.

I'd wonder if your chemistry issues are in some way related to trace element dosing... Too much of something having a impact on the Calc/Alk numbers.

When you say cloudy water do you mean more of a haze to the water or simply loads of detritus, debris etc?

How you liking the Coral Box skimmer and DC pump? Thing looks HUGE.

Haha! Glad you watched and got clarity

As for the water column, it is both. Hazy and many particulates in the water. Imagine watered down skim milk inside a snow globe and you shook it ;Hilarious

I love the skimmer so far, I've only had 1 issue a few days after I installed it because I closed the valve too much. Since then it's been rock solid and very stable! It is way bigger than I thought as well.

 

[Scurvy]

Well I think if I were in this predicament I would quit dosing just about everything and do a few larger water changes over the course of a couple weeks. In my 120ish gallon system for instance I did two 30g followed by 3 or 4 20g changes in about two weeks. That served as my “reset” before going full on Triton.

IMO trace dosing especially on the level I think you’re doing it can do more harm than good when the tank isn't stuffed with coral. Just my .02

 

[AngryOwl]

Well I think if I were in this predicament I would quit dosing just about everything and do a few larger water changes over the course of a couple weeks. In my 120ish gallon system for instance I did two 30g followed by 3 or 4 20g changes in about two weeks. That served as my “reset” before going full on Triton.

IMO trace dosing especially on the level I think you’re doing it can do more harm than good when the tank isn't stuffed with coral. Just my .02

So what I'm reading you say... is you're going to send me a bunch of sps to stuff my tank with ;Hilarious

I agree with you though. One thing I'm trying before that is what I did last night.

Last night I did a very thorough sand siphoning. Next, I directly plumbed the clarisea into the main drain line... and lastly I'm going lights out for the weekend.

My hope is this will help reset the water column to an extent.

 

[Scurvy]

The haze in the water may take some time to clear. Bedris I would think should clear up pretty quickly with 100% of the water draining going through the Clarisea but I admit Ive never used a roller so my expectations might be unrealistic.

I know my tank had a haze to the water for the first 5 or 6 months but I belive that was due to being bare bottom and the maturing process taking longer. You are well beyond a year old at this point with a sand bed so It's sorta surprising to hear you're dealing with that kind of thing. Anyway, good luck!

 

[AngryOwl]

The haze in the water may take some time to clear. Bedris I would think should clear up pretty quickly with 100% of the water draining going through the Clarisea but I admit Ive never used a roller so my expectations might be unrealistic.

I know my tank had a haze to the water for the first 5 or 6 months but I belive that was due to being bare bottom and the maturing process taking longer. You are well beyond a year old at this point with a sand bed so It's sorta surprising to hear you're dealing with that kind of thing. Anyway, good luck!

I've been through about 3 or 4 clarisea rolls so far over 2 months or so and I've noticed zero difference in debris in the water column. I will attribute this to not running it off the main drain but we'll see what happens now.... It was definitely pulling out tons of stuff though.

One other item to mention. I ran out of cut up homemade frozen food. I have more but need to cut it into cubes. I'm really lazy and I'm using that as an excuse to run a 'test'. The past week I've been feeding 3 cubes of hykari once a day. I'm interested to see how nitrate and phosphates react.

Nothing in my tank makes sense, it's haunted by a spooky ghost who feeds off my pain and suffering. No big deal, happens to everyone...

 

[AngryOwl]

Update on the lights out and cloudy tank situation (hazy & particulates). The 3 day lights out period was a total waste of time. Thursday night after 10:15 when my lights shut off for the night, I turned them off on the Apex. They didn't come back on until Monday morning.... and when they did.... everything looked the exact same, but now I just ticked off a few corals... ;Rage

The water continues to have a ton of particulates even with the clarisea directly plumbed. It may take more time but it's a little ridiculous. I'm at my wits end with whatever is going on in this tank. I've seen plenty of other tanks where you can't even tell there is water in the system AND some of those systems don't even run mechanical filtration ;Shifty

Not sure where to go from here but I do not currently enjoy looking at the tank. I understand I'm holding things to a high standard and expectation but that's just how I am. The corals are still doing okay but things could be better.

Last update - I'll be adding a chaeto reactor to help with the high nutrients. Will update once it's installed.

 

[AngryOwl]

My pickle jar chaeto reactor is in! It is already leveling off my ph drops. We'll see the how quickly it grows. I have it set up to run 8 hours 10:45pm - 6:45am. I wanted to start slow and I will ramp up according to what level of nutrient control I require.

I've also determined I will be removing all sand from my tank due to the cloudiness & snow globe of debris. I plan to go all out and remove it all at once. I know this is risky but there should be no reason it will harm the livestock. I still have well established rock and pond matrix in the sump. After I remove the sand I will see how the tank responds with the issues I'm having and if things clean up I will replace the sand after a very thorough rinsing.

If you're not a fan of this approach or have a different suggestion... change my mind!

 

[User1]

My pickle jar chaeto reactor is in! It is already leveling off my ph drops. We'll see the how quickly it grows. I have it set up to run 8 hours 10:45pm - 6:45am. I wanted to start slow and I will ramp up according to what level of nutrient control I require.

I do not run a reactor but my understand is that this is the primary source of control should you run negative nutrients due to your reactors efficiency. Zero nutrients or too low dial back the lighting period. Too high or not removing at the pace you want increase the lighting cycle.

I think you are on the right track regardless. Great job.

 

[AngryOwl]

This weekend was a busy one! It all started Saturday when I removed my entire sandbed. That's right, one shot, all at once! We'll see the outcome but so far no causalities or anything of interest to report. One thing that surprises me though is that I don't hate the look of it lol!

On Sunday morning I created a hybrid fixture out of my ATI 8 bulb T5 fixture. The fixture now houses 4 Giesemann Actinic Blue bulbs with 2 AI Hydra 52's running down the center. I will add one more Hydra 64 to the center, but right now there is no real need for it.

So far I love the look. I went ahead and copied the BRS mimic of the AB+ schedule. The AI's put out some serious PAR with my top most coral getting 800 PAR with all lights on and even my hammer getting 250-300 about 5-6 inches off the bottom. Mostly everywhere else where SPS are concerned are getting 400-600. I've set the lights to acclimation mode, we'll see how things to. I'd also like to buy a diffuser which will lower the output a bit.

Aside from these major projects, I cleaned up around the tank as well. The overflow box got a cleaning, sump area tidied up, and some other random stuff I decided to do.

Anyways...... We'll see how things react from here!

 

[Scurvy]

Takes some getting used to seeing a bare bottom tank doesn't it?? Took me a couple of months but eventually all you'll see is coraline and corals growing over it Nice job on the Hybrid!

 

[AngryOwl]

Takes some getting used to seeing a bare bottom tank doesn't it?? Took me a couple of months but eventually all you'll see is coraline and corals growing over it Nice job on the Hybrid!

Can't wait! I still need to get in with a siphon and finish off the scraps. I'm interested to see if the tank finally clears up or if this was a huge waste of time... however, in the long run this could end up being a solid move!

 

[Scurvy]

Long term I think you'll love where it takes you. Flow can be cranked up and your sticks will love it! Shorter term you may see it as somewhat of a destabalizing event. I HOPE NOT but that's a lot of surface area, bacteria and nutrients you disturbed in the process. Fish should be fine but the remaining corals may rebel in the coming days. A

 

[AngryOwl]

Long term I think you'll love where it takes you. Flow can be cranked up and your sticks will love it! Shorter term you may see it as somewhat of a destabalizing event. I HOPE NOT but that's a lot of surface area, bacteria and nutrients you disturbed in the process. Fish should be fine but the remaining corals may rebel in the coming days. A

I would agree. The worst has passed by now as far as the fish are concerned and I would expect coral death with a harsh combination of removing the sand and pounding them with new light lol! I figured if I was going to upset things, then I better go all out!

 

[User1]

This weekend was a busy one! It all started Saturday when I removed my entire sandbed. That's right, one shot, all at once! We'll see the outcome but so far no causalities or anything of interest to report. One thing that surprises me though is that I don't hate the look of it lol!

On Sunday morning I created a hybrid fixture out of my ATI 8 bulb T5 fixture. The fixture now houses 4 Giesemann Actinic Blue bulbs with 2 AI Hydra 52's running down the center. I will add one more Hydra 64 to the center, but right now there is no real need for it.

So far I love the look. I went ahead and copied the BRS mimic of the AB+ schedule. The AI's put out some serious PAR with my top most coral getting 800 PAR with all lights on and even my hammer getting 250-300 about 5-6 inches off the bottom. Mostly everywhere else where SPS are concerned are getting 400-600. I've set the lights to acclimation mode, we'll see how things to. I'd also like to buy a diffuser which will lower the output a bit.

Aside from these major projects, I cleaned up around the tank as well. The overflow box got a cleaning, sump area tidied up, and some other random stuff I decided to do.

Anyways...... We'll see how things react from here!

Busy weekend for sure! Glad everything is accepting the change. Great work and nice update!

 

[pelphrey]

Where will the wrasses live?

 

[AngryOwl]

Where will the wrasses live?

They sleep with me now!

 

[Scurvy]

To be a fly on the wall when you have THAT conversation with your wife

 

[AngryOwl]

To be a fly on the wall when you have THAT conversation with your wife

I swear I don't know why we have baby wrasses!

 

[AngryOwl]

No real updates on the tank. Things are looking the same and I'm still enjoying the look, however, I need to add more white to the lighting because I like that to my eye better I think.

One issue I'm currently having is I can't run my skimmer without it overflowing. Clearly something with removing the sand has put something in the water. Even with the water level on the lowest setting and the DC pump at 40-50% it still overflows! I think my only option here is to do the Melevs Reef method and let it go wild into a 5g bucket and continuously add new saltwater for whatever it removes. This seems like the best option - any other ideas? Thoughts?

Oh, another update is I turned my return pump down to level 3/5 on the varios8. After a convo with my LFS, he thinks it was too much turnover on max power and I would agree.