bknapp's Stealth 180

schooleyosis · Mar 5, 2014

Three pillars, one each just like the 110 had on the left side several months ago. That was really cool

bknapp · Mar 5, 2014

D_Reep1106 said:
yeah i see it now they are separate islands. That'll look great especially with some coral growout.

That's the hope anyways.

schooleyosis said:
Three pillars, one each just like the 110 had on the left side several months ago. That was really cool

I really liked the scale of the 110, just needed a bigger tank if this tank was 30" tall like the 110 that same scape would look killer.

fireman23 · Mar 19, 2014

How is the tank progressing

bknapp · Mar 22, 2014

fireman23 said:
How is the tank progressing

It's doing alright. Fighting bacteria issues right now, got some ugly slime algae all over the place. Lost both tangs this week. My sticks are starting to color up and start growing again which makes me happy. Got the manifold built and installed for pellets and a GFO/Carbon reactor and added LEDs in the sump area.

Thanks for asking.

bknapp · Mar 25, 2014

Tank has had a rough week or so. Lost three fish this past week, a chromis, yellow tang and a Kole tang. Also had an alkalinity swing (which I can't really explain) and lost my Joes Rainbow acro. I'm at a loss for the cause of the alkalinity swing. I've been working on setting up my dosing pumps and getting them tuned in and they were almost there then had a 4 dKH swing in 24 hours without changing any settings on the doser.

I'm beyond frustrated right now.

schooleyosis · Mar 26, 2014

Growing pains, hang in there man... Not much anyone can say at this point but to keep your head up and get that bad boy dialed in. Try and find the positive in what you have.

bknapp · Mar 29, 2014

Thanks Ryan, hope you and the misses are enjoying your honeymoon.

Things are starting to come around, color and growth is improving and most importantly no more deaths of coral or fish. Hope things continue on this trend.

bknapp · Mar 30, 2014

The MTRC frag swap (aka the Katalina Wine Mixer) is on April 5th so I've been on the prowl for some new frags and here's a couple that I've pre ordered do far:

schooleyosis · Mar 31, 2014

Thanks B. Hope you can find what you've posted. I'm sure you don't have to go far...

ToXIc · Apr 10, 2014

how's the tank?

bknapp · Apr 10, 2014

ToXIc said:
how's the tank?

Up and down. Hasn't really settled in yet for some reason. Needs more fish, lots more fish.

ToXIc · May 7, 2014

how's the acrylic panels? are they still straight?

bknapp · May 7, 2014

ToXIc said:
how's the acrylic panels? are they still straight?

So far so good. I take them off one day a week to try and prevent any bowing, I also use Novus 1 polish on them once a week to keep them clean and keep moisture out as much as possible.

bknapp · May 10, 2014

The tank is not looking so good right now. This green and Red cyano type algae is irritating all of my zoas and LPS. I am planning on doing a Chemi-Clean treatment this weekend to clear it up.

mcarroll · May 10, 2014

bknapp said:
Up and down. Hasn't really settled in yet for some reason. Needs more fish, lots more fish.

bknapp said:
The tank is not looking so good right now. This green and Red cyano type algae is irritating all of my zoas and LPS. I am planning on doing a Chemi-Clean treatment this weekend to clear it up.

The losses and the above are all signs you're moving a bit too fast in stocking up the tank....and it sounds like you're on a track to be overstocked if the advice in the thread is followed. You cannot do anything remotely like "empty out the store" of fish - it's only a slightly larger (longer) version of your last tank after all. And +50 gallons isn't a night and day difference anyway....depending on the fish you select, that might allow anywhere from zero new fish (tangs) or up to a few (firefish) as compared with the old tank. (If you were happy with the nutrient/algae situation in that tank.)

So two pieces of advice:

1) Do anything you can to go slower...even consider getting rid of something(s) already in the tank if you could and it would help. Don't have more than one - or at most, a very few - stony corals until the doser is dialed in. I also underestimated the potential time/pain involved with getting a doser dialed in and that was a very bad spot for my reef. If you can keep the number of corals low (one or few), alk swings will inherently be smaller and accidents will be too. Once you feel you have a handle on the doser, then add one more stony coral...and give it a month. Resist "frag packs" and anything like that with all your might.

And don't add more than one fish at a time if you can help it....give the tank plenty of time to tell you if it's "enough" before you add the next.

2) Lose/sell the Vortechs. They are really not well suited to a long, narrow tank. A 180 I ran for a customer/friend "came with" a set of mp40's, deployed in standard fashion...when he finally let me upgrade him to a set of Tunze 6105's (no controller) and we turned them on, it was amazing how much gook/detritus was immediately lifted out of his rocks. (If you have to keep the Vortechs, find a way to put them on the back-glass, spaced out top-bottom and side-side as evenly as you can. Depends a little on the rock structure, but this should be better.)

-Matt

mcarroll · May 10, 2014

bknapp said:
Tank has had a rough week or so. Lost three fish this past week, a chromis, yellow tang and a Kole tang. Also had an alkalinity swing (which I can't really explain) and lost my Joes Rainbow acro. I'm at a loss for the cause of the alkalinity swing. I've been working on setting up my dosing pumps and getting them tuned in and they were almost there then had a 4 dKH swing in 24 hours without changing any settings on the doser.

I'm beyond frustrated right now.

Time for an analogy.....not a good one...but it will tell the story, so bear with me.

Imagine your tank's alkalinity supply is gasoline and every stony coral is a little V8-powered animal.

You have 10 or 20 of little V8's idling away as the "gas" supply runs down. You put a carburetor (doser) on to "top up" the gas tank (and keep in full) and they all figure they can "rev" their engines simultaneously, causing a surprisingly big swing in "fuel" supply. If you could be there to test several times a day (and make any needed adjustment to your dosers) you might have caught the spike, but the deck was kinda stacked against you with so many V8's.

One or two little V8's wouldn't have an effect nearly as dramatic. Which is good when you are using their consumption as the tuning metric for their carburetor!

Hopfully that makes sense...and helps explain why "going slow" is so important/helpful.

Same analogy sorta works for going slow with fish, but think "exhaust" buildup instead of fuel issues. :sad: (heheh)

-Matt

mcarroll · May 10, 2014

And BTW, I'm completely jealous of your new tank. Sorry for not saying so sooner.

Congrats on the upgrade!!

-Matt

schooleyosis · May 10, 2014

Vroom vroom. I like turbo 4 cylinders. Lol

bknapp · May 10, 2014

Thanks for the advice Matt.

Most of everything I lost was from the 110 and not a new addition, I have been adding things rather slowly with this build, and definitely no frag packs have been added. The dosing is about stable at this point. And as far as flow goes I've been debating on adding a couple of WP25's to the back glass.

Thanks for the compliments and advice.