Brew's 187g slice of the ocean

Brew12 · Sep 6, 2019

JMM744 said:
If you will allow a change of subject, how are the anthias doing? Just wondering if they have done well for you.
That’s a pretty tough way to return to the real world! You seem to have handled it well.

neilp2006 said:
was just about to ask the same thing!

I don't remember where they were at when I last posted, but I still have 4 and they seem to be doing well. Hopefully that will continue. I have noticed one of my yellow tail damsels causing some aggression issues with them so that is something I need to monitor.

Brew12 · Sep 6, 2019

Victoria M said:
Talk about when it rains, it pours. Hope all is caught up in the household now.

Unfortunately, more problems came up. The big one was my skimmate locker. My tank started foaming up again and the skimmer overflowed the locker. The emergency shutoff didn't work so the system didn't shut down and dumped about a gallon of seawater inside my stand and onto the floor. It would have been worse but my ATO also failed at the exact same time. I knew I had a problem because the return pump started making noise.
The ATO just needed cleaning so it is good now. I still need to dig into the skimmate locker shut off switch to find out why it didn't work.

Victoria M said:
Do you think you will try again, or remove the other fish to have another convict or just allow the fish population to grow, change and evolve?

I don't think I will. Right now my magnificent Foxface has that similar white look. I also don't want to risk more aggression with my Hippo tang. At least he is healing up nicely.

#honestyinreefing
Unfortunately, I have lost 2 more fish since I decided not to QT. My guess is that they both died of disease. I lost my Starry Blenny and my 6-Line wrasse. I almost feel bad that I don't feel bad about them. I don't think it is a coincidence that they were likely the two oldest fish in my system. They were the only fish I've purchased that were fully grown when I got them.

On the positive side, this does give me more stocking options. I can finally start looking at adding more interesting wrasses to my system. Expect to see some new additions in October.

Brew12 · Sep 6, 2019

I spent almost 3 hours working on my tank today trying to make up for some neglect. I cut back some coral that were growing too close and scraped back some monti's that were trying to overgrow my acro's. I did take a few of the bigger pieces and glue them to frag plugs.
I also threw away most of the big birdsnest that was overrun with algae. I did save a few tiny pieces and also put those on a plug to see if I can regrow it from scratch. Since I made a mess in the tank I took the time and scrubbed some algae off. I also picked up a bunch of dead coral fragments, empty shells, and a few loose frag plugs and got them out of the tank.

I worked on my skimmate locker to find why it didn't shut my skimmer down. Back when it was new I went to install it and couldn't get the shutoff to work. Avast was fantastic and shipped out the new switch once I convinced them I was competent to do the soldering. They offered to let me return it for a complete new switch but it wasn't necessary. My big reason is that I was able to use the normally open contact instead of the normally closed contact on the switch so I could start using it that day. Of course, I fully intended to swap the switch out with the new one when I received it but... ;Sorry ;Eggonface

Anyway, I've got the replacement switch they sent me ready to go. Unfortunately, I can't find my solder so I'll need to make a LOWE's run to get some. Just don't feel like it today so that will be a project for tomorrow.

And last, I cut way back on my 2-part dosing. I'm sure that all of the coral I broke off and/or irritated will cause consumption to drop and I'd rather have it go low than high.

Only thing on the tank "to do" list is cleaning the power heads and changing the return pump, but that will wait till tomorrow, also.

User1 · Sep 6, 2019

Hi Brew - and others. Mind if I ask a quick question not really related to your tank

Since you have had more exp with larger tanks than I'm dealing with wanted to get an opinion on some flow changes I'm thinking.

210 gallons 54" wide x 30" tall/deep. The two sea swirls I like but the way I have the rock structured at the moment (and yes, I epoxied them together

) and trying to place some corals that are getting too much flow I'm thinking of two possible options.

1. Image below is to remove the left back sea swirl and set it in the center of the tank. Then take off the right front and use as a spare or future upgrade. I could also plumb that line into the other and still use my two returns, etc.

2. Another option is to remove them both and as you see the tank now the return and bean animal overflow is on the right side. I can just run both returns over the top facing to the left at the surface. Then bring back out my Gyre XF250 and place it on the other side (Left center side wall).

Wishing I had a wider tank now or did my rocks differently darn it all

Anyone? Thoughts? Other than to say stop hijacking threads and start your own build thread

Edit: I'm a dork and forgot image

RichtheReefer21 · Sep 6, 2019

Brew12 said:
I spent almost 3 hours working on my tank today trying to make up for some neglect. I cut back some coral that were growing too close and scraped back some monti's that were trying to overgrow my acro's. I did take a few of the bigger pieces and glue them to frag plugs.
I also threw away most of the big birdsnest that was overrun with algae. I did save a few tiny pieces and also put those on a plug to see if I can regrow it from scratch. Since I made a mess in the tank I took the time and scrubbed some algae off. I also picked up a bunch of dead coral fragments, empty shells, and a few loose frag plugs and got them out of the tank.

I worked on my skimmate locker to find why it didn't shut my skimmer down. Back when it was new I went to install it and couldn't get the shutoff to work. Avast was fantastic and shipped out the new switch once I convinced them I was competent to do the soldering. They offered to let me return it for a complete new switch but it wasn't necessary. My big reason is that I was able to use the normally open contact instead of the normally closed contact on the switch so I could start using it that day. Of course, I fully intended to swap the switch out with the new one when I received it but... ;Sorry ;Eggonface

Anyway, I've got the replacement switch they sent me ready to go. Unfortunately, I can't find my solder so I'll need to make a LOWE's run to get some. Just don't feel like it today so that will be a project for tomorrow.

And last, I cut way back on my 2-part dosing. I'm sure that all of the coral I broke off and/or irritated will cause consumption to drop and I'd rather have it go low than high.

Only thing on the tank "to do" list is cleaning the power heads and changing the return pump, but that will wait till tomorrow, also.

Talk about a visit from Murphy... sheesh

Victoria M · Sep 6, 2019

Gosh Brew, that was just sucky all the way around.
But the sixline is no longer, so it does give more options.

Victoria M · Sep 6, 2019

saf1 said:
Hi Brew - and others. Mind if I ask a quick question not really related to your tank Since you have had more exp with larger tanks than I'm dealing with wanted to get an opinion on some flow changes I'm thinking.

210 gallons 54" wide x 30" tall/deep. The two sea swirls I like but the way I have the rock structured at the moment (and yes, I epoxied them together ) and trying to place some corals that are getting too much flow I'm thinking of two possible options.

1. Image below is to remove the left back sea swirl and set it in the center of the tank. Then take off the right front and use as a spare or future upgrade. I could also plumb that line into the other and still use my two returns, etc.

2. Another option is to remove them both and as you see the tank now the return and bean animal overflow is on the right side. I can just run both returns over the top facing to the left at the surface. Then bring back out my Gyre XF250 and place it on the other side (Left center side wall).

Wishing I had a wider tank now or did my rocks differently darn it all Anyone? Thoughts? Other than to say stop hijacking threads and start your own build thread

Edit: I'm a dork and forgot image

That might be the first FTS I have seen of your tank. Very pretty. Regarding the flow. Have you thought of removing the end pieces of the lock line? It looks like they are eductors, which increase flow, right? Remove those and see what the flow looks like. Or even putting RFG on the end?

Fudsey · Sep 6, 2019

Sorry about the Starry blenny is all I will say

User1 · Sep 6, 2019

Victoria M said:
That might be the first FTS I have seen of your tank. Very pretty. Regarding the flow. Have you thought of removing the end pieces of the lock line? It looks like they are eductors, which increase flow, right? Remove those and see what the flow looks like. Or even putting RFG on the end?

Yes, then are the random flow. I like them but boy are they too large. I can try to see about cutting some threads off and see what that yields but maybe 1/4" if that I'm guessing.

I can run a day without them - good suggestion. Thanks. And also thanks for the comment. It has been a while only over the last couple of months looking like this after GHA issues and others. I am trying to manage this flow or space issue and am a complete idiot. So much that I'm like ok - let me just upgrade now that I know what I don't like.

PanchoG · Sep 7, 2019

Brew12 said:
Unfortunately, more problems came up. The big one was my skimmate locker. My tank started foaming up again and the skimmer overflowed the locker. The emergency shutoff didn't work so the system didn't shut down and dumped about a gallon of seawater inside my stand and onto the floor. It would have been worse but my ATO also failed at the exact same time. I knew I had a problem because the return pump started making noise.
The ATO just needed cleaning so it is good now. I still need to dig into the skimmate locker shut off switch to find out why it didn't work.

I don't think I will. Right now my magnificent Foxface has that similar white look. I also don't want to risk more aggression with my Hippo tang. At least he is healing up nicely.

#honestyinreefing
Unfortunately, I have lost 2 more fish since I decided not to QT. My guess is that they both died of disease. I lost my Starry Blenny and my 6-Line wrasse. I almost feel bad that I don't feel bad about them. I don't think it is a coincidence that they were likely the two oldest fish in my system. They were the only fish I've purchased that were fully grown when I got them.

On the positive side, this does give me more stocking options. I can finally start looking at adding more interesting wrasses to my system. Expect to see some new additions in October.

Sorry for your losses Brew. My six lines was a total bully, as you said you will have more options now.

Tristren · Sep 7, 2019

Brew12 said:
#honestyinreefing
Unfortunately, I have lost 2 more fish since I decided not to QT. My guess is that they both died of disease. I lost my Starry Blenny and my 6-Line wrasse. I almost feel bad that I don't feel bad about them. I don't think it is a coincidence that they were likely the two oldest fish in my system. They were the only fish I've purchased that were fully grown when I got them.

Well it seems like there has been a lot of stress on the system lately! What a string of bad luck. But given all of that (from the change in feeding, to the swings in chemistry and then temperature, to the new shoal added, to the fights to the death between two of the big fish) do you think that the lack of QT for the Anthias was a contributing factor?

I suppose that one of the main ideas behind not doing prophylactic QT is that the pathogens are in our systems, and that stress is what pushes the fish to get sick (ie to not be able to maintain a healthy immune system and to develop symptoms). And it seem that you’ve had something close to a perfect storm in that regard!

Very sorry to hear about the losses. The system still looks amazing.

Tony

Brew12 · Sep 7, 2019

saf1 said:
210 gallons 54" wide x 30" tall/deep. The two sea swirls I like but the way I have the rock structured at the moment (and yes, I epoxied them together ) and trying to place some corals that are getting too much flow I'm thinking of two possible options.

I don't know enough about how the sea swirls work to give you an informed opinion. I've come to look at the important part of flow to be the actual velocity at each coral and pay no attention to 20x or 100x flow. If I have the velocity at the coral, my flow is good. I have been targeting between 4" per second and 6" per second. With my gyres, once the gyre is established it is a very consistent velocity for the entire volume of the tank.
You may be able to improve the performance by putting both returns on the same side and shorting the return lines to see if you can establish a gyre. Then, put the gyre on the opposite side and have it ramp up and down slowly. Your tank dimensions are going to make flow a challenge and you may be better off with multiple smaller powerheads.

Tristren said:
do you think that the lack of QT for the Anthias was a contributing factor?

Absolutely. I purposely introduced pathogens into my tank and that could have been the trigger for the aggression between my tangs although I think it is more likely it was the fact I switched to an auto feeder.
I'm guessing the starry blenny and 6-line were older when I got them and so were less able to recover from the copper treatment they both went through. When a pathogen was introduced they couldn't fight it off. I knew this risk going in and it wasn't completely unexpected.

Brew12 · Sep 7, 2019

Did some more work on the tank, including repairing the overflow shutoff for the skimmate locker. I'm glad that is done. I have some cleaning to do, but everything is looking good. I think my Alkalinity is fairly stable again and I only had to reduce my dosing by 8ml per day, so less than 10%.

All in all, a productive day. Will try and get pictures tomorrow.

User1 · Sep 7, 2019

Thanks Brew for the flow information. Believe it or not that is why I took out the Gyres because they are too much for a tank that wasn't mature with coral growth. Now that is starting to happen and my rock work I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to make some changes for better all around flow like you noted. I'll keep looking at it or come to the conclusion it is time for a upgrade

Just kidding!

Glad you had a productive day!