CDNess's 125G Build Thread

cdness · Feb 24, 2014

So being in this hobby we all have our level of knowledge. We all have our checks and balances, our procedures and preferential methods for doing things. Plus we all, no matter how long in the hobby, still make mistakes...

I personally never thought I would make a noob mistake like this but alas I will admit to my downfalls... I have been dosing 2-part for the longest time to keep calcium and alkalinity up to par. A recent revelation that a CO2 scrubber will never work for me, I decided to try Kalk in the top off water to increase PH. I figured it didn't have the saturation needed to maintain the tank so I left the dosers running. After a week or so I started seeing recession in my SPS from the base. First step is to test everything. I ended up at calcium of 580, alk at 16.0 and mag over 1700... Well the dosers have been OFF for a few days to let it all drop down. Let's see what happens I guess tonight when I re-test the water...

-x(

Sahin · Feb 24, 2014

cdness said:
So being in this hobby we all have our level of knowledge. We all have our checks and balances, our procedures and preferential methods for doing things. Plus we all, no matter how long in the hobby, still make mistakes...

I personally never thought I would make a noob mistake like this but alas I will admit to my downfalls... I have been dosing 2-part for the longest time to keep calcium and alkalinity up to par. A recent revelation that a CO2 scrubber will never work for me, I decided to try Kalk in the top off water to increase PH. I figured it didn't have the saturation needed to maintain the tank so I left the dosers running. After a week or so I started seeing recession in my SPS from the base. First step is to test everything. I ended up at calcium of 580, alk at 16.0 and mag over 1700... Well the dosers have been OFF for a few days to let it all drop down. Let's see what happens I guess tonight when I re-test the water...

-x(

Cr@p! Well, hope all gets better. We all make mistakes. What sets the noobs apart from the Pro's is how each deals with the situation at hand. :D

skinz78 · Feb 24, 2014

Dang, you gonna do a water change to help it out a little?

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

Full Tank Shots:

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

SPS:

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

Zoas / Palys:

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

LPS:

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

Softies:

Fish:

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

Updates:

Yes, things are recovering after the biopellets but it has been a slow journey. I went from zero nutrients to "holy crap" level for nutrients. Neither side of the fence helped the coloration of the corals. However high nutrients I can handle many different ways...

So I have added in a passive Carbon and passive GFO bags. This will help a bit with the nutrients. I would put the GFO in a reactor, but I don't have one I like so passive it is. In the baffle it will get good flow so I hope it works ok. Not 100% efficient, but should cause less of a hassle for maintenance until I can get a better reactor for the GFO.

I have started doing more and larger water changes. I have also swapped over to Red Sea Coral Pro salt from Reef Crystals due to some recommendations from others. I have already seen a benefit to the additional water changes. Whether or not this is related to the salt I cannot tell you as I made two changes at the same time, additional water changed and new salt. Either could be causing the benefits seen.

After my noob mistake with Kalk, I have my parameters back in check. It was an "oh duh" moment for me but I guess we all have them at times. Parameters are all back on target with only small losses. The worst was a large favia colony, but it didn't spread to the rest so it was OK. Crisis averted! The Kalk was being added to increase the PH in the tank. I am going to need to figure out a better way as a CO2 scrubber as well as Kalk are not the right decisions...

I added some corals from a contact at SFAAS (Sioux Falls Area Aquarium Society ? Index page). He is downsizing and selling off a ton of stuff. All of them look good and are much larger than expected. I have not had a chance to photograph them as the day lights were in dimming mode by the time I got them acclimated yesterday. I would rather tank a good representative photo of them before posting them online. Now to find spaces for them ;)

Sahin · Apr 1, 2014

Sorry about the coral issues. I can see the tissue loss areas on the SPS. :( Makes me feel sad seeing those pics...especially where I can see tissue loss on some nice SPS pieces. Sorry dude.

But you're dealing with the situation well and thats what matters. Learn from mishaps and move on.

The display still looks VERY nice considering...and the LPS and softies look happy too.

As for GFO, run it without a **** reactor...I dont even use GFO...been nearly 3 months and I have no issues...my tanks biological filtration is keeping it below 0.03ppm. I think its easier on the corals when used passively anyway.

Hope your corals turn around nicely and SPS growth get going soon. Do update and let us know how things are. :)

cdness · Apr 1, 2014

Yeah the tank got hit hard, but it is pulling through. Always a light at the end of the tunnel. I need to test the tank after the last water change and see how it is doing. Phosphates should be at an all time low considering the amount of water I have changed over the last month.

I am planning on leaving the GFO passive as it is a more gradual effect. However it ends up not getting efficiently used up so I will mix it up in the bag a bit every once in awhile.

I am in the same boat as it is sad to see the recession... I am hoping most of the corals recover and start growing again. I will be fragging some of them up in an effort to get a colony growing again and remove the recession areas.

Rob&Gab · Apr 1, 2014

holymacroni! keep it up!

Connie · Apr 1, 2014

:jaw: Nice!

skinz78 · Apr 1, 2014

Looking great Curtis!

cdness · Apr 3, 2014

Thanks for the compliments!

cdness · May 21, 2015

Long time no update...

Last night I got to spend the evening rebuilding my APEX. I lost ALL programming and had to start from scratch. So I updated to the latest firmware just for the heck of it and started rebuilding...

My prior program was SO stable I am now a bit worried about this crashing over the long weekend.

Extra thanks to Russ at Reeftronics.net for having an older version of my code in his database to give me a starting point.

Pics to come at a later date.

androsreef · May 21, 2015

nice collection

Mike&Terry · May 21, 2015

cdness said:
Long time no update...

Last night I got to spend the evening rebuilding my APEX. I lost ALL programming and had to start from scratch. So I updated to the latest firmware just for the heck of it and started rebuilding...

My prior program was SO stable I am now a bit worried about this crashing over the long weekend.

Extra thanks to Russ at Reeftronics.net for having an older version of my code in his database to give me a starting point.

Pics to come at a later date.

Hate when that happens and glad to hear you were able to rebuild... looking forward to seeing those pics!