Conshy 55 Gallon HOB Revival

[ConshyGeoff]

Conshy 55 Gallon HOB Revival

Hello – my name is Geoffrey and I have had my 55 gallon salt water tank for about 10 years. Over that time I have had to relocate my tank 5x times due to moving from one rental property to the next, however, the tank has resided in my own house for about 4 years (Conshy is short for Conshohocken, PA - just up river from Philly). Due to cost restrictions and rental properties I have not had a sump / overflow setup nor have I upgraded to other tank configurations. Right or wrong, 10 years ago I found many articles that recommended that a 55 gallon tank was the minimum size to start a salt water tank for a beginner so that was the size I bought off of Craigslist. Overall, due to time / work / school / ect. I have never had consistency with my reef tank and therefore I have a personal NYE Resolution to have a thriving tank or it is time to break it down and go back to Goldfish.

The Task: I am giving myself a minimum of 12 months (2019) to have a revived, healthy, thriving tank. Looking for consistency and not always battling fires.

The Outcome: Break it down or Invest into my next build - all dependent on this year long task.

I am looking forward to the R2R community in helping me on my Revival into the hobby and my tank.

Current Equipment:
- Standard 55 gallon tank, wooden stand and hood that I sanded / stained.
- T5 Lighting - 1x bulb (ATI Aquablue +) and 1x bulb (ATI Coral +)
- CPR HOB Refugium
- Reef Octopus HOB classic skimmer
- Heater
- SunSun 5 W internal UV (just added due to what I believe are Dino issues more to follow)
- Left side - rotation of powerheads (Tunze mostly)
- Right side - Ecotech MP10w

For reference, below is an older photo from July 2018.

Below are some photos of corals around Sept 2018 where I started to break apart larger colonies and selling away (through Jan 2019).

You can see that this hammer actually fell apart so parts are in the upper left and lower right of tank. My clown has always loved this one - not sure why. But out of everything in my tank if I touch it I do have a skin reaction. It is dark blue with light blue tips.

Hard to tell but this is a different hammer (green with purple tips). If anyone is near Conshy and wants a good hardy starter coral frag do not hesitate to reach out.

More to follow in that I started by selling / breaking down larger colonies and also removed about half my live rock.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! Welcome to R2R !!! Great looking tank. Let see what you are going to build now.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

So I will be back tracking a bit to give a time line. Below are photos from 19 Jan 2019 where I had started doing water changes while continually moving live rock around while also cleaning the sand bed. One big problem with a standard 55 gallon tank is that its depth and a wall of live rock allows too much "crude" to sit behind the wall without water movement. I was pulling out buckets of black junk with each water change. I started cleaning the sand bed in tank thirds (1/3) moving from left->middle->right and than right->middle->left. I had always cleaned the sand bed in front of my rock wall with water changes but never moved Live Rock around. I also added an additional powerhead pointed to the surface for water movement for a total of 3 powerheads during this process.

One aspect that I did not think about until recently is that since I moved my tank so many times at the beginning I was always completing a big clean with each move. Once I owned my house and stopped moving I was just continually building up a "crude" problem that could not be battled with chemicals or water changes alone.

The one thing I am excited to do is a new tank layout with an open concept.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

That's the same problem I saw when I have my 55g African Cichlids tank and try to use for my reef tank. I think was only 13" wide so I went with a 40g breeder instead. Now I'm upgrading to a 75g with has the same width as the 40g but a foot longer.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

Below are photos from 20 January 2019 in which I started to notice my tank going through a cycle of what I thought were Diatoms but later believed to be Dinos. At the end of January I was frustrated that I was continually cleaning my sand bed to see these little devils resurrect themselves within hours of cleaning the sand bed. For reference refer to the images of my sand bed below. Therefore, this is when I started really using this site as a resource about how to handle this situation, specifically the following thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dinoflagellates-–-are-you-tired-of-battling-altogether.293318/ . as well as many other stories of hope.

Main consideration - was my tank getting too clean? I was completing a lot of water changes while still running Purigen, a phosphate remover, and historically used Red Sea NO3: PO4-X due to all my on-going fight with trying to get that clean looking tank. Another issue is that I bought a bunch of CUC only to have most of them not survive and not eating what I originally thought were Diatoms but later to believe were Dinos.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

!!! Welcome to R2R !!! Great looking tank. Let see what you are going to build now.

Thanks! This site has been a wealth of information.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

Below are my chicken scratch notes for my January log.

A couple of notes with my tracking.
1) I stopped dosing Red Sea NO3 : PO4 -X early January
2) I stopped dosing ESV B-Ionic buffers due that I thought my numerous water changes were covering it. However once I got my test kits in I found that my Alkalinity was consistently low (Jan 24th it was 5.7 and second test was 6.1) but with Ca and Mg at the high end on Salifert test kits. Phosphates coming up as 0.0.
3) In January I switched from Red Sea Coral Pro to Aquaforest Probiotic Reef Salt
4) CUC crew mostly died in tank, thus later making me believe I had Dino problem related to shock of tank cleaning.
5) While doing water changes I was mixing 1.0126 to slowly bring up to 1.025.

These are the following test kits that I am using to test the water parameters.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

Below are photos from 05 Feb 2019. As you can see my fight continues if not getting worse at this time. I could clean the pumps and by the next day look like the photo below again.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

Below is the amount of Live Rock that I removed while cleaning out my sand bed. I have it stored in salt water with a power head in my basement as I am unsure which pieces I will add back into my tank.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

To deal with what I believe to be a Dino problem I removed the Purigen and Bulk Reef Supply GFO on 05 Feb 2019. I also started replacing my BRS carbon on roughly a weekly basis. On 13 Feb 2019 I installed the SunSun 5 W internal UV while also started dosing 10 mL of MicroBactor7 daily. On 21 Feb AlgaeBarn delivered some fresh pods, nano brine, and Phytoplankton. I have been supplementing 15 mL of Phytoplankton daily since delivered.

The images below are from 22 Feb 2019. So with the UV filter, MB7, and Pods the "Dino" problem has greatly improved over 10 days. I also use a turkey baster to blow the sand / rocks and have not done a water change and only dosing ESV B-Ionic Alk (about 20 mL daily) and Ca (about 10 mL daily). I have been testing Alk more and it seems to have settled out at around 8 over Feb.

The iphone photos really do not do it justice how much less brown film is over the sand and rocks. The remaining CUC crew also appears to be healthier and moving around more. Additionally, with more consistent dosing and tracking I can see some color coming back on my rocks and my hammers and acans seem brighter / fuller colors.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

So I am going back and reviewing my initial ICP-IES test completed by ATI in which I have the following result for Silicon:

Link to entire RO/DI report taken on 17 Jan 2019: //lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/f2b5daa83edf48a98883

For my RO/DI generation I have a 5 stage RO/DI system where I regularly have 0 TDS coming out of my DI. Due to having city water I use the following filter configuration:

Stage One - Purtrex 5 Micron Sediment Filter
Stage Two - BRS Chlorine & VOC 5 Micron Carbon Block Filter
Last Stage - BRS Universal 1 Micron Carbon Block Filter
RO - 75 gallon Filmtec Membrane
DI - BRS mixed resin

Additionally, I rebuilt my water softener in the fall and have a whole house 5 Micron carbon filter pre-water softener and the replacement water softener resin is Cation exchange.

So a couple questions:

1) Is the as tested Silicon level acceptable for RO/DI water?
2) Should I dump the 5 Micron sediment filter and go with 5 Micron Chlorine, 1 Micron, 1 Micron as I already have a 5 Micron pre-water softener?
3) Should I buy a two stage DI from BRS where I would have 1x Anion and 1x Mixed?

Thanks for your thoughts on cleaning up heavily treated city water.

 

[ConshyGeoff]

Next question is to my tank water results from ATI - link: //lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/60e40be401d54c022435
Note: With dosing over the last month my CA levels are around 400 and Alk (depending on time of day tested) 7.7 to 8.2 dKH.

The results state that my Iodine levels are low:

Since I am currently fighting to what I believe is a Dino problem I have stopped completing water changes. Previously (historically), I completed 5 gallon water changes weekly. Should I be actively dosing Iodine to bring these levels up in my tank? Currently I do not really have a high coral load as I sold off most of my larger colonies. I was looking into Red Sea Supplement A unless others have better recommendations. I do not have a text kit for Iodine since I do not dose for it.

Thanks