d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build

[d2mini]

How do u get micro bubbles, do u use an air bubbler or something else

air pump and wood airstone
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/micro-and-nano-bubble-tank-treatment.231894/

So, what's your main goal with the micro-bubbles? I've heard of the technique but never really dove into it. Always seems like someone is claiming they resolve some other issue. It's like the garlic of tank maintenance.

Been wanting to try it forever just as one more step to a healthy tank but right now my tank could really use a "deep clean" so I figured this was a good time to finally start.

 

[Black Pearl]

Looks great, that's what you want is tiny bubbles that stay in suspension for awhile even after the pump is off. I even saw a slight improvement in my PH over night. I still get in there with a turkey baster and blow the rock off to release trapped bubbles and there is far less detritus coming off the rocks. kinda got a scare the other day, there were few bubbles stuck to my fox face, I initially though it was ich

 

[bowen1022]

Any improvement with micro bubbles on the algae

 

[d2mini]

@bowen1022 does this photo answer your question?

It did seem to bring some junk to the surface, but not enough.
Since my tank was "only" 9 months old and I didn't have a ton of coral yet, I decided to cut my losses now and start fresh.
Going back to what I know works for me. Standard Berlin style filtration, a nice ball of cheato (that gets trimmed!), and no more Triton dosing.
Triton was going ok for me in the beginning but once the fuge crashed, it's been all downhill.
I'll use ESV Bionic for now since I'm set up to dose, and once demand pics up and I have time to recover $$$ from this, I'll invest in a CaRx again.
New TBS rock and sand coming tomorrow night.

This pic is this morning.
Nona (our kitteh) is all "what the heck?" Can you find her?

NONE of my fish made it through the transfer to QT.
I set up a 50g QT with matched salinity and temp but there must have been an 02 drop because they were all dead within a couple hours.
So pretty bummed about that to say the least.

Most coral are packed in an 18" cube. I took a few lps to my office nano.
All coral were dipped and put into fresh SW.

The tank was drained, and then filled with tap water and bleach and run for 10 hours over night.
I drained it again this morning.
Filling with fresh SW commences later today.
Part 1 of the rock and all the sand goes in tomorrow night.

 

[Preme]

@bowen1022 does this photo answer your question?

It did seem to bring some junk to the surface, but not enough.
Since my tank was "only" 9 months old and I didn't have a ton of coral yet, I decided to cut my losses now and start fresh.
Going back to what I know works for me. Standard Berlin style filtration, a nice ball of cheato (that gets trimmed!), and no more Triton dosing.
Triton was going ok for me in the beginning but once the fuge crashed, it's been all downhill.
I'll use ESV Bionic for now since I'm set up to dose, and once demand pics up and I have time to recover $$$ from this, I'll invest in a CaRx again.
New TBS rock and sand coming tomorrow night.

This pic is this morning.
Nona (our kitteh) is all "what the heck?" Can you find her?

NONE of my fish made it through the transfer to QT.
I set up a 50g QT with matched salinity and temp but there must have been an 02 drop because they were all dead within a couple hours.
So pretty bummed about that to say the least.

Most coral are packed in an 18" cube. I took a few lps to my office nano.
All coral were dipped and put into fresh SW.

The tank was drained, and then filled with tap water and bleach and run for 10 hours over night.
I drained it again this morning.
Filling with fresh SW commences later today.
Part 1 of the rock and all the sand goes in tomorrow night.

Wow.... sorry to hear this. I was thinking of doing the Triton method, after hearing about this I might skip it. Hopefully this next chapter for you is good!!

 

[NCreefguy]

Oh man...I'm sorry that you lost all of your fish. I've been struggling with this brown slime for quite some time and have considered breaking my 15yo tank down and starting over as well. Sometimes it's best to just go back to the basics.I'm not saying it's bad to try different ways or methods in our hobby but I think you'll be a lot happier once you go back to what you know works.

 

[Black Pearl]

So sorry to hear this! Reefing can be a struggle. You find out what works best for you , then hang with it. We have seen your body of work, so get to it! Good luck

 

[ksfulk]

I had similar experiences where Triton was ok, but nothing ever really started to go the way I wanted it to. I went a different direction this time (though also dosing ESV) and Im much happier with current results. Bummer on the fish as well - its never happy when no one makes it. Hopefully this hard reset will get things to how you want them.

 

[revhtree]

@bowen1022 does this photo answer your question?

It did seem to bring some junk to the surface, but not enough.
Since my tank was "only" 9 months old and I didn't have a ton of coral yet, I decided to cut my losses now and start fresh.
Going back to what I know works for me. Standard Berlin style filtration, a nice ball of cheato (that gets trimmed!), and no more Triton dosing.
Triton was going ok for me in the beginning but once the fuge crashed, it's been all downhill.
I'll use ESV Bionic for now since I'm set up to dose, and once demand pics up and I have time to recover $$$ from this, I'll invest in a CaRx again.
New TBS rock and sand coming tomorrow night.

This pic is this morning.
Nona (our kitteh) is all "what the heck?" Can you find her?

NONE of my fish made it through the transfer to QT.
I set up a 50g QT with matched salinity and temp but there must have been an 02 drop because they were all dead within a couple hours.
So pretty bummed about that to say the least.

Most coral are packed in an 18" cube. I took a few lps to my office nano.
All coral were dipped and put into fresh SW.

The tank was drained, and then filled with tap water and bleach and run for 10 hours over night.
I drained it again this morning.
Filling with fresh SW commences later today.
Part 1 of the rock and all the sand goes in tomorrow night.

Dude I knew something had to be up!

So sorry to hear about the issues and the losses. Glad you're sticking it out and starting over!

 

[bowen1022]

Dang I didnt mean to bring up a sad topic lol. But I restarted after a failed attempt with Aquaforest now Im just running their Comp 1,2,3 in my little nano. Hope the best for this tank once it restarts!

 

[PmRg]

@bowen1022 does this photo answer your question?

It did seem to bring some junk to the surface, but not enough.
Since my tank was "only" 9 months old and I didn't have a ton of coral yet, I decided to cut my losses now and start fresh.
Going back to what I know works for me. Standard Berlin style filtration, a nice ball of cheato (that gets trimmed!), and no more Triton dosing.
Triton was going ok for me in the beginning but once the fuge crashed, it's been all downhill.
I'll use ESV Bionic for now since I'm set up to dose, and once demand pics up and I have time to recover $$$ from this, I'll invest in a CaRx again.
New TBS rock and sand coming tomorrow night.

This pic is this morning.
Nona (our kitteh) is all "what the heck?" Can you find her?

NONE of my fish made it through the transfer to QT.
I set up a 50g QT with matched salinity and temp but there must have been an 02 drop because they were all dead within a couple hours.
So pretty bummed about that to say the least.

Most coral are packed in an 18" cube. I took a few lps to my office nano.
All coral were dipped and put into fresh SW.

The tank was drained, and then filled with tap water and bleach and run for 10 hours over night.
I drained it again this morning.
Filling with fresh SW commences later today.
Part 1 of the rock and all the sand goes in tomorrow night.

Dude this sucks.... but sometimes it's the most effective thing to do, glad you had spare space to store the corals.

Sorry about the fish

 

[d2mini]

Wow.... sorry to hear this. I was thinking of doing the Triton method, after hearing about this I might skip it. Hopefully this next chapter for you is good!!

There's some beautiful triton tanks out there and I still like the overall premise, but I'm not the only one having algae issues. Even a very famous reefer I know has stepped out. And someone else warned me before I got in.

Oh man...I'm sorry that you lost all of your fish. I've been struggling with this brown slime for quite some time and have considered breaking my 15yo tank down and starting over as well. Sometimes it's best to just go back to the basics.I'm not saying it's bad to try different ways or methods in our hobby but I think you'll be a lot happier once you go back to what you know works.

That's the plan.

So sorry to hear this! Reefing can be a struggle. You find out what works best for you , then hang with it. We have seen your body of work, so get to it! Good luck

Thanks!

I had similar experiences where Triton was ok, but nothing ever really started to go the way I wanted it to. I went a different direction this time (though also dosing ESV) and Im much happier with current results. Bummer on the fish as well - its never happy when no one makes it. Hopefully this hard reset will get things to how you want them.

Hope so!

Dude I knew something had to be up!

So sorry to hear about the issues and the losses. Glad you're sticking it out and starting over!

lol, yeah sorry... a little absent lately. Trying to figure out if I should keep pushing through and hope for the best or suck it up and start new.

Dang I didnt mean to bring up a sad topic lol. But I restarted after a failed attempt with Aquaforest now Im just running their Comp 1,2,3 in my little nano. Hope the best for this tank once it restarts!

Don't be sorry... it was good timing.

Dude this sucks.... but sometimes it's the most effective thing to do, glad you had spare space to store the corals.

Sorry about the fish

Thanks!
Most sps are sad looking, but lps were still looking good. We'll see what happens... luckily TBS is a quick cycle. Not a mature tank, but definitely capable of supporting coral.

 

[d2mini]

Oh man...I'm sorry that you lost all of your fish. I've been struggling with this brown slime for quite some time and have considered breaking my 15yo tank down and starting over as well. Sometimes it's best to just go back to the basics.I'm not saying it's bad to try different ways or methods in our hobby but I think you'll be a lot happier once you go back to what you know works.

BTW, I'm still waiting on that last triton test!

 

[NCreefguy]

BTW, I'm still waiting on that last triton test!

I've dosed some of the same things that you have so I'm anxious to see those results.

 

[jvb89]

Have you thought about using the Triton elements that don't have the refugium/algae supplements?

 

[tvu]

Just curious and many probably can help by understanding what did you use to QT? I used Coppersafe and prazipro for the 1st time and have gotten 8 fish thru without losing any of them.

 

[d2mini]

Have you thought about using the Triton elements that don't have the refugium/algae supplements?

Nope.

Just curious and many probably can help by understanding what did you use to QT? I used Coppersafe and prazipro for the 1st time and have gotten 8 fish thru without losing any of them.

Nothing was in the water. These were all healthy fish from my DT.
I've had a few fish go through actual QT before but these guys didn't need any treatment. Was just supposed to be temporary holding.

 

[Anirban]

Ohhh man you took that thing down...

Really sorry for all your fishes. I think Nona found the problem in your sump.

Hope you will bounce back hard...waiting for another great tank..

 

[tj w]

Looking forward to another beautiful tank from you. Sometimes it's better to stick to the tried and true methods you know works for you. You have a great and unique set of skills in this great hobby so I have no doubt you'll be happier for making this move. Keep us updated on the TBS Rock. That stuff seems great.

 

[najer]

England, know a few people that have moved from triton, lots of tanks that went bad.