Degener8's 70gal flat hex

[Degener8]

Hello everyone. I decided I should make a tank thread.
I have a scratched up 75 gallon flat hex. Currently upgrading or changing tanks is not an option. Instead of doing that I am sinking money into getting better equipment for the tank. Once I have aquired all of my hardware I want I will find my perfect tank, or rather likely I will build it. I don't have my camera atm but I will share of pics I have taken recentlty and post for your viewing.

Yellow Cucumber I have had for 3 years

about as good of a close up as any camera I have can get.

candy canes had for 1.5 years started as 2 heads

Snowflake Moray Eel had for about a year

Chillin in an Xenia plot. The red bubble algae exploded in mny tank a while back and has choked out 1/2 the xenia oddly enough.

Open Brain coral frag. Looks to be part of a Welso open brain but still not 100% sure. I got this as a nickle sized frag about 2 years ago (size of a quarter or so inflated)
I haven't seen the skeleton in about 6 months expanded he is about 4 or 4.5 in across currently.

Acan lords.. purple green grey and some lavender in there also. very cool piece in person can't ever capture the colors with my point of sale cameras.
I also have a red orange teal acan lord but no good pics of it atm.

Today I received my Bubble Magus NAC5 Skimmer. It is breaking in right now.. got the flow dialed in best as I can for now. I am getting some medium colored green tea mix out of it so far. I am sure it will get better once I make the 20L sump I have designed (did not expect the skimmer for a few more days) right now its running in a temp 10g sump to break in. Will have to top off often until i get the new sump built. I hope to get to it in the next week if time permits.

Next purchase is a reactor to run carbon, and one for GFO. Hopefully this simple combination in the new sump will provide all the filtration I need.

Thanks for looking I will get more updated soon as I get ahold of a camera again. Wife is away at military training for her up coming deployment and took the camera with her. (gonna have to get a 2nd camera for sure...LOL)

Garnet

 

[Degener8]

hmm not sure why the images are only being links.. Umm anyone that can help please do.. I will fix the links once i know how.

edit: figured it out Enjoy!

 

[revhtree]

Hey looking good Garnet!!

 

[BarbH]

Looking great, definitly I would say a second camera is a must :wink:

 

[Degener8]

Thx guys. The new skimmer I got is working well took out about an in og gunk in the cup today and rinsed it. The make shift sump I am using has no baffles so as things evap etc and I top off the skimmer is pulling stuff but not near what it should be. Wife is getting home today so will just have to keep tinkering with it until next week sometime when I can work on my real sump and a new overflow for the tank. Drilling isn't gonna happen since the tank is full already and I dont want to break it down. I'll be building a new bigger PVC overflow and hopefully that will suffice until I get a new tank and can drill it etc to be how I REALLY want it.

Until then I will drain it down and get a overflow built in and make the PVC overflow and new sump design with my 20L.
Hope it all goes well..LOL

 

[erbabb]

Looking good buddy! The snowflake is very cool! Keep up the good work.

 

[Degener8]

Thanks Eric nice to see ya on the forum. Should post up some of your tank. I am interested to see how its coming along.

 

[Degener8]

New FTS for the contest of cleaning etc. I am going through some troubles now but I will work it out.
I think I had stray voltage issue from a heater.. I think I lost 2 corals so I did a big cleaning also and doing water changes every other day to try and make things as nice as possible for the remaining LPS and zoas.

Eel is not acting normal at this point but we will see how he does over the next few days.. peppermint shrimp how ever and all snails seem to be fine.

 

[revhtree]

HAHA cool!

 

[revsgirl]

That is one cool looking cucumber!!

 

[Degener8]

Thanks he been with me forever.. so glad he is bullet proof and didn't succumb to what ever it is thats crapping on my tank atm..
We will see how things look on saturday if still looking sad I will do another water change.. and every other day there after I will do water changes until it returns to normal..

 

[Degener8]

The photo embedded right.. LOL for those to lazy to click links.. :wink:

 

[Mike Cruz]

Looks good, brave stock list there! Lol

 

[Degener8]

Thanks Mike.. I like my stock list. I assume the peppermints will get eaten eventually..LOL

Well The tank still isn't normal. The voltage issue has really done a number on things. I think I may lose all or most of my candycane mini colony also some heads look really bad but time will tell. The acans are looking about 1/2 their normal selves and the brain frag is about 1/2 normal also. I am wondering if it would be a good idea to mix up like 50 gallons of water and get it heated to temp etc. and do a HUGE water change. I can actually make up a full water change minus the sumps 15 gallons.

Any ideas if this is a good idea or not..I don't want to change much.. nitrates are <20ppm and everything else looks good for the standard tests. If there is some contaminant I can't test for in the tank I want it gone, and this is why I am contemplating this course of action.. Not gonna even attempt this until the weekend but I need to hear more from everyone .. opinions if its a good or bad idea.. I just want to give everything the best possible chance to recover.

 

[Degener8]

Well a tank update...

Tank is still alive.. and still has bubble algae.
I have started using a phosphate absorber as my po4 was at 1.0 based on LFS tests. I have been running new carbon and PO4 removed (media) for a little over a week. I don't have a PO4 test kit so I will be taking a sample to my LFS again to check the progress. I also had a high PH issue and High Calcium so I am not dosing and working on getting new test kits since mine seem to be failed.

The acans and Open brain are the only corals still in the tank and seem to be doing just ok. They are starting to show normal inflation part of the time. Just taking things slow and hoping to correct the issues I have had since the heater mishap and the new chemistry issue I was un aware I had.

 

[Degener8]

Well since last update alot has changed and alot has stayed the same.

I increased water changes to bi weekly 20% water changes and I still couldn[t get my nitrates down and phosphates are still high.
I have cut down feedings and increased water changes and cut down my light cycle and the red bubble algae is still hanging on strong.
There is just way to many nutrients in the system some how. I did a 50% water change once and the nitrates didn't seem to budge. LFS tests confiormed my findings each time and I used new tests kits as well to make sure everythings was testing correctly.

So today with the help of my daughters I removed my 6" ish sand bed and cleaned up the sand from the rocks etc. There is still much to siphon out once putting the rock back in the system. I saved a majority of the water as I did not want to over stress the moray eel by adding to much water (fresh mixed)

but i did get in a 20% water change during this process.
I also brought on line a biopellet reactor. I will do a weekly test on nitrates etc as these pellets are supposed to work well in systems in my condition.
After 4 weeks I will see if I also need to start some MB7 dosing or something similar.
Hopefully the bio pellets alone will solve the situation. Hopefully eventually I will be able to take the reactor off line and go back to using just carbon and some Phosphate media of some sort.

Now time to wait a month of 2 and see what happens. I will continue 20% water changes weekly. No other changes will be implimented until I get the nitrates and po4 down to proper levels.

 

[wysiwyg]

love the eel degener8. do you have and chaeto macro algae any were great exporter for nitrates/phosphates

 

[strange33w]

very nice eel. Cool pictures of him also

 

[Degener8]

love the eel degener8. do you have and chaeto macro algae any were great exporter for nitrates/phosphates

No I don't have any macro in the system currently. I had some Caulerpa and cheato in the system at one time but the red bubble algae invaded it and it started dieing off. So i removed it so it wouldn't he a source of more nutrients. I really think the sandbed was my largest issue hence why i removed it.

 

[Degener8]

very nice eel. Cool pictures of him also

Thanks, The eel is definately cool and I believe he is about to his max captive size. Now if I can add more fish without him eating them I will be in business. But first is getting the tank parameters in order. Long road ahead but I am game for it.