DSantaMaria's Waterbox 220.6 Reborn!

dwair · May 17, 2020

Wow. You've been doing some battles for sure. I hate to say it, but I think you added stuff abit to early and fast bud. Patience is key. I hope you can figure out some answers with the ICP test.

Dsantamaria29 · May 17, 2020

dwair said:
Wow. You've been doing some battles for sure. I hate to say it, but I think you added stuff abit to early and fast bud. Patience is key. I hope you can figure out some answers with the ICP test.

I’m hoping this magnet was the issue. I have had it for 2 tanks now and the previous tank also had issues with SPS STN. I’m going to monitor the corals and continue to do water changes. I also ordered some metasorb that’s supposed to take Tin out of the water

PilotOfSubmarines · May 17, 2020

Dsantamaria29 said:
I’m hoping this magnet was the issue. I have had it for 2 tanks now and the previous tank also had issues with SPS STN. I’m going to monitor the corals and continue to do water changes. I also ordered some metasorb that’s supposed to take Tin out of the water

How old was the magnet?

Dsantamaria29 · May 17, 2020

PilotOfSubmarines said:
How old was the magnet?

Had to have been 2+ years old

Dsantamaria29 · May 17, 2020

Here’s a pic of the magnet itself. Whatever coating/plating was on the outside had eroded away and the inside had started to rust as well.

Dsantamaria29 · Aug 4, 2020

It's been awhile and there's been a lot going on.

I have been dealing with the biggest hair algae outbreak I have ever seen in my life. Despite nutrient export, cutting feedings to visually nothing and increasing water changes I have not been able to make a dent. I would spend 1-2 hours with manual removal every water change, ripping and removing algae from the rocks. It inevitably came back every time.

I tried Snails, urchins and tangs in an attempt to combat it. Every time I added snails they died. The urchins would last until I did a water change then would mysteriously die afterwards. I ran a ICP on my water change bucket and found some heavy metals but nothing crazy that would lead me to believe that it would kill with water changes. I checked my RO/DI via ICP to see if that was an issue but It also did not show anything too crazy.

Heres what I was dealing with. This is after a weeks vacation, after trimming and water changing prior to leaving mind you. I have to clean the pumps at least once a week and they still look like that the next day. The algae clogs up the overflow weir, the stand pipes, the fleece filter, everything. I sadly had an ice outbreak as well. Im assuming it was in my tank and didn't show until I added the hippo Tang. I lost my Copperband that I have had for about 2 years.

This prompted me to set up a 75 gallon QT / hospital tank and treat the fish as well as restart this tank. Finally I had time to get things started. I set up the QT and added a sponge I had in my display for about 1-2 months in hopes of seeding it. I let it run for 2 days to make sure the temp stayed well and added some MB7.

This evening I started the tear down process. I removed all the rock and dumped it into the garbage. I plan on using dry rock and starting clean. This is unfortunate as the TB saltwater rock I had is now pretty much trashed.

Rocks gone, Fish chase commenced.

Drained the water, Removed the sand.

Polished it up and sanitized it with bleach. Rinse and repeat.

I removed all the plumbing, skimmer, return pump and various equipment and stuck it in a large vat of Citric acid and hot water. Plan to let that soak overnight and remove and clean it. I removed the sump and started to clean that out however I didn't have a tool to get into the smaller baffle areas so it will have to wait till the weekend when I am off from work.

Seeing the tank clean makes me a little happier as I feel it is again a blank slate. It sucks to have to restart after almost a year but I feel like I learned a lot and hopefully can learn from my mistakes.

najer · Aug 4, 2020

Good luck with the re-start.

jstephens24 · Aug 6, 2020

Wow best of luck. I have GHA I’m starting to battle against right now

Dsantamaria29 · Aug 10, 2020

Had the weekend off so kept at the cleanup. Got the sump out and cleaned. Soaked all parts in citric acid to clean them up. That stuff does wonders to any calcified build up. Replumbed the tank and filled it up with regular tap water. Used two gallons of bleach to sanitize the tank and components. this brought it up to about 400 PPM. I read that 60 PPM was enough to kill Ich cysts.

I then emptied it, refilled it and emptied it again. I vacuumed all the excess water out and rinsed it best I could. I plan on using some dechlorinator to clean up any leftover bleach.

Today I added the sand and the new rockscape. I have been working with Marco's Mud in an attempt to make something between a normal aquascape and this negative space aquascape.