Father of 9 (soon to be 10) with 320 gallon system

[tbrown]

I know. I should clean the glass first

I usually try to take pictures of my coral and that's how I decide to clean the glass...

 

[tbrown]

Hey, one thing no one seems to have asked - what salt were/are you using?

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Hey, one thing no one seems to have asked - what salt were/are you using?

Currently Fritz Reef Pro mix in the blue box. When I mixed the first 200 gallons for this system I used part of a box my brother gave me (no idea what brand), and Instant Ocean another brother gave me. I used to use Kent in my old 90 gallon tank, but switched to Fritz when my LFS ran out of Kent and they recommended the Fritz instead. I regret using the unknown salt, but my brother had a successful tank before so I thought it would be fine (and it may have been, I don't know that it caused a problem).

 

[tbrown]

Currently Fritz Reef Pro mix in the blue box. When I mixed the first 200 gallons for this system I used part of a box my brother gave me (no idea what brand), and Instant Ocean another brother gave me. I used to use Kent in my old 90 gallon tank, but switched to Fritz when my LFS ran out of Kent and they recommended the Fritz instead. I regret using the unknown salt, but my brother had a successful tank before so I thought it would be fine (and it may have been, I don't know that it caused a problem).

I was just curious because there was a problem with some salt that had some unidentified clay in it. It crashed a lot of tanks that had been successful for years. The large quantities of scum in the bottom of your mixing barrel had me think back to that salt. I don't imagine that's where the copper came from but it's possibly where the solids/residue came from.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I was just curious because there was a problem with some salt that had some unidentified clay in it. It crashed a lot of tanks that had been successful for years. The large quantities of scum in the bottom of your mixing barrel had me think back to that salt. I don't imagine that's where the copper came from but it's possibly where the solids/residue came from.

Makes sense. Since I yanked everything at once and didn't test the mixing tank right away, I can only guess where all the trouble came from, but I seem to be moving in the right direction. It was frustrating but there is a certain satisfaction in overcoming these issues too (and conversing with everyone about it on reef to reef)

 

[tbrown]

Makes sense. Since I yanked everything at once and didn't test the mixing tank right away, I can only guess where all the trouble came from, but I seem to be moving in the right direction. It was frustrating but there is a certain satisfaction in overcoming these issues too (and conversing with everyone about it on reef to reef)

Glad to hear it's turning around! Looking forward to seeing some corals in that tank!

 

[Imrahilwjz]

So here's the progress of the copper and zinc removal

ICP test of Oct-15-2022
Copper 85 µg/l
Zinc 112 µg/l

ICP test of Nov-25-2022

Copper 38 µg/l
Zinc 47 µg/l

ICP test of Jan-02-2023

Copper 12 µg/l
Zinc 16 µg/l

The other numbers look good, except phosphorus/phosphates are high. I've got a little sea lettuce in the refugium, but my other macroalgae all failed to thrive. Possibly due to the high copper?

Should I hit the system with Triton Detox again? I think I have enough to dose it again. I have 2 bags of carbon in the sump and the submerged filter has enough Chemipure Elite to treat 400 gallons according to their directions.

 

[Kiwi reefer]

Welcome to R2R, looking forward to seeing your progress

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Since I mentioned earlier that we were expecting a 10th child in March and recent experience shows that someone will eventually ask. Doctors discovered a few months ago that the baby had a genetic disorder. She was born alive the evening of March 7th and passed away the next morning. I baptized her right after birth and our pastor came to the hospital and confirmed her the evening of the 7th.

 

[Daveobrien]

Sympathy and congratulations, in the same sentence. Seems the most appropriate response. Followed by, Empathy coming your way.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Sympathy and congratulations, in the same sentence. Seems the most appropriate response. Followed by, Empathy coming your way.

Thanks. That's great

 

[Sleeping Giant]

so very sorry for your loss

 

[Nano_Man]

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I have decided to take the system back to square one. Return fish to LFS, remove all rock and substrate, clean all surfaces. My local fish store is in the process of building up his systems and has a use for the rock. I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way my refugium is setup, also I feel like I can make the display in my tank more attractive by arranging the rocks in a more eye-pleasing way, while providing larger caves/better hiding places. It's frustrating that I've spent so much money trying to fix this iteration, but I think I'll be happier if I reset and am more careful to make the setup the way I want.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Also going forward I will restrict posts to my large tank thread so I don't have to post in 2 places. Just click on the Build thread contributor button to see it.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

@Imrahilwjz

 

[zacharyv]

I posted previously as having a 90 gallon tank, with plans to move into a 180 gallon tank. 2 years ago there was an ice storm here in Oregon and my 90 gallon tank crashed.
I now have a 180 gallon tank with a 50 gallon (ish) sump, and a 90 gallon (my old tank) refugium.
I have 4 chromis and 4 firefish in the 180 who are doing fine. I tried to add some snails, hermit crabs, and emerald crabs. They all died. The crabs lasted a little longer than the snails, but everything died pretty quickly. The LFS owner I got them from talked about the possibility of heavy metals in the water. What's the best way to check for that? If that is the case, the only possible sources I can think of are a chunk of concrete in the water or the pump I use to transport water to the system from my salt water mixing system, which dies have rust on the bleeder plug. Should I eliminate one or both things right away, or test first? My best guess is the fish will be okay for now, and that every crustacean in my rock is already dead. Testing shows no ammonia, no nitrates, and 10 ppm of nitrate. I do have brown algae starting. I thought I knew what I was doing, since I was following the pattern that worked very well when starting my 90 gallon tank, but I guess still have much to learn.

Hello there I have a question in regarding it have you ever used the hydrogen peroxide I'm looking for some guidance I have ick in my tank and it's only 4 months old and I'm not near a bunch of resources like fish stores that have salt supplies

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I haven't. You might try doing a search on here for hydrogen peroxide. There's probably a discussion thread about it on here somewhere.