Here we go! TinCanHero's First SW build - 93 gal 30" x 30" x 24" (LxWxH) Cube :)

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.

Everything is going well, i did another WC tonight and ive scrubbed most of the GHA from the rockwork now.
A few things to note.

-- Mounted the new candycane to the rocks,
-- Moved alot of the new SPS up to the rack tonight, bunched up what was on there already and cleaned them.
-- found more bubble algae on those plugs :/
-- found a bunch of white, small sponges around the tank.
-- found more baby bristle worms.
-- aptasia is back, need to retreet.
-- nitrates are back under control - 5ppm
-- where the flow is strongest against the rock (from the return) its completely clean and has a quite a few of red and purple coraline growing

Ill leave you guys with a few top down pics

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update.

Nothing much to show right now. GHA is under control! minimal regrowth on the rocks, still some in the sump but i can live with that right now. Just need to deep clean the sand next WC.
Ive ordered a few new things this week, Salt, new foods and a few more snails and crabs.

Moving on to bigger things. It seems like this frag system is going to happen. Ive already started buying gear and making room - lol.
Today i saw a second hand advert for some reactors and the seller was in my town. So i headed over there this evening and was greeted with alot more gear than i thought. I ended up walking away with another reactor like the one i already have with spare pump, another reactor that looks much better for my sticking bio ball issue. a deltec sc 1456 skimmer with spare pump, a few other small bits and a milwaukee salinity checker. All of that for £200, not a bad haul Im also probably going to get a bunch of hannah checkers cheep too wednesday. The seller also had a Deltec PF501 cal reactor, the exact one ive been looking at but ive come to the conclusion i just don't need one yet.
Ive also been on the phone and have two custom made 2 x 4 x 1ft tanks priced up and ready to order. Next up will be draining my 6ft planted aquarium so i can take the supports out from under it to "steal" the 4ft sump and 10k LPH return pump and swap to two canister filters on that. Ill then look to plum the cube into the new sump and build a manifold for the 10k pump for the 4-5 returns (cube + 2 new tanks + fuge + 60L nem tank).
Last up im not sure if i mentioned this, but i have a predrilled 2ft tank im going to set up as a dedicated fuge and im also going to, maybe not right away but soon drill one of my 60L tanks and add that to the system for a BTA tank. I bloody love them and want more but i also do not want to stick any SPS colonies to the rock work while there in the DT..

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update

Few cool things have happened since the last update.

First of all, i tested all of that equipment, it all seems to be in working order

Next up i saw the chap i bought the stuff off again, he brought me in 3 Hannah testers (cal, KH (DKH) and KH (PPM)) cal regent kit unopened. a DND phone lense kit, 3 boxes of putty, glue, new nylos phosphate remover and a tub of aquascape soil along with some more 25L drums. - he asked for £30, i paid lol.

Next of all I saw a auction online for two corals, a green stylo and a green hystris. Not frags rather nice, 3-4" colonies. starting bid was a fiver each. i watched over a few days and no one had bid so right before it closed i bid a fiver on each. to my surprise i won both and received them yesterday. the hystrix had popped its bag and had a bunch broken off it but seemed mostly fine. I tanked both on the sand bed and when i got home they where looking okey. stylo was open and i think the hystrix was too (i can never tell with them). I moved the both colonies to a one of my green racks for the time being.

This leeds me on to other goodies. People who follow this thread (Your awesome if you do, say hello ) will know i have no room left on my racks, there all full. I ordered some egg crate from ebay the other day and it came the same day. I remembered seeing a video on youtube with someone using a magfloat cleaner as away of making a frag rack so that's what i did. I cut the egg crate to 20 x 5 slots and sanded and glued the magfloat to it, i used zipties aswell to begin with but after testing it on one of my dry tanks the magnet wasnt the best so i removed them. I tanked it last night and its working well.

I also received my CH order of salt, plugs and food. the food was defrosted but was packaged really well. salt is salt and the plugs i got where seachem ones. They felt weird in the package so i tore one open (i got two packs of 12) and they are this weird shape.. :/ anyway being that i had them and the hystrix broke into a bunch of bits i glued them all onto these plugs and ill see what survives.

While where talking about orders, my CHA order is on hold due to them being out of stock of crabs :/ could be a few weeks apparently. - i saw another cyphastera on there and couldn't resist either

All live stock is doing okey, i glued a few of the new zoas back down, the only bad thing to report is one of the new brown acros has half bleeched, it was open on the first day and had the most crazy big white polyps, almost like a gorgonian! that reminds me, there is one thats fallen that i need to get :/ only other thing to report is i need to clean the zoa rack and cyphastera rack, i moved the plating green monti from the zoa rack due to it growing so fast it was growing over the acros and zoas. One other thing to note, one of my stylos on the rack went into kill mode, it sent out sweepers on one side a good two inches, i turned the ****** around 180deg and they where still over that side by a cm or so (flow goes that way)

Those hannah checkers are pretty cool too, reported 9.6KH and 436 cal - lower than my salafert kit, cal shows 460~ and KH was closer to 10.

Last of all, without trying to write a wall of text for you guys i have one last update about the new system.

I cut a rectangle out of the back of the cubes stand right where the bulkheads are ready to re plumb it.
I also cleaned out the area behind the tank removed the old tiles ect, i placed some foam i got from deliveries on the floor and taped it down temp. I then drained all of the water from the 6fter and removed the braces with great difficulty and worry - lol. anyway i got the sump out this evening and moved it over to where it needs to go, it just needs cleaning now. I also need to test / decide what i want to do with these baffles in the new sump. Do i cut some out and redesign it or do i just use it as is? no idea until i test fit everything and give it more thought. im leaning to redesigning it but its a pain in the butt to cut the baffels out as i had to replace 2 when i got it..
Anyway, there is a 4-6w leed time for my tanks to get built so im thinking of ordering them this week? Got some plumbing parts and some wood to buy too. id really like to get "phase 1" done first and that's getting the cube running on the new sump and equipment. We will see

Anyway, if you read that wall you deserve some pics Got a WC to go tonight, so ill have some more pics soon

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update.

Not much has been going on since last time.

-- mounted those colonies on the rock, there doing great.
-- that new acro that bleached half way shed its skin and browned back up in 24h, it was weird.
-- made a new frag rack and moved everything from the other top rack over
-- got some 60mm frag disc's to mount some of my encrusting corals on (cyphastera and monti etc)
-- found a small white brittle star when moving the rack
-- i think my acan has started showing skeleton, will check when i move the cyphastera today or tomorrow.
-- GHA had a second spurt. I think i removed that much of it it allowed a neut excess and alowed it to grow abit again.
-- added a rowaphos reactor to the system to try and soak up the po4 before the algae can.
-- got a bunch of new foods (lobster eggs, copopods, rotifers, prawn, krill etc)
-- coraline is growing fast on the rocks where there is no GHA, red and pink


That's what i can remember for the second. I think there are a new others to mention but i cannot remember.

Next on to the new system upgrades. So ive been working on the new system quite a but since the last update.
I have the sump cleaned out and ready to go, i didnt remove any baffles in the end although i did add a filtersock box. I tried to get a local glass place to make the box out of glass but they couldn't cut the holes big enough so i used some acrylic i had laying about instead. Horrid stuff to work with, it melts rather than cuts or sands. i used a combo of a jigsaw and my dremel to cut two bits out with two holes in one to fit two socks. took a few nights to get right and a few nights to silicone in place but im quite happy with the end result - its rough as hell but it works

Ive also cleaned out most of the new equipment and figured out its placement. Ive also designed my new manifold system and ordered all the plumbing parts needed (Should be here tomorrow)
Last of all ive also plumped up the new fuge tank ready to add that in, im going to make a small stand in the next few days to have it next to the sump.

So yeah, Phase 1 is well on the way to being done. All parts have been ordered and everything is almost ready to go. the plan over the next week is to get all of the plumbing ready on the new sump when it arives, get the manifold mounted and ready and also get the new power board ready to be mounted when im ready to go wet ill have all of the plumbing parts ready to be swapped, fill two 100L drums (one for the sump and one for the DT) drain the old sump and remove it cut and swap the plumbing and then hook it up to the new system and then do a 100L WC on the DT before turning the new system on, then i need to move all of the electronics over to the new sump. -- its going to be alot of work but im really excited to reap the rewards! the sump with be much easier to clean and maintain along with having better reactors, skimmer and a much better mechanical filtration system, all of this along with having more water (about 20-25% more)

its exciting stuff!

So all in all where doing okey. Apparently the GHA is still hanging in there but we are making progress. I hope i can say by the end of November i have a GHA "free" tank so i can start mounting some corals.. at last!

Ill leave this as a wall of text today, just realized i left my phone in work :/ ill post a bunch of pics in the next update.. hopefully that will be before the new system goes live

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, I made a post but time got late so i never posted it ( didn't have time to upload pics again).
Anyway, ill post it here now along with another update with pictures

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update.



A few things to note, first off, i may have ordered some more fish! I sorta kinda didn't mean to, it just happened. I ordered a Yellow tang, a randles goby + tiger shrimp and a lawnmower blenny.

The tang ive wanted for a long time along with a shrimp and goby pair, the lawnmower came as a impulse buy to get reduced shipping, he was basically free. The only other fish i intend to add is a mandarin once the tank is more mature - i guess that's a maybe now.



Next up the tank is looking pretty good, ive been cleaning more regularly and ive knocked the GHA back again hard, just got some on the frags atm. the rocks are looking fairly clean! Everything is doing okey, no real issues i can think of. Coraline is starting to populate the overflow and is growing well on clean parts of the rockwork.



Last of all, new system is moving along nice, got my plumbing bits. I made my manifold yesterday and just need to mount it to the wall and run the return line around to the back of the tank, im pretty much ready to go i think bar that. I also added a weir to the sump, all equipment is ready to rock just waiting on 200L of RODI so i can move the system over. I have to admit im really scared about the swap over, id hate for something to go wrong mid swap!



Anyway, i came to post some awful pics more than anything so enough talk

-- they never came

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another update. Hopefully one with pictures and that might actually get posted - lol


So whats been going on? Well the new system is up and running. What a load of fun thats been - not.

I made the manifold, mounted it, got most of the new plumbing in place and equipment. I only had 100L of water to go as i had not cleaned the dirty one out intime. I started early and began the transition. It took alot longer than expected, i bought some new pipe cutters hoping that it would make a easy job of cutting the pipes, unfortunately the wall thickness was to much. Lucky i only had to cut one of the lines, for the other two one was at the right length (the Eoverflow) and the return i just removed the flexy pipe and used a new bit of 25mm flexy i had pre bent over 48h to prevent kinking. The one i had to cut was the main overflow with the gate valve. I had to cut it as high to the bulkhead as i could to remove a few inches of pipe above the gatevalve due to the fact there was a pre existing joiner below the gate so i couldn't cut it there as was needed. This then allowed me to move the gate valve up just enough to be able to cut beneath the joiner below the valve to add a 90 bend in. Dosent sound to bad right, except i had to make a new cut in the stand to get a junior hacksaw blade through to cut it by hand.. it sucked, took over a hour and ruined the skin on my hand but it had to be done since i started. stupid idea, you couldn't pay me to do it again... This also caused my bulkhead to leak again (this was the dodgy one). Anyway with the pipe cut i plumbed everything into the new manifold, and stated to fill the sump. Well what you know, 110L is not enough and im left with a 90% filled sump. so i scramble for more RODI and finally around midnight i have just enough to run my return pump. Next up the manifold is leaking so i have to patch that up. I get it down to a drip before im falling asleep, its like 3am at this point. Anyway, Temp is way down after that day and takes most of the night to fix. Next morning my return is pulling air ive lost that much water, not that it was full. I have enough RODI to top it up and i work to fix the rest of the leaks through the day including the bulkhead, again.... I also bring all of the reactors over and the PH probe. I also cleaned my macro algae in the sump and moved that over. I haven't done to much since then, i need a break, lol.

Anyway, new system is online, few things to note.
-- still haven't fixed all the leaks, one pinleak left.
-- Skimmer is great but hard to tune
-- Haven't been running a ATO for the week since i couldn't believe it was using that much water, apparently it is.
-- had to add another 300W heater and a 150w? for a total of 750W.. its Fing killing me on power, like £8 a day to run the system :/
-- leaking ballvale, cant fix but is working leak free fully open.
-- old sump still under tank with a little water in, will be emptying and cleaning this week when i get time.
-- no lights over new sump yet
-- all power stuff still the cube's stand, need to move soon.
-- UV is not plumbed in atm
-- ATO still not plumbed in but im just about to go do it after i post this.
-- new fuge tank ready to go after being cleaned and resealed. not plumbed in yet


Anyway. Moving on, to a few other things to note. Fish arrived today. Not great news, the Lawnmower didn't arive due to stock issues, the goby was DOA the shrimp wasn't moving but turned out to be alive after heating back up and the tang was fully white on its side at the bottom of the bag not moving. I tanked all 3 bags and left them float for 20m, goby was DOA tang came around as well as the shrimp. I did a quick 10m acclimatization due to the ammonia from shipping and tanked them. This time i made sure to get the shrimp onto the sand right next to the rocks and i watched him carefully. he stayed put for 5m before moving onto the rock next to him and around the corner in one of the small gaps. where he stayed for a few mins before starting to dig a new home for himself under the rock I have a feeling i know what happened to the last one... My regal tang was trying his best to get between the rocks to eat this little guy! lucky he couldnt quite fit well enough to maneuver easy and the shrimp had dug a burrow large enough to escape down by this point. As for the yellow tang, it colored up pretty quick when it was tanked, and has been swimming around quite nicely with no aggression being shown towards it or by it so far. However im a little concerned about its health. I haven't been able to see it up close because every time i get within 5ft of the tank it moves out of sight, but what i have seen looks like fin rot on the dorsal, i see some of the bone showing through on the front few, i think there is something wrong with one side of its face also but im not sure yet.

Few things to finish off, all fish (old fish) are doing great! my regal has even started to eat some GHA for me - hes such a fat monster, loves his food infact all fish are fat and healthy with great colours.
the coral is doing great too for the most part. those new colonies i got have done great, the Hystrix has healed and is growing already, along with the 20 odd frags i have, all healed bar 1 and all are growing - fast. Only thing to note is the GHA is plaguing one of the new racks. The only bad things to say is my kenya tree colony is looking like utter crap for some reason along with my elegance looking not so great. (may have the answer below)
As for the tank, The GHA is getting much better, more of the tank is clean and its growing less. still not perfect but much better.

Last of all, a few ****ups, i think. First, ive only ever dosed KH into the tank Redsea B to be exact, this kept my KH around 10 pretty stable, never really tested cal from the start due to it always showing the same. Anyway **** up 1 comes because as i now understand it redea A + B should be dosed the same? I tested my cal and it was down in the 420's i guess my WC's aint cutting it now. So the plan was to do some testing over a week or two and get my trends and get it right this time. Anyway i went to look at my doing pump and like a idiot i had forgotten to add the line and holder back to the sump after fishing one of my clowns out of there - agian. this was easily a week or more ago. anyway im going to leave it off and test every day for the next week and see where we are.


Enough of my talk - im half asleep to be honest with you and it probably isnt a great read. Here are some lowsy pictures to go with it

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

few last things i remembered after looking at pics
--my candicane now has 12? heads from 4
-- i found a small starfish under one of the rocks when cleaning, the pest type. i left it alone since in small mumbers im cool with them.
-- found a small white brittlestar
-- found pineapple sponges - plenty of them
-- found more small worms
-- found amphipods
-- GSP is growing onto the glass nicely now.
-- Frozen food i got came moldy! :/
-- found this weird froresent green tiny thing on my sandbed, no idea what it is, about 50% the size of a uk 5p
-- mounted a few of my cyphasteras and a monti onto large grow out disks.. ****** the cyp's up and will have to remount.

im sure im forgetting alot of intresting stuff but there we go..

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a small update.

Things are looking better coral wise, i guess the KH drop freaked everything out. Im still measuring with no dosing to work out what i need to do. my PH also came up .1 even thou i closed the window.

Found some more aptasia on my large candycane. it looks like its stopped two heads fully forming. ill have to treat it along with 1 other i know of on a zoa colony.

my elegance has looked pretty good today, i decided to try and feed it again. this time it closed right up around the food and i think its ate it all for the first time ever!! usually 99% of the food falls off due to the mouth placement. I guess they wernt kidding when they said they kill snails too. my elegance has nuked like 5 now. i think its had my nassarius snail as its been ontop of the sand bed the last 2 days acting odd not far from it...

Some sad news, im guessing my blue tang went on a bit of a rampage since my hammer had been nocked off the rock and was face down in the sand. my monti digi was also nocked over but not off the rock. this is the first time this has happened, usually he behaves, i guess its to do with the new yellow tang? who knows. Anyway the poor hammer has been torn and looked like crap when i picked it up, over the last day its opened around 20%, i think there is damage in the center part :/

the yellow tang. Its colored up more since ive tanked it and its been eating mysis, ive added nori but it wasn't eating it while i was around. ive seen it greasing on the rocks but its more concerned with hiding still. ive seen it be social and everyone seems to be nice to it and it to them from what ive seen. its fin was/is torn at the top and its really underweight. its not in the best of conditions but seems to be doing ok, although it wont come to the same side of the tank im on, yet.

Last of all GHA is being a pain in the butt still.. still a haze on the rocks and some on the sand. the real problem is the frag racks, its a bloody nightmare up there again. ill clean them all by hand and the racks this weekend along with the rock. Im starting to get sick of it tbh, i wont give up but its been bloody months...

Not many pics, just a few

kind regards,
TinCanHero.

--hermit ticking off one of the BTA's

Bottom left aptasia

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Back for another update.

So its been a good few weeks since the last update, so what's been going on? Well not much in the way of positive news. Well, I guess there is some.

First up, All fish are doing great! The yellow tang has settled in nicely, fully coloured up and is looking great along with getting on with everyone. I did notice some fin taring yesterday for the first time. I'm a little concerned about it, I'm hoping it is from when I got it and I haven't noticed until now. I'll monitor it closely.

Next up GHA. I can safely say that it is in my rearview mirror now. I still have some on the frag racks and a little here and there but for the most part it's gone and staying that way My tags are both grazing the rocks and overflow through the day too. few more weeks and I might be able to say its 100% gone

Next up is pests. I seem to be finding Aptasia's around the tank here and there I'm treating them with red seas Ap-x and for the most part, it's doing the trick. there is one I cannot get in my large candy cane, a bit too awkward and it hides away most of the time.
I've also found a bunch of bubble algae on the high flow return part of the rockwork, it's all small but quite a bit. ill remove on the next WC.

New things - Not much to report here, I've had a bunch of hammers delivered along with a few monty caps and two new cyphastrea ) I had 5 hammers in total, I got all but one from WYSIWYG - a blue, pink, white/gold a green and a bi green and white/pink/ what I actually got was 3 pink and two green/white bi colours :/ can't say I'm too happy. I've had them on the sand bed over the last week or so adding one at a time every day so they can open again for placement. My original hammer also healed up really well and is back to normal. I also popped into an "LFS" on the way back from shopping away today and saw a small green and purple hammer to add to the collection. I now have 5 mounted on the rock and 2 (pinks) on the racks to trade-off maybe.
I've also got another order on hold with my go-to company - nothing too exciting just zoas mostly. I am really close to buying another elegance and trying to sell/trade my one in, its two derpy for my likeing.

Coral - For the most part things are looking good, Nothing is growing thou (ill get to that). Like i said, the most part. Ive been having stability issues again. My Kenya tree seems to be the canary in my tank, then my elegance. the large kenya tree has been looking aweful for a few weeks, it may be past the point of return although ive seen it this bad before. Its starting to take effect on other corals thou, my montys to be exact. all plating monties are bleaching out slowly. my diggi doesn't look so great either. Another coral that is looking really bad is my large candy cane. it hasn't extended in a few days and it's looking really closed up. unbelievable how much its grown thou! my other large frag of an acro / monti is not looking good either

Problems - Dam KH. Since I've upgraded my tank I've had a few things to deal with on the KH side. I had it dialled in pretty good with the old sump, but with the extra water volume, it seems like I need more. That along with the fact I left it off for a week or more than replaced it only for it to block up without me noticing. That with my "laziness" hasn't been so great.
-No excuses really, I know what I need to be doing. testing at least once a day or twice if poss and dialling it in. Ive just been having a rough time lately and it seems my tank has suffered due to it.
Another problem is my ATO. my 5Gal salt bucket is just too small, i have to fill it every two days tops and its just annoying. im looking into getting a 50L container to solve this, a week is much more reasonable.

All in all, better but not great, KH is a real issue. Stability is what I want! Man, I wish I could get a Neptune systems Trident here in the UK

Kind regards & Happy reefing, TinCanHero.
-- As always ill see what my phone has in the way of pictures to offer you lovely people
-- turns out my phone is dead.. ill post some pics tomorrow

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update... With photos this time!

Well, what can I say, the tank probably looks it's best and worst its ever at the same time.
How so? Well, the tank is looking great GHA wise since I havent cleaned anything in ages, crystal clear water and everything is running smooth.
On the downside, the coral is looking awful. I'm going to assume its because of my KH issue, KH was right down at the low 7's high 6's DKH as I said last time. after sorting my dosing pump out again and doing a WC its back up in the mid 8's but a lot of coral took a huge hit! all my Montipora looks like crap, my plating ones are bleaching out. My candy cane, kenya tree, duncan, pavona, some cyphastera, nems, acros and elegance have all been hit hard with some looking worse than others, even some coraline looks bleached. Some have bounced back slightly since the KH has been upped, but all in all, nothing looks happy.

What else is new? well, I ended up swapping 2 of the pink hammers and my elegance out for another elegance. I much prefer the look of this one. I can't say it was a smart idea to do right now as it's not looking great in my tank atm. Also, unfortunately, I also found my pistol shrimp dead out in the middle of the tank :/

I also have a candycane frag on the way tomorrow. The rest of the coral I have on order is on hold for now.

Anyway, another WC to do tonight. Hopefully, things will improve this week. Id love any advice you have.

Heres some pics from the last few weeks.

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another update.

So what's new? Well, I feel like I've stopped or at least stemmed the bleeding on the coral front.
Things were looking pretty bleak the last update and I honestly was quite worried!
The tank is a little more stable now, KH is back up and isnt swinging as much. Another WC due tomorrow, hopefully that will only help too.

My monties have bounced back, or rather most of the coral has. I mention the monties because I feel its an example of how coral can acclimatize to parameter swings to a degree. The 3 plating monties, digi's and encrusting monti have all coloured back up pretty well, while the two plating monties I had at the start of this swing have not.

For the most part, the coral is looking much, much better. there are a few bits that are perm damaged and some that are still showing bleaching but its alot better. The only thing I'm still concerned about is the elegance I swapped out the other week. its been declining in my tank since ive had it and the tentacles are retracted and looking awful with mucus on some. last night it was closed up tight and starting to show its rim, I thought it was for sure going to die in the next 24-48h. Today however it seems to have opened up its body fully and looks good apart from its tentacles. they are still closed up and some have mucus. Hopefully, there is still hope.

I'm still struggling to get stability in my tank.

I've also observed an odd thing for the last few months. My tank always looks great for the first 6-8h of the day, but as it comes within 4-5h of lights off things like my candy canes Kenya tree and nems close up as they would when they're ticked. at first, I just thought it was to do with night coming but it's for sure a param problem. I'm wondering if I'm losing a lot of KH during the day as I dose on a 24h cycle spaced out evenly. maybe I need to adjust to dose more during the day rather than the night too.

Last but not least i had that new candy cane delivered. unfortunately, the postage was crap and it didn't arrive until almost 6pm.. the poor guy was closed up tight and showing bone.. almost a week later and it is puffed up for the first time today Rest of coral is still on hold.


Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another small update.
DKH was only swinging 0.1 DKH through the day + night, better than I expected tbh.

Elegance coral is looking awful thou. Closed up again today and this morning it had a mucus webbing all over it.. :/

Not sure what can be done at this point

Kind regards, TinCanHero

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for another small update.

The elegance was looking just as bad last night and this morning so i decided to follow the advice given to me here. I was linked to this article about FW dipping. I followed the advice given and over the course of the day, the elegance was covered in this white mucus. ive just removed as much as i can with my turkey baster. I guess time will tell.

I also found some more of those weird neon green things I've mentioned before. ill make a post and see if anyone can identify for me.

Kind regards, TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Another small update on the Ele.
29h after the FW dip its looking much better. No mucus. Its closed for the most part but is sowing good colour. tenticles are all retracted or melted for the most part, hard to tell.

all in all its looking much better. Hopefully the FW dip has done the trick

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, back for a check in. Its been a while, sorry about that!

I just came to say Happy birthday to my tank! she is 1 year old today )

Kind regards, TincanHero.

 

[Pudge&Bubbl]

Another small update on the Ele.
29h after the FW dip its looking much better. No mucus. Its closed for the most part but is sowing good colour. tenticles are all retracted or melted for the most part, hard to tell.

all in all its looking much better. Hopefully the FW dip has done the trick

Kind regards,
TinCanHero.

How is the elegance doing after all that?

 

[TinCanHero]

How is the elegance doing after all that?

Hey! sorry I've not been around!
The elegance, unfortunately, died in the end, I think the treatment worked however my tank wasnt doing great at the time so I feel that had the greatest impact in its death

Kind regards, Tincan.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, I'm back for a long, long overdue update!

I'm still here, and the reef is still alive and going! I've had my ups and downs, mostly downs if I'm honest.

Where do I start!? I was just reading some of the last posts I made and that seems like a lifetime ago!!

The tank hit its 1 year birthday and was looking alright, definitely not as good as I would have liked but it was better than it could have been. Looking back I think the tank only just matured at that point.

Since then what has happened? Well, I've not had an algae issue since my yellow tang has taught my regal to graze and they go around all day looking for algae although there is none to be seen. There is plenty of life and coralline algae on my rocks now also.

I guess ill start with livestock, all fish bar one are doing great and are healthy and have grown, unfortunately, one of my clownfish managed to jump out of the tank somehow again, maybe my net wasn't on correctly since it is a bad fit anyway but the gap would have still been about 10mm or 1/3". There have been no new additions to the tank in terms of fish. My inverts are also all doing good, my blue leg hermits are pretty huge now, I need new shells for some of the smaller ones. (i think there is 3 in total) My cleaner shrimp is also doing well, he has short whiskers, I think due to my powerheads but is happy spending his time under my nems.

On to coral.. a mixed bag here, a lot of deaths and most things are not doing well (ill explain below). A lot of my cyphastera is dead, along with my acan, flav and a bunch of SPS / LPS. a few things have done well, some tiny acro frags of all things have gown well along with my mushrooms and zoas.

So whats happened? Well, a few things i guess. It started when my nems decided to all go for a walk, it was due to tank params being off (my fault) they walked over pretty much everything that was glued down, most things didn't care but if the nem stopped next door then it was goodnight. my hystrix got stung, even know I caught it within a few hours of touching it didn't make it. one nem walked over one of my frag racks and finished off my cyphastera and flav.. it was mayhem!
I tried to remove some of them but I didn't have any luck at the time and thought id just rip them if I continued so I left them.. and the tank really. For the next 3? months I just did WC's every 2-3 weeks and fed, that was it. no cleaning of the glass, no maintenance or testing, I just left the tank to it. Obviously things went downhill. coral wasn't happy one bit, everything stopped growing bar the things I said above and it all just sat there. I lost a few more SPS frags but nothing major like a crash although I must have been close.
If I'm honest I just got really depressed with the whole situation, like every new reefer i just wanted a well-grown in-tank looking nice. I knew and know that it's not easy, hell its why i chose it (ive done many years of FW and im a horticulturist so it's natural for me) but after seeing the nems give a good kicking to everything (i have 7? now) i was pretty deflated. Having a busy life any way i kinda just put the tank on the back burner.
Anyway, Covid hit and things got worse with time for me, i was working - and still am - stupid hours so yeah.. things haven't gone to plan! But ive reset the determination to get things back on track!

Current problems:
Net cover is awful, bad fit and sags into the water so it builds up the matter, stops surface skimming and shades the tank. also can see the metal and coating has degraded over time because its touching the water, this must add aluminum at the least to the water column.
- solution: Contact a local joiner to make me a custom wood net cover soon.

Frag racks are a pain, they shade the tank and restrict the room. they also make the tank unenjoyable to view.
- Solution: get a frag tank setup (more below!)

tank lighting isn't spread enough, par is low and corals stretch for the light (like Zoa's)
- solution: upgrade to a hydra 64 and use the 26 on the frag tank.

water params suck
- solution: well I wouldn't know they suck because I haven't been testing like an idiot. Test and be strict about doing it. Also I've sent an ICP test off to Triton to give me a good look at where i am.

no refugeium
- solution: well I may not need one (again if I tested more..) but id like one anyway, even if that means no skimmer (although thats unlikely). im going to get a reflector shade soon as i can and set the light back up over the new sump (yeah, ain't done that either) and order some more macro algae as all of mine died (as expected)

ATO container is too small
- solution: order a bigger one. I have ordered a 60L drum (3x the size of my current) but it been almost a month and it hasnt shown up yet. to be expected with the current situation I guess.

RO filters must need changing
- Solution, change them..

I guess to finish up ill talk about some equipment.
Ive had the same filter socks in the tank for months and months, they are clogged to hell and will be removed today ( I keep forgetting). I havent run carbon or GFO since my LPS issue of my tank being to clean, probably should be running carbon atm due to my concern with water quality but i need to order some more. my bio pelit reactor has been running since day one and is doing great.
the skimmer is also still running great, what a difference over my old curve5 ! I still have the large return pump working on the manifold, it turned out great although I wish I purchased some new ball vales as my old comer ones leak when half-open. also still have the 3 wave makers, there due for a clean as they dont push much water atm.
My ATO broke for the 3rd? time, I contacted D-D and they sent me a replacement powerpack (same fault each time). My electronics have been all scattered on cords until recently, I started to build a dedicated power station with cable routing, etc but it's on hold for the moment because my Apex decided to shock me (the power pack) when I touched the case, seems there is a live short to the case. ive contacted support and they have given me an RMA, I just need to source a heater controller for now so I can send it back. ive also replumbed my UV back in with the new frag system, its been offline since the sump upgrade so that will be nice.

Last of all, ive made a new frag system from an old glass hamster? a cage that had a hole drilled in the side with a ventilation grid attached. its 2ft x I removed all of the glass triangles from inside and resealed it, added a bulk head and plumbed it into the manifold and sump. There is no overflow in the tank, just a simple downpipe for now, I may upgrade to a Herbie or something soon. I filled the tank a few days ago and my coral liked the new water volume, however, ive ran into a few issues. first of all, I forgot my ball vales leak half-open so I need to order a replacement, ive been running it on full for a few days but I don't like not having control over the flow as there is no gate valve on the return for control. the second issue was the tank wasnt level, I think is shifted an inch or so one way on the stand and that pinched the foam and caused it to drop 10mm or so one side. the last issue was the tank itself, I was looking down the tank lengthways and realized it was bowing out a lot in the middle, the glass is 6mm I think, I didn't think it would be a problem but I don't like a bow of that magnitude so I'm going to shorten the downpipe in the system to reduce the water volume. bracing is always an option if needed I guess.


Im sure there is a lot more to talk about and update you guys on, feel free to ask questions, etc. Sorry its been a while!


One last thing before I go, it would be nice to get to know some of you guys out there. In my life, I have no one to share and talk about my hobby with and I feel that restricts the enjoyment. it would be nice to have a buddy I could talk to about my problems, successes, and just plain day to day reefing stuff. I think that's half of the reason the tank went on the back burner and this thread went cold, i love updating you guys but I didn't get much feedback

--I've added some photos but my camera isn't too great atm as I've crashed the lack lense. seems my coral was looking particulary unhappy today.

Kind regards & happy reefing.
-TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, I'm back for a long, long overdue update!

I'm still here, and the reef is still alive and going! I've had my ups and downs, mostly downs if I'm honest.

Where do I start!? I was just reading some of the last posts I made and that seems like a lifetime ago!!

The tank hit its 1 year birthday and was looking alright, definitely not as good as I would have liked but it was better than it could have been. Looking back I think the tank only just matured at that point.

Since then what has happened? Well, I've not had an algae issue since my yellow tang has taught my regal to graze and they go around all day looking for algae although there is none to be seen. There is plenty of life and coralline algae on my rocks now also.

I guess ill start with livestock, all fish bar one are doing great and are healthy and have grown, unfortunately, one of my clownfish managed to jump out of the tank somehow again, maybe my net wasn't on correctly since it is a bad fit anyway but the gap would have still been about 10mm or 1/3". There have been no new additions to the tank in terms of fish. My inverts are also all doing good, my blue leg hermits are pretty huge now, I need new shells for some of the smaller ones. (i think there is 3 in total) My cleaner shrimp is also doing well, he has short whiskers, I think due to my powerheads but is happy spending his time under my nems.

On to coral.. a mixed bag here, a lot of deaths and most things are not doing well (ill explain below). A lot of my cyphastera is dead, along with my acan, flav and a bunch of SPS / LPS. a few things have done well, some tiny acro frags of all things have gown well along with my mushrooms and zoas.

So whats happened? Well, a few things i guess. It started when my nems decided to all go for a walk, it was due to tank params being off (my fault) they walked over pretty much everything that was glued down, most things didn't care but if the nem stopped next door then it was goodnight. my hystrix got stung, even know I caught it within a few hours of touching it didn't make it. one nem walked over one of my frag racks and finished off my cyphastera and flav.. it was mayhem!
I tried to remove some of them but I didn't have any luck at the time and thought id just rip them if I continued so I left them.. and the tank really. For the next 3? months I just did WC's every 2-3 weeks and fed, that was it. no cleaning of the glass, no maintenance or testing, I just left the tank to it. Obviously things went downhill. coral wasn't happy one bit, everything stopped growing bar the things I said above and it all just sat there. I lost a few more SPS frags but nothing major like a crash although I must have been close.
If I'm honest I just got really depressed with the whole situation, like every new reefer i just wanted a well-grown in-tank looking nice. I knew and know that it's not easy, hell its why i chose it (ive done many years of FW and im a horticulturist so it's natural for me) but after seeing the nems give a good kicking to everything (i have 7? now) i was pretty deflated. Having a busy life any way i kinda just put the tank on the back burner.
Anyway, Covid hit and things got worse with time for me, i was working - and still am - stupid hours so yeah.. things haven't gone to plan! But ive reset the determination to get things back on track!

Current problems:
Net cover is awful, bad fit and sags into the water so it builds up the matter, stops surface skimming and shades the tank. also can see the metal and coating has degraded over time because its touching the water, this must add aluminum at the least to the water column.
- solution: Contact a local joiner to make me a custom wood net cover soon.

Frag racks are a pain, they shade the tank and restrict the room. they also make the tank unenjoyable to view.
- Solution: get a frag tank setup (more below!)

tank lighting isn't spread enough, par is low and corals stretch for the light (like Zoa's)
- solution: upgrade to a hydra 64 and use the 26 on the frag tank.

water params suck
- solution: well I wouldn't know they suck because I haven't been testing like an idiot. Test and be strict about doing it. Also I've sent an ICP test off to Triton to give me a good look at where i am.

no refugeium
- solution: well I may not need one (again if I tested more..) but id like one anyway, even if that means no skimmer (although thats unlikely). im going to get a reflector shade soon as i can and set the light back up over the new sump (yeah, ain't done that either) and order some more macro algae as all of mine died (as expected)

ATO container is too small
- solution: order a bigger one. I have ordered a 60L drum (3x the size of my current) but it been almost a month and it hasnt shown up yet. to be expected with the current situation I guess.

RO filters must need changing
- Solution, change them..

I guess to finish up ill talk about some equipment.
Ive had the same filter socks in the tank for months and months, they are clogged to hell and will be removed today ( I keep forgetting). I havent run carbon or GFO since my LPS issue of my tank being to clean, probably should be running carbon atm due to my concern with water quality but i need to order some more. my bio pelit reactor has been running since day one and is doing great.
the skimmer is also still running great, what a difference over my old curve5 ! I still have the large return pump working on the manifold, it turned out great although I wish I purchased some new ball vales as my old comer ones leak when half-open. also still have the 3 wave makers, there due for a clean as they dont push much water atm.
My ATO broke for the 3rd? time, I contacted D-D and they sent me a replacement powerpack (same fault each time). My electronics have been all scattered on cords until recently, I started to build a dedicated power station with cable routing, etc but it's on hold for the moment because my Apex decided to shock me (the power pack) when I touched the case, seems there is a live short to the case. ive contacted support and they have given me an RMA, I just need to source a heater controller for now so I can send it back. ive also replumbed my UV back in with the new frag system, its been offline since the sump upgrade so that will be nice.

Last of all, ive made a new frag system from an old glass hamster? a cage that had a hole drilled in the side with a ventilation grid attached. its 2ft x I removed all of the glass triangles from inside and resealed it, added a bulk head and plumbed it into the manifold and sump. There is no overflow in the tank, just a simple downpipe for now, I may upgrade to a Herbie or something soon. I filled the tank a few days ago and my coral liked the new water volume, however, ive ran into a few issues. first of all, I forgot my ball vales leak half-open so I need to order a replacement, ive been running it on full for a few days but I don't like not having control over the flow as there is no gate valve on the return for control. the second issue was the tank wasnt level, I think is shifted an inch or so one way on the stand and that pinched the foam and caused it to drop 10mm or so one side. the last issue was the tank itself, I was looking down the tank lengthways and realized it was bowing out a lot in the middle, the glass is 6mm I think, I didn't think it would be a problem but I don't like a bow of that magnitude so I'm going to shorten the downpipe in the system to reduce the water volume. bracing is always an option if needed I guess.


Im sure there is a lot more to talk about and update you guys on, feel free to ask questions, etc. Sorry its been a while!


One last thing before I go, it would be nice to get to know some of you guys out there. In my life, I have no one to share and talk about my hobby with and I feel that restricts the enjoyment. it would be nice to have a buddy I could talk to about my problems, successes, and just plain day to day reefing stuff. I think that's half of the reason the tank went on the back burner and this thread went cold, i love updating you guys but I didn't get much feedback

--I've added some photos but my camera isn't too great atm as I've crashed the lack lense. seems my coral was looking particulary unhappy today.

Kind regards & happy reefing.
-TinCanHero.

 

[TinCanHero]

Hey guys, Thought id check in again today with the spirit of regular updates.

Today is another cleaning day. I've been cleaning my powerheads since last night, I thought id post the process I take to get them looking new again.

first of all, I remove the powerheads from the tank and turn them off. I then take a 2L bottle and chop the top off (I keep 2 around with the tops removed for this) and fill it around halfway with tap water. I then take a bottle of 9% hydrogen peroxide and add that to the bottle also this fills it to around 3/4 full. I then take my powerheads (2 can fit at once) and submerge them in the bottle out of the way so it doesn't get nocked. I wait around 6h or overnight for this first step. I then remove the powerheads and give them a quick scrub with a toothbrush to get the loose stuff off, nothing major at this point. I then take distilled white vinegar and fill the second bottle to half - 3/4 way full and place them in this second bath again around 6h. Once this has been complete I take a bucket and add some water to it (around 1/4) and I take some bicarb of soda and add a few spoon fulls to the water. I then remove the Powerheads from the vinegar and place them into the bucket and proceed to disassemble them. I then give them a quick brushing with the toothbrush to remove what's left, wipe them down and reassemble. at this point, you could rinse them in RODI but I just place them back into the tank as there mostly dry at that point.

I find this method really easy, there is no need for scrubbing or picking at coralline to remove it and any pest algae like bubble algae will be totally removed by the h2o2 and won't be spread around the tank when you put the pumps back in.

two have been fully cleaned, I'm just waiting on the last one in the acid bath. both are spotless and are working great, if anything ill need to turn them down now!

I use the same process with my net cover except I only use the h2o2. I've taken that up to the bath and I've added the old h2o2 to a spray bottle and have applied it. I think it looses its effectiveness when used once already but it's worth using it up before I dispose of it.

Kind regards, TinCanHero.