New&no clue
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How is this tank going? Any updates to share?
Low Bookshelf/Entertainment Center 180g SPS Build
- Large Build
- Thread starter clownfish4
- Start date
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clownfish4
Community Member
May to August were rough. My cleaner shrimp let go of a rock, got sucked into the gyre, and died. I thought my fire shrimp didn't survive because I didn't see it for over a month, then when I was feeding one day I found where it has been hiding. It is still alive and going strong. All of my anthias have died. After the first one disappeared it was like clock work. Every 5-7 days or so I would see one less until they were all gone. My tank has been overridden with cyano and hair algae and my phosphate and nitrates spiked like crazy, even with changing my filter socks every day and cutting back to twice a day feedings with a quarter cube at each feeding and 1/4 sheet nori every other day.
(Yellow is phosphate on left axis, pink is nitrate on right axis)
That's all the bad news, but there's some good news this month. I finally have things stable, nitrate is 0-5 and phosphate is 0, and the algae is visibly dying off. Every weekend I stir the sand and scrub the rocks and the bare rock that is now exposed is remaining so week over week without regrowth (second pic below).
I got tired of replacing socks every day and washing them so I bought a large Bubble Magus roller. To my surprise it does not cause any noticeable smell and it is highly effective. The first roll lasted 2.5 months, but that included a lot of algae removal and some unnecessary turns as I was dialing it in. The only complaint I have is that replacing the roll is a major PITA. You have to remove the unit from the sump to ensure it reseals and the cardboard dissolves in the humid environment and I had to unroll the entire dirty roll to get the spindle out. I'm working on ways to prevent having to do that again.
I also added a DIY ATS which I attribute the majority of the recent success to.
The primary thing I am focused on now is an automated frozen feeder. Once I finish it should let the tank sustain for 2 weeks without needing anything. After that I need to work on an automated nori feeder.
My powder blue and yellow tang are super healthy and going strong. I swear the powder blue is 3/4" thick. The clowns are also still going strong and more than doubled in size with clear sexing. They wouldn't host in the fake anemone and won't host in the flower pot. They currently spend the majority of their time hosting the hair algae on the back wall.
I placed an order with Dr. Reef in September for the livestock below and expect it to ship sometime in the next 2-4 weeks or so. My pod population is exploding and my cerith and nassarius snails are thriving. The trochus snails didn't seem to do well. Once I get the algae gone I'll move onto coral.
- 2 fighting conchs
- 10 turbo snails
- diamond goby
- royal gramma
- carpenter wrasse
- mccosker's wrasse
- fine spotted fairy wrasse
- kato's fairy wrasse
New&no clue
2500 Club Member
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Wow, you’ve had an eventful spring/summer with this tank. Something similar happened with my Anthias in my holding system while the new one got up and going. It was almost a domino effect with one right after the other. I did try again, and so far, so good I’ve had no issues. I’m glad the roller filter is working out for you. I like mine as well. It took some time to tune it with the sump levels, but now it is going strong. I would say the thing that smells the worst in my system is the skimmer cup. If I don’t empty that regularly it stinks up the basement. Your new stock list looks awesome, and I love diamond gobies. They do a great job keeping that sand nice and clean. I hope to see more updates from you; I feel our tanks are on similar journeys, and it’s always good to see others’ experiences.
clownfish4
Community Member
I’ll certainly update more proactively now that I’m out of the downward spiral, though I’m mostly in a stable point now with little change
. You have lyretails right? Did you get the second batch from TSM as well? How long have you had the second batch and was anything different this time? Definitely glad to hear you’re having success with them. I agree on the skimmer, though when mine isn’t being a pain and the foam stay inside the cup I barely notice it. I’m hoping the diamond goby and conchs will keep my sand nice and clean and the turbos will take care of the remaining algae on the rocks. I don’t need them to eat it, just get it detached and into the roller. I don’t think I’ll try anthias again, but I am still debating on a regal angel, flame angel, and copper band butterfly. I really want at least the flame for the red, but don’t want to risk my future acros and clams. I kind of wish I had gotten another gramma, but after the current order all I have left on my list is a mandarin.
New&no clue
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Long story short, my problem was I had confirmation my tank would be delivered end of March, so I scheduled to have the anthias delivered end of April. Unfourtently the tank didn't arrive until the middle of June. I asked TSM to hold the anthias for as long as possible, but they came at the start of May. I had started to cycle my rocks for the tank in an old 55 gallon, so I put the anthias in there, hoping they would be okay for a month. But I think it was too small an area for that many. I waited until my new tank was installed and fully cycled, then tried again. This batch I've had for three months. So far, so good, but obviously too early to be considered a success story.
clownfish4
Community Member
Small update with a series of new problems
1. A couple of days ago I heard a loud noise coming from the tank. Turns out it was coming from one of the Coralvue 4ks. I turned it off and cleaned it, but of course it kept erroring and I had to leave the cages barely attached so the shafts would spin. After that, the pump is now stuck in one direction. Whether I invert the rotation or not, it will only spin one direction, and of course the direction is the reverse of what it should be. Little over a year old, but these things are garbage. Cheap, but garbage. I've been debating a long time between getting Vortech or Tunze pumps. Since Tunze recently announced their controller is going to be expanded to the cloud and said controller can do pH and temp monitoring, I decided Tuzne is going to be my replacement for the wavemakers, return pump, and Apex. I ordered a 6155 that will be delivered tomorrow to play around with. I'm going to wait until the controller is actually released or more stuff breaks before replacing the rest.
2. I had a successful dry run of my frozen auto feeder, however after I turned the freezer on I learned that the BRS 1.1 ml/min dosing pump will not operate at freezing temperatures. I ordered a low rpm hobby motor that will be delivered Monday and I'm hoping that will operate inside the freezer. Below are some additional pictures showing how it works. Very simple rotating disc design that drops down a pipe into the return pump.
3. And the best for last. I went to do laundry this morning and discovered that the water pipe, inside the wall, developed a leak last night. Luckily my washer/dryer are in the garage. My house is barely a year old and this is the third pluming issue I've had, so extremely frustrating. Luckily the plumber can come today, but not until this afternoon.
4. To end on a positive note, the weather has cooled down enough to open the windows and now my tank pH is maintaining around 8.1. It never gets above ~7.8 in the summer. I don't have any coral in the tank yet, but still a positive.
1. A couple of days ago I heard a loud noise coming from the tank. Turns out it was coming from one of the Coralvue 4ks. I turned it off and cleaned it, but of course it kept erroring and I had to leave the cages barely attached so the shafts would spin. After that, the pump is now stuck in one direction. Whether I invert the rotation or not, it will only spin one direction, and of course the direction is the reverse of what it should be. Little over a year old, but these things are garbage. Cheap, but garbage. I've been debating a long time between getting Vortech or Tunze pumps. Since Tunze recently announced their controller is going to be expanded to the cloud and said controller can do pH and temp monitoring, I decided Tuzne is going to be my replacement for the wavemakers, return pump, and Apex. I ordered a 6155 that will be delivered tomorrow to play around with. I'm going to wait until the controller is actually released or more stuff breaks before replacing the rest.
2. I had a successful dry run of my frozen auto feeder, however after I turned the freezer on I learned that the BRS 1.1 ml/min dosing pump will not operate at freezing temperatures. I ordered a low rpm hobby motor that will be delivered Monday and I'm hoping that will operate inside the freezer. Below are some additional pictures showing how it works. Very simple rotating disc design that drops down a pipe into the return pump.
3. And the best for last. I went to do laundry this morning and discovered that the water pipe, inside the wall, developed a leak last night. Luckily my washer/dryer are in the garage. My house is barely a year old and this is the third pluming issue I've had, so extremely frustrating. Luckily the plumber can come today, but not until this afternoon.
4. To end on a positive note, the weather has cooled down enough to open the windows and now my tank pH is maintaining around 8.1. It never gets above ~7.8 in the summer. I don't have any coral in the tank yet, but still a positive.
clownfish4
Community Member
Both the pump and motor got delayed but have arrived. The Tunze 6155 is an absolute beast! I have it on the lowest possible setting and had initial concerns that it was too much for my clowns, but after some tinkering I think it will be good. I moved both of the gyres to the opposite side in an upside down L formation and have strong circulating flow on each side.
The image below is right after scraping the rocks and stirring the sand. The pumps are keeping everything suspended and my filter roller is working overtime. Tank is still looking better every day.
In addition to the cyano not coming back and dying off, I noticed the fuzzy, white, cryptic zone sponges popping up in my overflow boxes. So finally seeing some positive indicators after nearly a year of the ugly phase.
The motor I got for my auto feeder isn't single directional and turns a random direction every time I turn it on. It does operate at freezing temperature, but the random direction doesn't work, so I'm back to searching for a proper motor or figuring out how to use the BRS doser from outside the freezer.
The image below is right after scraping the rocks and stirring the sand. The pumps are keeping everything suspended and my filter roller is working overtime. Tank is still looking better every day.
In addition to the cyano not coming back and dying off, I noticed the fuzzy, white, cryptic zone sponges popping up in my overflow boxes. So finally seeing some positive indicators after nearly a year of the ugly phase.
The motor I got for my auto feeder isn't single directional and turns a random direction every time I turn it on. It does operate at freezing temperature, but the random direction doesn't work, so I'm back to searching for a proper motor or figuring out how to use the BRS doser from outside the freezer.
clownfish4
Community Member
Everything is still moving in the right direction. It is hard to tell, but the picture below looks a thousand times better than a couple months ago. The rock in the top middle is completely free of cyano now and just has a little bit of hair algae. Three months ago this rock was indistinguishable from sludge. This past weekend I did two rounds of scrubbing with a toothbrush and nothing has grown back on the rocks. However the dark green algae is still growing back on the sand rather quickly. I'm hopeful the conchs and diamond goby will keep the sand stirred enough to prevent this when they arrive (no update on that order yet).
One other issue I've been having for a while is a light cloudiness to the water. It is only in the display tank though, the sump is crystal clear. I've been running a very under powered drop in UV for a few months and it has had no effect. I'm not 100% confident a UV will actually resolve the issue and I don't particularly want to plumb one inline, so I'm trying to find alternative solutions. I'm going to try carbon, but don't have a good way to do it yet.
I found another motor to try for my auto feeder but it won't run at the freezing temperatures. At this point I think I have to try drilling through the top and mounting the motor outside. I also ordered some PE calanus and PE mysis from LiveAquaria. My tangs had no interest in the calanus but my clowns seemed to pick at it. I primarily got it for my wrasses when they arrive. The reason I ordered from LA is that they had the flat packs of both calanus and they carry a 40 oz mysis pack. This thing is HUGE. It barely fits in my freezer. And given the cubes are 4 oz and feed my tank for a month, this thing will last nearly a year at my current feeding rate.
The only other thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is upgrading. Aside from always wanting a bigger tank, I feel like I am on borrowed time a bit. This tank is old, I bought it used, and one of the seams was leaking when I tested it. I sealed it by running multiple beads of weldon on the inside but there is tons of crazing, bubbles, etc in the seams, so I am still worried. I really want to do a large, deep foot print all in one. Something like a 8'x4'x4'. I love the idea of a large all in one where there is a full rim overflow that drains into a chamber in the back middle. This way there is no obstructed viewing from the front or sides. There would also be a second chamber next to it for the top off water. So it would be impossible for anything to ever overflow. I've been looking for a vendor for a while now and haven't found anyone worth reaching out to for a quote, but I'm also looking fairly lazily
One other issue I've been having for a while is a light cloudiness to the water. It is only in the display tank though, the sump is crystal clear. I've been running a very under powered drop in UV for a few months and it has had no effect. I'm not 100% confident a UV will actually resolve the issue and I don't particularly want to plumb one inline, so I'm trying to find alternative solutions. I'm going to try carbon, but don't have a good way to do it yet.
I found another motor to try for my auto feeder but it won't run at the freezing temperatures. At this point I think I have to try drilling through the top and mounting the motor outside. I also ordered some PE calanus and PE mysis from LiveAquaria. My tangs had no interest in the calanus but my clowns seemed to pick at it. I primarily got it for my wrasses when they arrive. The reason I ordered from LA is that they had the flat packs of both calanus and they carry a 40 oz mysis pack. This thing is HUGE. It barely fits in my freezer. And given the cubes are 4 oz and feed my tank for a month, this thing will last nearly a year at my current feeding rate.
The only other thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is upgrading. Aside from always wanting a bigger tank, I feel like I am on borrowed time a bit. This tank is old, I bought it used, and one of the seams was leaking when I tested it. I sealed it by running multiple beads of weldon on the inside but there is tons of crazing, bubbles, etc in the seams, so I am still worried. I really want to do a large, deep foot print all in one. Something like a 8'x4'x4'. I love the idea of a large all in one where there is a full rim overflow that drains into a chamber in the back middle. This way there is no obstructed viewing from the front or sides. There would also be a second chamber next to it for the top off water. So it would be impossible for anything to ever overflow. I've been looking for a vendor for a while now and haven't found anyone worth reaching out to for a quote, but I'm also looking fairly lazily
clownfish4
Community Member
Not too much progress to report. Work has been crazy and I haven't cleaned the tank in nearly two weeks. Needless to say there is a lot of algae. So here's some minor breakthroughs and pictures of an unrelated project.
The weekly scrubbing has my filter roller running on overdrive, so I had to replace the roll again today. In order to prevent taking the thing apart again, I setup the new roll on a pvc pipe and cut four small holes in the ends of each roll, then used two zip ties to connect them and fed it through. Worked like a charm!
After last time I decided I wasn't going to fully unravel the dirty roll again. I saw another post where someone used a knife to cut through the roll to free the spindle. I decided to try my multi-tool to speed it up. Unfortunately the multi-tool didn't cut through a single layer. I tried a small pocket knife and it worked fairly well. Took a couple of minutes to cut all the way through.
In addition to the reef tank I inherited a 10g planted beta tank from my ex. It has a giant pothos growing out of it and a couple small plants in the tank. I decided I'm going to move the pothos to the patio and use the tank for some aquaponics. The grow tray is full of a microgreens mix. Picture is 3 days after sowing the seeds.
The weekly scrubbing has my filter roller running on overdrive, so I had to replace the roll again today. In order to prevent taking the thing apart again, I setup the new roll on a pvc pipe and cut four small holes in the ends of each roll, then used two zip ties to connect them and fed it through. Worked like a charm!
After last time I decided I wasn't going to fully unravel the dirty roll again. I saw another post where someone used a knife to cut through the roll to free the spindle. I decided to try my multi-tool to speed it up. Unfortunately the multi-tool didn't cut through a single layer. I tried a small pocket knife and it worked fairly well. Took a couple of minutes to cut all the way through.
In addition to the reef tank I inherited a 10g planted beta tank from my ex. It has a giant pothos growing out of it and a couple small plants in the tank. I decided I'm going to move the pothos to the patio and use the tank for some aquaponics. The grow tray is full of a microgreens mix. Picture is 3 days after sowing the seeds.
clownfish4
Community Member
Unfortunately I’ve made the tough call to shut down the tank and step back from the hobby. I’m going to keep all the equipment in case I return in the future, but at this point I am working to rehome all my livestock.
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