Matt's Elos 120xl

[Mattres]

Okay this is interesting, i did the rock test. I watched this BRS video:
They soaked a 1kg piece of Pukani, fiji, tonga and reef saver rock then weighed them again once they were saturated to measure how much water they held and in turn how much surface area and internal pore structures each rock would have.
The results were: Pukani held 380grams of water
Fiji 210grams
Tonga 90grams
Reef Saver 60grams
I tested two pieces of Real Reef Rock today that had been soaking for 7 hours. The first piece of rock was 1.033kg and it held 106grams. The second piece was 1.081kg and held 104grams of water.
This puts the Real Reef Rock in the middle but is still over three times less than the Pukani and just half of the Fiji.

This is good to know but at the end of the day i have 5 litres of siporax in my sump that should provide ample bacterial housing for my tank on its own before I even have to worry about the rock... I think there is something else in the live rock that the dry rock is missing and in my case its taking a long time to find it.

 

[oneilwiz]

Thanks for tagging along mate!
What year/model STI do you have?

Late post, 2018 STI Limited

 

[oneilwiz]

Any update on your ELOS

 

[Mattres]

Late post, 2018 STI Limited

Very nice! I've had a 99 WRX for about 8 years now with a few modifications, still love driving it.
As for an update I've been meaning to do one, I'll have one up in a minute

 

[Mattres]

Well its been a while without a proper update, mainly because the tanks been looking like the "Upside Down" world in Stranger Things...
I've lost most of my corals, all ones that i've had for quite a few years. My orange euyphillia continues to decline and looks well on its way out. This has been a pretty frustrating period as I kept all my parameters stable and in range but corals just continued to decline. This was followed by a cyano outbreak that persisted for months. Happily all 4 fish have still been healthy and active.
I attempted a 5 day blackout after which the cyano had almost completely disappeared only for it to slowly start returning. I followed this up only just this week with a dose of chemiclean. A few days have passed and things are looking much better, no cyano at all. Ive got some Aquaforest Bio S on hand that I've been dosing everyday to hopefully keep things in the right direction. I'll be away from the tank for about 6 weeks starting next week and am hoping when i return the tank will be stronger biologically. When i get back i'll start playing around with slowly adding some more corals to the tank and hopefully things start to evolve from there.
I took some photos during the worst of the cyano.. funnily enough a couple weeks ago my mum saw the dead birdsnest with cyano covered tips and made a comment on how good it looks.. haha, i said no.. thats dead.. ;Facepalm

 

[oneilwiz]

Bummer that sucks, been through it except I had a major tank crash lost almost everything, you will figure it and bounce back. Surely love this tank. Aiming for it but switched to a custom build hopefully I will get in two months

 

[Mattres]

Bummer that sucks, been through it except I had a major tank crash lost almost everything, you will figure it and bounce back. Surely love this tank. Aiming for it but switched to a custom build hopefully I will get in two months

Thanks mate. I think you’ll be just as happy with a custom tank, once it’s filled with corals and fish the tank almost disappears! Haha

 

[Janci]

Hard times fighting cyano. We have all been there.
Enjoy the holidays.
It will be interesting to see the tank in 6 weeks.

 

[Wrangy]

dang dude! That's **** as!

Any idea's on the cause??

 

[HolisticBear]

Been following this thread from the beginning. A beautiful Elos setup. So sorry to hear about your losses. A cyano problem for months sounds like some funky bacteria issues. Best of luck to you.

Your photography is top notch. It doesn't sound like a positive, but your pictures of cyano would win R2R picture challenge if they ever do a cyano challenge.

 

[Mattres]

Hard times fighting cyano. We have all been there.
Enjoy the holidays.
It will be interesting to see the tank in 6 weeks.

Thanks mate, currently waiting in the Qantas lounge waiting for our flight!
The cyano definitely was frustrating. As of today the tank still looked free of cyano and nice and clean thanks to the chemiclean. Hopefully it stays that way!

 

[Mattres]

dang dude! That's **** as!

Any idea's on the cause??

Haha not sure mate, it’s funny other than diatoms the tank has always been completely algae free. I guess with the death of the corals and no algae the cyano took its opportunity.

 

[Mattres]

Been following this thread from the beginning. A beautiful Elos setup. So sorry to hear about your losses. A cyano problem for months sounds like some funky bacteria issues. Best of luck to you.

Your photography is top notch. It doesn't sound like a positive, but your pictures of cyano would win R2R picture challenge if they ever do a cyano challenge.

Haha thanks a lot mate! Hopefully in the not to distant future there will be some nicer subjects to take photos of!

Yea I agree, something was going on biologically or something that we don’t usually test for. Hopefully finally over that hurdle now.

 

[Janci]

Thanks mate, currently waiting in the Qantas lounge waiting for our flight!
The cyano definitely was frustrating. As of today the tank still looked free of cyano and nice and clean thanks to the chemiclean. Hopefully it stays that way!

If you are flying over Dubai, take a day and visit!!

 

[Mattres]

If you are flying over Dubai, take a day and visit!!

Man if we were that would have been great!
We’ll have to do that next time

 

[choss]

How is the tank doing? You winning the battle?

 

[Mattres]

How is the tank doing? You winning the battle?

Hey mate! We’re still away but when I left the tank it was cyano free for about 4 days. I should get my house sitter to take a photo for me so I can check to see how it looks but we’ve been so busy and preoccupied I haven’t even thought about that until now.
Enjoying the snow and cold in Canada at the moment. Something I’ve never done before so it’s a great experience.
Thanks for checking in!

 

[Wrangy]

Jealous as man!! I'm sick to death of summer! I can'tr wait for it to cool down again lol

 

[Mattres]

Jealous as man!! I'm sick to death of summer! I can'tr wait for it to cool down again lol

Haha it’s been good to escape the high temps! Although it was a big swing! I think it was 38°C when we left Adelaide and the coldest we’ve had here is -25°C!

 

[Wrangy]

Haha it’s been good to escape the high temps! Although it was a big swing! I think it was 38°C when we left Adelaide and the coldest we’ve had here is -25°C!

Absolute heaven hahaha