Mehaffy's 1100+ gallon Plywood display in North Alabama

mehaffydr · Nov 18, 2021

Ok little update here I am still working to lower Phosphate. Its a slow process but I'm really starting to see results from the PhospahtE Phosphates are now .14 so still high but much better than they were. I also bought and just received a Hanna Nitrate checker and Nitrates are 5.6
Cyno is still present I have been dosing Hydrogen Peroxide but I really am not seeing any improvement. I did buy some Chemiclean and may use that this weekend if I'm not getting anywhere with the Hydrogen Peroxide.

Yanos · Nov 19, 2021

Perhaps higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide will be the answer.
This staff always worked for me. Also if the cyano level is very high it will take about a week or so, for the hydrogen to start making any visual impact

mehaffydr · Nov 19, 2021

Yanos said:
Perhaps higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide will be the answer.
This staff always worked for me. Also if the cyano level is very high it will take about a week or so, for the hydrogen to start making any visual impact

Thank you for that info. I will give the Hydrogen Peroxide a little more time. I would prefer that over the Chemiclean

mehaffydr · Nov 29, 2021

Time for a after Thanksgiving update. I have been continuing work on the fish building making more room to have the whole 20 x 20 ft. area dedicated to the fish. I had a small workshop with a lot of tools in there so they all go moved to the garage. I also purchased a couple 20 Gal. tanks from Petco so I now have 3 Quarantine tanks 2ea. 20 Gal. and 1ea. 40 Gal. I think I will get 1 more 40 Gal. as I get the Quarantine tank area completed. Eventually some of these may become frag tanks but it seams there always a need for quarantine space. Whether its CUC or new Corals or just that 1 last fish. With 1100 gallons I don't know if or when I will every get to that one last fish but maybe someday.
I am still battling high Phosphates. I have dosed 5 liters of Phosphate E and still have high phosphates. They seam to come down a little bit temporarily but then right back up to max out the Hanna checker which tops out at .613, I don't like continuing with this much of the Phosphate E so I have added a reactor and I am using BRS GFO for a while to see what that will do.

Ill get some updated pics soon but right now the whole room is a mess with moving things around.

I did order 4 new 250 watt MH Digital Ballasts and 14K Bulbs from BRS so the lighting is soon to be fixed.

AlexG · Nov 29, 2021

How many hours a day are you running lights over the refugium and what intensity of light? I find there is a balance needed to help control po4 naturally.

mehaffydr · Nov 29, 2021

AlexG said:
How many hours a day are you running lights over the refugium and what intensity of light? I find there is a balance needed to help control po4 naturally.

I am currently running with Grow lights 300watts. I am running them 12 hours a day. I think that I should have done a more thorough job of cleaning the old dry rock from my old system. Right now in 1100 gallons I have 8 fish and don't overfeed so this Phosphate has to be in the rocks or sand. I could possibly plumb in an additional refugium?

AlexG · Nov 29, 2021

mehaffydr said:
I am currently running with Grow lights 300watts. I am running them 12 hours a day. I think that I should have done a more thorough job of cleaning the old dry rock from my old system. Right now in 1100 gallons I have 8 fish and don't overfeed so this Phosphate has to be in the rocks or sand. I could possibly plumb in an additional refugium?

Consider increasing the light cycle to 15-16 hrs a day for the refugium light. Do you have a lot of algae in The reef tank? Hair algae?

mehaffydr · Nov 29, 2021

AlexG said:
Consider increasing the light cycle to 15-16 hrs a day for the refugium light. Do you have a lot of algae in The reef tank? Hair algae?

Thanks Alex I will increase the light hours its easy with the Apex. I did have a lot of Algae a few months ago but not anymore. Most all of the Algae is gone. Just s few very small spots. I do have some Cyano but that has decreased lately. I had dosed H2O2 and that seam to be helping. My sump is growing Caulerpa (may be spelled wrong) it seams to be growing fast I feed Tangs and put it in my compost. I have a ball about the size of a basketball spinning in my sump. The way I have water flow it keeps the ball spinning.

mehaffydr · Nov 29, 2021

I just increased Refugium light to 16 hours

AlexG · Nov 29, 2021

mehaffydr said:
I just increased Refugium light to 16 hours

It's going to take time to reduce but it will happen. If the algae in the main tank is looking better then it sounds like you are on the right track. Just be careful with po4 removal media it can have undesirable effects sometimes which is why I avoid using them myself.

Sltloser · Nov 30, 2021

mehaffydr said:
Time for a after Thanksgiving update. I have been continuing work on the fish building making more room to have the whole 20 x 20 ft. area dedicated to the fish. I had a small workshop with a lot of tools in there so they all go moved to the garage. I also purchased a couple 20 Gal. tanks from Petco so I now have 3 Quarantine tanks 2ea. 20 Gal. and 1ea. 40 Gal. I think I will get 1 more 40 Gal. as I get the Quarantine tank area completed. Eventually some of these may become frag tanks but it seams there always a need for quarantine space. Whether its CUC or new Corals or just that 1 last fish. With 1100 gallons I don't know if or when I will every get to that one last fish but maybe someday.
I am still battling high Phosphates. I have dosed 5 liters of Phosphate E and still have high phosphates. They seam to come down a little bit temporarily but then right back up to max out the Hanna checker which tops out at .613, I don't like continuing with this much of the Phosphate E so I have added a reactor and I am using BRS GFO for a while to see what that will do.

Ill get some updated pics soon but right now the whole room is a mess with moving things around.

I did order 4 new 250 watt MH Digital Ballasts and 14K Bulbs from BRS so the lighting is soon to be fixed.

What is nitrate at right now? I know before you had it around 5, but I'm also wondering if that has bottomed out by now. It could be limiting phosphate uptake if that is the case.

ScottB · Nov 30, 2021

Sltloser said:
What is nitrate at right now? I know before you had it around 5, but I'm also wondering if that has bottomed out by now. It could be limiting phosphate uptake if that is the case.

^+1

mehaffydr · Nov 30, 2021

Sltloser said:
What is nitrate at right now? I know before you had it around 5, but I'm also wondering if that has bottomed out by now. It could be limiting phosphate uptake if that is the case.

Just checked Nitrate with Hanna checker and its at 5.4.

mehaffydr · Nov 30, 2021

Over the weekend I ordered a few hundred well actually over 500 snail and hermits. from @reefcleaners They are arriving tomorrow so looking forward to a powerful cleanup crew. I will see how these do and based on their recommended quantity for tank size I may duplicate the order in a few weeks.

Sltloser · Dec 1, 2021

mehaffydr said:
Over the weekend I ordered a few hundred well actually over 500 snail and hermits. from @reefcleaners They are arriving tomorrow so looking forward to a powerful cleanup crew. I will see how these do and based on their recommended quantity for tank size I may duplicate the order in a few weeks.

That's a good sized order! I would be careful with too many hermits, they'll eventually either die with lack of shells or start to canibalize your snails. I prefer snails and cucumbers personally .

mehaffydr · Dec 1, 2021

Sltloser said:
That's a good sized order! I would be careful with too many hermits, they'll eventually either die with lack of shells or start to canibalize your snails. I prefer snails and cucumbers personally .

Only 50 of them are Hermits all the balance are a variety of different snails.

wmb0003 · Dec 1, 2021

mehaffydr said:
Over the weekend I ordered a few hundred well actually over 500 snail and hermits. from @reefcleaners They are arriving tomorrow so looking forward to a powerful cleanup crew. I will see how these do and based on their recommended quantity for tank size I may duplicate the order in a few weeks.

How did the snails arrive? The last few shipments I got from them had some DOA, mainly the nassarius. Did you overnight or do the usps priority?

mehaffydr · Dec 1, 2021

wmb0003 said:
How did the snails arrive? The last few shipments I got from them had some DOA, mainly the nassarius. Did you overnight or do the usps priority?

I went ahead and opted for UPS next day air. With this quantity the extra cost was worth it. So far everything looks good. Hermits Turbo snails and Nerite snails all moving. The ceriths are not moving yet but according to the website they likely go dormant and may take a few days to get going.

mehaffydr · Dec 1, 2021

It was a good day today as my package from @bulkreefsupply showed up so I was able to wire up 4 new MH ballasts and tomorrow I will install the 4 new bulbs. This should really make the lighting POP. I have been having trouble with the old reused ballasts I had so I just ordered all new during Black Friday sale along with 4 new 14000K bulbs.