My First Upgrade:72 Bowfront

[john.m.cole3]

No losses today. I found my McCosker's wrasse hiding in some live rock and got him moved to QT. A local reefer loaned me some Praxipro and Cupramine to get started. Only did the Prazipro dose yesterday. 1 tsp per 20 gallons, so 2 1/2 tsp in my 46 gal QT system. I have a neotherm heater, airstone, and 425 gph koralia pump in there along with various sizes of PVC. My hopes are up!

 

[john.m.cole3]

No losses since last post. My fish guy replaced the flame hawkfish and he is in QT now. I've been reading and it seems that my smaller fish may not handle a copper treatment well (they could die). I bought 2 x 10 gallon setups and a tank stand from Walmart last night to do the tank transfer method. The plan is to do the tank transfer method with the small fish while the foxface stays in the 46 gal QT. After 2 rounds of Praxipro do 30 days of copper on the foxface while I keep the small fish in a 10 gal. After the copper treatment, I'll put all of the fish back in the 46 to observe and wait out the remainder of my fallow period in my DT. 2 months and 13 days to run fallow.

Oh, and I got an orange plate coral yesterday.

 

[john.m.cole3]

My water parameters are improving and almost at the what I would consider perfect range. Tested today
PO4 - 0.06
NO3 - 15
Alk 9.6 dkh
Calc - 420

I have my lights on for a total of 10 hours a day with 3 of those hours ramping times. 2 x blue plus, purple plus, and actinic ramping up for 1.5 hours and dow 1.5 hours with max intensity at 50% for 7 hours. 2x coral plus ramping up/down 30 minutes each way with 6 hours at 20% intensity. PE is good.

I added back my other RW 8 powerhead and I cannot make my BTAs happy no matter where I point them even at the lowest setting 1/8 on wavemode 1. I repositioned my LPS to not blow all over the place and raised my SPS to the top of the rock structures.

I hosted our local reef club meeting and it was tons of fun! Got to meet the infamous @brandon429 and lots of other folks that I have been chatting with online for a long time. @Ross was there and gave me my first branching SPS piece and a super green paly (thanx bro!). It was so nice to talk with people about this hobby that we love so dearly and to hear about their struggles and success'. I told my tank transfer story and saw some jaws hit the floor when I told them about how and why I extensively rinsed my live sand. Yesterday was the best day I've had all year. Today my water parameters are looking up. GREAT SUCCESS!!! (Borat voice)

all of the fish in QT are eating and looking much better! I will start my TTM for the small fish tonight, and do a 25% water change and start my second round of Prazipro for the foxface. Thanks for following along :)

 

[brandon429]

I have never got to meet a reef friend before where we worked a transfer by type, then I go over and see if all the stuff is alive

excellent

:) and it was true fun those reef meetings make a hermit type want to leave and get some sun out in the day. come over next couple days when free we can play loud heavy metal and have some ear s ringing and see a small reef.
we had great food, a good 2o people approx. and swapped reef stores and prizes, true fun

 

[john.m.cole3]

Sad day. The flame hawkfish didn't survive the first tank transfer. He was easy to catch from the first tank and handled carefully. However, he did not eat last night and I noticed he was turning pale. I thought those little guys were supposed to be hardy, but who knows...

 

[brandon429]

aw man he was neat that would have been my fav fish among the ones I saw in your systems that deep color was awesome

 

[john.m.cole3]

On a positive note, I re-epoxied my rocks back together in my DT after the tank tear down. I used about 3 oz of epoxy on the large rock structure to the right. I did take my rocks out of the tank for about 2 hours and am totally expecting some bacteria die off. Not too worried though... I have about 30,000 square feet of bio media in my sump :)

 

[john.m.cole3]

aw man he was neat that would have been my fav fish among the ones I saw in your systems that deep color was awesome

I'll try another one further down the road. I think him and my future midas blenny will make cool additions. I already plan on naming them Bert and Ernie [HASHTAG]#lifegoals[/HASHTAG]

 

[brandon429]

hey bro last nite I was up till 3 jacking around cleaning house, jamming a bit, and making a video of me taking apart my whole bowl and washing out the sandbed with tap like you did, then putting my reef back together with no cycle and the corals were open within an hour. I now have an age-reset reef, its age went backwards in time due to the loss of detritus Id let accumulate by being lazy exporter.

Thought this was worth posting because if we polled the 1000 people posting on this site, exactly 2 have rinsed their live sand in tap water and then immediately used it for a living reef. there are 2 rule bio breakers around here, be ware lest this catch on ;)

I would have waited till Thursday so you could see it in person but my bowl was scummy and last nite was the drop, is now reset to brand new. my corals sat on my counter, in the air, alone with my live rock for nearly 20 minutes. zero recycle, zero loss, pods and brittle stars and crab is back out feeding etc. its all on video am mashing it up now for post later on

 

[john.m.cole3]

WEEEEEE!!! This is exciting news to know it is documented on video now, priceless! You just broke all the rules (singing "breaking the law, breaking the law") and got away with it. Where was your brittle star and pods during this cleaning. And corals on the counter how cruel, LOL :)

I also broke a rule by leaving my rock on the patio table for 2 hours to dry a little in order to help let the epoxy adhere better. When I put the rock back in the tank the skimmer went nuts and I thought I'd do an ammonia test last night and the day before. You guessed it... reading of zero. So that poses the question, "How long does it take for bacteria to die that lives deep in the pores of rock?" and with the sand rinsing, "Does beneficial bacteria die when rinsed under a non-saltwater source?"

I saw your comment on the guy with a 180 and an 8 yr old sandbed. If he were to replace his bed with rinsed sand and MAINTAIN that, nutrient leaching will never be an issue. You have found the cure to eliminate or prevent potential old tank syndrome. Nice!

 

[jsker]

Old tank syndrome? I am going to have to look that one up

 

[brandon429]

check these brittle stars out, they were literally coiled up in the rock and they were like dude hurry up we don't have lungs :) the one thing that had me worried was temp... my frags were literally cold like glass lol but after several times of this behavior it was just another Tuesday heh.

regarding tank drains, check this out Google search:

simon garratt's intertidal reef at six months

that's a tank drain article from 5 ish years ago...guy with multi thousand dollar sps reef drains his living entire reef for 6 hours a day to simulate nature draining the tank during tidal ebb/flow

there are rule breakers and then there are crazy men HA but yep this is all within the adaptabilities of corals. the reason people lose tanks and animals off much less work or water changes is due to kicking up rotting waste.

 

[jsker]

Read up on the Old Tank Syndrome, very interesting. I ordered the MarinePure and a siphon vacuum. this will be the first time I will be vaccuming the sand since I setup the tank 14 months ago. Again thank you

 

[john.m.cole3]

Old tank syndrome? I am going to have to look that one up

People refer to old tank syndrome as a condition where rocks and sandbeds leach nutrients (N and P) into their system and they can't control it. Products like NoPoX and other "bandaids" assist in masking the underlying problem. To avoid this condition you must be one with your sandbed and rock structure to eliminate detritus build up. Good flow that keeps detritus suspended is a good start, regular siphoning of the sandbed, and blowing off rocks or doing clean water dips (if possible). Contrary to popular belief, beneficial bacteria is not lost in these processes. True some beneficial "bugs" do get sucked out, but they replenish themselves. @brandon429 opened my eyes to some of these avoidable problems.

 

[brandon429]

yes

and let it be known that we are the .02% who practice this HA it is way more common to leave junk in the bed and deal with it later...detritus is your crash risk when doing catch-up work on sandbeds. If the tank cannot be cleaned in order like how John and I had things taken apart so cleaning wasn't done in the presence of delicate animals, then the siphoning should be small portions over time to prevent disturbing any stores of waste.

its tricky to deal with sandbeds in a partial manner and be safe. one would think the hard clean/full on all at once mode would be more dangerous but its not because the animals are never in the presence of rotting detritus. it is more common to leave things untouched, but that's falling out of favor for many nowadays as we had the whole 90s to sell each other on untouched sandbeds and that's no longer the fully advised practice (enter bare bottom trends etc)

*caveat for anyone reading with an old sandbed*
not meaning to offend the traditionals. as long as you continue not ever touching the sandbed at its depths, and no rocks fall over and no power outages/stressors happen and you dont have nitrate issues constantly things should continue well for the next decade also.

 

[jsker]

yes

and let it be known that we are the .02% who practice this HA it is way more common to leave junk in the bed and deal with it later...detritus is your crash risk when doing catch-up work on sandbeds. If the tank cannot be cleaned in order like how John and I had things taken apart so cleaning wasn't done in the presence of delicate animals, then the siphoning should be small portions over time to prevent disturbing any stores of waste.

its tricky to deal with sandbeds in a partial manner and be safe. one would think the hard clean/full on all at once mode would be more dangerous but its not because the animals are never in the presence of rotting detritus. it is more common to leave things untouched, but that's falling out of favor for many nowadays as we had the whole 90s to sell each other on untouched sandbeds and that's no longer the fully advised practice (enter bare bottom trends etc)

*caveat for anyone reading with an old sandbed*
not meaning to offend the traditionals. as long as you continue not ever touching the sandbed at its depths, and no rocks fall over and no power outages/stressors happen and you dont have nitrate issues constantly things should continue well for the next decade also.

Yes my last setup was in late 90's and broke down in 2001 (moving reasons and busy) I know I had the puka shell bottom, but I also think I had an under-gravel filter running too I would also vacuum that tank. With this setup I have been kind of leaving it alone with a 1+ inch sand bed, but a few things pointed out by Both @brandon429 & @john.m.cole3 teaming up is in my best interest:) and the light went on. Put some media in the new sump, and vacuum the bed once a month and I would say my P04 and No3 issues will be at a barely traceable level. Have a happy one both of you, I am waiting on same-day prime delivery.

 

[john.m.cole3]

So I just took the plunge and ordered my Aquaforest components 1,2,3, and the ProBio S

 

[jsker]

So I just took the plunge and ordered my Aquaforest components 1,2,3, and the ProBio S

There you go, walking off the cliff again. I think you will be happy with it. My water volume is now 72 ish to I am dosing 65ml in the morning and 65ml at night one hour apart for each component or is will participate and be useless. I am now dosing 50ml of the competent 2 to get my alk down. Once I hit my number I will go up to 65ml. I usually test every week, but when my numbers are holding steady I started testing every other week and my number were still holding steady just the alk was still high from switching from the RS Coral Pro. I also test for Po4 and No3 when I run my tests but you would think with a 30 gallon water change, that my No3 would drop. Oh big discover with Apex yesterday (it is amazing when I have time) you can log your test results, in the fusion part of Apex and also create graphs(no big deal) here it is though, when you go in to enter you soluton results by the ml left. It asks what test you are using and automatically give you the number of lets say alk at 9.24 that is what I talk about. No more messing around with the charts on the paper of cards.

 

[john.m.cole3]

So my next big purchase will be an Apex. Sorry hunny, but @jsker made me do it :)

 

[john.m.cole3]

I just got some garlic for my quarantine tank and some marine snow for the Corals in the display tank while it's sits fallow