My Foray Into Reefing In The Mountains

[Ippyroy]

This is what I believe is dinos. I will be posting microscope pics later today or tomorrow if they come in.

 

[revhtree]

This is what I believe is dinos. I will be posting microscope pics later today or tomorrow if they come in.

I sure hope not!

 

[Ippyroy]

I sure hope not!

It would be easier to figure out if we had a Forum on here for microscopes. Is it possible to make it happen?

 

[Ippyroy]

Well I am certain now that I have dinos. I am trying to get help confirming which type.

 

[JayinToronto]

Sorry to hear. They are nasty.

The thread by @mcarroll is fantastic. Everything you've ever wanted to know about them.

Dinoflagellates – Are You Tired Of Battling Altogether?

I vouch that the system works. Had a terrible case of them. Took over a year to fully eradicate, however I learned so much along the way. Learned about the dangers of hammers to overcome our problems. Learned a whole new way to think about nutrients in our aquariums. I fell victim to the ultra low nutrient school of yore and paid the price.

Here's my experience.
My Dinoflagellate Experience - Prorocentrum

Good luck with yours!

 

[Ippyroy]

I have an 8w Ultraviolet Sterelizer on the way. I will be hooking it up to the manifold on my return pump and hanging it on the back of the DT. I also have some NeoNitro and NeoPhos coming in to help raise the NO3 and PO4 to fight the Dinos. I might order some water glass to promote diatom growth as well.
For the time being the DT is wrapped in cardboard. I might remove it though due to the Flux dose I am doing which requires a high light photo period.

 

[Ippyroy]

I got a positive ID on the Dinos on FaceBook. I am going to start a phyto culturing system and will hopefully be receiving some pods from Algae Barn. I have dosed pods multiple times but I never see any in the DT. I have a healthy population of them in the Fuge though. I will be dosing around 10ml of phyto a day. Hopefully this will help boost the pod population.

 

[Ippyroy]

I am the king of dinos! I got rid of all visible signs with a 3 day total blackout. GHA is basically gone as well. I do have a weird bacterial bloom still. I am blowing it off daily with a turkey baster and using Pinky's Filter floss to help remove it. I change the floss every 2 days for now.
Even though there are no visible signs of dinos, they are still there lurking about waiting for me to do something bad again. I will be hooking the UV light up tomorrow and I am still going ahead with the pods and phyto culture. Everything came out of the blackout fine and happy other than the dinos. My PO4 is .o6 and NO3 is at 5. I am happy with both of these numbers. I am running carbon right now. I am in the beginnings of a Flux treatment, to help get rid of the GHA and bacteria. I will have to dose more, I will wait until I my Lights back up full schedule. The Flux helped with the GHA for sure I feel like. I had to turn on the carbon due to the toxicity of the dinos I have.
I have to say that my tank has been pretty stable and done great. I attribute this to ipsf.com and there mud and water. All of the ugly stuff I have dealt with are due to my LARS and mistakes. I didn't harvest the cheato and I did too much and that shocked the system and gave me the dino bloom. I feel like my tank is about to take off and I can't wait to add more coral as soon as it warms up.

 

[Ippyroy]

I plumbed in the UV off the manifold and it is now running without issues. My ORP has now gone up to over 450. My PH is still around 8.3. I don't know if that is an issue. All of my fish still seem happy. I think my wrasse might have transitioned back into a female. The days are getting longer and warmer. I have to convince myself not to order any corals yet. I have most of the supplies to start culturing Phyto. Once I have all of them I will begin dosing Phyto daily. Hopefully I get the pods to take off in the DT.
There is very little signs of algae left in the tank. There are just a couple of small tufts of GHA here and there. The weird Bacteria is also gone. I used a turkey baster and got most of it into the water column and cranked up the flow. Three days later and everything looks great. I am slowly bring the lights back up.
Other than ORP, all of my parameters are looking good and holding steady. If everything goes to plan, I will be upgrading to the SCA 80g in July. I will switch my current tank to a display fuge with the mangrove and add some macro algae and gorgonians. Maybe a couple of softies. I will then also add a couple of pipefish. I plan on the 80g being a mixed reef of SPS and LPS with a zoa garden because zoas are my favorite.

 

[Ippyroy]

Here are some better pics of my little zoa garden.

 

[Ippyroy]

This will be a fun weekend. It is time for my regular spring cleaning. The weather is turning quickly. We have been in the 40s for the last week. My plan is to run all of my reefing equipment tools and pumps in my RODI container with citric acid. I will start that on Monday night. On Tuesday I will rinse and clean everything. I will also be sanitizing all water containers, mixers, and stuff for my phyto set up. I will then make 80 gallons of RODI and use that to make 40 gallons of saltwater for a single large water change next week. That will be the end of the Reef Flux treatment. 99% of all algae is gone, the weird bacteria is gone, and there are still no signs of dinos. I will do around a 40 gallon water change, followed by my regular 20% weekly afterwards. By May I will start only doing water changes if something is out of whack.
I am still debating the upgrade. I will be working 2 jobs 5 days a week again this summer. My tank is doing great and I don't know if I want to risk messing it up by adding or moving it. I might wait until the end of the season or next spring. If I skip the upgrade for now, I will be adding more corals next month.

 

[fishface NJ]

So what happened next?

 

[Ippyroy]

Major updates coming. My landlord was spraying insecticide outside and I leave my windows open. I lost all but my 2 clowns and bicolour Blenny. That was devastating. I have been working 100 hours a week most of the summer. i have done very little to my tank. I have only done a few water changes. Mostly just kept the ATO full.
This weekend I will be building a new stand and hanging the T5s and Kessils over the tank and adding the IM 20 to the system. I will be drilling the IM 20 and it will be the display fuge. I have ordered a Kessil A360X Tuna Sun for the Mangroves in that tank. I also found a site, ARK, that carries a bunch of the macros that I want to add to it. It will drain into a part of my sump that is designed to be a fuge, but I am planning on making it a cryptic area, it holds around 7 - 8 gallons of water.
i will post pics and update as I get it done this weekend.

 

[fishface NJ]

Sorry to read what happened. Hope you post as you upgrade!

 

[Ippyroy]

I have ordered and received most everything needed for the upcoming rebuild. First, I will empty the tank and sump. Then I will disconnect and reset the Apex to factory settings. Then I will deep clean the sump, tank, and all pumps and feeders. The live rock, fish, and corals will be placed in a 44 gallon brute container with heater and a small pump that will be connected to a silicone hose to circulate the water. I will be rinsing the sand out until it is perfectly clean.

Next step will be to build the new stand. I will be using steel pipe. It will be roughly 50 inches tall by 50 inches long and 22 inches deep. It will have 6 legs and a cross support on the bottom and a full wrap around support on the top. There will be a 30 x 60 x 1.5 inch table top. The table top will be flush with the back of the stand and overhang in the front. and side. The sump will continue to rest on the dunnage rack. This will leave an area about 12-13 inches unused. Once the stand is built I see if I can fit both Gamma Vittle vaults underneath. One is 10 and one 20 gallons. The 10 is for ATO and the 20 will be for AWC run by the DOS. If they won't fit under the stand, I will set them up next to it. I will use a Double L bracket to hold the Trident and mount my Adaptive Reef Controller Board to it. I have the Full Apex, 2 EB832s, and LSM to mount on it. I will hang a shelf from the bottom of the counter and mount the controllers for my Sicce Syncra 6.0 return pump, MP10 and Mp40 powerheads, the controller for my fuge power heads, and the Skimz Monster mini skimmer. I will also attach both Inkbird heater controllers to shelf as well. The Tunze ATO will be on the Controller board. I am hoping to also be able to hang the DOS on the shelf if there is enough space, Time will tell.

I have a lot of cable control items coming in. I will be hanging an Aquatic Life 48" Hybrid fixture over both tanks with a Kessil A360X Tuna Blue for the reef, and A360X Tuna Sun for the Mangrove Fuge. The fixture will be hung from the ceiling by a bicycle hoist that will allow me to raise and lower the light when needed. Part of the cable management system is a sleeve that I will use to wrap all four cables from the lights and run them under the stand.

I have a power strip with smart plugs and USB plugs. I will the USB ports for the IPad Mini 2 that runs Fusion and the smart plugs for the LED lights inside the stand and a maxi jet 1200 for mixing the saltwater for AWC. The waste will run through the floor and connect to the kitchen drain pipe on the other side of the cabin via saddle clamp. I will a Mur-lok RO Tube Divider 1/4" x 1/4" x 1/4" Push Connec at the floor with an acrylic rod through and a 90 fitting to RO to the saddle. On the top of the Divider will be an RO hose from the DOS and a shorter RO hose that I will run the waste line from the Trident waste line into. Hopefully this works so I don't have to empty a bucket anymore.

My plan for the AWC is around 14 gallons a week done once a day. This way it is easier for me to mix new saltwater in the Gamma Vault weekly. I will be weighing the salt mix and keeping it in bags to make it easier. I will be using a mix of HW Pro Reefer, IO Reef and IO. I have enough on hand to last until late spring I thing easily. Then I will be changing over to ESV. i am going to try and maintain Alk , CA, and Mg through AWC and I like the idea of raising the levels in the salt mix to get the desired levels I want.

I will be drilling my IM NUVO 20 and hooking it up to the Fuge area of my MD Elite 36 sump and returning off of my manifold. I will be turning the fuge into a cryptic zone. I will cover it on cardboard so no light will enter it. I don't plan on seeding it until mid to late summer. I only have 3 fish currently and will not be adding more fish until Spring due to the extreme winters here. I will hard plumb the Fiji Cube and soft plump the IM. The return line will run the overflow and connect to the line for the returns inside the back area of the AIO. There is no need for the front of the overflow box. I might turn one or both of the rear filtration areas into a Chaeto fuge if needed.

I will be skinning the stand with cardboard. I will start by cutting and forming the cardboard to the shapes and sizes I need and spray them with a mixture of 30% wood glue and 70% water. After they dry I will steadily increase the amount of glue. This will cause the cardboard to be as hard and wood. I will attach the front/side piece with Velcro for easy removal and replacement. I am hoping it is smooth or that I can at least sand it to make it smooth. If it does a good job of hiding the sounds of the sump and equipment I will paint it white on the inside. If it doesn't hide the sounds, I will add car audio insulation sheets and another layer of cardboard and then paint it white inside and I haven't decided on the outside color yet. I will be running the cables with cable management items attached the rear board. Everything should be nice and tidy.

After all new plumbing is done comes the hard part. All of my live rock are large pieces. I am wanting to break them up so I can build a better scape. I am thinking I will quickly break them up and add them to the Brute. Hopefully I don't loose the beneficial bacteria I have built up over the last couple of years. After everything is ready, I will build and glue the new scape and keep adding saltwater so that the rocks aren't out of water for very long. I have an ammonia alert badge and Prime on hand if needed as well as a new bottle of MB XLM.

I will be starting this on Thursday afternoon and hopefully have water flowing by Saturday Evening. I will try to post picks once all is up and running.

 

[Ippyroy]

So I started to build the stand and I am missing a few parts so I ordered them, should have them on Monday. I started making my RODI last night. I will finish it up tonight and start moving some to another Brute where the tank will be and start mixing up salt water. I am going to weigh it out and make bags that will mix up 14 gallons at a time.
The weights will be 804g IO RC
755g HW Reefer
640.8 IO
Hopefully these amounts will get me very close each time. I will be doing 14 gallons AWC weekly at 2 gallons a day one time at 7am. After the AWC is done on Saturdays, I will add 14g RODI and one bag of salt mix and turn on the pump and heater. I am hoping this makes it as painless and easy as possible.

Since I have to wait till Monday evening for the remaining parts I will have to wait for the other things. The new time table is to tear down the tank on Monday Afternoon and hopefully have water going into by that night. I can still build about 95% of the stand. I am going to pull out the powerheads and skimmer and give them a goos acid bath on Sunday and have them nice and pretty by Monday.

 

[Ippyroy]

So I changed the plan again. The hole saw is the wrong size, but it is fine. I found a frag tank, 20 x 20 x 8 on BRS. It will work better with my lighting plan. It will allow the tree to grow taller before it gets to the light fixture. I will be breaking down the 20 and maybe make it fresh water at work. I'll think about it. The frag tank is an external overflow and only 1 return. Shouldn't be too much of an issue. I need to find out I can have clams in the fuge tank as well. I do have a Kessil A80 that would add blue so the colors come through along with 2 purple and 2 Actinc T5s.

 

[Ippyroy]

I just did a 50% water change on my IM 20 and will soon start draining the 32 and the sump. This will allow me to keep all fish and corals in the 20 until I get the new stand set up. I will deep clean the tank, sump, and equipment tomorrow as well as take down and reset the Apex. Deciding on the frag tank due to missing a couple parts for the stand have actually made everything a bit easier.

 

[Ippyroy]

I did my part. I finished the stand and got the main tank plumbed in. BRS hasn’t shipped the tank that was supposed to arrive tomorrow. I only have 3 more days off and I have to complete a project for work so I will probably give up on reefing. I won’t have time to finish putting the tanks together and I will soon be back to working 80 hours a week. Oh well.

 

[fishguy242]

well that's not good news...
there is a "brite side" still 88 hrs left in a week...
you can be ready ,and pull it off in a couple hours...