Just for testing. I figure, the new salt water will go in the chamber with the return pump and the old will be pulled out on the other end where the skimmer is. That way there's very little chance that new salt water will be removed right away.
Slight update,
Things are slowly moving in the right direction. First off the 3 fish that were in QT have finally transitioned to the main tank.
I couldn't get many pictures of this little (fat) guy. He was from a tank break down meaning he had no problem transitioning to QT to the 300. Falco Hawkfish
The Copperband was also from the tank breakdown, knowing that he eats frozen food was the only way I would get one of them. He is very docile, not intimidated by the larger tangs and seems to have a great personality. In the QT he would get so excited when it was feeding time, and when the kids visit him he would follow their finger across the glass.
Last addition is the Hippo Tang, my wife was reluctant to get this tang, she wanted blue but really wanted the the powder blue but having the established powder brown already in the tank, I figured that was a recipe for disaster.
I was concerned because of the stigma of them being ich magnets. This one was purchased from the LFS and was healthy upon arrival but 7 days in the QT he started showing signs of ich. My plan was to prozi for 2 weeks and then hypo for 6. but the prozi was cut short and hypo started. Of course the hypo took care of the ich and after I started bringing the salinity up, I added another 2 week treatment of prazi.
He was treated like an outsider for the first 2 days despite 2 gashes in his side, he has since healed and swims with the rest of them.
I attribute the tanks calm demeanor to the blonde naso. He is a "gentle giant", he's by far the biggest tang and either knows it, or simply doesn't care.
Now onto other things. I have been in a constant battle of keeping nitrates and phosphates at a detectable level (who'd a thought that low nutrients would be a concern??) that I've been supplementing them through dosing.
Here's the rub. About 3-4 months ago, I got chaeto for nutrient export. From past experience I always ran the algae lights during the night to help with pH. I set the timer for 12 hours and didn't think about it again. The chaeto was growing at such a good pace that I was ripping it in half every week. Not paying attention to the N and P, I noticed that the corals started to look pale and eventually losing skin on the tips. Being reactive I tested and noticed the undetectable readings. My first reaction was to add potassium nitrate and phosphate to the tank to bring the levels back up (10 N and 0.02 P) then I stopped dosing and they dropped again.
I know that you already came to the correct conclusion, but my thought process was that the tank just needed a boost to get the nutrients where they should be and once I stopped dosing it would naturally maintain those levels. That idea couldn't have been further from the truth. Bottom line, I had the algae light on too long, I started cutting back the ON time until I got to the point where they would stabilize. over the course of 2 weeks I went from 13 hours ON to just 8.5 hours ON. And I think I will be dropping that back even more.
I think the low nutrients led to another problem... Bryopsis!! You can see in one of the pictures, there is a rock with zoanthids that has a healthy bush of the stuff. I ordered enough fluconazole to treat the tank 3 times. I'm hoping that 1 time is enough and it seams that shelf life isn't a concern, I will purchase 100 tabs just to get the savings.
Another note, I went in and took a look at my lights and noticed that the red led's were at 50%. hmm, not sure why that was, so I turned them down to 15%, that should help with the turf algae and algae growing on the coral tips that I keep cutting back.
I think that I'm finally on the right track, I have been busy with so many other things that revolve around the tank that I have overlooked the biological side of things.
Im reconsidering idols for my new tank. Are yours bothering A N Y of the coral(s) ?A few months ago I decided that I would get an automated tester for alkalinity, the 3 mainstream units that are top of the list is the alkatronic, KH Director, and Trident. Trident was out from the get go, their availability and subscription plan was a non starter for me. The KH director and alkatronic seemed to work exactly the same with a few differences. The deciding factor boiled down to compatibility with the Apex. The KH director is made by GHL and they have their own controller and I assume that they don't want their product compatible with the competition and I'm not at the point where I am going to switch over to a proifilux system, which dwindles the choice to the alkatronic. Plus 2 of my friends (@SawCJack00 , and @TMB) already have it and they have nothing but good things to say about it. which was good enough for me. I ordered the alkatronic, neptune system PM1 and a BNC cable for connection.
I received the alkatronic 2 weeks ago, I waited for my buddy @KenO to come over and help hook it up. Before it arrived I read a few articles and step by steps to get an idea of how to set it up (seemed pretty straight forward). I watched a few videos of people unboxing and one of a comparison to setting up the alkatronic vs the trident (which I concluded was very biased).
I have to say, set up was extremely easy, and took us no time to get it online. We had to run to the LFS for get some 1/4" bulkheads for the water in and waste water lines. but I'd say with all the crap'ing at the LFS and chatting about other things it took us a couple hours to hook up. which would have been a lot faster if we were focused on the task at hand.
After using it for 2 weeks there are a few things that I wish they would address with a simple update.
1. The alkatronic supplies you with all the silicone tubing necessary to get started. They state that the "Water In" tube cannot exceed 3' in length. Despite my best efforts I ended up with 4' of hose. At first, I thought this had a lot to do with creating a vacuum within the inlet side that would eventually pinch off the tube preventing it from dosing properly. I later discovered that it was simply an easy way for them to program the automation.
Their programming calculates the inner diameter of the 3.2mm hose and runs the stepper motor (Peripump A) in reverse long enough to clear out ~3' of tube so that it can draw in fresh tank water for the test. If I were to guess, I would say that focustronic wanted to simplify setup for the end user, leaving the headache of inputting all these parameters into the unit in order to make it work. All the user had to do was simply calibrate the pumps and then sit back and watch it do its thing. For me, I like having the "keys to the kingdom" and have more control rather than less.
2. The next thing that I have issue with is the ability to connect to the unit via bluetooth or via the cloud. It took a little bit to get the "green light" to appear on the bluetooth portion, and was able to add all the information to connect to my router and thus to the cloud.
After connecting to the cloud I am no longer able to connect locally to the device via bluetooth, it's frustrating.
I sent a message to to focustronic in hopes that they have a solution to these problems. Overall it despite needing some refinement on the app side it works well and lives up to the hype. It's just the idea that they stopped short of perfection bugs me. I can't imagine that any of these are tough to fix. And with all the other automated testers on the market hopefully they are willing to roll up their sleeves and do some polishing on the software.
I didn't hook it up to my Apex until later in the day, other things required my attention. but the Install and calibration of the unit was straight forward. Now that the Apex can monitor alkalinity, I can use it to alert and/or shut off certain components of the CaRx if it gets out of range.
Along other things, last week I picked up a Moorish Idol from a LFS. The only reason why I considered getting this guy was because he was eating everything given to him and most of all, despite the difficulty of keeping these in captivity, he's a fish that I always wanted. He is in the QT and has had a dose of prazi. Yesterday I dropped the salinity down to 1.008 and so far he's not showing any signs of problems with the low salinity. Everything that I have read is to QT him the same way you do a copperband. and I have successfully Hypo'd plenty of CBB's in my day.
I have discovered that he is a pig, he will eat as often as I feed him. After about 3 days of being in the QT he stopped eating flake food and solely eats my frozen concoction which is a mixture of meats and greens.
After purchasing him, I immediately had buyers remorse, but as the days go by, I'm starting to have a bit more confidence that he will make it to the main tank.
Very hard to get good pics, but... it is what it is
I wont know for another 7 weeks... with the way this guy eats frozen, I would hope that he doesn't look at the corals as food.
Thanks! There's a simple beauty to the red sea tanks that I really like!
Great to see it has worked so well for you!I am seeing some great results from the fluconazole. I added 35 tablets of the medication to the tank roughly a week and a half ago and I just wanted to share the results.
There was one great big bush on my zoanthid rock that appeared to smother them. I tried to be diligent with taking daily photos. Here they are:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Loved the daily progress pics. Says it all. Great to see !!!!I am seeing some great results from the fluconazole. I added 35 tablets of the medication to the tank roughly a week and a half ago and I just wanted to share the results.
There was one great big bush on my zoanthid rock that appeared to smother them. I tried to be diligent with taking daily photos. Here they are:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
I am seeing some great results from the fluconazole. I added 35 tablets of the medication to the tank roughly a week and a half ago and I just wanted to share the results.
There was one great big bush on my zoanthid rock that appeared to smother them. I tried to be diligent with taking daily photos. Here they are:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
I understand you were just in the area.... you should've dropped by... although going from Bills tank to mine would have been a disappointment. But the laser machine makes up for it... hehe
I didn't put much stock in this treatment working as good as it did, I needed to follow up with a second treatment to knock the turf algae out as well.
Thanks, there's still a lot to do to really finish the build, but lately my attention has been on keeping the livestock happy. when the weather cools down a bit, I will get out in the garage and mill the maple to frame the outside of the tank.
