North America's Highest Reef Tank

[mav1ms]

How is the sound on the h2o overflow been thinking of getting for same reason

It took some tweaking to get it quiet, but once I got it there it has been great! The one thing I do wish is I would have added two just for a bit more skimming capacity. I don't have any issues and it more than handles my flow rates but would have been nice.

 

[dryworm]

It took some tweaking to get it quiet, but once I got it there it has been great! The one thing I do wish is I would have added two just for a bit more skimming capacity. I don't have any issues and it more than handles my flow rates but would have been nice.

A second one would also be a great backup in case one was to get clogged.

 

[mav1ms]

A second one would also be a great backup in case one was to get clogged.

Totally agree, although in the 12 months I have been running it I have never had any issues with it, the way the "teeth" are designed and the top if the sides did get clogged it would be very hard to have some issues. I have a 1.5" schedule 80 pipe running down to the sump. A couple short videos linked of the overflow.

 

[mav1ms]

I wanted to post an update of the tank from the last 8 months. Let me start off by saying I have learned a lot: I have lost a few fish due to a marine ich (cryptocaryon irritans) outbreak, I'll discuss that and how I changed my approach to quarantine and feeding my fish. I have added some new equipment specifically to address some things that I was seeing with my tank. I am a firm believer that we must find the right mix of tech and “natural” processes to support a healthy, closed ecosystem. I have watched the endless debates both here and in various videos and I am convinced that there are certain methods and processes that can be followed to drive success with no single, right answer but… there are still a lot of wrong answers. I will have a couple of follow up posts, one on the ICH and the other on my equipment updates and general tank health.

Here's today's picture of my tank:

 

[mav1ms]

ICH!


I started off with a quarantine/medication tank where I would treat for various diseases. I lost a few fish to the process. It seems like the process stressed the fish out significantly and they never did thrive. We are a foster care family and one of the situations we deal with in infants is what they call “failure to thrive”, go look at what that means and it’s like what I saw with the fish. Those fish that did make it through quarantine (72 days on average) were put into my tank, again that process of transitioning was stressful… although most of the fish did make it. I followed this process rigorously until… back in late April and May I had discovered ich on one of my fish. It spread to all my tangs (Blue, Purple, Clown, Yellow, and Powder Brown). I was able to capture all but the Blue tang and put into my hospital tank for treatment. I was never able to capture my blue Tang. The other fish that had ich were: Flame Angel, Coral Beauty, Fox Face, couple chromis and an emperor angel. I didn’t intro any new fish at the time that the ich reared its ugly head, also there was no stress event that occurred which begs the question was the ich eradicated through quarantine, anecdotally the answer was no.


I ended up losing, ironically, my Purple, Clown, Yellow and Powder Brown Tangs, all of which were being treated for the ich in the hospital tank. My Blue tang pulled through. I never was able to catch the flame angel, it did die. All the rest of my fish survived. I had others that I didn’t list here because they were never symptomatic.


At the same time I put those that I could catch into the hospital tank, I quickly realized I was in a conundrum: I couldn’t catch all the fish and thus couldn’t go fallow in my tank. I started researching fish diseases and how to manage ich. That started me on the path of building the fish’s immune system. I did follow some of Paul B’s recommendations and started feeding black worms and also white worms. This also being a closed system I needed a way to manage the actual parasites as well. I invested in a UV sterilizer. (I’ll talk more about that under the equipment section.) Within the next 6 weeks all my fish that didn’t die recovered, including my blue tang which I purchased when he/she was just over an inch in length and is now about seven inches long.


I have since added a new purple tang, a bicolor angel, a butterfly fish and three, three stripe damsels. I initially added the bicolor angel to see how it would do knowing ich was in the system. It did initially show the ich symptoms, I watched and waited for a month, feeding it black and white worms 5 times a day (the whole tank). The fish never struggled showing nothing more than the spots, since then it has never shown any additional symptoms. Over the next 4 months I added the other fish, each went through the same thing. There colors compared to previously feeding the black and white worms are brighter than I had ever seen. My Butterfly fish loves the worms, I would say that these fish are beyond thriving and some have shown spawning behavior. I would say the combination of feeding the “dirty” worms (I don’t rinse them off other than to maintain the black worms) feeding “whole foods”, I get the leftover fish from a Wholefoods store near me and make my own food, and the UV sterilizer has allowed me to bring some balance to my ecosystem with having the ich; meaning, manage the live parasites with the UV and building the fish’s immune system.


Obviously this is an ongoing process; however, I can tell you I have had a few “stressor” events where we have lost power, had a pump die and had to dig out an anemone that died. None of those events caused any issues with the fish.


What about adding new fish? At this time I don’t plan on adding any additional fish; however, I do have a plan in place for when I do. I plan on using my quarantine tank as an observation tank. I will not treat the fish, instead I will observe, watching for “failure to thrive” or other problems. I will feed the fish the black and white worms for approximately a month. Once they seem like they are thriving I will transfer to my DT.


Stay tuned as this is a journey.

 

[Richgoose]

good to hear you are having better success. I would be interested in these B & W worms - do you culture these your self or buy them from a supplier?

 

[mav1ms]

good to hear you are having better success. I would be interested in these B & W worms - do you culture these your self or buy them from a supplier?

I purchase from a supplier: https://aquaticfoods.com/BlackwormFarmM.html. The only problem is that when I went to purchase again back at the beginning of September they let me know they wouldn't have worms available until November due to the fires and heat in California. Since that is where all the blackworms are farmed (at least to purchase online) I had to increase my whiteworm cultures which seem to be just as good as the blackworms but a little more difficult to harvest since they are in soil. I will purchase more blackworms once available.

As for the whiteworms I simply purchased this culture from Amazon. I keep them in little plastic containers and feed cheap white bread with plain yogurt. They explode in number doing it this way. I do change out the soil when I see them on the walls of the containers meaning I split the cultures and add fresh soil. Here is the culture I purchased:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BGCMKQM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mav1ms]

Equipment Updates


I have made a number of equipment adds/updates to my system over the last 8 months. I will simply list what I have added/changed and why.


UV Sterilizer

I had been researching this for some time and the ich event was the catalyst to add it. I went with Vecton-6: V2 600 25 Watt due to its compact size and cost. I run it at level one sterilization which is required for the ich management. I plumbed this completely separately from my return pump meaning it is its own return and run it at a the required 10gph/watt meaning ~250gph. I will say that water clarity has gone up, issues with algae and of course the ich have decreased significantly since adding this. I have not put my water under a microscope to compare before and after, so all I have is anecdotal evidence. I have not noticed any impact to pods running this.


BRS Dosing Pumps

I did invest in some BRS dosing pumps to take care of my Alk and Calcium dosing. Setting up with the Apex was easy and consistent. I use the Red Sea alk and calcium along with the Magnesium. I test using the Hanna Checkers. This method is somewhat expensive but my alk and calcium levels are consistent. I run the Calcium at around 450 and the Alk elevated at 10. I am considering a calcium reactor going forward.

Neptune FMK

As a result of adding the UV sterilizer I needed a way to ensure I was running it at the required 10 gph/watt for sterilization. I decided to purchase the FMK for my Neptune Apex, I also purchased the 2” sensor for my return pump. Boy was this an eye-opening event. I was able to correctly tune my UV return to the requirements stated above. I also realized that my current return pump was only pumping on average at 500gph. (More detail below) It was rated at 1720gph. I cleaned the thing, turned it all the way up, made sure it was running like it was new; however I could never get over the 500 gph. I had 5 feet of head pressure so a drop in performance from the 1720 gph was to be expected to roughly around 900gph. I never was able to achieve that.


Return Pump

I was running the Reef Octopus Varios-6 pump rated up to 1720 gph. My expectation was that I would get around 900 gph running full speed. As I mentioned earlier I only ever realized 500gph. The pump eventually died after about 15 months of use. I replaced the pump with an AC pump, the Fluval Sea SP6 which is rated for up to 3434 gph. With my setup I would expect it to run at ~3000gph… way more than I needed. Since this was an AC pump I needed to modify my plumbing to add a valve to control the flow. I updated the plumbing to include a Spears Valve which allows me to very finely tune the flow. With this pump I was able to realize all 3000 gph as a test; however, I now run this at ~850gph. Combine that with my UV return I have a total flow rate of around 1100 gph which for my system of 160 gallons means I turn my system over at 6.875 times per hour. That is up from the 3.125 times per hour prior to the addition of the UV return and this new pump. Again nothing scientific here but anecdotally I have noticed, clearer water, more stable parameters including temp (heaters are in my sump), salinity, PH and finally no issues with any sort of algae and of course no symptoms of ich.


It is important to note that I did have to add an additional overflow, I really didn’t want to go through the hassle of drilling my already established tank so I did add a HOB overflow which I will discuss more later.


Here’s the graph of when I changed the pumps out:

Hang on Back Overflow

With the increase of the flow I my single H2Overflow wasn’t enough to handle the flow, regardless of the rating. I purchased the CPR Aquatics CS150 with Lid and Aqua Lifter. I plumbed this separately from my existing return allowing me to again fine tune my flow and to have a backup in case I ever needed to perform maintenance on one of my returns. This is something I would do again in the future if I ever add a tank or setup a new, larger tank.


The issues I had were around noise and the Aqua Lifter pump failed after only three months of continuous operation. To fix the noise I built a drain system based upon Hofer Gurgle Buster (and variations) to my design. It has worked well with no issues of clogging.


Picture of the drain is below.

I replaced the Aqua Lifter pump with the Hydrofill Titanium which is technically a dosing pump but is self-priming. Instead of running it constantly I have it connected to my Apex to turn on every 10 minutes for 30 seconds to make sure the siphon doesn’t break. So far so good.


Skimmer

My first skimmer, Reef Octopus Classic 150INT 6”, seemed to do ok for the first 4-5 months but never seemed to perform that great. It was sized according to my system for medium feeding, but I just wasn’t happy with the performance. Add to that I had to constantly clean it in order for it to perform optimally which meant about once a month, it became a maintenance burden. Additionally, the pump seemed to clog often no matter what I did. I did some research on skimmers and came across the Venturi style skimmers which lead me to LifeReef Filter Systems. I knew I was going to get to a heavy bioload in my system and was ready to spend more on a skimmer. I purchased the Lifereef SVS3-24 and I couldn’t be happier. The performance has been outstanding, after adding this skimmer I noticed my PH did go up from an average of around 7.9/8 to around 8.1/8.15. The bubbles seemed to be more productive and I could very finely tune this thing. It fit better in my sump, all around I was much happier. Also, Jeff was great to work with. Living here in Colorado I picked the skimmer up from his place and got to see his shop on where he manufactures the skimmers… let me just say, top notch!


T5 Lights

Up until September 2018 I had been running 2 of the SBreeflights sBox Extreme 32” Wifi. My corals seemed ok but they never really popped nor grew like I wanted. I also struggled some with anemones. All of my other parameters were in decent shape, ph could have been higher, but was in acceptable range. After doing some research online, lots of reading, and re-watching the BRS160 I decided to go ahead and add 2 48” T5 lights. I purchased 2x of the Reef Brite 48” Supra Slimeline Single T5 retrofit from Bulk Reef Supply and run the 54w T5 Coral Plus bulbs. I mounted one toward the back of the tank and one on the forward side of the tank. I also built a canopy to house the lights (wow what a difference that made to the look of the overall tank. More below). I connected the lights to my Apex to control the timing of the lights. Since my tank faces east/west I have the back T5 light come on at 9:45am and run until 4PM. My front T5 light comes on at 12:30pm and runs until 6:30PM. My LED lights ramp from 7:30am until the moonlights shut off at around 11PM. After adding the T5’s the look of the tank is much more brilliant and real with less disco effect and shading. The corals I have, particularly my SPS’s have brightened and my anemone is opens more. These have only been running for around a month, so I will continue to monitor and update.


Canopy

My wife was complaining about the look of the tank and the fact that the lights in my office where my tank is caused a funny glow at night. I decided I would build a canopy which coincided with the addition of my T5’s. I am not a professional wood worker, so the canopy turned out ok aesthetically and very functional for me. Pictures of the canopy are below along with a before picture without the canopy.

And this was an old picture from about 2 years ago showing how I had the lights originally:

General Tank Update:

1. No more losses except for an anemone which I have since replaced and seems to be doing wonderful, my maroon clown loves it!

2. Due to the fires and heat in California I was notified by my black worm supplier that black worms wouldn’t be available until November. I increased my white worm cultures, continued feeding the blended fish leftovers that I get from Wholefoods and feed nori and frozen foods. The fish are still doing wonderful, colors are great and some exhibit spawning behavior.

a. Btw I am convinced it you want to keep a copperbanded butterfly white or blackworms are the way to go, he/she loves them!

Upcoming changes:

1. I plan on making are to take a serious look at the new Kessil A360X once available. After speaking with them they recommended I run at least 3 of them. I like my Sbreeflights as they seem to grow corals; however the lack of integration with Neptune and the disco effect are enough to make me want to look at other options.

2. I am considering adding a calcium reactor as it seems the more cost effective option in the long term as well as consistency.

3. I do plan on adding more coral once I make these changes; however I am letting things settle in for a bit and see the results of some of the more recent changes I have made such as the addition of the T5’s.

Until next update! Happy Reefing!

 

[mav1ms]

Quick update. Added a captive bred yellow tang, a powder blue tang, and a yellow eye kole tang. They are doing wonderful. The did exhibit some ich symptoms about a week after I added them (early December) but since have been clear. They are eating well, and doing normal tang things like grazing on the rocks. There has been no aggression between my yellow tang and my purple tang at all. All my fish are doing very well.

I did add an ozone system, the water clarity is amazing. I run it 4 days a week. It does appear to have helped my skimmer production. My phosphates have also dropped to .02 even with feeding very heavily 3 times a day. My Nitrates are around 5ppm.

I am now going to turn my focus to adding more corals. I have a couple of torches in the tank which are doing very well. I still haven't changed my lights over, I plan on doing that in the next month or so.

All-in-all things are going very well in this ich-managed system. Pic from tonight:

 

[jd371]

Beautiful tank and will get better once more coral is added. You are right about the worms, one of the best foods to feed the fish and my CBB wouldn't have made it through quarantine without them because that's all he ate at that time. I feed them everyday to my fish along with LRS with a few drops of Selcon and my fish are fat and healthy, never lost a fish to Ich or any other type of parasite. Oh! how I would love to have a luxurious log cabin off the grid in Colorado!

 

[mav1ms]

Beautiful tank and will get better once more coral is added. You are right about the worms, one of the best foods to feed the fish and my CBB wouldn't have made it through quarantine without them because that's all he ate at that time. I feed them everyday to my fish along with LRS with a few drops of Selcon and my fish are fat and healthy, never lost a fish to Ich or any other type of parasite. Oh! how I would love to have a luxurious log cabin off the grid in Colorado!

Thank you. It's amazing the difference they do make. I am with you. My CBB loves them, he's started to eat more of the frozen food, but without those worms he would have starved early on. If you are ever out here in Colorado and near Leadville, shoot me a message and come by!

 

[jd371]

Thanks for the invite. Always had a love for log cabins and after watching a show on ones that cost millions of dollars I know what my first purchase is if I ever hit the lottery.

 

[me & my baby]

That’s really interesting I am reading up on the Paul b method glade to see you had success with it

 

[Neptune 555]

I am on a similar journey! Thanks for sharing!! I am always so impressed with the reefers who can make their own stands. I am ordering a 180 upgrade and will combine my 75 and 48 gallon reefs.

I was thinking of adding a UV to my system as I combine them b/c I think I do have ich in my 48 gallon? I follow a QT process but after the years I stopped with the TT as it was just too much!! I stopped before that treating w anything b/c I realized the ONLY fish I ever lose is in QT. Now they go in QT for a month until they are feeding well and look great! Then into the DT. Sometimes I use an acclimation box.

I don't get Ozone? What does it do? Why use it? I think UV makes sense to help control the population of ich as I suspect it might hit hard when I combine the tanks.

Keep posting in your build thread how this progresses. I will start mine when my custom stand arrives... NOT making my own stand!!

thanks
Neptune!

 

[mav1ms]

I am on a similar journey! Thanks for sharing!! I am always so impressed with the reefers who can make their own stands. I am ordering a 180 upgrade and will combine my 75 and 48 gallon reefs.

I was thinking of adding a UV to my system as I combine them b/c I think I do have ich in my 48 gallon? I follow a QT process but after the years I stopped with the TT as it was just too much!! I stopped before that treating w anything b/c I realized the ONLY fish I ever lose is in QT. Now they go in QT for a month until they are feeding well and look great! Then into the DT. Sometimes I use an acclimation box.

I don't get Ozone? What does it do? Why use it? I think UV makes sense to help control the population of ich as I suspect it might hit hard when I combine the tanks.

Keep posting in your build thread how this progresses. I will start mine when my custom stand arrives... NOT making my own stand!!

thanks
Neptune!

No problem at all. The stand wasn't that difficult, I followed some online plans and then modified based upon my needs. The right tools are key there lol! I did build my own hood too, but it wasn't as good as my stand, so I still have some work to do to get better

I have taken a multi-pronged approach to managing my system focusing on fish health through food. Trying to replicate the ocean's natural ability to purify itself through the use of various forms of filtration and then taking my time. It seems to be working, but time will tell.

I have no way to validate the UV's effectiveness other than what I have used in water purification and then the fact that Ich isn't over-running my system. I used UV for mobile water purification when I would go on long kayak trips. I never got sick, whereas others did using other forms of filtration (old mechanical lol) or using none at all. It's designed to sterilize protozoa in the water which is really what Ich is. Also it helps against other forms of bacteria, viruses, etc. I have never put my water under a microscope to see a before and after so it is all purely anecdotal at this point, although maybe at some point I will do this. The key thing with UV is dwell time, too much and it will effect some of the good critters such as your pods, too little and it will not effect the bad critters like protozoa. So it's important to rightsize and make sure you know your turn over rates. That's why I did invest in the Neptune Flow modules. Here's a good read on UV sterilization (keep in mind they also sell those products so balance that info):
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumUVSterilization.html#basic_factors

As for the ozone. I did a lot of research on this and took my time. It was the last major filtration/purification I put in place. Probably the first place to start is with the below linked video from BRStv. It does a great job at providing an overview. Basically, the reason I chose ozone is because I very rarely do water changes, in fact almost never. So I needed a way to better break down organics and chemicals in the system, again going back to the concept of building a self-sustaining reef system mimicking the ocean's ability to naturally purify itself. I can only do that through mechanical forms of filtration and I refuse to put non-natural chemicals in my system. I do also run carbon. Also just to be clear, I could not find anywhere that ozone has an effect on protozoa or bacteria, thus no impact on ich. Now it does remove chemical based impurities such as those toxins produced by animals like corals and anemones. The ozone system is fairly expensive which may be a roadblock. I would implement (and did) UV before ozone. My ozone system was around $700 or so all up. Last thing I will say is that my water clarity is just as good now as coming out of my RODI unit when I compare visually and with a PAR meter. That alone was worth it to me.

Hope that helps! And when you get your build thread going let me know, I will watch it as well!

BRStv on Ozone:

 

[Neptune 555]

So the UV does not kill your pods but it does kill Ich. Do you use filter socks? I think you have one mandarin? do you supplement his diet in other ways?

I am trying to do less water changes now that I will have a 180 so I am exploring my options for now. In my other tanks I was pretty good w/ water changes. I didn't do 10% weekly but I did like 30 % every few weeks. I can't imagine keeping up with a water change schedule long term. But I am willing to start with my old method until I am ready for and can afford to make a change.

thanks!

 

[mav1ms]

No on the pods, they are larger and more resilient than the protozoa, so long as you follow the recommended dwell times you should be good to go. I do use filter socks. I did early on, but again just another maintenance item to deal with. They helped "polish" the water, but nothing like the carbon and the ozone. I don't run either 24/7/365. I have the carbon run MWF between 1am and 8am and then 1pm-8pm on each of those days (I dose my elements during the off times). I have the ozone run every day except Tuesday and Thursday, but it does run all 24 hours outside of those days. I do get pods every month and add those to my system (subscription via Algaebarn). My mandarin does eat some of the smaller shrimp food that I put in as a mixture and some ground up fresh seafood if small, but mostly feeds on the pods. He's pretty fat and happy lol!

Yeah with my larger tank doing even a 10% water change for the system was hauling around 16ish gallons, I tried early on, but quickly realized that would get old quick! I was also hauling the water up 2 flights of stairs and at 10,000 feet... let's just say it leaves you breathless Definitely is a tradeoff between the equipment and the water changes, and of course keeping up with the major, minor and trace elements.