Poseidon's NEW Adventure! ;)

[Poseidon]

Bringing this one back to the top as I finally got around to finishing the LED driver box. I also bought a new halide fixture, with a much better reflector in it. Here are the FINISHED pictures. LOL!


The heat sink is now only 10" in length, and yes it does get quite warm. I have added a thermal switch from Steve's LED's to the middle of the heat sink, and it has never tripped off. The quarter is there for scale.


Mounted to the side of the halide, this time I used a rubber grommet between the LED's and halide. The grommet creates an air gap to allow for better cooling, and less heat transfer from the halide to the LED.


Lights on. This is taken with a Ushio 20K bulb that was about 12 months old, it has been replaced by a Phoenix 14K, which I like a lot more. I like the Phoenix even better than the Radium to be honest. The 14K Phoenix looks just a tad more blue to me, I know the charts show otherwise. Also the LED on the left is dim because I had touched the LED with the double sticky tape on the bottom of the reflector. The LED was on when I was placing those, and it started smoking immediately. I ended up replacing that particular emitter, and ordered a spare in case I do something stupid again.


LDD's into the O2 Surplus manual PWM Dimmer. This works perfect for me, manual dimmer on LED's that are only there to enhance the color of the tank, and add a dawn/dusk effect to the halide.


E-bay special voltage dropper. This takes the 36v from the LED power supply and drops it to 5.2V which goes into the O2 Surplus dimmer.


All 3 parts hanging before getting added to the project box.


All placed in the box, you can see the voltage to the Dimmer at 5.22. I can also push a button and see the input voltage, which is 36.2.


And finally all buttoned up, looking much cleaner than having that dimmer hanging out in space.

 

[KritikaL]

where did you get this substrate from dude?! i love it.

 

[revhtree]

Poseidon I know you have updates!

 

[Poseidon]

where did you get this substrate from dude?! i love it.

I'm not sure that sand is available anymore, it is Gray Coast from SeaChem. I bought a lot of it about 10 years ago, and had a few bags left when I set this tank up. I really like the color, it is NOT the brightest thing in my tank, nor is it BLACK. Plus, it works quite well to set a white point on my digital camera. LOL!

Poseidon I know you have updates!

I sure do Rev! Unfortunately they aren't good ones.

10-10-14

I am battling some algae I have never seen before, it is brown and stringy, and the worst part is it seems to want to grow on the coral tips.I blow it off the corals daily with a turkey baster but it grows right back. It also grows on the sand and the rock work. I knew I would get some sort of algae bloom with the new light, but I had no idea I would get this crap.

I have tried mechanical removal, with "quick filters" I added a sponge to the overflow that is cleaned twice a day.

The corals that are the most affected are the Hawkins and the Red Dragon, with the fine branches. The Acans and favia seem to love the stuff though, as they are out and puffed up every time I blow the crap off the rocks.

Today:

I am still battling this algae, it has caused significant loss of corals. Hawkins is almost dead, I lost a separate frag of hawkins that was doing well on its own too. Red Dragon is losing tissue at an alarming rate.

I've been using manual removal methods and water changes over the last 2 weeks. The algae blows right off the coral, or rock or sand with a gentle puff from a turkey baster, I used machanical filter pads to trap the now free floating algae, and then I remove that pad from the system.

There has been 2 cups of phosguard in the system for those 2 weeks as well, the flow must not have been good where I had it placed in the sump, and since I changed my return pump to an internal one, I don't have that nice little shelf that I once had for media such as this.

Yesterday I was off from work, and made a call out to Preuss Pets in Lansing MI. They had a Coralife Chemical reactor in the used stuff section, for $20. I drove out there post haste and picked up TWO of them. One reactor now holds 1.5 cups of Phosguard, the other 1.5 cups of Carbon, the 2 reactors are driven by a MJ1200 that I had laying around. It seems to work perfectly as far as the media is tumbling and not getting blasted out of the reactors.

Now, I am sure the phosguard is getting good flow, hopefully whatever is in the water that is allowing that algae to grow can be eliminated and I can get back to enjoying my hobby.

Any ideas on Brown, stringy algae that is easily blown off the corals, rocks and sand, but seems to prefer to grow like a spider web or cocoon over the tops of SPS? There are some SPS like the red planet that are just fine, others like the Hawkins are Red Dragon are losing badly.

Of course the duncans, acans, blastos, and lobo are all FAT and happy. Zoas and SPS not so much.

 

[Chameleon]

Could it be dinos?? When I get dinos it has always been triggered by high salinity and or low nutrients. I combat it by turning my skimmer off and triple checking the salinity. In a few weeks it clears up for me usually.

I know turning off the skimmer is counter intuitive, but it works for me and it took a lot of trial and error to figure it out.

 

[Poseidon]

Hmmm... After doing some more reading, yes it does appear to be dinos. With that reading it says Water Changes seem to help the dinos, not get rid of them, so turning off the skimmer might be a great idea. LOL!

I did just turn off the halide, I'll try that for 3 days, no skimmer and see what happens.

 

[Poseidon]

The algae was gone... for about a week. It came back. Tuesday I noticed it growing on the sand, so I went lights out for 3 days, hoping to see an improvement today.

I did add a couple fish and a shrimp last Sunday, I added a sail fin tang, a flame angel, and finally a blood shrimp, all are doing well so far. The Flame is eating well, the sail fin is a big. LOL

The next issue, with this tank it seems there is always something.... is pH. I am really struggling to keep it at 8. I am going to confirm my pH probe reading with a liquid test later today.

dKh is on the high side, I am at 11. Ca test is next up, but I have not know Ca to affect pH directly like Alk does. Something is certainly out of whack.

 

[Poseidon]

Ca tested at 440. I don't have a Mg test kit, off to the LFS I go...

 

[Poseidon]

It has been about a month now, no sign of that dreaded algae!

Time for some PICTURES!





















I added a 36W UV from a friend, it seemed to be the last step in ridding my tank of that dreaded crap. Also, I started to use the seachem synthetic resin instead of carbon. So far so good, I have seen no negative impact, and I have some noticeable growth on most of my sticks.