Potomac Reef 2 - 500 gallons of fun!

[mehaffydr]

Problem 1 has been red cyano. Example photo below. Lands on sand and rocks. Has been defying basting and vacuuming. Let’s see how it does against Chemiclean!

Twentyfour hours later:

Please continue to update your progress with the Cyano. I am having the same issue in My 1100 tank looks about the same. I've tried Hydrogen Peroxide and see no results. I have ordered Chemiclean but it has not yet arrived. First 24 hours really look good.

 

[ScottB]

A whole truckload of reefers end up with dinoflagellates following Chemiclean. It does a bangup job on cyano for sure, but that sudden void on surfaces will get filled by somebody. Make sure you keep your nutrient levels well above zero. If you have some SpongeExcel (silicates) dump that in to feed your diatom population.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Here is a quick FTS. Found another square spot Anthias at the LFS today. Seems to have joined in with my other one peacefully. Also planning to add 4 red bars when they emerge from quarantine. Love the Anthias!

Beautiful! Perhaps one day...

 

[emvanburen]

A whole truckload of reefers end up with dinoflagellates following Chemiclean. It does a bangup job on cyano for sure, but that sudden void on surfaces will get filled by somebody. Make sure you keep your nutrient levels well above zero. If you have some SpongeExcel (silicates) dump that in to feed your diatom population.

Thanks. I am going to be adding bacteria once I do my waterchange. Will keep an eye on nutrients.

 

[emvanburen]

Here is the 48 hour photo.

Tank is completely free from cyano. Rocks, sand, everywhere. Looks amazing. Miracle drug.

now about to do a 20percent water change. Deciding on gravel vac or Refugium siphoning as part of it.

 

[mehaffydr]

Here is the 48 hour photo.

Tank is completely free from cyano. Rocks, sand, everywhere. Looks amazing. Miracle drug.

now about to do a 20percent water change. Deciding on gravel vac or Refugium siphoning as part of it.

That looks great. The Chemiclean I ordered from BRS came in today along with a couple of filter socks and a Hanna Nitrate checker. I will most likely do mine over the weekend.

 

[emvanburen]

So much fun, this hobby. This week has been maintenance week. Have a solenoid on my Rodi di line with a guest fitting that had a slow drip. Tightening made it worse, so I pulled the fitting and wrapped it with teflon tape. While tightening, the head of it sheared off leaving the threaded part in the valve. I was able to get that out by cutting a slot in it using my dremel and then using a screwdriver on it. Fortunately Home Depot had a replacement. 5min fix became an hour project. drip resolved though.

 

[emvanburen]

Tank update! Please watch and subscribe.

 

[ScottB]

Nice work; thanks for the video. That you've kept an acro tank going so smoothly with minimal effort is a testament to your build quality and thoughtfulness.

I hear you on how annoying cyano can be. Each of my system have cycled through it at least once and while I hate it, I take some comfort in knowing that it is generally transitory. I will syphon it once it gets thick enough, but otherwise I just make a little more effort on keeping my nutrients in a stable, proportional relationship to each other.

What those absolute numbers are will be different for each system of course, but if kept steady long enough other competitors like film algae and other bacterial film will regain their foothold. My experience anyway.

 

[emvanburen]

Interesting result of dosing Chemiclean. Phosphate went from .07 to .16, and nitrate from .5 to 2. And that is after a solid water change. I have struggled to keep any nutrient balance at all, so I’m just going to keep an eye on it. This system has so much export going on between skimmer, AWC, fuge and roller mat.

 

[emvanburen]

Nice work; thanks for the video. That you've kept an acro tank going so smoothly with minimal effort is a testament to your build quality and thoughtfulness.

I hear you on how annoying cyano can be. Each of my system have cycled through it at least once and while I hate it, I take some comfort in knowing that it is generally transitory. I will syphon it once it gets thick enough, but otherwise I just make a little more effort on keeping my nutrients in a stable, proportional relationship to each other.

What those absolute numbers are will be different for each system of course, but if kept steady long enough other competitors like film algae and other bacterial film will regain their foothold. My experience anyway.

Thanks and Good points. Have been overall very happy.

 

[emvanburen]

The tank continues to run well now after the Chemiclean. Acros are growing, cyano has stayed away, and colors are good. I've been dosing N03 daily - current nutrients are PO4 .15 and NO3 4ppm. Was recently in Tampa and came across a great shop - here's a video of that experience.

 

[mehaffydr]

The tank continues to run well now after the Chemiclean. Acros are growing, cyano has stayed away, and colors are good. I've been dosing N03 daily - current nutrients are PO4 .15 and NO3 4ppm. Was recently in Tampa and came across a great shop - here's a video of that experience.

Wow I wish I had seen this last week. I just spent the whole last week in Tampa working but I sure could have made time for this. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bluegrass_reef12]

You know something exciting is coming when UPS and Fedex aren’t up to the task. Picked up my MRC gear today from the freight station. Minivan I borrowed was packed to the gills. This stuff is insane, beautiful, shockingly heavy and finally resting in my garage.


Sump has integrated UV. I just didn’t have enough space to handle the traditional format. Work of art. Need to figure out how to fit the rollermat to the right of the UV units.

Fuge.

Sink. Hey, it matches!


If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing to excess!

What are the specs of the MRC equipment? Are you happy with your purchase?