Quietman's RSR 170 Mostly Softie - ATS/UV Only

Mical

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Quite the journey. Amazing transitions over a couple of years and as all of us - "we each have a learning curve". Your tank is looking good. A few threads back you mentioned you're attracted to a controller but hesitant, I was in the same boat - didn't want to succumb to "what's popular". But I bit the bullet and it's been the best decision I've made re: my tanks. It too has a learning curve but once you get a hint of what it can do for you - you'll never look back. I have one controller monitoring 2 tanks and it's made life a whole lot easier tenfold. I can control things from afar, i get texts and warnings via my phone, Ipad & computer, I can turn stuff on or off remotely and can make changes "on the fly". (And I'm only on the edge of what it can do) I'm not trying to sell you one - but you may consider looking into one - you've invested heavily into your livestock - you deserve every advantage in keeping them.
 
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Quietman

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Quite the journey. Amazing transitions over a couple of years and as all of us - "we each have a learning curve". Your tank is looking good. A few threads back you mentioned you're attracted to a controller but hesitant, I was in the same boat - didn't want to succumb to "what's popular". But I bit the bullet and it's been the best decision I've made re: my tanks. It too has a learning curve but once you get a hint of what it can do for you - you'll never look back. I have one controller monitoring 2 tanks and it's made life a whole lot easier tenfold. I can control things from afar, i get texts and warnings via my phone, Ipad & computer, I can turn stuff on or off remotely and can make changes "on the fly". (And I'm only on the edge of what it can do) I'm not trying to sell you one - but you may consider looking into one - you've invested heavily into your livestock - you deserve every advantage in keeping them.
Thanks and appreciate the input.
 
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Quietman

Quietman

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Additional (but not yet final) Thoughts on a Controller.

Since it was brought up by @Mical and I didn't want to write a huge "reply" it's probably not a bad time to expand on my thoughts about controllers. Plus it's cold and grey and I feel like chatting (really should rethink my user name). This isn't definitive mind you, but I was thinking maybe others who are considering controllers would like to see how my thoughts have matured now that I'm running a tank for some time.

I have actually have been thinking about getting a controller lately but only as a protection and alarm system, not as a primary controller for my devices. I've said before I'd happily pay $250-$300 for a device that just monitors pH, Temp (2x), ORP, Salinity (optional) and sends me emails/texts if exceeding limits I set. I mean I do want to go on vacation at some point in the future. I was putting Seneye at top of that list, but never pulled trigger. Milwaukee Black-box had something perfect, but it was discontinued.

I do not like the idea of one device that functions as a primary controller for everything in my tank as well as the device that tells me when something is wrong as well as being the device that's providing backup operations. It violates a few engineering principles of control, monitoring and alarm and backup systems.

So shopping around BRS one day, I see just the Apex control head for sale for $400 and I think well now, wait a minute - I may have to buy some sensors but that could be a nice solution for me. Then as you do, I started wondering well maybe getting the Apex junior (which is now the ApexEL - good marketing change there) would be better because then I could actually have some backup and protection systems in place I could control remotely. So is that worth the extra $300-$600 (after adding some modules)? Well on any given day my BRS shopping cart has about $300 worth of odds and ends so yeah, money isn't really the issue. Never was really. It was maintaining that principle of control completely separated from protection and alarm....which this does. Plus I get a leak detector and all kinds of back up control.

For clarity as I review this...separate means that anything I currently have running as primary will NOT be plugged into the Apex power bar, nor will anything primary be 'controlled' from Apex. I'll move existing secondary/backup devices or add additional devices solely for back up

So now, I'm considering the best options on which system provides best value with what I need. Which additional modules (why Neptune didn't include ports for 2 or 3 additional temp probes I'll never know) can add the most bang for buck. Once I decide all that, I'll likely purchase and then post my setup. Vacation is April, so I hope before then.

Later - Qm
 
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Mical

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Again I'm not trying to sell you one - but find yourself an Apex classic. You can add huge numbers of modules, you can upgrade it (if you feel the need to) to a newer Apex head. Mine is a classic and as I mentioned it controls 2 tanks. And I'm w/you I don't want it being the sole control of my tanks. If you were closer I'ld be more than happy to show what it can do.
 
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Quietman

Quietman

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Again I'm not trying to sell you one - but find yourself an Apex classic. You can add huge numbers of modules, you can upgrade it (if you feel the need to) to a newer Apex head. Mine is a classic and as I mentioned it controls 2 tanks. And I'm w/you I don't want it being the sole control of my tanks. If you were closer I'ld be more than happy to show what it can do.
Thanks....as long as you're not trying to sell me one. :) No, I fully understand what it can do and have no issues understanding/writing programs (used to be a coder in a previous life). I've spent alot of time on the Apex forums just because I find it very interesting. There are some 'smart' power bars that have rudimentary code (and would function nicely as a controller themselves I thought about for a while.)

My issues came down to three main points
1) Needed to have value beyond what I could do for same price and effort
2) Couldn't violate solid control and protection/monitoring principles
3) Wasn't going to "automate" routine functions so value prop couldn't include those.

Didn't speak much to #3 - but so far, one of the things I enjoy most is taking care of my tank. All the manual dosing, feeding, topping up small ATO reservoir, making my own food, etc. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but I love that all the manual effort makes me feel in tune with my system. I'm sure that'll change (it'll have to for stability at some point), but I doubt I'm ever one for excess automation.

So now I have all three of those addressed to my satisfaction, there's nothing really stopping me and just need to do some planning.

Again, thanks for the input on this. Your timing was perfect. ;)
 

Mical

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I hear ya, it's what fits your needs. I travel somewhat these days & it's been a valuable tool, but yea I like to get my hands wet too and be involved with my tanks. But with 2 and a 3rd in progress I don't want to be "blind-sided" by one, so the "electronic eyes" on my tanks is an added bonus. It's not a good or bad thing, just an option.

Still following your build thread, the transitions over time (which we at the moment think are crawling) are amazing snapshots of time.
 
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Quietman

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Tunze 1073.05 for Sicce 2.0 upgrade

Couple months back I purchased a new return pump. The old one was fine, the Sicce 2.0 was quiet enough and performed very well. There was a very slight hum outside the cabinet but nothing that bothered me. I've always liked the Tunze DC re-circulation pump. It's not overly designed, just a standard pump with a DC controller. I was adjusting the drain flow a bit more often than I had planned (slight changes in flow caused by algae, pump deposits, etc), so wanted a pump I could adjust speed on without tweaking that RSR diaphragm valve inside the cabinet. Added benefits are food timer on controller and ability to use DC backup power for everything but heaters and lights now. Don't have a DC backup power now...that'll be this spring I hope before the storm season hits.

After a couple months of running (wanted to wait a bit before posting), I'm very happy with my choice. The Tunze 1073.05 is much more reasonably priced than comparable quality DC pumps, moves a good amount of water for my needs (I believe it's half the capacity of the EcoTech S-1) as I don't use heavy sump turnover rates. I currently have it approx. 1/3 speed and it appears by the ripples to push out more flow than the Sicce 2.0.

I haven't had to adjust the drain valve but once or twice since I installed the pump. I also haven't adjust speed of pump after the second/third week. Not sure why drain rate is more stable...maybe the slightly higher flow rate is more stable, maybe the DC is a bit more self-adjusting, maybe system was just mature enough and it's a coincidence.

The noise is slightly better inside the cabinet, much more so after a month of run in, but not really any difference outside the cabinet except that ever so slight lack of AC hum.

I really do like the 'feed mode' feature. I didn't realize what an annoyance opening cabinet to turn off and on return pump to feed fish was until I didn't have to do it anymore.

I did have some initial issues with the rotor and Roger was very helpful on the Tunze forum. Another reason for holding off on this post, wanted to make sure it was an anomaly and not a long term problem. It wasn't....slight damage in shipping, easily fixed at no charge with new rotor. Support here, as with anything Tunze is phenomenal.

All in all, very pleased with the pump and happy with the upgrade. Also like that I have a solid backup ready to go with the Sicce.

Later - Qm
 
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Quietman

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Neptune ApexEL Monitor BRS Special Edition

Well, talk about great timing. On Jan 31, 2020 BRS put a 150 units of a special edition ApexEL for monitoring only on sale. I was lucky enough to check my email first thing because I got number 40 and by that night they had pulled the offer from their site. It arrived Wednesday (great delivery speed on economy shipping btw).

This met almost all my criteria as I've stated above in price and functionality, bonus that it's an Apex so I can program and expand as well. I do not have to 'find' uses for a power bar that I don't need and I can expand with modules as needed for better monitoring. Even better, it came with an installed float level detector and bracket.

I could be happier though...it arrived with both the temp and pH probe inoperative. I have a ticket in with Neptune and I'm sure I'll be getting new probes shortly. For anyone interested, neither probe would calibrate - pH was stuck on 8.0 and Temp was stuck on -6.1 C. I had doubted the likelihood of two probes failures on arrival so rebooted and power cycled too many times. Finally, remembered I had an extra PinPoint probe lying around (think I mentioned my 'leak test' of the PinPoint pH monitor before - it failed). Plugged it in, calibrated beautifully and is now reading a slightly increasing pH as the day goes on.

My next purchase is likely to be an ORP module and a breakout box. I feel OPR is critical to monitor on health of reef as it responds quickest to issues with livestock/corals. I realize it's not a controllable parameter. That will also allow me to add another temp probe in the display (I like to monitor both heaters in sump and display). I'm also very likely to pick up an FMM module so I can add a leak detector or two and perhaps another optical level detector and a flow monitor (doubtful on that last but I'm allowed a little fun).

Later, Qm
 
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Quietman

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Algae Fight...Skirmish...Battle...War!

I've been struggling with what I think is primarily GHA a little bubble algae and perhaps some turf algae since just before Christmas. It was minor at first, as my nutrients have always been good also my phosphates did creep up to 1.0 ppm a times. Quickly got it back down to .05 ppm or less so don't really think that was issue. The algae was just maximizing existing nutrients more efficiently that my low coral load. If I had more corals (or bigger) then I doubt I would have had this issue.

As normal on posts like this, I'm covering a 2-3 month time period. I think it's much more useful to read about a topic as I try solutions and learn more than to skip around on a the thread in between all the other adventures. I don't have a final result yet, but I do see light at the end of the algae filled tunnel.

Identification:

The GHA wasn't really green but a very dark almost black hair algae, I will now refer to this as BHA. It wasn't dino (no bubbles) and not turf (no roots). When removed from water it quickly lost shape so fairly certain this was some kind of hair algae. I have heard from a couple other reefers using LifeRock of an unusually colored algae that's harder to get rid of than normal GHA. For instance, even when I dropped my PO4 to .02 ppm with <1 ppm NO3 (see below), where normal GHA would weaken and become easier to remove manually, this algae was very difficult to remove. Scrubbing off with brushes seemed to make it worse which is why I thought some kind of turf algae for a time, but again, no roots and it didn't remove in sheets.

The bubble algae was easy to ID and I know it came from coral frags. It happens. Easily removed and so far has been out competed by the BHA although still a few in some zoa frags.

I also had some film algae of course on glass and rocks but I consider that fairly normal with no action required other than ensure my CUC is on it (they were/are).



This is prior to first dose of Vibrant. Video came out pretty nice, too bad it's such a lousy thing to be have nice video on.













Actions:

My first steps since it was minor in the beginning was to simply do more water changes and add a dedicated non-water change algae removal session to my weekly maintenance. This worked up to a point and kept everything in check for the next month.

At that point, not sure what happened as nothing changed (NO3/PO4 were always 5/.05 ppm) but the algae just started taking off and spreading (still somewhat controllable though). Again, I assume it just got to a critical mass where it was taking up nutrients very efficiently as soon as they broke down.

I then decided to try really drop the PO4 to <.02 ppm and keep it there (PO4/NO3 were .07/1.0 ppm at this point). I used Lanthanum (Phosphate Rx). I was using Phosguard and while that worked I didn't want to add at .07 ppm to shoot for .02 ppm. Wanted more control than that so went with Phosphate Rx. I started very slowly (have a thread somewhere) with only a 4 drops in my 170. Recommended dose to drop from .07 to .01 ppm was 3 drops (based on .5ppm reduction using 6 drops per 10 gallons = 24 drops for .5ppm therefore .06ppm/.5pmm X 24 drops = 3 drops...so I added one for good measure). Worked really well and I"ll use the product again...my PO4 immediately dropped to .02, but then popped back up (I assume due to coming out off of rock) but a few doses of now 8 drops over a week and I had steady .02ppm PO4. The algae was not receding, nor was it easy to remove and after a couple of weeks...Kaboom! Growth and coverage of the algae just exploded. Again, I don't think it had anything to do with the Lanthanum directly, I believe this was still just normal competition for nutrients and the algae was winning.

During this time (and still) I did not reduce feeding nor go dark on the tank. Fish need to eat and corals need light and I was afraid of stressing them more than the algae already was with coverage.

That brings to a week ago when I decided to go on the offensive directly and not just control nutrients. Not surprisingly, having an in tank 'refugium' works great at handling any nutrients so they were not an issue (P/N - .02/2).

My weapon of choice was Vibrant. It's highly recommended and there's enough anectdotal evidence that I have confidence in the product. I did slightly modify the dosage from 1 ml/10 gallon once a week to 1 ml/10 gallon every 5 days. Doubling the dosage (which is allowed) seemed like a lot and my corals are suffering so didn't want to wait for the full 6-8 weeks at normal dosage before increasing. Feel cutting off a few days before next dose is low risk. I am monitoring NO3/PO4 more often as when algae starts dying off, it can lead to some drastic chemistry changes I want to be on top off. Don't want to end up with a cyano or dino outbreak (already had diatoms and algae this year don't need a trifecta).

So after 2 weeks, I do notice an improvement. The film algae is gone (expected) but the BHA is changing to white and becoming transparent in places. The bubble algae is still there but only in places as it was never a dominant problem. I have very high hopes (otherwise I would be writing this) and will report in a few more weeks on the results after several more weeks.

Later - qm
 
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Quietman

Quietman

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Vibrant Update (posted elsewhere on R2R but wanted to track in build thread):

Starting my third week of dosing (4th dose) today.

Noticed a few things going on with tank. Might not have anything to do with the Vibrant.

pH has dropped 0.1 a day (peak and min) last 4 days. My theory on this (since I haven't changed anything else) is that bacteria is building up/feeding (increasing CO2), algae is becoming less healthy (it does look worse, but spread is still there) taking up less CO2. N-P are still min (.03/3) so don't suspect decomposition taking up O2 yet (ORP meter will be here Friday, wish I had it now).

Also, did some manual removal yesterday - GHA (although I've said before, it's more very dark brown GHA) seems to be 'melting'. My arm was covered in bits after just a few minutes (that's a first in the months I've been removing manually). Bubble (minor really) was still there and removed as normal.

Not running any controlled experiment, but curious if others have noticed similar.
 
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Quietman

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Another Vibrant update...

No further changes on appearance. Last week I decided to go the full dose twice a week instead of every 5 days. Based on latest research I have decided that there are three main symptoms now. GHA with cyano and a minor bubble algae outbreak.

Keeping up with water changes (10%) and 2x a week cleanings. Last cleaning lasted about 36 hours before cyano was back in full bloom. GHA takes quite a bit longer of course but is still coming back. I'll go another 3/4 weeks to give Vibrant a good chance to work. Then I'll move on to something else.

Lost all the birds nest corals (3) and 2 cyphastreas to this. The remaining corals are a bit stressed but fine. All tank parameters (other than appearance) are fine.
 
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Quietman

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Algae update...

So I found the peroxide test for cyano - and lucky there was no pink and the algae didn't dissolve at all (take 1 ml 3% peroxide into 1 cup of tank water and put your suspected algae in there for a couple hours). So now, I'm taking my cyano thoughts out of the possibilities and will instead just focus on GHA and Bubble. I have no reason to suspect dyno (no slime, no bubbles, no stringy mats).

This past week I decided to increase my Vibrant dosage from 1ml/10 gal every 5 days to 1.25ml/10 gal every 3 days. And starting 3/14 my cleaning/WC regimen was upped to daily cleaning (toothbrush/manual removal) and daily 10% WC. I plan on keeping this in place for 1 or 2 weeks. I think the one month of dosing Vibrant has allowed a beneficial bacteria population to build up (I definitely wouldn't start with this dosage) to allow this increase. Also the algae doesn't look healthy and I think upping the ante for a couple weeks will put me over the top....that or just waste of bunch of saltwater and time. :)

After 4 days of this and a week of increased dosing here's what I've found...

N/P this last Sunday are 3/ND. Suspect the algae is still taking up P as fast as it's available (at least it was then, I'll sample again today likely and update). I have considered dosing Phosphate Rx just to try and out compete the algae but worried too aggressive and I'll starve out the bacteria (which also need P). My pH has maintained average of about 8.0. ORP has dropped from an initial raise to 250mV when I first started dosing to 190-200 mV when I upped the cleaning cycle. No idea if that makes sense or not...it's ORP. But it is interesting. Bubble algae seems to be gone. I had a couple small patches (was never excessive) and they turned clear/white on Sunday and haven't noticed any since.

The GHA is so far less impacted. The tank looks much better, but that's only because I'm cleaning it daily with toothbrush (have a set now with curves and shorter handles - cheap 10 pack at Dollar store I modified). I know brushing can spread it, but it was everywhere already and it's not long enough to pull out in clumps. So my method is turn off all but the return pump, have a suction hose in tank that empties to fine mesh strainer in sump. I brush with one hand, vacuum with other and then I'll take a small pump and blow off rocks while vacuuming as well. Then I use the sand vacuum (Python) into a 5 gallon bucket for the WC. Water is now very clear of debris when cleaning done (those first couple days it was a mess right after cleaning and my filter sponge was immediately clogged, now water is almost clear soon as I'm done - good sign, right?). It does appear last couple days to not come back quite as quickly but I have no illusions that if I stopped in a week it would be back to the worse case.

So...with those modest but significant improvements noted I'll sign off for now. I'll update as things change.

Sad note last week, had my first fish loss - the Bangaii cardinal just went missing. Have full screen and lid on overflow. Nothing on floor or in tank...just missing. Suspect the pistol shrimp made short work of him and could be cause if cardinal was sleeping too close.

Later - Qm
 
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Quietman

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Algae update number what is now....4?

So all my good intentions didn't last the 1 to 2 weeks daily cleaning. But that's not a bad thing. My last update this past Wednesday was the last time I cleaned the tank or changed water until yesterday. So the first couple days I didn't notice any significant regrowth. On Saturday I started to notice some grow back but I also had accidentally dialed up the flow at some point and found my sand bed surprisingly still clean (it usually had the algae first). Decided to try cranking up the flow moderately and directing more towards rocks and sand bed than going for overall tank flow. Still continued the 1.25 ml/gallon every 3 days of Vibrant. The flow increase didn't work as well as I'd hoped...by yesterday morning, I had quite a bit of algae covering the sand bed and my rock work had maybe 50% coverage (compared to the video above).

The good news (cautiously optimistic good news)...

When I did the 10% WC and cleaning yesterday I only had 30 minutes free time so limited to using just the bucket and no deep cleaning directing flow to sock in sump for an hour as I've been doing. Just used my 3/8" RODI cleaning tube (I had accidentally ordered 6ft of 3/8" instead 1/2" but it turns out to be great cleaning hose...stiff enough to scape off rock work and big enough not to clog if you're careful around sand bed) and was only expecting to get the mats off the sand bed and maybe some thicker areas on the rocks. Well, lo and behold, when I started running it along the rock work, the algae just came off like it wasn't attached at all. Ended up getting 80% of it off in just a few minutes and most the sand bed mats up with only 5 gallons.

I am attributing this, as I have been, to the Vibrant primarily and good nutrient control/removal. My sense is that the Vibrant needed time to establish (30-45 days during which time it did take care of bubble algae) and then I helped it with the 5 days of aggressive cleaning and 10% water changes. I'm going to try this more modest cleaning now - every couple days, simple 5 gallon bucket cleaning and no recycling water (I do think that's best, but I wasn't going to do 50%-80% water changes just to ensure it was all removed). And no more scrubbing rock work for a bit.

I'm optimistic the Vibrant has turned the corner...I'll update this weekend likely with hopefully a final or next to final algae post and I can get back to adding livestock. Changes planned for this tank plus I have another tank purchased last week sitting in the living room waiting...

Later - Qm
 
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Quietman

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Algae update number 5 (and hopefully...fingers crossed ,turn around three time and spit....last).

It's been 2 months of hell with this tank. I almost gave in and restarted it a few times. I actually bought a new tank (want to try a softy ,low maintenance tank) and planned on either restarting this tank as an anemone tank or a planted freshwater. I was that frustrated.

To summarize the last couple months here in an update. I will post a final what I think worked or didn't but I don't want to incur the wrath of the reef gods but posting a "final update" when I only have just gotten to the point where things look good again....after 5 months. 5....months.....sheesh! I'll give it another few weeks and want to try restocking and see how that goes.

So a few weeks ago, the algae was gone...it took the Vibrant about 3 solid months to finally get rid of the GHA. The bubble algae didn't come back after last post. Will continue with a low maintenance dose of Vibrant of 4 ml every 2 weeks going forward. Unfortunately, as the GHA was going away, the tank developed the dreaded Dino's. I don't know what kind as I never bought a microscope but as I learned they were rather toxic and aggressive. I suspect this was due to lower nutrients but after the 0 P in the post above I quickly had the 3/.03 N/P target back in line. But probably not high enough, or the Vibrant removed the competition and...who knows, right? Just guessing. I had dinos over the remaining GHA and it was flippin' everywhere. Big dark purple streaky, stringy mats of doom. Rock, corals, sand bed, all covered in it.

So tried cleaning it almost daily with very aggressive water changes...got it down to almost nothing
and then I would stop daily cleaning and two-three days later bad as it ever was. Finally, about 3 weeks ago I started using DinoX, and cleaning and water changes and saw some modest improvement. Still would come back but less...after two weeks seemed to level off without going away. So as a next to last resort (the last was going to be H2O2) I turned lights off for three days. After that time, sand bed looked great, rock was clean with just few dead strings which I brushed off. Been 5 days since then and everything is still clean - maybe a tad of green film algae but that's fine and normal. I'm still not up to 100% lighting schedule....only running 4-5 hours tops but so far so good.

The losses? Well, during the Vibrant GHA/Bubble battle I had lost all but two zoas and my birdsnest as I said above. Also lost my Bangaii cardinal but suspect that was the murderous pistol shrimp. The dinos did far worse. Either lost or severely damaged the alveopora, my gorgeous hammer and frogspawn, the rest of the zoas and the SPS. The only two corals I have that are reasonably healthy are the duncan and a chalice. Also this morning lost my Pink Streaked Wrasse...found the little guy sucked up against the power head intake dead. Hasn't looked good last few days. Strongly suspect the dinos gave off something toxic as they died. Wasn't running GAC...not supposed to as I was dosing every other day. Skimmer was off so nutrients would climb up a bit.

No victory laps just yet. Tested today and everything looks good. 7/.1 N/P. Calcium actually at 450 which is lowest ever. Alk 8.4 pH 8.31, Mg - 1500 (bit high still). Seeing lots of areas of coralline popping up on rock and snails. Snails for the first time in months are clean without algae covering.

Few more weeks and I'll post again. Thinking about what to restock since it's basically a blank canvas again. What a hobby!
 
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reef-rc

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The first year with a reef tank can be f*c*ing ******ing isn't it ;)? I have gone through a similar rounds in the past with varying issues myself; so I can understand the frustration. Seems like you are overcoming the hump and are not deterred.

More pictures may help.
 

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As a RSR170 owner I must say, sorry for the struggles but great perseverance and posts. You’ll win.
 
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Quietman

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Quick update on....what do I call this phase of reefing...recovery? Sure, if this was some wetland that was destroyed through some toxic dumping and the biologists reported a new clump of swamp grass and a surviving fish or two, they might refer to that as the beginnings of recovery. So...Reef Recovery it is.

Another week and no dino's have returned. I'm still not back to previous lighting, but it's close. My light is on auto, but when I walk by in the afternoons I get nervous and shut them off. I suppose I'll stop doing that eventually.

Nothing new has died since last post, and I see two pin head size zoas (palys) popping up from the rock work. One appears to be a Purple Paly and the other hopefully is a Scrambled Egg Zoa - but way too small to tell and don't remember which frag was which. Have pink zoas (two early to tell which type and some mystery little buds that haven't opened up yet on my frag rack).

The hammer and alveaporas are wrecked and very hard to look at.

The only coral that only looks unhealthy rather than on it's last legs is the duncan. But, "last legs" is better than dead and to my eye things have stopped getting worse. Going to lose two/three more likely - just too much damage. But maybe...

The tank chemistry is spot on (always was though), today was N/P 8/.1. As I hinted at above I'm now keeping slightly higher nutrients...Nitrate - 5.0-10.0 and Phosphate .05-0.1. Is that a big difference from 3.0/.03 I was keeping before...nope. Will it make a huge difference? Doubt it. Do I feel better about those numbers? Yup. So that's what I'm going with. I have stopped carbon dosing for now, actually only dosing I'm still doing is the All For Reef to Alk/Ca/Trace. With the fish load down, the skimmer is doing fine on it's own.

Added up the coral losses to date - including shipping, my inexperience, algae and dinos and out of $1200 worth of corals, I have lost $900. Yikes...certain things you just shouldn't do the math on! I'll summarize my first year here in a few weeks. Wish I had a success story to share with all those new hobbyists who are looking to have nice full tanks. But I'm measuring success by the fact that I'm still here. You can't lose the fight if you keep getting up off the dirt (if you haven't seen Cool Hand Luke - do so...soon).

I have started a pico (Fluval V), it was intended as emergency hospital, but things got better and I decided to put some GSP and Xenia in it. Plus my Pistol had to go from main...you'll see the snail carnage in the pics. I'll probably start another much briefer thread on that at some point. And I have a 55 gallon sitting in my living room. Was going to be planted, not sure now. So I'm still a reefer, just not one with a great looking tank for now...but I have dreams...and money...and time...and an understanding wife...so there's always tomorrow.

Hmmm...longer post than I intended. Pics/Vid coming later today.
 
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Quietman

Quietman

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Video of the saltwater desert that is my tank currently. Tried to focus in on the damage. But the sand bed and rocks are clean and it's now a mature tank so in a pretty good place to start adding more.

Side note: Installed the Sicce Voyager 2's temporarily. Will do a longer review of them later on, but I'm very impressed, as quiet as can be, the Sicce Wave Surfer controller is also silent. If I hadn't have baught the Tunze's first, I may have just gone with these. A bit bigger but only marginally (look worse than are side view vid) and after a few days, not distractingly so. If I had nice corals doubt if I'd care.

 
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reef-rc

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That does look like a clean canvas for a new start.

Slow and steady as they say.
 
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