Texas Waterbox 220.6 +Plus HD

jstephens24 · Jun 17, 2020

so still battling cyano on sand and some rocks. it says excessive nutrients or low flow possibilities or new tank. Well my tank is somewhat new and I have been feeding one frozen cube in morning and one in morning. I don't think that's excessive with 5 anthias, 4 tangs and a clownfish. Should I just let it ride? Vacuum sand 5 gal once a week? I boosted the MP40s to reef crest 70-80% but I don't have a ton of rock so flow shouldn't be issue.

PilotOfSubmarines · Jun 19, 2020

jstephens24 said:
so still battling cyano on sand and some rocks. it says excessive nutrients or low flow possibilities or new tank.

I just got done fighting this and I was surprised....
I had it pretty dang bad and it popped up in about 3 days. I used Chemiclean (22 1/2 scoops dissolved in tank water and put it in the sump) and it took care of the problem basically overnight. I took the cup off my skimmer, took out my Chemipure bag from the sump, and left my Cor20 and MP40's going at 75%.
Today is the 2nd day and my cyano is basically 100% gone. I was amazed. It was thick and nasty looking Wednesday morning. All fish and coral are happy.

I have been feeding the same basic amount for a while and it just appeared. I don't think my case was due to feeding....but who knows. My numbers were fairly normal except for a litttle high nitrates.

jstephens24 · Jun 19, 2020

With so many people recommending it I’m thinking I’d be crazy not to give it a try. Maybe I’ll turn my lights back to normal and still dose MB7. Amazon prime for the win

jstephens24 · Jun 22, 2020

Did the 20% WC after chemiclean today and man does that stuff work. Pretty crazy that I put it in during the evening and when I woke up it was pretty much all gone. Skimmer of course went crazy so now I get forward to messing with that but I’d rather deal with that than seeing cyano. I am still dosing 6 capfuls of MB7 in the tank.
One of my cheaper torches is looking very rough. Pretty much all pulled back. It hasn’t looked great since the temp heaters melting few weeks ago. The green torch was looking bad but the last few days has returned back to normal after being rough for a week plus. I don’t see any BJD on the black torch so I put it near the green one since I know that one is doing good and seeing if it will make a comeback

jstephens24 · Jun 22, 2020

I forgot to add something awesome.....I noticed the Green Bay packers zoas have started to grow on the rocks now! Pretty excited. I have noticed a lot of new heads on different zoas but they have all been on the plug still

jstephens24 · Jul 4, 2020

Well I screwed up the skimmer again. I have no idea why it’s not working correctly. I have the open hole facing toward skimmer. The open/close valve right in the middle of that hole. I have the air valve open. The skimmer is in 8.5” of water. With all this the water level is way low on the skimmer. I sent an email to NYOS to see if they recommend anything

jstephens24 · Jul 4, 2020

So I have the open/close valve completely closed and the air barely cracked open. This is only way I can get it this high

Joshua123 · Jul 19, 2020

Any updates on the skimmer?

jstephens24 · Jul 19, 2020

Joshua123 said:
Any updates on the skimmer?

Has not been doing that great. Still have it pretty much same. Not to thrilled with it

esther · Jul 19, 2020

Is it a DC pump? Does it have a controller?

jstephens24 · Jul 20, 2020

esther said:
Is it a DC pump? Does it have a controller?

no controller. It just doesn’t produce large bubbles anymore

jstephens24 · Jul 20, 2020

I recently ordered some new fish from Ocean Devotion. After seeing high compliments from @esther i wanted to try them myself. I will say customer service is very good. I received half my order: premium snowflake clownfish, pink margin fairy wrasse and a carpenter wrasse. Unfortunately the carpenter has been hiding the whole time so hopefully with time it will start swimming. The other half I have a naoko wrasse and an exquisite wrasse coming in a couple weeks

jstephens24 · Jul 24, 2020

Forgot to mention I also picked up an AquaPure 57W UV sterilizer. First couple days I had it going 24 hours a day but now I have it just running at night. It has worked out flawlessly. Skimmer still not right. I have it pretty much closed all the way and air barely cracked open. Only way to get water level high. Sometimes it does take awhile to start working when I turn it back on. Heard air hose could get plugged so I’ve blown in that. Just frustrating

PilotOfSubmarines · Jul 24, 2020

jstephens24 said:
Forgot to mention I also picked up an AquaPure 57W UV sterilizer. First couple days I had it going 24 hours a day but now I have it just running at night. It has worked out flawlessly. Skimmer still not right. I have it pretty much closed all the way and air barely cracked open. Only way to get water level high. Sometimes it does take awhile to start working when I turn it back on. Heard air hose could get plugged so I’ve blown in that. Just frustrating

Glad the Aqua UV 57W worked out for you. I've been running it for 6 months and knock on wood nothing bad has come into the tank yet and the water is crystal clear.

I'm using the Reef Octopus 202 and it's been a dream. Hope you can get your skimmer figured out!

esther · Jul 24, 2020

The Skimz 167 works flawlessly with the WB 220. Honestly, now that I have it dialed it, I would buy this skimmer over again if I had to.

gabrieltackitt · Jul 25, 2020

jstephens24 said:
Forgot to mention I also picked up an AquaPure 57W UV sterilizer. First couple days I had it going 24 hours a day but now I have it just running at night. It has worked out flawlessly. Skimmer still not right. I have it pretty much closed all the way and air barely cracked open. Only way to get water level high. Sometimes it does take awhile to start working when I turn it back on. Heard air hose could get plugged so I’ve blown in that. Just frustrating

Also if you can pull the Venturi off the skimmer pump and give it a soak in citric acid, it may have some calcium buildup or something in it. While you’re at it maybe give the pump an acid soak and look at the impeller on it. Low pressure and bubble sounds like those two could be the likely culprits.

jstephens24 · Jul 25, 2020

gabrieltackitt said:
Also if you can pull the Venturi off the skimmer pump and give it a soak in citric acid, it may have some calcium buildup or something in it. While you’re at it maybe give the pump an acid soak and look at the impeller on it. Low pressure and bubble sounds like those two could be the likely culprits.

I’ll have to buy some then. It’s only been running for a couple months with a new tank so I wouldn’t think buildup but I guess you never know

jstephens24 · Jul 29, 2020

Well something crazy happened. The protein skimmer started acting decent. I’m actually getting some large bubbles starting yesterday. Didn’t clean anything. The only thing I did was turn it off to dump it and then when I turned it back on it took like 10 seconds to start up so I opened air valve up on top and it started working. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I also placed an order for the 75 gal reef cleaners package that includes hermits and crabs. I haven’t had hermits in few years in old tank and have only had 1 crab before. Some algae was popping up so wanted more life in there to help keep it down. I think John sent me double the amount of hermit crabs I was supposed to get but not complaining. They arrived today and the crabs and hermits are already going to work on it

Peach02 · Aug 10, 2020

Similar thing happened with my 160 but its far oversized for my tank, I cleaned out the cup and cleaned the water intake and it started working twice as efficient.
Have you done a par test/map on your lights?

jstephens24 · Aug 11, 2020

Peach02 said:
Similar thing happened with my 160 but its far oversized for my tank, I cleaned out the cup and cleaned the water intake and it started working twice as efficient.
Have you done a par test/map on your lights?

I have not done any par reading but coral all seem to be doing really well