TheKingInYellow goes bare black bottom - 50g SPS dominant!

[Blutspitze]

Yea, colormetric tests are always annoying to read. The dilution is a good option and I'd say the pic you posted does look closer to 20 than 50. Glad that things are going well with the stock!

 

[TheKingInYellow]

You figure with all dry rock, bottled bacteria and pure ammonia cycling you'd avoid hitchhikers, but I got a bit of crumbled coralline from an LFS yesterday and I've already pulled two Asterina starfish off the glass today.

Today's lesson? You just can't avoid hitchhikers.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

So I can't say that this Curve 5 Elite is doing much for me at the moment. No production at all despite fish in the display for some time. The bioload is low, but I am feeding heavily since this is intended to be a heavy-in/heavy-out nutrient system.

The Clarisea is showing colouration on the filter roll, there are ample nitrates in the water, and just nothing from the skimmer. I've tried dialing it in, and it has ample water depth in the sump but it won't even foam to the neck, let alone the cup.

Made an executive decision and decided to order a Nyos Quantum 120.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

I am so confused.

Went to feed the Angel tonight and the waterline in the QT was about two or three inches low and there was water in the floor, on the cabinet, and inside the cabinet.

I immediately called my wife to bring towels assuming it was a leak but it was maybe two gallons so nothing terrible. Towels got most of the water up and there wasn't any damage to the cabinet as it was built for this use.

Where this gets confusing is that there is no leak. I checked and the glass on all sides was dry, maybe a little dried salt in the back. Water managed to somehow get mostly over the front of the tank given where there was signs of splashing but three front of the cabinet was mostly dry. The cabinet top has grommets fit cabling and the insides of the grommets were dry too.

My wife had fed the tank four or five hours earlier and the waterline was fine then. I cleaned up the tank area, topped it back up and checked it every half hour. Almost four hours later and not a drop has left the tank.

W.
T.
F.

There is no leak, no one but my wife was home during the time the 'leak' happened. She didn't do anything besides toss in some flake.

My only guess it's the HoB filter somehow overflowed, maybe the water ran into the grommets and then along the inside top of the cabinet and splashed down at the front. But then, the cabinet doors were closed so how did the carpet a foot in front of the stand get wet? And I mean a single wet patch surrounded by dry carpet.

I am so so confused.

 

[Blutspitze]

I am so confused.

Went to feed the Angel tonight and the waterline in the QT was about two or three inches low and there was water in the floor, on the cabinet, and inside the cabinet.

I immediately called my wife to bring towels assuming it was a leak but it was maybe two gallons so nothing terrible. Towels got most of the water up and there wasn't any damage to the cabinet as it was built for this use.

Where this gets confusing is that there is no leak. I checked and the glass on all sides was dry, maybe a little dried salt in the back. Water managed to somehow get mostly over the front of the tank given where there was signs of splashing but three front of the cabinet was mostly dry. The cabinet top has grommets fit cabling and the insides of the grommets were dry too.

My wife had fed the tank four or five hours earlier and the waterline was fine then. I cleaned up the tank area, topped it back up and checked it every half hour. Almost four hours later and not a drop has left the tank.

W.
T.
F.

There is no leak, no one but my wife was home during the time the 'leak' happened. She didn't do anything besides toss in some flake.

My only guess it's the HoB filter somehow overflowed, maybe the water ran into the grommets and then along the inside top of the cabinet and splashed down at the front. But then, the cabinet doors were closed so how did the carpet a foot in front of the stand get wet? And I mean a single wet patch surrounded by dry carpet.

I am so so confused.

Definitely a mystery. HoB makes sense - maybe something was clogging it but eventually got jostled loose so it resumed regular operation?

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Definitely a mystery. HoB makes sense - maybe something was clogging it but eventually got jostled loose so it resumed regular operation?

Yeah I've asked here and some other forms and the HOB is 99% the culprit but I can't explain how water got to where it got to.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Can you tell when I connected the CO2 scrubber?

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Upgrade time baby! The new skimmer pulls almost twice as much air and with the scrubber I'm hoping to see the pH rise some more.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Never take your shrimp obsessed kid to the LFS.

Introducing the Wee Baby Seamus. Hopefully he doesn't go hunt down the cleaner.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Current full tank video, complete with two shrimp caves. Foxface was hiding but trust me he's fat and happy.

 

[Blutspitze]

Looking great! Love the new shrimp.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Still having a wildly swingy and overall low pH but the CO2 scrubber is in play now and I'm still dosing NOPox which I understand can suppress it somewhat. I'm not going to be too concerned, I'll let it run for a month before making any other changes.

Other updates, the Angel is still eating madly and looks fantastic. He's a bit pudgy now actually and coming from my LFS where his holding tank was medicated and in hypo I'm leaning towards moving him to the display this weekend. That'll be a 18-20 day quarantine and given how healthy everything from this store has been in thinking that should be enough. They are currently holding a male Carpenters Flasher for me so I could use the QT tank right away again.

I'm also going to set up my Coral QT this weekend. I have an AI Prime HD ready to light it, a few spare Koralia pumps and an airstone skimmer for oxygenation more than anything. I'll likely keep a Sixline Wrasse in the tank to provide a small nutrient load and predation on any unwanted guests. Only concern is that I'm looking at a ten gallon tank again and that doesn't seem fair to the Sixline.

In plan to QT corals for 60-90 days so the display should be ready to go by then.

Finally the Nyos is a god dang beast of a skimmer. I got pretty much nothing out of the Bubble Magus over the month plus it was running and with the Nyos I'm enjoying the cup every other day. Tank nitrates are down to about 10 and dropping steadily. Completely with the money, but I need to sell the old skimmer note for Coral and fish money

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Got my replacement WXM from Neptune and tried to connect the Radions. Still won't work. So frustrated with these lights.

Neptune is dialing in on Monday to take a look, again.

 

[Blutspitze]

Blasted lights. Hope that they'll be able to fix them on Monday. Or at least determine exactly what's going on.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Found a local reefer who is going to lend me his Reeflink just so I can rule out WiFi interference or bad Radions or something.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Jesus, the Reeflink won't connect to Ecosmart Live and just sits on initializing forever. I've reset everything a dozen times. I can't even get it to connect to my Wi-Fi it just hangs whenever I try anything.

I'm regretting buying these lights. Should have stuck with the Hydras, my Nero 5 pumps just work and their app has never failed to connect.

I guess I can program the lights with a USB cable?

 

[TheKingInYellow]

I finally got it to work last night, swapped the USB cable and boom.

So the lights are programmed now but the WXM still won't connect. At least I know the lights aren't defective.

 

[TheKingInYellow]

The Angel has moved into the display and is swimming all buddy buddy with the Foxface. They are picking at the rock together and hiding in the same caves. Who knew?

So obviously it was time to hit the LFS and get our next QT inhabitants!

 

[TheKingInYellow]

Man this skimmer just keeps on ticking. This is two days.

 

[Blutspitze]

Glad that they made friends with each other! Looking forward to the new inhabitants joining in later, as well.