Victoria Music's Custom 180 Rebuild

[Victoria M]

I am really torn about bleaching my old rock. I have it all in the brute. atleast it is buying me time.

 

[Radman73]

Sorry for having to tear down and start over. I can only imagine. Best of luck on the rebuild and props for sticking with it!

 

[Victoria M]

Sorry for having to tear down and start over. I can only imagine. Best of luck on the rebuild and props for sticking with it!

Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it.

 

[saltwaterpicaso]

having fought neomeris I started my tank over 2 times because of it the first time I bleached the old rock for a month and it still came back it bores into the rock and will live the only succesfull thing is to get new rock it took over my whole tank it was horrible

 

[Victoria M]

having fought neomeris I started my tank over 2 times because of it the first time I bleached the old rock for a month and it still came back it bores into the rock and will live the only succesfull thing is to get new rock it took over my whole tank it was horrible

Thank you for sharing your experience. I did not see your comments until this morning. Sorry. It was perfect timing as I was coming here to post about the neomeris. It is sprouting again on one of the rocks I placed in the 40B. I also suspect I am dealing with dino. Although I have not examined anything thru a microscope all the symptoms are there. For some reason I really want to save the rock I had from my aquarium, but my husband wants me to just throw it all away

 

[Victoria M]

I think I am dealing with a dead BTA. The BTA sisters have not been happy in the 40B and have been roving. I found several and pulled them out, sad...and placed two in my BTA holding "tupperware" . I think the corals are sliming up pretty bad. And the tank smells yucky, not not a clean ocean smell. ugh.

 

[Victoria M]

So this issue is probably not dinos. I just got down to basics and did some water testing. I got to use my new birthday gifts...Woot!Woot! Hanna phosphorous URL checker, and Hanna DKH checker. It was super cool. The science geek in me just loves that kinda stuff.
Ammonia 0
dkh 6.4
phosphorous greater than 200ppb!!!
nitrate 10
pH 7.8 maybe 8 the colors were pretty close...
Wow, no wonder everybody in the tank is cranky. So I ran to my favorite LFS and got some filter floss, and a chemi pure. I placed some GFO, Seachem Matrix, Chemi-Pure in the HOB filter cartridges. I also dosed some Seachem Builder. And I am going to do a water change tonight. I have never had detectable Nitrate or phosphate in any of my DT. So this is new. I guess I owe that to the DSB I also seem to have, I guess.

 

[Victoria M]

I also traded a rock out for a rock I have had soaking in the basement.
I decided to discard all my old rock. I just don't think it is worth the risk of the neo coming back. I will just take my luck with all new rock.

 

[Victoria M]

So this issue is probably not dinos. I just got down to basics and did some water testing. I got to use my new birthday gifts...Woot!Woot! Hanna phosphorous URL checker, and Hanna DKH checker. It was super cool. The science geek in me just loves that kinda stuff.
Ammonia 0
dkh 6.4
phosphorous greater than 200ppb!!!
nitrate 10
pH 7.8 maybe 8 the colors were pretty close...
Wow, no wonder everybody in the tank is cranky. So I ran to my favorite LFS and got some filter floss, and a chemi pure. I placed some GFO, Seachem Matrix, Chemi-Pure in the HOB filter cartridges. I also dosed some Seachem Builder. And I am going to do a water change tonight. I have never had detectable Nitrate or phosphate in any of my DT. So this is new. I guess I owe that to the DSB I also seem to have, I guess.

The tank looks better already. I will post pictures soon.

 

[Victoria M]

This is my oldest coral. He has been very unhappy in the 40B. I discovered the biggest problem was dinos. I threw away everything but this coral which was the second coral I added to my tank many years ago. After a few peroxide treatments, a couple water changes, and new media in the filter, being moved to the other side of the tank, he has decided to come out again. I hope he keeps improving.

 

[Victoria M]

I just reread my last several posts...I sound like a crazy person. I think this tank take down and rebuild might just make me crazy.

 

[Victoria M]

I am thinking of getting my new LR from TBS but I have serious concerns about the hitchhikers. A 30 inch tall tank makes putting rock in and out of the tank a nightmare and in my experience traps suck. So I have been considering putting the LR in my 40B to observe it for bad critters. much like a QT process. What problems can you forsee that I am overlooking?

 

[Victoria M]

My husband worked on my aquarium while I was at work. My son sent me this picture. I finally got my mermaid shot...erm...merman shot!

 

[Victoria M]

 

[Victoria M]

He sanded the whole thing, in a weekend. Did it once with a DA sander many steps, and a polisher then started over again the next day by hand because he was not happy with the results. 12 levels of sand paper and a polishing with Meguires Plastx.

 

[Victoria M]

 

[Victoria M]

It is like a shiney new diamond sitting in my kitchen! It reflects like a mirror!

 

[cmcoker]

He sanded the whole thing, in a weekend. Did it once with a DA sander many steps, and a polisher then started over again the next day by hand because he was not happy with the results. 12 levels of sand paper and a polishing with Meguires Plastx.

Looks like he's a keeper, lol! Tank looks great.

 

[vertigo01]

Sorry to hear of your tanks plight.
I think you are doing the right thing by ditching the old and going with the new rock.

 

[Victoria M]

Looks like he's a keeper, lol! Tank looks great.

He is a wonderful man. I am pretty happy with the tank right now. It is gonna be slow and steady.