Waterbox 270 LX upgrade
- Large Build
- Thread starter Acropora52
- Start date
- Tagged users None
OP
OP
Acropora52
Active Member
Thanks! Really appreciate the kind words and you stopping in. A lot of the things that have helped me be successful I pulled from your thread so thank you 
So far, the angels are completely reef safe. I have xenia and polyps that I expected to get decimated but so far so good. I do expect that they'll turn at some point but so far the bluelines and the imperator just follow the tangs around and eat what they eat. Flame angels are essentially reef safe ime so not worried about him. I will say that I feed an inordinate amount which probably helps.
Waiting on the anthias. They are still going through quarantine and I'm trying to add them all at once so hopefully sometime later in the month.
So far, the angels are completely reef safe. I have xenia and polyps that I expected to get decimated but so far so good. I do expect that they'll turn at some point but so far the bluelines and the imperator just follow the tangs around and eat what they eat. Flame angels are essentially reef safe ime so not worried about him. I will say that I feed an inordinate amount which probably helps.
Waiting on the anthias. They are still going through quarantine and I'm trying to add them all at once so hopefully sometime later in the month.
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
Staff member
Super Moderator
Reef Squad
Partner Member 2024
Excellence Award
Photo of the Month
Article Contributor
Hospitality Award
Article Administrator
Reef Pumpkin Carver
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
The tank is looking awesome!!
Thanks! Really appreciate the kind words and you stopping in. A lot of the things that have helped me be successful I pulled from your thread so thank you
So far, the angels are completely reef safe. I have xenia and polyps that I expected to get decimated but so far so good. I do expect that they'll turn at some point but so far the bluelines and the imperator just follow the tangs around and eat what they eat. Flame angels are essentially reef safe ime so not worried about him. I will say that I feed an inordinate amount which probably helps.
Waiting on the anthias. They are still going through quarantine and I'm trying to add them all at once so hopefully sometime later in the month.
How's your tank doing? Any updates?
OP
OP
Acropora52
Active Member
Hey, thanks for checking in. I do need to do an update but it's been a rough couple months. Busy at work and had a series of issues arise.
The biggest recent issue has been trying to get my deltec calcium reactor to work consistently but in the course of messing with it, I made a mistake and dosed a large volume of effluent into the system, driving the dkh from 7 to 12. I turned off the reactor and also cut the kalkwasser addition to the tank but the dkh is still sitting pretty high 4 days out. I'm surprised to not see it drop but wanted to see if anyone had had something similiar and how they approached things.
Sorry to hear that. My first thought would be turn off dosing to let it drift down and maybe a decent water change to help it along the way so long as your salt mix kH isn't really high. I would try not to over react and make a moderate correction part of the way and let it drift back to range slowly the rest of the way.
I haven't set up the twin tech yet, what was your mistake with the volume of the effluent?
OP
OP
Acropora52
Active Member
Yeah, life's been busy. 1 day in May that I wasn't working or traveling.
A myriad of tank issues:
1) impeller issue with my skimmer, required a pricey slow arriving order from bubble king
2) calcium reactor issues, more on that later when i've got time but let's just say support hasn't been what I'd expect for the cost of the equipment or the reputation of the company
3) have some fish in qt that died in a system crash (at the retailer, but still sucks).
So, last night after having a little time to stop and think through things, I decided to investigate the alk surge more carefully. In retrospect, I should have done this on sunday but I didn't. I had wondered why my ca/mg hadn't gone up a ton with the alk and why my ph was relatively unaffected. I had assumed that when I was purging the calcium reactor of air (per the manual), I had accidently dosed the effluent into the system and caused the alk surge. However, alk with everything off wasn't coming down like I would have expected. So last night I got out my hanna meter and ran alk with both a current reagent as well as an old reagent. 4.2 and 5 respectively, rather then 12. Alarm bells finally went off. Thanks to a fantastic local wamas reefer who was incredibly generous to test my water with his trident last night, I confirmed that the alk was below what the trident would test, which we believe is 6. So, Murphy's law beats Occams' razor. I may have overdosed the system but the trident alk also looks to have failed at the same time, so my fix of shutting down things likely dropped the alk too low.
I've got a few acros that have died and/or started to stn. So super fun stuff. I dosed a little carbonate last night at about 11 before getting to sleep and hooked my kalk back up. Still need to figure out what happened with the trident and also make sure that I'm on the right track, though I imagine I'll suffer consequences regardless of if I right the ship at this point.
A myriad of tank issues:
1) impeller issue with my skimmer, required a pricey slow arriving order from bubble king
2) calcium reactor issues, more on that later when i've got time but let's just say support hasn't been what I'd expect for the cost of the equipment or the reputation of the company
3) have some fish in qt that died in a system crash (at the retailer, but still sucks).
So, last night after having a little time to stop and think through things, I decided to investigate the alk surge more carefully. In retrospect, I should have done this on sunday but I didn't. I had wondered why my ca/mg hadn't gone up a ton with the alk and why my ph was relatively unaffected. I had assumed that when I was purging the calcium reactor of air (per the manual), I had accidently dosed the effluent into the system and caused the alk surge. However, alk with everything off wasn't coming down like I would have expected. So last night I got out my hanna meter and ran alk with both a current reagent as well as an old reagent. 4.2 and 5 respectively, rather then 12. Alarm bells finally went off. Thanks to a fantastic local wamas reefer who was incredibly generous to test my water with his trident last night, I confirmed that the alk was below what the trident would test, which we believe is 6. So, Murphy's law beats Occams' razor. I may have overdosed the system but the trident alk also looks to have failed at the same time, so my fix of shutting down things likely dropped the alk too low.
I've got a few acros that have died and/or started to stn. So super fun stuff. I dosed a little carbonate last night at about 11 before getting to sleep and hooked my kalk back up. Still need to figure out what happened with the trident and also make sure that I'm on the right track, though I imagine I'll suffer consequences regardless of if I right the ship at this point.
Last edited:
OP
OP
Acropora52
Active Member
Thanks, sorry haven't been on here as much. I currently run an mp60 and mp 40 on the left, 2 mp40s on the right, 2 tunze 3 streams in the back thirds aimed towards the front corner and then the vectras for the return. as things grow, i'll probably add another 2 tunze streams.
