Disaster's 80gal + 15gal SPS Reef Tank

[JR!]

what a beautiful skimmer.

[disaster999]

Nice new skimmer . I'm having the same issue as you with the algae, mine looks the same, bubbles the same and grows the same, been fighting it for almost 6 months now along with some cyano. I'm thinking I may try what Roger suggested, up the water flow and as I dose Salifert Amino's I may cut that back by 50% weekly.

I think partially my reason for having this brown algae was due to me not keeping up with tank maintenance. Ive stopped dosing the zeozym and coral snow things started to come back. Once Ive dosed again and it helped with the situation. I need to keep up with my water changes as well, but given my tank size, Its no small task. The amount of water I need to change equals to most people's entire tank volume haha. Needless to say it takes a while for me. The last water change I did took 6+ hours because I was dealing with some flatworm issue as well.

 

Hopefully with the new skimmer, and with me trying to keep ontop of my maintenance, would help control the brown algae.

 

I've had a similar algae, I desperately need to improve the flow in my tank, think that's half the battle. But my lights controller failed the other day after a power outage and I ended up with an unexpected 3 day black out before I was able to fix the controller. This black out has instantly cured the algae issue, how long it will be before it returns is another matter. But I had added a tuxedo urchin the other week to try and help keep on top of things. With it now all but gone I'm hoping the CUC and my immanent wave maker upgrade will prevent the algae returning.

I dont think flow is an issue in my tank. Those Gyre seriously pushes a ton of water. The brown algae is like a honey badger, It doesnt care, it grows directly infront of my pumps. Only hope is to vigorously scrub and scrape, and siphon everything.

 

what a beautiful skimmer.

Thanks, Im happy with it too!

[Benny314]

 

Hopefully with the new skimmer, and with me trying to keep ontop of my maintenance, would help control the brown algae.

 

I dont think flow is an issue in my tank. Those Gyre seriously pushes a ton of water. The brown algae is like a honey badger, It doesnt care, it grows directly infront of my pumps. Only hope is to vigorously scrub and scrape, and siphon everything.

 

 

I think in part lack of maintenance/regular water changes is the root of my problems too. My system isn't overly nutrient rich now (I had a major phosphate problem that I cured recently with a fluidiser and some Phos80), but my nitrates tend to creep up suddenly, or have since this black out (probably lack of algae concealing them since the black out) so I'm looking at switching out the Phos80 for bio pearls now things are back in line to see if I can keep PO4 and NO3 down with one media (I want to avoid 2 reactors if possible).

I have a 75 gallon system but tend to do 25 litre water changes which isn't much more than 5% water volume as it's a pain in the ass doing any larger changes, so I can't knock NO3 on the head with out 1 or 2 water changes a day for a week.

I'm blaming flow in my tank as I have issues with crap settling on my rock work as opposed to being pulled into the sump and caught in the filter sock/sucked out by my skimmer. Hopefully more flow in the DT will mean more crap pulled out in the sump making it easier to keep NO3 down.

[disaster999]

I do agree with you, with better flow, you can suspend more debris and detritus from your tank. When I upgraded to the Gyres, it literally turned my tank into a dust storm. It suspended a lot of crap and I was able to filter it out with some filter floss. But no matter how strong the flow is, detritus and debris will still accumulate in rocks. Only hopes is to blast the rocks once in a while, during water changes preferably, and siphon out as much junk as possible.

 

Nitrate and Phos isnt an issue in my tank. I was told if I back off or stop dosing vodka, I'll get a nitrate spike, but I havent encounter that yet. Most of the test kits Ive used all say my phos is undetectable. Im not sure if its because the test kit, unless I buy a Hanna Egg, all suck, or because its being used up by something in my tank.

 

Anyways, I hope whatever Im doing now will help.

[Benny314]

Yeah I've been giving my rock a good blast every now and then, but I'm never that regular with it and it settles back in the tank with the current lack of flow, my scape doesn't help much either, looks good, but creates loads of dead spots with my current pumps.

Like you've found with your gyre's, I'm hoping stronger flow will keep stuff suspended longer giving it more time to exit the DT and not just resettle.

[disaster999]

My tank cant seem to catch a break.

 

The brown algae was clearing up and all the brown fuzz was slowly disappearing. Im not sure if that was due to the new skimmer, the ZeoZym+ coral snow treatment, or the algae blenny just mowing down everything (he might be the cause...his belly was HUGE) but Im liking what Im seeing. I was away for a week from a trip and was pleasantly surprised to find my tank rid of those fuzzy stuff.

 

Closer look at a tank reviled another problem...I have bought 2 new fish and introduced it to my tank a few weeks back. I have bought from this shop before with no problems. All his fish were healthy and came parasite free. Then come these 2 fish. They never ate and was never interested in any foods. Not even frozen shrimp or fresh seafood. After my week long trip I came back to my tank and saw those 2 fish in pretty bad shape. They soon died afterwards and it probably infected all my fish. It didnt seem like it was ich as I never saw any white spots. So far Ive lost 2 angle fish, algae blenny, tomato clown, and a tang. The other tang is on its way out and I managed to fish out my snowflake clown and started medicating it.

 

Im never NOT quarantining any fish ever again.

[RollaJase]

So sorry to hear about the losses, that's absolutely horrible news . To be honest, I have never QT'd either and never had any issues. I think I'm going to start when I get my new tank set up. It wont be big enough to QT the likes of tangs or large fish in quantity but will be enough to hold juveniles for at least a month.

[disaster999]

Ive successfully QTed tangs in a small 10 gal tank before with no problems, but I got lazy/dont want to setup another tank at home (right now I have 4) so I just added the fish in my tank. Ive bought from this place before with no problems. The yellow tang and the female watanabi angel was perfect fine without QT. Then i added an Atlantic blue tang and another watanabi angel from the same shop and things all went to hell.

 

Death Toll:

Tomato Clown

Snowflake Clown

Yellow Tang

Atlantic Blue Tang

Female Watanabi Angel

Male Watanabi Angel

Algae Blenny

 

Setting up a QT Tang permanently now.

[disaster999]

Here are the next victim for my tank...I wish them luck

 

[Spencer7]

Yes! This tank is still around It's been a while

So it looks like you went with a more zeovit/minimalist/reef in the sky route...for better algae control I'm guessing?

Tank looks good so far, a little bare, can't wait to see that SPS grow in! Iconic frogspawn is still there too

 

Edit: Damn! You changed to a different tank altogether! I thought it looked shallower lol. And you didn't just go with a reef in the sky style...you got the actual tank! xD Wow, didn't see that coming, you're a lucky man.

 

Good luck! I'll be following, can't wait to see how this setup progresses! How old is this tank exactly? Little less than a year?

[disaster999]

Yes! This tank is still around It's been a while

So it looks like you went with a more zeovit/minimalist/reef in the sky route...for better algae control I'm guessing?

Tank looks good so far, a little bare, can't wait to see that SPS grow in! Iconic frogspawn is still there too

 

Edit: Damn! You changed to a different tank altogether! I thought it looked shallower lol. And you didn't just go with a reef in the sky style...you got the actual tank! xD Wow, didn't see that coming, you're a lucky man.

 

Good luck! I'll be following, can't wait to see how this setup progresses! How old is this tank exactly? Little less than a year?

YUP, Andrew (the genius behind reefer in the sky) is unfortunately taking a break from reefing. being in Hong Kong where space is limited, not a whole lot of people can accommodate his tank. Just so happens that I was moving at that time and the tank was at a right price, so I picked it up and here I am. I wasnt easy upgrading my tank as its easily twice the size as my old tank in volume. Water changes is a hassle and I had to pick up a lot of new hardware for my tank, but the journey is fun.

 

The tank has been set up since April so its relatively new at 6 months.

[Cameron6796]

i like the pictures from the page before this... looking good

[disaster999]

I cant wait to stock my tank back up. The green stringy algae is growing all over the bottom of the tank and without tangs to graze on them, its pretty ugly. Im seeing TONS of pods roaming around the tank since theres no one to eat them.

 

The clowns are doing pretty good. Still kicking around in my quarantine tank, but they seem to have some sort of trouble eating pellets. They are definitely interested in it and would look for them. But when I actually add pellets to the tank they will bump into them and watch them sink to the bottom. They only eat 2-3 out of the 6-7 i drop into the tank. They arent interested in flakes, I'll give mysis shrimp a try.

 

After talking to my brother's friend whos also into reefing. He suggested an pumping ozone into my system. After researching online on what ozone actually does, I went ahead and bought one, not because it helps break down organics keeping my tank cleaner longer, but it helps breaks down the pigments in the water and keeping it crystal clear. The same can be achieved through using carbon, but I would have to change it out regularly. With the ozone generator only costing a few bucks more than 2 quarts of Kent Reef Carbon...why not. So far Ive noticed my tank becoming "brighter" and not as dull. It really helped break down the pigments in the water. I know you guys are screaming at me for not getting an ORP controller as well...Ive set the ozone to the lowest setting possible and injecting it through the intake on the skimmer. So far everything is doing fine any Im pretty pleased with it. Ill get the ORP controller eventually but for now its working pretty well for me.

[disaster999]

[jedimasterben]

dayum.

[disaster999]

You should look at the tank 24 hours before I took this pic. Ive been neglecting the tank for a while and let algae grow all over the back wall and glass. My fish just finish their quarantine and I couldnt see them through the filth so I decided to clean every single panel, changed the water and added filter floss to polish the water.

 

The tangs and angel fish did a nice job nomming at the remaining algae on the pump and return pipes. Lets just see how long I can keep this up haha.

[RollaJase]

Beautiful, always been a fan of this tank, even when it was with it's original owner.

[disaster999]

Im doing this tank a disgrace compared to what it was before....

[evan127]

Wow! Keep the pictures coming!

[RollaJase]

Im doing this tank a disgrace compared to what it was before....

Not at all, both were and are beautiful in their own right .

[disaster999]

I need more colored sticks to put in the background

[TheKleinReef]

I really like the low scape look. I wish there was a love button.

[disaster999]

Anyone think 18.6c is a good temp for my tank?

[HarryPotter]

Anyone think 18.6c is a good temp for my tank?

 

Sounds cold. Not 24c?

[jedimasterben]

Anyone think 18.6c is a good temp for my tank?

If you would just hate for your corals to grow, yes