gqlmao Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I just got my sunpower last week. I was playing around with the bulbs and I have 6 bulb plus, coral plus, purple plus just to create that 20k look. I still don't think its quite at the 20k spectrum yet, after burn in I will know for sure. I have noticed that even 1 bulb of white washes out the blues. I am sure you got this in the bag this time around. That SPS WILL color up and grow! Was hoping the color would be a bit more blue than it is.. but I'll have to wait for the bulbs to burn in I'm sure. Link to comment
Rehype Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Couple pics with the lights on and a few Acans that I salvaged and seem to have pulled through the tank change OK. Lights had only been on for a few mins before taking these pics. Looking good J....glad to see your back always been a fan of your builds. Link to comment
JDigital Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 Looking good J....glad to see your back always been a fan of your builds. Thanks Rehype. It's starting to come along. I've added a few more SPS colonies this week and finished my fish stocking as well. That being said, it hasn't been all roses and candy. My skimmer still feels the need to test my temper and overflows randomly, so I am going to look into adding a float switch to the skimmer cup to prevent it from flooding over when it wakes up on the wrong side of the tank. Current fish stocking: Yellow Flanked Fairy Wrasse Carpenters Flasher Wrasse Falco Hawkfish Copperband Butterfly Combtooth Blenny Link to comment
JDigital Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Possible disaster this morning.. I won't know the short term affects till I get home today but a quick summary.Got home last and walked inside the house. As anyone who has followed this you will know my tank is near the front door. Closed the door behind but apparently forgot to flip the deadbolt. Either way, the door was closed and I cleaned the glass, checked/fed the fish, had my daily observation of things and went upstairs for the night.Come downstairs this morning to leave for work and my front door in open with about a 3-4 gap and the frosty -25 degree air is pouring into my front entrance area, right where my tank is. I immediately checked my RKE display to see what the temp was at... It had dropped to a chilly 14.1C from 24.6C. I have no idea what time the door popped open during the night, but I'm fully expecting that temp drop/shock to nuke all my SPS I have added in the last few weeks.This tank has been a bloody nightmare to deal with and EVERYTHING that can go wrong seems to. Granted this was my own fault for forgetting to lock the deadbolt but still, what are the chances your front door blows open randomly like this (especially on a night when its -25C outside).UGH!! Link to comment
pschom Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Oh shit. Just when things are looking hopeful. Link to comment
JDigital Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Well got home and had a look at the damage..Copperband Butterfly - Dead.All other fish.. seem ok so far.. Wrasses have a couple spots of ich, will keep an eye on them.Acans - ****ED OFF! closed up and puking out stringy gunk.Zoas - Seem to could care less, all open and looking fine.SPS - ****ED OFF! 1 colony is likely to STN on me. Every tip of every branch is white skeleton. My Blue Stag is looking pretty rough, the coralites do not look healthy at all but no noticeable skeleton showing yet. All other SPS has FULLY retracted polyps right now. The only one that looks even remotely unfazed is the Montipora Confusa colony.Duncan Frag - Fully retracted polyps.Hammer Frag - 90% retractedThe temp when I got home had risen to 20.4C. I have since added another heater to help out a bit before the lights go out.Ultimately I feel it could have been a LOT worse, but who knows what the long term affects will be over the next week or two.I put some HC-GFO online tonight to help battle any PO4 I will get from the 1) dead fish, 2) possible STN of SPS.Finger crossed! Link to comment
MikeTR Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Sorry to hear about the mishap. This time of year is always rough on my corals even with my temp never deviating from a 2 degree swing. How's the 180? Haven't seen any updates on that in a while Link to comment
NanoTopia Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Sorry to hear JD, that cold weather makes reefing tough sometimes, we have only -10C here at night but I still worry that the power will go out for more than two hours. I thought you had an APEX? Well get one, it would have been able to warn you the temp was dropping by alarm and emails, maybe you would not have heard it though with the tank being downstairs. In any case, two heaters would have faired better at dealing with the cold room maybe. Wishing you better luck Link to comment
JDigital Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Sorry to hear about the mishap. This time of year is always rough on my corals even with my temp never deviating from a 2 degree swing. How's the 180? Haven't seen any updates on that in a while This tank doesn't sway more than 0.1 degree.. so for it to drop 10-12 over night is HUGE! The 180 is doing well. It's basically on Auto-pilot. I'll have to get some updated pics and do an update. Sorry to hear JD, that cold weather makes reefing tough sometimes, we have only -10C here at night but I still worry that the power will go out for more than two hours. I thought you had an APEX? Well get one, it would have been able to warn you the temp was dropping by alarm and emails, maybe you would not have heard it though with the tank being downstairs. In any case, two heaters would have faired better at dealing with the cold room maybe. Wishing you better luck I do have an Apex...... on my 180G office tank. I have a Reef Keeper Lite on this tank.. it's on my replacement list but no idea when I'll get around to ordering an Apex. I'm not sure 3-4 heaters would have been enough to combat the frigid icebox that was my front room this morning.. It was honestly -25 down there.. The main floor of the place I live in is the 2nd floor and it was toasty warm at 24C, as soon as I turned the corner to go down the stairs into the front entrance it was like that sensation you get stepping down into a hottub..... except the COMPLETE opposite. My shoes were so cold they were literally SOLID.. could barely get them on. lol Thanks for the best wishes guys... I seem to need any little bit I can get with this silly tank! Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 I'll just leave this here for all to laugh at... Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 Why would we laugh? Considering what happened a few months back, I'm surprised it wasn't worse, although I'm sure now it is a lot better than it was. Got any pics without all the blue? Link to comment
pschom Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 I don't think we would laught at you man. That sucks. I kinda feel your pain. I cannot get rid of the algae I have either. What are the plans? Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 7, 2014 Author Share Posted June 7, 2014 Honestly, I have no clue what is even causing this algae... I will confess firstly that after it took a serious nose-dive my water changes were fewer and fewer (now non-existent as my enjoyment of the tank is basically nil) There are no fish in the tank, which means no feeding. Very few corals, just acans, a frogspawn, and a colony of Monti confusa, all of which are actually looking great... unfortunately the tank is INFESTED with Green Bubble Algae, that soft stuff you can see in the pic, some leafy macro-ish algae and............ aiptasia. Jedi, these are the best pics I can get right now with my phone... Just to give you an idea of what I am facing. This guy was wishful thinking to help with my issue... I honestly can't tell if he has made a dent since I picked him up on monday. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 I've seen way worse lol. Buy a couple 500mL bottles of 3% peroxide. Buy a rabbitfish. Buy lettuce nudibranchs if you have bryopsis. It'll be a slow process, but you'll start seeing results immediately. If you have no cleaner shrimp or hosting anemones (maxis/flower nems are ok), then you can do the following. If you can remove the offending rocks, then pull them out one by one. Have a large bowl or a 5g bucket with new saltwater in it, basically just enough to cover the rocks, this is your first bucket. Here, manually scrape off as much bubble algae as possible and leave it in the bucket. Have a second bowl/bucket that has no more than a gallon or two of saltwater in it, and put in an entire 500mL bottle of peroxide. After you have scraped as much off of the rock as possible in the first bucket, set it inside this bucket for 10-20 seconds. Have a third bucket with new saltwater, this is your final rinse bucket. Take the rock out of the second bucket, then swirl it in the third bucket to make sure you got everything off of it. Then place back into the tank. Repeat on each rock. This part is time consuming, but is the most effective. In the meantime, you can be dosing hydrogen peroxide directly to your water column, start at around 1mL of peroxide for every two gallons of water. If you have the time, then instead of just dosing the whole water column, take a small pipette (I use 3mL ones, bought 100 on amazon for $4), take in pure peroxide, then spot treat a small patch of bubble algae with the entire pipette, being slow with pushing it out. Peroxide floats in saltwater, so it will rise, best to put the syringe slightly into the algae patch or under it if it is on an overhang. You'll notice the bubble algae turn clear over the next 48 hours. You can repeat this, using a maximum of 30-40mL of peroxide, twice daily with several hours in between. Sea hares really only eat semi-complex macros, like hair algae, most don't touch some like bryopsis that are more complex, and I don't know of any that eat bubble algae. Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 7, 2014 Author Share Posted June 7, 2014 Can you explain the 3% peroxide please? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 It begin to oxidize the algae on contact. H2O2 is a stronger oxidizer than even bleach, but is harmless to reef inhabitants except for a very few exceptions (Lysmata shrimp, hosting anemones). Link to comment
Tamberav Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 I think this tank needs: 1 Rabbit fish 2 Mexican Turbo Snails 1 Tuxedo Urchin I have had amazing luck just using natural critters to clean up algae. My urchin even eats bryopsis... nom nom. Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 7, 2014 Author Share Posted June 7, 2014 Jedi, I appreciate the detailed outline you wrote.. That is going to be a ton of work!! haha Every rock is infected. I'm almost tempted to buy new rock.. Lol Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 7, 2014 Share Posted June 7, 2014 Lol, yes it is a ton of work, but oh so worth it! If you do decide on new rock, though, KP aquatics has about the best you can buy, and its cheap! Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 7, 2014 Author Share Posted June 7, 2014 Not sure I can order from the states for live rock, getting "live" stuff across the border is a pain I think... Not sure, but that's what I've heard.. I checked their website though and the rock does look fantastic.. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted June 8, 2014 Share Posted June 8, 2014 Sorry, was on mobile, didn't see you were in Canada - d'oh! Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 10, 2014 Author Share Posted June 10, 2014 Well... I pulled the plug on the old setup and have decided to start from scratch, literally.... I spent a solid 5.5hours last night scraping, scrubbing, draining and cleaning out the system as best I can.. Not sure how to get much more out of my sump, pretty difficult pulling a syphon from a few inches off the ground, and I've got no pumps/powerheads that work for this duty so I will have to live with the left over water sitting in there I guess. haha I'm gonna see what else I can do tonight to but there is really only about 2-3 gallons sitting in the sump right now. I picked up some new rock, Pukani Dry Rock. Really nice pieces and was able to come up with my aquascape in the store (photos below). I really think this is the best thing to do.. The old rock just left too many chances for me to miss something when scrubbing/peroxiding the misc algaes only to possibly have more issues down the road. Not to say that I won't face challenges starting over, but I feel its a safer option. Here are a few pics of the pukani rock I picked up and what my aquascape will look like... This was a very UNSTABLE design in the store so I picked up some "Fijicrete" to cement the pieces together. Hoping to get started on that tonight. Fingers crossed!! Link to comment
JDigital Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 Another night of working on the tank tonight.. Cleaned out the sump and started working on "cementing" my rock structure in the tank. Decided to go back to a sand bed mainly for esthetics. Couple quick pics I took.. http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/DarkFader10/media/JDigitals%2062G%20Reef/CAM00084_zps97f78b3f.jpg.html'> http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/DarkFader10/media/JDigitals%2062G%20Reef/CAM00085_zps9b585fa0.jpg.html'> http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/DarkFader10/media/JDigitals%2062G%20Reef/CAM00086_zpse25f681f.jpg.html'> http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/DarkFader10/media/JDigitals%2062G%20Reef/CAM00087_zps9bd66a21.jpg.html'> I will keep you guys updated.. Link to comment
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