RollaJase Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 Nice job - that looks great. Thanks Latte . I found it really hard to find lighting and shelving options that I could use straight out of the box so I decided to make my own. I think they turned out really well, and didn't cost me the earth either. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 No tank update from me , I have been exceptionally lazy lately when it comes to what's in my tank, very proactive on what powers it though. Still sorting out some last minute bits and pieces equipment wise before the trip to America. Might look at buying a MP10wES when I'm stateside, would need the wireless module for my current MP10 also. I have spent the last 2 hours writing notes and drawing diagrams surrounding tank care for my mother. Pretty comprehensive stuff but the tank will basically run on auto pilot besides feeding, skimmer emptying and ATO refills. Mum is very hands on so I'll show her a few times and get her to help with maintenance this weekend and she will be fine. The notes are just there for extra info for her. Dad needs to watch the tank for a week by himself though, that's what I'm worried about haha. Don't stress, you will all get at least one more update before I fly to LA on the 2nd January . Link to comment
Veng Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 No tank update from me , I have been exceptionally lazy lately when it comes to what's in my tank, very proactive on what powers it though. Still sorting out some last minute bits and pieces equipment wise before the trip to America. Might look at buying a MP10wES when I'm stateside, would need the wireless module for my current MP10 also. I have spent the last 2 hours writing notes and drawing diagrams surrounding tank care for my mother. Pretty comprehensive stuff but the tank will basically run on auto pilot besides feeding, skimmer emptying and ATO refills. Mum is very hands on so I'll show her a few times and get her to help with maintenance this weekend and she will be fine. The notes are just there for extra info for her. Dad needs to watch the tank for a week by himself though, that's what I'm worried about haha. Don't stress, you will all get at least one more update before I fly to LA on the 2nd January . You're almost as bad about tank updates as I am! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 You're almost as bad about tank updates as I am! I know I have been really slack lately haha. I did notice you haven't posed much lately either, besides some huge ass bristle worms! . Link to comment
RollaJase Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 Well it's that time of the year everyone . Just tidying up some last minute things on the tank. Installed a towel rack: https://imageshack.com/i/idxPzjDaj'> Dad got sick of looking at the 'Pipes and Sh*t' when he walked past so I made a cover:https://imageshack.com/i/p5YRgsh9j'> https://imageshack.com/i/f0eTwO76j'> https://imageshack.com/i/pcpciIAPj'> Also made a rack for the inside of the stand to hold the turkey baster and some algae scrapers: https://imageshack.com/i/p4E620ntj'> That's it, no more tinkering for me until I get back from my holiday. After the holiday there will be a new return pump going in, I'll be setting up the fuge properly and hopefully going SPS crazy . I've noticed a bit of red slime algae in some low flow areas of the tank lately. Been keeping up with removing it when i see it and keeping up on water changes. Tested the Nitrate yesterday and had a reading of 20-50 on the Red Sea Pro test kit which took me by surprise. I did a 30% water change today, did a deep clean of the sand bed (blocking both my filter socks in the process), added a little vinegar to help with skimming and added a Nitra-Zorb pad for some extra firepower. Also refreshed both my carbon and GFO reactors at half capacity. This will hold them out until I pack them full again the day I fly out. Well I was going to have a FTS for you but the tank is still slightly cloudy . I'll try to check in again before I jump on a plane for LA. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year. Take some time to sit back and relax with friends and family but most of all sit down and enjoy your reefs . Link to comment
Rehype Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 You did an awesome job on those mods jase....very clean.Enjoy your trip! Look forward to the FTS when you get back Link to comment
Veng Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 That cover looks amazing, good luck on the trip and the tank while you're away! hopefully it'll grow so much you won't even recognize it by the time you get back! Though if you're trips are anything like mine, I'm just happy if it's still alive when I get back! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 You did an awesome job on those mods jase....very clean.Enjoy your trip! Look forward to the FTS when you get back Thanks Eugene . I like to make things where I can, get a lot of satisfaction out of it and save some coin at the same time. I'll try to grab an FTS before I leave, if not, there will definitely be one when I get back. That cover looks amazing, good luck on the trip and the tank while you're away! hopefully it'll grow so much you won't even recognize it by the time you get back! Though if you're trips are anything like mine, I'm just happy if it's still alive when I get back! Cheers Veng, I hope I come back to a tank with growth as opposed to a swamp of red slime and GHA lol. I definitely think I'll need a holiday to recover from the holiday. Surviving will definitely be the hardest part. The whole trip is revolving around my brother wanting his 21st in Vegas so that is what we are doing, going to be a messy few days in sin city. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 have fun in the states! YOLO!! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 have fun in the states! YOLO!! I definitely plan on it buddy . I bid you all farewell for the next month. Just got home from new years celebrations (3pm here now) and I have to squeeze in another water change, refill my media reactors and top up my dosing reservoirs on top of packing before leaving for the airport at 9.30am tomorrow morning. No FTS until I get back I'm afraid. Hope you all had fantastic New Year's Celebrations and strive to meet as many of your new years resolutions as possible. Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 HAppy New Year Jase. The mods look great! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 IIII'MMMM BAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKK!!!!! Flew back into South Australia earlier this evening. I had an amazing trip but it really is nice to be back home (not looking forward to going back to work though ). As expected the tank looks like sludge but it looks much better than expected. The only casualty while I was gone were a couple of fresh zoa frags (smothered with red slime) and one of my cardinals died (was the runt of the 3). Big, big water change on the cards tomorrow (Friday) as I don't have to be back at work until the 9th. Will probably do a 50% change to combat the nutrients and will try to manually remove as much red slime as I can. The reactor media needs replacing also, going to be a big day tomorrow! I have some great shots of the London Sea Life Aquarium as well as the S.E.A Aquarium in Singapore to share. After I put a load of laundry on I may as well start sifting through the 5,000 or so photos I took over the past 35 days haha. Link to comment
4x5 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Welcome back. Looking forward to updates and pictures. Link to comment
D Z Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Awesome, welcome back! How did you like the US? I dont remember for sure, but I think you said it was going to be your first time in the states. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 welcome back! can't wait to see the pics. did u stop by any aquariums while in the states? Link to comment
markalot Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Welcome back! Watch the big water change, a big swing in levels could harm otherwise healthy corals. I might set up to do a bunch of serial changes, maybe 10% a day for a week or something like that. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Welcome back. Looking forward to updates and pictures. Thanks man . Photos will come when I have time to properly go through them, I haven't touched my camera since I got home . Awesome, welcome back! How did you like the US? I dont remember for sure, but I think you said it was going to be your first time in the states. Thank you . The US had it's ups and downs to be honest. I enjoyed some of it, didn't enjoy other parts of it. Most of this came down to the company I had though I think. Trav3elling with my brother was great, his friend on the other hand I wanted to murder after the second day in the country haha. I will definitely go back for a second trip one day, I'd love to check out more of the east coast, check out Hawaii and try to incorporate Canada into the trip as well. On the other hand I absolutely loved Europe, I'll probably go back next year and am even considering work over there. welcome back! can't wait to see the pics. did u stop by any aquariums while in the states? Thanks, and congrats on TOTM! I'll have to read the profile when I get some spare time. Unfortunately I did not get to see any LFS or aquariums while in America. We kinda underestimated the scale of LA and the LFS/aquariums I wanted to check out were about 50 miles from where we were staying. That's an expensive cab fare haha. We did visit the science center in LA and they had a few cold water displays that I enjoyed. Welcome back! Watch the big water change, a big swing in levels could harm otherwise healthy corals. I might set up to do a bunch of serial changes, maybe 10% a day for a week or something like that. Thanks Mark . I ended up doing my standard water change and replaced the filter media. I will be doing a slightly larger water change this coming weekend and will keep it up on a weekly basis until things clear up. Unfortunately I don't have to time over the next few weeks to do any water changes during the week. Things are already looking better then when I got home as well which is nice. I have been blowing off the rocks twice daily and swapping the filter sock ever day to try and remove as much red slime and detritus as I can. I also cleaned out the ATO reservoir to ensure no additional nutrients are being introduced through the ATO. Link to comment
markalot Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I saw you like a post, so where is the update? Link to comment
RollaJase Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 I saw you like a post, so where is the update? The tank still isn't back to normal since I got back so not much to show, the die off continues . I've been so busy since getting back that I haven't even been able to go through the the photos from my holiday yet. I'm hoping to get an update up in the next few weeks, things are starting to calm down for me so I should have more free time on my hands. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 What's this? An update? Well with our 4 day weekend for Easter I actually had time to catch up on a lot of things. Did a ton of tank maintenance on the Friday and today (Monday) I gave my dosing pumps a full clean and flush before recalibrating them. I have been toying with the idea for a while now with going bare bottom for nutrient control. I have never changed the sand in this tank and I know its bloody filthy so instead of pulling all the sand out I removed half, what a chore it was. So here is the sludge cube as it sits now: Don't mind the dirty glass and the strewn zoas everywhere, a result of the massive plumes of detritus the removal of the sand kicked up. I removed the top half of the sand as it was essentially clean, not having really seen any crap since I started up the tank. I rotated the rock on the left while I was at it, bright the right side of the rock a little more into view: Hmm, what else has changed? My plate corals started to recede due to the nutrients so I moved them: The look much happier now and have puffed up even more since the deep clean on Friday. Big leather coral is loving the nutrients though: Chalice's not so much, I have to clean off the GHA daily: LPS island still vacant of LPS but housing some nice cyano: And some random shots I took: So what have I been doing over the last 3 months? Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I came back from my trip to a tank purple with cyano, not one inch of the tank was free and all the corals were smothered. I increased water changes to weekly and increased volume from 17L to 30L. I was doing two changes a week until I could source a large enough bucket. As a result of the higher water volume I also had to upgrade my mixing heater, a 55W model does the trick perfectly. Every second day I have been stirring the sand and blowing off the rocks with a turkey baster. Filter socks have been in 24/7 and get changed every second day otherwise they clog up too much and restrict water flow. Over the last month I have been winning the battle. Most of the cyano is gone, only showing up again since I disturbed the sand. Only the GHA remains and it is dying back slowly. My parameters are getting closer to where I want them to be as I fine tune the doser. It has been a fine learning curve but I have learn't so much from this ordeal. I'm hoping by the end of June I can say the tank is clean, healthy and stable so I can start to add more SPS and LPS.I have also started changing from Red Sea Coral Pro tests to Salifert tests as they run out, I find the Salifert tests much easier to read and am now using them for Alk and Mag. Next steps for the tank: Return pump - upgrade my existing for more flow through the sump and to support my two reactors. Tossing up between two models, both an AC and DC variant. Return pump manifold - need to remake this to support the reactors. Add additional unions for modularity. Ruturn Nozzle - I plan on using a pair of the oscillating return nozzles (forget the name off the top of my head) for additional randomised flow. Skimmer - Considering upgrading to something higher capacity, potential sump remake, something simpler to house it maybe. Light - Still want to do a Hydra upgrade kit to my Ai Sol. Although, for the price I can get an Ai Prime pretty much which will suit my tank perfectly while giving me the option to expand on the Prime system for a larger tank. Well, I think that's all for now. There are so many other things rushing through my head but I cant quite remember what they are. Happy Easter all . Link to comment
cruzH20polo Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Awesome tank! love the whole setup! from the livestock to the sump! well done, well done, looking forward to the upgrades Link to comment
RollaJase Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Awesome tank! love the whole setup! from the livestock to the sump! well done, well done, looking forward to the upgrades Thank you very much . Although I don't think the tank looks like much at the moment, no where near its former glory anyway haha. I'm looking forward to the upgrades also, hopefully the extra flow from the return will help eliminate some dead spots I am having which should help keep detritus out of the display and into the sump. Link to comment
gena Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 From what you described, you've made a huge improvement! So glad to see an update . Your mandarin sure is a fatty. Must be the lobster eggs? Mine finally started eating live blackworms and frozen mysis so I'm no longer at the mercy of buying pods and hoping for nutramar ova to come back in stock . Link to comment
RollaJase Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 can i haz zoas? pweeezzzz I actually need to frag some more out lol. I have about 10 frags already in my sump, will probably get 10 more once I prune. From what you described, you've made a huge improvement! So glad to see an update . Your mandarin sure is a fatty. Must be the lobster eggs? Mine finally started eating live blackworms and frozen mysis so I'm no longer at the mercy of buying pods and hoping for nutramar ova to come back in stock . I hope the improvements are for the better Gena, I want to spent less time with my arms in the tank and more times enjoying it haha. Mandy sure has grown a lot, I barely recognized it when I got back from my trip. I feed the lobster eggs twice a week (half a cube twice weekly) and Mandy sure does love them, the zoas do to and even the Blenny catches them from the water collumn. Mandy also gorges on frozen mysis daily and constantly grazes on the rocks, sand, glass aaaaand the zoas lol. I'd like to think its getting enough food. Congrats on getting your mandy to to make the move to frozen. Its a massive load off my mind knowing that I don't have to worry if it is eating or now. P.S, I have a picture for you Gena, a picture from London. I'll make sure to post it once I finish going through everything . Link to comment
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