Better than a 20L: My 33g long lagoon style

[sayn3ver]

off topic: well, not directly related to this tank, but i started construction on the 40g breeder stand. I framed it up sunday afternoon and will be spending the next few weeks skinning and trimming it to my liking. I borrowed the design from the DIY forum on reefcentral. It came out really well for my first stand. It is sturdy and level. Woodworking is fun, almost as much as reefing is. anyways, here are some pics.

 

stand dimensions (frame not including additional trim materials): 48.25"x24.25"x30"

I sized it larger than the tank for two reasons, with the first so i could fit all my gear under the stand b/c this is going to be placed in the dining room and needs to look nice. Second, is a plumbing thing that pictures later on will explain well.

 

 

 

 

 

[sayn3ver]

Help:

 

I need help. I've had this for a few months now. I wasn't running the lights for a few months and it goes mostly away, but as soon as i run the lights for more than a full day, this happens.

 

My cerith snails do eat the stuff, just too slow to make an impact. I thought i had dino's but my reading suggests nothing will touch it, just like blue green cyno bacteria in the freshwater world.

 

 

 

 

(my nassarius snails)

 

I assume it is diatoms but I always thought they are suppose to go away on their own. How do I go about solving this? Siphoning it off with air line tubing does nothing as it comes back harder the next day.

[everl0ng]

try adding more flow in that area. i turned my lights off for a few days and added more flow. then when i turned on the lights it was finally gone. i don't think they will go away until your parameters are in check. correct me if i am wrong?

[Ryan_H]

check your alkalinity, calcium, and pH. the brown sludge usually shows up when one or more are low. it can also come from improper lighting spectrum, possibly from a faulty or old bulb.

[sayn3ver]

bulbs have almost zero hours on them. I am only running the two Ge 6500k right now. When the tank was cycling I didn't run the lights and I have only ran than randomly since then because I did not feel the need to waste electricity until I had organisms in the tank that required them.

 

I will check my parameters tomorrow. I am a bit confused on the alkalinity test, i don't think I have one. I bought a separate calcium test and have a nitrate, nitrite, ph, ammonia group kit.

 

I am running instant ocean as my mix so i already am starting off with lower than preferred calcium and alk, but I didn't think that would cause a problem considering I realy don't have anything in the tank that would be consuming more than I am replenishing with weekly waterchanges. I mean, currently no coral and no clams. I only have a few snails and whatever the sandbed organisms are using.

 

But I suppose it has been awhile since I've tested. I just never knew there was a connection between those parameters being low and this diatom like sludge. The bioload is so low and with the chaeto, skimmer, calupera and weekly changes, i figured that I had nitrates and phosphates under control since I always test zero for nitrates. Phosphates I don't know since I have never read a phosphate kit reading the scale we need to detect the low levels that cause these mysterious algae to appear. I guess I am making an assumption about nutrient limiting like in planted freshwater tanks, generally, only one nutrient source (nitrate, phosphate, potassium) is the limiting factor for growth.

[maydodo]

Syphon it out whenever you see it and do water change. Turn off the light will help but when you turn it on it will come back just decrease the light to 8 hours per day. Put more water flow and feed less.

[Sctn4Elk]

Sounds like your CUC is a little on the light side....try 1.5 CUC per gallon...mix of cerith, nassarius and hermits...don't forget the fuge...

[sayn3ver]

Really? I thought mine were kinda starving...haha. i have about 5 cerith, 5 astrea and 3 nassarius total.

 

BTW, i finally got around to installing a float valve for my RO/DI storage tank. I got the ro/di unit from what i believe is now tilted bulkreefsupply.com. It came with a auto shutoff valve. I have it hooked up correctly as it does eventually stop the ro waste water, but it seems to need to build up quite a bit of pressure. Is this normal? It took about 2-3 minutes for the water to stop when i held the float valve closed. I will shut off the feed water when i remember too, but for the time that elapses until i do that after a fill, it will be uncomfortable until this is confirmed. haha.

[sayn3ver]

Update: Ordered a tunze osmolator, a korilla #3, one of those high flow kits for my maxi-jet and some other small items monday, ETA of these items is July 8th (holiday + ground shipping = teh sux0rs) but it was free.

 

In similar news, i managed to luck out with work and scored a 5 days weekend (wed-sun off) so I am taking advantage of this and finally redoing my room. I had old brown shag carpet from the 1960's and the white walls were so dirty, stained, marked up, etc that it has been erking me for awhile. I had to empty my room which was an undertaking in itself for most of the day and got 80% of the carpet up and out. I couldn't move my tank cause i need to pick up one of those 40 gallon brutes so i have the water storage capacity. So tomorrow i will be moving the tank to the center of the room (no where else to put it in the house, so i will have to tarp it and paint around it..haha).

 

Luckily, the hardwood flooring underneath is in rather fine shape, so not a whole lot of work to do there, I am not going to refinish them right now as I do not have the time to finish everything else and that by monday, but one day i'd like to work a couple of the spots that have issues.

 

Goals for the weekend:

painting walls, trim and ceiling

painting and installing toe molding around the baseboard

installing new blinds

installing GFCI's for tank(s)

installing new regular sockets

installing new light fixture/ceiling fan depending on the box situation when i get into that

 

longer term goals:

finish 40g stand

build sexy wood platform bed (Japanese style) and buy new mattress

build sexy wood desk

build sexy wood stand for 20g QT tank and 10g FW low tech planted

build sexy wood closet organizer

 

And for those who don't know, I got a new job in may with a friend of the family, who has his own General contracting business. So i've been learning a bunch of new things and I have taken a serious interest into woodworking. I'm still young at 22 and I have much to learn, but having access to a huge tool set now has giving me new ambition and drive to do and build things I would never have attempted before, and the tips and techniques i am learning from the retired union carpenter and our family friend just beg to be used outside of work.

 

I will post some pictures later tonight.

 

still no clue when my marcorocks.com pre order will ship. I have to call tomorrow and get an estimate of when they will be getting their shipment in.

[sayn3ver]

ugh, some things came up over the summer, the tank went on stand by...has been on top off mode only, i returned my scooter blenny to the LFS due to me being absent from home for some time.

 

The last few days, i've been straightening my room out finally (i kinda emptied it and repainted it and tore the old carpet out over the summer) and am looking to get back into this.

 

I am not happy with the tank as is, and with the lack of attention over the summer, i have developed some tough green hair like algae (bryopsis?) and some apista and just recently some brown/red slime algae is coming back. So i will be taking some of the mucked sand and moving it to a 20g in my basement b/c i was retarded an ordered some shoal grass a few days ago before making this decision....

 

my goal is to move sand and a little of the rock + cheato over to the temp 20g with 65W cf i have lying around. Then, i will scrape all the coraline off the tank, drain it, clean it, scrape and re-silicone the internal baffle as its been bothering me since the beginning with the imperfections in it (one side isn't sealed all the way to the top and leaks water about 1/4-1/2" down..meaning my tank level drains down further than i can accommodate in my sump with the power off.) FInally, i will clean everything else that needs it and move it back into my room and set it up as a frag tank. I was going to downgrade to a 15g but i realize that this isn't that much bigger and i already have all the gear for this tank so why spend the money/sell this gear for 15 gallons less? The tank would most likely get trashed in that move b/c its been customized along with the stand so I might as well just use it. I also have 50lb of marco rock and 15lbs of marco rubble i have yet to see, it has yet to be taken out of the box. Looking foward to that while i cook the old live rock covered in algae in the dark for a long time.

 

frag tank will be BB for the most part with racks. The lagoon was a nice idea but too dirty for me right now. I am going to try to grow the shoal grass though in the 20g for the time being and see how it goes.

 

I will be starting a new thread soon so consider this the last post for the lagoon. My first SW and my first failure. Time to re-evaluate after learning quite a bit. More automation for consistency is needed due to my slightly busy schedule, so some sort of 2-part dosing or kalk will need to be figured out as well.

[rotarymagic]

Get you a dosing pump for two part and mag (if needed) or run a nano calcium reactor. Those are great ideas for automation..

 

Things I've found that worked for ridding my tank of bryopsis were the following:

 

Take affected liverock out and put it in a 10gallon for a month in a dark closet with a power head for circulation. Then after letting it sit like that, dump a full bottle of a magnesium only supplement in there to nuke it. After doing this, add you three lettuce nudibranchs to kill the already weakened bryopsis with a light schedule of 6 hours on, 18 off. While many have had limited success with only using parts of this list, I've found that I had to use it all. Also while using the lettuce nudibranchs, make sure the powerhead intakes are shielded.

 

I dunno if an ammonia "bomb" would work too.. aka affected live rock in a 10gallon in a dark closet with many pieces of shrimp in there to rot and nuke everything. Since ammonia kills essentially everything in huge concentrations, it might work, but you'll definitely have to re-cycle the rock before putting it back in a tank. This in combination with no light for photosynthesis may help kill the bryopsis.

[boxboy]

this set up is just dam sweet.