Chyendra's 45 Gallon Cube

[chrishayes]

yeah, after looking at my options this ones the one that I have on hand(no cost) and it works! However I did have to change the setup to using a seperate fan on its own channel being controlled only by the ph probe but with an alarm to shut it down if it overcools. I found another flaw with the rkl; you cant have a hysterisis for alarms which just wouldnt let what i was doing work, kept short cycling which wouldve burnt the relays up in no time.

 

I tested before and after setting this low limit and my numbers are

 

Before:

Alk 8.25

cal 440

mg 1500

PH morn to night swing 7.7-8.15

 

After:

Alk 8.25(still this has to be due to the gfo. Im no longer trying to hold it there)

Cal480

mg 1480

Ph 7.86-8.25-30

 

The ph is climbing slowly everyday to where I want it and I feel its not goinna run away either as 7.92 seems to be my new avg am and 8.27 evening. It only moves .01 or .02+ from day to day.

 

I saw your post over on RC and I would love to know some of the answers to your problems but theres not gonna be ONE thing that fixes it. However, everytime ive ever wandered away from the use of kalk ive not been pleased. I feel it is invaluable to keeping an alkaline balanced element environment(i should be a salesman!). Before I got my RKL I had been using Cbalance to avoidhaving to clean my ato so often and doing the mixing and pouring with my new son aound, anyhow once I got the RKL I saw the PH and whoa! 7.7 and dipping lower occasionally. uh no. back to kalk and no more testing all the time to ensure dose is right. Tank hasnt looked better in MONTHS! Ill try to take some pics of growth over the last month ive been back on kalk. Milles seem to revol in it the most with some growing 1/8"-1/4" a day. Its nuts.

 

Good luck with getting it turned around, id try the kalk as its surely not gonna hurt anything as long as you dose it properly. However, I also see your having issues with your ato so id skip that and just make a ghetto milk jug dripper for now and drip at night to start then move to 24/7 as you get a feel for your daily evap.Didnt you just get an aqualifter? Set up a channel for it and just use the ph probe to control it then set your float switch as an alarm to keep it from overfilling.

 

Can you also describe your ato issue a bit more? The way i understand it is that once your return goes on the water level drops lower than your switch for the time it takes for overflow water to get back and stabilize. is that right?

[Chyendra]

Yeah, so the problem with the ATO is that it will drop lower than my switch after the pump gets turned back on, and stays there for 5-20 minutes... then it finally goes back up to the proper level. It's really weird. People in my local club are thinking that it's because my return pump is too strong for the size of my drain (950gph verses 1"drain) I figured that if the tank wasn't overflowing, then the pump wasn't too strong.. I guess I was wrong? At any rate, I have a friend who is going to come over and help me sort out my plumbing. Hopefully soon I will have a much more stable plumbing system set-up.

 

As far at the pH goes, I'm going to set-up my fuge on a reverse lighting schedule (instead of 24/7), and I'm hoping that once I can take the screens and glass lid off my tank, the better oxygen exchange will also help. (my corals are adjusting to a new bulb and I nearly bleached them by exposeing them to quickly... lesson learned!)

 

I probably will start dripping Kalk in the long run, once I get my ATO working and plumbing situation figured out.

[Chyendra]

Somebody asked how the acans are doing. The orange one is doing great! one of the only Mr. coral purchases that survived. the red one is doing ok, not really grown at all.

Keiko and her Nem

[squirrelieygrrrl]

hey chy!

 

hope you get your plumbing sitch sorted soon and get it all working kink free. sounds like a process!

 

i love the keiko shot. that turned out really nice.

 

one out of how many? i had been considering ordering a few sps frags from mr coral. if his frag survival rate is really as dismal as every one makes it seem maybe i should just order from some one else. ive had great success with your reef. maybe ill just stick with them.

[Chyendra]

All the small frags died. I ordered 2 acans, 2 zoas, and 1 SPS and got a freebie SPS. the freebie was tiny (1/4" or smaller) and died less than week of being in my tank. My favorite zoa I ordered had 5 heads, but only 2 heads ever opened, and within 2 weeks they all melted away. The other zoa was larger, but wasn't the same color as the picture, and came with zoa eating nudis... that was fun. They are still recovering. The SPS i purchased started to RTN, but I stopped it with fraging and glueing. The remaining frag hasn't grown at all in the 3 months I've had it and has poor polyp extension. The acans are doing well, and were reasonable sizes for the price. I would never buy zoas and SPS from them again, but MAYBE acans... MAYBE.....

[bencollinz]

subscribed

[squirrelieygrrrl]

ugh that sounds like a total let down. thanks for the heads up, guess ill just save my cash and order elsewhere. what good are cheap frags if none of them survive!?

[Chyendra]

I know right?

 

I have the best luck with local swaps, and people in my local reef club. I'm lucky to live in an area with a lot of reef interest. The SPS frags that have done the best for me, were freshly cut from someone elses colony, and ranged in price from Free to $15.. not bad

[Chyendra]

I didn't take a FTS for march because everything looks the same as february

 

The neon goby didn't work out, my royal gramma harassed it too much. Though I've kept these two species together before, I guess that just shows the importance of adding royal grammas absolutely LAST... I'm considering whether a flame hawkfish or a pygmy cherub angelfish would be able to stand their own against my royal gramma.

 

I have a new species of hair algae sprouting up, and it's much more resilient than the first one that I beat. My nitrates remain at 0 and it still grows. I pull it out... it grows back. I don't have a good phosphate test, but I have a hunch that my phosphate is low, but not 0. I'm running GFO, but last time I changed it out my SPS almost bleached out on me I'll have to add a smaller amount next time. I'm considering trying algae fix marine, but I want to wait until all my SPS seem healthy enough to stand the treatment.

 

My SPS are still adjusting to the new MH bulb (it's taking FOREVER!!! I switched the bulb over a month and a half ago!) Most of them look great, and a few are starting to get some color back. 2 however, seem very stressed by the lighting still. They are already glued down, otherwise I would move them lower, but for now I'm keeping my glass lid on the tank to give them a more gradual introduction (I was finally able to remove all of the screen last week).

 

I FINALLY got my Auto-top off working. My sump kept having wacky water levels, so I added a ball valve to the return and reduced the flow by about half. It seems that my drain just wasn't keeping up with my pump. Now the level is much more stable and my ATO is working great.

 

I have my reef keeper controlling a Tom's aqualifter with a float switch, and a back up floatswitch set on an alarm to turn the pump off. I found a storage container with a snap on lid at target that holds about 3 gallons, which lasts me about a week (I'm sure it won't last as long come summer). The aqualifter is quieter than I expected, which is great.

 

I also decided to start dosing Kalkwasser in order to raise and stabilize my ph, and as an alternative to my two-part alk/ca manual dosing. Hopefully, the Kalk will supply most of my Ca and Alk needs, and I can supplement two-part on occasion as needed. With Kalk being added over a 12 hour period, I'm hoping that my ph and ALK will be more stable throughout the day.

 

 

I have my reef keeper controlling an airpump, with a line running into a 1 gallon jug of settled, saturated (2 tsps/gallon) kalk (I tried some larger containers, but I was having trouble finding one that would stay air tight.) A second airline runs from the kalk, to the first chamber of my sump. For anyone who has never seen this type of ATO system before, I'll explain how it works. Air is pushed into a ridged container (my jug has the lid on tight, and the airline tubing is secured and air tight as well, by way of two holes that are slightly smaller than the tubing... no sealant needed!) Pressure builds up in the container, and causes the fluid to escape via the second tube. See pics below. My photo period runs between 2pm - 9pm, so my Kalk dosing period is currently 11pm - 11am. I set my reef keeper to dose for 5 seconds every 15 minutes for 12 hours each night. So far, this dispenses a little over 1/3 gallon per day, which is about right for my alk consumption. I'm still in the tweaking stage, though it will be easy to adjust a longer dosing time, or extend the dosing period with this set-up. My ph (as measured mid sump level, not in the tank itself) only raises 0.02 each time kalk is dispensed.

Some of you might think... "what a pain!! why don't you just drip kalk??" For one: I don't have a good platform near my tank in my living room to set a jug of kalk on and allow it to flow down to the sump. Secondly, I've used drip systems before, and have found that the amount that is dripped is difficult to regulate, and varies with the fluid level in the jug. Fine for RO, or if I was adding larger volumes of kalk to a larger system, but using my reefkeeper seems more reliable to me in this situation. I also have an alarm to turn off the air pump should my ph rise higher than expected.

 

Well... there's an update... here's some pictures

The tube on the left is air in, the right is Kalk out. Holes were drilled slightly smaller than the tubeing and pulled through to create an air tight seal.

ATO and Kalk jug. See airline tube going into ATO container that is controlled by an aqualifter behind the stand.

Pic of sump inside of stand. Far left: return chamber w/ floatswitches, phosban reactor, & return pump. Probes held snug between the baffles, Middle chamber with chaeto fuge.

On left: dual floatswitches, Middle: Temp & Ph Probe, on right: tube from ATO container (RO). On bottom: ball valve on return (blue)

Far right: first chamber with drain & filter sock (Yikes! It's never that dirty... I'm changing it today, I promise!)

To the right of sock, see airline tube from Kalk jug. This chamber also houses the heater and remora protein skimmer.

 

Happy Corals!

Warhead Lobo

Random acro that is getting a hint of blue

Random acro with a hint of green!

I'm trying to get these red and green zoas to take over this rock together.

Happy serpent star gobbling up pellets

[bobmonkey11]

thats an incredible pic of the sea star, the tank is looking great, how are you liking the dual return with the SQWD as your only source of water movement, i am contemplating doing that for a little while until i can get an mp10 when i set up my sump sometime this week, but i will only be overflowing about 300gph (cpr cs50 overflow box) so im not sure if thats going to cut it.

[Chyendra]

I like my SCWD, and everything seemed to have enough flow, But I am running a mag 9.5, so I'm probably getting more than 300gph.

 

Since I've been having problems getting my SPS to color up, I started wondering if flow could be an issue, even though it SEEMS like they should be getting enough... I decided to put my two koralia ones opposite each other on the back wall to try to get a little more random flow near my SPS. I would like to get an MP10 and be done with it, but it's just not in the budget right now. It's been a week with the additional powerheads and I haven't seen much of a difference. Time will tell. I'm keeping an extra eye on my RBTA because I don't want it to wander into the koralias and turn my tank into anemone soup!

[Chyendra]

Quick update!

 

My kalk doser has been working great!! My Alk has remained stable at 8.9dkh the last 4 days without having to add any two-part. yay! My Calcium is sitting at a happy 480 This certainly saves a lot of time in my daily routine! Instead of adding RO, Alk, Ca, and vodka everyday (split into two different doses), now I fill up the ATO container once a week, and changed the Kalk jug every 3 days.

 

I've cut back on my vodka dosing because my corals have been pale despite frequent feedings. I'm now dosing 0.1ml vodka every other day instead of twice a day.

 

My ph isn't much higher, but it does seem more stable. Before kalk dosing it would swing from 7.75 - 7.90. Now it runs from 7.90-8.00 pretty consistently.

[drichards36]

Sorry to hear about your SPS from Mr. Coral dying. I ordered a msc. assortment from his $10 section before and had a 50% death rate on zoas and only 1 SPS survivor. However, my acans all seem to live.... thought it was just me but apparently it isn't. Tanks looking good btw!

[timdanger]

I like my SCWD, and everything seemed to have enough flow, But I am running a mag 9.5, so I'm probably getting more than 300gph.

 

Since I've been having problems getting my SPS to color up, I started wondering if flow could be an issue, even though it SEEMS like they should be getting enough... I decided to put my two koralia ones opposite each other on the back wall to try to get a little more random flow near my SPS. I would like to get an MP10 and be done with it, but it's just not in the budget right now. It's been a week with the additional powerheads and I haven't seen much of a difference. Time will tell. I'm keeping an extra eye on my RBTA because I don't want it to wander into the koralias and turn my tank into anemone soup!

 

i'm no expert on fluid dynamics, but pointing two powerheads such that they are facing each other and turned on at the same time (as opposed to alternating back and forth on a controller) would seemingly have the effect of neutralizing each other a fair bit. also, no gyre.

 

i had two powerheads on opposite ends of the back wall of my tank for a while. even though they didn't flow directly into each other, they were still broadcasting water in competing directions, so i hypothesized that they were neutralizing one another at least to some degree. so, i ended up moving them both to the same side of the back wall. now they work together instead of against each other and create more of a gyre (though only a unidirectional gyre).

[Chyendra]

They certainly don't negate each other (unless you're the kind of person who doesn't constitute running around the block as "work" because you end back where you start.... oh physics...)

 

With the powerheads on opposite sides pointed at each other, it seems to cause a "shattering" of flow at the point they intersect which causes the water to go off in every which direction. This occurs directly behind my SPS, so they aren't getting too much direct flow, just rebound flow!!

 

whether is helps... who knows... it's either that, or nothing... so I'm going to use what I have

[Chyendra]

Some good news... some bad news... and some good news!

 

The good news is that my RBTA split! Yay! Now I'm going to work on getting one off the rock so I can sell it

 

The bad news is that I tried to give my coral a slight increase in light by cleaning the salt spray off my glass lid and 2 frags were not ready for it. I fraged both of them as they began to bleach/RTN, and ended up losing one completely The other frag is still hanging on, but is now in pieces at the bottom of my tank.

 

The good news is that the other SPS frags are super happy about the added light and are begining to color up some more. I'm seen more greens and some blues.

[Chyendra]

I have some sad news.....

 

While my corals are loving the light without the glass lid, my Midas Blenny couldn't contain himself.... or rather, the glass lid wasn't containing him any more, and he jumped out I can't believe he managed it, the tank is covered with a canopy and only open in the back between two fans. I'm very sad to lose such an awesome fish. I don't think i'll be replacing him soon.. my royal gramm probably wouldn't allow it anyway. I hate losing fish.... It doesn't seem fair, with so many people who have open tanks, and mine's covered and I still have fish jump out

[gena]

Sorry about your fish I lost a fish today too. I found it twirling around in my mp10 I've actually been bummed about it all day today. It's hard to lose fish.

[Chyendra]

Sorry you lost a fish too. I always feel really guilty, because it was my fault it was in my tank in the first place, so then it's my fault that it died. I'm a vet student, so it's really disheartening to feel like I caused an animal to die... I never want to be in that position.

[mordibv]

Nice tank .. I like it . BTW u will totally happy with that SWC we chatted about

[reefer916]

Nice tank!! If your talking about the SWC skimmers you'll really like it. My son and I are running a SWC 120 Cone on our 45 gallon Tech tank. It's really easy to adjust and maintain..

[Chyendra]

Thanks! I'm definitely going to look for a used one, but I need to remeasure my sump and make sure that it will fit. As it's set up now, I would have to put the skimmer in the spot where the fuge is, and move the fuge to the heater/filter sock area. I wonder if there is a water depth requirement for this skimmer? I think my water level is maybe 7" in that chamber?

[Chyendra]

Fast update: I'm sick of looking at pale corals even though I'm feeding a TON of everything (Rods, flake, mysis, cyclopeze, amino acids, phytoplanton...) Vodka is powerful stuff... for a tank I mean

 

I'm quiting the vodka dosing all together and starting to use more GFO to keep the phosphate in check. From what I've been reading, a small amount of nitrates is ok, and maybe beneficial, while phosphates should still be really really low. Vodka was keeping my nitrates at 0 consistantly, but my coral just weren't happy. I also just added a variety of macro algea to my sump to grow and feed my urchins so I don't want them to die from lack of nutrients either.

 

My Kalk dosing is working AMAZING!! I have my RKL controling an Aqualifter dosing for 5 seconds every 6 minutes 24/7 and it's working great. I dose about 1/2 gallon this way. My Alk has been consistantly between 10.0-10.5 for almost 2 weeks. Thats the most stable it's ever been. My ph has been much better too, between 7.98-8.20.

 

I've seen a lot of growth in my SPS in th last month, so I'll try to get a picture soon.

[Chyendra]

I need to get some pictures up, but I just wanted to make some comments about post vodka dosing results.

 

While I was vodka dosing, all my colors were very pale, both LPS & SPS. I tried to feed more (A.As, cyclopeeze, rods, phyto plankton, everything), I tried supplementing potasssium, iron, iodine, & strontium. Potassium and strontium seemed to have very little effect, while lugols iodine did seem to inhance blue colors slightly. Last week I lost 3 fish all of a sudden, and I attributed it to overdoing of probably potassium. I did a large water changes and stoped dosing everything all together. Since then I haven't lost any more fish.

 

Now that it's been about 3 weeks since I stopped vodka dosing, my tank is more colorful then I ever remember it! I thought that my coraline algea was disapearing because of the additional sea urchin, but it seems like vodka dosing was suppressing my coraline algae growth. Perhaps it needs more nitrate to grow than we think. My LPS are looking better than ever. My SPS look about the same as they did pre & during vodka.

 

There has been a bit of an algea bloom since stoping the vodka, but nothing that a water change and a little scrubing couldn't fix. Now i'm using more GFO and the algea growth has slowed down. I think things will stablize with time.

 

I'm gradually switching salt brands from reef crystals to red sea coral pro, so we'll see if this has any benefit.

 

OK I'll try to get more pictures posted soon

[Saltydog08]

Your tank looks great! I just recently set up my 45 gallon cube. I'm excited to see everything finally established and growing well. When you had your 150 MH, did that almost seem not enough? It seems like some of my corals need more but I can't really move anything up. I'm contemplating getting a 250MH. What do you think?