REEFMASTER's Breaking down, leaving hobby for a while

[Reefmaster1996]

Due to the brightness of the limes, and Jedi's review, I think I'll add 4 limes instead of 8, this thing will be bright as hell as it is, and I can dave a few bucks and maybe get 12 true UV instead of 8

 

Save*

[Reefmaster1996]

So tested my magnessium today and got a reading of 1400ppm, and I double checked and this whole time I have been using the regular reef crystals, no worries though, I ordered a bucket of the Red Sea coral salt (blue bucket) and should get it soon. I'm thinking these had all my. Trace elements off balance and caused some acros to not respond as I wished.

 

I have a surprise addition that I will reveal tommorrow after I pick it up, hint, ( mermaid's purse)

[Reefmaster1996]

Will post pics of the surprise addition today after I get home, I think I did my last crystals water change, I should get the red sea salt this week, hopefully. I will have to leave the tank for four days, I already set up and tried out a gravity fed auto top off dripper set up I made with spare aquarium parts, will post pics of that too. Tank is looking decent, but I think the salt has been hurting my sps coloration.updates soon.

 

Will post pics of the surprise addition today after I get home, I think I did my last crystals water change, I should get the red sea salt this week, hopefully. I will have to leave the tank for four days, I already set up and tried out a gravity fed auto top off dripper set up I made with spare aquarium parts, will post pics of that too. Tank is looking decent, but I think the salt has been hurting my sps coloration.updates soon.

 

Sorry for the repeating post, stupid phone

[Reefmaster1996]

Ordered some of the the final pieces today:

 

Steves LEDs:

4x rebel es limes

4x optics for luxeon lm

Led group buy:

8x tv uv

1xt hermal adhessive

Coralux:

1x dual ldd board

2x ldd sockets

1x storm controller

6x jumper cables

 

Now I just need 60mm fans, wire, acrylic, heatshrink, and wire sheath to make it all look pretty.

[NirvanaandTool]

Nice! Almost there.

 

Same amount of limes as me too. Mine just shipped today, 2-LDD board shipped out yesterday. Home stretch!

[Reefmaster1996]

Hopefully I can do a test run sometime in the next week or two.

[Reefmaster1996]

Got the coralux order in and soldered up.

Tried out the blue bucket Red Sea, and it mixes up in 5 minutes and is perfectly clear by 10 minutes, tank over all looks clearer, pics soon.

Very satisfied wih Red Sea salt.

[Reefmaster1996]

Today's new arrivals:

 

Steves LEDs:

4xlimes

4xlm reflectors

Led group buy:

8xtv

Thermal adhesive

 

I will be glueing LEDs down on the heatsink tommorrow, and then doing a quick test over the next couple of days before making it look pretty and hanging over the tank sometime next week or the week after.

 

On another note, tank needed a carbon change, so I grabbed the bigger size bag of chemipure,for 50 gallon size tank instead of the medium size bag I was getting(20 gallon rating). The tank has gotten cloudyish again so I decided I needed more bacterial stability and I bought a Marinepure biomedia block (8x8x4), the biggest one they make, and it has 23,000sqft of surface area, so I should be set as far as bacterial population from now on, which is the main source of all my issues with clarity. Fingers crossed, I really hate to have to get rid of fish, especially the last addition which I will reveal soon, when I get the chance.

 

Updates on how everything works out will be coming

 

Waiting for tank to look better for an fts.

[Alex B]

Today's new arrivals:

Steves LEDs:

4xlimes

4xlm reflectors

Led group buy:

8xtv

Thermal adhesive

I will be glueing LEDs down on the heatsink tommorrow, and then doing a quick test over the next couple of days before making it look pretty and hanging over the tank sometime next week or the week after.

On another note, tank needed a carbon change, so I grabbed the bigger size bag of chemipure,for 50 gallon size tank instead of the medium size bag I was getting(20 gallon rating). The tank has gotten cloudyish again so I decided I needed more bacterial stability and I bought a Marinepure biomedia block (8x8x4), the biggest one they make, and it has 23,000sqft of surface area, so I should be set as far as bacterial population from now on, which is the main source of all my issues with clarity. Fingers crossed, I really hate to have to get rid of fish, especially the last addition which I will reveal soon, when I get the chance.Updates on how everything works out will be comingWaiting for tank to look better for an fts.

 

If your running zeo why are you using chemipure?? Just sounds like a extra unneeded expense that can lead to problems. Regular GAC works great for me. My water is so clear that sometimes I don't believe it. The cloudiness you got now is not a bacterial bloom. It's just from the chemipure. Used to happen when i ran it. I would be worried about stripping too much out of the water.

[Reefmaster1996]

I'll get some regular carbon from work then and see what happens, I'll rinse out the chemipure and save it for another tank, appreciate the advise. This tank has been driving me nuts lately, although I do think I need the added bacterial stability, I doubt the marinpure bio block will hurt the tank. It can only help.

[Alex B]

Could be. Your tank should be colonized and stable by now though. Stick to the zeovit routine as close as you can. I've had good results so far. My tank is a lot younger then yours and has been stable

[jedimasterben]

What all are you dosing (Zeo, etc), what is your filtration (same skimmer as in OP? any other chemical media?). Bacterial blooms shouldn't keep happening.

[Reefmaster1996]

I am only dosing zeofood and zeobak twice a week, red sea coral colors .25ml once a week, change the zeolith media once every 7-8weeks, weekly 5 gallon water change(just switched from regular crytsals to red sea blue bucket), I have 8 fish, two clowns,corris wrasse,ywg,baby dejardini tang (as small as my clowns), one anthias, and 2 banghai cardinals. I was dosing 1 drop of zeostart twice a day, but stopped after noticing the tank getting cloudy after my water change with the new salt on Saturday. I will definitely change out the chemi pure which is the only media i run, i do have the skimmer (pov dc1), its a beast, but i think my problem is what Alex described in his post.

 

Oh and coral snow after water changes, but the tank isn't cloudy from the coral snow.

[4x5]

Your tank should be able to handle that many fish pretty easily by now. I'm not running Zeo so it could be different but I have 8 fish as well, I've removed my Phosguard, increased my feeding a lot (because I felt my water was too clean) and am only running a skimmer and some carbon and my water has remained incredibly clear.

 

I'd just create yourself as simple a routine as is possible to begin with and stick to it until your tank is totally stable. I'd be less concerned about coral colouring and more concerned with just making it stable, rather brown corals than white ones, you can always play with the colours once it's stable.

[jedimasterben]

Stop dosing or dose less of the Zeobak (and maybe Zeostart, not sure exactly what that one is supposed to do).

[AJ_Tsin]

I think that biomedia addition is a bad idea and will likely add to your problems.

I stick to my first claims that your bioload is likely too large for your build... however even if ZeoVit should be able to handle it or at least make it stable. If you are getting recurring bacterial blooms it is because of excess nutrients and not enough beneficial bacteria...

My humble advice: Stop changing things... every time you change a dose or add media or remove media there are bacterial dieoffs and growths that cause swings. From what I remember your tank should be at the 6 monthish mark and should be approaching maturity, but this doesn't seem to be the case?

 

Can you repost your current Zeo dosing routine? All this other stuff is just mucking with the system. Strip down your regiment to the basics and if the system doesn't stabilize or reach ULNS then you simple need to reduce the amount of waste going into the system, that means get rid of fish.

 

You should really only be using ZeoLite, ZeoStart, ZeoBak, and Passive Carbon. With the addition of Coral Snow and BioMate and Cyano Clean if you also want to diversify your bacterial compositions.

[Alex B]

Aj pretty much hit the nail on the head. You also are not dosing the most important zeo additive which is zeostart. That's what helps you get the nutrients down. Stop changing things and stick to the plan. If you are running zeovit you shouldnt be doing all that other stuff. In my opinion u need to do the following.

 

Zeostart everyday play around with the dose but for your volume I would start at .15 twice a day

 

Zeobak 2 times a week 3 drops

 

Sponge power every other day 3 drops

 

Make sure ur reactor is at correct flow per zeo

 

If you have any algae problems u can use coral snow. If you have a lot of sps already you can use xtra sp and coral vitalizer

 

Honestly I see u have had a lot of problems keeping the tank stable. You have a good skimmer and are running zeo. You should be fine, but you have to stick to the routine. Good luck!

 

250ml of carbon either esv or zeo. Nothing too harsh like brs rox

 

Skim dry and shut skimmer off for a hour after morning dose.

[AJ_Tsin]

^^^^ this.

This system is very very good at getting rid of nutrients. If you what is outlined above and it doesn't work, you need to either add water volume or get rid of bioload.

 

I actually didn't start Pohls Xtra or CV until about a month ago as I didn't want to add any nutrients until I was 100% sure I was running a stable ULNS. I suggest you hold off on those.

 

All you really need is:

Carbon to polish water.

Zeolite to absorb ammonia before it breaks down and as a media for bacteria to quickly colonize.

Zeobak (and Biomate and Cyanoclean if you want) to add bacteria to the mix.

ZeoStart to feed the bacteria like a steroid,

A good skimmer to clear it all out.

Water changes to help and replace trace elements.

That is it.

[Reefmaster1996]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate all the caring advice, I am going to stop dosing the Red Sea stuff, I did change my chemipure out for some marineland carbon, which was all I could find locally at the moment. I want to clear up some of the info about the setup I'm running,(lol pun intended).

 

Volume: about 60-70 gallons

Filtration:

Vertex zeovit reactor(running 500ml of media at 48 gph)

Media: now switched back to regular carbon as I had been running in the beginning

Skimmer: Reef octopus pov dc1 rated for 200gallons

Live rock: about 30lbs

Bioload:

2xpercula clowns

2xbanghai cardinals

1xyellow corris wrasse

1xywg

1xanthias

Dosing regiment before the advice:

1ml Brightwell aquatics alk twice a day

1drop of zeostart 2x a day

3drops zeobak and zeofood 2x a week

5 gallon waterchange(with regular crystals, now Red Sea blue bucket)

Also I feel the bio media will be better than adding more rock to the sump which AJ reccomended earlier, and I noticed helped, it doesn't come with bacteria on it, I can culture the zeo bacteria and grow a more stable population, what would be wrong with that?

 

Also as far as nutrients, I don't really have much algae, it has mostly died out recently, and even before then it was only on my back wall.

 

I did notice I have been skimming abut wet lately, I think that can account for the issue as well.

[Alex B]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate all the caring advice, I am going to stop dosing the Red Sea stuff, I did change my chemipure out for some marineland carbon, which was all I could find locally at the moment. I want to clear up some of the info about the setup I'm running,(lol pun intended).

Volume: about 60-70 gallons

Filtration:

Vertex zeovit reactor(running 500ml of media at 48 gph)

Media: now switched back to regular carbon as I had been running in the beginning

Skimmer: Reef octopus pov dc1 rated for 200gallons

Live rock: about 30lbs

Bioload:

2xpercula clowns

2xbanghai cardinals

1xyellow corris wrasse

1xywg

1xanthias

Dosing regiment before the advice:

1ml Brightwell aquatics alk twice a day

1drop of zeostart 2x a day

3drops zeobak and zeofood 2x a week

5 gallon waterchange(with regular crystals, now Red Sea blue bucket)

Also I feel the bio media will be better than adding more rock to the sump which AJ reccomended earlier, and I noticed helped, it doesn't come with bacteria on it, I can culture the zeo bacteria and grow a more stable population, what would be wrong with that?Also as far as nutrients, I don't really have much algae, it has mostly died out recently, and even before then it was only on my back wall. I did notice I have been skimming abut wet lately, I think that can account for the issue as well.

Just try keeping it simple and running the zeo routine. Also fix the flow and media in the reactor. You should be running a little bit more media if your total volume is 70 gallons. You also should up the flow in the reactor to match your water volume.

Also to be honest, in my personal opinion the tank is a little heavily stocked.

 

I think you need to add some rock in your sump to help and maybe deal with the high bio load. 30 pounds in 70 gallons with 8 fish is tuff.

[Reefmaster1996]

Well, that's why I ordered the marinepure block, it has model surface area than all my rock combined at the moment (23,000sqft)

 

And I will order some media next week to change it out, which is on schedule (chabged every 7-8 weeks)

 

Zeolith media to be clear lol

 

Oh and I am skimming dry again, and keeping it the same from now on.

 

I'll keep you guys posted, I think I can pull of the bioload with more media 700ml at 60-70gph, and the bioblock

[Reefmaster1996]

Update:

Got the marinepure bio block in today and installed in sump.

I have been on top of my zeo product dosing, and the tank is clearing up significantly, still not where I want it, but progress is progress, I did get rid of my last anthias to help out the tank, so only 7 small fish now. Tank seams to like the regular carbon much more as is expected. Also I was able to finish glueing down my LEDs to the heatsink, which has welded together(was 2 heatsinks) on Wednesday.

 

 

I will try to get it wired up and do a test run and video of this tank this weekend.

[NirvanaandTool]

I have no idea about zeo and bioblocks and all that so I'm no help there. I don't even dose my tanks with anything other than Vitamarin C for fish immune system boosting. But nice LED progress! Get wiring and test that beast out!

[AJ_Tsin]

I have been on top of my zeo product dosing, and the tank is clearing up significantly, still not where I want it, but progress is progress, I did get rid of my last anthias to help out the tank, so only 7 small fish now. Tank seams to like the regular carbon much more as is expected.

 

I will try to get it wired up and do a test run and video of this tank this weekend.

Good to hear, however 2 days is nothing, it usually takes about 3 days just to begin to notice the positive effects of anything you add to the tank. (Negative ones can show a bit quicker if they are catastrophic).

 

"Stay on top" of your Zeovit product dosing for a month or two and then see where things are at. I don't mean to sound preachy here but in past few pages of this thread you have started and stopped and added and removed several products and methodologies. There is no way to see results or even begin to tell if something is viable in a couple days.

 

Good call on reducing bioload and I still stand true with my opinion on ditch the Bioblock and just let Zeovit do its thing as the guide suggests.

 

Good luck interested to see how it works for you.

[Reefmaster1996]

To each their own, I completely agree with not giving the tank time to react, I will definitely keep it smile and the same and see where I am in a month, which is when I will leave the tank for 4 days, not worried. I understand exactly what you mean about the the bio block, you suggest simplicity, I just think it can't hurt, so it's in the sump and I doubt I'll have to get rid of it. I'll keep this thread updated, I want to share my expierience with zeovit, but I can't do do if I change everything all the time. So I will definately jeep things stable as I can, no more changes.

 

Other than adding a bad bass light soon.