RollaJase Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Whether to tear a tank down or not is, of course, a personal choice. But I found over the years that rolling up the sleeves and working on fixing any deficiencies to a currently running tank has it's own great rewards. Ultimately, the process may be more painful, but it makes one a better reef keeper IMO. Good luck either way. After due consideration the only reason this tank will come down is of I upgrade to something larger . I have been struggling lately and it does make things a lot harder but I look back at photos I took a few months ago and that drives me to get the tank back to that level. I will manage and get on top of m,y current alk swings and hopefully in a few weeks things are back on track. Oh man, I feel ya. My alk dropped to just under 5 dKH when I forgot to refill the reservoir be fore vacation and then again a month later when I foolishly trusted the multi-timer to break up the dose into smaller bolus. Haven't lost any SPS, but they did lose color. Pohls Xtra has always restored colors in about 2 weeks. It's expensive so this time I'm trying AcroPower amino acids. Slight color improvement in just 3 days. Give it a try before you throw in the towel. :-) PS. Please don't give up! I really do think you are sitting on TOTM potential. Yeah, it has not been a fun time the last few weeks. With how work is right now it has been really hard to spend any time on the tank and that is definitely not helping the situation. I dose amino acids as part of my weekly routine and have definitely found it to help with colour, not helping much right now though. Thanks for the kind words, hopefully I get there one day . There will be some big changes to this tank over the next few months. I have set myself a deadline of the end of July to have the sump installed. The added water volume is greatly needed and will allow me to change the scape to better utilize my space. The last few days have involved me working on various pieces of the stand in regards to cable management and everything is looking good in that department. All that is left for me to do is finish off the lighting/cooling in the stand and that side of things will all be finished. The stand still remains a mystery at this stage, I haven't posted photos deliberately for a very long time for good reason. The work will definitely have been worth it, would have been a lot easier with an empty tank though. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Great Scott I think we have it! Testing as of 28/6/14: Alk = 6.4dKH Cal = 385ppm Mg = 1280ppm Testing as of 29/6/14 (after dosing to raise levels): Alk = 7.2dKH Cal = 400ppm Mg = 1260ppm Today (30/6/14) after 24 hours of revised dosage in ATO: Alk = 7.1-7.2dKH Cal = 395ppm Mg = 1240ppm Tomorrow night is my scheduled Cal dose which will raise my Cal up to around 400 and Mag closer to 1300. I want to try and get everything steady around 7.0dKH before slowly raising it up to 8 over a few weeks. Not a moment too soon either, I lost half of my purple Pocilipora yesterday (it grows so slowly as well) and half of my Rainbow Stylo ( :( ). I'm hoping this stability will halt the destruction and perhaps start some healing. Tank will be getting a serious deep clean this weekend as part of fortnightly water change and I will get getting rid of even more of my frags. Once I get rid of this last piece of Xenia the re-scape can begin! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 It has not been a fun time recently Kat. Just thought I'd post these few crappy mobile phone pics I took last night on my way to bed. http://img822.imageshack.us/i/33a1.jpg/'> http://img822.imageshack.us/i/qhex.jpg/'> http://img823.imageshack.us/i/9xl3.jpg/'> The little guy starts off every night like this until the fungia deflates itself and he then moves to the outflow of my reactor pump. The fungia doesn't seem to mind, look how fluffy it is . Link to comment
markalot Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Grats on TOTM, well deserved. We all have our ups and downs for sure. Great and detailed writeup, I enjoyed reading it! Sorry for the recent issues but looking forward to seeing the rescape! Oh, and this is critical. Are you the first person to use the term fortnight in a TOTM article? Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Congrats on the NTOTM! A bit of TLC and I'm sure you'll get it back on track again. Link to comment
gena Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Woohooo...congrats!!!! Can't wait to see how you rescape . Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment
CustomAquariumBx Posted July 1, 2014 Share Posted July 1, 2014 congrats on TOTM!! Well deserved! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 TOTM!!!! Congratulations! Thank you Kat, it means a lot . Grats on TOTM, well deserved. We all have our ups and downs for sure. Great and detailed writeup, I enjoyed reading it! Sorry for the recent issues but looking forward to seeing the rescape! Oh, and this is critical. Are you the first person to use the term fortnight in a TOTM article? Thank Mark, I'm glad you enjoyed the read. Things seem to be looking up now that I have the Alk stable and I have started a dosing journal to keep track of the big 3 and when I dose and how much. I'm looking forward to the rescape also, I just need to get rid of this last rock I have plastered with Xenia. Fortnightly, bi-weekly it's all the same . When it comes to waterchanges I don't want to sacrifice my morning every saturday so I pretty much doubled the change and do it every second week. Congrats on the NTOTM! A bit of TLC and I'm sure you'll get it back on track again. Thanks Nano, things are looking up already. Congrats on totm! Thanks BA! TOTM!!! Great Job!!! Thanks TJ! Congrats man! Thank you jstn. Congrats bud!Nailed it! Thanks Hype, means a lot coming from you seeing as I oggled your builds before I even started out in this hobby. Woohooo...congrats!!!! Can't wait to see how you rescape . Thank you Gena . I'm looking forward to it as well. It will give me the chance to do a deep clean of my sandbed also, a long time overdue. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank ninja . congrats on TOTM!! Well deserved! Thank you very much . Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 1, 2014 Author Share Posted July 1, 2014 Congrats, well deserved! :D Wicked. Congrats YEY! Thank you all for the kind words . Link to comment
Chris! Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Congrats on the TOTM, definitely well deserved and a beautiful tank. Hopefully it gets back on track and continues to be great Link to comment
Zia Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 TOTM YOU ROCK Brotha! Good work man! Thanks for the shoutout in there too! Your tank is mind blowing inspiring also, keep up the fantastic salty work buddy! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 3, 2014 Author Share Posted July 3, 2014 Congrats on the TOTM, definitely well deserved and a beautiful tank. Hopefully it gets back on track and continues to be great Cheers Chris , I'm hoping things get back on track quickly also. There will be some big changes to this tank over the next few weeks. I'm aiming to get the hardlines for the sump installed this weekend so I can try and meet my deadline for sump-down by the end of July. Congrats! Thanks Brad, things are looking great over in your thread also. TOTM YOU ROCK Brotha! Good work man! Thanks for the shoutout in there too! Your tank is mind blowing inspiring also, keep up the fantastic salty work buddy! Haha love that picture, thanks Zia! No problem mate, you and Gena have both been huge inspirations and on top of that your probably two of the most approachable people I know . I can't wait to see those new candies you picked up over the last few days . As soon as things start to recover a little bit more over here and I decide on my final scape I'll be picking up some new pieces also, gotta make the most out of my limited space. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 Alk is still stable . Raised it up a little to 7.3dKH, Cal and Mag are staying stable also with dosing. Did the standard tests last night, Nitrite and Nitrate are slightly elevated. I put this down to me removing a sizable portion of my rock and not cutting back on feeding, that and the sand bed is very dirty, so dirty that in some places there is visible detritus build up. I will be tearing the tank apart tomorrow (literally) to clean around the rocks and do a deep clean of the sand. I will lose a ton of bristle worms from the vac but it needs to be done, I have a ton of them anyway. The deep clean will go hand in hand with a 30% water change to remove as much of the stirred up detritus as possible. If the clean goes well and I can get rid of the last of the Xenia tomorrow I may attempt a rescape over the weekend. I will be getting rid of a lot of my remaining zoa frags tomorrow so that will open up some more space and be one less thing for me to worry about also. Work on the sump continues. Last weekend I made the union/ball valve components of my drain lines and hope to attach them to the bulkheads tomorrow during the water change. Once they are installed it will be relatively easy to do the rest of the hard line plumbing to the sump. Then all I will have to worry about will be the return plumbing but that will be a lot easier then the drains. I have found that I am cutting corners on the sump to try and rush the completion, not something that I want to do right now but anything that can be installed in the stand with the sump operational has been put on the back burner for now. The two biggest things that I need to finish in the stand before the sump can go in is the lighting and the fans, both of which are at about 70% completion. I just need to pick up a few more switches (will do tomorrow) and mount a light socket for my fuge light and I am done. Also, I am seriously considering a light upgrade to an AI Hydra (using an upgrade kit). If anyone knows of someone using the AI kit to upgrade their Hydra to a Hydra 52 I am definitely interested in the left over Hydra board, housing, pucks and lenses. Lastly, I think its time I got a sig, it has been far too long. I threw together a few quick ones using some of my favourite pictures from my recent reef profile. Take a look below and let me know what you think. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.