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Drift Monkey's ADA 60-P (Rebooted!)

Drift Monkey

By Drift Monkey,
in Nano Reef Journals

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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Your tank is starting to come around, where do you keep your water level in the skimmer?

 

...and just as soon as it came around....it crashed. :closedeyes:

 

how is your stand? I am looking for a stand but worried about the weight. the max load listed in ikea website is 22 lb.

 

Stand is still going strong....no issues with the stand...it's holding to this day!

 

Give us an update bud! Got some skim mate pics? and some skimmer water level pics?

 

Maybe skimmer pics after she's back up and running....

 

Drift, where are the updates?!

 

I'll write a long ass update for this tank at the bottom here.

 

Awesome build and close to what I want to do with my next setup!

 

Thanks, looks like you're off to a good start!

 

where the hell are the updates?

 

Keep your shirt on!

 

So the story goes like this: a buddy of mine gave me a RBTA while he was tearing down his then setup. It did fine for a while, but had a propensity for wandering (you can tell where this is going). I caught it wandering into the MP10 one day and it freaked me out, so i turned the pump off and let him wander away. He didn't get too badly damaged, so I kept the pump off/low for days until it seems like he found a spot it liked....and he did.

 

A couple months pass and I thought it was getting more and more comfortable...opening up more and more each day. Anyway, I left for a week long vacation and left the tank on auto-pilot.

 

I came back home to a completely pureed nem. :( It was pretty depressing and basically led me to completely neglect the tank (outside of filling up the ATO reservoir, I still did that for some reason :rolleyes: ). Life kept me busy otherwise too, but anyway this was in January, so it's been that long since I've even touched the tank.

 

Meanwhile, MATS of algae grew all over everything... to the point that the sandbed was nearly completely covered. We're talkin' pounds people (not really...maybe though)! :blink: Bristle worms I never knew I had appeared outta nowhere!

 

Despite all this, life still found a way. All the zoa/paly/toadstool frags survived, despite being quite literally buried under algae. Pods and sponges covered the glass, I have some sort of snail babies crawling the glass, and I found what looks like tiny limpets on the glass too. Vermetid snails are also rampant.

 

I'm also happy to report that all of my equipment was functioned without a hitch...the sump, pumps, heater, ATO, etc, never skipped a beat.

 

Anyway, I finally started pulling some of the junk out this week and I can see a sand bed again (yes, it was that bad). I did a little bit of work on the rocks, but they are covered in turf algae, vermetid snails, and bristle worms. I was thinking about just cooking them (bleach and muriatic acid), but after removing some of the matted algae, they don't look quite that bad, so I may try to just peroxide them and let the algae/etc die off in a bucket (or hell, in the tank).

 

So the plan is, peroxide dip and clean the rocks, remove all sand and go BB, and tear down all of the equipment/sump/etc and start with a fresh fill of water. I already cleaned the skimmer (which yes, was pretty disgusting, despite not being on for months) with a nice water/vinegar bath, so she's basically brand new again. My fuge worked....I have a mountain on chaetomorpha in there now! :P I suspect most of the die off will be essentially removed via the algae mats and the chaeto....with anything else being removed once I get the skimmer back up and running in the sump.

 

Anyway, that's the update y'all...hopefully I can get her back up to respectable soon. Still lookin pretty pathetic at the moment. <_<

 

TL:DR - nem crashed tank, depressed monkey neglected tank, monkey now trying to revive.

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Hexadron

Hexadron

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As soon as you said RBTA, I knew where this story was going! :P

 

Can't wait to see pics. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you, but it will be worth it.

 

/following

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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The skimmer will def be utilized a bit better this time around...and I'll likely ditch the benthic-zone-fuge area idea, and possibly growing macro (chaeto) altogether. Not that it didn't work...but I have a feeling it trapped more detritus than anything. Being able to visibly account for detritus will probably go a long way in keeping the system lower-nutrient.

As soon as you said RBTA, I knew where this story was going! :P

Can't wait to see pics. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you, but it will be worth it.

/following


Thanks for the follow and encouragement! B)

Yeah :P ...my system def wasn't ready for it, but I may try again at some point. This time around I'm going to try to be a bit more on top of controlling nutrient import/export.

It'll be a process, but I bought another 5g bucket for water mixing and some peroxide to treat the live rocks with, so it's a start. Still debating BB or a thin layer of sand...

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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Today was a long day...in fact...it's still going! :o

 

Pulled out each piece of LR today and manually removed as much algae I could, giving a light peroxide bath to each before putting them in a holding bucket. This took approx 4 hours or so. :mellow:

 

The display tank (including overflow) was drained completely and washed out with vinegar, paper towels, razor blades. ALL of the sand was removed. Then came the sump....oh the sump. That was completely emptied and vinegar'd, etc'd. Dat detritus doe! :blink: All the macro was harvested and thrown out. All the LR rubble removed...I think I'm gonna skip using it...it doesn't look too great. A lot of it has rooted macro, etc on it and that's something I'm trying to avoid this go around. Maybe I'll bleach/acid (or vinegar) them down the line and add them.

 

All my equipment (return pump, return lines, overflow line, lily pipe, skimmer stand, vortech wetside, thermometer, etc were vinegar bath'd and scrubbed.

 

Everything is squeaky clean now and I've put my skimmer stand/skimmer back into the sump and am slowly refilling the entire thing. I placed the LR back into the display and boy does it look better. Wayyy better. B) Came up with a preliminary scape I like too. Pretty stoked about goin' BB! :D

 

The sump is partially filled and the skimmer is running now...just waiting for my RODI to fill up my buckets so I can mix and add! Here are some crappy progress pics:

 

 

10348364_10152592149881137_1946273964339

 

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10599537_10152592149971137_8853732084620

 

 

More updates after she's all filled! :happy:

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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Shiny! :naughtydance: Looking good.

 

Thanks! I'm still catching up with your build...but it looks incredible! B)

 

Looks great!

 

Appreciate it! Man, you've been busy (as usual). I still remember when you had your 60p. Diggin the newest setup though...that light it nuts! :wacko:

 

Nice progress!

 

Thanks! ...and with that here is how she looks as of now (after I basically stayed up all night working on her). BB rocks! Nothin' like runnin' your MP10 halfway down the tank wide open! :D

 

10624589_10152592151616137_1974156892400

 

Finally filled. A couple frags that are still kickin' were re-added. Just toadstools and some palys (I think). The rest went into my jar reef... :ninja:

 

10461659_10152592149861137_1511764972224

 

Yup, the skimmer is already hard at work.

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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So...I ordered something that I think might come in handy and....it came in today! :)

 

10710567_10152592149941137_4338457968804

 

It's an Eheim Quick Vac Pro! With this, I can suck out detritus and and other crap that settles at the bottom between water changes. I tried it out and it worked pretty well. I was able to pick up loose stuff at the bottom of the DT, except the large grains of sand that probably blew off from the rocks and collected under the MP10 (I'll have to siphon it out next WC). It worked absolutely awesome in the sump (no rocks, no problems).

 

While testing I inadvertently tapped some of my rockwork and I realized how unstable my scape was... <_< I ended up re-doing it all! :mellow:

 

10696322_10152592172586137_5967380128958

 

64274_10152592172676137_2605379739454447

 

Thoughts on the new arrangement? I liked how I had it, but it's much more stable this way...who knows, I might end up changing it again soon... :unsure:

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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So, after a bit of research, I've found settings I like for the razor. I've ditched my old settings... :happy:

 

ScreenShot2013-11-25at225434_zps554b7974

 

TP 1 0500 A = 00% B = 00%
TP 2 0630 A = 25% B = 40%
TP 3 0830 A = 35% B = 50%
TP 4 1530 A = 35% B = 50%
TP 5 1730 A = 25% B = 40%
TP 6 1900 A = 00% B = 00% or 01% (if I feel like using the moonlight)

 

(I could hook it up to a timer to cut off the moonlight, but it's not that hard to switch it off if I no longer am feeling it.)

 

Anyway these settings seek mimic the approximate rate of sunup/sundown near the equator, where most reefs are found. In reality, the rate that the sun rises/sets is pretty fast, ramping to to about 50% intensity in a time frame of about an hour and 75% by the 2 hour mark. With these settings, I get a 14 hour photoperiod with the maximum intensity period lasting 7 hours. Not that any of this matters (yet), as I only have a couple frags in there anyway. :P

I could take my pursuit for realism even further and take into account that this rate changes through the seasons. During mid-winter, the length of day shortens (to about 10 hours) and the intensity reduces to about 80% of summer...but honestly I can't be bothered (for now :haha:).

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RollaJase

RollaJase

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Very similar settings to what I have on my AI Sol Blue but I run my tank a tad whiter and my blues are ramped up a bit more. I like the scape so far, looking good :).

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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Very similar settings to what I have on my AI Sol Blue but I run my tank a tad whiter and my blues are ramped up a bit more. I like the scape so far, looking good :).

 

Wait....you run your tank whiter with more blues? Wat? :unsure:

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RollaJase

RollaJase

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Wait....you run your tank whiter with more blues? Wat? :unsure:

my whites are closer to 50% and the blues are in the 70% range ;). Makes for a fairly white 'natural' look.

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Drift Monkey

Drift Monkey

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my whites are closer to 50% and the blues are in the 70% range ;). Makes for a fairly white 'natural' look.

 

Ah, right. Well there's nothing in my tank right now but some small softies...hence the low settings. :closedeyes: Yeah I tend to like a ~14k look myself...when I start to crank up the whites on the razor, it starts to get a more purple look.

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markalot

markalot

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Nice to see you have returned.

 

Be careful in that phosphate thread, I'm not sure I still agree with everything I thought at the time, but it was an interesting thread. :)

 

Can you repost any pics of your old pico? The links don't work anymore.

 

I like the scape.

 

Following along for the build / restart. :)

 

OOoh on the quick vac, I could use that for my sump.

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