Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)

[atrox]

Aquascaping is right on. You planning on leaving the back glass clear?

[atrox]

Yellow coris wrasse + nudi eggs= fat fish. Seriously this fish will actively destroy them. Green slimer looks great, I can't get any growth out of mine.

[Spiderguardnano]

whats the purple puddy for?

[atrox]

To smother out hydroids

[Spiderguardnano]

To smother out hydroids

lol really?

[Dramad1]

 

whats the purple puddy for?

I believe it was to cover hydroids or unwanted pest coral like aptasia or majano, believe it was hydroids though. dont qoute me, I could be wrong.

[markalot]

Tank looks great! I usually am not a fan of the long skinny tanks, but your scape makes it really look good. How many of the cardinals do you have?

5 Cardinals. Thanks for the compliment.

 

Looking good. some great growth there.

Thanks!

 

Aquascaping is right on. You planning on leaving the back glass clear?

No, but so far too lazy to put on the backing. You don't think 80's fake paneling makes for a natural backdrop?

 

whats the purple puddy for?

I love purple!

 

I believe it was to cover hydroids or unwanted pest coral like aptasia or majano, believe it was hydroids though. dont qoute me, I could be wrong.

Yep. I have digitate hydriods here and there. Long white string with barbs that sting. I also used it to knock back the sea foam pallys.

 

Thanks all for visiting.

[markalot]

So here we go with PH again.

 

I recovered the tank completely using the glass lids and plastic inserts that come with them. PH started to drop. I increased circulation in the sump by placing pumps in each chamber and put the sump fan on high. Evaporation is the same as before, based on my timed topoff and water level not chnging. Unfortunately PH began to fall yesterday evening, and plummeted all the way to 7.65 this morning.

 

I checked probe calibration, and also calibrated and checked PH with my handheld meter, both the display and th sump. The low value was correct, apparently. All corals except for my pink poci looks normal. Pink poci has episodes, so not worried about it.

 

Just to review here. I know I have co2 issues in the basement. The skimmer air intake is connected to a hose that pulls air in from outside. This helps, but it's not enough. At this point it's unclear if room co2 is the primary issue or lack of gas exchange due to low evaporation is the primary issue. My evaporation rate is aprox 1 gallon a day which I was hoping was enough.

 

I'm airing out the basement this morning, nice an cool out. I've also turned on my air pumps to increase gas exchange in the sump. If high room co2 is the primary issue, as I've assumed it is, I don't normally want to run the air stones, but if lack of gas exchange is the primary issue then these should help ... and get salt creep everywhere!

[metrokat]

Hi Mark, those side view pictures look amazing! Katropora is happy, and looks like it might be changing color ?

 

[markalot]

Hi Mark, those side view pictures look amazing! Katropora is happy, and looks like it might be changing color ?

 

Hi Kat. It's losing some of the green, which is good by me, and gaining more purple.

[RollaJase]

Looking really good Mark, how goes the eradication?

[TheKleinReef]

hey mark, just thought i'd tell you that turning my fuge lights off for just 2 hours cause my pH to drop from 8.58 to 8.40.

not exactly sure how to lower pH without dosing something acidic. you think its worth just leaving?

[markalot]

hey mark, just thought i'd tell you that turning my fuge lights off for just 2 hours cause my pH to drop from 8.58 to 8.40.

not exactly sure how to lower pH without dosing something acidic. you think its worth just leaving?

 

Don't know Roger.

 

edit: Perhaps you have too much chaeto growing? The algae is using up almost all the co2, driving ph dangerously high, and you don;t have enough surface agitation to drive off the o2 and equalize the co2 with room air????

 

From what I understand using air stones in the sump will help regulate PH by bringing equalizing home co2 with tank co2 and allowing for more outgassing. So air stones might reduce PH for you unless your home co2 is really low to begin with. So far, for me, air stones running seemed to have raised mine but I won't know for a few days of keeping the basement closed up. We're running a bathroom fan 24/7 now as well to try and vent air out of the basement.

 

I can drop PH on a dime, but it takes me forever to raise it.

 

 

In other news,

 

kalk hasn't raised PH much but it has caused my KH to drift higher.

 

KH 9.8

Calc 450

 

Backed the doser off to 80ml a day from 110ml a week ago. KH rise has been less than .3 a day but now I need to start drifting back down, way down. It's ironic that even with a KH of near 10 my PH swings are as bad as ever. I really hope the airstones will help drive off co2 at night.

 

 

Looking really good Mark, how goes the eradication?

 

 

 

Thanks. So far no more seen. I am not attached to any of my caps, and that's were they do the most damage, so if they show up the cap will be thrown out. All in all I haven't paid more than $30 for my red / green / or purple caps combined. I'm just losing time.

[RollaJase]

Thanks. So far no more seen. I am not attached to any of my caps, and that's were they do the most damage, so if they show up the cap will be thrown out. All in all I haven't paid more than $30 for my red / green / or purple caps combined. I'm just losing time.

Glad to hear that you are on top of it Mark, hopefully you don't have to end up throwing out the caps.

[TheKleinReef]

pH continues to drop. i'll see how this works over the next few days and make a decision.

[markalot]

So here is where I stand with PH this morning. Glass lids and inserts completely covering display, air stones running all night, sump fan on high, kalk dosing 30 seconds every 12 minutes, house closed up, skimmer sucking in air from outside.

 

 

Nice and smooth, if just a tad low. Going to keep things as is for a few days to see if PH is still trending up.

[vlangel]

Mark, your tank looks great. Somehow I kept missing it when I checked out the forum. I'm sure you'll get the PH stabilized. Its something how everyone's home is different and everyone's issues with their tanks are different. I guess because we don't have AC and our windows are always open my PH has never been a problem. We are getting AC next spring so that may change. Anyway, your tank is beautiful. Keep up the good work.

[markalot]

Mark, your tank looks great. Somehow I kept missing it when I checked out the forum. I'm sure you'll get the PH stabilized. Its something how everyone's home is different and everyone's issues with their tanks are different. I guess because we don't have AC and our windows are always open my PH has never been a problem. We are getting AC next spring so that may change. Anyway, your tank is beautiful. Keep up the good work.

 

Hi Dawn, thanks! Except for one day a month ago the low PH hasn't caused any issues, so I'm not sweating it. If I can get to a point where PH doesn't drop much below 7.8 then I'll call it done.

[markalot]

I just ordered an APEX 4 outlet expansion box, since all 4 are switched via relays rather than just 2 on the larger 8 outlet box. I want to get my skimmer, sump, and air pumps all on the APEX and all 3 require relay switched outlets.

[jedimasterben]

All of the outlets that are controllable are on relays.

[vlangel]

I am amazed at how methodical you are with your tanks. I think that is why you have such good results! I am sort of a "fly by the seat of my pants" gal although I do monitor parameters once a week, haha! I get away with it cause I have easy corals.

[markalot]

All of the outlets that are controllable are on relays.

Not the same relays apparently since only the two outlets on the 8 outlet strip work on some of my pumps.

[markalot]

http://www.neptunesystems.com/products/expansion-modules/energy-bars/

 

8 outlet bar:

 

Eight controllable outlets. Six of these outlets are controlled by super-silent solid-state triacs and are rated at 5A. Two of the outlets are controlled by high-current mechanical relays and are rated at 10A.

 

4 outlet bar:

 

Four controllable outlets. All outlets are controlled by high-current mechanical relays. Three of the outlets are rated at 8A and one outlet is rated at 12A.

 

Triacs, whateverthehell those are.

 

 

I am amazed at how methodical you are with your tanks. I think that is why you have such good results! I am sort of a "fly by the seat of my pants" gal although I do monitor parameters once a week, haha! I get away with it cause I have easy corals.

 

 

 

Ha, I must be giving that impression but it's really trying not to repeat mistakes made in the past. I still mostly fly by the seat of my pants, it's just more fun.

 

I never tested PH in my 40 or 46, and the 46 had much better color on everything and I also ran Chaeto in the 46. Perhaps the refugium kept the PH higher even though I ran it on the same light cycle? I will never know, but a refugium is an option for the 150 if I can't get PH to stay above 7.8 easily.

[jedimasterben]

Not the same relays apparently since only the two outlets on the 8 outlet strip work on some of my pumps.

Neptune uses two decent mechanical relays and six really shitty solid state relays on the EB8. The mechanical relays are only necessary for very low wattage devices, like dosing pumps or luft pumps. Skimmer pumps, return pumps, etc, that use probably 20-50 watts can be run on their solid state relays.

 

 

EDIT: you posted the above while I was away and didn't hit post lol. I don't understand why they use so many different types of relays, it doesn't make any sense to me. Just keep everything the same and use decent relays and they woulnd't have issues (and it would be much easier for end-users to not have to figure out which ports they need to use for each device).

[vlangel]

Yeap, post some computer charts and everyone will think you are a scientist!

 

For some reason, your thread is not showing up in the members tank section. That's why I kept missing it. I looked for a place to subscribe to your thread and I don't see anything? I probably hit something I shouldn't have on the computer.