D Z Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 Hmm. I would probably do as close to a full water change as you can (basically to 'reset' all parameters) and then start raising it again. Ehhhh water change is definitely going to happen, but I think I am done trying to get Tech M to work. This is actually the second time I am doing this. The first time through, I lost a lot of SPS due to a spike in Alk cause by the increase in Mag. This time around, I temporarily re-homed my SPS so that wouldn't happen again. I honestly don't think at this point that I will be able to get the tech m to work for the strain of bryopsis I have, at least without killing everything in my tank. I am either going to take everything out, house it somewhere else temporarily and start over with live rock.(I may decided to do this also because I kinda want to move my tank) OR, I am going to do a close to 100% WC and add 1 or 2 lettuce nudi's to take care of the bryopsis. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 So I started the tank on August 19th, and the RW4 has been running in here since then, so about 10 months or so. Honestly, I set up the 2 new RW-4's last night and I have then turned as low as they can possible go, on "C" mode and it is SO MUCH FLOW! You might be able to get away with RW-4s. The price isn't really all that more for the RW-8s, but they are a little bigger, which would be undesirable to me. Yeah that's not too bad. For the price you can't go wrong really. I'm tossing up between the pair of RW-4 or a Gyre but think I prefer the smaller size of the RW-4's and the more turbulent flow. I think the RW-8's will be overkill and like you, I'd rather the smaller footprint. Sorry to hear about the ongoing Bryopsis issues through , I'm still battling GHA, slowly getting there. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Yeah that's not too bad. For the price you can't go wrong really. I'm tossing up between the pair of RW-4 or a Gyre but think I prefer the smaller size of the RW-4's and the more turbulent flow. I think the RW-8's will be overkill and like you, I'd rather the smaller footprint. Sorry to hear about the ongoing Bryopsis issues through , I'm still battling GHA, slowly getting there. Yea, that's pretty much what my choice came down to as well. Honestly, I would have gone with the gyre if I could have afforded the price tag. The only thing about the RW's is that they loose their setting if you turn them off via a controller. I wanted to shut one of them off at night to give less flow at night but that won't work. I was going to just do sleep mode on the RW's, but that is actually more flow that normal, as they are set to pulse on the lowest setting and sleep mode is constant on the lowest setting. Also, every time I do maintenance and put the RKL to standby, I have to reset my RW's after it comes back on. I also have to do this if I spot feed as I like to kill all the flow when spot feeding. Just something you should be aware of. I can't remember. Do you run a reactor with GFO? If not, that will probably help quite a bit with the fight against hair algae. God, I wish my problem was hair algae.... Link to comment
lilmatty5dimes Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 dang man sorry to hear the bad news about that bryopsis. i have a few pieces on a plug and have to pick them off every few days so they don't spread. so far doing a pretty good job and nothing has spread except that dang 3 aiptasia. lol Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Yea, that's pretty much what my choice came down to as well. Honestly, I would have gone with the gyre if I could have afforded the price tag. The only thing about the RW's is that they loose their setting if you turn them off via a controller. I wanted to shut one of them off at night to give less flow at night but that won't work. I was going to just do sleep mode on the RW's, but that is actually more flow that normal, as they are set to pulse on the lowest setting and sleep mode is constant on the lowest setting. Also, every time I do maintenance and put the RKL to standby, I have to reset my RW's after it comes back on. I also have to do this if I spot feed as I like to kill all the flow when spot feeding. Just something you should be aware of. I can't remember. Do you run a reactor with GFO? If not, that will probably help quite a bit with the fight against hair algae. God, I wish my problem was hair algae.... I won't be using an aquarium controller so that shouldn't effect me. I'll basically just be using the 'else' mode after syncing the pumps and I will also use the feed mode when feeding. I tend to broadcast feed corals anyway instead of spot feed. I'll either use my current UPS or make a battery backup unit for the two RW pumps and my DC-3000 return so they should never lose settings unless the power outage is greater than 12 hours or so. Yup, have a GFO and a carbon reactor. My issue is primarily overfeeding and the rainwater getting slightly worse at this time of the year. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 bryopsis sucks...good luck with getting rid of it. H202 helps alot if you can take the rock out and scrub with toothbrush and H202 mixture. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I had a nice, quick trip down to South Florida to see my family. We had lots of fun. In tank related news, I will be taking this tank down sometime in the near future. It will be a slow process, but I have plans to rebuild and start over. Here are the plans for now. This will be a LONG process, as I don't have a whole lot of free time to work on this, but eventually it will be nice. First, I will be setting up my 8 gallon nuvo again, so I will have something temporary to look at and house some of my coral and fish. I am planning on trying to find some way to use the retro kit from Dave to light it, so this should turn out quite nice for a temp tank. My mandarin and a small clown that I am holding on to for a friend will be going in here, along with most of my zoas and softies. The QT will continue running as well, and will house my larger clown pair. As for the 34, I will be ripping out the false wall, drilling it and sumping it. Alex B has his old CAD lights sump that I will be buying and using for the 34. In the end, I should be around 50 gallons of total water volume, which will be very nice for stability. Also, I will be going from a 30 x 12 x 16 display to a 30 x 16 x 16 display, which I am very happy about. Also, all of the bryopsis infected dry rock will be tossed and replaced with some very nice quality live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, which I will be driving to Tampa to pick up so I can keep it fully submerged. I had thought about moving the tank out of my bedroom and into the living room, but unfortunately, with our townhouse being tight for space, this just will not work. Alternatively, my wife and I have decided to try to make a custom armoir type piece of furniture to house the 34. I am planning on making it a very different and interesting type of "stand", with some cool features like a build in safe and liquor cabinet above the light and possibly a built in mini fridge for frozen foods and what not. I will post pictures of the process when I can, as well as some renderings of the armoir stand whenever I get around to laying it out. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Hope all goes well with your changes to the tank! Link to comment
picoreef78 Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Good luck. Bryopsis is terrible, just a few strands on plug enough to take over a tank. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Hope all goes well with your changes to the tank! Thanks.....its going to be a LONG road....in all honesty I probably won't have this tank wet again for 6 months, maybe longer. And it defintiely won't be thriving again for at least a year. But, at least I will have my 8 gallon to look at for the time being. I also forgot to mention, I am ocntemplating just keeping the 8 gallon running as a second tank to house most of my softies and zoas longterm. Then, when the 34 is set back up, it will be SPS dominant! Good luck. Bryopsis is terrible, just a few strands on plug enough to take over a tank. Horrible stuff. And for some reason, mine seems to be almost immune to the normal methods of eradication. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 So I almost also forgot to mention that when I was talking about having the 8 gallon back up long term that it would be more of my Wife's tank! I guess she is a little excited about that cause she rearranged the kitchen, dug the 8 gallon out of my garage, and sent me this pic a little while ago.... IMG_5646_2 by cchsoracle, on Flickr Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 It's so fun when SO's get excited for the hobby too! Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 I'm diggin it in the kitchen. The plan for now is to take my NanoBox retro that I never installed in the ATI and just mounting it to the bottom of the cabinet. I figure that 2 13-ups will be so much light for the 8 gallon that I will be able to set them low engouht to get away with not using a cooling fan. I want this tank to be as simple as possible. The list of hardware is: Nuvo 8 MJ-900 and spin stream NanoBox 2x 13-up with Bluefish Mini The only other thing that I may add in the future is a heater, but that can wait until "Winter". Top off's will be done manually each night and probably a water change every once in a while. This is going to house my mandarin(Which btw has been doing great and is getting really fat) so I will be dosing pods from my culture every week. Sweet and simple. It's so fun when SO's get excited for the hobby too! I KNOW!!! Link to comment
picoreef78 Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Thanks.....its going to be a LONG road....in all honesty I probably won't have this tank wet again for 6 months, maybe longer. And it defintiely won't be thriving again for at least a year. But, at least I will have my 8 gallon to look at for the time being. I also forgot to mention, I am ocntemplating just keeping the 8 gallon running as a second tank to house most of my softies and zoas longterm. Then, when the 34 is set back up, it will be SPS dominant! Horrible stuff. And for some reason, mine seems to be almost immune to the normal methods of eradication. I did about 4 weeks of taking out the rock work, spraying 3% H2O2, scrubbing and back into the tank, alternating rocks. Now it has been all but eradicated. Every so often a sprig might show up and I just pluck it. It also seems tolerant to low nutrients. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 I did about 4 weeks of taking out the rock work, spraying 3% H2O2, scrubbing and back into the tank, alternating rocks. Now it has been all but eradicated. Every so often a sprig might show up and I just pluck it. It also seems tolerant to low nutrients. I never tried that method, but I did give the Tech M method a try twice, as well as broadcast dosing H2O2. Nether worked fully, unfortunately. But alas, the decision to break the tank down and start over was fueled by the bryopsis issue, but was not the only reason. I really am looking forward to the custom stand/armoir. Also, I just never was able to find a balance with this tank. Over 10 months, I saw almost no growth in coral and only a few specs of coraline. While I know very well that some of this was my fault from constantly tinkering, I think it also had a lot to do with starting with dry rock. Also, some of my tinkering was due to reason that were out of my control. Pretty much, I just want a chance to start fresh. Ohh, and on another cool note, I just ordered a new phone. Since my phone is also my primary camera, I am pretty excited to see what the G4 can do in comparison to my current G2. One thing I am definitely looking forward to is the ability to shoot in RAW! It also has a MUCH BETTER sensor, so I should end up with some really good quality images. It still may not be a DSLR, but lets hope its pretty close, as with all these changes, I will not be investing in a DSLR any time soon. Link to comment
D Z Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Preliminary designs for the armoire..... Armoire by cchsoracle, on Flickr Armoire2 by cchsoracle, on Flickr Link to comment
D Z Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Cool design . Thanks dude. Youve got a pretty cool looking build going yourself. Link to comment
Addinali Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Great design can't wait to see it. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=271454 Link to comment
D Z Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=271454 Ehhhh, thats not really a long term solution and you know it. I have a 30 x 12 x 16 display. I am really set on just starting over. I look at it as an option to a fresh start where I can use the knowledge and experience I have gained over the past year to start over in a better way. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Awww...what's your reasoning behind starting over with a sump? I am always interested to hear people's decision making process =P. I know Gena went from a 45g w/ sump to a 20g AIO for ease of maintenance. Seems like you want more water volume for stability and a bigger display. Anything else? Link to comment
D Z Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Awww...what's your reasoning behind starting over with a sump? I am always interested to hear people's decision making process =P. I know Gena went from a 45g w/ sump to a 20g AIO for ease of maintenance. Seems like you want more water volume for stability and a bigger display. Anything else? That's the main points. The only other thing I would add is the ability to hide everything in the stand. The CAD 34G Mini is really nice because they give you a 4" rear compartment. Most are 3", which makes it a lot harder to fit and hide equipment, but even with 4" my skimmer still sticks out and there are visible wires from everything in the rear compartment. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Ehhhh, thats not really a long term solution and you know it. I have a 30 x 12 x 16 display. I am really set on just starting over. I look at it as an option to a fresh start where I can use the knowledge and experience I have gained over the past year to start over in a better way. How is it not a long-term solution? It's a 2.5" fish, it's not going to hit 10" overnight. Unless you're planning to keep this same tank for next decade or so, I think you'll be ok. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 How is it not a long-term solution? It's a 2.5" fish, it's not going to hit 10" overnight. Unless you're planning to keep this same tank for next decade or so, I think you'll be ok. Think I could get one in a 45 with not a lot of rock? Link to comment
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