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TeenyReef's 10g Fusion - ATO Disaster


teenyreef

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I finally got a chance to get an updated FTS. Things looks pretty good overall, but the algae is impacting coral growth. The red setosa in particular has been steadily receding for the last three or four months. I'm not sure why, though.

 

After turning off the skimmer and NoPox dosing for the Fluco treatment, nitrates and phosphates went way up, which is to be expected. But the cyano decreased. This makes sense because I firmly believe too much carbon dosing feeds cyano. After all the whole point of carbon dosing is to feed the good bacteria in the tank so it will proliferate and consume more nutrients. So it's to be expected that it will also feed the bad bacteria like cyano. The trick is finding the balance between too little carbon dosing and too much. 

 

I decreased the dosing by 50%, and so far, the cyano is much more limited. I was stirring the sand daily to keep it in check, and now I only need to go after it every two or three days. And it seems to be slowing down a little more every day...fingers crossed that the algae also starts dying off.

 

2018-09-13 IM10 FTS

 

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After comparing notes with @Cannedfish, I decided to upgrade the return pump on this tank. The Aqamai KPS doesn't have nearly as much flow as the MP10 did, but I like the small size of it. So after resisting an upgraded of the stock pump for years, today I installed a new Jebao DCS-1200, which is a nice, beefy, 300gph pump with controllable speed. It's a nice deal at about $60.

 

It had been a long time since I cleaned the old pump, and the new pump is way stronger. So the first thing that happened was it sucked all the crap out of the bottom of the third chamber and blew it into the tank. Which ought to help a lot with nitrate reduction! I took a cell phone pic of the shitsnow storm:

20180915_173054.jpg

 

I put my old spinstream on, leftover from my 4g tank. The spinstream reduces the flow somewhat, but when you're starting with 300gph that's not a bad thing. I've been able to run it at full speed, but the increased flow raised the water level in the main display quite a bit. I had to add half a gallon of water to get things leveled out again. I also reduced the amount of floss in the media caddy to allow the water to flow through faster without flowing over the floss as much.

 

The only problem I see right now is that with the higher water level, and the surges in water level from the spinstream, there may be some water siphoning over the edge where the clips are for the acrylic top. A different top style, with a beveled edge and no clips would solve the problem, but I hate to spend another $100+ for a new top. I'll just have to keep an eye on it and see how it does. 

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5 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

After comparing notes with @Cannedfish, I decided to upgrade the return pump on this tank. The Aqamai KPS doesn't have nearly as much flow as the MP10 did, but I like the small size of it. So after resisting an upgraded of the stock pump for years, today I installed a new Jebao DCS-1200, which is a nice, beefy, 300gph pump with controllable speed. It's a nice deal at about $60.

 

It had been a long time since I cleaned the old pump, and the new pump is way stronger. So the first thing that happened was it sucked all the crap out of the bottom of the third chamber and blew it into the tank. Which ought to help a lot with nitrate reduction! I took a cell phone pic of the shitsnow storm:

20180915_173054.jpg

 

I put my old spinstream on, leftover from my 4g tank. The spinstream reduces the flow somewhat, but when you're starting with 300gph that's not a bad thing. I've been able to run it at full speed, but the increased flow raised the water level in the main display quite a bit. I had to add half a gallon of water to get things leveled out again. I also reduced the amount of floss in the media caddy to allow the water to flow through faster without flowing over the floss as much.

 

The only problem I see right now is that with the higher water level, and the surges in water level from the spinstream, there may be some water siphoning over the edge where the clips are for the acrylic top. A different top style, with a beveled edge and no clips would solve the problem, but I hate to spend another $100+ for a new top. I'll just have to keep an eye on it and see how it does. 

You can cut (1/4” might be enough) clips a bit with razor blade and see if that helps. 

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30 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

You can cut (1/4” might be enough) clips a bit with razor blade and see if that helps. 

There's a little tab that sticks out below the part that supports the lid. I could cut it off and save about 1/4". The clip would be weaker but I'd be ok with that on just one corner.

 

Right now I'm running it with the clips on to see if water starts to siphon. So far so good...

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Well, the 24 hour no-siphon test was a fail...

20180916-untitled-005.jpg

 

I tried cutting off the little tabs that extend below the right angle piece that supports the top. Turns out the purpose of those pieces is to prevent siphoning by giving the water a surface to drain down. So that made it even worse.

 

The custom top I got has notches for the clips in the corners (to make the cover fit tighter):

20180916-untitled-011.jpg

 

The old IM10 top that came with the tank doesn't have the notches. That means you can place the clips wherever you like, away from the corners where the water goes the highest. So I am using the old top with the clips moved away from the front corners:

20180916-untitled-010.jpg

 

So far it's working! In fact, you can see how high the water is in the front right corner just when the spinstream is pointing that way.

 

But that top is definitely uglier :sad:

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Someone asked about how the fan is mounted on this tank. Since the tank is in the corner of my desk and there's a bookshelf top over the desk, I have a convenient place to mount things right next to the tank:

20180916-untitled-006.jpg

 

I mounted the fan with the bottom of the fan even with the top edge of the tank. It blows directly across the back chamber area. The Apex controller is set to turn it on when the tank temperature goes .5 degrees above the heater set point, and to turn off when it gets back down to the heater set point.

 

I used some short pieces of tubing from my RODI system as standoffs, and mounted the fan with coated deck screws to avoid corrosion. But nothing prevents dust, sigh...

20180916-untitled-009.jpg

 

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On 9/16/2018 at 9:15 PM, skyscraper2290 said:

Looking good, everything happy now that the tank has cleared back up? 

Yes, the water is clear now and the corals are all happy again. I spent a couple days stirring up the gravel and basting the rocks several times a day, and changed the filter floss about eighteen times. Now the sand is clear. Between the reduced NoPox and the increased flow, there are no signs of cyano whatsoever :wub:

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AND...I may have solved the salt creep problem with the lid clips. @hinnenkm posted about a Youtube video which talked about drilling small holes in the fronts and tops of the clips to prevent salt creep. It took two minutes to do and so far it looks like it's working. :wub:

 

 

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4 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

AND...I may have solved the salt creep problem with the lid clips. @hinnenkm posted about a Youtube video which talked about drilling small holes in the fronts and tops of the clips to prevent salt creep. It took two minutes to do and so far it looks like it's working. :wub:

 

 

Yes! That's the exact video I was thinking about 🙂

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Well, the holes in the lid clips made it better but didn't completely eliminate the salt creep. I'm slowly decreasing the flow to see how fast it can get it before it creeps again. I might try more holes, but we'll see.

 

In other news, between reducing the NoPox and the big increase in flow from the new pump, the sand bed is completely clean now. No signs of cyano at all. And everything is generally a little puffier, so I think this has been a good move in spite of the salt creep problem.

 

I also broke apart the zoa island rocks to separate the different zoa types. The SunnyD's are so pretty, but they grow fast and spread over everything. I broke the rocks apart and did an iodine dip and then put the rocks back in the tank. I'll post some pictures tomorrow when everything opens back up.

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Oops I forgot about those pictures, I'll try to get some tomorrow night. I managed to break off a big chunk of the ORA pearlberry so I now have more frags in the frag tank. But I've sold a bunch to local folks to make room for the results of my foolish involvement in the Jason Fox live sale last weekend.

 

Coloration of the sps is not great right now. The pearlberry is almost completely green, and the un-named purple/blue/brown acro at the top is mostly brown. But the zoas are all doing better after a mild iodine dip.

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I'm still thinking about how I want to change things up in this tank:

 

Either change the types of plating montipora, or get rid of them entirely. That would free up a ton of prime real estate for other corals. 

 

It may be time for Doug, the leopard toby puffer, to move up to a bigger tank. He's done his job in getting rid of the vermetid snails and he's starting to outgrow this tank. He'd go in the 30g frag tank and get to work on the vermetid snails there. Bonus: removing a big fish reduces the bioload. 

 

I'm also thinking about going bare bottom. There are no fish or inverts that need a sand bed, and it would be nice to stop doing sand bed maintenance and reduce the nutrient levels. 

 

Maybe get a new, small fish in place of Doug. It would be nice to get a pink streaked wrasse again. I'd also like to add a pair of green banded gobies again. Or maybe I'll move the Springer's damsel from the 30g tank. And if I'm pulling rocks to get the damsel out of the 30g, I could get the two green banded gobies from that tank at the same time. They're lost in the 30g right now. And the damsel would be a good size for the 10g, and he's pretty and always out and about. 

 

Also some rescaping...but I'm not sure what to do yet. 

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8 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

That's a lot of thinking going on right now

Yeah, seems like it. Lol

But I get it. However, instead of overhauling my tank, I just think about setting up a new one. 

 

Bare bottom ahh? I like to see what you come up with.

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Lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
7 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Oh hey, I took some pictures! The zoas have been looking really nice lately.

 

Utter Chaos and friends:

20181003-untitled-001.jpg

 

What coral is above the utter chaos?

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7 minutes ago, RoboNarples2929 said:

What coral is above the utter chaos?

Those are "teenylettis", aka blasto merlettis. One of my favorites in this tank. Someday I'll take them out and cut a few frags off. But they grow slowly so I haven't had much desire to do anything with them.

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On 9/17/2018 at 10:09 PM, teenyreef said:

AND...I may have solved the salt creep problem with the lid clips. @hinnenkm posted about a Youtube video which talked about drilling small holes in the fronts and tops of the clips to prevent salt creep. It took two minutes to do and so far it looks like it's working. :wub:

 

 

I had the same problem...tried drilling holes...didnt work....bought a top from octoaquatics for about $100, no clips at all now

 

20180414_154917_zpsttlyrtdu.jpg

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