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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Radioactive Meltdown 2.0-- new rockscape


tetraodon

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this is a new log for a rebooted tank, my original meltdown was upgraded to a 30 breeder. in the almost year since i did the upgrade things just haven't been quite right. i lost a few fish, more than a few corals, and all my clams. so, now i think its time to reboot the tank, overhaul my practices and get this tank going good.

 

IMG_20151118_192021481_HDR_zps5jb8facr.j

FTS 1/10/2016

 

Equipment

  • 30 breeder main display
  • 20 long sump
  • 2 reefbreeder value fixtures
  • bubble mangus curve 5
  • avast marine MR5 W/ custom re-circulation upgrade- shut down
  • Reef safe solutions RS1 temperature controller
  • 2 Jebao wave makers
  • jebao dosing pump
  • Glass-holes.com In N Out kit
  • custom made gravity auto top off
​Live stock
  • dwarf fuzzy lionfish "oscar"
  • diverse CUC
  • various soft and LPS coral
To do
  • new stand, custom built
  • eradicate cyano with extreme prejudice
  • better light stand than PVC
its my hope that i can get this tank running about half as good as most tanks i see on here. i strayed a little from basic practices and proven techniques. im getting back at water changes instead of relying on a bio-pellet reactor which caused much of my issues due to improper set up then do due to it stripping the water bare.
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I swear I hear 3 horror stories about bio-pellets for every 1 good story. IMO stick with Carbon and GFO for filter media.

 

GL on your new tank.

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I swear I hear 3 horror stories about bio-pellets for every 1 good story. IMO stick with Carbon and GFO for filter media.

 

GL on your new tank.

ive been giving it time due to the mistake i made at first, so we will see, i might just take it and make it into a carbon reactor after visiting my favorite LFS

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welcome back :wub:

Thanks, my other thread flopped and well i thought it was time to get a fresh start, by the way we go by the same name :D

 

 

today i bought a few new test kits, salifert phosphate, nitrate, and alk. my red sea alk kit has been saying its been steady at 9.8 for months regardless of water changes. so i think its safe to assume i needed a new one. i also am using a great site called aqua log, great for logging test results and journals. i also have to say my reef safe solutions temp controller is awesome.

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dialed my bio-pellet reactor output to little more than a trickle, and ended up flooding my skimmer. easily fixed, my curve 5 has been the best skimmer i have owned, easy to use and adjust and always pull almost coffee black crap from my tank. hopefully by dialing the reactor further down i can cut how much the reactor is pulling out of the water. hopefully soon ill have enough money to get the materials for my stand.

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i have a small leak somewere on my reactor lines, i keep getting air in the system, ill have to redesign it with a bleed or figure out were the air is getting in, hhmmm

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new test kits are here, i do have to say, i do really liked the the bottle and syringe holder that i got with my red sea kit. so its safe to say ill be merging the bottles and holder with the salifert kit. up until now my alk has measured a rock solid 9.8 on the red sea kit, and now on the salifert kit it measures 9.9, now the next few tests will tell me if my parameter is staying true or if the red sea kit was wrong. still have no idea on were the air is getting into my reactor from, i might just save up and get the avast re-circulation upgrade when i get a chance.

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well i did a battery of tests, my alk jumped to 11, i tested 3 times. and i have 50ppm of nitrate, but curously no phosphate. im curious to see if the issue with my biopellet reactor casued the alk to jump. i ended up having to change a section of tubing and re-applying plumbers tape to threaded sections, so we will see if it works.

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still have a section thats causing air get into my system, so know im going to replace all the flex tubing with pvc, so this should help eliminate all potential gaps in the barb fittings. either way im still very happy with the reactor from avast marine works. ill try to take some pictures of my improved reactor if i can remember.

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i wonder if the biopellet reactors out compete the live rock for bacteria merely because its a more ideal environment. if thats the case, then a pellet reactor would only be a real benefit to systems that have low or no rock work. hhhmmm the idea of giving up the biopellets is getting more and more realistic in my head. oh well, my LFS only uses a skimmer and carbon reactor for their tanks and displays. so we will see, at worst the reactor will be repurposed

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I love the scape on this tank! I am sorry that the last tank struggled and I hope things go better with this one. I have no experience with any reactors so I can't offer anything there. I am old school, (or maybe I am just old, ha ha) so the most sophisticated equipment I have is a skimmer and ATO. Anyway, good luck. You look like you are off to a good start.

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I love the scape on this tank! I am sorry that the last tank struggled and I hope things go better with this one. I have no experience with any reactors so I can't offer anything there. I am old school, (or maybe I am just old, ha ha) so the most sophisticated equipment I have is a skimmer and ATO. Anyway, good luck. You look like you are off to a good start.

thanks, i always loved the look of over hangs, my issues im thinking stemmed from a few choices to cut a couple corners, im going to be buying a bigger RO/DI this week and build a fill station, that way i can step up my water changes, ive been seeing how tried and true methods worked the best, before i upgraded the second time, my aussie hammer expelled eggs, so i was doing something right. oh congrats on the TOTM. i feel honored haha.

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thanks, i always loved the look of over hangs, my issues im thinking stemmed from a few choices to cut a couple corners, im going to be buying a bigger RO/DI this week and build a fill station, that way i can step up my water changes, ive been seeing how tried and true methods worked the best, before i upgraded the second time, my aussie hammer expelled eggs, so i was doing something right. oh congrats on the TOTM. i feel honored haha.

Water changes have always worked well for me so I think building a fill station is a good move. Sounds like you are making the right kind of changes to have a very successful tank!

Hey, I am the one who feels honored. I never dreamed that my tank was in the same league as the prior TOTM tanks! Thanks for the congrats!

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Water changes have always worked well for me so I think building a fill station is a good move. Sounds like you are making the right kind of changes to have a very successful tank!

Hey, I am the one who feels honored. I never dreamed that my tank was in the same league as the prior TOTM tanks! Thanks for the congrats!

im still contemplating a couple more fish, and im not very good with were coral should go, any ideas i welcome. keep stopping buy for updates and if i can get around to it, pictures.

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got confirmation that my refubred spectrapure 90GPD filter is shipped, also got an inline TDS meter so ill be fancy with my water. this will definitely help me get more water changes done. going to at least get some tests done today, at the very least. but i am going to get a water change done this weekend.

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did some testing yesterday, my alk is 11.3 a lot higher than i want, however i cant figure out how it jumped from 9 to 11. i stopped dosing and my salt is standard instant ocean, hhhhmmmm, my next water change ill be sure to mix it fully and test the alk and nitrate just to be safe. i should be getting my new RO/DI filter this week, so excited.

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my new filter finally got here, its a lot larger than i expected but then again i used a small before. i got my storage tank drilled and going to plumb everything tomarrow. hopefully on saturday ill be able to do a nice large water change, ive decided to turn off my reactor for now, going to increase water changes and start dosing bacteria to help. ill give my tank a nice cleaning and post some pics, stay tuned.

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bio-pellet reactor has been shut down, and tank has been dosed with microb-lift. ill be stopping by the LFS later to get some more bacteria. im considering running it as a carbon reactor but still unsure. im also playing with the idea of putting the macro algae back into the sump.i hope to get the tank cleaned and maybe some pics if things arent too pissed off.

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im noticing more extension from some other LPS that looked the worst. cleaning and a water change coming friday, plus testing. we will see where everything stands, on the really good note, oscar now will eat what ever i put on his stealth feeder, which he can see. he grabs onto the food, then throws it into overdrive and splashes water all over the place, silly little oscar the grouch.

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  • 2 weeks later...

its been around 2 weeks since i turned off my pellet reactor, and everything is looking better, my monti basically came back from the dead, my BTA has the best color ive seen and nice bulbous tips, my hammer even seams to have better tip shape. still fighting the cyano with bacteria, and manual removal. i know my adoring fans are waiting on the edge of their seats for my tank updates.

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Simulated Fish

its been around 2 weeks since i turned off my pellet reactor, and everything is looking better, my monti basically came back from the dead, my BTA has the best color ive seen and nice bulbous tips, my hammer even seams to have better tip shape. still fighting the cyano with bacteria, and manual removal. i know my adoring fans are waiting on the edge of their seats for my tank updates.

 

 

Keep it up, I really like your scape. Glad to hear the biopellets getting removed are helping. I really have only heard negative tings about them unless someone was trying to sell me them LOL.

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Keep it up, I really like your scape. Glad to hear the biopellets getting removed are helping. I really have only heard negative tings about them unless someone was trying to sell me them LOL.

a couple members use them to good effect, but it seams like its like using a back hoe to turn a flower bed. the reactor can be used for any media so no real waste there, no i just need to kick this cyano out and my tank will be nice enough to photograph.

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