CAD Lights 46G

[Ibn]

That is quite a bit of growth for one month. So it came out cleanly last month but fused/cracked this month?

Yep, came out cleanly last month, but fused and cracked this month. Not sure what caused it, but yeah, I just have a bunch of coralline algae in the tank without any other sort of algae. I have to Flipper the glass once a week, but that's not bad considering how much I feed daily.

Welcome to the world of Vortech pumps, it's the #1 reason I gave up on them, the wet sides kept having problems with fusing to the base, or in some cases the friction just wears away at the base and it pulls itself through. Unfortunately ecotech simply offered to sell me more wetsides which was not exactly an ideal solution.

That said, I do have a MP60 which uses the newer model of wetside, so I might replace some on the new tank... MIGHT. Or I might just let it go because they're a huge money sink for me to which they should not be considering how much they cost. I'm happy for those who have never had problems, unfortunately I'm not one of those people.

This seems to be an issue with the older wet sides. The QD wet sides were supposedly rebuilt to address some of the issues that the regular models were having. Ecotech shipped out replacements for the wet sides, if you were having the same issues, as long as they're under warranty. My pumps were built back in January 2013 so they've been out of warranty for awhile now.

 

[roostertech]

I just got a Flipper too. I generally prefer stick scraper over eraser type but this thing is pretty sweet.

 

[Ibn]

I just got a Flipper too. I generally prefer stick scraper over eraser type but this thing is pretty sweet.

I have two of them just because they work so well.

 

[sfsuphysics]

This seems to be an issue with the older wet sides. The QD wet sides were supposedly rebuilt to address some of the issues that the regular models were having. Ecotech shipped out replacements for the wet sides, if you were having the same issues, as long as they're under warranty. My pumps were built back in January 2013 so they've been out of warranty for awhile now.

Well I still have some of the old metal cases that simply had a turn knob to adjust speed (i.e. no controlling beyond that) ... so yeah they definitely are not under warranty Heck I don't think any of mine even are the "ES" versions.

 

[Ibn]

full tank shot please....

Haven't taken one since the beginning of the start up shot, haha. I'll get around to shooting one eventually since I want to see progression of the tank eventually. It's really nothing to look at currently since it's basically a bunch of frags haphazardly.

Had some free time after work yesterday and decided to clean out the sump since I haven't touched it since I got the tank up and running. I also wanted to pull out the PVC that's currently under the skimmer to insert the marinepure block (8x8x1) instead.

Gang and gate valves closed, unions disconnected, and the sump rolled out as expected. Need to get rid of those hangers on the door eventually and reseal and repaint.

Sump rinsed through and cleaned. I need to get a brush to clean in between the baffles, but I'm satisfied with the results considering that it was done over a small work sink.

With a wet dry vac it took about an hour to clean out the sump and clean the rest of the gear including the skimmer. I plan on doing this more often going forward.

 

[Flagg37]

I bet your coworkers were loving the smell.

 

[Ibn]

I bet your coworkers were loving the smell.

I wait until they're all out of the office and then do the cleaning. I also have a plug-in ozonizer on the wall that clears the smell overnight.

 

[MolaMola]

I really like following your journal and your photos are amazing!
Did your frogspawn with babies budding on the sides grow out branches? Saw that near the beginning of the thread and my students (and I) think that is very cool.
Also, whatever happened with the wine bottle chiller food doser?
Do you just like your sump to look really clean or is there another reason you fully removed and cleaned it? Just wondering.

 

[Ibn]

I really like following your journal and your photos are amazing!
Did your frogspawn with babies budding on the sides grow out branches? Saw that near the beginning of the thread and my students (and I) think that is very cool.
Also, whatever happened with the wine bottle chiller food doser?
Do you just like your sump to look really clean or is there another reason you fully removed and cleaned it? Just wondering.

Sorry, didn't see this until now. The frogspawn actually stalled and didn't really grow out for me. I got rid of that single head of frogspawn at the swap instead. The current frogspawn started out as a 3 head that's grown to its current size. There's probably easily more now, but I can't really tell since it's usually all puffy. The clowns love hosting both Euphyllias (both are slightly larger than a softball).

Wine chiller has been on hold since I've been too busy to actually get it up and running. Soon though!

As for the sump, there was quite a bit of detritus build up in there so I wanted to clean it out. I also wanted to pull the setup out to remove the PVC that the skimmer was sitting on and placed a 8x8x1 block of Marinepure block under it. I prefer the look of a clean sump over all, similar to how I like the back of the tank to look black instead of coralline encrusted. More of a preference thing.

Some growth pics. Some very slow and others relative fast growers.
Currently competing with my Oregon tort in terms of blues. Can't wait to see this sucker grow out more since it definitely has a different growth than the Oregon.

No namer frag. Still like what I'm seeing so far.

Pearlberry

AquaSD rainbow table

Battlecoral Spainbow

Sneaking a LPS in. Red blastos.

 

[xcaret]

That's really awesome, great job!

 

[Ibn]

Thanks! Tank is in growth mode, so just carrying on and keeping it consistent.

 

[Ibn]

Got tired of cleaning up the floor at work after a couple of overflows from the RO production. Tapped a 5G salt bucket and installed an auto switchoff kit about a week ago.

Made 15 gallons of water this week and it's been nice to not have to worry about spills as I'm sitting in meetings or being occupied.

 

[roostertech]

I can't imagine life without float switch and asov.

 

[Flagg37]

Got tired of cleaning up the floor at work after a couple of overflows from the RO production. Tapped a 5G salt bucket and installed an auto switchoff kit about a week ago.

Made 15 gallons of water this week and it's been nice to not have to worry about spills as I'm sitting in meetings or being occupied.

Nice. I've overflowed my share of buckets doing the same thing. Never thought of that though.

 

[Ibn]

Comp for March - next post.

Stuff is looking good so far, even though my Nitrate to Phosphates are out of whack. Hanna ULR kit came in with a value of 0.15 ppm. Just implemented a chaeto reactor so we'll see if I can bring that back down (going to be measuring both nitrates and phosphates and dose nitrates as needed).

Not sure if the parameters has anything to do with it, but lost my 3rd and probably my final red dragon. For some reason I can't keep them in this tank and they slowly STN. This one finally kicked the bucket after a month of STN. My icefire is doing the same thing. I'm just going to stick with what does well in the tank and not worry too much about it.

Fish are doing well for the most part. I noticed that my copper banded went off his feeding of mysis (he usually eats 6-8 mysis per feeding) and he's shaking his head from side to side. Started about 3 days ago and I dosed the tank with Prazi Pro to see if it'll stop. It's usually a sign of flukes, but he came in really clean from Koko's tank. He wiped out all the aiptasias in the tank and is still eating, just with less gusto than before. I'll run two sessions of Prazi just in case.

 

[Ibn]

 

[Gablami]

Not sure if the parameters has anything to do with it, but lost my 3rd and probably my final red dragon. For some reason I can't keep them in this tank and they slowly STN. This one finally kicked the bucket after a month of STN. My icefire is doing the same thing. I'm just going to stick with what does well in the tank and not worry too much about it.

I can't keep smooth skin acros either. I've spent a good amount of $ and tried multiple times. I love the red dragon but I just can't keep it. Also had my ice fire go blinding white. I'm just going to give up for now and try again in 6 months to a year. Parameters are all good; I have no idea why it just dies.


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[RandyC]

I can't keep smooth skin acros either. I've spent a good amount of $ and tried multiple times. I love the red dragon but I just can't keep it. Also had my ice fire go blinding white. I'm just going to give up for now and try again in 6 months to a year. Parameters are all good; I have no idea why it just dies.


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I had a happy red dragon bleach because the num num in me thought I had a better spot for it. I was wrong. It didn't like too much light in my case. I replaced it with another and a pacman acro as well. One is in the lower half of the tank and the other in a shaded spot in the middle of tank. Both are doing okay now.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Looking good as always Eric, always admired your ability to photograph the aquarium.

I think you even got a couple of one of my tanks way way WAY back in the day on a tank tour or something (of course I might be misremembering)

 

[Ibn]

I can't keep smooth skin acros either. I've spent a good amount of $ and tried multiple times. I love the red dragon but I just can't keep it. Also had my ice fire go blinding white. I'm just going to give up for now and try again in 6 months to a year. Parameters are all good; I have no idea why it just dies.

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Yeah, no idea. I have another smooth skin that's doing well. It does get more light and flow though.

I had a happy red dragon bleach because the num num in me thought I had a better spot for it. I was wrong. It didn't like too much light in my case. I replaced it with another and a pacman acro as well. One is in the lower half of the tank and the other in a shaded spot in the middle of tank. Both are doing okay now.

The red dragon was in the middle of the tank near the bottom. I've tried it 2 other time in different locations and still lost those. No idea why since it grows and then it starts STN over the course of the month. Not gonna bother with it at this point since everything else is looking good.