Reef nutrition

In the beginning...

Ok, I just got back from a week away. There was an interesting occurrence. Before leaving I made sure I simulated a power outage to make sure the sump didn't overflow as the dt drained into it. Everything seemed to work fine. There was still several inches left in the sump. What I didn't notice is that there must be a leak in one or both of the bulkheads that are on the overflow box that return the water to the dt from the sump. When I ran the test I watched the water level dip below the bottom of the weir on the overflow box and drain what was in the overflow box down to the level of my main drain and thought I was good. While I was gone the gfci popped and shut everything down. The apex alerted me of the power outage but I wasn't worried since I'd tested for this. Well I hadn't tested for an extra 3-4" of dt water fitting in my sump. From what I can tell o was really lucky and there was only a small amount that overflowed. There was no visible moisture on the carpet or stand but I could feel it a few inches away from the stand. I used a towel for what I could and then a hairdryer for the rest.

On a separate note, my cycle is in full swing.
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I dosed the ammonia to about 2.5 and it's now about .75. Nitrites are about 1 and nitrates are about 20.
 
I'm glad this happened while you only had rock in there! How long was the power off? How low did your temp drop? Do you have everything on that circuit? At the moment I have everything on one which I don't like to think about. Any idea why the GFCI tripped?
 
MolaMola said:
I'm glad this happened while you only had rock in there! How long was the power off? How low did your temp drop? Do you have everything on that circuit? At the moment I have everything on one which I don't like to think about. Any idea why the GFCI tripped?
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I was on vacation and the apex notified me about 5 days before I was coming back. The temperature dropped to about 62 degrees. Yes, everything is on that one circuit. I've been trying to understand why it tripped. I've tried various scenarios with no luck of nailing down exactly what caused it. It ran for two weeks before it popped the first time and right now it's back to the same configuration as before and I haven't had any issues. It's hard when I can't replicate the problem. It's ironic that this is going on when I posted just recently in another thread that I've never had a gfci pop when it wasn't supposed to. I'm thinking of taking it out.
 
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I added 80 lbs of #3 sand to it the other day. I think it's a perfect amount.
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Also, the cycle is moving along.
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Almost no ammonia and now nitrites are spiking and the nitrates continue to rise.
 
Glad the overflow was minimal! Tanks and rock work is looking great! I'm really wanting to setup a tank at home now that I have the tank at work, but I'm going to force myself to wait 1 year at least.
 
monkeybiz said:
Glad the overflow was minimal! Tanks and rock work is looking great! I'm really wanting to setup a tank at home now that I have the tank at work, but I'm going to force myself to wait 1 year at least.
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Start planning now. I started my other tank up a little over a year ago.
 
Flagg37 said:
I was on vacation and the apex notified me about 5 days before I was coming back. The temperature dropped to about 62 degrees. Yes, everything is on that one circuit. I've been trying to understand why it tripped. I've tried various scenarios with no luck of nailing down exactly what caused it. It ran for two weeks before it popped the first time and right now it's back to the same configuration as before and I haven't had any issues. It's hard when I can't replicate the problem. It's ironic that this is going on when I posted just recently in another thread that I've never had a gfci pop when it wasn't supposed to. I'm thinking of taking it out.
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I had problems with GFCI as well once. Took a long time to track down.
It was primarily a crappy power-strip, where the surge protection was leaking current.

I re-wired everything to have individual GFCI outputs. Never again!

Hard to diagnose.
One way is to measure current for each device with a multimeter. (Hard and a bit dangerous)
Another is to keep plugging other in low-current devices until it trips more regularly.
 
rygh said:
I had problems with GFCI as well once. Took a long time to track down.
It was primarily a crappy power-strip, where the surge protection was leaking current.

I re-wired everything to have individual GFCI outputs. Never again!

Hard to diagnose.
One way is to measure current for each device with a multimeter. (Hard and a bit dangerous)
Another is to keep plugging other in low-current devices until it trips more regularly.
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The new apex logs the wattage, and amperage of what each outlet is drawing and shows the incoming voltage aswell. What would I be looking for though?
 
Flagg37 said:
The new apex logs the wattage, and amperage of what each outlet is drawing and shows the incoming voltage aswell. What would I be looking for though?
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You are looking for very slight current on the ground line. Apex will definitely not be measuring that.
To do that, you need to connect the earth ground (not the neutral) though an ammeter instead of direct.
Or, the current could be going into the tank. So you could also check for any stray current there. That is easier and safer. Just put an ammeter with
one end in salt water and one to earth ground.
 
Going back to the livestock list. Here's the next round of candidates. It also includes the approximate price from live aquaria.

Livestock
Fish
$200 White Tail Bristletooth Tang
$180 Achilles Tang
Coral Beauty (being transferred from 30 gal)
Yellow tang (being transferred from 30 gal)
$30 Red Mandarin
*** NEEDS COPEPODS ***
$120 Zebra moray eel
*** WILL EAT CRUSTACEANS ***
$40 orange stripe prawn goby

Invertebrates
Tridacna clams ($50-$100 each)
Maxima
Derasa
Crocea
Squamosa

I think I'm going to have to be very particular about my cuc in regards to finding things that the eel won't go after. Crustaceans are pretty much off the list, although, some sources said that cleaner shrimp (Lysmata family) were relatively safe. I'm curious about things like urchins and conches though. I tried contacting @FeliciaLynn since she's got an eel but I think she's been busy.

What do you guys think.
 
You can add a fairy wrasse if you are worried about copepods for the mandrian. They eat from the water column more than picking from rocks.

Neptune has a nice white tail.

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Vhuang168 said:
You can add a fairy wrasse if you are worried about copepods for the mandrian. They eat from the water column more than picking from rocks.

Neptune has a nice white tail.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Oooh. I didn't know that. I'll have to look at that wrasse.
 
WrasseS. LOTS of fairys to choose from.

My current list is

Flame
Lineatus (AC currently has a very nice 1)
Rhomboid (AC has 1 as well)
Pintail
Lanceolatus
Labouti


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