Cali Kid Corals

kinetic Reefer 170

kinetic said:
I think we're saying very similar things. I guess I use the term ULNS incorrectly....
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Yes.
A ULNS deliberately very carefully limits nutrients on the input.
What you have is rampant Dinos that are eating everything like crazy, leaving no nutrients left in the water to detect.
You see exactly the same with big hair algae problems, etc.

Sad about the hawfish.
You might want to check for ammonia. With dinos/etc dying, that might be up.

I would suggest just restarting. Sounds like minimal livestock.

For the rocks: Cleaning + bleach is step 1.
I would soak those in tap water with vinegar (or muriatic acid) for a couple of days, to break up surface crud.
Then soak in tap water + lanthanum chloride, to soak up phosphates.

You need to eliminate the dinos, sure, but you also need to eliminate nutrients/etc from the rocks.
 
Gablami said:
Oh I thought when you said “breaking down the tank and maybe restarting” you meant you were considering breaking down the tank and quitting.
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I'm also not sure if I'd restart after doing the whole breakdown =(

I may be moving in a year or two, so I might just put a pause on a system until then.
 
RandyC said:
If you do restart, no need to run a fallow period if you dry the tank. People do TTM leaving 3 days for tank to dry without any disinfectant in between transfers. If ich and ich cysts don't die after three days of being dry, a lot of people are doing TTM for nothing.
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Oh that's very true! Great, I will just do the TTM on the fish. I'm thinking maybe also separately for the anemones? They hold quite a bit of water in them.

rygh said:
Yes.
A ULNS deliberately very carefully limits nutrients on the input.
What you have is rampant Dinos that are eating everything like crazy, leaving no nutrients left in the water to detect.
You see exactly the same with big hair algae problems, etc.

Sad about the hawfish.
You might want to check for ammonia. With dinos/etc dying, that might be up.

I would suggest just restarting. Sounds like minimal livestock.

For the rocks: Cleaning + bleach is step 1.
I would soak those in tap water with vinegar (or muriatic acid) for a couple of days, to break up surface crud.
Then soak in tap water + lanthanum chloride, to soak up phosphates.

You need to eliminate the dinos, sure, but you also need to eliminate nutrients/etc from the rocks.
Click to expand...

Yes, thank you, that makes sense. The rocks steps sound great.
 
I don’t get why you guys are talking about TTM and fallow periods. Why? No new livestock, no ich in the tank.


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Gablami said:
I don’t get why you guys are talking about TTM and fallow periods. Why? No new livestock, no ich in the tank.
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Ah, well I never actually did TTM into the tank to begin with with my current livestock. The idea was that they were all tank raised (ORA, SA) but really, snails and such might have brought ich in (and even that hawkfish since that wasn't tank raised). Might be good just in case I have ich, rather than for dinos.
 
TTM can also reduce the tank-cyling delays.
Do TTM while you are cycling breeder tank. (Using chems to speed that up also)
So you can start it all immediately if you want.
 
ashburn2k said:
Any update? Hope your Dino issue has been resolved.
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DinoX + NoPox + every 2 day water changes seem to be slowly keeping the dinos from growing too much, but still impossible to get rid of them completely.

So two fish are dead now: female orchid dottyback (a day after she laid another batch of eggs), and my geometric pygmy hawkfish.

So far, no more deaths even cleanup crew seem to be OK. My magnifica is wandering around quite a bit now, and the mocha davinci are trying to kill my third clown (they used to not bother with him at all, but I think with the added stress they are now pissed at everything).

So far, dinos are winning. At some point I won't have any more dinos, or I won't have anymore livestock...

My DinoX dosage was increased a tad, otherwise it had no effect. But because of that, things are definitely stressed.

At this point I'm just going to keep dosing and zen the f* out when I do the water changes. If everything dies, I'm just going to break it down =P
 
:(

Have you looked into Vibrant? A lot of users on the forums are having success against dinos with it. I had bought it before for my previous tank, but never did use it yet so I don’t have personal experience.
 
Not sure if it is outdated knowledge, but i remember reading about people doing complete blackouts for 2-3 days and supposedly that worked against Dino’s. Of course, aggressive water change at the end of blackout
 
Man that tank went from looking so clean to merging a redo in a hurry. Sorry man i say bleach everything.


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kinetic said:
Full system setup. Main display tank with sump, and in the adjacent closet is the carbon reactor (brs mini), Algae Reactor (AquaMaxx XL with custom aluminum heat control), and chiller. Also in the closet is a 5 gallon HPDE ATO reservoir with the ATK PMUP, OS-1 level sensor for low water. The ATO reservoir is fed by my RO/DI.

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Algae Reactor

All the parts used for this algae reactor:
AquaMaxx Reactor XL:
https://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMax...cal_Reactors-AquaMaxx-UJ5313-FIFRISCR-vi.html

LED Grow Lights:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRHQMYH/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Clip on Fan:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012BKZC86/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Aluminum tube:
http://www.speedymetals.com/pc-4689-8379-6-sq-wall-sq-tube-6063-t52-aluminum.aspx

Heatsinks:
http://www.heatsinkusa.com/4-850-wide-extruded-aluminum-heatsink/

Just added some chaeto from ReefCleaners.org. I decided to go with them because the chaeto is grown in a fishless system. I'm crossing my fingers it's also GHA, Bubble Algae, etc. free. When I put the chaeto in, there was a bit of sand in the chaeto, as well as a few big amphipods. Didn't see any nuisance animals.

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Here's a look at the sleeve I put together for the LED lights. I'm probably overly scared of heat problems with these Amazon grow lights, so I bought a 5.75"x19" square aluminum tube and stuck the lights on the inside of it. I probably should've gotten a 6" tube because it's a tight squeeze getting the reactor in and out with the LED lights.

Attached to two sides are 4.8" x 8" heatsinks. Lots of thermal paste + some JB weld to hold them on. Cured for 24 hours.

Lastly, very quiet low powered clip on fan above. So this is probably the coolest algae reactor in the world LOL.

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Here it is all assembled:

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And a fun glorious photo down the tube with the lights on:

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Ok, you win. You are vindicated, sir, in your algae reactor design. My algae reactor has a 3" crack in it. Late last night I went to check on the tank and noticed a little drip coming out of the cabinent and then opened the cabinet and saw the reactor sitting in a little puddle.

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It could be the LEDs we have take up ~40W and do get pretty warm. I also noticed that the strips are much hotter the closer it is to the power brick and incidentally, the crack is at the top of the reactor where I put the LEDs that are closest to the power brick. Maybe others that use lower wattage lighting don't have the problem.

I also noticed when I took off the LEDs to examine it, that all the blue LEDs on strip were burnt out.

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So, at least for these LEDs that take 40W of power, a heatsink is probably needed or some sort of active cooling. Water through the reactor is not enough.
 
RandyC said:
Ok, you win. You are vindicated, sir, in your algae reactor design. My algae reactor has a 3" crack in it. Late last night I went to check on the tank and noticed a little drip coming out of the cabinent and then opened the cabinet and saw the reactor sitting in a little puddle.

9101e9c137ab74217813e3b00f73a3e2.jpg


It could be the LEDs we have take up ~40W and do get pretty warm. I also noticed that the strips are much hotter the closer it is to the power brick and incidentally, the crack is at the top of the reactor where I put the LEDs that are closest to the power brick. Maybe others that use lower wattage lighting don't have the problem.

I also noticed when I took off the LEDs to examine it, that all the blue LEDs on strip were burnt out.

491fcb6815286cc240298e6942b1ed22.jpg


So, at least for these LEDs that take 40W of power, a heatsink is probably needed or some sort of active cooling. Water through the reactor is not enough.
Click to expand...
maybe that's why the marine depot ones have a rubber tube over it.


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scuzy said:
maybe that's why the marine depot ones have a rubber tube over it.


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The marine depot ones are only 14w. Not nearly as much heat. I would think the rubber is only for water resistance. If anything, encasing in that plastic/rubber would be worse for the LEDs in terms of heat.
 
Hey Art, if you need to re-start and want a UV unit, I'm digging some mogul sockets out and found a little UV 15W; also among the mess, spotted a Deltec MCE-600 skimmer; I believe it has a media chamber. LMK, I'll keep them out of the storage bins.
 
@RandyC yikes that looks a bit scary. Well, you have all the info to build the same reactor I have ;) With a small quiet fan + the aluminum fin heatsinks it hasn't had any issues for me.

@xcaret thanks for the offer. I think I'm managing for now. I'm just dosing dinox + nopox every two days!
 
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