My "Lazy Reefer" tank
- Thread starter treylane
- Start date
G
GreshamH
Guest
Glass?
G
GreshamH
Guest
I like it 
I was going to ask about the light next :lol:
I was going to ask about the light next :lol:
G
GreshamH
Guest
:0 Sure is.
treylane
Guest
Well, not the update I wanted to post - when I got back from my trip I was planning to plug the ca/alk back in to the auto-dosers, clean the glass, and post some shiny new photos. Great idea!
Except that one of my peristaltic pumps needed a new tube - no big deal, I've always wanted to DIY an auto-doser (yeah, you know where this is going). I pulled out the dremel, some epoxy, an air pump - VOILA! That didn't really work very well, so I started to take it all apart, wandered off for a few minutes, came back, and the tank was WHITE. Couldn't see 2" into it. One of the tubes I was playing with fell into the tank and started a siphon and spiked the alk to 18.
We immediately did a 50% wc and the water cleared up (hooray for precip) and alk was back to 10 inside a few hours. There's a fine white dust over all of the rocks, but the fish and softies/LPS seem no worse for wear. I think a number of SPS are gonna be packing it in pretty shortly.
Except that one of my peristaltic pumps needed a new tube - no big deal, I've always wanted to DIY an auto-doser (yeah, you know where this is going). I pulled out the dremel, some epoxy, an air pump - VOILA! That didn't really work very well, so I started to take it all apart, wandered off for a few minutes, came back, and the tank was WHITE. Couldn't see 2" into it. One of the tubes I was playing with fell into the tank and started a siphon and spiked the alk to 18.
We immediately did a 50% wc and the water cleared up (hooray for precip) and alk was back to 10 inside a few hours. There's a fine white dust over all of the rocks, but the fish and softies/LPS seem no worse for wear. I think a number of SPS are gonna be packing it in pretty shortly.
yardartist
Guest
Those moments when your blood seems to separate from the rest of you body and become its own organism. Glad you were right on it, and hope they pull thru.
saltwatersig
Guest
Jess
A number of members have had similar situations in which the tank looks like it snowed on everything......if I recall , most have had hardly any issues with things just reacting normal . Hopefully yours will do the same
Sergio
A number of members have had similar situations in which the tank looks like it snowed on everything......if I recall , most have had hardly any issues with things just reacting normal . Hopefully yours will do the same
Sergio
Mr. Ugly
Past President
The precipitation is good. Makes the overdose self limiting to a degree. People make it worse by overreacting and trying to make corrections. No need to do much if the pH isn't really high.
It can take a while to get your water parameters back to normal and stabilized though.
It can take a while to get your water parameters back to normal and stabilized though.
treylane
Guest
Alright, post-catastrophe update. I lost a few sps frags immediately after the white-out but my acros weren't exactly healthy to begin with. Now the acros are attempting to grow back, but my dwarf angel is fighting them every step of the way. We'll see where that winds up going. :tired:
So the acros are doing better, and the zoas are all exploding in unison (if you've ever kept a zoa tank, you'll know that this is about as common as snow in july ... in miami) but my birdsnests/stylos are receding from the base. Anybody know what causes this?
Sooo since my tank only looks good in 1" increments, I busted out the macro lens.
.... And plenty more to see here: http://robotninjapirate.com/v/Aquarium/2010+August/
So the acros are doing better, and the zoas are all exploding in unison (if you've ever kept a zoa tank, you'll know that this is about as common as snow in july ... in miami) but my birdsnests/stylos are receding from the base. Anybody know what causes this?
Sooo since my tank only looks good in 1" increments, I busted out the macro lens.
.... And plenty more to see here: http://robotninjapirate.com/v/Aquarium/2010+August/
G
GreshamH
Guest
Wow those are some bitchin zoas you have there... I want to know more about this Robot Ninja Pirate
treylane
Guest
About time for an update!
Upgraded the skimmer in December to a "Super Reef Octopus 3000" skimmer. It's a noisy beast, but it's able to handle the small fluctuations in the water level in the sump without fussing, and pulls out plenty of foul-smelling sludge. A 36" blue reefbrite strip was added to one side of the peninsula on a trial basis ... and I'm pretty sure it's going to get a partner on the other side of the tank soon enough.
And, the lazy reef just got lazier.
Throughout my ENTIRE reefing career, I've let the RO/DI run for a day or two, then added salt and allowed that to mix for at least a day before doing a WC. After the alk snowstorm last fall, I mixed up an emergency batch of saltwater with tap water, that had only been mixed for ~30 minutes. No ill effects. I looked out the window for lightning to strike, and nothing.... fast forward a bit, and it's time to change all the filters in the RO/DI unit, and most of my sps were already dead (more on that in a bit). So, to heck with it, I said. I've been doing water changes with whatever comes out of the kitchen faucet and ~12hrs of mixing for 2 months now and so far so good...
I spent much of 2010 trying to get alk stable, among other issues I'm sure. At some point the two part just "stopped working" ... the alk/ca/mag levels were all fine, but the sps looked like poop. I don't know what was missing, but when in doubt, throw more equipment at it, right? So I installed the calcium reactor, twiddled with the controller and the pH probe and fought with it all to try to keep the alk at 8, "close to nsw levels" they say. The SPS continued to fizzle out. While I was out of town for xmas, alk drifted up to 9-9.5ish and I got back and wondered what crazy magic the pet sitter had done. There was COLOR on the remnant bits of acropora in the tank! I saw growth edges!
So 2011 begins with trying to keep alk at NINE, and some hope for being able to grow acropora again.
Unfortunately the birdsnests started a downhill slide after the alk-snowstorm incident and nothing I did seemed to slow it down. I'm hoping to be able to keep them again in the future too.
Upgraded the skimmer in December to a "Super Reef Octopus 3000" skimmer. It's a noisy beast, but it's able to handle the small fluctuations in the water level in the sump without fussing, and pulls out plenty of foul-smelling sludge. A 36" blue reefbrite strip was added to one side of the peninsula on a trial basis ... and I'm pretty sure it's going to get a partner on the other side of the tank soon enough.
And, the lazy reef just got lazier.
Throughout my ENTIRE reefing career, I've let the RO/DI run for a day or two, then added salt and allowed that to mix for at least a day before doing a WC. After the alk snowstorm last fall, I mixed up an emergency batch of saltwater with tap water, that had only been mixed for ~30 minutes. No ill effects. I looked out the window for lightning to strike, and nothing.... fast forward a bit, and it's time to change all the filters in the RO/DI unit, and most of my sps were already dead (more on that in a bit). So, to heck with it, I said. I've been doing water changes with whatever comes out of the kitchen faucet and ~12hrs of mixing for 2 months now and so far so good...
I spent much of 2010 trying to get alk stable, among other issues I'm sure. At some point the two part just "stopped working" ... the alk/ca/mag levels were all fine, but the sps looked like poop. I don't know what was missing, but when in doubt, throw more equipment at it, right?
So I installed the calcium reactor, twiddled with the controller and the pH probe and fought with it all to try to keep the alk at 8, "close to nsw levels" they say. The SPS continued to fizzle out. While I was out of town for xmas, alk drifted up to 9-9.5ish and I got back and wondered what crazy magic the pet sitter had done. There was COLOR on the remnant bits of acropora in the tank! I saw growth edges!So 2011 begins with trying to keep alk at NINE, and some hope for being able to grow acropora again.
Unfortunately the birdsnests started a downhill slide after the alk-snowstorm incident and nothing I did seemed to slow it down. I'm hoping to be able to keep them again in the future too.
treylane
Guest
Tank is badly in need of some rearranging, so more macros for now.
This little stag has been in my tank most of a year and survived all the chaos. It had browned out and receded quite a bit on the top / facing-the-light side, but recently has colored back up, regrown most of the dead area, and seems to be making forward progress.
2/2, 2/7, and 2/15:
And I'm downright giddy about a browned-out half-dead acro. Why? Because it used to be a 3/4 dead acro.
Fun with shrooms
This little stag has been in my tank most of a year and survived all the chaos. It had browned out and receded quite a bit on the top / facing-the-light side, but recently has colored back up, regrown most of the dead area, and seems to be making forward progress.
2/2, 2/7, and 2/15:
And I'm downright giddy about a browned-out half-dead acro. Why? Because it used to be a 3/4 dead acro.
Fun with shrooms
treylane
Guest
Time for an update, the calcium reactor is out, and the threepart dosing system is installed and doing pretty well. Still some dialing-in to do but we're getting there.
Green stag continues to grow:
The Neon LE White milli I picked up a month ago is heading towards a respectable color:
The goal for the rest of the year (or until I move) is - NO NEW LIVESTOCK. What's in the tank, is in the tank. Unless there's some particularly compelling reason (compatibility issues, turf wars, etc) to replace something, the tank is stocked, and it's time to make sure that what's in there is thriving, rather than continually oogling the coolest newest toys.
Green stag continues to grow:
The Neon LE White milli I picked up a month ago is heading towards a respectable color:
The goal for the rest of the year (or until I move) is - NO NEW LIVESTOCK. What's in the tank, is in the tank. Unless there's some particularly compelling reason (compatibility issues, turf wars, etc) to replace something, the tank is stocked, and it's time to make sure that what's in there is thriving, rather than continually oogling the coolest newest toys.
