Cali Kid Corals

Rygh's 250 gallon - rev.2

So what is worse than lugging around 300 lbs of wet live rock???
CLEANING 300 pounds of live rock.
So tired.....
And I am probably overkilling on the cleaning.
Hose - Bleach - Hose - Acid - Scrub - Soak

I like to use chlorine to kill pests.
But I like to use acid to loosen everything up for deep cleaning.
 
Reboot is going pretty well now after the first big set of problems. :)

Tank, equipment, and most rock are now sterilized.
Fish and coral are still doing well in the temporary tanks.
No ammonia, so cycle went well.
Skimmer installed on temporary fish tank.
Both SPS and BTAs seem happy, which to be honest, surprises me.

I decided to do a bit more plumbing improvement than originally planned.

Current plan is still to start filling tank with salt water on Monday, and put fish back the following weekend.
 
Yeesh, quite the clean up there. Hopefully you'll be majano free after all this. Did you also check the rocks and the frags in the temporary tank for any signs of the buggers?
 
Yeah all my bleaching went for naught as there were a few that were hiding under my blasto colony, so now I'm back at square one. So my future plans involve QTing all my existing corals as well so I can see if any have aiptasia that grow out.
 
Ibn said:
Yeesh, quite the clean up there. Hopefully you'll be majano free after all this. Did you also check the rocks and the frags in the temporary tank for any signs of the buggers?
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Rocks were all sterilized.
And part of it is a big block of marine pure.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah all my bleaching went for naught as there were a few that were hiding under my blasto colony, so now I'm back at square one. So my future plans involve QTing all my existing corals as well so I can see if any have aiptasia that grow out.
Click to expand...
Oh man, what a pain.

For frags, I sacrificed quite a bit around the edges.
And for many, I brushed with a wire brush dipped in vinegar on any non-living part.
Frags are in a separate tank from fish, and may remain there for a while to double check.

Yes, from now on, 100% QT on everything.
 
Some of the experts even double-QT coral.
One isolated QT tank for new arrivals.
Another isolated grow out tank, that also acts as a final QT/check.
Instead of growing out on frag racks in sump/DT, like a lot of us do.

Not a bad plan.
 
Scratch removal attempt was .... disappointing.

I did manual scratch removal at first. Used Novus 3, then 2.
After half an hour of serious hard work, I did remove a few inches of medium scratches.
No luck on deep scratches. They would need coarser grit.
And it took FOREVER.
:(
A month later, I might finish....

So power tool time ... maybe.
I was not willing to use Novus 3 or larger grit. Just too worried about destroying my tank.
I don't really have that many bad scratches.
I don't really have the right tools, and don't really want to buy them.

SO:
I duct taped some cloth to my random orbital sander, put on lots of Novus 2, and gave it a try.
It worked, and did polish it, and removed most of the micro-scratches.
But it really did nothing to the larger scratches.
Well, it looks clearer when empty, and might be a bit easier to clean.
The coralline has gradually been getting harder to clean off over the years, and I suspected the rough surface.

If you look REALLY close, you can see before (left) and after (right) on this.
scrtch.jpg

My hack-polisher.
snd1.jpg snd2.jpg
 
Plumbing is all done.
Fixed the leak.
Tweaked returns, to make them more subtle.
Eliminated my old attempt at a closed loop. I still had some tied off bulkheads.
Added UV.

Should be able to add tap water tomorrow.
Do a leak test, and also clean out any remaining crud.

The leak problem was interesting.
The black super-flex spaflex did not bond properly to the PVC.
I cut it open to see why it leaked, pulled, and part of it just popped out.
I used normal primer + pvc glue, as you are supposed to.
Part of it bonded ok, but part did not. Weird.
So I no longer trust the black spa-flex. Unfortunately, I do still have a bit of plumbing that uses it.

leak.jpg
 
DEAD MAJANOS
:):):)

A fun little pile of dead Majanos.
This pile was about 1/4 of what was just on the walls of my display tank.
All the rock was removed prior to killing them, and rock had FAR more, so it does not include that.
majanos.jpg
 
I’d do a test run on a spare piece of acrylic if you’re unsure. I have some if you need. I also have a grinder that would work great if you can find the right attachment. I know they have buffing wheels for them. That’s what they use at the car wash.

The way the spa flex broke off like that makes it seem brittle. I wonder if there was something in the primer or glue that could have done that. I think you’re right in having concerns about the other joints.

Man, that’s a majano holocaust.
 
daddio said:
I think one of the benefits of being in a club like BAR is that all you have to do is ask and I am sure one of us has the tools that you could borrow.
Click to expand...
Very true!

I guess the real thought : Do I want to spend many hours fixing scratches, when it is barely a problem,
and I will get more anyway?
 
Flagg37 said:
...
The way the spa flex broke off like that makes it seem brittle. I wonder if there was something in the primer or glue that could have done that. I think you’re right in having concerns about the other joints.
Click to expand...
The spa flex did not break. I cut straight through the joint with my chop saw to check out the leak.
Picture is a bit deceptive.
Key is that the spa flex pulled away from the pvc coupler. It was not bonded.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Don't even see any purple primer on the white pipe.
Click to expand...
Yea, weird. But you can see it at the end and inside, so I definitely used it.
There are also slight ridges in the white pipe that match the ridges on the black spa flex.
So the white pvc was affected by solvent, but black was not.

I notice Marine Depot only sells the white type now.
 
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