150G reef !(resurrecting a tank)

[A.T.T.R]

ok guys.
this thread is to document my attempts at bringing back a system that went out of controll ( long time of neglect due to lack of funds all funds went to the prop systems i have)

everyting is healthy corals are fine.. but i cant see them because of all the algae

to start the battle im first trying to get rid of hair algae.

next i may try to redo my reef wall ( currently a short pile in the back of the tank because i didnt trust the rock to stay put)
id like to make two mounds of rock possiably. i dunno ill post picts of the reefscape and let you decide.
once i get on my other comp ill post picts of when the tank was being built!


to start my battle i am first replacing the di filters on my ro unit even tho i dont belive any po4 is getting throu ( tds of 13) but it goes to a kalk reacotr which should precipitate the po4 ( am i right)

anyways. i just dumped a half gallon of GFO into my refugium ( yes dumped. didnt use a bag or anything. this will maximize surface exposure and i can siphone it out later. ( if i choose. it will make a good substrate and i dont care if i have po4 leach back in later since i have chateo growing now!)

 

[A.T.T.R]

this is the tank when probloms first started.. no real clue why. i dont feed but once a week
only things that happend was i took 30 lbs or so of rock from some one who had really high po4 and i was using liquid foods once every other week

this is the tank as of the last pict that i could see throu the glass it is worse now.

 

[A.T.T.R]

in the last pict camera wouldent focus due to algae on glass

anyways
some picts of construction!

this is the back room one big drain and 4 small returns connected to an ocean motion. i have micro bubbles and belive the problom lies in the unions or in the connection to teh ocean motion. i now have bio balls in the sump along with foam to try and diffuse the bubbles from the drain and it seemed to of worked but i still get bubbles.. reason i think it is after the pump is the bubble output is different on each return.

you can also see my utube siphone return from my refugium
the refugium uses a small aqualifter to feed water into a 3 gallon tank with a recirulating skimmer and a maxijet pump to push water from the refuge into the 3 gallon tank.. from there both waters overflow the 3 gallon tank and into the refuge ( maxijet pushing water into the 3 gallon tank really helps keeping the refuge moving) from there it is exposed to chato and siphones back in to the main sump

someday i plan on adding a float switch to make sure incase of a siphone failure that the water dosnt over flow

my lr and base rock shipment

tank being set up

vho system being built!

the refuge showing the 55 gallon tank and the 3 gallon inside

 

[A.T.T.R]

vhos lighting

 

[winnermc]

A.T.T.R: Is that rust on the PVC pipes over your sump? If so, that concerns me. If you haven't already, you'll want to find the source and take care of it sooner rather than later.

 

[A.T.T.R]

i think the rust is caused by what i needed to use to connect the pump copper fitting into stainlesssteel then to pvc





kidding .. they are burn marks from me getting impatiant while bending pvc ( note the bends)

 

[winnermc]

LOL!!! You scared me for a minute!

 

[Marsfrogie]

Looking better! What do you mean you only feed once a week? How does that work for you?

 

[A.T.T.R]

no the last picts are the most outa date i was showing the build. the first two are the before after ( its bad now)

oh and i lied about the feeding. i was trying to avoid flaming.
currently i feed less then once every two months.
all fish are nice and FAT there is plenty of natural food to feed the fish infact iv had many comments of " tank looks like crap but the fish and corals are perfect" i think the algae is putting off alot of food by feeding the bottom of the food chain.




a week ago i put suger in the tank at the same dosage i always have ( i put in suger now once every 3 months to remove alot. the water turns white as bactiria grow from the extra food source then my skimmer removes them along with all the nutrients they used to grow. sadly this time the suger didnt respond to well and a few corals lost alot of tissue. but hte polyps remain so they will recover
once i get my aquacultured live rock going ( see frag room build thread) i will add some more rockto the tank. ill post a pict of the tank at my work to show ya what id like to build wall wise. its a perfect reef. nice LARGE live rock enabling plenty of caves ( one of them i could almost fit a gallon jug into) and plenty of growing room.. its one of my better looking tanks.. but due to small lr i have in my tank im not able to do it (

 

[A.T.T.R]

finaly got my dimmer kinda working again. it still dosnt work to great with 4 bulb set up but / we/ at least my3 of my 7 bulbs can be dimmed. ill just have the other lights come on a lil later.
and i decided im going to use vho;s till they stop producing them!

i hope it looks good again soon

 

[A.T.T.R]

i just got an led ment for a night light at home depot. gonna try tis as my moon light.. so far it is working fine on the dimmer

BUT my icecap ballast blew again.. gd i hate the solar dimmer and blue line aquatics and champion lighting esp adam!!! i wanted to return this 600 buck pos so many times but nooooo first time he convinced me it was my system so i kept it second time was past the return date. iv tried dimmer moded ballast and normal ballst neither works right but the non modded atleast dont break!

 

[A.T.T.R]

WOW what a nice difference those leds make. i havethem simulating the moon at varried phases and then durring sun up they assist in simulating that ( basicaly they start turning on till the first vho kicks in at about 14 percent output. ( at 10 percent out put literaly just about 1/4 of the bulb is light just at the ends and very dimm kinda cool to see)

 

[Marsfrogie]

Do many people dim VHO bulbs?

 

[A.T.T.R]

more then are on here but no not many apparently its about 1 percent of icecap 660 users that dimm them

im hopping icecap makes a new balalst for t5s that is compatable with my dimmer

i can tell you its ahrd to set up but when it works its cool as hell!!!!

 

[A.T.T.R]

im running my ballast on the sunrise phase a few times right now ( since sunrise is when it blows) i just installed grounding tape (metal tape applied to back of bulb to induct some current.

its kinda cool with out the grounding tape when the bulb is at 20 percent or so only the ends are lite. and if you touch the center of the bulb the bulb will light up around where you touch it. and hten let go and it goes back to normal.. osmthing you need to see to enjoy! the grounded tape does the same thing allowing more of the bulb to light ( how its supposed to) and take some stress off the bulb and ballast ( it isnt good to have nly one end lite) and apparently this is the secret to getting the ballast to last and smother dimming..)

so far so good!


and leds still work..( last leds i dimmed were low volt dc and ended up blowing after a few hours of use.. apparently typical of leds)

 

[A.T.T.R]

i gave up on dimming the ballast and decided to just run it normaly. ( with a 5 hour offset from natural ( tank turns on 5 hours after real sun)

i havent done any of the grand canopy build plans because i am reallllllllyyyyyyyy tight on money right now ( i swear i dont know where it goes i have less then 50 bucks in my bank account ... pay day tuesday tho maybe ill pick up some cheep wood and start building my new canopy...

anyways thought id post some construction picts when the tank was new

 

[A.T.T.R]

hole in wall

 

[A.T.T.R]

some of the electrical getting done

i am VERY lucky that i found that most of my lines run right over this tank.. so i was able to tap into about 7 of them so i can now put about 2000w split between 7 circuits so its like me plugging in one or two light bulbs in each room of the house... made life easy

 

[A.T.T.R]

wood walls put up

 

[A.T.T.R]

my tank on delivery stayed in my 80-90 degree gradge for 1.5 months... when i installed hte tnak and found that it was bowing from the getgo they tried to blame me for leaving it in a gradge that is cooler then some peoples houses and definitly cooler then the truck that it was delivered on..

( one of the bad seams.. hard to tell what it is)

the canopy that has since almost compleatly fell apart

anyways

tank being filled and inplace

( first mistake filled with ge ro unit half way then used carbon only the rest of the way )

this unit here

drain

ballast in place