170 Gallon Moonview Library set up

[jglackin]

The autofeeder will be for both, but mainly fish. I will mix pellets, flake, reef chili and cyclop-eeze in the hopper and then let it feed a small amount throughout the day and preset intervals. I have the feeding cycle set so the pumps go off and then the feeder drops food. The tank will sit for 5 minutes and then the pumps will kick back on.

I am not feeding the fish that much now. I am just adding a lot of DT's, cyclop-eeze, and Reef Chili for the corals. They seem to like it, they are all opened up and swollen to their fullest size.

 

[robsee06]

Which Auto feeder were you able to integrate with your aquacontroller and how did you do this?

 

[jglackin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10588274#post10588274 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by robsee06
Which Auto feeder were you able to integrate with your aquacontroller and how did you do this?

I am using this feeder. It is linked with the Neptune web site. I also went to the Neptune forum here and was told that several people there use this feeder with great success. With the Aquacontroller, you can add a timer with as many timing events as you want. Set an interval of timing events that trigger the feeder for as often as you like. Set it and forget it.

 

[jglackin]

I tested the water today at the lab and my Nitrates and Phosphates are still up. I cannot figure out why I can't seem to get the phosphates down. The nitrates are not bothering me nearly as much as the PO4.

PH 8.04
NH3 -0.01
NO2 0.0042
NO3 2.7
Sal 31.4
Alk 131
CA 440
PO4 0.81

My PH is lower than I want it, but my calcium and alk are exactly where I want them. I have yet to get the LifeReef calcium reactor set up. That is next weekend's project. I also want to get my salinity up higher to about 35 (1.026). This has a lot to do with my current auto topoff (lift jug, pour in RO water). Next weekend's projects will also include the auto top off.

 

[jglackin]

PH 8.14
NH3 -0.03
NO2 0.0044
NO3 5.5
Sal 32.6
Alk 132.8
CA 424
PO4 0.06

Well, I have gotten the phosphates down closer to where I want them, but I cannot figure out my nitrates. The tank has been up for 2 months, but I am being told that it takes more time for the plenum to kick into full action. Alk, cal, NH3, and PH are exactly where I want them.

Once I get my nitrates down, I will be ready to add my next set of inhabitants. I am looking to add about 4 or 5 anthias. I have them narrowed down to either the bimaculatus or the flavicauda. If anyone has any feedback on either of these, please PM me.

 

[jglackin]

PH 8.05
NH3 -0.03
NO2 0.0041
NO3 5.4
Sal 32.4
Alk 141.2
CA 409.6
PO4 0.32

This week's water tests are a bit disappointing. The PO4 is back up and I have no idea why. And I still cannot seem to get a grip on bringing down my nitrates. My thoughts on the nitrates are that I have a couple of sponges and a filter sock covering the return for my pump. I took them out last night and decided not to use them anymore for two reasons: #1 - It prevents my pods from being pumped into the main tank and #2 - It is likely why my nitrates are elevated. We'll see.

I have dusted off my wallet and gotten a Aquacontroller III Pro as an upgrade to my ACII. I got a great deal on a new one on Ebay. I can't wait to get it set up and working online. I am going to also connect a web camera so that my tank can be observed online. I am looking for an underwater web camera.

 

[jglackin]

PH 8.18
NH3 -0.02
NO2 0.0048
NO3 6.7
Sal 32.7
Alk 135.6
CA 433.6
PO4 0.34

It's amazing, but I still cannot seem to get a grip on my NO3 and PO4. I was talking with someone about the media I am using in my Phosphate reactor and they told me that I may not be running enough media. I have been running about 3" of media in the reactor. Now I am running the reactor almost full. We'll see if this works. The NO3, on the other hand, is perplexing. I am no longer using any sponge filters or filter socks. I do a 20% water change every 2 weeks and I have a very deep sand bed and a plenum. The tank has been up for 3 months now, so I would think that the DSB and the plenum should be able to eat up any NO3 that is in the tank. I do not have a large bioload. I have a yellow tang, blue tang, blue throat trigger, two clowns and a bicolor blenny in a 200+ gallon system. Any ideas?

I have now pretty much fully connected my tank with the ACIII Pro (click the red house). I can now feed my fish, turn on pumps, lights, change programs, etc, from my blackberry while traveling. That may not mean squat to most, but, since I am such a gadget geek, this is huge. I have a Aquasurf coming from Premium Aquatics to control my Tunze 6055's via my ACIII and I am going to finally get around to setting up my auto-top off this weekend.

The critter population in the sump, fuge, turf scrubber and tank is BOOMING, I love it. I have been raising and adding live rotifers every night when the skimmer shuts down (I don't run the skimmer at night) and I think this may be why I am seeing so many mysids in my system. I am also adding a pretty healthy dose of phyto at night as well. This would definitely be boosting the pods. I originally was going to put a mandarin in the tank, but I believe that I have changed my mind on this, since I don't want a madarin eating all of my critters. I may change my mind on this, if I think my tank can produce critters at a much faster rate than the mandarin can eat them, but I am not there yet.

 

[sellout007]

How often are you using the DT's and Reef Chilli and other foods? That in conjunction with your rock maybe the source of some of your problems.

 

[jglackin]

I have assumed that my PO4 problem is due to the fact that I am dumping flake and pellet into the tank 3 times a day. Not a lot each time, but it adds up to a good portion by the end of the day.
I am also feeding the tank heavily with Rod's Food, frozen Cyclop-eeze, mysis shrimp, and phyto.

This all may have some bearing on the PO4, but with a DSB and a plenum, with a light bioload, I should not have the Nitrite problem. The fish, corals, and critters are eating all of the food, so it's not like it is rotting in the tank.

 

[alky69]

Although Rod's food is great, in small quantities. It adds heavily on your nitrate problem. Why are you feeding so much? If you have a light bioload and obviously a new setup and not a ton of corals, any uneaten food is just adding to your problem. Your =going to have a huge mess of a tank if you keep these pratices up. Unless you have a gigantic skimmer and gigantic clams that eat this unwanted waste, your just wasting your time and money.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11008502#post11008502 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alky69
Although Rod's food is great, in small quantities. It adds heavily on your nitrate problem. Why are you feeding so much? If you have a light bioload and obviously a new setup and not a ton of corals, any uneaten food is just adding to your problem. Your =going to have a huge mess of a tank if you keep these pratices up. Unless you have a gigantic skimmer and gigantic clams that eat this unwanted waste, your just wasting your time and money.

I agree with this.

Rods has a TON of food in it and a lot of it will go to waste. Don't over estimate how much food your corals and critters eat. The DT's and that cyclopseze especially is going to pollute your tank. The corals are not going to eat much of the food you put into your tank. Especially if you have an empty tank.

Stop feeding the DT's and the Cyclo all but once a week (maybe even the cyclo all together, again its all in Rods food) and feed very sparingly with the Rods. Why are you feeding mysis? Thats in the Rods food as well.


Im no pro, but it simply sounds like your putting way to much waste into that tank.

 

[jglackin]

I hand feed mysis to my bubble corals, dendros, plate corals, sun corals and anemones with a turkey baster. I do this about twice a week. I feed cyclop-eeze to the tank once a day. I dunk the block of frozen cyclop-eeze in front of my koralia for a few seconds and let it blow all over the tank. I will then throw in a pinkie sized chunk of Rod's and, at night, I will add a squirt of phyto.

I travel a couple of days per week. So, on those days, they get nothing. Only what the auto feeder puts out in flake and pellet.

Honestly, I love heavily feeding my tank. I think it is good for all of the critters and, as long as I can keep the water within reasonable parameters, I should be ok. I just got done gluing down some frags and hand feeding my LPS corals and, while all of the pumps were off, I could literally see hundreds and hundreds of mysis and pods running around. I saw about 10 mysis shrimp fighting over a piece of frozen mysis that fell from the sun coral and onto a ledge. They were running in circles around the carcass and dive bombing into it and then running away.

I have heard rumor that there are people here that feed considerably more than I do.


p.s. My skimmer is rated for 400 gallons, so it is almost double what my water volume is. Then again, I do not run it at night.

 

[FUA]

wow very cool thread, definately did not skimp on equipment. Excited to see where you are going with this. Just wondering about the solaris...so you don't ever have to change bulbs. The LED's just stay lit till the fixture burns out? I noticed that the LED'
s are clumped in different areas on the fixture. Do you replace sections or nothing? I think if you don't ever have to replace bulbs that the up front cost of a solaris would even out with MH in the long run. I like the plug and play aspect that you talked about too, the solar and lunar cycles and how they mimic those in nature can only be good for all reef inhabitants.

can't wait to see some more pics!!

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11009589#post11009589 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jglackin
I hand feed mysis to my bubble corals, dendros, plate corals, sun corals and anemones with a turkey baster. I do this about twice a week. I feed cyclop-eeze to the tank once a day. I dunk the block of frozen cyclop-eeze in front of my koralia for a few seconds and let it blow all over the tank. I will then throw in a pinkie sized chunk of Rod's and, at night, I will add a squirt of phyto.

I travel a couple of days per week. So, on those days, they get nothing. Only what the auto feeder puts out in flake and pellet.

Honestly, I love heavily feeding my tank. I think it is good for all of the critters and, as long as I can keep the water within reasonable parameters, I should be ok. I just got done gluing down some frags and hand feeding my LPS corals and, while all of the pumps were off, I could literally see hundreds and hundreds of mysis and pods running around. I saw about 10 mysis shrimp fighting over a piece of frozen mysis that fell from the sun coral and onto a ledge. They were running in circles around the carcass and dive bombing into it and then running away.

I have heard rumor that there are people here that feed considerably more than I do.


p.s. My skimmer is rated for 400 gallons, so it is almost double what my water volume is. Then again, I do not run it at night.

Here's the thing, your water parameters aren't where you want them right? So something should change. As far as I know, nitrates don't come from space o), so they must be coming from something your adding to the tank.

I would try something different and see if it changes. If it does, you know you were overfeeding.

 

[jglackin]

Good point.

I have been hoping that my plenum and DSB would eventually mature enough to keep up.

I am going to change the auto feed cycle to only twice a day and see how that goes.

 

[jglackin]

OK, I think that I may have figured this out.

After the CMAS meeting, I stopped by to get some sand from PK1, and ended up leaving with a large bag of sand, a spot tail blenny, a mushroom rock, and a rock with several sponges growing on it. As I was messing around with my tank, I decided to super glue the plastic mount of my Tunze 6055 to the magnet. Apparently, due to the fact that they are only charging $200 for these pumps, they cannot afford to manufacture these things with decent quality and so the cheesy plastic clips they have easily break off and my pump was hanging in by only two clips (this is very common). Anyway, when I pulled the 6055 out of the water, the smell almost knocked me over! This thing stunk! It appears that about half of the food I have been throwing in the tank was getting sucked up by the Tunze and then getting lodged in the ventilation slots. I cleaned them and there was a massive amount of rotting gunk in these things. So, now that I have cleaned the pumps, the flow is much better and I imagine that I have taken a big chunk out of the nitrate issue.

At least this is what I am hoping.

 

[BlakDuc]

Man, my stomach almost turned just reading about the rotting gunk. Yuck.

 

[badazztealcobra]

Stupid question (go figure, a dumb question from me...) but does this mean you WERE feeding too much, or is it just a matter of turning off the powerheads along with everything else while feeding so it doesnt get sucked back into it bringing you right back to square one ???

 

[FUA]

OK, I guess I will answer my own question for everyone.


LEDs have an extremely long life span. One manufacturer has calculated the ETTF (Estimated Time To Failure) for their LEDs to be between 100,000 and 1,000,000 hours.[18] Fluorescent tubes typically are rated at about 30,000 hours, and incandescent light bulbs at 1,000-2,000 hours.
LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt burn-out of incandescent bulbs.[19]

 

[jglackin]

Sorry. No, I do not change the LEDs. Not for a few years anyway. However, there has been a major breakthrough in the technology and they are now making LEDs that are significantly brighter than the current ones and use the same wattage. PFO is going to stop making the H4 (which is what I have) and start producing the I4. It will be basically the same price, but twice the lumens. This is pretty amazing, since my H4 puts out a lot of light. There will be an upgrade available for the H4, so I can switch out my LEDs for the new ones, but this will likely not be available until February or March.