336 A.G.E. Peninsula Tank

Hey guys,
Well there has been a few changes, but not tons. I have been slowly adding coral and fish over the summer. Tommorow I am going to be pulling rock out of the tank to allow more flow. I am also looking to sell my closed loop pump and add a few tunzes in addition to my vortechs for additional flow. I added a MRC Kalk reactor to boost PH in the tank which has been pretty low and the corals have really responed to it well. I am going to start working on the stand here before to long, but I am extreamly busy at work so I am making no promises on when I will get it done. I will try and snap a few pictures tommorow.


-Brett
 
Brett is in Beijing right now, his sister is watching his house/tank and I haven't heard from her so I am assuming no emergencies!
 
Well I did loose power even though 2 blocks down they had power in down town. A tree managed to take out the power lines at the end of my street and it was 4 days before power came back up. Fortunately I was able to save the tank with my batter backups, airstones, and a portable generator.

Last time I talked to my sister all was well at home. When I get back my top priority is going to be coming up with a solution for my low PH issues. My appartment is sealed up so tight that elevated co2 levels are driving my PH down. A simple solution would be to open windows, but in Houston with it constant 100% humidity that's not really a solution I am happy with. I am not able to cut holes in the wall as well so venting air to the tank isn't going to work either. I added a Kalk reactor which helps, but still isn't raising the PH enough.

My second priority is to get my canopy finished when I return.

-Brett
 
Brett - what is your ph at? A ph of 8.0 or so isn't that big of a deal as long as the swings aren't big, and you properly acclimate your fish.

OT - were you over in beijing during the olympics?
 
mcliffy- my ph is low as 7.6-7.7 but my kalk reactor brought it up to 7.8-7.9. It isn't swinging more then a point in a day. I am maintaining high ALK and Calcium levels, but in the future this will become a problem as my corals will begin to deplete the calcium level faster then the Kalk can keep up. I cannot run my calcium reactor as of the moment because it will only drop the PH more. The corals in my tank showed a big improvement when I added the Kalk reactor so I know the low PH is having a negative effect on the tank.

I made it over here for the end of the Paraolympics, My hotel room looks out over the Birds nest so I got to see a pretty spectacular fireworks show during the closing ceremony.

It would be awesome to pick up some coral and fish here but they definitely wouldn't make it home. Everything is so cheap, I am sure if I went looking it would make me sick the kind of stuff they get here.

Interesting thing, I got to eat jelly fish last night. It was kind of like chewing on tendon

-Brett
 
China is good, Food is Great, air pollution is unreal, and work is pretty intense. Be nice to come home next week.
 
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the bump Rob, I have been meaning to get on here and update. I kept putting it off cause I am waiting for my cabinets to be finished.

It's about time, I am finally getting the cabinets installed on the tank. They will be ready in 1-2 weeks, hoping that they are staining next week so I can get them in. They are a solid Mitered door made out of Cherry. They are going to be stained fairly dark to accent my living room furniture which is as dark as a good red wine.

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Well Santa was good to me this year, I also decided to go a new route with flow. I managed to snag 4 of the new Tunze 6105's and a controller after my vortech's decided they wanted to nearly meltdown. I noticed that the dry sides were running extremely hot so I decided I was going to clean the wet sides. Everything appeared fine on the outside until I noticed that I could push my finger into the foam on the backside and touch the magnet. I removed the back to find this.

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Of course I called Ecotech and they informed me that there is a new magnet kit out because this is a big problem. I guess it's a good thing that I noticed that the dry side was running really hot before the magnet met the glass. The second magnet was so brittle that it actually cracked in half after I pulled it out of the tank. So I am sending out my 3 vortech's for some work.

The new Tunze's are great except for one thing. They are blowing my southdown sand around like it's a snow globe. Most likely my agenda for this weekend will consist of siphoning out all of the sand in the tank and sell it. I intend on replacing the sand with Seafloor select, unless someone can convince me that there is something better.

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I suppose the last portion of the update is the most depressing. I currently have a wicked diatom bloom and have lost a few corals in the process, including my 9in bali slimer :( It started a day before I went to Calgary a few weeks ago. One day I noticed a little brown algae and so I figured that the skimmer would take care of it and if not I would do a water change when I returned. I get a call that week from my sister wondering if everything is ok cause there is rust colored algae covering everything. I explain that everything should be fine and I will take care of it when I get home. So when I return I come to find this junk covering everything, so of course I reach for the test kits to discover the cause of my issues. After doing a full battery of tests I find that Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, and Phosphate are below test detection levels or close to it. Baffling considering I have so much of this crap growing. So I do a water change, siphon as much out as I can and wait for positive results. 3 water changes later and no real improvement so I start trying to find out with what I am dealing with. It is rust colored, collects gas like cyano and grows incredibly quick. After doing some research I isolate it as a wicked Diatom bloom and it appears that Silica and Light are my main problems. So why now? I use a RO/DI so I shouldn't have a silica problem right? I never had a problem in College Station. Well this is Houston which has HORRIBLE water!! So tonight I decided to look over my RO unit and sure enough the DI resin has turned almost black in the ends of the housin and the Resin has settled to the lower half of the tube and has channels running through it. Effectively allowing lots of silica and all sorts of other goodies into my top off water for quite a while now. I also swaped my 14k Phenix for 10k XM's almost 2 months ago. I think the two of these items made the perfect diatom storm. Well the solution is a work in progress. The current 50gal water changes arn't doing any good considering I am just adding more silica back into the water so I am currently awaiting my new Spectra Pure RO/DI with the Silica Buster cartridges. This is the long term solution. Short term I have reoiriented the DI filters to the vertical to help prevent the channels and maxamzie the contact time an I have taken a DI filter off an older unit and I am running it on my tank. It piggybacks on the return line quite nice. I am daily blowing off the Diatoms with a MJ1200 to keep it from choking everything. I also ordered a new helper crew after the evil hermits in my last crew literally ate every snail in the tank. They are currently banished to the sump until I have a crab boil or find someone who wants them.

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I also picked up a nice pink acro :) it's a nice 4x4 ball.

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BTW I hate the 10k XM's way to yellow and with the diatom bloom it's just depressing. What are everyone suggestions on new bulbs? I am thinking of going back to 14k's or upgrading to 400w 20k's. If I could get enough distribution with two 400w pendants I just might switch. I switched looking for more Growth, but I can be more patient and enjoy better color with higher K bulbs.
 
Thanks for the reminder I need to order new magnets for my vortechs :)

for bulbs, everyone seems to love the reeflux 12ks for color. (I think the 12k is somewhat of a misnomer as it seems to be as blue as most 20ks)
 
I think I am going to try and move to 2x 400w Reeflux 20k in Lumenarc III or lumenbright reflectors. I am thinking I am going with the Lumenarc's, I don't think I will get enough spread with the lumenbrights even if I raise them pretty high. My PFO's are 15in off the water as of the moment.

Well I got my new spectra pure unit in yesterday, works like a champ and now I don't have to worry about my topoff water. The dual TDS meters and pressure gauge really help diagnose what needs replacing.

Bad News, I managed to crack out the lid in my georeactor last night while refilling my media. I was test running it in the sink with the feed off my RO unit, I accidentally opened it up all they way instead of closing it when I was done and the pressure cracked out the top. The pressure was so strong that it shot water drops in a 360deg radius for 15ft. If you have seen a geo reactor you know they are a built well and I was so mad I did such a stupid thing.

I talked to Geo today and the replacement should be here shortly

-Brett
 
IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!

Yes I actually finished the Skin for the tank after months of deliberation and 4 quotes I got it taken care of. I end up ponying up for the nicer mitered doors and it was definitely worth it. The only thing I am not sure about is if I should add a trim piece between the top of the bottom doors and the edge of the wood frame. The guy who made it likes the clean look without it, I am not sure yet. I am thinking about it.

I also finally took some rock out of the tank and reaquascaped. I will try and get some more pictures tonight when I get home from work. The tank looks pretty brown from my month long battle with diatoms, but things are looking drastically better. It just what I get for not running a TDS meter on my RO/DI.

Next on the list is changing out my reflectors and light bulbs, I hate the color of the XM10k's, I am going to try out the Reeflux, Phenix, or the Helio's 20k's. Also on the list is a new Controller, I am just not sure that the Aquatronica is worth the extra cost, I debate it daily. I almost had one but it fell through so who knows. Then I am debating the Aquacontroler III vs III pro.

I am also in the process of selling my 3 vortech's, I know I will wish I had kept them when everything grows in. The plan is to sell them and spend all of the money I make back on coral. Should go a long way to making the tank look alot less empty. To bad Reefermadness shutdown, I could really go for a few of their 24 frag packs. I will end up ordering a few packs from Dr. Mac instead, but what I am really looking for though is some good size colonies and a few table acro's. Any ideas on other great places for coral, particularly table acro colonies?

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Thanks, Big Otis is just shy of 12in from noes to streamer tip. Tank makes him look a little small.
 
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