45 Galllon Cube. My dream tank...only smaller!

[chrishayes]

Be careful with those prepared formulas too. They are hell on your biofilter that is still establishing. Im sure you know that but wanted to mention it. Im far too scared to add them to my tanks...seen too many tank crashes from them when folks use the instructions on the bottle for dosing. There should be better control over manufacturers claims. Like the phyto I dose to my fuge says to use 1 drop per gallon DAILY! No way! Just the 15 drops I use makes the whole house smell like barley! Ill stick to my auto peppe le pew broadcast feeder!

 

[chrishayes]

Well this couldnt be helping matters much!

I went to change my GFO and two things jumped out at me. One, is that there was a bunch of white stringy things in there which from what ive read is bacterial overload. This tells me to back off on the MB7 so Ill go to one drop per every other day and see how that goes.

The other is my pump has exploded for a lack of better words. Its obviously been cracked open since rust is developed on the case. Yikes. Replaced it with a minijet 606. Man, the hits just keep on rollin in!

 

[Reef_Noob]

Well this couldnt be helping matters much!

I went to change my GFO and two things jumped out at me. One, is that there was a bunch of white stringy things in there which from what ive read is bacterial overload. This tells me to back off on the MB7 so Ill go to one drop per every other day and see how that goes.

The other is my pump has exploded for a lack of better words. Its obviously been cracked open since rust is developed on the case. Yikes. Replaced it with a minijet 606. Man, the hits just keep on rollin in!

GOODNESS!! thats not a good thing to have a pump crack open like that :deadhorse1:
Stray voltage can be dangerous for ya as well as fishes, right?
The white stringy stuff is definately bacteria....maybe increasing the flow thru the GFO/reactor can help. Did it stink Sulfide?
I had used Nitrate reactors in my old tanks...more pain than gain...always had this white stringy stuff and they choked the flow in the reactor so much that started to produce sulfide and that rotten smell....sheeesh.

Yep...thanks for the warning on the prepared formula...i knew about it and i also know that the manufacturers want us to dump em in our tanks and pollute.
I havent used them before just coz of this reason...just this time in my new set up since im goin ULNS...i was contemplating....Reef Snow maybe...in moderation

 

[REEF SMAC]

Oh the other thing ive been meaning to mention about the differences in the 40 and 10 is that the 40 has a solid portion on the intake grill that you orient to the surface so it doesnt suck a vortex from the surface! All of us mp10 users out there know how frustrating that is! I really havea hard time believing that with all the water this 40 moves that it never pulls in any air. ANother WIN for the 40! No idea why the 10 doesnt have this feature...

I've had nothing but good luck with my MP40s. One less thing you will need for your upgrade down the road too.
I was even more suprised to find that the MP60s don't have that solid portion on the intake grill either. I thought the solid portion, was a great idea too.

Goodness!! Lysol!! Man who wouldv thought it would harm a reef

Man I saw the results of someone that used Windex to clean their light fixture one time.
That didn't turn out too well either.
It's amazing how just the tiniest amount of the wrong thing, can cause such a huge problem for your reef.

Well this couldnt be helping matters much!

Man you are actually lucky it was on the outside where you could easily see it before it became a real problem.

Glad to hear your reef is back on track.

 

[chrishayes]

Thanks guys. Yeah that pump shouldnt have been used anyways but I didnt have a small pump when I started the reactor up so I used one from a christmas fountain...yeah, I said it. lol So reallly, in the scheme of things, I think I got lucky it wasnt worse.

This is a good point to bring up Noob, since I have a ground probe installed in my tank Any stray voltage is passed to ground by the probe so they are in a way more dangerous as they mask the fact that something is wrong.

The tanks coming around. Color and PE have improved since the troubles but its not back to how it was. Everything is more brown and pale...oh well. Ill take some pics this week for posterity! I dont mind showinng my tank before her makeups on. lol

 

[chrishayes]

oh and Reefsmac, The first lfs I worked for as a kid, used to spray down all the tanks and canopies with windex! lol they would also just drain the tanks downso far and spray bleach water on the decorations every few days too! no need to take the fish out ya know.

 

[Reef_Noob]

Your corals are a resilient lot. I'm sure they gonna bounce back. Great that your remedial measures are working out.
Is the grounding probe ya installed DIY? Can ya give me a lil more info on this installation of yours?

Cheers!

 

[chrishayes]

Your corals are a resilient lot. I'm sure they gonna bounce back. Great that your remedial measures are working out.
Is the grounding probe ya installed DIY? Can ya give me a lil more info on this installation of yours?

Cheers!

Yeah theyll pull through and im sure this wont be the last time!

On the probe, go back to page 4 of my thread and I go through the install at post #90.

 

[fragyoureef]

Nice looking good, i cant wait for the wall build = )

 

[chrishayes]

Nice looking good, i cant wait for the wall build = )

Well...youre gonna have to wait! The only way to do my inwall is to take my sons closet away and if we move him into the spare bedroom, then my wife will lose her SECOND closet. So, you see where the conflict is there!

 

[chrishayes]

A RC friend of mine came over yesterday to acid bathe his new brs dry rock. Thank God he did this!

 

[chrishayes]

Heres some shots of the tank from today. I didnt use a tripod and its bright out but you get the point.

 

[chrishayes]

 

[Reef_Noob]

Yes we all get the point and the point is your tank's rocking back to glory
I need to check my tank for stray voltage. Read your instructions and il be doin the checkin.
The monti in the middle seems like it's flowing down pretty neat.
And the acid bath goodness wats all that? So much muck in dry rock. Couldnt hav imagined. Your friend did save himself a lot of trouble.
And thanks a lot for ur encouragin comments on my thread, appreciate it.

Happy Reefing!!

 

[tegee]

A RC friend of mine came over yesterday to acid bathe his new brs dry rock. Thank God he did this!

WOW.....I wish I did this on my 180gl sps tank. My BRS Eco rock decided to release tons of phos 6 months after install.

What was your method of acid washing. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Many thx........

 

[chrishayes]

Well, it wasnt the most sceintific of approaches...lol we were shooting for a 10:1 water to acid ratio. We used muratic acid(31% hydrocloric acid) that you can get at the hardware store either in the tile section where it is used to clean up grout and to etch concrete prior to painting, or in the paint department. His rock looked freshly plucked from the ocean and only dried for a short time. Theres no way to know for sure but there was a lot of dead algae on it.

We scrubbed the loose stuff with a wire brush after soaking in freshwater overnight. After that, add your water(ro.di if you want, my water is rainwater from a cistern so its low in tds) using a gallon pitcher so you know how much you put in. We just covered the rock with water. It was 17gal. So to get a 10:1 we shouldve used 26 cups of acid. I only had a half gallon at my house so we just used that much on the first go. Make sure you always pour acid into water, not the other way around or you risk having it bubble out of control and splashing it on yourself. It was FILTHY on the first round(the pics are of the second bath). I put a powerhead in the bin with it and let it do its thing for around half hour.

We carefully, using chemical gloves and eye protection, emptied out the bin and dumped it in a flowerbed that Only contains weeds(project that got backburnered due to my tank build this summer). Then we filled the bin with new freswater after rinsing the rocks with a hose. We added a few tbsp of baking soda to nuetralize the acid and let it soak with the powerhead running while we went to the store to get more acid.

When we got home, we dumped the water out and filled it again with freshwater and started to add the acid. It was a different brand than the stuff I had and it said it was 90% less fumes plus didnt give a percentage of HCL. We assumed it was a weeker solution so we added the whole gallon. That was probably a mistake. We let it soak for another 20 mins then dumped and added new water with baking soda again and allowed that to soak for 20mins.

He then took the rock home where hes currently doing rodi soaks with baking soda for 24 hours. Once the ph of the water is above 7 the rock should be ready to go in the tank.

Now, he says the rock is really brittle. I think using the full gallon of acid was too much. Ill tell ya though, that rock was FULL of nasties. I would be leary as hell of using it in my own tank right out of the box so im glad we did it for him. However, if I were to do it again I would stick on the low side of the 10:1 ratio and make sure that whatever acid you get has a clear label of HCL concentration. Good luck!

 

[chrishayes]

Its comming around slowly, PE is still lacking along with color loss in nearly everything. At least nothing is obviously dieing...thank you very much Noob.

Yeah, stray voltage is a serious issue that usually gets joked about. Ive got scars, both mental and physical to prove its not a joke. If you need any help with checking and resolving issues let me know, be glad to help.

The cap is doing really well in this tank. Previously it would go through lots of shifts where it would change color, growth shape and frequency not to mention it was once attacked by monty eating nudis which resulted in my knee jerking and doing a freshwater dip. It went bone white! Cant believe it made it through that...now its able to just be happy and grow. I hope it doesnt overgrow its welcome though. Itd be a shame to have it start working its way up the rock instead of down but it does seem to be pooling downward so thats a good sign!

Yeah the dry rock ought to come with a warning label. Seriously, I hate to imagine how many tanks have been needlessly torn down or crashed due to the fact that this stuff is lterally a graveyard...and youre welcome for the encouragment, you are making a fantastic reef over there!

Yes we all get the point and the point is your tank's rocking back to glory
I need to check my tank for stray voltage. Read your instructions and il be doin the checkin.
The monti in the middle seems like it's flowing down pretty neat.
And the acid bath goodness wats all that? So much muck in dry rock. Couldnt hav imagined. Your friend did save himself a lot of trouble.
And thanks a lot for ur encouragin comments on my thread, appreciate it.

Happy Reefing!!

 

[Ruskin]

Chris,

I just caught up with your thread and have to say you have done a really fine job. I really like the rock work that you've done and the overall clean approach to your build. Congrats you must be happy?

Also, love the planted tank, looks great.

Matt

 

[chrishayes]

Chris,

I just caught up with your thread and have to say you have done a really fine job. I really like the rock work that you've done and the overall clean approach to your build. Congrats you must be happy?

Also, love the planted tank, looks great.

Matt

Im satisfied, never happy! lol Thanks for the kind words and for taking a look. My planted tank get a back seat mostly these days. To be honest I cant tell you the last time I even cleaned the filter...im terrible. Food and topoff is all it gets. I think my wife tells me how much she loves it all the time just so I dont turn it into another reef! She already told me that my 16month old couldnt possibly have told me that he didnt care if I took his closet for my inwall build. Busted. oh well, I tried.

 

[chrishayes]

Well, since im awake for who knows why, I thought id take some night shots under the moonlight. Im guessing the tank is about to go through a growth spurt. Everytime I see good PE at night the corals tend to grow faster and seem healthier...maybe im an idiot, who knows.