600 gal display/900+ gal build thread in the Chicago 'burbs.

[wmilas]

mm949: I've done all that prior to this. RoDI is reading a flat 0 tds. Its a monster 5 stage number and I have tds readings along the whole way between the stages (4 tds readouts on it).

I've been siphoning out crap as fast as I can. Skimmer is fountaining out massive amounts of dead turf and bacteria as I make solid progress against it. Cleaning the skimmer twice weekly yields about 1-2 gallons of sludge each time.

It IS dieing, its just taking monumental effort to kill it all Phosphate is a solid 0.0 reading on the hanna meter and nitrate is bouncing between 0.0 and 0.2. Again if this was normal algae it would have been dead long ago. The problem is its turf and its hanging on to the bitter end.

Its completely gone from about 30% of the rocks now, and partly gone from almost all the remaining rock. Its dieing in places and being ripped apart by me and the crabs in other places. There is a ton of particulate matter in the tank thats being blown around as it falls apart/is ripped up.

 

[wmilas]

Update: Metal Halides are in (3x coralvue 400w ballasts, xm 15k bulbs, lumenbright 3 larges) Nasty turf is 95% gone.

I'm traveling so I'll take pictures when I get back.

On the turf side, it took gobs and manual removal and heavy hitting with carbon (I used VSV) to starve it out. I'm in the process of backing down the carbon to find a happy medium now. It did work, was just alot of effort over 2 months Note to self: don't let it get this bad again.

Now I have a new pest popping up... lots of green bubble algae. Ugh. they are very small and only in crevices, but I see it in places. I'm not happy.

On the lighting, I'm VERY pleased with the look. Its more natural, a lot more simple to maintain. It Is more directional which means I have 2 "darker" spots in the middle of the tank instead of one, but its a more natural darkening. I like it. I might play with a bit of LED supplemental DIY for the darker spots and for a bit more blue.

 

[BADGUS]

Any updates on your tank?

 

[wmilas]

I lost one of my oldest colonies to RTN... and I have no reason why. Everything else in my tank is doing great... All parameters are good (I measure everything that there is a test kit for). It was a wild acro colony that looked alot like an efflo. It formed a horizontal plate with tips that protruded out. The plate was about 2 foot round. I grew it from a tiny frag that was browned out. White with fluorescent green tips. Within 18 hours it completely melted. I cut 4 tips to save, only 1 did not melt. Its sitting in my frag tank... hope it makes it.

Besides that, everything is doing wonderful.

I'll post some pics this weekend if I can.

 

[Robb in Austin]

Updates?!

 

[wmilas]

I've been struggling with the never ending turf algae battle. Its progressed to the point where I was doing massive carbon dosing and skimming to keep it eradicated from my tank. The problem with long term LARGE carbon dosing is that it starves out corals. They turn very light color, some bleach, some STN/RTN. I'm positive about this. I'm literally starving my corals.

If I add back more organics to the water, corals do great, turf algae starts growing again. If I add even more food back to the tank coral growth explodes and colors deepen.

I know this might sound heretical to a good number of you, but I built a large algal scrubber to test it. My skimmer, VSV dosing pump, and carbon canisters have been off line for 3 weeks now and the scrubber has been online. I'm seeing massive coral growth but that's to be expected as there are more organics in the water. The turf algae growth has not slowed appreciably, but then again the turf scrubber is not completely seeded yet. I HAVE seen a marked decrease in hair algae growth in my frag tank where there are no herbivores. I'm feeding the same as before. I have not increased my food yet.

I hope this works long term as I'm getting sick and tired of tooth brushing my rocks. Purple turf algae is the worst thing I've encountered in this hobby.

 

[Bax]

Bummer!

Stick with it sounds like you're gaining a foothold against the algea.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Do you have a lot of tangs?

 

[wmilas]

No. almost none. I have a bit of hair algae, (very little) in my frag tank because I keep a maroon clown in it and feed him directly. My display tank has 0 algae except for the purple turf. That stuff will grow when nothing else will. Unless I complete starve it out VSV dosing and bacterial uptake it'll slowly spread.

I'm hoping the algal scrubber will out-compete it just like the VSV did, but still enable enough organics in the system for the coral.

If that does not work I'm going to have to find a natural predator for it. Longspine urchins work but they are hit or miss and they scratch acrylic tanks. Purple tangs I heard can work but it up to the individual tang.

 

[SaraB]

You Sir are fighting the good fight! I hope you can beat it, but this sounds like a frustrating process.

I think by now I would have pulled all the rock and replaced the majority with new and then bleached the rest and re-cooked it for addition back into the tank.

 

[wmilas]

I've thought about it. There is about 400-600 lbs of rock in there though and tearing it all out with the coral on it would be a total pain. Its one of those things where tooth brushing is a pain, its not THAT much of a pain

 

[Oldtimer]

Bummer. Good to see some activity in this thread - been a while since I last saw an update. Seems like you've had your share of battles though as we all do. I lost some acros to STN earlier this year after what I've only been able to conclude was a freak unleashing of some sort of toxins into the water by a defective Visitherm heater that didn't outright fracture, but stopped working after a massive brown out - power surged badly for about 30 minutes. Also killed my fish. Water changes and lots of carbon were my best friend. This hobby is not without its challenges, but certainly has lots of rewards. Keep at it. Best of luck.

 

[BADGUS]

Pictures man,pictures!!

 

[wmilas]

I know, I have to take some pictures. I also need to put up some of the frags on the local forum that I've clipped because my monties are growing so fast I need to keep clipping them back. I'm running out of frag space in the frag tank

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Pictures please

 

[BADGUS]

I'm with you Brooks,I've been waiting for some sort of an update or a FS of frags since crashing my tank.

 

[Robb in Austin]

Update?!

 

[wmilas]

Doh I've been REALLY busy at work. Badgus, send me an email/forum post. You are welcome to come get all the frags you like

Rob, I'll post an update later. I'm actually starting a thread in the lighting forum outlining my lighting journey over the years

 

[Robb in Austin]

Update?

 

[ReeFantasy]

A local huge tank owner,any recent pics?