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

[wmilas]

Pods feed on fish crap, algae, anything and everything they can find to eat. However, if you are going to have a coral tank, dosing phyto is not a pad idea. Some coral will uptake the phyto directly, some uptake the pods that feed on the phyto, ect.

DT's phyto is kind of expensive but the best stuff you can buy. If you start using alot of it is incredibly easy to culture your own. You need a 2 litre bottle, some phyto culture, some miracle grow, and a light bulb There are a brunch of howtos on the net. Once you culture phyto tyou can then culture rotifers (little pod like animals) directly in another container and drip the rotifers directly into your tank for a stream of tasty treats from your coral and fish.

At this point I'm jsut dosing DT's directly. at some point I'll set up the phyto and rotifer culture stations.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Thanks I will look into that.

 

[amt68]

Do you feed with the powder DT's phyto? I know my tank is laking alot of life. The wind storm we had This last summer knocked the power out for 5 days. I had no losses but my corals took a beating.

 

[wmilas]

I use the live (water and phyto in a bottle) stuff. Remember DT's is really close to me so its on the cheaper side around here.

 

[Lambianz]

bubbles

bubbles

Wmilas, did you ever find your micro bubble problem. I had to do this, when I was also scratching my head on micro bubbles returning back to the main display.

See my external pump bulkhead was just straight into the sump. And there was only about 10" water level above the line from the out put to the suction from the pump. So what was happening it was causing a vortex or turbulence circular motion going on in the sump, which this process was sucking air in from above the water line.

Maybe if not in your sump, there might be a line somewhere in a holding tank with a external pump causing such a process.
When I did this method, bye bye micro bubbles. The cut out in the pix is facing down, only on the pc of pvc between connection from bulkhead and the end cap.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lambianz]

bubbles

bubbles

Wmilas, did you ever find your micro bubble problem. I had to do this, when I was also scratching my head on micro bubbles returning back to the main display.

See my external pump bulkhead was just straight into the sump. And there was only about 10" water level above the line from the out put to the suction from the pump. So what was happening it was causing a vortex or turbulence circular motion going on in the sump, which this process was sucking air in from above the water line.

Maybe if not in your sump, there might be a line somewhere in a holding tank with a external pump causing such a process.
When I did this method, bye bye micro bubbles. The cut out in the pix is facing down, only on the pc of pvc between connection from bulkhead and the end cap.

Hope that helps.

 

[Lambianz]

If you can't see drawing very well the cut out is facing down on the pc of pvc line. So the water is being sucked in from below the line. The cut out as seen in view A is actually suppose to be just to the right of the end cap. Its about a 30 degree cut out , about 2" long.
Sometimes though I've found out raisin the sump level helps too.
Oh and great renovation and tank build!
Pm me if you want a larger view of pix of drawing, Its actually larger, had to resize it to fit, maybe to small.

 

[wmilas]

Is there a slot under that pipe? Its hard to see from the drawing?

I still have micro bubble issues but they aren't as bad as before. I'm slowly fixing small parts of the plumbing and I want to finish getting everything just right before I take out the bottle of petroleum jelly and start coating the return from the sump which is where I think the real problem is.

I have some more dry rock and a little bit more sand for the fuge coming in, along with some miracle mud for the fuge. As far as the mud goes, I don't think it has "magical live" properties, but I do want some mud on top of the sand for the fauna and if I plant a few species of macro-algae I've been eyeing.

I've finished up the electrical (once again) and am mostly happy this time around, although I do need a few shorter cords. This week I also need to hang the Reefdoser and setup the buckets of calc, alk, and mag. I switched to mixing the "3" in 5 gallon buckets. Its a hell of a lot easier and less time consuming. I'm using the reef crystals buckets with the screw on lids. I'm going to drill 2 small holes in the top, one for the airline tubing for the doser and one so I don't create a vacuum in the bucket. Will make my dosing much easier.

At some point I'll have to get a kalk and calcium reactor but I'm trying to put it off for now

I have some pictures I took from a a few weeks ago I need to put up when I get a chance.

 

[Lambianz]

tank

tank

Yes there is a slot cut out on the pc of pvc between the bulkhead connection and the end cap facing down, Hmmm maybe you can see it better here
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb40/Lambianz/scan-2.jpg
If you don't have a threaded bulkhead, it not a must, you can just slip a pc of pvc line to fit inside bulkhead and put a cap on the other end.
The pressure from the pump sucking will keep it in position.
Just go around to all your bulkheads where there is a external pump on the other side and see how much the water is moving around the bulkhead. When I finally came to the conclusion this was going on is when the micro bubbles wasn't constant. I had to turn off all my power heads off. And the micro bubble where only coming out the return lines about every 3 to 5 minutes. I could see the intermittent
problem. So I looked at the water in my sump as the micro bubbles where coming out and it was as stated like a whirl wind of water action right by the bulkhead. So I did what I drew up and placed it on the bulkhead and no more micro bubbles. Its to bad my drain bulkhead in my tank is the size it is. Because I can crank up my external pump full blast with no return micro bubbles. Just my tank drain isn't big enough.

 

[wmilas]

Thought I'd throw in a quick update. Here are some shots of the tank 1 month ago after the first quarantined fish went in. 5 chromis, a baby hippo (size of a quarter) and a Scopas tang.

As you can see I was still battling some hair algae.

 

[TandN]

how does the petroleum jelly work ?

 

[wmilas]

2nd round of quarantine is done. Added a 6 line wrasse, 5 peppermint shrimp (one went in the fuge), a fire shrimp, 4 more chromis, and 2 false clowns. Unfortunately the 6 line disappeared 3 days after being added to the tank. Its been 2 wees and I haven't seen him. I've given up hope on him Here are some pictures from today.

Hippo is growing nicely:

Scopas tang is always begging for food:

Clowns:

 

[wmilas]

Fulltank shot:

Side shots. Hair algae is gone, struggling with a bit of byropsis.

My calcium reactor

I chose this way because its the same end result, and much simpler to operate (and cheaper) 5 gallon buckets of Alk and Calcium brine fed by a doser. Idiot proof and I won't run out of CO at the wrong time. If my uptake gets insane I'll have to switch to a reactor, but I'll need a monster one along with a kalk reactor adding tons of complexity I'm just not ready for yet. As you can see I have a 3rd channel for Mag set up, just haven't had the need to dose it as much as the Calc and alk. I'm using the equivalent of 9 fl oz of Calc and alk 2 part a day at this point... which means my 5 gallon buckets will last 2 months or so between refills. Mixing refills in the buckets is a snap too.

 

[Kreeger1]

Wonder how much waste all those tiny snails make?

 

[bdblkta]

so are you using that much 2 part because of the snails? that seems excessive without any corals.

 

[wmilas]

Here is a shot of teh frag tank... loaded with bases for frags acting as a nice filter atm

Cheato bigger than your head.. .thats a 65 gallon tank

Skimmer still kicking out all kinds of nasty stuff. What it looks like an hour after being cleaned.

My dry goods room is becoming a pigsty

Got chemicals?

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683419#post14683419 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kreeger1
Wonder how much waste all those tiny snails make?

Alot... but then again they eat LOTS of algae

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683173#post14683173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TandN
how does the petroleum jelly work ?

Haven't tried it yet. The idea is that you lube the pipe up and it will seal any pinholes. Lube a section up, wait, bubbles gone, you know where the culprit is. Wipe of jelly, cement (or silicone) the offending problem.

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683674#post14683674 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bdblkta
so are you using that much 2 part because of the snails? that seems excessive without any corals.

Yup. That's what I figure. I'm hatching baby snails now (I've seen 3 or 4 "hatchings" so I'm positive I'm breeding snails now. Those shells must take up alot of calcium and alk when growing, because something sure as hell is using it.

 

[Dejavu]

Have you tried turbo snails for the byropsis? I have used them in the past with good results.