65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef

[aggie13reef]

I have a pair of RW8's and have found that they need to be cleaned pretty frequently in order to stay at normal operating range. Once they start to get dirty they have a pretty quick fall-off. Once cleaned they are back to normal.

I've since set up a monthly calendar appointment to remind me. Sometimes they make it a month otherwise it is about every two weeks. I have mine on my reef angel controller and their profile changes between reef crest and lagoon. Been reliable as far as continued use and no breaks but they do have a fall of. Nothing something I'll be using on my next tank though.

I am bad about cleaning mine but for the price I feel like these pumps are great. I don't have mine on a controller or anything but I wish I did. I also agree if I had the money I would go higher end. Maybe one day on a future build!

 

[markalot]

I still like my original WP25's but I'm done with the RW and now PP (really, PP?) series. 3 of mine failed within two months of each other, all a little over 1 year old. My older WP25's are still going strong.

 

[MichaelW]

I still like my original WP25's but I'm done with the RW and now PP (really, PP?) series. 3 of mine failed within two months of each other, all a little over 1 year old. My older WP25's are still going strong.

Your lucky you even got a year. Between my father in law and my self we have had 5 out of 9 fail within the first year. One didn't even work out the box unless you squeezed the pump housing. We don't use them any more.... Correction I have one small one on my frag tank.

 

[aggie13reef]

Tonight I did a water change and about 45 minutes worth of GHA removal. I swear some was by the fistful. I have to get it under control as I believe it is the culprit of my recent tissue loss on my turaki. It makes me mad as I had a lot of new growth around the base and I think the algae choked it out. The top portion of the turaki still look healthy so I haven't fragged it yet.

Alk reading tonight was 7.3
Ca - 490

The Ca doser remains off. I have the skimmer running what looks to me to be heavy. The algae is frustrating me so much I am considering buying dry rock and taking the time to make an aquascape that allows for great water flow, curing it, and then re-doing the tank. This however is a great amount of work so I will continue on with the current battle.

Heres a picture from tonight that I thought was neat

 

[aggie13reef]

This evening I have finally gotten to turn the Calcium dose pump back on. Now that the level is down to 415 I want to get it up to about 425 and hold it there. Bad news is I have lost my Turaki. I am blaming the algae choking out the base and then slowly dying. I did notice a few asterina starfish right on the tissue loss line each day. Not sure if they were contributing to the decline but I have to assume they stressed the turaki. The remaining corals all look good and the algae growth continues. I am still dosing 3 drops of each NP pro and Pro Bio S each morning. I still have the red and greed LED channels at 0.

 

[aggie13reef]

Today I spent roughly 3.5 hours working on the tank. I pulled as much algae as I could and broke the skimmer down completely and cleaned it as well as the two RW-8s. I moved one piece of live rock to open up the front and allow better water flow to try and keep detritus from building up. The major change was suspending the lights from the ceiling and losing the hood. I felt the lights were much to close to the water. The spread of light and the look have drastically increased since losing the hood. I feel there is also better exchange on the surface of the water now that it is open to the air. I have also stopped dosing the NP pro and Pro Bio S for the time being. I chopped my green birdsnest as well and kept about a 3" piece. I feel the light intensity and heavy direct flow caused it to decline over the past couple weeks. It had more algae growth inside it than healthy tissue. All the other Acros look good. Here's a few pics:

I tested tonight and found
Alk - 8.75 dKH
Calcium - 410 ppm
SG - 1.026

I turned my Alk dosing pump off until Alk returns to ~7.



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[Scorpius]

8.75 dkh is OK. I run 8-9 dkh

 

[markalot]

How is everything going?

 

[aggie13reef]

How is everything going?

The tank is still up and running, I have lost a couple of my small colonies over the past few months. I am on the verge of setting up my empty 40 breeder with my fish, about half of my rock, new sand, and frags of all my remaining SPS and either re-doing my 65 from scratch or selling it and starting a fresh build on a slightly larger tank. Nothing crazy but maybe a 90 or a 105. There is so much that I would do differently on brand new build. My wife was trying to get me to pull the trigger on a 90 cube that a local pet store had for super cheap. It just got the wheels turning!