700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[melev]

N.O. is normal output. The bulbs are cheap, like $5 each or less. No, it isn't water proof. However, you could make an acrylic chamber that is 12 x 12 x 60" tall, and install a couple pointing out at opposite angles to light 180 degrees of screens with each light.

Shop lights are $5 each, usually. So if you have a way to mount the chamber safely, you could light the ATS. It probably needs a cheap clip on fan blowing down inside the chamber to force out any built up heat.

Obviously, no water should enter the chamber, and I'd think you'd have to clean it off often if it gets splashed so light isn't obscured too much.

You could always mount the lights to shine on the outside panels, and skip the light chimney idea.

 

[Northside Reef]

that's a pretty cool design, I love your ingenuity.

one question though, that looks like a lot of surface area which will translate into a lot of evaporation. Has that been the case?

 

[Reefski's]

Marc- i think a light inside wold be more efficient than four lights outside. the chaeto is in the middle too!

northside reef-

i don't know about evaporation yet. it has only been running a few days. there does seem to be more evaporation. i think i haven't done top off in a couple of days and the sumps have dropped a couple of inches. i don't know how many gallons that is but could be 40 gallons. when i had just the big tank and no sumps i was adding about ten gallons per day. so it will be more than that with the sumps and other tanks now even before the turf scrubber.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i can't see the most recent post from Brandan

 

[Dustin1300]

You're doing an amazing job...I'm ready to do a tank upgrade in the next year but nothing of this size....Just hoping for a about 200, not sure yet. Anything will be better than the 55 right now..

 

[Dustin1300]

And keep up the work, it will pay off in the end...a few years down the road when everything grows. I just started last May and have loved every minute of it....That is except when I had a heater leaking copper into tank because it got cracked because of an engineer goby doing too much digging. Anyways, other than this...........The hobby has been very kind to me! Cannot wait to see more!

 

[techreef]

wow, i am psyched to dig further into turf scrubbers. Thanks very much for that MD link to SantaMonica's build thread. This has been a great thread Reefski. Lots of info, and top quality builds! Congratulations.

 

[lilmonster]

Watching you guys build these awesome tanks makes me just wanna build something!!!

Keep up the great work!

 

[UnderwaterMike]

i just looked over the whleo thread again and i'm still in awe. i's at great build and those refuge tanks... i don't have words. keep us updated and i was wondering if the time of day affects the illumination of the tank. can you see a sunrise or set effect?

 

[Reefski's]

thank you. it has been fun, mostly. just the damn cleaning the one almost inaccessible side. i wish i had planned that better somehow.

the intensity of light varies widely from sunrise to sunset. as the sun moves around the sky it is on different parts of the tank and then will be back again later as the sun bounces off different parts of the shaft.

i like the gradual changes over the day.

my wife is happier this week. i got four tanks taken down and consolidated into the new system. that means several less pumps and lights sucking electricity.

1500 watts of lighting into 400 watts for now, probably replaced with two 250's next week.

pumps eliminated a few hundred watts as moved stuff uses no new pumps except a couple of Koralia 4's.

more rock went in the sumps. still room for more.

Carl

 

[vsuboy]

this whole build and everything is amazing. the tank is looking great. and i love the cross hatch fish. there beautiful.

 

[sabazerehi]

awesome thread carl. i'm still in awe over the tank and it's even more amazing in person. that koi pond is huge!!! you're a very busy man

 

[Reefski's]

thank you Saba. when i went out to feed the koi i realized i forgot to show you the pond. Bryson liked you and you were willing to play with him!! you were intrepid unlike many who come here.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i am having another episode of RTN.

it has only been 24 hours since i noticed it. when i first noticed it it was half as much as in the photo. the Kole tang is eating the tissue as it peels off. none of the other tangs are showing any interest in eating the bad tissue.

what precipitated this event? a couple of possibilities working in concert.

a week ago a friend gave me several large branches of the same Yongei that i have in my tank already. i put them in my frag tank connected to the system. they were off to the side of the main lit area and some tissue sloughed in the last couple of days. i have taken those branches out and added another lamp to this tank. the frag tank has water from the main tank overflow coming into it before going on to the main sumps. it was accumulating a lot of debris on the bottom that i stirred up with a powerhead the day before the episode started.

also i got a new algae scrubbing pad from Mighty Magnets that works incredibly on the tough green algae on the tank and the main tank got a thorough acrylic cleaning the day this started. i don't know which came first though, the cleaning or the RTN.

in my main tank i have a yongei and four other frags of the RTNing coral that are unaffected so far.

i isolated the frag tank from the rest of the system thinking it would keep the chemicals from apoptosis from getting to the main tank any more. however when i went into the garage this morning the tank was cloudy and stinky and the pink tail trigger was trying to get out of the tank. and there was a bad smell too. i cracked the valve to let in a slow trickle of new water from the main tank overflow. connected carbon and a skimmer just in this tank. tonight when the lights came on the water is clear and the fish are acting normally. the smell is gone.

this tank is on a reverse photoperiod so the lights are on now at 8pm.

i took down all my other tanks in the last two weeks except my aiptasia live rock tank on the patio in the sun. i could break off surviving branches well above the bad sections and put them outside in this tank.

would that be a good idea? it is progressing quickly.

should i pull out the whole colony and then break off healthy pieces? rinse them? dip in something? treat the cut end with something? Lugols? how much? it would not be difficult to remove the whole colony, only painful for me.

 

[melev]

Yes, I would cut off the healthy branches 1/2" above the area where the tissue is eroding, in a healthy spot. If you have a frag rack, I would just place the branches on the rack and not stress them further.

Double and triple check your alkalinity, since the progression is from the base upwards. That seems to be a recurring theme.

 

[Reefski's]

i just checked and dKH is 8.

i checked all water tests yesterday.
nitrate 5.5ppm
PO4 high at 0.34
Ca 450
Mg 1280

salinity is 0.026

Eric Borneman says it is contagious. it is usually not bacterial but a result of chemicals released by the coral and can spread through the water.

see this thread where i also posted tonight and earlier when it happened.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic90421-9-1.aspx

here is some of the dialog with Eric Borneman.

>>the corals did totally succumb within 36 hours from the start. fragging the original did not stop the progression.<<

right. As it shouldn't in a closed system - but there are caveats to this.

>>it did only affect Acros and not all of them. the original one that started the incident and only two others. three other larger colonies and other stony corals were not affected.

will other similar corals always be at risk now if added later? <<

absolutely not. This is a very transient condition.

>>will carbon remove the products of apoptosis?<<

No, but depending on what caused it in the first place, it may help. It also removes other things that could exacerbate stress.

>>how long should one wait before adding similar corals to the ones that died?<<

Trick question. Depends on the cause, and often that is not known. Hypothetically, if it was a single acute event and the issues are immediately solved and all corals undergoing sloughing are totally removed from the system, 48 hours and I would feel safe. This is rarely the case, though, so if the system is stable and no corals are sloughing, wait 5-7 days, as a generalization.

>>is there anything to do to halt the progression once begun?<<

Yes and no. If you look at this histologically, sometimes you see a rapid band-like progression and sometimes you see it all over the colony, from the tips of branches, in the middle of branches, etc. If moving in a band, you can fragment the coral about 1-1.5" ahead of the band where tissue loss is occurring and remove those fragments to another tank. I can't swear you will have gotten into cells that are undergoing apoptosis but have not yet begun total cellular disintegration (seen as sloughing), but the chances are good you will save some. If it is happening all over a colony, or if you don't have 1-1.5" ahead of any sloughing area, forget it. But, you have to move the remaining fragments to different water to give them a chance. In a really big system, you might have a better chance from dilution, but I still wouldn't suggest it. You have just basically removed presumably healthy areas and put them in the same situation as the colony that is dying. Fragmenting and replacing in the same tank works for some things, but not this - at least not well.

>> if the coral undergoing apoptosis is immediately removed will it help protect others in the system?<<

Yes. It will reduce the risk, but keep a sharp eye out.


Carl

 

[Reefski's]

it had progressed another couple of inches overnight. this was about 36 hours after i first noticed tissue loss.

i broke off all the good pieces about an inch or so above the dead tissue.

triple rinsed and put into the outside 400 gallon barrel on the patio.

so far today i see no new loss of tissue in the frags.

there is a Mag24 pump for water flow in this tank.


there is only one other stony coral.

all this tissue loss was within about 36 hours. that is except the shaded part at the bottom that is greenish.

 

[melev]

Sorry you had such a big loss. Hopefully your frags will hold on for you.

 

[Brandan]

I had a small cause of RTN with one of my Capricornus about a month ago, luckily, no other corals were harmed. I fragged the mother colony to try and save it also, about 7 of the small frags from the original 8" colony made it. Hope everything goes well.

 

[UnderwaterMike]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13580702#post13580702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefski's


Eric Borneman says it is contagious. it is usually not bacterial but a result of chemicals released by the coral and can spread through the water.

Did it spread to any other corals?