700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[Reefski's]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14763200#post14763200 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev


Hey Carl, are you wondering why I'm updating your thread right now? Because your two enormous dogs are on my bed! :lol:

Marc-
and why did that make you want to update my thread? i don't get it.

I'm up and Bryson is not here on my bed. hmmm... where could he be? Huxley is here wondering where Bryson is.

it's been a blast having you. Pam said i was like a giddy schoolgirl awaiting her first date anticipating the arrival of my weekend guests.

i'll get some photos of the new Melev silencer Ver 1 and before and after video.

i better get going. i have about 300 mini brittle stars to catch before you get up.

Carl

 

[Dancing4raiin]

Thanks for the good read

 

[Reefski's]

i have just built Version 2.o of my turf scrubber. Version 1 has been offline two weeks now.

the first one worked fairly well but was too difficult to clean most of the algae off, only removing 40% or so at a time was still difficult. it was also awkward to remove the panels.

the new one is smaller but hopefully will prove easier to clean and much more serviceable.

it is in a 75 gallon tank. we drilled an 1/8" hole every square inch and roughed up the acrylic. maybe not enough. we shall see.

the water comes from a mag 18 in the overflow in the DT which is below the level of the ATS.

water flows over the the scrubber and down into a 75 gallon tank which is the surge device.

the plan is to have the pods and such created by the ATS to flow into the surge and then the DT.

the surge will always have a water level of 5" or so that will be filled with rubble rock.

the surge would also be a cool place to put a plate to grow turf on. it could be at some height in the surge zone so that it would be out of the water for a period while the surge fills.

a future project. one that will require more light. for now the surge part will be unlit.

i have also connected a separate pump that is valved into the line from the DT so if i want to turn off the surge i can circulate water over the ATS from the surge tank.

i am also going to hook up a small Rio pump to pump continually in the ATS tank to guard against it drying out.

i seeded the ATS with this type of algae. i hope it takes. it grows best in the air where it is mostly just damp.

there has already been some mini brittle stars and a couple of snails pumped into the ATS that have survived. i am sure other critters will too.
maybe tomorrow i will get some rock in the surge tank.

 

[Reefski's]

the surge was very noisy as you may have been able to hear in the video.

Marc Levenson was here last weekend and after hearing it devised a fix that almost totally silenced the rapid inflow of water from slurping down the drain.

here it is in place

i made a more permanent one out of pvc.

 

[Reefski's]

the surge is really moving the small sand around.
i am going to put some larger size sand in this end of the tank.

here are a couple of videos with the Melev silencer Version two installed.




now i have to do something about the Mag pump in the overflow.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i had a new friend here over the weekend who had a fantastic Nikon digital camera that does HD video.

i now have serious camera envy. the video was stunning.

maybe if i sell enough reef stuff i am not using i can get the new camera and sell the Rebel XT body i have now.

i hope that when she sends me the video she took it will not be too big to post on the net.

Carl

 

[karm40]

Carl, I guess this is the new trend, to have HD video and stills really merge so that they are both usable. Don't forget that Canon and Nikon always leap frog each other. It may be that the video on the D90 is superior to the new Rebel. You just have to catch it at the right time and as my friend says, don't chase technology. I'm gonna check dp and see what they have to say.

 

[yukonblizzard]

Looks great! but why did you change the surge from the toilet float way?

 

[Reefski's]

the flapper worked great when there was little drop from flapper to tank as in the test.

the final install has a 5 foot drop. the increased pressure caused air to be pulled into the overflow and exit under the flapper for the whole duration of the surge.

the Carlson surge only has a little air at the beginning and a bit more at the end.

if the surge tank was near the tank level i would go with the Borneman design as it was almost bubble free.

 

[aiko670]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11528561#post11528561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefski's
my dog is sweet! a bit intense sometimes, mostly enthusiastic.
these eyes?
<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=IMG_2188.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/IMG_2188.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

he is a real lap dog. every night he waits patiently for his table scrapes after we eat dinner in front of the TV and then he knows he can get on the couch and sit on someones lap for a good scratching, massage.

we decided we don't need an alarm on the new house. would you come in uninvited?
<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=brysonmouth.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/brysonmouth.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

he is mostly interested in eating the food out of the pond although he has occasionally nipped at the Koi if they try to eat the food he is after.
<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=IMG_1374.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/IMG_1374.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

hoover is the Koi competing with him and has a big mouth too!!
<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=IMG_1297.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/IMG_1297.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=IMG_1255.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/IMG_1255.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

beauty shot.

<a href="http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/?action=view&current=Brysonbypond.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/reefski/Brysonbypond.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

now back to tank building.
i have deemed the freshwater testing complete and am now pumping water into the tank from the front yard holding tank.

i'll drop a heater in it and run it the rest of the weekend.

maybe i'll get some LR in on Monday. some of the best rock is in the aptasia infested tank and must be treated and further qt'd so it won't be going in the tank any time soon.

patience grasshopper. (that is what i keep telling myself)

Awesome build!! Beautiful pond and great Pitty. We have two and love them!

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i forgot to post this photo from a couple of weeks ago when Melev was here. he slept in with the boys.

the doors over the tank are almost completem just a bit of trim to complete. they have the same reflective stuff on the tank side as the rest of the shaft.

I have removed sand on the high flow half of the tank about 3" worth, leaving 3" of original sand and covering with the 1-2mm sand about 2" and then a 1" pea gravel sized aragonite over that. It is not blowing around any more.

Starting to get diatoms on the new substrate, still having cyano around the tank. It is making lots of O2 bubbles, at least I don't think it is just the surge bubbles sticking to it.

Some algae is growing on the ATS. Interestingly there is more growing in the tank on the pipework around the top of the tank in the surge zone. I guess I can/should harvest that too.

Also got all the aiptasia out of the overflows.

I have turned off the Ca reactor about a week ago and today picked up a couple hundred pounds of the various salts to dose with. pH has risen to 8.3+

For now I am dosing only with the sodium carbonate instead of bicarbonate.

Today I got soda ash which I believe is the right stuff. I got an analysis sheet and it is pretty pure but can have some arsenic in it. Yow! Should I worry about that?

It is really hot here yesterday and today with records set. Air temps to 93 here. The tank got to 94.7 yesterday and 93.5 today. that is about the hottest it ever gets here and only for a day or two. we just opened the windows and doors. No AC. I was gone yesterday until evening and I hadn't opened the skylight yet. It is open now and today was hotter than yesterday but the tank was cooler.

I told another reefer that today and he freaked out. I told him it is hotter than that for weeks in the tropics. I hope I was right about that. I am not worried. I will set up a fan or two to blow across somewhere or other when it gets hot again.

PAR values are very high in the tank. 1700-1800 for a few hours in parts.

Some of the corals, not acros but others seem a bit pale. The Platygyra, elegance is shrunken, Favia has gotten pale over the ridges of the corallites. Should I shade the tank or could it just be the heat or both?

I brought up the Ca, Mg, and alk levels over a few days to just above NSW levels except alk is 12dKH. PO4 is 0.06 ppm.

Carl

 

[melev]

With the tank reaching 94F, that's a 11 degree rise over what is normal in your reef, correct? That would explain some unhappy corals. The warmer the water, the less oxygen it contains. I bet your surge helped with that issue.

I would freak out at 86F, honestly. My lights are programmed to turn off if my tank reaches 83F.

 

[Reefski's]

oops. typo

i meant 84.7 and 83.5

 

[melev]

Oh, I feel a lot better about that. When you posted that very high number, and then said someone freaked out, I figured you didn't typo-it after all. :eek2:

84.7 isn't too bad - it happens. The goal is to only let it happen on rare occasions.

Did you see any of the tigger pods lately, like in your cryptic surge zone?

The closed loop screens look the same to me.

 

[Reefski's]

i have looked and haven't seen any of the tigger pods.

the closed loop screen cleaning is on my list for tomorrow. good eye Marc.

i had to go skiing one last time this season so have been oot for four days.

 

[karm40]

Yeah. I was wondering about the temp, you seemed so casual about it.

 

[karm40]

Oh, and when is Melev going to post pics he took while he was here???

 

[Reefski's]

ya Marc- just don't show my belly.

the 5 gallons of Tigger pods have just vanished. i was up at 4am today looking in the tank with the magnifying glass. i saw nothing.

nothing except the Copperband butterfly still hunting in the rocks by the light of the moonlights.

the sand isn't blowing around any more. it is crystal clear again.

not in this picture though. this was just after the addition of the sand and gravel.

i think the surge acts as a kind of skimmer with the bubbles every 2.5 minutes.

 

[Reefski's]

i have stopped using the Ca reactor and Kalkwasser. it just was not keeping up even though i don't have that many calcifying corals yet. the bubble count was always needing adjusting, then too much, then too little. it drove down pH to 8 or even a little less.

now i am using Randy's three part recipe with Sodium Carbonate and pH has risen to about 8.3+ over the last two weeks.

also got alk, Ca, and Mg to better levels now too.

i'll be dosing them daily in the top off water.

a couple of the corals have gotten a little paler and shrunk up a bit since all these changes.

or maybe it is just new skeletal growth coming through. what do you think?

a couple look better than ever with new growth

 

[Reefski's]

i should have known better.

i have a non QT story to tell. hopefully it will turn out ok.

i got a couple of corals at the recent Marine Aquarium Expo, MAX, they came from the tank of a guy that was a "reefers reefer". i got three corals which were the only ones i bought, all from the same tank.

all montipora. undata, danae, and capricornis. the other two look fine. i looked closely at them with a magnifying glass today. i should put them in the QT tank also. i will do that today.

i put them in one of the garage tanks that are also connected to my display tank.

i looked them over but didn't see anything bad. the one had a brown area that wasn't colored up like the rest of the coral. i thought it had been shaded and that was the reason.

skip ahead three weeks and this is what i saw. it turned white overnight.

so i set up a QT tank and followed Eric's treatment protocol he laid out here.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php
50mg/L of potassium permanganate

post treatment

i treated for an hour with good circulation and they all appeared dead afterwards.

now i have a QT tank setup with tank water.

it looks like there is already polyps out and the coral did not die.