700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[Ian]

Carl, I see you're still having problems with your tank. Sorry to hear.

Are you still using that UCSB NSW?

 

[matt & pam]

What are the dimensions of the sump tanks?

 

[Reefski's]

there are four of the white bins, each about 150 gallons, the glas tanks are 66x48x18" or about 250 gallons.

Ian- i think you were right. stuff is starting to grow again since i stopped using the water several weeks ago.

i just did the 10th water change yesterday. each one has been 150 gallons, mostly with Seachem salt mix.

i have a little pod experiment i am going to do. 3 or 4 tanks with various combinations of my LR, sand, and my tank water or new ASW. i just need some time to set it all up and some LR from another tank.

more later about this.

we are trying to catch the Maroon Clowns. last weekend we easily caught the male. he never got far from the bubble coral they host in. the female was much more elusive and has eluded capture so far. any suggestions. we tryed in the dark, and during the day.

if we can get her out i have a friend who wants to breed them.

then we can put several anemones in one end of the tank with the four B&W clowns.

Carl

 

[anbosu]

How are you trying to capture the fish? A lot of people use barbless hooks to catch unwanted fish.

 

[MSX-Jeff]

a spear gun might be your best bet for a female maroon...they are a PITA

 

[Reefski's]

i wouldn't know how to hook her. and i hope to trade her for some corals so spearing her is out.

 

[Beaun]

So you think the issue was the sea water?

 

[Reefski's]

i think so, i hope so.

although i have been using it for a few years now in my previous tanks to and this tank from the beginning.

i have never had Acros and other sps corals live for long in my other systems with a few exceptions. some montiporas, et al.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Any idea why your acans started to recede like that? Apparently a water issue, but what? :crazy1:

LL

 

[Reefski's]

the Acan recession coincided with NSW additions. for a while we thought maybe contamination from MgCl or something got dropped in the tank but i think i can rule those out now that things are getting better with using ASW for water changes.

 

[erics3000]

My dog loves Nori too..

 

[Reefski's]

Bryson eats more Nori than the fish. good thing it is relatively cheap at the market instead of the lfs.

 

[crsandoval]

Have you completely stopped using NSW? I remember that you were a big proponent of it. So now it is all ASW with RO/DI to top off. Could it have been that you were using tap and NSW. I did that and oh boy did my system go down. Hair algae, cyano blooms and coral recession.

 

[kinlayan]

i experienced alot of problems using NSW as well, in the long run i swtiched to ASW because the amount of manipulation i had to do on the NSW was almost as expensive as ASW use. I do allow my topoff r/o to remineralise before it is added to the aquarium by running it through aragonite otherwise i find the r/o eats up your kh faster. IMO if you not using the same tropical type seawater and you are using temperate Seawater the nutrients in both are quite different

 

[Elliott]

i experienced alot of problems using NSW as well, in the long run i swtiched to ASW because the amount of manipulation i had to do on the NSW was almost as expensive as ASW use. I do allow my topoff r/o to remineralise before it is added to the aquarium by running it through aragonite otherwise i find the r/o eats up your kh faster. IMO if you not using the same tropical type seawater and you are using temperate Seawater the nutrients in both are quite different

can you elaborate on the r/o eating up kh and how you run it through aragonite? thanks

 

[kinlayan]

My r/o evaporation topoff goes through an old kalk stirrer filled with aragonite before it enters the water. R/o water is fairly "aggressive" as it has quite abit of its mineral contents removed through the r/o process and it readily wants to react with minerals again so its going to use up carbonates in the process when it comes into contact with them, now we normally want our corals and coralline to use the carbonates more than we want our top off water too.

i dont know if that awkward explanation helps

 

[Elliott]

My r/o evaporation topoff goes through an old kalk stirrer filled with aragonite before it enters the water. R/o water is fairly "aggressive" as it has quite abit of its mineral contents removed through the r/o process and it readily wants to react with minerals again so its going to use up carbonates in the process when it comes into contact with them, now we normally want our corals and coralline to use the carbonates more than we want our top off water too.

i dont know if that awkward explanation helps

very interesting, makes sense, thanks

 

[Reefski's]

Have you completely stopped using NSW? I remember that you were a big proponent of it. So now it is all ASW with RO/DI to top off. Could it have been that you were using tap and NSW. I did that and oh boy did my system go down. Hair algae, cyano blooms and coral recession.

i have gone cold turkey on the NSW. i am have changed out about 1500 gallons, 150 gallons at a time.

i just changed all the various componenets of the RODI unit and recharged the Kati Ani Di beads.

after RO was 85 TDS and after DI was only 1. now 1 and 0.

 

[fishcatdog66]

really glad you are back on track!The pic is of the beads?Is the color change from top to bottom as you see it or is it a sunlight "trick" as the bottom of the vessel is not in direct sunlight?For me ,it looks pink at the top and grey at the bottom?

 

[Reefski's]

the color change is as sodium hydroxide is flushed thru the beads from the top down. after it is done the color change was not as pronounced as you see in the photo.

i am getting some frags tomorrow from a nearby friend.

time to clean the skimmer. this is about three weeks worth of skimmate.

doesn't seem like all that much. it is pretty thick though. i still hope to have the courage to turn it off one day.

reef related sort of dog photo.

which looks more comfortable?

just chillin