A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

kahkah said:
Have you looked into adding any Hawaiian Strombus Grazer snails to your tanks? I picked some of at the swap and they made their way into my frag tank and have bred like crazy, plus they stay small and are reef safe. I'm all for a self sustainable snail that will help keep my tank clean.
Click to expand...

Can't say I've every had them. I know I've got strings of eggs that seem to pop up once or twice a day from one of the snails...Just don't know which kind. From looking up egg sacks seems it's the cerith snails. Out of the ones I have, the trochus definitely move fast and are efficient at cleaning so will likely use LOTS of them in DT.
 
While spending my couple hours by the tank, tonight discovered something while doing a little fragging. Anyone have any idea what these are? I'm not sure what it is and have been searching online and fairly certain I've seen them brought up as pests before, just can't seem to find them!

20120803_205653.jpg
 
After quite a bit of searching I believe I might have found an ID on this little guy....I'm a bit paranoid but when I see something like this I'd rather be safe than sorry and get others experiences!

It seems that according to the following Reef Keeper article that this is a form of Isopod, Sphaeromatid specifically from what I can tell. From what others have pointed out and said this one does not seem to be harmful to aquaria. Because I'm not 100% certain this is the Isopod I'm housing I'm going to try to pick up a red light to examine the tank at night to ensure I don't have a problem. If worse comes to worse, I might have to move my whole three fish over from the system to my QT and not order any fish <_<

From the following RK Article

image001.jpg


Thoughts, opinions, experiences!?!
 
Newbie Aquarist said:
You can banish him to the fuge. Or just send him to heaven early.
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I just got done doing some spotlighting and caught at least another 10 or so with a turkey baster. If they are proven innocent then they won't go down the drain:lmao: Wayne, you confirming they are friendly or do you know?
 
Following! .. I admire your patience and the time you take to plan everything out. Great job so far.
 
Sagz70 said:
Following! .. I admire your patience and the time you take to plan everything out. Great job so far.
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Thanks and try to plan a lot before implementing. My patience is thin but the money I put into the project is as I make it at this point:lmao:
 
Working on the stand today and grinding down the tubing in preparation for welding tomorrow. After welding should be painting the stand and then headed towards finally getting the tank downstairs!!!! It's been a long road and new when I picked up the tank early because of a good deal I'd hate having to watch it sit in the garage for so long.

On a side note, I've been looking at different methods of controlling phosphates. After looking at several threads decided to give lanthanum chloride a try by dripping it into a 10 micron filter sock with sufficient flow to bind the phosphates to the chemical and cause a precipitate. After a little over an hour of running water through the site it was clogged and I pulled it offline. Water got a little bit cloudy from the process but I went from 13 ppb (.039ppm) to 6 ppb (.021ppm) in no time!

I only used about $.20 of additive and the filter socks I'll be able to wash time after time. I think I'm going to try to figure something out to better control the flow to one filter sock so I can let it run for longer than one hour 15 minutes. That way I can make good use of the additive while not having to pull the filter sock offline when it starts clogging.

I was amazed at how fast the phosphates dropped and will be a method I use to help keep the phosphates in check from time to time. (Weekly?) Anyone else used this method and have any advice? I used 5mL of lanthanum chloride to 1L of water and dripped it in for 1/2 hour or so. At that dosage I should be able to make the bottle of lanthanum chloride last for 189 treatments and it only costs $30.

Product Used:
20120815_220749.jpg
 
that's a great way to remove phosphates, and to think if you're going to use it weekly I doubt you're going to need that much for every treatment, so it will last even longer.

do you have any links to other reefers using it? I'd like to read more on the subject.
 
Dustin1300 said:
Working on the stand today and grinding down the tubing in preparation for welding tomorrow. After welding should be painting the stand and then headed towards finally getting the tank downstairs!!!! It's been a long road and new when I picked up the tank early because of a good deal I'd hate having to watch it sit in the garage for so long.

On a side note, I've been looking at different methods of controlling phosphates. After looking at several threads decided to give lanthanum chloride a try by dripping it into a 10 micron filter sock with sufficient flow to bind the phosphates to the chemical and cause a precipitate. After a little over an hour of running water through the site it was clogged and I pulled it offline. Water got a little bit cloudy from the process but I went from 13 ppb (.039ppm) to 6 ppb (.021ppm) in no time!

I only used about $.20 of additive and the filter socks I'll be able to wash time after time. I think I'm going to try to figure something out to better control the flow to one filter sock so I can let it run for longer than one hour 15 minutes. That way I can make good use of the additive while not having to pull the filter sock offline when it starts clogging.

I was amazed at how fast the phosphates dropped and will be a method I use to help keep the phosphates in check from time to time. (Weekly?) Anyone else used this method and have any advice? I used 5mL of lanthanum chloride to 1L of water and dripped it in for 1/2 hour or so. At that dosage I should be able to make the bottle of lanthanum chloride last for 189 treatments and it only costs $30.

Product Used:
20120815_220749.jpg
Click to expand...

I have that same solution in my garage just sitting there. I will have to do more research on the product.


Sent from my iPhone using Siri and Tapatalk.
 
Sisterlimonpot said:
that's a great way to remove phosphates, and to think if you're going to use it weekly I doubt you're going to need that much for every treatment, so it will last even longer.

do you have any links to other reefers using it? I'd like to read more on the subject.
Click to expand...

Agreed, next time I think I'm just going to use 2 mL to on liter of RO/DI and I'm going to build something and tie it into my manifold so I can adjust the flow and give more contact time as I pulled the sock once it started to overflow as I did not want the precipitate to go into the tank.

Link to Lanthanum Chloride use in Aquaria.

***The company started selling an aquarium version but from what everywhere I've read it's just a diluted version of the pool version and more expensive.
 
Newbie Aquarist said:
I have that same solution in my garage just sitting there. I will have to do more research on the product.


Sent from my iPhone using Siri and Tapatalk.
Click to expand...

Thanks Wayne. Trick is using a 10 micron filter sock which tends to clog quickly. Negative effects on the thread are to sponges, filter feeders, and fish such as tangs if the precipitate make it to the DT. If you use a low micron sock you prevent that. No one seemed cranky after the treatment yesterday/today.
 
Spent most of this morning welding and grinding the stand. Wife wants some time with me so I'm going to have to stop working on it for the day but need to figure out what to prep the metal with so I can use bedliner to coat the stand in. Think I might try to find a white bedliner locally but if not I'll have to order some online. Any ideas on the prep and recommendations on which is the best? Any thoughts and experience would be appreciated.

Brother welding...I took a few shots at it but can say it's much easier than it:
20120819_112709.jpg


Another shot:
20120819_112724.jpg


Complete. Just needs some more grinding and smoothing out before paint.
20120819_134137.jpg
 
Sisterlimonpot said:
that's a great way to remove phosphates, and to think if you're going to use it weekly I doubt you're going to need that much for every treatment, so it will last even longer.

do you have any links to other reefers using it? I'd like to read more on the subject.
Click to expand...

Dustin1300 said:
Thanks Wayne. Trick is using a 10 micron filter sock which tends to clog quickly. Negative effects on the thread are to sponges, filter feeders, and fish such as tangs if the precipitate make it to the DT. If you use a low micron sock you prevent that. No one seemed cranky after the treatment yesterday/today.
Click to expand...
Input into magnum power filter with filter fabric, floss and then into 6' tall skimmer that discharges into 5 micron bag.

I have been using it for a while and recently (last week) almost killed my Scopas Tang:

I just got finished writing down my thoughts.... off to a job site, but will be more than happy to pass on any information I have (not much other than what I already wrote).

http://www.beananimal.com/articles/lanthanum-chloride-and-tangs.aspx
 
Last edited:
BeanAnimal said:
Input into magnum power filter with filter fabric, floss and then into 6' tall skimmer that discharges into 5 micron bag.

I have been using it for a while and recently (last week) almost killed my Scopas Tang:

I just got finished writing down my thoughts.... off to a job site, but will be more than happy to pass on any information I have (not much other than what I already wrote).

http://www.beananimal.com/articles/lanthanum-chloride-and-tangs.aspx
Click to expand...

I read the article. Very interesting to know the impact on Zebrasoma genus. Now where do you find 5 or 10 mm micron bags from?
 
I need to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. I have no hard (scientific) proof that it is just "Zebrasoma" that is affected, or if Lanthanum Chloride is in fact the culprit. My observations align with those of others who have posted similar anecdotal warnings.

My thoughts are that it could be as complicated as the fact that MOST dogs are not harmed by eating a grape or two, but some breeds will drop over dead if they eat one.... No idea.

5 and 10 micron socks are available on ebay (Duda Diesel for example) and many other places. I think they help, but my best advice would be to prevent free Lanthanum (unreacted) from entering the system at all. This means only using it in cases where phosphates are higher than say 0.1 ppm. At lower concentrations the Lanthanum may not "find" the phosphate fast enough and will end up flowing through the system.
 
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