Blackthunda77's 80 Gal to 195 Gal upgrade!

[AquamanE]

NIce house their young man, congrats to you and Oahna.

Excellent choice on lighting IMHO.

Regarding low output from RO/DI be very careful!!!!!!! Measure choloramines, and TDS often and if you tank hits a standstill or coral issues think RO/DI first. Both my SPS crashes of 2009, and 2012 where RO/DI related. First was low pressue (same thing, system was not producing expected gpd), TDS was always at ZERO. Make sure your feed valve to system is wide open. Second was choloramine, again TDS read ZERO. Filter guys makes a simple, and inexpensive choloramine test kit.

 

[blackthunda77]

Eddie,

Not sure i understand what the issue was the first time for you with RODI? Low pressure? How did that negatively effect your tank aside from not having enough water? The chloramines part i understand. At the moment my TDS is fluctuating between 000 -001, but i know im due to change my DI. I tested nitrates and phosphates on the effluent and im at 0 on both.

 

[AquamanE]

Eddie,

Not sure i understand what the issue was the first time for you with RODI? Low pressure? How did that negatively effect your tank aside from not having enough water? The chloramines part i understand. At the moment my TDS is fluctuating between 000 -001, but i know im due to change my DI. I tested nitrates and phosphates on the effluent and im at 0 on both.

First time my SPS crashed I blamed everything, old bulbs, liquid phosphate test kits, light cycle, nutrients, salt brand. All my SPS where dying.

My solution was new bulbs, bought a Hanna meter, did massive water changes, changed to H2O salt. Nothing helped.

As i was doing the massive water changes i noted my ro/di was not producing the amount its supposed too. I unplugged the feed to the ro/di system and noticed water was just trickling in, as well as a red sediment ( i had noticed the first stage was getting a little red/maroon as well). I checked the valve and noticed i was not opened all the way (dont know how that happened). Once i opened it all the way the ro/di started creating water as it should. Mind you TDS read zero. Never knew what the cause was, but after just one change with nothing but the new water I noticed the change within 2 days. What little corals i had started to get better PE, and receding stopped.

Hope this explains.

 

[blackthunda77]

Update!

Update!

Man its been a while. House has been getting alot of attention from me thus far so the tank projects have been lacking. Now that its too hot to work outside on the weekends, my larger construction projects will be put on hold till the weather cools down. Till then, hopefully the tank will finally start getting completed.

For this update, i have finally completed the floating canopy. Just have to install it. I really like how the finish came out. 2 coats of primer with sanding in between. Then 3-4 coats of indoor latex paint in a semi gloss finish. Gives just the right amount of gloss. I originally wanted to go with the ultra high gloss, like an epoxy resin, but im happy with the result i got with the semi gloss. I used regular cut pine board from home depot, some wood filler, and primer, then sprayed it with my spray gun and im pretty happy with the smoothness of the finish.

On a side note, fish are doing great, coral are doing OK. Lack of water changes will probably help once i get my maintenance back in gear. My Ruby Red Scooter Blenny pair have been courting and i believe they are spawning as well. Slowly going up the water column together and then jetting back down to the substrate. I have some pics of them doing it i have to get off my camera and post up here.

 

[Biggar]

Floating canopy! Sounds awesome. Can't wait to see it in action. Giving me ideas

 

[Fish2reef]

John

Great job on the house and the tank, Lissette and I are ready for a road trip. LOL

Can you give us an update on the livestock.

 

[blackthunda77]

Come on over Lulio. The house is finally to a point where we are ready for guests. Guest room is furnished and ready to go, lol.

As for livestock...

Fish -
Achilles Tang
5x Threadfin cardinals
5x sailfin blennies
2x firefish
Leopard Wrasse
Yellow Coris
2x black and white perculas (pair)
2x ruby red dragonettes (spawning pair)

Inverts -
Large Heteractis Magniifica
3x scarlet cleaner shrimp
2x pepermint shrimp. (put them in but have not seen them since)
sea cucumber
and numerous hermits, astreas and turbos

Corals -
just random frags of montis, birdsnest, acros, acans, zoanthids, etc. Just frags, waiting for them to grow out and still collecting obviously.

 

[Fish2reef]

Sounds good but needs planning, I may as well help you get some work done.

 

[AquamanE]

Forget tank, I want to see the house!!! Lets have a BBQ dude!!

 

[Biggar]

Ok, whats going on with the floating canopy? And now.....the BBQ dude!!

 

[jdantunes]

Hi John. Any updates? How big is your Ritteri Anemone now?

 

[AquamanE]

Hi John. Any updates? How big is your Ritteri Anemone now?

1+

:headwally::beer:

 

[rovster]

Blast from the past

 

[knukles55]

Yeah this thread needs to be revived

 

[blackthunda77]

Well I've been slowly getting the tank back in order. I've posted most of these updates on the fmas Facebook page but thought it was about time to update my build thread.

Took my sump out and reinforced the baffles that had come loose.

Finally got around to fabricating the doors on the stand and coming up with the slide system.

 

[blackthunda77]

Finally got all the rocks cleaned up in an acid bath. I think part of my problems were leeching phosphates from the rocks. I think I'm going to go with a lower aqua scape this time. Will be adding some photosynthetic sea fans to give some vertical interest, but other than that I'm hoping the spa will take care of that.

And this is what I have left in regards to coral after all this nonsense...

Anyone want to donate some frags to a broke, new father trying to revive his reef? [emoji12] [emoji1]

 

[rickztahone]

That is very cool with the sliding doors. What kind of hardware went in to that? I've been building my own stands for a while and wouldn't mind having something like this. I have done frosted glass inserts on my doors once and I would have loved to incorporate a sliding door effect.

 

[itz frank]

If you have plugs, I have Zoas laying all over my sand bed. Also, small mushrooms rock that I hate. It just keeps growing then and throwing them into the water column to land somewhere else.

 

[blackthunda77]

That is very cool with the sliding doors. What kind of hardware went in to that? I've been building my own stands for a while and wouldn't mind having something like this. I have done frosted glass inserts on my doors once and I would have loved to incorporate a sliding door effect.

It's the full extension drawer slides. I got the from Lowe's. They are the 24" ones that I used.

 

[blackthunda77]

If you have plugs, I have Zoas laying all over my sand bed. Also, small mushrooms rock that I hate. It just keeps growing then and throwing them into the water column to land somewhere else.

I would take them even with not being mounted. I just don't know when I'll be in your area.