Build Thread - Elos 160

[Zaffor]

I have a biocube 14 with rapid LED's that I was going to use as a coral QT/frag tank but I think I will sell it off. I already keep a fish QT tank running in addition to the display. If I ever setup a frag tank it would have to be tied into display tank. For now frag racks will suffice. These racks are shallow and unobtrusive and sit on the back glass of the display.

 

[firemedix911]

I have a biocube 14 with rapid LED's that I was going to use as a coral QT/frag tank but I think I will sell it off. I already keep a fish QT tank running in addition to the display. If I ever setup a frag tank it would have to be tied into display tank. For now frag racks will suffice. These racks are shallow and unobtrusive and sit on the back glass of the display.

I hear you, but you have one sexy tank right there and that's an injustice to that ELOS. :hammer:

 

[jonnyu]

Your tanks awesome. It keeps looking better. Very clean install.

 

[Zaffor]

That frag rack beats running another system! It doesnt look bad on the back (it hides somewhat behind the rocks)

Thanks jonny
If i can just get the sps to color up now.

Im trying some REEF ENERGY from red sea. Early to tell but have heard a lot of good results from guys with low nutrients. I also dose Pohls Xtra and Flatworm stop, and i have definitely seen an increase in base encrustation and growth. Colors seem to be slowly increasing. The Reef Energy looks like radiator fluid when you add it to the display, i will have to take a photo or video.

 

[Zaffor]

Cant stress the need to dip AND inspect all new additions enough.

Buddy of mine shipped me a few frags and I found one frag to contain AEFW.

Since running into this pest (along with red bugs) in the past I make it a point to dip and usually replace the plug on everything I add. Colonies should have entire bases cut off to avoid risk.

First line of defense

Found this guy in the milky bayer water (one drawback of bayer is the inability to see clearly what comes off the frags)

With magnification you can clearly see the bite marks as well as the eggs (thx Marvin for the photo modification to point out eggs)

I hate to swap plugs where the frag is already encrusting but as these pests seem to be more prevalent I think its the safer route.

 

[firemedix911]

Yup those are some nasty critters.

 

[Zaffor]

Upgraded my MP40's with the new QD's. They definitely move more water than the previous versions, i had to lower the percentage from 90% to 70% because they were moving too much sand. Noticeably quieter as well.

 

[rovster]

Must have missed this. Did you end up keeping that frag? I would at the very least re-dip that thing if you did.

In my opinion, if you get a frag like that, its better to toss it than risk infection. If I REALLY want to keep the frag, I'll do a second dip right after the first at a MUCH higher concentration, almost go for broke concentration and then monitor closely.

A while back I got a bunch of frags in a trade from a tank that supposedly got over AEFW. Frags look decent, and I didn't see any signs other than the suspicion on one of the frags. Well I dipped and nothing came off. I still felt suspicious about one frag and I dipped again in a super concentration and sure enough an AEFW came off. It was a big one! I did put the frags in my tank but the next morning I checked them all. Some of them were really nice too. To this day, I still question putting those in my tank but hopefully I dodged a bullet.

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but if you kept that thing, no harm in dipping it again to be sure! Hope this helps. Tank is looking really nice!

 

[Zaffor]

Heya Rovster whats up
I cut the frag off the plug, cut off the bottom of it, glued the heck out of the bottom and placed on new plug.

I then put it in the biocube alone.

A few days ago i pulled it off the plug again, dipped it, cut off a piece of the bottom again, and re glued to another clean plug, THEN i put in my tank on a frag rack. It was obviously a bit stressed but looks alive and well.

 

[Zaffor]

Been a while since i posted anything, so I figured I would update.

After battling pale sps and recently a bout of tip necrosis (maybe due to alk climbing to the 9s and nutrients too low) I pulled my biopellet reactor. The reactor might have been too large for my tank even though i used very little pellets. A few sps folks suggested I stop the bio pellets and just keep up with reg maintenance. Its a bit early to tell and there was already some damage done but it seems to be headed in the right direction.

I also changed the orientation of my lights and it looks like it provides a more even coverage. I had installed the wide angle lenses but i might go back to the normal ones after seeing the spread.

I think im going to vacuum some of my sand thats blowing around with the mp40s and buy some special grade to see if it stays put.

 

[Zaffor]

Just looking through my saved threads and noticed I had not updated this since July. To begin with, I had posted a while back that I was getting poor color from my sps even though at times growth had been good. A few months ago (due to some bad hanna alk reag) I had a slight alk increase to about 9.8 up from the 8 I thought i was at. I am not totally sure if the alk spike caused this, but a short time after this happened I lost several frags and many others started to show damaged tips. Once the tissue at the tips was dead algae would begin to grow in its place.

After some conversation with a few friends and also Adam at battlecorals, i decided to pull my bio-pellet reactor. Too many guys telling me my water may just have been too clean. I was also suggested to try and lower the alk some as well.

Fast forward nearly three months and I am happy to report that my colors have never looked better! I had been dosing various supplements and fidgeting with so many variables up to now (light intensity/colors/height I even purchased the radion wide angle kit for my lights and then ended up reverting to the original lenses after doing some par tests) and getting nowhere. Seems simplicity wins here, and simply removing the bio-pellets with the very small amount of pellets i was using did it. My sps have not yet fully recovered from the damaged tips (i guess this takes time) BUT i am seeing colors on some of my frags I have never seen in my tank. I notice my glass doesnt last as long without needing to be cleaned, but everything else seems to be fine. I am running Adam's old Radion schedule and slowly ramping up the intensity to 70% to see if things improve further.

 

[nivram]

About time you update this thread

 

[knukles55]

Yes please

 

[Zaffor]

I decided to vacuum the finer sand I had initially used to setup my tank and replace it with Caribsea Special Grade (1-2mm) sand. I was having so much trouble with sandstorms and constantly having to move sand back and forth where the vortechs had relocated it. I had tried different positions for the mp40s but no matter where I put them, they always moved sand when I ran them anywhere near max. I syphoned out a section of sand every few days and replaced with the coarser sand. I used dry sand rinsed well with my garden hose and then rinsed with RO water. Hardly any cloudiness at all and no ill effects. I can now run my mp40s opposing each other at much higher speeds with very minimal sand moving and no sandstorms.

I photographed my yasha goby / pistol shrimp pair and you can see a close up of the coarser sand

 

[rovster]

I decided to vacuum the finer sand I had initially used to setup my tank and replace it with Caribsea Special Grade (1-2mm) sand. I was having so much trouble with sandstorms and constantly having to move sand back and forth where the vortechs had relocated it. I had tried different positions for the mp40s but no matter where I put them, they always moved sand when I ran them anywhere near max. I syphoned out a section of sand every few days and replaced with the coarser sand. I used dry sand rinsed well with my garden hose and then rinsed with RO water. Hardly any cloudiness at all and no ill effects. I can now run my mp40s opposing each other at much higher speeds with very minimal sand moving and no sandstorms.

I photographed my yasha goby / pistol shrimp pair and you can see a close up of the coarser sand

Nice. I've been considering the same. An area in the front of my tank gets blown around pretty good. I use the regular reef flakes but I've considered getting their larger grain or that CaribSea Special grade and just dump a bag in the front of my tank. I don't have to remove any because that area is always bare. I've also been removing some sand with waterchanges siphoning cyano, but that's not on purpose, LOL!

How are the SPS doing? Funny I had the same issue with that bad reagent. I'm seeing more and more reports of this popping up lately. Sucks because it ruined a lot of my frags to the point I want to just throw them away:deadhorse1: 2 of them in particular are VERY expensive and hard to find. I guess that's the risk we take. Too bad Hanna won't foot the bill for a new Orange Passion:sad2:

 

[Zaffor]

Hey Rovster! I had a similar area in front where the sand would always get moved and show the glass underneath. The finer sand is more appealing but this sand seems overall more suited to our needs. I can stir this sand up and not create a dust storm, and it barely gets moved around (some of it does, but its very manageable and easy to move back).

Most of the new frags I had added look good, although some of the pieces that were damaged are still recovering slowly. At least im heading in the right direction now!

 

[rovster]

sweet. I feel like I'm still a few weeks away from turning this around. Sucks because it takes a LONG time for these things to run their course. My problems started about mid July, but I didn't figure out about the bad reagent until about late August early September. I'm finally dialed in again and just like you, just riding out the storm. Good luck with everything. As always, love your tank:thumbsup:

 

[Zaffor]

Thanks!

 

[pch90265]

Zaffor -- tagging on to your thread since you tagged on to mine. Show us some update pics!!!

 

[Zaffor]

Installed an ecotech vectra M1 return pump and used that opportunity to re-do the plumbing with some red pvc i had purchased a while back for this purpose. The Jebao was quiet but i had it shut down on me once for no apparent reason, therefore I chose to go with the vectra. Its possibly a little bit quieter and the controller is clean and matches with my mp40s. Also the reeflink control is a plus.