Electrobes' K.I.S.S. 40Br Thread

[Electrobes]

So now that the maintenance on the RO/DI unit was done I moved on over to do a water change. "Wait a minute" I said, I should test my water. I am guilty of a very bad sin in Reefkeeping. I don't test often enough, if rarely at all anymore. The reason why I tested today was mainly to see what life is like in the tank with my massive cleaning from a little bit ago, plus the addition of the skimmer. The results are...

Calcium: 430ppm
Magnesium: 1350ppm
Alkalinity: 10.9 dKh or 3.9 meq/L
pH: 8.3

Conclusion: What can I say? I am a happy boy. I truly believe these parameters have a lot to do with my weekly 12% (5G) water changes. I am pretty freakin' consistent on the matter, and I don't believe I'll ever budge from it.

I also believe my skimmer is a big part of it. I used to not use it believing it better for my soft corals, but while the idea works for some people... not for me. I tried it and failed. I love the skimmer (Octopus BH-100F) and don't think I'll move away from it again. I also wanted to mention that I believe it's finally broken in (2 weeks later). It's pulling out more funk, smellier than ever... my feeding daily may have something to do with that! I run it fairly wet as you can see here, the water level...

Something I want to mention: I got bored and started perusing the other threads. I ran into the thread on Reefski's tank located here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1649703&perpage=25&pagenumber=3

He was running into trouble with his tank, but on that particular page he mentions a service that uses spectrophotometry, auto-titration, and specialized ion specific probes to test water parameters. The company's website is: http://aquariumwatertesting.com/sample_test_rc.asp

For about 40 bucks you get a round of tests covering 14 parameters, not a bad deal for a detailed water analysis. I may have this done as a christmas present. While I use Salifert test kits and all, having a ridiculously accurate round of tests is very appealing to me.. like a yearly medical check-up.

 

[Electrobes]

After I did the above two posts, I finally get to my water change! I usually let new saltwater mix for a couple days before performing the routine.

There has been a lot of talk about Reef Crystals (The salt I use). The main complaint a lot of people talk about is the brown residue this salt leaves behind in mixing containers. I've noticed this ever since I started using Reef Crystals, about a year ago or so.

Here are some pictures, I apologize for the low quality, but here they are none the less:

I need to mention that the bucket you see is brand spankin' new. You'll notice the ring first, but looking at the first picture you can see dots of brown. It comes off fairly easily with a wipe of a finger. When I use the air blowing attachment on the MJ-900, the residue shows up on the bucket top... looking grainy (Like wet dirt).

I've always assumed this was just part of the salt. Dirt from dust and what not... I've never let it bother me. My tank has not suffered from it and I will continue this salt as I always have.

 

[nauticac4]

I did the yearly package with AWT and it was nice seeing a baseline and having something to compare my testing too.

I have all the info in a nice spreadsheet and refer to it from time to time. I thought it was worth the money.

 

[Electrobes]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15721744#post15721744 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nauticac4
I did the yearly package with AWT and it was nice seeing a baseline and having something to compare my testing too.

I have all the info in a nice spreadsheet and refer to it from time to time. I thought it was worth the money.

Yeah that would be sweet, then I wouldn't feel like such a guilty reefer!

Hey do you have a build thread?? I am always curious about other people's tanks.

 

[Electrobes]

I forgot to post this from a couple days ago. I mentioned reefing sins and on top of not testing nearly enough, comes another sin.

I had a flame blenny and a baby regal tang together in my tank. And no, the tang is not my sin!

Anyway, I bought a coral beauty and a sixline wrasse recently. I did not QT the two new arrivals. I inspected them, which means nothing really, and thought with them being at the store for over a month (Same store I got my other fish from) that they'd be fine.

I was wrong. After about a week of sticking the two new arrivals everything seemed fine. They actually liked each other, usually not separating. If one moved, all three followed. It's cute. It was then my wife called me over to the tank, the next day, that I saw something was wrong.

"Tiko (The regal) is sick" my wife says. I looked around and sure enough he looked like hell (Ich). I freaked and then cursed myself for not QTing the dang new fish.

I took immediate action and created a QT bucket for Tiko, with a heater, filter with carbon, PVC part, and 1.014 salinated water. After the water mixed for a while and heated to an appropriate temp (A little warmer than normal to up Tiko's metabolism) I added Tiko who was clearly distressed.

Here's the set up (I do leave the top on the bucket, with a slight opening for some light to get through):

It's been about a week or a little less since Tiko was placed in QT. I did not medicate the QT bucket, simply left the lower salinity to do it's thing... and killed the parasites it did.

Tiko looks a WHOLE lot better (Checked on him after a water change on his and my DT), but instructions in Reef Keeping magazine says to keep them isolated for two weeks. He's definitely freaked out still about the environment, and I can only hope he's eating the food I give him when I walked away from the bucket (Out of sight).

Here's hoping he does this well for one more week!

 

[jdaniels175]

ich

ich

i think a bigger problem may be that the ich is in your DT and all of your fish may get it. you may have to QT all fish for a few weeks.

 

[Electrobes]

Re: ich

Re: ich

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15722124#post15722124 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdaniels175
i think a bigger problem may be that the ich is in your DT and all of your fish may get it. you may have to QT all fish for a few weeks.

I'll pull them out if they get it, but as of two weeks or so of having the fish, none have it. I don't want to stress them out with moving them to new environments unless I have to.

 

[jnarowe]

AWT is definitely worth the money, but I would recommend using multiple test sources, like a local lab, etc. Even SpectraPure does some testing and they really know what they are doing.

Looking good under the sink! I had to yank all mine out because apparently there had been a slow leak. I put in a new shelf, and cleaned it all up, so now it's just as pretty as yours!

 

[Electrobes]

Thanks J!

Ug you just reminded me when I had a slow leak because I stupidly forgot to tighten one of the unit's cartridges. Got home and the wife was not a happy woman. And when she ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

 

[jnarowe]

yeah no doubt. my leak completely detroyed and caved the bottom shelf.

 

[Electrobes]

Holy crap! I only had about 4 gallons drop onto the wooden floor. Ug I still have to get it fixed.

 

[jnarowe]

slow sneaky drips are much worse. :roll:

 

[Electrobes]

Yeah I'd take a floor over leaks anytime!

 

[Electrobes]

So I mentioned a little while ago of an order I made with fostersmith.. I got an extra stealth heater (For this upcoming winter), a bag of seachem salt, and extra phosban reactor parts.

I finally got around top installing the phosban reactor back on the tank, except with carbon instead of phosban. I didn't want a pump in my tank, and took a chance on a small maxijet pump. It fit in the filter chamber of the BH-100F! The fun of being sumpless.

Some pics:

Wakey wakey tanky!!!!

 

[Electrobes]

So I decided to take some shots with the all lights on.. again sorry for the lame pictures as I still haven't borrowed the good camera yet!

 

[Electrobes]

 

[Electrobes]

A couple things to update:

I selected some of my company's rock (That will go in my tank) and placed them in a tote with 10 gallons of saltwater (5G of it from my tank and the other 5 NSW). I have a MJ900 with a sureflow mod kit on it (A whole lotta flow!).

It will be about a month before I can make the rock exchange, so I figure I would give the new rocks a head start on getting cultured. I've placed newly made rocks in other tanks without problem... the reason for the head start is to jump start the coraline algae.

Of the six rocks, 4 are the light-weight variety (About half the weight of Reg Rock), 1 is a Reg Rock, and the last rock is a hybrid (Light-weight and Reg Rock). I picked them based on their similarities with the rock that will be replaced. Here are some pics, again with my terrible camera (The pictures seriously do not do the rocks justice):

 

[Electrobes]

Unfortunately my baby regal tang, Tiko, has died. It sucks monsterly as I was going to pull him out today since the NSW I made was ready, and medicate him instead of doing hyposalinity. I should have kept him in there for a lot longer, but I mistakingly believed two weeks was enough. Lesson learned.

It was a weird coincidence when I discovered his body. I spotted it in the back right after I got home from church. As soon as I saw him I went to go fetch the net, and when I came back a very excited starfish (His name is "Gimpy" as he is growing back two legs) shot out and nabbed Tiko's body! He dragged him under a rock and went to town.. double argh! I decided to let nature take its course. At least I know for sure he passed on.

The other 3 fish, Serra (The Coral Beauty Angel... I am a nerd but I did not give her that name!), Les Paul (The Six-line wrasse... I also did not come up with that name!), and Flamer (The Flame Tail Blenny.. again not me this time but my wife.) are all doing very well. I am glad for that much.

I'll soon get some high quality pics up soon of the tank as I'll be borrowing my friend's nice camera. While the tank is doing well, I now have a new problem (My only one now) that I will photograph and talk about. TBH I am not sure what it is, but I suspect it's been giving my zoos and paly's a hard time.

 

[jnarowe]

ah major bummer. Just hit it with a lot of carbon so whatever the starfish doesn't get, can't foul the tank too bad.

 

[Electrobes]

Heh I run a little more than a cup of carbon standard already. Here's hoping it takes care of it! :eek1: