Enjoy's 120g Rimless Build

[Enjoy]

Hey Chad,
No real updates sadly. My back has put pretty much everything on hold. I just had a spinal steroid injection this past Friday, but really only gained about 10% pain relief from it. :thumbdown
I have two more treatments before I decide to do the surgery. (Which im trying to avoid at all costs) I basically have a piece of disc that broke off in my spine, and now it is just putting pressure on my nerves which causes MAJOR pain in my right leg/lower back.

Other than that -
The Sunburst Anthias, Lyretail Anthias, and two dottybacks are in QT and will be done next weekend at which point they will be added to the tank. The Multibar Angelfish have to go (Sadly), because that is the only thing I can think of that is harming my SPS. 99% of new sps frags are dead, and I don't want to spend any more money on frags to see them die. I have to figure out whats going on, then try some basic frags to test the waters.

I am also having some issues with my BRS media reactors. They seem to get clogged up crazy fast. I typically change the media (GFO/Carbon) every 3 weeks, but it clogs to the point where a small trickle of water is coming out within a week. So usually I take it off and gently stir the media to get water flowing through again. I might have to re-think my plumbing to get more flow through them.
Right now I have my Eheim 1262 return pump feeding:
-Display Tank
-Fuge Section
-Carbon Reactor
-GFO Reactor
-BioPellet Reactor

Hopefully within the month I can solve these minor issues and get back on track growing corals. Its really sad to look into the tank and see white sticks.

Hope all is well with you, your family, and your tank/new build. Keep me posted is you make any progress. Thanks for checkin in on my tank, and sorry I don't have any good updates.

Take Care.

 

[Matthewbrian316]

Great looking tank I might come by if you still have more frags

 

[R-nel]

Hey Chad,
No real updates sadly. My back has put pretty much everything on hold. I just had a spinal steroid injection this past Friday, but really only gained about 10% pain relief from it. :thumbdown
I have two more treatments before I decide to do the surgery. (Which im trying to avoid at all costs) I basically have a piece of disc that broke off in my spine, and now it is just putting pressure on my nerves which causes MAJOR pain in my right leg/lower back.
Take Care.

I know exactly how you feel. I'm in the same situation, but yours sounds more serious than mine. Been avoiding the injection and the surgery myself for several years now. But unfortunately things aren't getting any better, been home for 2 week nursing my back:sad1: hurt it again from work. looks like I'm gonna have to try the injection soon....

 

[gofor100]

Hey Chad,
No real updates sadly. My back has put pretty much everything on hold. I just had a spinal steroid injection this past Friday, but really only gained about 10% pain relief from it. :thumbdown
I have two more treatments before I decide to do the surgery. (Which im trying to avoid at all costs) I basically have a piece of disc that broke off in my spine, and now it is just putting pressure on my nerves which causes MAJOR pain in my right leg/lower back.

Other than that -
The Sunburst Anthias, Lyretail Anthias, and two dottybacks are in QT and will be done next weekend at which point they will be added to the tank. The Multibar Angelfish have to go (Sadly), because that is the only thing I can think of that is harming my SPS. 99% of new sps frags are dead, and I don't want to spend any more money on frags to see them die. I have to figure out whats going on, then try some basic frags to test the waters.

I am also having some issues with my BRS media reactors. They seem to get clogged up crazy fast. I typically change the media (GFO/Carbon) every 3 weeks, but it clogs to the point where a small trickle of water is coming out within a week. So usually I take it off and gently stir the media to get water flowing through again. I might have to re-think my plumbing to get more flow through them.
Right now I have my Eheim 1262 return pump feeding:
-Display Tank
-Fuge Section
-Carbon Reactor
-GFO Reactor
-BioPellet Reactor

Hopefully within the month I can solve these minor issues and get back on track growing corals. Its really sad to look into the tank and see white sticks.

Hope all is well with you, your family, and your tank/new build. Keep me posted is you make any progress. Thanks for checkin in on my tank, and sorry I don't have any good updates.

Take Care.

Really sorry to hear about the back. I've had back issues most of my adult life (which isn't that long, but seems long whenever my back acts up). I have a bulging disc that seems to "re-bulge" every year or so, and it lays me out for a while each time it happens. Back pain is THE WORST!!! Sorry bro'...

Interesting thing about the BRS reactors. I've heard good things about them. Do you think it's simply the flow or a design flaw?

No updates on my upgrade as of now... I spent way too much money this summer on my trip. Back to saving some $$$.

Hope you feel better soon bro',

Chad

 

[Enjoy]

Great looking tank I might come by if you still have more frags

Thanks. No frags currently available, sorry.

I know exactly how you feel. I'm in the same situation, but yours sounds more serious than mine. Been avoiding the injection and the surgery myself for several years now. But unfortunately things aren't getting any better, been home for 2 week nursing my back:sad1: hurt it again from work. looks like I'm gonna have to try the injection soon....

Sorry to hear about your back as well. It is awful, and people do not get how bad it can get until they have experienced it. But by the sound of yours, you would be a perfect canidate for the injection. It was extremely easy, and pain free. Only had to take one day off of work, and I just took it easy that weekend.
I know a few people with similar experiences, where even with just one injection - it relieved their pain for years. Sadly this isn't my case. I know eventually I will have to get surgery to remove the piece of disc that broke off and is making a sandwhich out of my nerves.
Keep me posted on how everything goes. Good Luck.

Really sorry to hear about the back. I've had back issues most of my adult life (which isn't that long, but seems long whenever my back acts up). I have a bulging disc that seems to "re-bulge" every year or so, and it lays me out for a while each time it happens. Back pain is THE WORST!!! Sorry bro'...

Interesting thing about the BRS reactors. I've heard good things about them. Do you think it's simply the flow or a design flaw?

No updates on my upgrade as of now... I spent way too much money this summer on my trip. Back to saving some $$$.

Hope you feel better soon bro',

Chad

Thanks Chad, yea back pain is straight up PAIN! I've been through a lot of accidents with broken bones, etc..... and never have I had pain like this. It's insane how much pain like this can affect your life overall.

As for the BRS reactors I'm really not too sure, but I would imagine its user error - not a design flaw. I hear great things about these reactors (hopefully thats not just because of the BRS name), so I think I just need to get more flow to the reactors. I either need a bigger return pump (more GPH, but not an energy hog), or a seperate pump just to run all of my reactors.

Sadly the multibars are gone, but now the SPS seems to be doing better. Frags that I recently traded for are still colored up pretty nice, but the biggest change I have noticed is polyp extension! Previously with the angels in the tank - there was NONE.
So, my hopes are high that I can continue with the BioPellets, but time will tell.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip. Did you upload any pics on to RC?
Hope all is well. Oh, and I know what it's like to be back in saving $ mode :lmao:

 

[gofor100]

Glad to hear your SPS are doing better!

No pics of the trip on RC yet (for some reason I was having a difficult time downloading from my computer at home and never got around to trying again). I'll try again sometime this weekend though. I have to say though, I took about 700 pics underwater, and not even half of that of above-water... kind of typical for someone that stares in his own little reef at home daily.

Hope things continue to get better with the tank and that things start getting better with the back.

-Chad

 

[Enjoy]

Update:

Well I have not updated in a bit, but I have slowly been putting in more work into the tank. I am still having issues with my SPS, while LPS, and my anemone are doing great. Oh yea.. I got an RBTA. I couldn't pass it up - one of the sickest colorations I've seen, and for a great price.

Also, finally got the electrical cabinet finished. Still a few things to tidy up inside, and I still have to add my dosing containers, but you get the idea.

Here are a few pics of it, and some of my SPS that is doing like poo... It seems like low nutrients or high alk because the tips start to just loose flesh. Nothing like bleached tips, or growth. They lose the flesh and then algae begins to grow on the skeleton of the tips. Not cool....:mad2:

Thanks for following...

 

[Enjoy]

If anyone has experieced SPS issues similar to what I am experiencing, please chime in.... Thanks

 

[gofor100]

Love the electrical... thinking of something similar for my upgrade!

Hope you figure out what's going on with your SPS... if it's not one thing, its another I guess

-Chad

 

[exray]

Krylon Fusion Flat Black

Krylon Fusion Flat Black

Is it ok for the Krylon Fusion Flat Black to be in the water???

Update:

Got most of the plumbing under control. I used standard sch40 PVC, and then masked, and painted with Krylon Fusion Flat Black.

-Return > Manifold> Display/Reactors/Fuge/1 extra outlet
-1" return/1-1/2" Drain
-Spraybar in Fuge

Pics:

Sump is completely black acrylic other than the front viewing panel

There is also a probe holder for Temp/PH/Orp

 

[Enjoy]

I have used Krylon Fusion for years underwater.

 

[Ian]

are you still running the pellets and if so is the output of the reactor feeding into the skimmer?

 

[Enjoy]

What's up Ian. I took the biopellets offline, but when I was running them the output was directly in front of the skimmer. I was seeing no positive results, and was having issues with cyano and a white slime of some sort in my sump. Now that they have been offline for about a month and a half, there is zero algae in the tank, and no slime in the sump.

 

[wasian8]

So has the ATS been able to replace the skimmer for your frag tank? I'm considering to build an ATS for a 50g i'm working on right now and am trying to decide if it will be enough without a skimmer.

This is a great build thread, i love the attention to all the details. I hope everything continues to go well for you!

 

[digitalfreq]

Here is a quick video:
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NdpKhykQc2I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Some new pics. Sorry the quality isn't the greatest, and they came out very dark and pixelish....

FTS - 2-250w Radiums & 2-Reefbrite Actinic

FTS - 2-ReefBrite Actinic

Wow those chalices are bad ***! So is the tank!

 

[AlfieReef]

I'd love to know what's going on with your sps as well. Hope you find a cure

 

[Enjoy]

So has the ATS been able to replace the skimmer for your frag tank? I'm considering to build an ATS for a 50g i'm working on right now and am trying to decide if it will be enough without a skimmer.

This is a great build thread, i love the attention to all the details. I hope everything continues to go well for you!

It really depends on the bio-load, and how good the ATS system is designed. You can easily run an ATS with no skimmer on a 55g, but it all depends what you plan to do with the overall system - Livestock, equipment, etc...
Thanks for the kind words.

Wow those chalices are bad ***! So is the tank!

Thank you. I lost a good amount of my chalice collection, so I am happy I at least have these remaining.

I'd love to know what's going on with your sps as well. Hope you find a cure

Once I find the problem, I will post back and discuss. Thanks so much.

 

[Enjoy]

Here is a pic from about a month ago, when I ran the tank lights out for 3 days to help combat my cyano issues. It helped a bit, and some other changes were made - no more cyano now wooohooo

 

[Enjoy]

Here are a few newer pics. Still having no luck with my SPS. They continue to slowly loose tissue from tips down, until they are dead. I have had some frags for over 3 months and they still look like poo, and don't seem to be heading in any better of a direction.
I took BioPellets offline, Carbon offline, started feeding even more, and I have been keeping a close eye out for pests of any kind. Nothing yet...

Sorry I don't have any good Eye Candy to show... really its pretty depressing

Thanks for following.

 

[pookstreet]

Dude, looks like something is munching on your SPS. That doesn't look like any kind of STN or RTN I've ever seen before.