Finally Upgraded-Pics Included!!!
- Thread starter Leviathan
- Start date
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
I'm not bashing Tunze products at all....They rock, but werent practical for my lil 58 gallon tank, so I went with an Oceans Motions HD 4 way device, ( www.oceansmotions.com). I gotta tell you, I'm really impressed with this thing. You might want to consider one if the wait and cost of a pair of streams isnt something you're wanting to deal with. I'm running mine off an Iwaki MD-55RLT and Loc-line. I need to tweak the flow a bit to get it dialed in just right, but I love it.
Just a thought,
Nick
Just a thought,
Nick
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
Forgive me for being so bold....
Here is a link to a thread of my tank set up, Project 58! Pics of the closed loop with the OM unit start midway down on page 7. Its not as sexy a set up as yours, (cause I dont have the aquascaping done yet.....soon though....)
But maybe that can help you out a bit...Paul (the manufacturer) is awesome to talk to and has excellent customer service. He has made two minor upgrades to the 4 way OM unit since I've bought mine and he mailed me the kits to make the upgrade free of charge. I didnt even know about the upgrades until I received them in the mail....gotta love this guy.
Check them out, maybe they are better for your situation, maybe they arent...
HTH,
Nick
Here is a link to a thread of my tank set up, Project 58! Pics of the closed loop with the OM unit start midway down on page 7. Its not as sexy a set up as yours, (cause I dont have the aquascaping done yet.....soon though....)
But maybe that can help you out a bit...Paul (the manufacturer) is awesome to talk to and has excellent customer service. He has made two minor upgrades to the 4 way OM unit since I've bought mine and he mailed me the kits to make the upgrade free of charge. I didnt even know about the upgrades until I received them in the mail....gotta love this guy.
Check them out, maybe they are better for your situation, maybe they arent...
HTH,
Nick
Leviathan
New member
Well,
I havent updated in a while. Been too upset to even deal with it. I am VERY close to tearing everything down and starting from scratch. Slowly every single frag is dying off. I have tested, searched, tested again repeated three times just for the sake of it, and still I am not able to find the source of the problem. I have consulted some advanced SPS reefers and gone over the numbers and setup with them with a fine tooth comb, yet still neither they nor I can seem to figure out what the problem is coming from. I honestly just dont get it. Water quality is the best its ever been, I have plenty of flow and my lighting is more than sufficent. I have looked back through my journal and noticed that the downhill spiral all started when Ivan came through( and we lost power for 4 days ), everything was fine till then. However, I cant seem to pinpoint a source after this much time has passed. I was telling my wife just tonight, it would be one thing if it was a water quality issue, or I didnt have the right lights, or even if there was something noticably wrong. Honestly I would prefer a problem that I know the source and could work from there. This "mysterious" plague however is mind aching, making me feel like my hands are tied. The only thing stopping me from tearing it down and starting the re-build process now, is the plain and simple fact that it may not solve one thing. Anyhow,,just needed to vent! I have worked VERY hard to have this just fall apart like this for no testable or workable reason.
I will keep you updated as to my course of action.
I havent updated in a while. Been too upset to even deal with it. I am VERY close to tearing everything down and starting from scratch. Slowly every single frag is dying off. I have tested, searched, tested again repeated three times just for the sake of it, and still I am not able to find the source of the problem. I have consulted some advanced SPS reefers and gone over the numbers and setup with them with a fine tooth comb, yet still neither they nor I can seem to figure out what the problem is coming from. I honestly just dont get it. Water quality is the best its ever been, I have plenty of flow and my lighting is more than sufficent. I have looked back through my journal and noticed that the downhill spiral all started when Ivan came through( and we lost power for 4 days ), everything was fine till then. However, I cant seem to pinpoint a source after this much time has passed. I was telling my wife just tonight, it would be one thing if it was a water quality issue, or I didnt have the right lights, or even if there was something noticably wrong. Honestly I would prefer a problem that I know the source and could work from there. This "mysterious" plague however is mind aching, making me feel like my hands are tied. The only thing stopping me from tearing it down and starting the re-build process now, is the plain and simple fact that it may not solve one thing. Anyhow,,just needed to vent! I have worked VERY hard to have this just fall apart like this for no testable or workable reason.
I will keep you updated as to my course of action.
Leviathan
New member
melev said:
Id love to, however they were mainly done in pm's or via e-mail. Thank you for the offer to help.
Well aside from a ric. colony and 2 clams, all I have ( correction HAD ) was SPS. I have inspected some frags and havent seen bugs. That was an initial suggestion I had when this all started.
At this point I guess anything is possible. I only have a yellow tang, watchman, and pueple firefish. I did notice the tang of all things nipping on a monti colony ( which he did kill eventually ), but have yet to see him nip or even act interested in any of the other frags.
Thats pretty crazy, and exactly what I wish it was as silly as it sounds. At least if it was something like this, I would have a base to start to fix the problem. As it is now, I am baffeled!
The latest victum is a really nice piece that had been growing and encrusting like mad in the last several weeks. Now over night one whole side of one of its brances is exposed skeleton.
Leviathan
New member
melev said:
Yes I have been using Oceanic exclusively since I started this tank last march.
Honestly it looks less like bleached out tissue and more like its simply missing the flesh altogether. 90% of the time it happens right around the very ridge where the polyps come out,,,then goes from there.
melev
Well-known member
If it is occuring around the polyps, I'd blame it on something nipping and eating it. My hippo tangs enjoy chewing on my Green Slimer, my Clown Goby hangs out in a milleopora that stays closed up now, and my Powder Blue Tang nibbles on GSP, a Toadstool Leather and a Devil's Hand.
These fish can be a problem sometimes.
Btw, someone posted that asterinas were eating/killing his SPS. Do you have those in your tank? Have you seen them on the SPS?
Listen, I'm sorry to bring this up all over again if you already discussed it with others via Email or PMs, but maybe we can figure this out as a group and learn from it.
These fish can be a problem sometimes.
Btw, someone posted that asterinas were eating/killing his SPS. Do you have those in your tank? Have you seen them on the SPS?
Listen, I'm sorry to bring this up all over again if you already discussed it with others via Email or PMs, but maybe we can figure this out as a group and learn from it.
Leviathan
New member
melev said:
No need to apologize, fresh insight might be helpfull. I actually have had an asterinas problem if you go back a page or two you will see that. I have considered that it might be the Yellow Tang doing the nipping, seeing as how I have seen him doing it to a monti frag. I re-read my journal last night again, and looked at some pictures of the whole setup over the last few months. After doing so I need to retract my its been goin on since Ivan went through statement. Yes I had some problems after that, but things stabalized again and were doing great. Everything seems to point to late Nov. even the pictures ( full shots ) point to this timeframe. The only thing that changed at this time was the introduction of the Tang, the start of a new batch of Oceanic, and I started moderatly dosing B-ionic ( VERY moderatly ).
Unfortunatly I do not have any pictures of the frags as they slowly perished.
melev
Well-known member
Weatherson switched away from Oceanic, as he was losing corals himself - lots of SPS according to his thread. I've lost a piece here or there, and I've got 6 buckets in the garage that I'm unsure about. How great is that, owning salt I can't trust 100%?
If you have any SPS left in the tank currently, what I suggest is you sit down across the room from your tank and watch it closely for 30 minutes. I believe most of us simply don't observe our tank nearly as much as when company comes over and we 'do the tour' for them.
Just watching the tank, you see patterns and note what fish are doing, something we might not notice just checking on the tank from time to time. One guy came to my house a couple of months ago, and has a lot of knowledge. It was wierd, but he sat in a chair in front of my tank and just watched it endlessly while I was doing stuff. He was telling me about my Flame Angel and my Coral Beauty, and how they were fighting in the back of my tank behind the rockwork. Or course I didn't believe him. I still don't, btw.
However, from that experience, I've taken more time to watch the corals, the fish, and even the feeding process to see what is really going on.
Sure, a beautiful showpiece is nice, but seeing how it all works teaches us a lot.
If you have any SPS left in the tank currently, what I suggest is you sit down across the room from your tank and watch it closely for 30 minutes. I believe most of us simply don't observe our tank nearly as much as when company comes over and we 'do the tour' for them.
Just watching the tank, you see patterns and note what fish are doing, something we might not notice just checking on the tank from time to time. One guy came to my house a couple of months ago, and has a lot of knowledge. It was wierd, but he sat in a chair in front of my tank and just watched it endlessly while I was doing stuff. He was telling me about my Flame Angel and my Coral Beauty, and how they were fighting in the back of my tank behind the rockwork. Or course I didn't believe him. I still don't, btw.
However, from that experience, I've taken more time to watch the corals, the fish, and even the feeding process to see what is really going on.Sure, a beautiful showpiece is nice, but seeing how it all works teaches us a lot.
Leviathan
New member
maxxII said:
I have seriously considered this!
I have also considered completely switching salts. I used IO for years and my only complaint was semi low Ca levels, not too low to cause problems though. I dont like Kent Marine salt, it always caused algae problems for me, and always had P04 readings when freshly mixed of .03 a bit too high IMHO.
I agree Marc, however I do spend too much time looking at my system. My wifes always saying I pay more attention to it then her or anything for that matter ( damn shes finally catching on )
I am trying to get some quotes on salt prices for a couple different brands in the event I decide to change over. I will most likely do a 100% change out seeing as how I really have nothing left to stress out. I can QT the fish and clams in a 40 gallon with the current water untill all settles down.
I am just not sure what the best course of action is yet, and dont want to make a snap decission that will cause more problems in the long run.
Still It keeps coming back to the new batch of salt, and the moderate dosing of B-ionic when it all started ( time frame wise ). With the param. readings I am getting, I am weeding out it being the B-ionic. So I am left with the batch of salt.
Marc,
Do you have a link to the other person having similar problems? I tried to do a search, but the server is too busy for a search at the moment. I would appreciate it, if its not to much trouble.
melev
Well-known member
Are you talking about Weatherson? His is a thread about a 240g reeftank. But you can go to his site to get the shorter version. His thread is over 115 pages long now. www.weatherson.com And here is the tail end of his thread. If you go back about 3 pages, he talks about the SPS issues until the present posts.
I used B-Ionic for 3 years on my tanks, and had great results. If I had to blame a product between B-Ionic and Oceanic, the salt would be my bet.
I don't know what you mean by moderate dosing of B-Ionic, btw. It is a product that you must use daily to maintain Alk, Ca, and pH in perfect balance. It takes 30 seconds a day to dose the tank, and testing your water weekly will assure that you are on target.
I used B-Ionic for 3 years on my tanks, and had great results. If I had to blame a product between B-Ionic and Oceanic, the salt would be my bet.
I don't know what you mean by moderate dosing of B-Ionic, btw. It is a product that you must use daily to maintain Alk, Ca, and pH in perfect balance. It takes 30 seconds a day to dose the tank, and testing your water weekly will assure that you are on target.
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